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Buddy Media Gets Progressive with Social Math Report and Calculator Posted: 26 Feb 2009 10:10 AM PST Buddy Media, which creates apps and “app-vertisements” for brands looking for engaging ways in which to interact with users across social networks and other online media outlets, has made a name for itself with its popular applications and ad delivery system. Now Buddy Media is further establishing itself as a resource for all things social media-ad related. The data Buddy Media is able to collect can prove quite helpful for its clients, social networks, advertisers within and outside of its network, as well as developers looking to monetize applications on the web. So as part of the recently released research report called “Social Math: The Economic Case for Branded Applications” Buddy Media also launched a new calculator tool that enables marketers to better estimate their online social media budget. This estimate is based on a marketer’s average CPM and evaluates the cost of generating engaged users with certain social media ad campaigns. This basic calculator offering gives a very broad overview of what marketers can expect to get for their established budget. And this also ties in directly with Buddy Media’s own offerings, which the company is promoting for such deliverables. But equally important is Buddy Media’s findings, which are offered in the report. For example, Buddy Media states that “app-vertising” campaigns offer nearly 400% more engaged users than display ads, at 78% less in terms of cost. More impressions, more engagement, and less money. These are the qualities that several branded app networks are offering, with an emphasis on lowered costs. In an era of budget cuts and an attitude of sticking to traditional media for advertising in some cases, Buddy Media is doing well to offer up its findings in order to help establish its online presence and its overall industry. Buddy Media’s findings are based on aggregate data from more than 80 “app-vertisment” programs with over 60 of its clients, which have been compared to public data for display advertising. Access the entire “Social Math” report and calculator here.

3 Million Blogs Have Installed Google Friend Connect Posted: 26 Feb 2009 09:22 AM PST Today Google has announced that their Friend Connect widget has been installed on “nearly three million blogs, with someone following a new blog every second.” That would mean that there are nearly 86,400 users following a blog every day. Today Google has also announced the integration of Google Friend Connect with Blogger. I’ve posted a video below of what that integration looks like. This is a big announcement as Facebook Connect has yet to publicly release any details although I previously wrote that Facebook Connect usage is at least around one million users. Along with Blogger integration, users will now be able to share the blogs that they follow within their Friend Connect profiles. It’s clear that the race is on to capture our public social graphs and Google Friend Connect is proving to be a formidable competitor to Facebook Connect. One thing that’s not as clear is how this is going to drive significant traffic to blogs. Currently Facebook provides news feed integration which is a huge value proposition for developers. Developers can also send notifications and they have total access to the Facebook API which has numerous built in viral channels. Viral channels aren’t really necessary for the time being though as the novelty of installing a Google Friend Connect widget is proving to be highly effective. Have you installed Facebook Connect or Google Friend Connect? Which do you prefer?

AdParlor Expands Virtual Currency to MySpace, Bebo Posted: 26 Feb 2009 08:16 AM PST Social media agency AdParlor has expanded its virtual currency monetization platform, making this feature available on all the major social networking sites. Already having this option presented to developers using Facebook’s Platform, AdParlor has now extended the option to developers that would like to create applications with virtual currency on MySpace, Bebo and the others. What the virtual currency option provides is a revenue-generating feature that benefits developers and AdParlor. As users interact with the given application, they earn virtual currency points which can usually be redeemed for rewards after a certain number of points have been earned. What the actual interaction with the application offers developers, however, is a CPA-based revenue stream that earns them cash. The incentivization process used here is rather typical for many companies and can be built upon for more specific purposes within the integrated application market. In creating a simplified solution for developers that would like to add virtual currency capabilities to their apps, the process for doing so becomes shortened for developers that are readily looking to make some money through the applications they’ve created. Extending the option across multiple social networks is useful for those developers that have created versions of their apps for more than one social networking platform, as it further enables a seamless experience. We’re also seeing the social networks themselves delve into similar virtual incentivization programs direct to users, especially as they look to further engage their members and create additional revenue streams. Perhaps working with services like AdParlor will enable social networks to extend these virtual currency options directly to the developers working on their respective platforms, working out a revenue-sharing model that works for the social networks, the third party services and the developers all the same. Disclosure: AdParlor is a sponsor of this site.

DubMeNow Launches on All Mobile Phones, Seeks Growth Posted: 26 Feb 2009 07:34 AM PST DubMeNow is one of those companies that sounds great in theory but may take some time to be fully adopted by a wide array of people. With DubMeNow’s latest announcement of being available on all mobile phones in the U.S., however, the company is taking another step towards widespread use as the service becomes more accessible to any potential user with a mobile phone. The DubMeNow service works like this: you’re at a meeting or a networking event and you forgot your business cards. Wouldn’t it be easier to simply exchange contact information directly through each other’s phones? This mobile-to-mobile exchange is a conceptually great way in which to exchange information with a new contact, as it adds the name and the phone number, along with automatic updates to their address books whenever a contact’s information changes (similar to Plaxo). DubMeNow also offers a number of tagging options along with Google Maps integration to help you remember where you were when the two of you met. The good thing about being available on all mobile phones is that such mobile-to-mobile information exchanging is not limited to just smart phones with more extensive address books, file-sharing options and update capabilities for syncing with desktop applications such as Outlook. DubMeNow now has a triple threat approach to its service, enabling smart phone options, non-smart phone options and web options for interacting with and staying abreast of ever-changing contact info. A handful of new features are also being released this week, including a DUB ID, which is a unique identifier enabling you to exchange information without actually giving out your mobile number or email address. This feature alone could help DubMeNow gain some new members, as privacy options are sure to be a concern with many potential users. There’s also an option for Group sharing, where you can send your contact information with multiple people at once. This is handy for meetings, seminars, gatherings, etc. For integration purposes, a couple new features on DubMeNow allow you to sync with other web-based services like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and SugarCRM to name a few. There’s also a new option for displaying DUB invites on your Twitter stream, which is an interesting option as it still has the potential to reach a user directly on their mobile but expands the invite system necessary for mobile-to-mobile sharing by casting a broadner net for requesting new user participation. DubMeNow is also somewhat green, as it eliminates the need to print and exchange business cards. But as I said before, there needs to be a standard set out for mobile users to make DubMeNow a viable and permeated option in most social settings. Granted, a user can send an invite to a recipient via text message, but they’ll need the recipient’s cell phone number beforehand in order to do so. Nevertheless, DubMeNow’s new accessibility options and features make its service more attractive to potential new users, which will hopefully help this mobile business card service spread further.

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