Foursquare? Try 3400%squares…

I know I haven’t updated in a while but I really wanted to talk about Foursquare real quick. They just realized an infograph depicting their growth in 2010, and it’s pretty phenomenal. They’re boasting a 3400% growth in one year which is insane.

http://www.foursquare.com

This just comes to show that geologging isn’t showing signs of slowing down. With competitors like Facebook Places and SCVNGR also picking up speed, this is definitely a section of social media no one should be over looking.

Online Sharing in 2010

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but thanks to the holiday season I’ve actually been really busy (with some help from COD: Black Ops and WoW: Cataclysm) but I just wanted to drop by real quick and mention this interesting piece from AddThis that I saw on Mashable today.

 

Interesting enough, Facebook is still growing and in 2010 grew faster than it did in 2009 (I blame it on the older generations that are trying to be cool). But interesting enough Email is still beating out Facebook. Obviously a big factor in Facebook’s attempt at Facebook Messages, which will integrate email, FB Msgs and Texts all into one inbox. Personally I would have thought Twitter would have seen higher growth rates but I guess not. I still have high hopes for higher growth in the future and hope they haven’t topped off yet. I was surprised to see Myspace and Friendster still in consideration. Who knew they still existed.

Anyway, just a quick update as I thought this was really interesting and definitely something businesses should continue to look into. Clearly Facebook isn’t going anywhere and if it does, there’s plenty in the line up to replace it. Social Media should definitely not be taken lightly as we can see it’s growth here.

I should definitely be back on a more regular blogging schedule after the new year, as I have some big changes I want to make and some new ideas I’m going to try out. Stay Tuned.

Twitter’s Advanced Search Function: Simplified

Real quick before bed, Mashable released this great video tutorial just going over Twitter’s Advanced Search function. As an alternative to Google, Twitter’s advanced search allows the user to search for “personality” rather than “popularity”.

Google: 2010.

Google recently released its Zeitgeist report for 2010, which highlights the most popular search queries on Google for this past year. Mashable shares some great insite into what we found most intriging in the world in 2010 and what we looked up on Google throughout the year:

“The search giant analyzed billions of searches performed in 2010 and compared them with searches from 2009 to surface emerging trends. Chatroulette, the iPad and Justin Bieber were the three fastest-rising search terms in 2010; Twitterand Facebook also made the list, at numbers eight and 10, respectively.

Among the items of interest that lost the world’s attention in 2010 were swine flu, Stephanie Meyer’s novel (and the accompanying movie) Twilight: New Moon, Susan Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire, “MySpace layouts” and Michael Jackson.

The iPad was the emergent search winner in the consumer electronics category, followed by the iPhone 4,Nokia 5530, HTC EVO 4G and Nokia N900.

In terms of news searches, Haiti proved the most popular, followed by Turkish sports club Besiktas, Chile, “earthquake,” Lady Gaga and the iPhone 4. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill ranked 10th.”

 

 

Here’s the video that Google released, recapping our favorite search topics for 2010:

 

 

So Much For Grooglpon. Groupon say’s No Thanks to Google!

The big story this week in social media was Google’s attempt to buy group discount company Groupon for 6 BILLION dollars. To which Groupon said “No Thanks” yesterday. Many might think this was a crazy decision on Groupon’s part (6 billion dollars is A LOTTTTT of money) but it might make a little sense. Groupon is the fastest growing company of its kind, leaping light years ahead of it’s nearest competitor, LivingSocial. They’ve absolutely exploded onto the scene and pretty much took the discount market by storm in a very, very quick fashion. To be honest I don’t think Groupon is going to slow their growth much at all in the near future.

I think the main reason that Google wanted to buy Groupon was because Groupon offered something very specific that Google was never able to accomplish. We all know Google to be this huge mega company that does everything on a huge scale. what Google lacks is local advertising distribution. Groupon (and any other group discount company) will have a much superior grasp on local advertising. The 6 billion dollar acquisition of Groupon would have made Google billions on top of what they already make. But Groupon knows that they can make it themselves, at least for the time being.

Regardless this is a pretty new area of social media that definitely isn’t fully saturated yet. But with only a few companies in the ring and with Groupon dominating the competition, it makes me wonder just how big this business can be.

If you don’t know what Groupon is, or how it works, here’s a couple videos:

Tips, Tea and Free Gas For a Year? Thanks Foursquare!

Geologging still hasn’t reached it’s full potential as mobile checkins still havent quite been adopted by the masses just quite yet. Foursquare seems to be trying to battle that by creating some pretty intense incentives to start checking in. Recently, Foursquare teamed up with select Hess gas stations along the east coast to provide some discounts and kind of a ridiculous sweepstakes prize.

Some Hess stations are offering a Brisk Iced Tea and Frito Lay Combo for 2 bucks when you check into the station, as well as a chance to win FREE gas AND Brisk Iced Teas for an entire year. This is a pretty good deal for both Foursquare and Hess as it will definitely drive consumers to perhaps go out of their way to find a Hess station to take advantage of this sweepstakes (since we all know gas prices aren’t going down anytime soon, a year’s worth of free gas is a pretty big incentive). It will also hopefully drive more consumers to adopt Foursquare into their social media lifestyles and choose Foursquare over competitors like Facebook Places, Gowalla and SCVNGR. Gas stations are pretty far from the typical check in venue (compared to bars and restaurants) so this sort of promotion will definitely help shift the landscape of geologging at least in the short term.

WUPHF. whenever. wherever.

 

WUPHF. The next big thing in Social Media. The Facebook of the Future. The Twitter of.. Ok to be truthfully honest I’m still not sure if this is real or not.

Tonight’s episode of NBC’s The Office showcased Ryan (BJ Novak) trying to find investors in the office for his new Social Media venture, called WUPHF. It’s a Social Media application that notifies you by phone, text, email, fax and printer. They even have a real website up at http://wuphf.com. Obviously a fake site and not really a new social media platform, they’ve created a fun albeit fake application that sort of mocks social media and all the notifications one gets from texts and emails etc.

Although fake, the concept isn’t a bad one. A notification system that notifies you every way possible, through texts, landlines, emails, fax and WiFi printer IPs. Now I’m not sure if this sort of system already exists, but could definitely be useful in emergency situations. (In The Office, Oscar brings up the good point that it can be used by schools to notify students of an emergency evacuation.) I know when I was in school, my school’s administration registered students cell phone numbers so that emergency texts could be sent to everyone’s cell phones if something happened. This would take it one step further and definitely be useful if used properly.

Watch Facebook’s Major Email Announcement here LIVE

Today, Facebook announces their new messaging and email products. Check out their announcement live:

http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?channel=facebookinnovations&autoPlay=false

facebookinnovations on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

National Unfriend Day

This week Jimmy Kimmel announced on his show that November 17th will become National Unfriend Day, where we all unfriend our Facebook friends, that aren’t really our friends.

I’ve been doing this for years, trimming the fat on my Facebook friends list (went from 1200 down to 850 now) while keeping only those that A. I know and have met in real life and B. I would say hello to if passing by them on the street. Those were my criteria and I think they work.

Kimmel brings up great points in his video about Facebook “cheapening” the term “friend”. Here’s the clip of Jimmy Kimmel announcing National Unfriend Day, with the help of William Shatner.

Save the Planet by watching Youtube! (?!)

Photo: http://ecomagination.com/tagyourgreen

As part of their Ecomagination campaign, GE and Howcast have come together to develop an entire charity campaign based on digital media (specifically, Youtube). With the help of 15 big name Youtubers, each Youtuber posts a video supporting the cause. The goal is to reach 10 million views across all 15 channels, with GE making a donation to Charity: Water, which helps bring clean water to those in the world that don’t have access to it.
The campaign is called [Tag Your Green], and the whole idea is to spread the message to as many people as possible through Youtube and try to get everyone to come up with their own ideas on how to become more green. People can post video responses with their own green ideas to these Youtubers and get featured on their channels, or at least get a shoutout if they like your idea.

Click on the Tag Your Green Link above to see all the videos participating, but more importantly, spread the word! Remember, all you have to do is watch the videos and help them reach the 10million view goal! This is a great way to contribute to an awesome cause and it won’t cost you a dime; just some time watching Youtube videos, which we all do anyway (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for!?)

More here at the Howcast Blog

Here’s Wong Fu Productions’ video: