Life360: Adds 1 million users in 10 weeks!

Life 360 is a geolocation tool that first came up after the hurricane Katrina to help people find their relatives after the disaster.

I did not know about this geolocation tool because it is not as big as Foursquare but their purpose was really good when they created it.

Today, they needed to come up with an innovative idea to make new users join their network. So they decided to focus on the relationship between parents and children.

With this tool the children just have to check-in their position on the map so that their parents know that they got to their destination safely and also what is their destination!!

After explaining their new concept they gained 1 million users more in just 10 weeks!! So we believe that worked pretty well, don’t you think!

In my opinion, I would think that very few parents use this tool but just young people who heard about Life 360 and so they wanted to try it. When I go somewhere and my parents want to be reassured they ask me to send them a text message to tell them where I am and that I am safe. A text message is the easiest way to let them know. Not everybody has 3G in their phone especially our parents!

What do you think about that? Even if their idea is innovative and very good, do you think that they are mostly parents/children using it? Or just young people communicating with their friends? Would your parents ask you to check-in when you get to a place?

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/check-ins_are_dead_location_app_life360_adds_1_mil.php

Terror Alerts Through Facebook and Twitter

Last Thursday news came up on the Internet about the government.

I guess everybody already saw that Terrorist alert in the airports or important governmental places. They use code colors like this one on the picture.

First, they decided that they were going to change it with an easiest one including just two levels of warnings: elevated and imminent. This should start on the April 27^th.

But the other part of the article is most important for us. They decided to post those alerts on Facebook and Twitter.

This news is another example showing that social media networks are everywhere. It is obvious that publishing the alerts on these websites will be much more efficient. I was usually aware of those terrorist alerts when I was going into airports, but I really did not know until then that we were under an alert.

Homeland security also said that they will publish not only the alert and its level but also an expiration date. For example it will say: “elevated terror alert until the April 18^th”. So that people know exactly what is going on and how to be prepared for that. For people like me, traveling as much as I do, those alerts are important because the checking point in the airports always take so much time when we are under an alert. So knowing in advance that there is a terrorist alert going on, will allow me to leave earlier and avoid missing my flight.

What a better way to communicate information as fast and towards a very important number of people than social media websites like the famous Facebook and Twitter!

Geolocation Tools and Real Estate

This morning I read the interview of Matthew Shadbolt, Corcoran’s director of interactive marketing. Corcoran is a real estate group based in New York City.

I found it very interesting that they use social media tools for their business. They use geolocation tools like Foursquare and Gowalla to offer to their clients tips about the neighborhood. Corcoran differentiates itself from its competitors with those kinds of tools by seeing an apartment not just with 4 walls but with the neighborhood where it is located.

They provide detailed information with the “what’s nearby” concept. They give recommendations for nightlife, shopping, restaurants and more content about the neighborhood.

They created that on an Iphone App so that clients can have access to their tips wherever they want and whenever they need them. Corcoran focuses on sharing local expertise rather than on the traditional way of meeting customers in their own offices, that is why tools like Foursquare work perfectly. As it is new, it is more fun and attractive for them; they want to try this innovation.

Besides, today people are in a hurry all the time and setting up a meeting for hours describing what do they want it is not so convenient. This application allows them to get information whenever they want and as soon as they find a minute to check it.

Matthew Shadbolt said “Our almost 1,000 tips around New York have proven very popular with our over 5,000 followers, and it’s been a very powerful and fun way to grow our brand presence”.

I think this new way to use social media tools for real estate industry is brilliant and successful. As I said, people don’t really want to waste their time to meet real estate agents for hours; so that this application can help them to find everything they want thanks to the tips on the neighborhood and local expert recommendations.

This is new for now, but it is going to become a necessary and very helpful tool in the future.

When I was looking for an apartment in Lyon, which is a pretty big city for France, this tool would have helped me so much in my research, and I would have found one probably quickly than in the traditional way… What do you think about this app?

Interview: http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2011/03/29/can-geolocation-tools-put-real-estate-professionals-on-the-map/

Recruitment via Twitter

You need a summer internship?! Cover letters and résumés are not your thing?

This agency called Campbell Mithun got that and used a pretty new way to recruit its interns for the summer 2011.

This article shows us how social media websites can be very useful if you are seeking for an internship.

Campbell Mithun used Twitter to hire 6 interns. Their campaign got famous quickly. The applicants had to submit 13 comments in 13 days on their Twitter account explaining why they wanted to be hired by the company. They also had to write a code in their comments so that everybody could see what the applicants had written. That brought more competition between all the potential interns because they could see what the others wrote about themselves and tried to do better.

The company selected 32 finalists and then invited them for an interview face-to-face or by Skype to hire the 6 summer interns.

I was impressed by this new way of seeking interns. This company is actually up to date and could start a new trend. I knew that companies could hire people by looking at their professional websites like LinkedIn and taking information from them on their other websites like Facebook. I also knew that a lot of companies become more successful by creating social media campaigns. But I did not know that some companies could create campaigns on social media websites to hire interns.

It is like an online competition to get a position, kind of like the campaign the Queensland tourism office did to hire for the “best job in the world”, but it did it on its own website not on a social media network like Twitter.

I think this is an amazing idea that this company has had. They wanted to hire interns so they chose to make a campaign on the newest and trendiest social media network at that time, so they could reach a bigger target. And they also understood that younger people do not really like sending cover letters and résumés but this new way is much more attractive and fun, and got peoples attention more quickly.

What do you think about this kind of recruitment? Would you apply for such a job campaign? 

Facebook: not any more transparent

I have just read this article and I am still in a state of shock!

This article tells us about a new web site that allows you to post comments on Facebook anonymously. It is easy to use, you just have to paste a URL before your comment and voila! your comment is anonymous!

At the beginning of the social media, or at least when I started to get on social media I had a blog where I could post all of my pictures and I could write down beside it what they were about and my friends could leave me comments. I was in middle school/high school and I remember that everybody could see my blog and left me comments. They just had to enter the name they wanted me to see. So my friends put their name or nickname but also some people wrote false names and left me negative comments. Usually at this time you have your friends but also enemies! And I could totally know who the senders were.

I think some bad stories were told to the creators of this website because one or two years later, you could not write any comments without your real name and only if you were a member of the website.

I think letting people be able to write comments with transparency is a bad thing because that can be used much more in a negative way than in a positive way.

Why would you hide positive and nice things you want to say to somebody, unless you are a hidden lover on Valentine’s Day!

However, there are numerous bad reasons that you would hide your name to write a mean comment… This website already gives us examples like insulting somebody. That can be very hurtful and can be dangerous. I mean if somebody is trying to make you lose your job or your friends or your boyfriend/girlfriend, writing comments anonymously would be a very useful weapon to use.

I am completely against that and I think Facebook should find a way to erase this new tool before a lot of people get hurt. If you want to be nice to someone, tell him/her and if you have a problem with somebody that is the same you should tell him/her.

What do you think about this website? Would you like receiving comments from someone that you do not know? 

Facebook Fans

Have you ever clicked on “I like” on a Facebook page for a sport team or for your favorite store? And then, do you often follow this page writing comments?

I have just read an article that deals with that. In fact, thanks to this “I like” application we could see which pages are the most famous and enjoyed by the internet users.

For example, a lot of Facebook pages are created on soccer teams.

When you look at two of them for a comparison you could think “FC Barcelona has more fans then Manchester United” (10,337,494 VS 9,915,504)… But actually that is not true.

The most important number you have to be aware of is the number of active fans. For those soccer teams FC Barcelona has 142,137 active members and Manchester United has 256,206 active fans. So we realize that in reality Manchester United has more than twice the number of fans of FC Barcelona.

The companies thought the number of “I like” was an important point to consider when you go online but in reality it is not the most important. That is why a New York start-up, FanGager, is uploading each month a ranking of the top 100 most ACTIVE fan pages. 

This ranking shows us all kind of pages, not just for the sport ones.

You can for example check the most famous artist. Justin Beiber has 20 million fans VS Lady Gaga has 29 million. But once again the tendency is reversed when you look at the number of active fans:  360,000 for Justin Beiber and 148,000 for Lady Gaga!

So, if you create your own page to go online with your company, check not only the number of fans but also the number of ACTIVE fans, because those ones are the most important for your business.

Kids on Social Media Websites

Since the web exists, we all heard that some problems relating to kids appeared.

Unfortunately, these perverts do not exist just in real life… They are also present on the web. Until now, parents could install an internet parental control blocking the websites considered dangerous. But that is not enough…

When internet appeared I remember my parents telling me to never communicate my name and address and other important data of my life through internet. At the beginning, it was pretty easy because there were not as many social media websites as now.

The more the world is getting at the cutting edge of technology, the more kids are in danger. Today, kids are so used to this tool that they do not even think something could be bad on it. Besides, through social media websites like Facebook or blogs, people (not just the kids) are likely to tell their life story and all their personal data and this tendency is becoming a norm…

I have just read this article and a number took me back : “CyberTipline, the nation's hotline for reporting sexual exploitation of children, received 223,374 reports in 2010, nearly double the number from 2009.”

The journalist also explains that with the increasing technology it allows those online pedophiles to reach the kids from everywhere and at any time they want. They can have access to the internet from their home, laptops, iPad, smartphones like IPhone…

That brings me to the strongest point of this article. Those kinds of persons are, today, able to find where the kids they are talking with live or are at the current moment. In fact, I think everybody saw on Facebook for example something like “whoever was at wherever with whoever”. This new social media tool is accessible through a smartphone GPS locator. With this tool the perverts can very easily and quickly find their prey.

To fight against that, there is not a lot of option. You cannot control the internet because it is too vast, but organizations are monitoring the most famous websites to seek out the pedophiles. So as a parent, the best solution is to keep an eye on what your child is doing online.

To conclude, once again we can see that there is not just good aspects of social media websites. Actually, in everything you can find the pros and cons. The internet is just like the real life: a jungle where the parents have to protect their progeny.

Social Media Network and the News – Is Social Media All the Times Used in a Positive Way?

We all know about the revolutions that are taking place in the Arab countries a few months. Tunisia in December and January, Egypt in January and February and as of a few days ago Libya…

This topic got my attention when I heard yesterday morning in the news that Libya cut off the Internet network in the country. I also heard a month ago about the Egypt revolution.

I was wondering why? The first thing I thought was they did it because the government wanted to control the news that the foreign countries can get, by allowing just one or two TV channels to give the news about the situation. So, I looked on the Internet and that was not the reason or not the main one…

Those revolutions are actually started through the social media network. In their autocratic governments, the population was not used to express its feelings toward them. However, they did it through social media tools like Facebook or Twitter. According to, CNN the marches for the Egypt revolution started thanks to Facebook messages.

These last months, I got on my Facebook page so many “Facebook friends” status protesting for the Revolution and against Ben Ali (Ex Tunisia president)… So the protests were all over the web and all over the world.

This proliferation of rebellions against Arab governments has caused those revolutions and is still causing more. It is like a snow ball which does not stop and is getting bigger. Through the internet, the population of Arab countries gets to talk to each other and see what is happening in the neighboring countries. So the anger they have against their political leader is getting stronger as they see that in the other countries they are fighting for more liberty and for a new government and that seems to be working…

We can see these protests on all social media tools; the most popular are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If you type into YouTube “Arab revolutions”, you will see a lot of videos appear. When you type more precise words you get to see how many home videos are made, people with their phones recorded all the scenes of the events in Tahrir Square, Egypt for example.

I will conclude on this topic by saying that social media network can be used in so many positive ways but also a few bad. I am not saying that asking for more liberty is bad, but I am saying that those revolutions are causing the death of thousands of people, so the consequences can be very negative.

On the other hand, the example of YouTube shows us, once again, that social media is good for us because we can see what is really happening over there and not being manipulated by journalists and/or governments.

Finally, these news events prove that we are in a new era where social media tools are essential and used as an everyday tool all over the world.

Articles related:

http://www.usavanguard.com/opinion/point-egyptian-revolution-can-it-be-replicated-peacefully-1.2007795

http://www.examiner.com/technology-in-cincinnati/should-internet-access-be-a-basic-human-right

http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/20/arab-revolts-another-good-week-for-social-media-a-bad-week-for-dictators/

Social Media Campaigns Can Be Successful, But Not Always...!

I know much more successful social media campaigns than failed ones.

The best viral marketing campaign that I know and that have been watched all over the world is “The Best Job in The World”. The video explains it all but in brief; the Queensland tourism office posted a job offer on the internet for the Best Job in The World. It consisted to spend 6 months in the Great Barrier Reef to clean the pool, feed the fish, explore the island and make reports for $US150000… 

This job offer is I guess the most famous in the world. If you watch the video, I am sure that you are saying to yourself “I would love doing this job”! I totally agree with you because that is what I am thinking when I am watching it!

This video became well-known because it came out during the economic crisis when the majority of the world had problems of money and were laid off. This job was a way to get a job, to get money, also to run away from the problems we all had and to spend six months in a paradisiacal island. So they chose the right moment to publish the video. Then, there were not an audience profile for this advertisement because EVERYBODY would dream to spend a semester in the Great Barrier Reef! The video is good quality and the pictures they chose would make everybody dream. This video is just yelling to us: Come to Visit Us!

So the Queensland tourism wanted thanks to this video to become famous all over the world (watched in over 200 countries, so that worked), find the best employee ever (they received impressive number of applications and 2.3 million of visits in their web site during the application period, so that worked) and finally get a lot of international tourists to come (I am positive: that worked!)

Then, I know one viral marketing campaign that did not work as the company expected.

In 2006, General Motor let its customers create their own advertisements about the Chevy Tahoe SUV. The company thought it was a good idea to make the internet users speak about its brand. They actually spoke about the Chevy Tahoe SUV but in a very negative way for most of them… This video can show you how this user promoted the car!

The biggest error GM made is not keeping in mind that we all are becoming more and more aware of the ecological problems. That is why let the users make marketing about a big car was not the best idea. They actually all focused on the pollution and the gas that this car uses. It was everything but “green”. 

So in a way, I could say that this campaign got viral and famous but not for the good reasons. General Motor got hurt for this campaign. As we all know, a negative advertisement hurts a lot and is very difficult to get rid of it.

I had another idea for a bad viral marketing campaign but I do not know if the campaign was perceived in the same way in Europe and in the US.

I think you all remember the viral marketing campaign of Budweiser when everybody was yelling “wazza”… Here is the link if you do not remember… In Europe, this campaign got very famous but nobody remembered who it came from. They all kept in mind a funny campaign with people having fun screaming WAZZZAAAA but they did not keep in mind that it was for Budweiser… So, for what I know in Europe this campaign did not work as Budweiser expected. 

How social media can help/hurt your professional life ?

The way of looking for a job and the way the recruiters look for new employees is changing…

As the article we read this week explained, a lot of people are unemployed (6.5%) and “there will be 1.5 million college graduates this year”. The most important fact on which I am going to focus today is : ” One in five hiring managers conduct background checks using social networks (primarily Facebook), while one in ten college admissions officers do the same.”

Is it a good or a bad news? I do not know yet… Until now all my managers were great and fun people so they were more playing with me when they were speaking about my Facebook pictures!

However, when I will look for a full time job after grad school i might change the privacy setting and/or delete some of my pictures…!

In fact, I spoke last year with two different directors of human resources of different organizations and they both had the same speech about social media content.

They actually look for Facebook pages (or other social media) before offering an interview.

In a way, they told me they strongly like to get to know the candidate in his/her “true” personal life before hiring him/her.

Everybody (or almost everybody) is trying during interviews to give the best of himself/herself but with social media we cannot have any secrets and everything we have done can be known by potential employers!

Today, most of recruiters are looking for a personality and not just skills. If what they can see in the pictures does not bother them but fit with the personality they are looking for, they will call the applicant, if not, they will not waste their time by offering them an interview.

My personal opinion is quite different. I think personal life and professional life are two separate worlds. My personality is festive as I am with my friends but I am also very professional and responsible while I am working.

So I think companies should look at special social media like LinkedIn or our professional Facebook profile but not our personal one. This other article explained it well by saying “Devote a Facebook page to your professional life”.

So to conclude my blog this week, I can say that yes for me some of social media tools can hurt our professional life. Our private life does not affect our boss or our future boss. 

However, social media, as LinkedIn or other networking sites dedicated to our professional life, are very good tools to use. It shows our experiences, academic career, interest and it is a platform to exchange with (potential) employers. We actually should make the most of it and create connections with the companies we like most. So we will be known by them and we will be able to let them know easily when we will be looking for a job.

Is social media marketing a fad or here to stay? What indicators suggest that social media is permanent vs. a fad?

“Years to reach 50 million users:

Radio 38 years,

TV 13 years,

Internet 4 years,

IPod 3 years,

… FACEBOOK ADDED OVER 200 MILLION USERS IN LESS THAN 1 YEAR”

I think social media marketing is not a fad but a novelty here to stay. 

Do you know a lot of people who do not have any Facebook / Twitter / MySpace accounts? Not so much…

Let’s try something else: this new phone that has just came out, what do you do? Maybe you write a new facebook status “what you think about this new phone?” or you go on forums to check out what the first buyers think about it?

This is word of mouth and according to this video 78% of consumers trust what their peers recommend (unlike 14% for an advertisement).

I do not think that it is just a trend. The companies earn a lot of money thanks to social media marketing. This other video proves it: “Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media” and of course, this is just an example. Do you think that businesses would like to stop earning money? I guess no! 

Social media marketing is now a fact that so many firms work with. 

The number of companies using, for example Facebook accounts for their recruitment, are growing every day. 

Everybody is using those social websites to keep in touch with friends/family/co-workers… 

The life is so international now that we need those kinds of tools to be able to communicate with people living on the other side of the world.  

This is becoming a necessity that is why social media is permanent.