Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

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Google just hired an advocate for game developers. This follows Apple’s opening of a Game Center.

Both companies have witnessed the success of social gaming on Facebook and want to promote game development for their products as well.

The new Google hire, Mark DeLoura, a games industry veteran, suggests that “Clearly there are a number of initiatives going on at Google that can relate to games in some way” (read Android and OpenSocial).

It has been suggested that Apple’s Game Center is an attempt to compete with Facebook’s dominance over the hugely popular and incredibly lucrative area of social gaming.

What we are witnessing is the leading edge of the trend to use gaming to sell or support consumer goods.

Apple and Google know that an engaging or addictive game application can ring a cash register, if applied correctly. Active gamers use hardware to facilitate the fun, so creating games for iPads and Androids will build demand for these products.

But the real winners of this online gaming trend could be e-Retailers…. So Amazon and Ebay should be paying attention to this trend!

Consider the value to Amazon of games that resulted in the sale of a variety of consumer goods….

Do you think Ebay would want to hire a Game Developer Advocate if it meant more sales for their merchants?

Google and Apple are investing in the minds and hearts of game developers and game enthusiasts. Maybe Amazon and Ebay should take a page from this game plan.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

I appreciate the work of AllFacebook. Nick and his team have been a great help to our understanding of the Facebook network and graciously mentioned AlbinoPhant during our soft launch at Christmas time.

This past week the site has been listing some Birthday Party ideas for Facebook users. While there have been some great suggestions, we would like to suggest a real party….

With REAL Gifts! All for the Birthday Girl…

Now, in the author’s defense, we realize that we have not adequately communicated that AlbinoPhant is more than just a Christmas gift party.

So to Clear up the Confusion:
The AlbinoPhant birthday gift exchange is a great online party for family and friends who want to support the Birthday Girl with REAL gifts and have a fun in the process.

Yes, all of the gifts are purchased from a huge selection provided by Amazon, and shipped by UPS…

Here is how it is done….

First: Host a party and invite your friends and family to participate near the Birthday Girl’s big day.

Second: In all of the party invitations that come from Facebook and from your email invitations, let everyone know that this is a Birthday Party for the Birthday Girl

Third: Send along the Birthday Girl’s address and tell them to put her address into the shipping details while they are purchasing the gifts.

Then: When the game is played and the party is over, the AlbinoPhant gift redemption department will order the gifts delivered to the Birthday Girl’s address.

Simple as that!

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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Launching a new business concept is a challenge.

Most people run from this type of struggle, but I am a addicted to the adventure. This pioneering journey is where we discover what we are made of and where ideas move from thought into reality.

In 1995 most auctions were local events where people drove to an auction site to make their bids with several other bidders. Today, thanks to the internet and the forward thinking of eBay, we do much of our bidding from our computers. Auctions are now common virtual experiences, where real items are bid upon and sold to the highest bidder.

In 2010, most of us attend parties down the street or across town. In the future we will have virtual parties, where even the most distant friend can be a part of the fun.

This is the journey that we have chosen for AlbinoPhant and the PartyWeDo online party network.

You can now begin to pass out your gifts using a party on your computer… All because online auctions have shown the way.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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E cards are everywhere on the internet, but Allfacebook picked a few cleaver cards to display on their blog this week. One of them caught my attention and got me thinking about life in this new century.

It must have captured blog contributor Raj Dash’s thinking as well because he suggested, “… publishers like Someecards get to the heart of the human condition about our social media addictions, especially to Facebook”.

Here is the card that started this →

The modern human condition includes several issues addressed in this statement.

First, we want to be supportive and contribute to the quality of life for of our family and friends. Birthdays and other significant life events lead us to find ways to reach out and be more supportive.

Second, we are moving at a fast pace, so we are continuously exploring ways to trim time out of all of our efforts. When we find a way to become more efficient, we attempt to move some of our tasks into these tools.

Last, Facebook represents an efficiency tool, as well as a bridge spanning great distances. Support for family and friends is enhanced when this internet tool is applied to both local and distant personal connections. We can now feel more involved in the lives of those whom we feel close.

The cleaver statements from Someecards are part of a support structure that the internet is now making more convenient for millions of people. As time goes by, more and more applications will be developed for the sole purpose of spreading friendship and love among people who care for one another. Giving is becoming easier, even when distance keeps us all apart.

We welcome the new sharing tools…. What do you share with friends online?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Nivi and Naval produce a blog called Venture Hacks. They also advise start-ups and have written a book or two. Their advice has been very helpful and I appreciate their responsiveness whenever I have personally reached out for advice.

They posted a suggestion today that I have taken as a personal challenge. They want to know if our company has an aspirational vision for the future. Nivi and Naval illustrated this vision statement process in a “What we aren’t VS what we could be” format.

They gave the example of the Google vision: Google isn’t a search engine. They “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Yes, AlbinoPhant the party game and PartyWeDo the online party developer have a vision… But until now I have not written it down for our readers to review.

I know that you have read our “Cause” in the past, but now we offer our VISION:

AlbinoPhant isn’t a social game, it is a gift distribution system for friends and families.

* A Gift Distribution System wrapped in a mimic of a traditional party game.
* A Gift Distribution System supported by eCommerce giants like Amazon.
* A Gift Distribution System designed for the distance separated gift shoppers.
* A Gift Distribution System positioned to support important life events among close family and friends.
* A Gift Distribution System hosted on the well connected Walls of Facebook.

While we are still in the process of putting all the technical pieces together to demonstrate traction for our party applications, we do see a day when family and friends will rely on us to pass out their gifts in a fun and social way.

I hope to get a bit of feedback on our VISION from our friends at Venture Hacks, and from you…

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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Mashable shared a video and some details concerning the state of the internet.

Jesse Thomas created this video to demonstrate how big the internet is becoming….

This is one big party and it is great to be involved!

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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Facebook, Twitter and Buzz need to help social media make money…

This economy is making one thing abundantly clear…

The web needs money to survive!

And this money must come from some type of sustainable payment system. Free is a great price for consumers, but it fails to pay the bills for a business, even on the internet.

In the last week I have received two emails from the internet CEO’s explaining why they must now charge for a service that was once free. Both listed current economic realities as the reason for making the change.

I am OK with this news, because I accept that everything on the web cannot be free. In addition, I don’t believe that advertising should be called upon to subsidize all of these social networks.

The idea of a free web or some type of payment system is being debated in many internet circles, and particularly as it applies to the traditional news networks. Nielsen just completed some research as to what consumers would actually pay for on the web. The results indicate that consumers are more than willing to let advertisers pay for the free use of news stories, yet they will pay for some things.

The bright spot for those who believe that you get what you pay for, is that the survey found that internet users expect to pay for movies, music, and games. So it appears that we all will pay to be entertained in the internet.

And users spend more time on sites like Facebook to share, videos, images and games; so it appears that Facebook can provide a springboard for this entertainment-paying economy.

The fact that Facebook is already monetizing with advertising and virtual goods from games and other entertainment applications reinforces the survey results… A Free platform, with Paid entertainment venues builds a great partnership.

Online party games are well positioned to be able to find a sustainable monetization structure within these social networks. Parties that offer an opportunity to purchase a real gift will benefit from the proven economy of eCommerce from the likes of Amazon or Ebay.

Time will tell if the public will begin to pay for many of the services provided on the web. But current trends and public opinion point to some great opportunities in a few niches.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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Type A Mom suggests that every online application should find their ideal niche. The following is a definition of the niche that our parties are chasing…
Tell us what you think.

Social sites on the internet usually take one of two tracks to success: One is to create products with mass appeal, and the other is to find a valuable niche.

Mass appeal strategies usually require something that appeals to multiple ages and varying needs or interests. Facebook or YouTube come to mind as social sites with mass appeal.

Niche strategies focus on a smaller number of prospects or demographic, and then gather their customers from a market with significant numbers. Entrepreneur magazine suggests that “A niche marketplace is a small, specialized market segment within a larger, viable commercial industry”.

The AlbinoPhant Party is built to satisfy customers within the DSGS niche, which is a portion of the well established $115 Billion dollar US Gift Sales Industry.

What is a DSGS? They are gift purchasers who shop for and share gifts with those they love from a distance, or a Distance Separated Gift Shopper. Regular gift shopper’s purchase locally, then they wrap the item and make the delivery in person at some event or party. On the other hand, Distance Separated Gift Shoppers tend to rely on internet resources for their gift shopping needs and have deliveries made by others. Or they purchase locally, box and ship the item using standard shipping services. They usually miss the actual gift unveiling because distance has restricted the more desirable personal attendance.

Sarah Christensen is a DSGS. She is a parent, a child and a sibling of individuals who live at least a day’s drive from her home. Sarah has a history of supporting her family and friends by purchasing gifts and personally attending events or parties with those she loves. Even when separated by distance, she continues to look for efficient and economical ways to share with this group. Because she is over 50 and an empty nester, the volume of family and friends who live a distance away continues to increase, forcing her to become a regular Distance Separated Gift Shopper in order to remain supportive.

The DSGS also relies heavily on social networks to stay connected to those whom they wish to support. They also rely on e-Retailers, UPS and other gift delivery services to facilitate the need to share these gifts and build memorable interactions.

The total percentage of the US gift sales industry included in the DSGS niche is not measured, but there are indications that it is large and getting bigger. We know that Sarah’s age and family demographic group is joining the social networks in ever increasing numbers. And we also know that American family units are dispersing in larger numbers with each passing day. But the DSGS niche is so much more than just an older age group. Gen X and Y both are experiencing the same problems of gift support from a distance. They have their parents, grand parents, siblings and college friends who are dispersing at an ever increasing rate.

There should be no argument that the growth in social networks and online retail sales is partially a result of the needs of the DSGS niche. Online activities that can combine gift giving support with a uniting conversation can flourish as they serve the Distance Separated Gift Shoppers.

What other resources are the DSGS’ers looking for?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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The conversation and measurements concerning retailing on Facebook and other social networks continues. There seems to a bubbling desire to discover a way to introduce real-world retailing into these virtual words.

So far most of the measurement tools have relied on popularity measurements, such as which brands can garner the most fans. Most marketers realize that fan count and real product consumption are miles apart when converting eyeballs into cash.

Heather Dougherty, Director of Research at Hitwise, posted some interesting details on the amount of traffic that social media sources have sent to major retail websites. It seems that there is a growing number of social networker’s who want to at least continue to engage with brands from Facebook and simular forums.

Heather suggests, “one common question regarding the relationship between social networks and retailers is how to be sure that the traffic coming from social networks is not just a by-product of their popularity.”

Adding to this concern is the reality that retailers have not yet found a way to actually retail on the pages of Facebook. This Hitwise study only demonstrates how well social networks have been in pointing users toward the brand’s online or offline presence.

Eric Eldon added his commentary on the Hitwise report when he said:…”most retailers are still experimenting with a variety of approaches to building a presence inside Facebook.” He also suggested that some retailers are beginning to find ways to directly sell goods to users.

It is hard to measure the effects on retailing from these networks, but most agree that the actual sale of product within these networks has fallen short of what it could be. Brand popularity pages have become nothing more than another type of advertising presentation to the many Facebook users.

Retailers will need to do more than use the networks to make themselves more popular in order to build revenue from Facebook. They must find ways to engage users in the purchasing process with a group of their friends. Then Facebook could be used to organize great shopping experiences and then mimic the fun of sharing a purchase with others.

Once a retailer develops the group shopping experience, they will have a selling machine like none other, rather than a virtual extension of a popularity contest.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists