Papa John's Facebook Pizza Challenge

Oh, how I wish there were more examples of this to talk about in the UK, but many US companies continue to take advantage of the social landscape and shift in traditional advertising. The latest is Papa John, and their search to find their next speciality pizza.

The Papa’s Specialty Pizza Challenge tasks Facebook fans with creating the winning recipe for the company’s next specialty pizza through June 14. Although the campaign is just a few weeks old, there are already more than 6,500 entries.

More on this from Mashable (http://mashable.com/2010/05/21/papa-johns-pizza-challenge/)

The volume of attention is to be expected as pizza creators are all vying for some serious cash and prizes. The top three submissions — as selected by “Papa” John Schnatter and corporate taste testers — will be integrated into the Papa John’s menu and sold in stores from August 2 to August 29. To the highest-selling pizza victor go the spoils: 1% of pizza sales post challenge (up to $10,000), pizza for life and a guest appearance in a Papa John’s TV commercial.

Masterminding a new specialty pizza is pretty simple. Users can name their pizza whatever they want, select a crust, pick a pizza sauce, add up to seven additional toppings and describe their machination. The final result is then posted on Papa John’s Facebook page where other users can like or share the specialty creation.

While it’s not the most original idea, the chain’s pizza challenge is an extremely savvy social media initiative. Since the contest is housed within Facebook, sharing is essentially baked into the campaign at every turn. So not only do Facebook users have to “Like” the Page to see the contest — with that behavior posted back to their activity feeds — but they can invite friends to take the challenge and post their pizza creations to their wall.

Another key element to the campaign is that the three finalists will likely need to use their social media presence to promote their pizzas if they want to win the grand prize. To help them with that endeavor, Papa John’s will give each finalist a marketing budget of $1000.





Jason Barrett http://SocialBusinessToday.net

Can you beat my score on Google Pacman?

To play at http://Google.co.uk try and beat 8790!

Jason Barrett http://SocialBusinessToday.net

McCann Erickson survey finds marketers are still 'uneasy' with social media

Many agencies and consultants are not providing enough guidance to clients on social media, a report by McCann Erickson Bristol has found.

The 2010 McCann Erickson Social Media Index has found that almost half of the marketing and communications professionals surveyed (48%) said that they don’t feel that they have adequate knowledge on how best to use social media to deliver effective marketing.

This figure has, however, decreased by 16% from last year when 64% of those polled by the same survey felt ill at ease with social media.

Nearly a quarter (23.4%) also admitted that it was difficult to keep up with the advances being made in social media while 22.4% said that it was not easy to find genuine ‘experts’ in the field.

The most popular brand monitoring tool was Google, with 45.5% of marketers using Google Alerst, while Radian 6 was the most widely used paid-for tool (14.3%).

11% said that they relied on their retained PR agency to monitor social media brand activity, while 37% admitted to in-house monitoring.

Joanna Randall, head of PR and social media communications at McCann Erickson Bristol, commented: “Some of these results are very encouraging; there is clearly an upward trend in overall usage of social media as a marketing communications channel. However, we would still like to see some of the barriers removed for UK marketers, particularly, where access is blocked at work and there is a clear need for more information and training specifically targeted to marketers.”

A study by Ofcom this week found that 90% of UK adults who use social media have a profile with social media giant Facebook.

(Article http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2010/05/20/13903-mccann-erickson-survey-finds-marketers-are-still-uneasy-with-social-media)
Jason Barrett http://SocialBusinessToday.net

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)

The latest Socialnomics Video, gets a refresh.  Always worth watching if you haven't already.



Jason Barrett http://SocialBusinessToday.net

Short Film Made Entirely From Logos

Jason Barrett http://SocialBusinessToday.net

2012 Olympic Mascots Launched

Here it is! Or should I say, here THEY are!

The one-eyed figures named Wenlock and Mandeville were unveiled at an east London school on Wednesday, with London 2012 organisers hoping they will inspire a generation of children while persuading their parents to contribute a share of £15 million the mascots are intended to raise in merchandising revenue.

Two parts-Pokemon to one-part lava lamp, the distinctive figures are the product of a rigorous design process intended to capture the imagination of children, and work as well in the digital world as they will in costume form at trackside in 2012.

Much Wenlock in Shropshire is considered by many the birthplace of the modern Olympics. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the IOC, visited the town in 1890 and took inspiration from the annual Games organised by Dr William Penny Brookes, a local doctor, to “promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants”

Jason Barrett http://SocialBusinessToday.net

Facebook By Numbers (May 2010)

Facebook by numbers (May 2010)

• On March 13, Facebook over took Google as the most trafficked web site in the United States.

• Facebook has more than 400 mil lion members — bigger than all but two nations on earth.

• 25 per cent of all US Inter net page views are on Facebook.

• 54 per cent of all US Inter net users are on Facebook.

• Over 200 million people log in every day. The average time spent on the site: 55 minutes.

• Members upload 10 million videos and about a billion photos to Face book every month.

• 50 per cent of mobile Inter net traf fic in the UK is on Facebook.

• More than 20 million people join Facebook Pages every day. Those pages have been “fanned” (and now “liked”) 5.3 billion times.

• People have pressed the Like but ton more than 1 billion times in 2 months — and the rate is growing.

• Members’ average age: 34. The aver age user has 130 friends. 70 per cent of Face­book members are out side the US.

Mayors of Starbucks Now Get USA Nationwide Specials

Full Article - Click here

7 Inspiring Quotes From Steve Jobs

1. Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

Innovation has no limits. The only limit is your imagination. It’s time for you to begin thinking out of the box. If you are involved in a growing industry, think of ways to become more efficient; more customer friendly; and easier to do business with. If you are involved in a shrinking industry – get out of it quick and change before you become obsolete; out of work; or out of business. And remember that procrastination is not an option here. Start innovating now!

2. Steve Jobs said: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

There is no shortcut to excellence. You will have to make the commitment to make excellence your priority. Use your talents, abilities, and skills in the best way possible and get ahead of others by giving that little extra. Live by a higher standard and pay attention to the details that really do make the difference. Excellence is not difficult – simply decide right now to give it your best shot – and you will be amazed with what life gives you back.

3. Steve Jobs said: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

I’ve got it down to four words: “Do what you love.” Seek out an occupation that gives you a sense of meaning, direction and satisfaction in life. Having a sense of purpose and striving towards goals gives life meaning, direction and satisfaction. It not only contributes to health and longevity, but also makes you feel better in difficult times. Do you jump out of bed on Monday mornings and look forward to the work week? If the answer is ‘no’ keep looking, you’ll know when you find it.

4. Steve Jobs said: “You know, we don’t grow most of the food we eat. We wear clothes other people make. We speak a language that other people developed. We use a mathematics that other people evolved… I mean, we’re constantly taking things. It’s a wonderful, ecstatic feeling to create something that puts it back in the pool of human experience and knowledge.”

Live in a way that is ethically responsible. Try to make a difference in this world and contribute to the higher good. You’ll find it gives more meaning to your life and it’s a great antidote to boredom. There is always so much to be done. And talk to others about what you are doing. Don’t preach or be self-righteous, or fanatical about it, that just puts people off, but at the same time, don’t be shy about setting an example, and use opportunities that arise to let others know what you are doing.

5. Steve Jobs said: “There’s a phrase in Buddhism, ‘Beginner’s mind.’ It’s wonderful to have a beginner’s mind.”

It is the kind of mind that can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything. Beginner’s mind is Zen practice in action. It is the mind that is innocent of preconceptions and expectations, judgments and prejudices. Think of beginner’s mind as the mind that faces life like a small child, full of curiosity and wonder and amazement.

6. Steve Jobs said: “We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.”

Reams of academic studies over the decades have amply confirmed television’s pernicious mental and moral influences. And most TV watchers know that their habit is mind-numbing and wasteful, but still spend most of their time in front of that box. So turn your TV off and save some brain cells. But be cautious, you can turn your brain off by using a computer also. Try and have an intelligent conversation with someone who plays first person shooters for 8 hours a day. Or auto race games, or role-playing games.

7. Steve Jobs said: “I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

Don’t equate making mistakes with being a mistake. There is no such thing as a successful person who has not failed or made mistakes, there are successful people who made mistakes and changed their lives or performance in response to them, and so got it right the next time. They viewed mistakes as warnings rather than signs of hopeless inadequacy. Never making a mistake means never living life to the full.

Beware - Twitter Hacking

Many time you might have come across tweets like

• • FREE MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS!
  • CHECK out this site, im a member of it, gets you more followers.
  • WANT MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS?
  • Get more followers for free!

Beware of it, think before you click on that link and register yourself.  A cyber gang continues to flood Twitter with an intensifying phishing scam that has allowed the bad guys to grab control of thousands of valid Twitter accounts.

“This is an extremely viral campaign that’s spreading rapidly,” says Patrick Walsh, chief technology officer at network security firm eSoft.

The criminals are sending out microblog postings — Tweets — from legit Twitter accounts suggesting that people click to a web service that will instantly get them 50 to 100 more followers. Visitors to the web page are asked to type in their Twitter logon and password to use the service for free. Of course the information gets routed to the bad guys. They then use an automated program to instantly log on to the victim’s Twitter account and blast out a similar Tweet once every few hours. The shortened links carried in these postings are constantly tweaked to avoid being blocked or filtered.

Full story on USA Today

Myspace To Rival Facebook?

Yes, you did read that right! Myspace to rival Facebook.

Co-President Mike Jones says "We respect our users’ desires to balance sharing and privacy, and never push our users to an uncomfortable privacy position" and continued with, "MySpace’s core value of allowing self-expression and representation of yourself remains true, without the fear that your unique contribution to MySpace will be unknowingly used for an alternative purpose.”

Seems like a good time to share some of my thoughts on this....I'm going to make a flat out prediction right now, that i've been keeping to myself over the past couple of months.  

If Myspace keep banging this drum, there is a real opportunity for them to recapture the market place, and become a dominant force in the space they were once the leaders of.  Its simple - the one sticking point for Facebooks world domination, is its blatant disregard for its users privacy, constant changes to policy and inconsistencies within its user policies.  

Think of it this way - 5 years ago, would you have joined a social network that would retain copyright on all the images that you upload to it?  What about if the CEO of this social network stood up and said "The Age Of Privacy is Dead". - (See his video here) What if they went on to change the network without using 'openess' of user opinion?

This has all indeed happened, and Facebook continues to grow at an alarming rate.  If Myspace can do one thing to stop this - it is focus on privacy.  What do you think?  Too little too late? or a renewed challenger?   

4 Tools For Managing Your Brand Online

BackType

BackType is a tool that monitors your brand and key words of blog comments. If you are mentioned, represented, or comment on a blog or page, you will receive an email alert. This is a great way to make sure that your brand isn't being misrepresented. As a company or individual, I would also encourage signing up for alerts of company names, competitors and common mis-spellings of your name and your competitors.

BoardTracker

BoardTracker does exactly what it says. It tracks brand and key work mentions on discussion boards and forum sites. You control the key words and when it is distributed. This is a great way to go beyond Google Alerts and really dive into your brand outside of what the Google web crawlers find.

TweetBeep

TweetBeep is not necessarily a new tool but one worth mentioning. It allows you to set up key word alerts from Twitter sent to your email at regular intervals. The basic service is free but if you are looking for instant and real time alerts, you will pay a nominal fee.

SocialMention

SocialMention is another site that manages your social brand and key word content but across social networks and blogs. Visitors can use the key word search option for real time and immediate search or set up alerts. One of the drawbacks to the site is that if you have a large presence on social media, it Social Mention is difficult to navigate, but it does provide you with an all in one option.

Viral Heat - Total Social Media Management

It is critical for all brands to understand and analyze social media content trends. Viralheat is a market leader in social media data aggregation and measurement.

Viralheat lets brands, agencies, marketers and content producers monitor content generated on social networks to identify key trends, understand community engagement and perform competitive analysis. Use Viralheat to identify and engage top advocates for your brand, product or social media campaign.

 Viralheat now offers a complete 360-degree view of any author, with a map of an influencer's reach across various social media platforms and services. One click to map it all. Viralheat monitors social media in real time across 200 video sharing sites, Twitter, social networks, blogs and websites (Facebook, Google Buzz, YouTube, etc.) They collect and analyze terabytes of data each day and deliver insights in real-time using our own network.

Viralheat offers both online accounts (SaaS) and API access. Their clients include Coca-Cola, Nokia, TiVo, HP, Microsoft, CBS and many others. You can find information on the free 7-day trial here: http://bit.ly/cPDYW4

For more information, contact Charles Baker, Charles@viralheat.com. 

Swipely Raises $7.5 Million In Funding

Swipely, a Blippy competitor, has just announced a $7.5 million series A round of funding from First Round Capital, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures and several angel investors, including Ron Conway and Chris Sacca. This news comes hot on the heels of Blippy’s $11.2 million Series A just a couple weeks ago.

Danny Rimer of Index Ventures will join Swipely’s board of directors, and Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners will serve as an observer on Swipely’s board. In December and November of last year, the company raised $1 million in angel funding from First Round and others.

Marks and Spencer Launch On Mobile

The retailer said that the move will allow customers to enable search, browsing and to make purchases easily from any web-enabled mobile device.

The site will be in sync with the main M&S website so that customers can log into their web-account to manage shopping baskets from their mobile. There will be no need for customers to download an app or any software.

Customers will have access to more than 24,000 products, including clothing, home and furniture, technology, gifting as well as the majority of functionality from the main M&S website.

It does not however include M&S general food offering.

The site was developed by Usablenet, a New York based consultancy, with the design work was carried out by London-based MIG (Mobile Interactive Group). 

In the first three months of 2010 M&S witnessed sales at online shopping division M&S Direct grow 48% having seen a 32% rise in the three months to Christmas.

This benefited from the re-launch of the website in October, adding new products, new services and also international delivery.

It also improved usability of the site last year which resulted in the site topping the Webcredible poll of the best online high street retailers in the UK.

Dave Hughes, director of M&S Direct, said: "This is a major step forward in mobile retailing. Mobile optimised shopping sites have been done before by specialist retailers, but M&S entering the market with 21 million customers, one of the UK's most recognised brands and a well-known range of products changes the mobile retail landscape."

He added: "Even before the site has launched, hundreds of thousands of customers are already shopping with us on their mobile phones and market data is telling us that this will soon be millions. The new site allows these customers to browse and buy from their mobile device without the frustrations that come with trying to do the same on a traditional website."

CoCo-Cola Launch 'Track Your Coke App'

The app, called "Track Your Coke", forms part of the company's corporate social responsiblity (CSR) and will allow consumers to track the origin of their soft drink. It allows consumers to trace cans or bottles to its British factory of origin.


It is available free of charge from the Coca Cola website.


The site will also offer consumers information on how they can reduce a drink's environmental impact through recycling empty packaging. The activity comes under Coca-Cola's brand banner ‘Live Positively'.


The site outlines the manufacturing process of Coca-Cola's drinks, distribution and recycling and highlights the carbon impact along the way.


An interactive Google map of Britain allows consumers to explore details about Coca-Cola's seven UK factories and the people who work in them.


The activity also aims to change consumer perception of Coca-Cola. The company said there was a misunderstanding about its products and their heritage, noting a survey which revealed  that less than 50% of consumers were aware of the heritage of Coca-Cola sold in the UK.


Liz Lowe, citizenship manager at Coca-Cola GB, said: "'Trace Your Coke' provides a fun, interactive way for our consumers to find out information that matters to them whilst reinforcing the importance of recycling.


"We know that without sustainable, healthy communities we won't have a sustainable business. How we can communicate these messages, while inspiring and motivating our consumers to take action, is key to achieving our aims."


In March Coca-Cola began the rollout of 260 recycling bins across central London as part of its efforts for the Olympic Games in London in 2012.


Last year Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), the UK's biggest bottler of Coke products, appointed Engine to handle its multi-million-pound pan-European sustainability brief. Press ads in December used the strapline, 'It's nice to put faces to a name', featuring employees at CCE's Wakefield plant.

Whats Your Business Facebook Page Worth?

Social media management company Vitrue has released the Social Page Evaluator, designed to help marketers get a better understanding of a Facebook Page’s value.

Just submit a Facebook Page URL and the app will come up with a valuation based on factors like number of fans, number of posts per day, number of interactions and so forth.

It’s a cool — if not completely scientific — way to gauge the potential value of your Facebook Page to advertisers. The formula used by the Social Page Evaluator is related to the formula that Vitrue released last month to estimate the relative value of Facebook Fans to big brands.

FT Unveils IPad App

The app, currently in beta, takes its navigational lead from the FT's website rather than the print edition, but in a nod to the feel of the newspaper it uses the same font. 

Instead of presenting users with a turning page replica of the paper, the app resembles a cleaner, stripped-down version of FT.com, with content being refreshed throughout the day.

As well as news, analysis and comment laid out in sections that mimic the website, live market data and personal portfolio details are also available via the app. A physical, scrolling browsing method is used to access the different sections.

The FT has had a development team based in Colorado working on the app for five weeks, with the project beginning before the team had seen an actual iPad. 

"Publishers were all in the same boat - no one had even seen one," said Steve Pinches, the lead product manager for FT.com. 

The app includes a channel of video editorial presented in 16:9 HD quality, following the launch of FT.com's new video hub last week, which uses the Brightcove serving platform. 

According to Pinches the plan its to offer video advertising in later versions.

"We wanted to get it out into the market early", he said, adding that the development team would make changes as the need became apparent. 

The app and its content will initially be open to anyone to access for an initial period until 31 July with luxury watch manufacturer Hublot being the exclusive launch sponsor.

Subsequently the app will still be free to install but access to content will be governed by the same subscription rules which apply across FT.com and the FT iPhone app. 

Up to 10 articles can be read for free each month as long as a user registers. A two-tier subscription offering includes a premium package for £260 per year and a standard package for £171 per year.

The FT's database of registered users records the platform they are using to view content and the times at which they visit. 

In theory, the FT could use this knowledge to target ads at specific groups of users at specific times, but Pinches said in practice it has not yet happened. 

The iPad app is likely to have limited advertising inventory available and advertisers will need to pay extra for a presence on it. The Hublot deal is expected to be succeeded by other sponsorships in the first few months.

The team is perhaps cautious about users getting overloaded with ads, with Pinches remarking "we have seen a lot of negative feedback in the iPhone world from ads".

In addition to the FT, the Daily Express has created an app which is expected to be priced at £1.79 with free online content and paid-for access to a turning page copy of the newspaper.

The iPad is due to go on sale in the UK and 27 other countries on 28 May, later than Apple orignally planned due to heavy US demand.

IPad To Be Used As InFlight Entertainment System

At its core, Apple’s iPad is an entertainment device — one that certainly has the power to make air travel much more enjoyable. Enter Bluebox Avionics, which is introducing a customized iPad for airlines dubbed bluebox Ai, “the world’s first iPad inflight entertainment system.”

Bluebox Ai units have reportedly already been approved to offer inflight entertainment content and will give passengers the full iPad experience including access to iPad games and apps, iBooks, consumer magazines offered through Zinio and airline-specific custom applications.

Private Shopping Clubs - The Future Of Online Commerce?

Marc Osofsky, ex-McKinsey VP of marketing for e-commerce specialists Optaros has posted a useful review of these member-only shopping clubs where members get access to exclusive online sale events, identifying what makes them work.

With popular e-commerce software such as Magento offering private shopping club modules (video walk-through), private shopping clubs are relatively easy to deploy.  So here’s a top line summary of Marc’s review, listing the critical success factors for setting up a successful private shopping club.

Key Features

• Exclusivity – Invite-only (requires an invitation from a friend to get in)
• Name Brands – quality merchandise not just cheap or out of date items
• Compelling Discounts – priced to drive impulse purchases and loyalty
• Timed Events – limited sales event at which the merchandise is offered until it sells out or a time limit is reached
• Regular Events - Sales events always start at the same time
• One Page Event List – Listing current events to browse
• Viral Invitations - member get member referral program ($10 reward per new (purchasing) member
• Social Network Integration (e.g. Facebook Connect/Twitter) easy login and member referrals
• No Site Search - Focus attention on browsing sale items to encourage impulse purchase (allow filter)
• Single/No Shipping Fee – Orders stay open for several hours to allow shoppers to make additional purchases and pay only one shipping fee (or additional orders are advertised as having free shipping)

Future Features

• Fashion Content (Editorial/Articles) – influencing shoppers through richer content around the products on sale.
• VIP Members - Special club for most valuable members (who have invited groups of people that buy the most) with extra discounts and incentives.
• Customer Idea Communities – for ideas on future sale events and site improvements
• Crowd Visualization – visial representation of shopping crowd at beginning of the events to stimulate impulse pruchases
• Social Analytics – social recommender systems that up-sell and cross-sell based on purchases/browsing patterns of “people like you” (similarity in purchasing history/tastes/social graph)