We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #37
Facebook’s Foursquare competitor is imminent
A spokesperson for Facebook has confirmed to CNET that the social network plan to launch their geolocation ‘check-in’ feature within the next few months. The feature will take the form of an application programming interface (API) for third-party companies on the Facebook developer platform which integrates the current ‘check-in’ setups more deeply within the service thus permitting a more location-aware data to become a key part of the existing platform applications.
Multiple sources say that Facebook has teamed up with Localeze, the local-search company which is behind Twitter’s “places” directory. This is what allow Twitter uses to add their location to their tweets if they are tweeting from a location-enabled device.
Twitter launches official ‘Tweet’ button
As rumoured last week, Twitter has launched it’s own official Tweet button for third-party sites to use. There have been numerous unofficial buttons that publishers and bloggers have been making use of for a while, and the maker of the most popular unofficial button, TweetMeme, have announced that they have been working with Twitter in creating the official sharing option.
MySpace revamps user homepage yet again
Former Social Networking leader MySpace have rolled out a redesign of their user homepage. The new look focuses on content discovery through the stream and it also features notable sharing tools. The new revamp was launched earlier today to all users, it’s part of the company’s new effort to showcase all of that MySpace has to offer. According Christina Wodtke, General Manager of Myspace, the new homepage is an attempt to portray to users what’s cool and interesting on the MySpace network.
Twitter usage doubles, big in Indonesia, Brazil and Venezuela
comScore have released a new research report on the growth of Twitter worldwide. The study has identified that in June, almost 93 million users had visited the site which is an increase of over 109% from the previous year. The social network gained vast popularityacross all global regions in the past few months. The report highlights Indonesia as the country with the highest penetration, with 20.8% of Internet users using Twitter in that month, followed by Brazil and Venezuela. Venezuela’s growth is attributed to President Hugo Chavez’s decision to join Twitter in April.
Gap offer 25% discount for all customers that check-in via Foursquare
American clothing retailer Gap have teamed up with Foursquare to offer a unique discount for it’s customers who check-in to its retail stores. By doing so the customers will receive a 25% discount on the prices for all their clothes. This deal was initially only valid for the 14th August but the retailer has since extended the promotion until the 22nd and included Facebook and Twitter users in the promotion. Grab your smartphone and run down to your local Gap store if you want get your shop on.
Pet-food brand Pedigree find social media more effective than on-pack promo
Pedigree have recently adopted social media as the main focus of its marketing strategy after discovering it was more effective than on-pack promotions. The company said it has stopped using on-pack donation invites and TV ads to promote its annual donation campaign for pet adoption. Their reasoning for this change is because social media encourages engagement and direction whereas traditional channels only deliver reach. In one month, the campaign had generated over 100,000 video views and 27,192 ‘likes’ on Facebook.
Save the Children use ‘mummy bloggers’ to highlight Bangladesh plight
Save the Children have decided to take three of the UK’s best known ‘mummy bloggers’ to Bangladesh in order to highlight the fact that almost 9 million children are dying every year before they reach their fifth birthday. The bloggers will be tweeting, creating video and photo galleries as well as writing about their experiences direct from the country. They will meet with Bangladeshi mums to find out what measures the country has taken to stop these deaths.
Conservative MP threatens campaign group for publishing email address
Tory MP for Esher and Walton Dominic Raab is threatening legal action against 38 Degrees for displaying his email address on their ‘contact MP’ email system. 38 Degrees, a campaign group that have been working together to make all MPs more accountable for voters and now the first MP has got in touch to tell them that he doesn’t want his constituents to be able to contact him via email. The irony of the situation is that Raab claims to be “ready to serve every community…”. Of course, this only matters if emailing MPs actually makes a difference, which was publicly questioned in the Guardian this week.
[disclosure: 38 Degrees is a We Are Social client]