Is Social Gaming a new Eldorado for Brands ?

Until now, we all knew about casual gaming and serious gaming, now we must also deal with social gaming, because nobody is supposed to ignore that 2010 was the year of its explosion. Recently Mark Pincus, Zynga's CEO, the company behind Farmville, Mafia Wars, Texas Hold'em Poker and so on, announced that nearly 320 million people had the opportunity to play a game developed by his company ! There are many actors in this segment and it's a safe bet that the competition will not stop anytime soon. To support my argument, I just remind you that Farmville was dethroned last week of its place of most used application in Facebook by «Phrases», the application developed by Take Off Monkey...

So far, brands didn't take time to really look at this phenomenon whose success may not slow down in a near future. Not all brands, must i correct, because I remember that Ben & Jerry's has had the excellent idea to sponsor a recent series of items in Farmville. Unfortunately, we must admit that this may be the only brand that has so far take a look seriously into Social Gaming. Now, it seems that big brands are beginning to take into account the magnitude of the phenomenon as this new project sponsored by Nike tend to prove ...

As you can see, "I Am Player" is an ambitious project that mixes several disciplines to offer players a new and unique experience. For now, Nike supports this project alone but I guess many brands will surely follow this example if this new kind of game prove its efficiency. Anyway, we are currently condemned to wait, because at the time I write this post, only several social profiles of the game (FB, Twitter and Youtube) have been established.

Anyway, something bothers me ! Indeed, if everyone starts to ramble about "Social Gaming", if every brands will with no doubts add that kind of tool to any of their strategic plans, what is really the social gain of these games developed by brands and positioned on social networks ? When does the brand favors interactions between users ? At what time these games are social ? Indeed, while it is undoubtedly the case for Farmville where you can go put some fertilizer on your neighbor's fields, if it is undoubtedly also the case for WOW (NDL: World of Warcraft) where you can create a guild with people from all over the planet, It is not the case for many brands because, as far as I remember, I haven't seen any game created by brands which is really social ! Feel free to contradict me in the comments if you have an example.

So I remain a bit puzzled about this new trend of the Social Gaming ! Indeed, it is not enough to put a game on facebook to make it social. Doing so is more coming from an opportunist thought  than a profound reflection on the reasons why players use and adopt a game. While I am confident that the brands will be more likely to position themselves in Gaming (NDL: a real huge trend for several years now), I'm afraid that those who will engage in Social Gaming soon will do it more to surf over the trend while making buzz, as it was previously the case for 2nd Life, than to actually think about putting their product in a real social game in which users interact with each other but also with the product ! It's a shame, especially when we put this new trend in perspective with the rise of smartphones and tablets !

"What is Data Visualization?" by FFunction

At a time where data is everywhere, it is interesting to see all the possibilities we can have to materialize informations. Above, you can see a piece of work from Sébastien Pierre, the Founder of FFunction which try to describe and define what is data visualization.

Here are the definitions, extracted from the Read Write Web article, for the terms in the above infographic :

• Fields: Design, Communication, Information and their mix: Visual Communication, Data journalism, User Interface
• Raw elements: Look & Feel, Idea, Data
• Disciplines: Journalism, Information Architecture, Typography
• Process elements: Visual Design, Objective, Dataset
• Outputs: Layout, Story, Report, Data Analysis, Dashboard, Interface
• Final result: Form, Concept, Knowledge
• Core competencies: Readability, Logic, Usability
• Core values: Simplicity, Informativeness, Relevance

The 15 most annoying things on twitter !!!

Everyone comes out with some lists of tips and advices to improve its presence on Twitter, optimize the quality of its tweets, expand its influence and the number of its followers. I was telling myself that it is too easy, that it is just a way to generate traffic easily by distilling meaningless advices, but I too succumbed to the epidemic of the dot list. As I do not want to be like everyone else, I decided to share with you the 15 things that annoy me most about Twitter because it's time to fight for cleaner and more interesting timelines !

So,

1) I'm tired of people talking about their lives all the time ! I do not care to know who is gonna eat or read this or that, unless he is a cooking blogger or book columnist and he puts a link to a related article! What's the point ? Are you a kind of superstars ? Are we some voyeurs ? # Unfollow

2) I'm tired of influencers who spend their time discussing together exclusively and are more interested in making buzz than in discovering from their new followers! # Unfollow

3) I'm tired of those who automate their tweets and DM ! You are, if I'm not mistaken, human beings then act like this ... There is nothing worse than having the impression that a real bot is hiding behind a fake account! # Unfollow

4) I'm tired of those who do not check the spelling of their tweets ! I know we all make spelling mistakes but we can make some efforts ! Besides, who wants to follow on Twitter illiterate ? # Unfollow

5) I'm tired of those who believe that Twitter is an online dating website ! Who cares of your love/sex life ! Who cares about your passion for the opposite sex ! Be discrete, learn to use DM or return to OkCupid which is free too :-) # unfollow

6) I'm tired of those who tweet news chronically late. I can understand that sometimes, news is so strong that you want to share it with the rest of the world but there are limits! And you know, That is easy to look at the date of publication of a post! # Unfollow

7) I'm tired of those retweeting always the same accounts! I have nothing against Pete Cashmore or TechCrunch but if I want to follow them, I know where is the button! Ok, I waste a little because sometimes, some RT are deserved, but often ... not! # Unfollow

8) I'm tired of those who do not share their sources! Citing sources and quoting accounts where information was found let set up a virtuous circle in which people who are mentioned / retweeted are more inclined to return the favor ... # Unfollow

9) I'm tired of those who say that the ratio follower / following is not important ! It is ! Moreover, It is an excuse that have been invented for those who never pay their follow back ! # Unfollow

10) I'm tired of rude and impolite people who do not respond to questions put to them and never say thank you ! Ok, you do not want to spoil your TL with thanks and welcome, then send DM ! # Unfollow

11) I'm tired of those who are updating their twitter constantly with Foursquare! I understand that you are interested in collecting badges to be interesting during your coffee break but I do not care to know where you are because I would not come to join you! # Unfollow

12) I'm tired of those who do not diversify their content ! Open your eyes, Internet is much broader than just your favorite area of interest ... There are so many things to see and discover ... It's such a shame to live with blinders ! # Unfollow

13) I'm tired of those who do not read their TimeLines before retweeting the same news again and again to everyone ! # Unfollow

14) I'm tired of those who do not take time to check the links they post ! You know, it is easy to test your links before throwing them to your followers! # Unfollow

15) I'm tired of those who unfollow you if you do not pay your follow-back within 30 minutes! # Unfollow

If you agree with one or more of these situations, there is still time to change and you will see that you'll have more followers. Otherwise, you know what awaits you! # Unfollow. Now, I think it is time for me to make a bit of cleaning in the accounts that I follow :-) Finally, I would say just one more thing : If you want to attract more followers, be interesting !

Foot Locker is getting into Social Media with Sneakerpedia Project !!!

Foot Locker is a brand that needs no introduction as it is so central to all sneakers fans. Until now, this brand has always had a fairly standard communication to develop its visibility towards its community of buyers and sneakers addicts.

In other words, Foot Locker has always used a classical media mix (TV - RP - Display) with chosen medias and its web presence was limited to a big flagship website and some buzz sites relayed on the ground through street and guerilla marketing. However, Foot Locker has never neglected the 2.0 tools. In Europe, they have relationships with influencer and bloggers for a long time and I am well placed to talk about that because I worked for them for almost 3 years at my former agency, by supporting them and giving advice on precisely these aspects of Influence & e-PR. If you watched the video above, you now know that Foot Locker has decided to move to the next level by setting a social media strategy dedicated to their core target : the sneaker-addicts.

I can only say one thing : Well done! The bet is admittedly a bit risky but not that much if you look deeper into it. Indeed, they don't come with a project aimed at generating sales in the short-term and they follow a different logic where they value their customers and the community of sneaker-addict. This way, they have already incorporated one of the basic rules of social media that is to put consumers at the heart of the process. Moreover, they are re-inventing the UGC concept by providing the sneakers community a challenge, creating the largest global sneakers database, and the tools and infrastructure to succeed in this challenge. Finally, they act cleverly because the branding is really subtle and discrete, especially in the above video. In doing so the consumer / fan / expert can concentrate on the project without feeling polluted or bludgeoned by the brand.

It seems to me that this device is an example which should inspire many brands that have the illusion to have a Social Media strategy only by having a few pages on Facebook and profiles on Twitter. And no, I won't give you any names ! lol ! Anyway, if you want to know more, it will take you a bit time because the project is currently in beta and the site was launched yesterday. But, if you're a fan of sneakers, I'm sure you will find a solution to get the code that will allow you to join the project ^ ^

Are we sheeps or are we pirates ???

Michael Arrington is among those who count in the wonderful world of Internet. As a founder of TechCrunch, he has been designated as one of the most powerful and most influential personnality of the Web by Wired, Forbes and Time Magazine. Post after post, he delivers his vision of the web and his passion for entrepreneurship which is straightly taken into account by thousands of surfers around the world who are quick to read him and retweet.

Recently he wrote this post in which he explains that today's entrepreneurs have a similar profile to the pirates of the seventeenth century. Curious analogy you might say at a time when the term pirate is often used to describe those who seek to circumvent the system established by the majors company of entertainment. This is not exactly the typical profile of an entrepreneur you will agree ^ ^

His reasoning is quite simple. He says that entrepreneurs have that thing in common with the pirates that they take risks to build and live their lives as they see it. He explains that these personnalities, because it is a question of personalities, are not drived by greed but by the desire to realize their dreams and have a life consistent with their beliefs. He adds a layer of explaining that entrepreneurs like pirates have a different perception of risk-taking from that of ordinary people who are looking for comfort and safety.

I must admit I quite agree with him. I would even say that I find this analogy quite rewarding for those who take risks just being aware, or not however, of the sacrifices they will have to do. The only criticism I could make of Arrington's theory is the use of this philosophy of Win, which is typically american, which overlooks a small detail that even all has its importance, the luck factor.

Anyway, he is certainly right and we all must ask ourselves this simple question : Are we sheep or are we pirates? What are we waiting to take risks? What are we waiting to create, develop and implement our wildest ideas.The economic crisis is in full swing and trends are increasingly bleak. It is time to follow our beliefs, it is time to try to change things, to change our lives, and perhaps to change the course of events ...

The Klout Strategy

Recently, one of my tweep grab my attention by linking this post which is talking about the way The Huffington Post integrates Klout in its articles to highlight who are the influencers talking about this topic. You surely know what is Klout and you have maybe tried to see what is your Klout score in order to know if you're influential or not but maybe you didn't notice that Klout is going mainstream in a way we couldn't imagine months ago. Let me explain...

In the past, some agencies, like Buzz Paradise, BzzAgent, Tidal Labs or even HouseParty have tried to detect and identify influencers to get them talking about brands and generate Word of Mouth. To achieve this goal, these agencies try to send products to influentials bloggers or invite them to special events. In other words, these companies have tried to use some old PR technics on bloggers.

Some of these tries were succesful but the buzz has never been huge and those technics have rapidly shown their limits. Indeed, there has been many debates, like you surely know, on the fact that bloggers were paid/bought to talk about brands and this caused some credibility issues for them. Moreover, there has been many more debates about sponsored articles too which ends in legal disputes in some cases. Last but not least, there has been a big problem in measuring the real impact of these actions because nobody could tell at that time who was really influential.

These agencies were in a kind of dead-end street because brands and companies didn't want these kinds of debates (They have enough problems to manage their own crisis) and so they began to refocus their core strategies on other issues such as e-reputation or even real e-PR. Anyway, these moves have highlighted the necessity and the will for brands and companies to drive the conversation with influencers.

What is interesting in Klout's Move is that the process is really different. What is so different ? The main difference is that Klout has take into account one of the major concern of every marketing exec involved in online actions, I mean ROI and measure of the influence of influencers. And so they first began to measure activity and impact, on twitter, and then on Facebook, and now on Linkedin (which will be integrate in their algorythm in a few weeks), to know precisely who is a real influencer. Now, they are able to talk to brands and companies with real metrics using the same technics as the above-mentioned agencies. Great idea !!!

The second great idea is that they focus on the ego of influencers by giving them self-esteem rewards. Consider yourself as a blogger for a few moments, maybe you already are one, and imagine what will be the impact for you to be highlighted on The Huff Post because you have retweeted or commented the post !!! You will surely be really pleased. This way, Klout is now able to drive conversation in a new way because the influencer is first rewarded for his work and its content quality.

Finally, they are now able to offer some premium invites or products to real influencers as you can see if you have a look at this operation for Virgin or this other one for the launch of «Tangled», the coming Disney's movie. This way, they are now able to fight competitors such as Foursquare or Facebook Places, which have a different approach, by offering brands and companies a new way to measure impact which is more focused on quality than in quantity.

I don't know who will win this influence battle but I'm curious about the next steps. And you ???