Bo Peabody wrote a thought-provoking article for Business Insider called “Facebook And Twitter Will Always Be Crappy Businesses“. I had to respond to a few things: It is still too early to tell what brand managers are going to do, particularly on Facebook. You’re talking about a group of businesses (brands and agencies) with highly engrained habits and beliefs after …
Facebook App versus FB Connect?
One of my projects posed the question: should we create a native Facebook application (example: Playfish’s Country Story) or a separate website using Facebook Connect (example: Thread.com). FB Connect, after all, still gives you access to the social graph, feeds, etc. Here are some of my preliminary thoughts after conversations with other folks, and I would welcome your input. A …
Casual games companies and the transition to Facebook
My last post commented on GamesBeat’s articles from Casual Connect, which touched on the challenges old casual game leaders are having with the new world of social games / social networks. Inside Social Games just posted about PopCap bringing Zuma to Facebook (as well as letting players use Facebook Connect on their own site). A quick look and you can …
Social Gaming Expands as Casual Gaming Gets Nervous
Casual Connect just took place in Seattle and Dean Takahashi over at GamesBeat has done a great job capturing some of the trends in this part of the games world: Part 1 and Part 2. Some of the most interesting quotes: Social games might hit a half billion in revenues this year. In 2007, before a price war began, casual …
Socnet Advertising, where art thou?
A few months ago, I listened to a panel organized by Battery Ventures called “Monetizing Social Media”. Perhaps not surprisingly for a New York-based event, the panel spent 99% of the time talking about advertising. Still, I was surprised to see both the Facebook and MySpace representatives brush off microtransaction business models as niche and not worth discussing. The total …
MJ spikes Nielsen’s buzz chart
Nielsen’s Buzz tracking research just posted this chart, and went on to write: Nearly 15% of all online discussions about Jackson referenced either a broadcast or social network. CNN which teamed up with Facebook on streaming coverage was named in 5% of all online conversations. Also on the TV network side, BET came in 2nd with 1.9%, ABC with 1.7%, …