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Author Topic: Who's a FB expert?  (Read 42098 times)

JamesR

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #15 on: November 03, 2010, 09:39:15 PM »
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Zynga crushes (partly) because there is a social component to their games and they've monetized them well so they can spend more on advertising.  

Zynga crushes because:

1) they were early in to the game with good timing
2) they could scale quickly due to...
3) ripping people off through bogus "free" offers that people got charged for generating revenue that...
4) got reinvested in ripping off existing game designs (CEO has been quoted as giving green light to copy games developed by other companies) and...
5) hiring struggling game developers that were hit hard by the one-two shot of the economy, a saturated market, and massive price wars

Game developers that are trying to break into social right now are meeting a brick wall big time.  Zynga is an exception, not the rule.

We all profit from search because we are fulfilling keyword driven user intent.  Current FB models are failing because you are trying to "push" something at a community that they aren't there for.  Biz models that have worked well on FB have tapped into the intent of that audience - dating for example.  A perfect biz match for social. Market is there to meet people and develop relationships. Groupon is another (right now) as it leverages social psychology in sharing deals with your friends and fits the female heavy/shopping-deal minded FB demographic.

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agerhart

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #16 on: November 03, 2010, 09:45:23 PM »
Very true, but not every dating app has soared and been profitable.

The ones that are successful have figured out the platform, the social aspect, the monetization, and the metrics.

I know you hate Zynga.... but:

>>they were early in to the game with good timing

Nothing wrong with that

>>ripping people off through bogus "free" offers that people got charged for generating revenue that...

Buyer-f###ing-beware - If you don't read the fine print, tough sh##.   You want a free hoe for your garden?  You gotta do something for it.

>>got reinvested in ripping off existing game designs (CEO has been quoted as giving green light to copy games developed by other companies) and...

Happens in every business.  People copy each other all the time.

>>hiring struggling game developers that were hit hard by the one-two shot of the economy, a saturated market, and massive price wars

Smart move

>>>Current FB models are failing because you are trying to "push" something at a community that they aren't there for.

Yep....same thing we are dealing with on our site.  People are coming in for all sorts of sh## and we trying to determine what will convert the user.  It's been, and continues to be, a struggle. 
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JamesR

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #17 on: November 03, 2010, 09:54:07 PM »
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Buyer-f###ing-beware - If you don't read the fine print, tough sh##.

I thought you were one of those blue state guys ;)  (oops, that was a political comment....where's a moderator??)

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I know you hate Zynga

hate, loathe, spit on ;)
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agerhart

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #18 on: November 03, 2010, 10:05:36 PM »
>>>>I thought you were one of those blue state guys

:)


Businesses need to make money...if our business makes money by giving a user digital farm equipment in exchange for them completing a lead for Netflix, I am 100% fine with that.  And if that person is careless enough to put their phone number in w/out thinking about what they're doing....well, I can't help 'em :)
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rcjordan

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #19 on: November 03, 2010, 10:07:19 PM »
We're talking about harnessing online traffic, but if you have a physical business FB has announced a Groupon-Foursquare killer.

"Like Foursquare, Facebook's new deals product lets businesses draw in customers by offering a deal or discount to those who "check in," and those deals can be created by any business, small or large, through a self-service tool.

It gets more sophisticated: Activate the deal, and it'll be shared on your Facebook wall. There are also multiple kinds of deals, such as charity deals, with which a business donates a given amount for every check-in; group deals, which a Facebook user can only activate by bringing friends (and checking them in through Facebook Places as well); and loyalty deals that reward members for multiple check-ins."


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20021697-36.html

<added>
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=446183422130
« Last Edit: November 03, 2010, 10:28:40 PM by rcjordan »
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JamesR

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #20 on: November 03, 2010, 10:53:02 PM »
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FB has announced a Groupon-Foursquare killer

Exactly what Google is doing. Clone the stuff that is working based on all your data collection.  Since you own the "closed system", you can boot whatever business you want out whenever you want.
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rcjordan

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #21 on: November 03, 2010, 10:59:33 PM »
>Exactly what Google is doing

How so? You mean this thread?

http://th3core.com/talk/traffic/'sponsored-listings'-to-now-a-more-discrete-'ads'-on-g/
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agerhart

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #22 on: November 03, 2010, 11:01:25 PM »
>>Exactly what Google is doing

>>How so? You mean this thread?

or

people are building businesses based on long tail local queries from your SERPs

instead of giving them the traffic, you build a better product and inject it into the listings...killing businesses
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JamesR

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #23 on: November 03, 2010, 11:11:42 PM »
Google is/has moved into:

- affiliate
- travel
- local
- news
- finance
- mortgage (you'll love this - https://www.google.com/comparisonads/mortgages?s=1&kw=mortgage&cat=2&c=wa_fam&q=mortgage#ti=0)
- video
- books
- mobile
- everything via adwords

Look at this list and type of companies they have bought in various verticals, they've been on a tear in 2010  - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google

« Last Edit: November 03, 2010, 11:14:53 PM by JamesR »
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rcjordan

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #24 on: November 03, 2010, 11:13:19 PM »
>building businesses based on long tail local queries

Been there since 1996, AG, and all I'll say is it's a damn good thing I own the type-ins.  Looking at the geo serps, and as a long-time manipulator of the UI to get the user to focus, there's little doubt left that they're walling the garden.  Well, not exactly walled, leaving holes where very few use them.
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JamesR

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #25 on: November 03, 2010, 11:16:51 PM »
There were several markets we were interested in moving into and started the testing phase, but ever since this local thing G has been pushing lately, I have backed away from anything that smacks of local.
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rcjordan

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #26 on: November 03, 2010, 11:27:53 PM »
>backed away from anything that smacks of local

The only salvation is if a site can attract direct advertisers. Advertisers are showing signs of desperation as they feel the squeeze. I had one local chamber contact me last week about buying the type-in for their town "in order to regain control of their ad budget" (their words, not mine).
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Gurtie

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #27 on: November 05, 2010, 09:03:19 AM »
just to hijack the thread back to facebook - I've been speaking to a lot of people about what they're managing to get conversions on from facebook ads and I've only heard two *real* success stories (by which I mean better ROI than any other online method). One was promoting a college specific product to college kids - based on real microtargeting but apparantly a dollar a conversion. Yup $1. So clearly it can work bloody well.

The other was similarily very well targeted - animal charity - ads being served tailored as far as possible to specific animals for groups/pages etc.

Every other success story has sounded like a high ROI to me, even if it did get conversions. Would be good to see some data on brand awareness, or even ad awareness, from some large campaigns.
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rcjordan

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Re: Who's a FB expert?
« Reply #28 on: November 05, 2010, 01:15:53 PM »
"Home improvement retailer Lowe's went on Facebook and invited all of its friends to a totally awesome pre-Black Friday party late Thursday night and early Friday morning. Like all really fun parties, too many people showed up and things got out of hand. Which is to say that the doorbuster item, a KitchenAid stand mixer at 90%, sold out quickly, and took the store's entire site down with it."

http://consumerist.com/2010/11/lowes-holds-sale-underestimates-demand-for-90-off-kitchenaid-stand-mixers.html
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