Retailers use social media to advertise Black Friday deals

Happy day after Thanksgiving from Blue Media! Now that the food and fellowship have subsided, the shopping season is upon us!

Today is Black Friday, which officially kicks off the holiday shopping season. The term ‘Black Friday’ dates back to at least 1966. It originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (i.e., turning a profit).

We loved this AP article about social media being integrated into the Black friday festivities!

Did you use any social media today to find deals or information? Let us know in the Comments secition! 

Retailers use social media to advertise Black Friday deals

By BETSY VERECKEY, Associated Press, Last update: November 12, 2009 – 4:35 PM

NEW YORK – You may want to check Facebook and Twitter before heading to the mall the day after Thanksgiving.

Office supplies chain Staples Inc. this week used social media to advertise price cuts of nearly 50 percent for Nov. 27 on certain laptops, GPS devices and computer monitors, and still other merchants are expected to follow suit.

Dan de Grandpre, editor-in-chief of dealnews.com, said retailers are smart to use social networking sites because shoppers probably will stick around as followers of the company even after the sale.

“Twitter and Facebook are now major ways to disseminate information,” Grandpre said.

One in five shoppers plans to use the sites in their holiday shopping this season, according to Deloitte Research.

Hundreds of Black Friday bargains from retailers such as diverse as OfficeMax and Old Navy already are being leaked on deal sites, even though the big sales blitz is still a couple weeks away.

And the fun won’t end Nov. 27, traditionally seen as the day that the holiday shopping season launches.

After that, an iPhone application from dealnews.com that now tracks Black Friday deals, for instance, will show sales for the following Monday, now known as Cyber Monday because it’s the first weekday after the Thanksgiving weekend and many consumers shop from their desks that day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Blue Media Boutique! Set aside your Blackberrys, iPhones and computers, and enjoy this day! 

 

‘Next year’s Twitter? It’s Foursquare’ by Pete Cashmore

We love Pete Cashmore’s insight into the future landscape of social media.

Next year’s Twitter? It’s Foursquare

By Pete Cashmore, Special to CNN, November 19, 2009 1:18 p.m. EST

Editor’s note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable, a popular blog about social media. He is writing a weekly column about social networking and tech for CNN.com.

London, England (CNN) — As 2009 draws to a close, with Twitter undoubtedly this year’s media darling and Facebook continuing on its path to global domination, you may wonder which social-media service will become tech’s poster boy in 2010.

Among the Web’s early adopter set, the answer is nearly unanimous: Foursquare.

While the technology landscape is ever-changing, I’d argue that Foursquare already has aligned itself to become next year’s mainstream hit.

The Twitter connection

Birthed by the team that brought us the mobile social network Dodgeball (acquired by Google in 2005 and later shuttered), the location-based mobile startup serves a simple purpose: It lets an individual share his or her location with a group of friends.

Foursquare ventures beyond utility, however: It’s a virtual game in which participants earn badges for checking in at various locations; those that check in most become a venue’s “mayor.” By all accounts, this mechanism is as addictive as Twitter, Facebook or checking your e-mail on a BlackBerry.

Originally launched as an iPhone application and seeded by the young early-adopter set in cities such as New York and San Francisco, the site’s founders were able to leap from a ready-made springboard: Twitter.

With users’ “check-ins” being posted to the messaging service, Foursquare was able to gain a foothold in much the same way YouTube built its lead from videos embedded in MySpace pages.

The parallels with Twitter are numerous. As technology early adopter and popular blogger Robert Scoble wrote in September: “Go back three years ago. Twitter was being used by the same crowd that is playing with Foursquare today.”

The similarities don’t stop there: Twitter first took hold at Austin’s South By Southwest festival in 2007; Foursquare made its debut at SXSW 2009. Members of both founding teams have previously built successful social startups; both those startups were sold to Google.

The two companies share investors, too: Union Square Ventures is a backer, while Twitter inventor Jack Dorsey made an angel investment in Foursquare. Other notable investors include the founders of Digg and Delicious, and famed angel investor Ron Conway. Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson observed that Foursquare’s first round financing was “among the most competitive early round financings I’ve seen in a long time.”

Foursquare’s power play: Platform for developers, retailers

This week Foursquare debuted the singular piece that launched Twitter into the stratosphere: an API. This application programming interface allows third-party developers to build anything they desire on top of Foursquare’s location-based social network.

It’s been shown time and again that once these ecosystems gain momentum, potential competitors face an arduous task. From Flickr to Google Maps to Twitter and beyond, it’s clear that early critical mass — having enough users and applications to make a service invaluable — sets the stage for a landslide victory.

Google’s Android, entering the mobile platform wars long after the iPhone App Store had served up a veritable smorgasbord of apps to its army of users, is evidence of the chicken-and-egg problem that arises for new competitors: What’s the incentive for users and developers to switch to a smaller, less visible platform once a leader has emerged?

With the launch of its API, Foursquare looks set to capitalize on this “rich get richer” phenomenon before others can make a play. Foursquare is doing more than wooing users and developers, however: It’s also courting local bars and restaurants.

“Foursquare for Businesses” is a platform for retailers wishing to offer special deals to Foursquare users: Check in to frozen desert maker Tasti D-Lite at two venues in New York, for instance, and you’re eligible for a discount.

Competitors abound

Nonetheless, multiple players are vying for victory in the location-based services market. Between Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite and Google’s Latitude, Foursquare will by no means have an easy ride. While Gowalla debuted an early version at SXSW 2009 alongside Foursquare, both Loopt and Brightkite have a head start.

All of these services, I’d argue, lack the highly addictive game play that appears to have Foursquare users hooked.

Google is undoubtedly the 800-pound gorilla, but the fastidiously numbers-driven search engine has proven time and again that it cannot grasp social-networking dynamics — from Orkut to Friend Connect (its Facebook Connect competitor) to its failure to turn Google Video into a YouTube competitor.

One company may unwittingly squash Foursquare in its infancy: Twitter itself. The very service that propelled Foursquare to prominence is rapidly building out its location-based features, with a location API that directly challenges Foursquare. Twitter already has the critical mass of users and ecosystem of eager developers. If it executes correctly, the service could leave Foursquare in the dust.

In Foursquare’s favor: Young, fast-growing startups such as Twitter often find their engineering teams overstretched simply trying to achieve scale. Twitter has added less than a dozen new features since launch as preventing frequent downtime has become its greatest challenge.

Meanwhile, the overlap in investors means the Twitter-Foursquare relationship is unlikely to turn sour. Foursquare may network its way to the top in 2010 or find itself lost in an increasingly competitive landscape. Early adopters are betting on the former.

Bargain hunters tap social media for holiday deal tips

Bloomberg’s Gigi Stone reports on the use social media websites for exclusive member-only holiday shopping promotions.

And if you want to hear more from the Best Buy Twelpforce Carolers, check this out.

Twitter launches in French

Source: Mashable

November 19th, 2009 | by Jennifer Van Grove

Twitter’s translation project is rolling along rather quickly now. Earlier in the month Twitter  launched in Spanish, and as of today, Twitter is now available in French.

The company took to their blog and penned a post in French to announce the news, which lets users switch their language to French from within the Settings area of Twitter.com.

Here’s a translated version of what Twitter wrote of today’s news:

“With the addition of the Spanish version of the site last month, many people have joined the conversations on Twitter. More and more people twittent outside the United States and we are now able to accommodate users of nearly 30 Francophone countries. It is now possible to change the language settings in French with the participation of translators who have helped turn Twitter into a platform for truly global communication.

The French twitteurs golds can already track people and companies they are familiar. Whether you attended or @ @ Lepicerie lopera for your gastronomic outings, you read @ lemondefr way to work or you listen @ theteenagers on the way home or you’re a fan of @ CanadiensMTL, there is a wealth of information useful to discover at any time.

To see Twitter in French, just check your settings and select “French” from the menu.”

Nielsen: Facebook Now the No. 3 Video Site

Source: Chris Albrecht, NewTeeVee

Looks like the sleeping online video giant that is Facebook may finally have awoken. According to Nielsen’s latest VideoCensus numbers, Facebook jumped to No. 3 behind established video powerhouses YouTube and Hulu in terms of total streams. That’s up from No. 10 just last month. Facebook generated more than 217 million streams in October to more than 31.5 million unique viewers, up from 110 million streams to 23 million viewers in September.

Get your 2010 social media strategy developed

Guest blog for Mary Beth West Consulting, affiliate partner to Blue Media Boutique

If you have spent much of 2009 worrying about how to create a Facebook page for your company or when to open up the Twitter floodgates, you’ve probably put too much emphasis on the tools and not enough emphasis on the strategy behind those tools.

In any other business initiative, you’d begin by first looking at what you want to accomplish. The same type of planning needs to be applied to social media. They’re not just tools to launch because “everyone else is doing it.” They’re tools that can effectively work for you once you have a plan in place to guide your way.

Step 1: Research your audience. Who are they? Where are they online? Understand how your target audience (as defined by gender, age, and geography) uses social media. If your audience skews younger, consider Facebook and contests or sweepstakes. If your audience skews older – business executives, for example – consider ratings and reviews instead.

While secondary research may help inform what general direction you should go in, there is no substitute for primary research. Surveys, focus groups and other services will give you an analysis of what your current audience is doing online. Direct observation is also imperative. Are there already Facebook fan pages and/or groups talking about your industry or brand? Who are the key bloggers writing about your topic area? Listening to what is already going on is an essential first step in developing a social media strategy.

Step 2: What type of relationship, if any, do you already have with your audience? Are they aware of your brand? Are they loyal customers and brand enthusiasts or have they really only made a transaction or two with you? Pick one side of the scale and stick with it. Social media is not about reaching a mass audience. Instead, it is about reaching the influencers, developing relationships, having a conversation, and getting insights.

Step 3: What is your objective? Are you launching a tool to communicate with your customers? Are you trying to incite them to talk about your company with others? Is this an awareness initiative where you’re increasing your visibility and are actively interacting on many different levels? Are you trying to get your audience to generate content that you can then use in product development? Is this an effort to improve your reputation and manage communications? It is very important to decide on the objective before you decide on the technology to be used.

Step 4: Content, content, content. Start with your pitch. What is it? Describe what your company does in 120 characters or less. Better yet, define it in one word. Volvo = Safety, for example. Develop an editorial calendar and allocate resources to implement it. Do you have the capacity internally to handle the workload or do you need to hire an external resource to do the work? And keep in mind, social media that exists and is generated in a silo is never a good idea. It needs to be owned by the entire organization. The person/people put in charge of the content should be comfortable with the tools and be passionate about your organization.

Step 5: How are you going to humanize your company? Social media is about people and conversations. It’s not about logos and corporate-speak. How will you get down to that level online? Transparency and honesty are key. Will you allow employees to engage in the social media efforts? How will you deal with negative comments to turn them into positive situations? All of these items need to be considered before launching a program.

Step 6: How will you measure success? Determine your key metrics before you get started. Pick the right metrics that will help you track your objectives. Look at trend movements and changes over time, not just numbers. It is also important not to look at a single metric, but rather to evaluate your strategy performance from multiple dimensions.

Once all of these factors are carefully considered, you’ll be able to pick the right tools and social media tactics. Start small. Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them. Modify, evaluate, and grow.

Don’t Blow It – The Nasal Allergy Game

With the growth and expansion of social media, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to step out of what we’ve been doing traditionally and do something completely different to engage in that new area.”
—Julie Lux, Nasonex, director of global product communications and advocacy realtions

After conducting research on their target audience—mainly women ages 25-50—Nasonex decided to use an online game to promote its Nasonex allergy medication, reminding consumers that allergies happen year-round.

“Don’t Blow It” engaged consumers in a new way. Nasonex introduced it in the spring allergy season, and the game featured links and widgets that enticed users to click through to Nasonex.com or share the game on Facebook. They spread the word through a group of select bloggers and traditional media, including health writers and TV weatherman who often talk about pollen count.

In the fall, Nasonex unveiled the “Name Ronnie Nose’s Dog Contest,” and promoted it via dog and pet bloggers and writers.

They also partnered with American Forests to donate one low-allergenic tree for every new user who played the game.

More than 11,000 unique visitors to the site have played the “Don’t Blow It” game, which means 11,000 tress have been planted, and the dog-naming contest has received over 500 entries.

Nasonex plans to update the game each season, continuing to educate users on allergies year-round. Lux says, “There is still life in this particular game…We’ll continue to look for new ways to spread the word about treatment of nasal allergy symptoms.”

Reference: PR Week

“Elf Yourself” is back with a social media kick

In 2006, OfficeMax jumped into the viral scene with the Elf Yourself virtual greeting cards. Last year, 35 million cards were sent out all over the world.

The site lets you stick your head, your kid’s head, your friend’s head, anyone’s head, onto a dancing elf body. You manipulate the photo until it fits perfectly in the space and voila…a viral phenomena.

This year they’ve taken the social media route. You can now tweet a link to your Dancing Elf on Twitter, post it to your Facebook wall, or embed the video in your website/blog. There’s also an option to sign-in with Facebook Connect and use your Facebook photos in the “Elfing” process.

And, as if that’s not enough, you can pay $4.99 to download the video and save it for years to come…my kid’s gonna hate me for this some day.

Pizza Hut iPhone app

Pizza Hut launched an application for the iPhone and iPod touch (iTunes link), and it hit a chord with customers. With a host of features besides ordering food, including the option to virtually build your own pizza, a virtual fridge, and games to play while waiting on your order, the app has been dubbed “a killer app for your appetite.” Customers also get 20% off on orders placed with the application.

“We are extremely excited here about the explosive growth we’ve seen with our iPhone app since its launch 3 months ago—$1 million in sales is pretty substantial for an iPhone app,” said Bernard Acoca, senior director of digital marketing at Pizza Hut, Dallas, TX. “Overall we’re tremendously excited with the momentum the app has and the attention it’s received—it is featured in Apple’s recent television commercial campaign, which is any app developer’s dream scenario.”

IMC2 (Squared) and QuikOrder partnered with Pizza Hut for the creation of the iPhone application. Pizza Hut says it was the first national pizza chain to introduce an application for iPhone and iPod touch with ordering functionality.