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Inside Network Happy Hour This Friday — Berlin

Posted: 22 Feb 2011 10:00 PM PST

Inside Network is coming to Berlin this Friday for a happy hour at Backfabrik, the headquarters of the European game developer Wooga.

Inside Network recently launched a series of casual evening happy hours to bring together the community of developers, investors, and entrepreneurs that we serve globally. This Friday, join Kim-Mai Cutler, lead writer for Inside Mobile Apps, the Wooga team, and the SponsorPay team in an evening of casual discussion, networking and drinks in the heart of Berlin.

All Inside Network happy hours are free, thanks to a co-sponsorship from SponsorPay, the European virtual currency monetization company, and Wooga, the sixth largest social game developer globally.

Happy hour starts at 6 p.m. at Wooga’s offices in Backfabrik. We look forward to seeing you there!

Berlin
When: 6 pm – 8:30 pm Friday February 25
Where: Wooga Headquarters at Backfabrik
Saarbruecker Str. 38
10405
RSVP here

About the sponsors:

SponsorPay is focused on virtual currency monetization for online games, social apps, virtual worlds and social networks in the European market. The company's ad-funded payment solution gives online users access to virtual currency or premium features through participation in targeted advertising offers.

Wooga is the largest developer of social games based in Europe. More than 15 million people play the four games Wooga has launched so far including Brain Buddies, Bubble Island, Monster World and Happy Hospital. Wooga employs a team of over 60 people from 20 nations and is located in the heart of Berlin.

Microsoft Rolls Out Facebook Chat to All Hotmail Users, but Only Imports 1000 Friends

Posted: 22 Feb 2011 03:44 PM PST

At the end of September, Microsoft began allowing Hotmail users in the US and five other large markets to Facebook Chat with their friends from within Hotmail. Now Microsoft has rolled out access to users in all countries, but only up to 1000 of a user’s friends are imported, preventing users from seeing whether some friends are online or sending them messages.

The addition of Facebook Chat functionality could help Hotmail compete against Gmail, which the postnotes doesn’t include the ability. Meanwhile, Hotmail home page notifications about the newfound ability will expose Facebook to the Microsoft email service’s web 1.0 audience.

Microsoft has been moving to capitalize on the poor relationship between Facebook and its competitor Google by integrating the social network’s data and features into several of its products. Windows Live allows uses to read and publish to their news feed, Bing search offers Facebook Instant Personalization, and the new version of Bing Bar toolbar that launched last week includes Facebook notifications, photos, and friend requests.

Facebook integration has already been getting results. As part of the announcement, Microsoft noted that 20 million Windows Live accounts have now been connected to Facebook — a trend we’ve been tracking for many months, as the app has grown to be one of the largest on the platform.

Microsoft Messenger users can already use Facebook Chat through a desktop application, the Messenger iPhone application, and a Facebook application. Windows Live Messenger for Facebook is the third-largest Facebook application by daily active user count with 13.7 million DAU according to AppData. Only Zynga’s CityVille and FarmVille are larger going by that metric. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that Messenger has powered a total of 2.8 billion minutes of Facebook Chat.

To use Facebook Chat, Hotmail users must connect their Facebook account to Windows Live and check the “Chat with my Facebook friends in Messenger” box. The second step of the Hotmail account registration flow is now the Connect screen with all Facebook sharing enabled by default, underscoring Microsoft’s focus on getting users to link their accounts.

Once connected, Facebook friends will appear in the bottom left sidebar of the Hotmail inbox in the list of a user’s Messenger contacts. Just like on Facebook, users show a green icon next to their name if they are actively online.

Unfortunately, Hotmail only imports up to 1000 of a user’s Facebook friends as contacts, so if you have more than 1000 friends you won’t see their online status or have the option to initiate a Facebook Chat with them. If you receive a Facebook Chat from one of these missing contacts, Hotmail says the instant message is from “Someone on Facebook”, not the person’s actual name, and there’s no way to instantly add them to your contacts.

Choosing to import email addresses from your Facebook account won’t necessarily find all of the missing contacts either. Not being able to see or send outbound Facebook Chats to some of your friends is major drawback for Hotmail. Even worse, most users won’t even notice that all their contacts weren’t imported, and will just assume these friends are never online.

One benefit of using Facebook Chat through Hotmail is native support for emoticons. Millions of Facebook users install browser add-ons such as Facemoods to gain the ability to select from graphical emoticons to include in their instant messages.

Microsoft will need to fix the contact importing limit if it wants Facebook users to switch from keeping a Facebook window open to spending more time on Hotmail. Still, the integration gives Hotmail one advantage over Gmail and will keep the service relevant to a younger user base while offering its older audience to Facebook.

Are In-App Payments and Facebook Credits on a Collision Course?

Posted: 22 Feb 2011 01:41 PM PST

Apple’s iOS and Facebook are very different platforms at a fundamental level. But their moves over the past month suggest that they could clash over the next year or two in some fascinating ways.

At its core, Facebook is an identity layer that is agnostic about which device or application a user touches the platform with. iOS, in contrast, has so far existed mainly to drive sales of Apple hardware.

But both Apple and Facebook want a cut of downstream revenues from the burgeoning economies that their platforms support. Apple did this from the get-go by taking 30% of revenue from paid apps, which it extended to in-app payments and now subscriptions. Facebook did this with Credits, the currency it introduced as virtual goods blossomed into a $2.1 billion U.S. market. It anchored off the price expectations Apple set, and also used the 70% to 30% revenue split.

Both have moved to consolidate power around their in-house payment systems this year. Facebook will make Credits mandatory as the sole payment option for games by July. Apple now requires that publishers offer consumers the choice of paying through iTunes for subscriptions or in-app purchases, from which it will take a 30% cut. While consumers can still pay for subscriptions outside iTunes, Apple’s system is so seamless that most consumers will probably opt for it anyway.

So this is all well and good: Apple controls payments on iOS. Facebook controls payments on canvas games. When does it get interesting?

> Continue reading on Inside Mobile Apps.

Page Destination Tab Ad Campaign Strategies

Posted: 22 Feb 2011 11:57 AM PST

Facebook Marketing Bible

The following is an excerpt from the Facebook Marketing Bible, the comprehensive guide to marketing your company, brand, or app using Facebook. The full version of this article, available through a Facebook Marketing Bible subscription, includes strategies for using destination tab ads that point to your Facebook Page’s standard wall, photos, videos, or events tabs. It also teaches marketers how to direct users to general purpose welcome tabs as well as tabs with a specific purpose such as an email sign-up form or ecommerce store.

Advertisers have the option to create ads with a specific landing tab of a Page as the ad’s destination. Here we’ll provide strategies for how to maximize returns from destination tab ads that point to welcome tabs that are appropriate for all visitors, Facebook’s native tabs, tabs that drive specific types of conversion such as contact info collection or sales, and demographic-specific custom welcome tabs.

Page Destination Tab Basics

Facebook ads created through the self-serve tool can have a specific tab of a Page set as their destination. This allows you to run multiple ad campaigns for different tabs simultaneously, or run ads that target a specific demographic and deliver those users to a landing tab that is especially relevant to them.

To run destination tab ads, go to the self-serve ad tool and select a Page you are an admin of as the ad’s destination. This will reveal a “Destination Tab” drop-down menu. You can then select as the ad’s destination any tab installed on that Page, including Facebook’s in-house apps like Photos or Discussion Board, or third-party apps for sweepstakes, email sign-ups, games, and media content.

Directing Users to Demographic-Specific Custom Tabs

An advanced strategy for using destination tab ads is to create a custom welcome tab that resonates with specific demographic you’re trying to reach, and then targeting that demographic with ads that point to the associated tab.

Determine what demographic has the highest lifetime value to your brand. For instance, young married housewives for a household cleaning product brand, young city-dwelling professionals for a brand of coffeeshops, or 14-18 year old males for a console video game.

Then, design a custom welcome tab that this demographic will find compelling and that asks them to Like your Page. For instance, the household cleaning brand could use bright feminine colors and use messaging like “We know you want the best for your family. Get updates on sales from our Page.”

The coffeeshop brand could use a slick font and messaging that resonates with tech savvy young people who are on the go, like “Fight long hours and short deadlines with a quick trip to our coffeeshop. Hear about new flavors from our Page” The video game brand could use flashy graphics and messaging like “When you get home from school, its time to save the universe. Get tips and game strategies from our Page.”

If a brand wanted to court international users, they could set up a custom tab that talks about their global presence and that links to localized Pages.

Then, target these specific demographic using the Facebook ad tool’s various targeting parameters, and set the appropriate landing tab as the ad’s destination tab. You’ll see a higher conversion rate than sending them to a general welcome tab.

Access strategies for the directing users to other types of Page tabs, and learn more marketing best practices at the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network's complete guide to marketing and advertising on Facebook.

onsdag den 23. februar 2011 at 07.10