When Social Ads Backfire

The goal of social advertising is to amplify positive word-of-mouth. Ads show that your friend mentioned a company, checked in to a business, or that thousands have +1′d an ad, and you’re more likely to believe the brand’s message and become a customer. But when brands pay to distribute user-generated content, there’s a chance for an epic fail of promoting negative word-of-mouth. Unlike fire-and-forget traditional ads, social ads must be monitored.
[Update: This poll is a limited audience research poll conducted by Facebook in partnership with Nielsen, and it was not an ad buy from Warner Bros. I've made significant edits to this article to reflect this, but the principle holds true that while social ads can be a powerful tool for brands, they need to be monitored or filtered through sentiment analysis engines to ensure they're promoting positive mentions.]
Facebook used this home page Research Poll to ask users if they planned to go see Happy Feet 2. This information could help it determine what demographics might be receptive to family film ads. However, 41% of respondents said they “Definitely won’t” go see Happy Feet 2, and though the poll only reached a limited audience, it was giving off a poor impression of the film. With the results skewing so negative, it may have been best for Facebook to pull the poll.
Facebook offers premium social polls and Sponsored Stories that allow brands to pay to ask users questions or convert user-authored news feed stories into side bar ads. Similar issues could arise with these ad units, where poll results are negative or insults to a brand are amplified. If Advertising channels like Facebook want these units to catch on with advertisers, they have to ensure them that automated systems will detect social ad fails, and pause the campaigns for review automatically. Advertisers should also keep a close eye on their social campaigns and intervene when necessary.
Third-parties ads tech providers are stepping up to prevent fiascos. Wildfire Interactive’s Storyteller app for Facebook Pages asks users questions and turns their answers into Sponsored Stories ads, but responses are run through sentiment analysis and negative responses get filtered out.
Social context has the potential to make advertising a lot more relevant, producing more qualified clicks at a lower cost. But brands can also fall on this double-edged sword if not protected by sentiment analysis or human monitors.
Source: http://blog-bin.com/when-social-ads-backfire.html

Backed By Former Google Exec & More, Twigmore Brings Travel Networking To Facebook

There are a lot of sites popping up these days trying to make travel recommendations better and more precise. Some, like Triposo, are making travel apps based on algorithms, while Trippy wants to give you social, “friendsourced” recommendations via Facebook, or rapidly growing sites like Gogobot, which provides a gamified, Yelp-like platform where you can leave reviews of destinations you visit and get recommendations from your friends.
These are all great options, but sites like Trippy, CouchSurfing, and more are off-Facebook platforms that connect to the social network through Facebook Login. A new travel site launching today, called Twigmore is cutting out the middle man and launching a travel network directly on Facebook. Twigmore Co-founder and CEO Stephen Smyth tells us that many feel that travel network is a natural extension of the Facebook platform but they don’t want to sign up through an off-site application to get their recommendations.
Smyth says that, with Twigmore, he wants to put people, not places, at the heart of a travel platform; while most travel websites focus on places, offering pictures of hotels, restaurants, etc., Smyth says that it’s not only friends and people we inherently trust that give us the best travel recommendations — the best insight and tips come from people who actually live at these destinations.
The problem is, however, that it’s hard for travelers to find trusted locals who can answer questions, show them around, or just help when things come up. Twigmore wants to tackle this obstacle by connecting travelers with locals through friends. That’s where the co-founder thinks they can gain a leg-up on other travel sites: By helping travelers find real people on the ground wherever they travel.
On Twigmore, when a user is planning a trip to Berlin, for example, they may discover that a friend knows someone who’s currently living in the city. If the traveler likes live music, with a couple of clicks through their Facebook profile, they can discover what kind of music the person likes, get introduced to the local contact for a scoop on concerts, and perhaps even go see a concert with the person when they get to Berlin — and make a friend in the process. What’s more, Twigmore users can get notified if other friends are going to be in the city at the same time.
Smyth says that the idea for Twigmore was inspired by the Facebook-focused professional networking approach of Branchout, which is basically like LinkedIn for Facebook. In the same way, Twigmore wants to become Lonely Planet for Facebook.
Twigmore also wants to offer its own recommendations for things to do when people arrive at their destination, a starter kit, if you will. They’ve just begun adding features there, and have started with Groupon Deals for some discounted activities for people to during their stay in 100+ U.S. destinations.
Smyth also said that he wants the product to be 100 percent personalized, and thus far users can only interact with friends or friends-of-friends in Twigmore — no strangers to be found. He also said that he sees an opportunity (a la Airbnb) for the platform to become a place where people can find homestays with trusted friends (and friends-of-friends) while they’re traveling so they can save money on hotels and lodging.
Twigmore was founded in October 2009 in New York City by media executives Stephen Smyth and Peter Baer, formerly of Thomson Reuters and Warner Brothers, respectively, and in just a few months of beta testing, Twigmore users have already built a database of over 1.7 million local contacts in over 38,000 cities around the world.
The startup has raised $275,000 to date from angel investors including Shaun Abrahamson (investor in Zocdoc, Trialpay), ex-Googler Ien Cheng, and Glenn Asano.
For more, check out the site on Facebook here. Let us know what you think.

Source: http://blog-bin.com/backed-by-former-google-exec-more-twigmore-brings-travel-networking-to-facebook.html

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/18/backed-by-former-google-exec-more-twigmore-brings-travel-networking-to-facebook/

Genbook, The eScheduling Solution For SMBs, Passes 10 Million Appointments Scheduled

It always annoys me when I want to make an appointment, whether it be for a haircut or a doctor’s visit, and I go online to make said appointment only to find that the company or provider doesn’t offer eBookings. You would think that, if airlines have managed to do it, most businesses might have followed suit by now. Online scheduling software enables customers to book appointments from their browser, reducing friction for them, and streamlining workflow for SMBs. And, hey, even Siri can schedule appointments.
Of course, for SMBs, adding a scheduling option to their website can be a pain in the ass. Or, at least the prospect of building a calendar app/module can feel like a pain in the ass. Which is why there are companies like Genbook, which offer local merchants the ability to automate their appointment scheduling through cloud-based software that can integrate with SMBs’ existing software — or allow them to introduce that capability.
Genbook’s solution adds a “BookNow” button to merchants’ websites and Facebook Pages, so that customers can scroll through available times, schedule and confirm their appointments with a few clicks. The online appointment and CRM platform is accessible from any computer, iPad or iPhone or Android smartphone, and for merchants, Genbook automatically collects and publishes customer reviews to help promote local merchants within their communities. And they’re genuine reviews, not just canned comments.
While Genbook has competitors like Schedulicity, Appointy, and BookFresh, each of which offers a similar service with varying limitations on how much functionality you’ll get for free (Genbook is free for 30 days, and then it’s $20 a month after that), the startup seems to be having some success. (Even though a lot of startups have opted for freemium plans to monetize, and I’d like to see Genbook do the same.)
Today, Genbook is announcing that it has scheduled over 10 million appointments for SMBs in the U.S., and has scheduled more appointments in 2011 than in any of the four years it’s been around. Just in October, local businesses scheduled 500,000 appointments.
The cloud scheduling platform has attracted 5,000 customers, which it says consists of businesses like massage therapists, spas, photographers, chiropractors, etc. — obviously any small company that requires appointments to do business.
And for those SMBs, as one can imagine, this can have a positive effect on their bottom lines, as scheduling software that lets customers book in realtime, at any time of day, can prevent no-shows and reduce friction. What’s more, plugging that capability into a social network via Facebook Pages, for example, extends the reach and can presumably provide a boost to customer acquisition.
And at less than $250 a year for solo operators and less than $500/year for SMBs, it’s not a bad deal. For more on Genbook, check out the video below:

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/16/genbook-the-escheduling-solution-for-smbs-passes-10-million-appointments-scheduled/