SocialNext

Yes Virginia: You Can Combine Hitting on Strangers and Conversion Rates

I just discovered a new dating startup called Cheek’d. You order cards from them that have a quirky come-on line and instructions to go to Cheekd.com and enter a code id which will bring up a dating profile. With funny lines such as “don’t overthink this” and “i just put all my drinks on your tab” they look like a great way to break the ice.

As a result of my experience in e-commerce product development I could only think of one thing they are missing: What are the conversion rates of each card? It would be great to allow the Cheek’d community to rate each card’s effectiveness. This will help others know which cards have a better chance of working. Basically the community can tell you which cards convert random strangers into dates better than others.

You could even break it down by geographic locations. For example, the card that says “i still have a job” may convert better in Seattle and Minneapolis but poorly in Washington DC. Heck, it could get as granular as the actual locations (bars, parks, etc.) where the cards converted. That could open opportunities in terms of an iPhone / Droid app or Foursquare partnership.

It’s a pretty fun way to think about conversion rates. What do you think? What kind of lines do you think would work on a Cheek'd card or better yet, what lines would work on you? Oh and a quick note to my wife: I didn’t order any! :-)

Gowalla Exploits Foursquare’s Mayor Weakness

Underdog location-based social network Gowalla has launched a new marketing promotion that has a great chance of gaining traction over rival Foursquare.

Companies can partner with Gowalla to reward check-ins randomly with chances to win a prize or, even if you didn’t win, a discount coupon. This is different from Foursquare’s marketing programs with companies like Starbucks of rewarding users who are “Mayors” (people who check-in to a location the most).

Here’s an example of Gowalla’s program with Eye-Fi via TechCrunch:

…when a person checks in through Gowalla at any U.S.-based Best Buy or Apple Store, they’ll automatically have a chance to win a free 4 GB Eye-Fi card. A message will pop up on their screen about the card post check-in. And a simple click on the “Did I win?” button below that message will reveal if you’re a winner of the $75 card the spot. There will be 500 winners for this particular promotion.

But even if you don’t win, the check-in grants you access to a coupon code for one year’s worth of free hotspot access if you do choose to purchase an Eye-Fi card. 

The weaknesses of Foursquare’s “Mayor” discounts are two-fold: 

1. Employees are often the Mayors of their stores: How can you offer a discount to the Mayor of your store if the Mayor isn’t even a customer? If customers feel like they can’t actually achieve the discount what’s the point? That’s why any company that works with Foursquare has to have an Employee Foursquare Policy that discourages employees from checking in.

2. As a user if I know I’ll never be the Mayor I sometimes don’t bother to check-in: Let’s say Best Buy has a deal with Foursquare to reward Mayors with discounts. If I don’t go to Best Buy often I know I’ll never be the Mayor so I probably won’t check-in on Foursquare. However, if the reward is a random check-in on Gowalla I will definitely do so. This increases my chance of winning something and will also get users in the habit of using Gowalla more.

Props to Team Gowalla. If they can get more companies to sign on to this type of program it could be a windfall of positive press and increased adoption by users.

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Tom is (Un)Officially No More on MySpace

It's certainly is an unofficial end to an era: Tom is no more on MySpace. As someone who helped create his puppet alter ego this is pretty depressing. 

His latest "status update" directs people to his replacement: Today on MySpace...and doesn't allow comments.

 

  

AT&T Asks What People Think; Doesn’t Like the Answers

Here’s a quick memo to AT&T: If you’re going to advertise on Facebook and ask users what they think of your service don’t be surprised when they voice their frustrations on your Fan Page Wall.

Also don’t get defensive. There are several examples but this one is my favorite:

When it comes to negative feedback you have to be patient. There are several posts where AT&T is trying to help users with specific issues (which is great!) but when it comes to general negativity about your service you have to address it the best you can and move on. Getting defensive will only perpetuate the problem.

Oh and you're right AT&T. Verizon does have it's own Fan Page. It's right here.

How to Update Twitter and MySpace all from Facebook

Here's something very cool. The MySpace / Twitter Sync feature allows you to control all your status updates from your Facebook Fan Page.

How? By linking your Facebook Fan Page status to Twitter then by linking your Twitter to your MySpace. DONE.

For example, I entered this status update on my comedy group's Facebook Fan Page:

"I just realized that the main reason I love Mexican food is because it is just an excuse to eat tortilla chips. I love tortilla chips! > J"

That in turn updated our Twitter account which then updated our MySpace. It's a great way to effectively manage your presence on all three sites.

Pictures below the cut!

Increase Twitter Traffic With Customized Shortened URLs

Due to Twitter’s 140 character limit URL shorteners have become even more popular. However one weakness is they all start to look the same. After all what is the difference between this: http://bit.ly/lgZzq and this: http://bit.ly/dqAfO? You have to click to find out which can be good…and bad.

Creating a customized shortened URL can help your link stand out and also give your followers more of an indication of what the link is to. The result will be more ReTweets and more traffic.

For example Chris Pirillo, Tech Expert for CNN.com, asked his 74,000+ followers “If you had access to my Twitter account, what would you Tweet?” I replied back that I would share my new Star Wars sketch. However instead of using a randomized shorted URL on bit.ly I created this one: bit.ly/xwingfighter. I was pretty excited to see he ReTweeted it.

I think the customized URL was key. It not only made the link subject clearer to Chris but also easier to spot in what I’m sure is an overwhelming at time Twitter feed.

You can also use them for more permanent link placements as well. For example in the description field of my sketch comedy group’s YouTube videos I’ve added “Meet us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/sketchcomedy”. This gives the user a clearer indication of what they are clicking on, allows me to track the traffic from these links and hopefully keep in touch with that user on Facebook.

Can you think of any other reasons why a customized shortened URL would be beneficial?

Oh, and 100th post. :-)

JK Wedding Entrance Dance Video is Viral Success for Marketers

Here’s an excellent example of taking advantage of a viral video to reach customers and increase sales. The video in question is JK Wedding Entrance Dance featuring Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz’s wedding party coming down the aisle dancing to Chris Brown’s "Forever".

The video is fantastic and has been featured everywhere including the Today Show. It also features something else: A song they don’t own the rights to.

Typically lawyers will claim the video and it would be removed from YouTube but in this case the holders of the rights to “Forever” (presumably Zomba Group) rode the wave and advertised the mp3 for the song on the video itself using YouTube's new content management tools.

The result was a drastic increase in sales of “Forever” reaching #4 on iTunes singles chart and #3 on Amazon’s top selling mp3 list. Not too shabby for a song that was a hit last year!

Like Monty Python, It’s another example of marketers embracing online tools and videos to increase sales and promote their products.

GoDaddy Helping Customers Setup Twitter Accounts

GoDaddy has a new feature that helps customers sign up for Twitter. GoDaddy will check Twitter to see if the domain name you purchased through them is available as a Twitter username. Then it enables you to sign up for Twitter right there.

It's a nice new offering from GoDaddy and even if the customer isn't ready to use Twitter it let's them reserve their username for future use.