Moba Project - Mobile Phone Reviews & News

Social apps review: Apps to pack for your summer vacation

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:47:11 +0000

Summer’s a comin’, and even torrential rain-stricken Blighty is beginning to feel optimistic about the forthcoming season – probably because many Brits are planning on hot-footing it abroad. In the spirit of the summer vacation, then, we look at the must-have apps for the keen traveler.

What’s driving social media? 12 must-heed facts for your file

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:12:15 +0000

For some time now we’ve been delivering to SMI readers a “Social Media by the Numbers” roundup, a summary of the big numbers and the big picture that are driving social. Our newsletter subscribers know this well as they get it in their in-box at the start of every week. It’s proved so popular we thought it would be a nice idea to give you a longer version this morning. Enjoy! Again, the biggest take-away for you is this: If you find this kind of numbers-driven reportage of value, why not subscribe to the SMI newsletter where you’ll get these timely updates sent straight to you at the start of each week? Let’s get started: 1.5 million – the number of fans who voted in a crowdsourced effort to build the perfect burger in a new social media campaign by McDonald’s Germany. There is a lot on the line. It’s being called ‘McDonald’s first crowdsourced burger.’ 60% – of the shoppers who boast about a new Fendi or Prada or Burberry (or, insert luxury label here), 60% prefer to do so on Facebook.

Pinterest co-founder: the Android, iPad apps are coming soon and why we have yet to scratch the surface on creative pinning

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:23:20 +0000

The online press is filled with Pinterest success stories on a seemingly hourly basis. Retailers are using their pinboards to drive traffic , others are using it to drive higher revenues per click, marketers are using it to create buzz for their new launches and lastly publishers are seeing it drive eyeballs.Turns out though that while the Pinterest pioneers have shown us a vital new tool to build engagement, we’ve yet to see the best of what this platform can offer, says Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp. Sharp, speaking at Digital Economy Forum in Venice, told today of how Pinterest, the scrapbook-style social network, is still very much a work in progress. For starters, there are no revenues. Sharp, a former architect, shrugs and says he’s not the business mind behind Pinterest. Instead, he’s more focused on designing the perfect platform.

What snob factor? Luxury brands score big with social: INFOGRAPHIC

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:52:56 +0000

The social engagement chops of luxury brands has become nothing to sniff at lately. We saw a few weeks ago where Burberry Group swept top honors in the FTSE 100 Social Media Index , landing the No. 1 brand on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The high-end fashion label may have set the bar high, but that’s only because there’s a lot at stake in this corner of online retail. A new infographic from UK-based digital marketing specialists at Tamba outlines neatly the land-rush that’s happened in the luxury space and the opportunities the sector sees in social- and mobile commerce. Tablet shoppers, after all, have a relatively high discretionary income and liking Gucci’s Facebook page has become an aspirational gesture for millions. Tamba gets these details (and more) into its “Luxury Brands Social Media Zeitgeist” infographic: As you can see, Burberry is not alone. Dior and Gucci are quickly gaining on Burberry, each sporting over 7 million Facebook fans.

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What snob factor? Luxury brands score big with social: INFOGRAPHIC

Why being useful is the start of good social media storytelling

creative — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:21:40 +0000

I was running a workshop earlier this week teaching a group of professionals how to “think like editors” and by doing so, start creating stories and content that have value and are useful to social media audiences. It’s a course I’ve run many times and, as with anything you do a lot, it’s easy to become a bit complacent. So, when it came to the part of the workshop where I try to demystify the new buzzword platforms and networks that are springing up, I felt pretty calm answering everyone’s questions until someone asked: “So I’ve been hearing a lot about Pinterest. That’s just about images, right?” “Oh, yes, just images,” I said with the confidence of a man who had spent the previous evening engaged in some hardcore “pinning”. Wrong. It turns out this hottest of hot new social networks has been offering video pinning since last August. Why this self-indulgent minor mea culpa? Well, part of my job is to keep on top of the latest social technologies, platforms and apps. So if I’m making such a social media geek schoolboy error about a network as influential as Pinterest, how can more “normal” folk hope to navigate the increasingly Byzantine social tech landscape, never mind use them effectively for sustainability communications?

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Why being useful is the start of good social media storytelling

Muppets that they are, Goldman Sachs now forced to invest in social media

creative — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:37:02 +0000

Goldman Sachs needs you. Well, one of you at least. The Wall Street juggernaut, the investment bank everyone loves to hate, is searching for a social media engagement specialist, we learned this week. To be sure, it’s a recruitment first for Goldman, which has seen public opinion around its brand hit new lows in recent months. Much of it, as we’ve detailed in the past, is due to its complete ignorance for and neglect of social media. Case in point, Goldman has a Twitter channel it’s never used and a Facebook fan page that’s long been overrun by haters . No wonder it found itself completely incapable of adequately defending itself, despite its well-paid PR team, when a manager quit in March and penned the now infamously viral “Why I left Goldman Sachs” resignation letter. When it comes to social smarts – by which, we mean transparency, responsiveness, accountability; all of the traits that the public values and will reward in the brands of the future – Goldman is a bunch of “muppets,” to use the favorite lingo of GS traders. So, it’s no stretch to say this new recruitment effort, started by former press secretary to President Bill Clinton – Richard L

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Muppets that they are, Goldman Sachs now forced to invest in social media

Social apps review: commerce-led apps make a splash

creative — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:52:24 +0000

As f-commerce continues to find its legs, brands are looking at other ways to capitalise on people’s addiction to their smartphones. Transactional and commerce-led apps are making increasing noise on the landscape, so here we round up three of the strongest new contenders. Wrapp So we’ve seen examples of gifting technology , then Facebook-driven collaborative gifting; now the inevitable gifting app has arrived. Swedish start-up Wrapp , recently launched in the US, is in receipt of millions of dollars in venture-capital funding and that big brand retailers are scrambling for a slice of the pie suggests this could be the next big thing in e-gifting. The app, run on smartphones, tablets and computers, allows Facebook friends to purchase gift cards (either individually or collaboratively), which recipients store inside their mobile devices and can redeem online or in-store. The collaborative aspect is a little clumsy: only once one user has announced to their social sphere that they’ve made a purchase can others make an addition on top of the original sum (great for the recipient, of course, not so much for the givers who feel strong-armed into contributing a specific figure). Givers can also cancel their contribution at any time, providing the recipient hasn’t redeemed it (which is a pretty astute observation of the state of Facebook friendships). So far more than 165,000 active users have given over 1.4 million gift cards in Europe. In the States the company plans to work with H&M, Gap, Sephora and Starbucks, among others.

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Social apps review: commerce-led apps make a splash

Gaming surpasses music as favorite smartphone application: study

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:03:31 +0000

There are now more than 46 million avid “gadget” gamers in Western Europe, and Britain leads the league table by a surprising margin. Looked at another way, over 40% of Europe’s smartphone users are using their sleek new handsets for gaming, a phenomenon triggered by the success of Angry Birds, Farmerama and Draw Something. Gaming has now leap-frogged music as one of the most popular uses for smartphones. According to comScore , mobile gaming adoption has grown 55% year-on-year. And the 46.4 million mobile gaming fans brings the market to a staggering 42% of all smartphone owners in the EU5 (as represented by the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy). Curious, we looked at past data in this area. For example, two years ago we saw where it was the French who led the mobile gaming market. Here’s the country-by-country breakdown these days: The social gaming growth trends are also growing impressively, this time with the Italians taking pole position

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Gaming surpasses music as favorite smartphone application: study

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Data?

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:15:03 +0000

2012 is fast living up to its billing of being the year of Big Data. Investors are in an expectant froth about the imminent Facebook IPO, an estimated $100bn flotation built on harvesting the personal likes of 900 million members (according to its newest financial figures). There’s the smaller but equally eye-popping $3.2bn (32 times earnings) valuation of a Big Data analytics firm, Splunk . And there’s what might be considered the curious acquisition by Walmart of the popular Facebook app start-up, Social Calendar . Curious that is until you start imagining what a retailer the size of Walmart could do with all that data about your best friend’s birthday, your wedding anniversary or your summer holiday plans. Even as we continue to share extraordinary amounts of formerly private (or at least almost inaccessible) information in our Faustian bargain for better, more useful social media experiences, a privacy backlash is growing. Just last week, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web, warned of the dangers in putting so much personal data in the hands of just a few social networking companies, and urged Netizens to demand access to their personal data from the likes of Facebook and Google.

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Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Data?

SMI 2012: Learn the social media success stories that will transform your business

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:28:22 +0000

The figures are either daunting or exciting. We’re rapidly approaching an installed base of tablet users set to top 760 million around the world, a number that will no doubt spell the beginning of the end of PC dominance. Let me throw another figure at you: social commerce is forecasted to grow to a $30 billion market by the end of 2015. That’s less than three years away! Are you prepared for these seismic shifts in the business world, where the referral economy teams with the power of mobile computing to create tomorrow’s winners (and losers) in retail, publishing, marketing, communications, you name it? Change is rapidly upon us. Mega-trends in the digital/mobile/social space are occurring so quickly that you may find your entire market has transformed itself in a matter of quarters. There is either a major business opportunity for you, or your company is vulnerable to swift irrelevance, and eventual obsolescence. We at SMI saw this coming for a while now and that’s why we’ve planned for this year’s Social Media Influence 2012 conference in June to focus squarely on best-practice social/mobile/digital strategy in the business world. You’ll hear from the companies, brands and organizations that are innovating in the area of social gaming, social commerce, social media marketing and social business design

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SMI 2012: Learn the social media success stories that will transform your business