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3 Ways Taste Graphs will Fuel Social Commerce in 2012


Christian Taylor is founder and CEO of Payvment and developer of the number-one Facebook ecommerce platform for brands, agencies and merchants, and the world’s only Facebook Shopping Mall.

The early days of social commerce have mostly been about broadcasting, giving people ways to share the products they like in the hopes that their friends come back and make a purchase.

The challenge here is that you’re only as good as your “graph.” In other words, if you only have 100 fans, and they each only have an average of 130 people in their social networks, how far are these shares really going to go? And in spaces like Facebook, where there are relationship-based graphs, there may not be much correlation between what your fans like and what their friends like.

Enter “taste graphs,” graphs that connect people based on the things that they are actually interested in, not necessarily on their social connections alone. Companies can create taste graphs by integrating their fans’ and customers’ Facebook and Twitter data with their own data, thus creating data “mash-ups” that provide unparalleled insight into people’s actual likes and interests.

In 2012, taste graphs will transform the process of product discovery and make it much easier to discover and engage around the products you really want. The graphs will allow sellers to get their products in front of the people most likely to be interested.

Here are three ways taste graphs will fuel social commerce in 2012.


1. Hyper-Targeted Deals and Offers


While group deals are often lumped into social commerce, the way you access these deals is anything but social. Typically you receive a deal based on where you live or on some obscure demographic information; deals providers don’t really understand who you are and what you actually like. So while these deals can be quite successful for universally appealing offers – such as a massage or a fancy dinner – it’s difficult to offer more specialized products that might otherwise make a splash.

By mixing my social data with its own data about my general interests, a company’s taste graph can produce deals hyper-targeted to my interests. The more it refines my specific taste graph, the more spot-on the deals, dramatically boosting company sales as well as shopper satisfaction.


2. Recommendations from People who Share your Passions


While I love my mom, she isn’t the best person to help me select a new motorcycle helmet. The truth is, you don’t necessarily seek recommendations from your friends and family on many items — they simple don’t share all of your passions and interests. Relying on the social graph for recommendations is therefore an inherently limited approach to product discovery.

As companies begin to integrate the taste graph approach into their storefronts, you’ll begin to see automated product recommendations based on your taste graph data, as opposed to recommendations based on what your friends like. You’ll also see opportunities for shoppers to find and connect with people who share their passions, and ultimately to lean on them for advice and recommendations. In a way, we’ll be revisiting a time when you could go to the local record store and talk to the guy behind the counter, another rock music fan, to get advice on what’s new, what’s hot and what you should buy.


3. Birth of Social Commerce “Tastemakers”


You can already follow people you don’t know on Twitter, and you can now also subscribe to their updates on Facebook. Some of those users emerge as experts across a wide range of categories, including products and services.

In 2012, we may very well see social commerce providers bake this into their systems to create social “tastemakers,” experts you’re encouraged to follow based on your taste graph. These tastemakers will provide advice and tips on any of number of different product categories. For example, imagine if you could follow a Project Runway winner within Nordstrom’s Facebook ecommerce experience, or subscribe to a renowned chef within a Facebook shopping mall simulation. These tastemakers could significantly impact how you discover and make decisions about products.

What would you like to see in social commerce next year?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, OrangeDukeProductions

More About: contributor, ecommerce, features, social commerce, social data, social graph, Taste Graph

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/28/social-commerce-taste-graphs/?utm_source=feedb...

Want to Build a New App? There’s an App for That



The Leaders in Design Series is supported by Volvo.

Competition in Apple’s App Store is so tough that even strong concepts must be planned to perfection before any development should start. So enter App Cooker: A hot new iPad app that makes sure other apps have the right ingredients in place before any development begins. App Cooker ($19.99) from Sophia-Antipolis, France-based Hot Apps Factory helps aspiring designers organize, plan and get app projects ready for production.

30-year-old Xavier Veyrat — the designer of App Cooker — spoke to Mashable about the development of the platform and the steps that go into creating a masterpiece app recipe.


Q&A with Xavier Veyrat, App Designer


Have you always been into design?

Always. I’m crazy about it. I loved to draw when I was a kid, but I never went to art school. I actually studied law, business and management. But every time I worked on a project with design, it reinforced what I really wanted to do. I joined a team that needed an app, so to make it, I watched online tutorials on YouTube, read articles on blogs and practiced a lot. I love to look at interfaces and simplify them so they can be used without instructions. I hate to read instructions.

What type of design inspires you?

Companies such as Apple, Dyson and Braun are some of the main sources of my inspiration because they care about usefulness and beauty at the same time. I’m also inspired by show-and-tell site Dribbble and social sites that focus on design — they provide an incredible source of ideas. I am an observer and a huge consumer of apps — I have more than 1,000. It helps me learn which designs work and which ones don’t.

 

How did the concept for App Cooker come about?

Two years ago, I started to work on a gaming app with my partner Johann. As we designed the app, we realized that there was nothing on the market that was project-planning oriented to help people get started with the creation of their own apps. I did the design on Illustrator and Johann did the coding. We ended up wasting a lot of time, since making a clickable mockup would have been a far more efficient way to jump in. App Cooker provides that clickable mock-up prototype and gathers up all of the key components of an app before any coding and polished design starts. It helps designers to conceive, design and test interfaces without a single line of code in the context of an iOS device. For example, you can rotate the screen and the mockup will display another version of the design. It’s extremely valuable for app designers at all skill levels.

What makes a good app?

A good app is based on a clear scope, a robust mockup, a coherent design and good marketing. If one of these aspects is strong and another one is not, it won’t work. It’s like preparing for the Olympics and although you may be a top contender, if you don’t show up on competition day and give it your all, you probably won’t win. Apps also have to be smart and fresh. Look at the “Photo” app on the iPhone — it’s one the most used of all time and it’s so simple. So the vision and execution should be fresh, clear, simple and unique.

“I’m a firm believer that good design comes after you sketch it out ten times.”

How did you approach the design process?

We wanted the app to be easy to use and have different colors to separate the different aspects of the app. I’m a firm believer that good design comes after you sketch it out ten times. But overall, we made more than 30 iterations to get to the design of the app board, which serves almost like a homepage, what we wanted it to be. For other parts of the app, we made up to 200 versions, at least. You have to keep going and trying new things until you get it right.

How is this concept different than others on the market?

App Cooker is the only app that allows designers to experiment with prototyping from a project point of view. Mock-ups shouldn’t be just graphics anymore. Users need to be aware of the key aspects of a project right from the start, from the name, idea and logo to the cost effectiveness and how it will look once it’s coded. Without this centralized approach, developers and designers have a tendency to move right on with production and trouble shoot when it’s too late in the process.

 

What advice would you give to an aspiring app designer?

A good designer is someone who learns every day with a little dose of criticisms. Also, stay on top of other apps in the market too. I love list app Wunderlist, as well as Soulver — a calculator with a soul and helps you find design ratios — and chart app LovelyCharts. Some of my favorite apps have the same vision as App Cooker, which features a future where the iPad is used to achieve tasks better than on a computer.

Where do you see app design going in the next few years?

This is the golden age of app design. Yesterday, everyone wanted a website, and now everyone wants an app. App design is going to help evolve us more into a prosumer environment, where the consumer produces the content they want. We’re positioning ourselves to help the future app makers of the world, and it’s an exciting place to be.


Series supported by Volvo


 

The Leaders in Design Series is supported by Volvo. Experience the newest Volvo for yourself. Step inside the 325hp 2011 Volvo S60 T6 R-Design at volvocars.us.

More About: apps, design, designers, features, Leaders in Design Series, mashable

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/28/app-cooker-design/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m...

Celebrate the Mashable Awards Winners at MashBash During CES


Come celebrate the Mashable Awards winners and the best of digital at MashBash during CES in Las Vegas! You can expect a night of networking, dancing and celebration in true Mashable style at one of the hottest new clubs in Las Vegas.

Held at 1OAK Nightclub in the Mirage Hotel and Casino on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012, MashBash will bring together the Mashable community, industry leaders and digital influencers from the biggest technology and consumer electronic brands attending CES.

San Francisco-based DJ duo A Plus D — a.k.a. Adrian and Mysterious D — will be spinning their world famous mashups at MashBash. Think Lady Gaga meets Bob Marley or Will Smith meets Daft Punk, mixed together under one roof. A Plus D, creators of Bootie, the biggest mashup bootleg party in the world, will rock the party with their musical concoctions and creative song combinations.

A Plus D will be taking mashup requests via Twitter at MashBash. Follow @bootiemashup so you can request your favorite mashups live, or tweet your favorite artists or songs, and Bootie’s mashup maestros A Plus D will mash it up whenever possible.

Stay tuned for more exciting announcements about MashBash.


MashBash Info and Tickets


Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 (during International CES Convention week)

Time: 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. PT

Location: 1OAK Nightclub, Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV (1OAK is located at the Mirage Hotel & Casino just off the North Valet access or Self-Parking entrance into the hotel)


Premiere Sponsors


More About: CES, Events, mashable awards, mashable events, MashBash

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/28/mashbash-ces-mashable-awards-winners/?utm_sour...

Airtight adds iOS AirPlay to Google TV

Google TV users can now access to Airtight, an app that allows AirPlay streaming. That means iOS device owners can stream video and photos to Google TV over the Wi-Fi, with some limitations.

As the Mac Observer points out, the US$0.99 app doesn't allow mirroring or the streaming of any content with DRM, which means movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store are out. It also doesn't support music streaming at this time, which could be a deterrent for some.

The developers said they are checking into the possibility of streaming music and admit in the version notes that there's a lot of work yet to come. But the reviews thus far say that the app is stable and works well. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes.

Airtight adds iOS AirPlay to Google TV originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com/2011/12/28/airtight-adds-ios-airplay-to-google-tv/

Was the White House’s #40dollars Campaign Successful?


The White House’s social media moguls turned to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube to drum up public support for extending the payroll tax cut last week, once it became clear that Congress was deadlocked.

The campaign generated a huge response to the question, “What does $40 mean to you,” which resulted in #40dollars trending on Twitter for a few hours.

Congress passed a two-month extension Friday and President Obama signed it into law. But did the #40dollars campaign meet its goal?

A high frequency of tweets doesn’t mean a hashtag campaign is effective. Hijacking is a common problem politicians and organizations encounter when mobilizing support around a hashtag. While supporters of the White House tweeted things like “#40dollars allows my son to have hot lunches at school,” detractors sent messages such as “@BarackObama is spending #40dollars every 15 seconds on his Hawaiian vacation.”

To figure out if #40dollars was successful, we asked social media analysis organization Crimson Hexagon to break down the data for us. They analyzed over 40,000 tweets containing the #40dollars hashtag, and provided us with the results:

Positive Sentiment:

  • 47% of tweets were about what $40 can buy
  • 31% of tweets were about the need for tax cuts
    Neutral/Ambiguous Sentiment:
  • 8% of tweets said $40 “is not enough”

Negative Sentiment:

  • 13% of tweets were negative about Obama

The #40dollars tweets were largely the kind of material the White House was seeking. While opponents of the two-month extension used #40dollars to broadcast their own views, they were unable to match the number of supporters tweeting with the hashtag. By generating a high level of on-message interaction on Twitter, the White House was effectively able to bring attention to the situation and inform the public of its stance on the tax cut extension.

Do you think the White House’s #40dollars campaign was a success? Let us know in the comments below.

Correction: The post originally referred to the House, not Congress as a whole.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Veni

More About: Twitter, White House

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/28/40dollars-twitter-campaign-sentiment/?utm_sour...

Local Theaters Implement “Tweet Seats” to Draw Younger, Social Media-Savvy Crowds

Image via LA Times

You live-tweet just about everything in your daily life, from your morning MBTA commute to which brews you’re drinking to where you went grocery shopping this weekend. Now, theaters nationwide have caught onto the trend and are beginning to cater to tweeters, with some Massachusetts theaters getting in on the action. According to a recent article in the Boston Globe, the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester and the Central Square Theater in Cambridge are among those looking to implement “tweet seats” in 2012.

At a time when theater membership numbers are falling, theaters are turning to social media-savvy users to help bolster their ticket sales. The Twitter interactions come in many different forms – from tweeting questions to cast members at intermission, which The Boston Lyric Opera recently tested, to live-tweeting entire performances via a designated hashtag.

As expected, some theatergoers and purists are concerned encouraging tweeting throughout a show could be distracting and draw attention away from the stage. In response, some theaters have created designated “tweet seats,” a special area of the audience where tweeters can sit together and type away on their smartphones without fear of disturbing other customers.

For the theaters, live-tweeting adds another form of marketing for their shows. In 2012, the Boston Ballet will give free seats to handpicked tweeters with presumably large followings who they can trust to provide reliable, thoughtful Twitter updates throughout the performance.

Some theaters are also hoping the tweet seats will draw in a younger, social media-savvy crowd. Elisa Hale, the public relations manager at the Norma Terris Theatre in Connecticut said theaters must allow tweeting in order to pull in a younger generation. “You’re talking about people who can barely help themselves from texting while they’re driving,’’ she told the Globe.

While that seems like an extreme blanket statement, I do think tweet seats are a pretty cool idea. For those that have resorted to discreetly updating a status from their purse or doing the one-handed tweet in their coat pocket, tweet seats would be a welcomed idea. Tweet seats also prove that the theaters can be fun and interactive, not just some stuffy, boring show that only your grandma would enjoy. So, the next time your girlfriend asks you to take her to the ballet, you have no excuse to say no. Just make sure actually pick a place that encourages tweeting – you don’t want to get kicked out for those 140 characters.

What do you think of tweet seats? Would you be more apt to go to the theater if you could tweet throughout?

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2011/12/28/local-theaters-implement-tweet-seats-to-draw-y...

Twitter 2012: Bigger and More Ads


People predicted rioting when Twitter decided to post ads within its feeds. However, those protests never materialized. Instead, Twitter was used to mobilize protests in the streets in Egypt, Yemen and Tunesia.

The two instances are related. As Twitter became a globally recognized entity, it also began efforts to monetize itself earnestly in 2011. As previously mentioned, Twitter’s successful introduction of advertising was one of the big social media marketing trends of the year. Despite warnings from some Twitter purists, users didn’t seem to mind more ads on Twitter, perhaps concluding that Twitter was, after all, a for-profit business.


Growth Via Advertising


Though many perceived Twitter’s 2011 ad rollout as an unalloyed success, eMarketer noted a few hiccups here and there. Twitter’s international expansion took longer than promised, and a self-serve ad product didn’t materialize until the end of the year — even then, for just a handful of advertisers.

Concerns aside, eMarketer is still bullish about Twitter’s prospects in the coming year. The researcher reckons that Twitter will post $259.9 million in revenues in 2012, an 86.3% jump from 2011. Debra Aho Williamson, the author of the report, wrote that although Twitter has a smaller audience than Facebook, marketers have posted “solid engagement rates” with Twitter’s ad products that outperform Facebook’s in some cases. (That’s fairly faint praise, however, since the click-through rates for Facebook are notoriously low. Facebook, however, has sought to reframe the argument by justly noting that CTRs are a poor measure of an ad’s success.)

Twitter doesn’t provide much transparency into its advertising performance, but some partners, notably EA, have touted an 11% engagement rate in the U.K. for a Promoted Trends campaign. Moreover, users don’t seem to mind ad products like Promoted Tweets, according to research from Lab42.

The onrush of advertising to Twitter isn’t just hype. It’s rare that a day goes by in which Twitter’s home page doesn’t sport a Promoted Tweet, Promoted Trend or Promoted Account by one advertiser or another. Twitter doesn’t divulge the pricing for such campaigns, but the Wall Street Journal pegged the price of a Promoted Tweet north of $100,000.

Now that the Twitter ad machine is up and running, the company is looking to expand its footprint. In September, Twitter opened a London office, its first international outpost for sales. That month, the company also began accepting political ads, broadening its variety of advertising.

With the company clearly on a growing path, the obvious question is whether an IPO is in the near future. Officially, at least, there are no such plans. “We can stay private and grow the business the way we want, as long as we want,” CEO Dick Costolo told The Mercury News in December. “We never think about or talk about when we want to go public.” (Twitter could not be reached for comment for this story.) Yet Twitter just bought a fancy new headquarters in San Francisco designed to accommodate far more than the company’s current 700 or so employees.


Possible Complications


Of course, there was once a time when MySpace was the next big thing, and Second Life appeared to be the marketing platform of the future. Twitter seems to be on a tear at the moment, but alas, things change. Though it seems unlikely, there’s a chance Twitter could jump the shark or experience a Netflix-like fall from grace.

How? For starters, Google+ could really take off and, realizing its SEO benefits, users and brands could begin focusing on the network more — at Twitter’s expense. Likewise, Facebook’s addition of subscriptions could usurp Twitter’s role as a celebrity platform. More celebs could follow Ashton Kutcher’s lead by leaving the tweeting to professionals, which would result in a duller experience all around. Brands, assessing the damage that Kenneth Cole and Chrysler suffered due to errant tweets, could decide it’s time to cut losses and shutter their sparsely followed accounts. Finally, Twitter might simple expire like any other fad, as users move on to something else.

Another possibility is that Twitter could get acquired and change in a fundamental way. Imagine, for instance, that Google decided to buy Twitter and absorb it into Google+. The post-IPO Facebook could also be a buyer.

Crazy, you say? Remember that YouTube was once a separate company as well.

While the scenario is plausible, the idea of a new competitor or a group of competitors stealing Twitter’s thunder seems far-fetched. Five years after its founding, Twitter is now a global brand name and a symbol of social media-enabled freedom. There simply will never be anything like Twitter again.

Image courtesy of Flickr, tantek

More About: features, Promoted Tweets, Social Media, trending, Twitter, Twitter advertising


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/27/twitter-predictions-2012/?utm_source=feedburne...

Can Apple Become the Next Big Content Creator?


Nathan Safran heads the research department at Conductor, a leading SEO technology firm. Formerly, Nathan was an analyst for Forrester Research‘s consumer product strategy group, where he researched trend studies, consumer attitudes and behaviors toward technology adoption. Nathan blogs at exceljockey.com.

The status quo for visual content has always been that its creation, delivery and consumption have clearly delineated borders. Content creators make it, cable providers deliver it, and viewers consume it on the big screen in their living room.

In the last few years, however, we’ve seen a fundamental shift in the visual content landscape. For the first time since the advent of cable television in 1948, the lines are blurring as the quality of content created by non-prime networks — and even individuals — continues to improve. Plus, content increasingly reaches us over the Internet, consumed on whatever screen we happen to be in front of.

As rumors about an Apple television continue to gather steam, many believe that a content package of some kind will be part of any new iTV offering.

Yet for potential content creators like Apple, formidable challenges lay ahead, for instance, when it comes to attractive subscription packaging. And license holders are loathe to upset the traditional TV network model with its predictable payment model. What else lays ahead?


Who will Control User Experience?


According to recent reports, Apple could be developing a new TV (or line of TVs) that will likely carry a premium price tag and new content consumption options. This type of situation could leave a significant portion of consumer experience outside of Apple’s control. (Although, it’s not the first time Apple’s user experience has fallen outside of its control: iPhone service is controlled by cell phone companies.) So Apple may find itself at the mercy of the content creators who are licensing their content in new ways.


Apple as “Content Facilitator”


Perhaps it’s time for Apple to get into the content creation business and license its own content. Imagine if the company approached a number of successful producers and convinced them to create an Apple series, for instance, “TV Series X by Steven Spielberg, exclusively on iTunes,” or Quentin Tarantino, or Tom Hanks.

However, “content creator” doesn’t imply that Apple become the new Disney. “Content facilitator” is the more accurate descriptor, suggesting that Apple target other established, successful creators to generate compelling content that Apple would then exclusively distribute.


Exclusive Content will Drive Hardware Sales


To be sure, Apple will still need ongoing participation from traditional content holders. After all, any new content consumption package will have to include access to Glee, Grey’s Anatomy and other popular programming. But if Apple succeeds with compelling content, its exclusivity will help drive hardware sales, particularly if Apple actually releases a TV. And driving hardware sales is one of Apple’s primary goals, according to Steve Rubel, EVP at Edelman: “Seems like Amazon and Apple are really opposites. Amazon uses devices to sell more content. Apple uses content to sell more devices.”

Yes, it will be costly for Apple to develop its own content, but the company has plenty of cash in hand. Plus, non-traditional content holders have already begun acquiring content; see Netflix’s recent resuscitation of the popular Arrested Development series, and its acquisition of Fincher’s House of Cards, for which the company outbid HBO.

What I am suggesting, however, is that Apple take it further than Netflix by applying Apple development principles/excellence to content creation. That is, Apple pursues exclusive content development, then applies its high standards of excellence to the process of content creation.

For Apple, succeeding in any way with content facilitation will be a step toward loosening the grip content licensing has on the holistic user experience. The company will need to:

  • Drive hardware sales. Apple will need to generate exclusive content, accessible across the full spectrum of Mac/iOS devices. Plus, a new Apple TV will drive new hardware sales and increase stickiness for existing customers.
  • Create control with user experience. If the content is compelling enough, Apple will succeed in challenging the control license holders currently hold over the Apple user experience, at least as far as content consumption goes.

Those who insist Apple is outside of its wheelhouse and should leave the job of content creation to traditional creators need to realize the potential of future content practices. As Steve Jobs pointed out, things are the way they are only because people no smarter than you said they are.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, CostinT

More About: apple, Apple TV, content production, contributor, features, TV

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/27/apple-content-creator/?utm_source=feedburner&u...

Airtight brings Apple's Airplay to your Google TV, makes Cupertino and Mountain View play nice

Airtight
We've seen Airplay work its way into Android phones thanks to apps before, but what if you to reverse the equation? What if you want to stream not from, but to a desert-flavored player. Well, it's little more than a proof of concept at the moment, but Airtight does just that -- turns your Google TV into an Airplay-compatible receiver. You'll obviously have to be running the latest OS update to enable Market access, and the you'll pay $0.99 for the privilege of tinkering with the still rather rough app. For the moment there is no support for streaming music (only videos), anything with DRM is wont play and mirroring is but a dream. But, it works, and that's all that matters... right? Hit up the source link for more details and to purchase it now.

Airtight brings Apple's Airplay to your Google TV, makes Cupertino and Mountain View play nice originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/27/airtight-brings-apples-airplay-to-your-goo...