Inside Facebook
Inside Facebook |
- More Info on Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011 – Coming January 25th in San Francisco
- Facebook Careers Postings: Intellectual Property Counsel, Policy Communications, and More
- How Facebook Could Add Email to the Message Inbox
- Facebook Announces Second Data Center, in North Carolina
- Starbucks’ Check In Facebook App Pushes Bland Virtual Goods
| More Info on Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011 – Coming January 25th in San Francisco Posted: 11 Nov 2010 03:00 PM PST
As we announced two weeks ago, Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011, our second conference on the future of monetization on social platforms, is happening January 25th in San Francisco. We're excited to see all of the developers and entrepreneurs from around the world that are planning to attend! The agenda topics for Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011 are now live online. Executives and experts from Facebook, leading social networks, mobile platforms, social game and app developers, media companies, virtual goods and payment services, and investors will be discussing the future of social platforms and virtual goods monetization in social apps and games from a global perspective. Finally, if you’re considering attending Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011, take advantage of early registration pricing and sign up now. A limited set of early registration tickets are currently available at the Early Announcement price of $229. This price will be good through Friday November 12th only, so we encourage you to register now. Who’s Speaking? We're honored to present the following 17 confirmed speakers at Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011:
Key topics for the day will include:
Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011 – January 25th in San Francisco Social applications first emerged in 2007, and are today maturing into a global media ecosystem. With the launch of the Facebook Platform, followed by platforms from MySpace and other social networks, developers worldwide could leverage the social graph to create new kinds of social experiences never before possible. Now, three and a half years later, what started out as sheep throwing and vampire biting has quickly become a profitable billion-dollar industry, punctuated by numerous major acquisitions by the world’s leading media companies and developers. But now, new challenges are emerging, affecting big players and new entrants alike. Inside Social Apps will investigate the latest trends and challenges for social applications, and look at what’s to come for developers throughout the space – including the growth of virtual goods and social applications on mobile devices. What are the biggest uncertainties and opportunities facing the future of social games and applications in 2011, and who is leading the way? Inside Social Apps InFocus 2011 takes place January 25th, 2011 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, and brings together the world's leading entrepreneurs to weigh in on the future of social app and game monetization. Inside Social Apps will be a one-day summit led by Inside Network’s Eric Eldon and Justin Smith, and will take in-depth investigative approach to the day’s discussions. At Inside Social Apps, Inside Network will work alongside founders and executives of the top social networking, social gaming, mobile social gaming, payments, and virtual goods infrastructure companies to analyze the most important issues affecting the industry. Inside Social Apps is geared towards developers on Facebook, iPhone, Android, and emerging online social platforms. Inside Social Apps will be a content-rich day of critical discussion, followed by an evening and nighttime of casual networking. Register Now
A limited set of "Early Announcement" tickets is available through Friday at a special price of $229. This price will change after Friday, and space will be very limited, so we encourage you to register early. From all of us at Inside Network, we hope to see you on January 25th in San Francisco!
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| Facebook Careers Postings: Intellectual Property Counsel, Policy Communications, and More Posted: 11 Nov 2010 02:30 PM PST
Perhaps most intriguing is a post for a Intellectual Property Counsel. The hire will work closely with the company's brand marketing team, as well as to oversee "outside counsel handling trademark prosecution, enforcement, and IP litigation." Facebook has been busy filing for and receiving patents for features like the news feed, but so far it has hinted that it doesn’t plan to aggressively enforce this IP. However, it has a long track record of going after companies that use the “____book” term and other types of alleged trademark infringements — the counsel position promises more of the same focus. Specific duties listed in the posting include: The prosecution of Facebook's trademark portfolio, intellectual property litigation, trademark and domain name enforcement, licensing of the company's trademarks and copyrighted content, assistance with IP guidance in commercial transactions and support for product teams. Requirements include four to eight years of experience, knowledge of “web 2.0 and social networking” and a law degree from "a top law school." Public Policy CommunicationsFacebook is also looking to increase its public policy communications team in the US and around the world. In addition to outstanding postings for public policy positions in Washington, DC and India, it’s trying to fill a new position in Europe: “an experienced Manager, Privacy and Policy, to monitor legislative and regulatory matters at EU and member state level, participate in policy discussions, and lead the company's interactions with the European Commission and governments in several EU countries.” Governments across the world, including the US, EU and India, are scrutinizing Facebook’s privacy and security practices more closely. Marketing and SalesFacebook's post for a Marketing Campaign Manager was also interesting. The company is looking for someone to manage one of the largest advertising accounts — Facebook’s own, in-house campaigns. The person filling this position will work with many teams within Facebook and also external partners, such as child safety organizations, non-profits and voter registration groups. Ideally the candidate is an "on-person ad agency." The part-time contractor position of 25-30 hours a week is for the the company's Palo Alto, Calif. offices. Facebook is looking for someone with three to five years of experience who has basic graphic design, copywriting and other pertinent skills. Facebook also recently listed a number of sales account executive listings for positions in Palo Alto and its Austin, Texas office in the areas of: Entertainment, financial services, gaming, retail, services and travel. In terms of other listings, Facebook continues to try to fill a wide range of engineering and product jobs — although we haven’t seen any significant new posts in these areas for some time. For more Facebook-related jobs, check out the Inside Network Job Board. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How Facebook Could Add Email to the Message Inbox Posted: 11 Nov 2010 12:22 PM PST Facebook has invited members of the press to an event this coming Monday, and the invite email included the Facebook Messages looks icon. Given the existing rumors about a Facebook email service, and hints that some sources have given us, here’s a look at what might be launching on Monday. Referred to as “Project Titan” among Facebook employees, the email revamp could address criticism about deficiencies in the existing Messages product such as lack of easy forwarding, mass “mark as read”, and attachment uploading. More significant would be giving users an @facebook.com email address to which email could be sent and read within the messages product, as well as POP and IMAP support for reading your Facebook inbox from other email clients.
Facebook has made only limited forays into email to date. In October, it launched Groups, which aimed to be an elegant replacement for email lists by allowing users to set up Group email addresses to which emails could be sent. creating a persistent record of posts in the Groups feed. However, many users felt overwhelmed by the volume of email notifications they received since the product defaulted to email users about every action taken within the Group. At the beginning of 2010, Facebook shut down the applications notifications system and as a replacement began allowing application developers to send users email. This change was in part designed to move spammy or low content messages off of Facebook and onto email, redirecting the ill will and labor associated with seeing these messages away from Facebook. One question will be where notification and applications emails will go in the new Messages product. Some users might prefer to keep all Facebook-related communication within Facebook, which could be facilitated with the option to sort a single Messages inbox by types such as one-to-one from a friend, one-to-many from friends, Events, applications, and notifications.
Among other possibilities, a way to highlight one-to-one messages would be especially useful since they are more often important, timely, and require a response then other messages. Facebook created an Unread Messages sidebar module in an attempt to remind users to check their Messages, but more often the problem is that users read a one-to-one message, can’t respond immediately or don’t have a reply yet, but then forget to reply at all. This broken sequence has probably thwarted many potential business relationships and romances. We’ll be at the event Monday with live coverage and analysis to let you know whether the update will be more of a user interface change or the addition of truly new functionality. If Facebook does distribute email addresses to users, maybe it will have something to export back to Google after all. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Announces Second Data Center, in North Carolina Posted: 11 Nov 2010 11:18 AM PST Facebook announced plans today to open a second data center in Forest City in Rutherford County, North Carolina. The company said in a press release that the move is part of a policy of moving user data from leased data centers to cost-effective, customized facilities. A press release from North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue notes that Facebook is set to invest $450 million initially in the new facility, which will take 18 months to construct. During construction, about 250 construction and mechanical jobs are to be created, and once construction is complete, about 35 to 45 full-time and contracts jobs will be created, the press release noted.
Governor Perdue said in the release that she'd been working with Facebook for a year to bring the project to fruition. Earlier this year Facebook announced it would be building its first data center in Prineville, Oregon. In past years, the company has relied on rented facilities more heavily. Environmental activist group Greenpeace has targeted Facebook already for its Oregon center. That facility is on an electrical grid that relies somewhat more heavily on coal than the national average — 58% versus 50%. The North Carolina facility, powered by Duke Energy, also appears to be beating the national average for coal consumption, at nearly 55%, although the utility has emphasized that it is working to increase the portion of renewable energy. Greenpeace has some more fuel to go after Facebook with. But as has been with the Oregon data center power source issue, Facebook is emphasizing all of the extra things it does to save energy. From the press release: In keeping with North Carolina’s growing reputation for environmental leadership, the building will be designed to LEED gold standards. In addition, Facebook will employ innovative cooling and power management technologies to make the facility one of the most energy efficient data centers in the United States. Facebook is also a leading pioneer in efficient software and facility will use technologies developed by Facebook to rely on fewer than half the computing power (and related energy consumption) that a similar data center would have required only a few years ago. For updates and information about the Rutherford Data Center, see its Facebook Page. [Image via Rutherford Data Center Facebook Page] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Starbucks’ Check In Facebook App Pushes Bland Virtual Goods Posted: 11 Nov 2010 08:00 AM PST In an effort to capitalize on the popularity of virtual goods and the buzz around Facebook Places, Starbucks has created its own Facebook app which rewards users with virtual cups of coffee for checking in to Starbucks locations. However, Starbucks Check In is slow or inaccurate at tabulating check-ins, and the virtual goods are not currently compelling.
The app shows that brands can’t just rehash existing trends and technologies in order to gain exposure or improve brand perception. Meanwhile, Starbucks is running a more enticing promotion through Facebook Deals, where the company will donate $1 (up to $75,000) to Conservational International to help protect forest land.
While the Starbucks Check In app promotion seems unlikely to succeed, Starbucks has a strong track record on Facebook. Last year, Facebook gave it a “Blue Ribbon” award for its excellence in use of its Page. An hourly limited giveaway of branded ice cream, with coupons for those who missed the promotion helped Starbucks become the first brand to reach 10 million Likes. It currently has one of the largest Pages on Facebook, with 16.9 million Likes, according to our PageData tracking service.
When users install the new app, they’ll first see a count of their check-ins to Starbucks, though only check-ins made after installing the app are counted. Below this is a “What your friends are up to” feed, which really just shows what Starbucks locations a user’s friends have checked in to. The counter and feed are broken, though, often not registering check-ins at all, or taking nearly 24 hours to do so. The lack of a proper feedback mechanism is frustrating, and probably leads users to tune out. In the middle of the app, users see a list of gifts they can unlock and share by checking in to multiple different Starbucks locations, checking in at a certain time, or checking in multiple times in one day. The gifts are just pictures of holiday-themed paper coffee cups, and are neither cute, cool, nor functional. When shared or automatically published upon being earned, there is no interesting text about the good, only a pitch for others to install the app.
One positive aspect of the app is that it includes a FAQ section explaining how Places works for those unfamiliar, and an option to turn off automatic stream publishes upon a user earning a gift. The right side of the app is taken up by a location leaderboard showing which Starbucks stores have received the most check-ins. Predictably, all three current leaders are in smartphone-obsessed California, with two near Silicon Valley.
This poorly executed promotion is atypical for Starbucks. If a virtual good doesn’t help the user, such as granting them abilities in a social game, it should at least be fun to look at. Of the nearly 300 comments on Starbucks Page’s announcement of the app, none seemed excited about the goods, and many asked why the company wouldn’t give users something useful like a coupon in exchange for visiting the business and publishing the Starbucks name to their feed. We’re asking the same question. For more on how to use Places, Pages and other Facebook features for marketing, be sure to check out our Facebook Marketing Bible. |
Some interesting new job posts from 
A more full-fledged email product, especially one without POP or IMAP-support, would reduce the reliance of Facebook users on Gmail and other email services, bringing email’s extended time-on-site to Facebook. It would also further bind users to Facebook for the long term.
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