360DigitalInfluence

As SXSW wrapped up I realized that two years had passed since Foursquare made a big splash at SXSW 2009. Time to check-in.

Foursquare has been very busy lately. They added the ability to post photos and comments to check-ins via the iPhone and Android in time for the holidays.

Last August I heard predictions that Facebook Places would be the end of Foursquare, but Business Insider recently reported that Foursquare has actually doubled its user base since Places launched.

And perhaps in a bid to compete with Facebook’s location based deals, Foursquare expanded its Merchant Platform to include five new types of discount offers or “Specials.”

Foursquare’s iPhone app 3.0 showing Specials nearby

Foursquare’s iPhone app 3.0 showing new types of Specials

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WPP (parent company of Ogilvy PR and our 360° Digital Influence Team) has been sponsoring a series of technology partnership meetings called “Co-Labs” which are aimed at connecting digital teams to discuss the latest advances in web technologies. I made the trip up to NYC last Thursday to hear from Justin Osofsky, head of the Facebook Developer Network. On a side-note at the Starbucks across the street I ran into the T-1000. I love this town.

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Just as the United States lags behind the rest of the world in football (er, soccer) fanatics, it also falls a little short in mobile (er, cell) enthusiasm. Perhaps the iPhone is the David Beckham the US cell market has been waiting for, but it’s too soon to declare the American success of either.

Kristin and Alison have referenced the stats, which show a large audience ripe for the engaging.

Recognizing a wonderful opportunity, our digital influence team has begun to wrap their collective heads around the vast potential of mobile technology.

Enter Katrin Verclas from MobileActive.org and the Non Profit Technology Network who came to speak to us yesterday about the state of mobile media and the brilliant possibilities now within reach.

So what exactly fits under the umbrella of mobile media?

Katrin breaks it down into six categories:

• SMS (Short Message Service used for two-way text messaging)
• MMS (Multimedia Message Service used for photos and video messaging)
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol used for mobile web)
• Ringtones and Wallpapers
• Games and Applications
• Voice (some demographics decidedly still prefer to call instead of text)

And what are some of the ways mobile media can be leveraged?

• Breaking news and timely reminders sent to your mobile device
• Action and advocacy; a call to action (literally!)
• Interactive information services (like Google’s SMS — I personally use the time movie feature all the time)
• Polls, quizzes, and voting (à la American Idol)
• Contests and sweepstakes
• And, of course, those ringtones, wallpapers, games and applications

There are some caveats…

• There is an SMS limit of 160 characters in each text message. You need to offer your users an opt-out which will eat into that length.
• Acquiring an SMS short-code (your text message phone number) will set you back $500 for random short-code or $1000 for vanity code.
• There are still process issues to work out. Currently the mobile carriers collect a staggering 40% to 60% of the proceeds of SMS donations!!

So you’re a web developer and your company is launching a mobile campaign, what should you be doing?

Update the content on your company’s site to include:

• Call-outs for the mobile promotion with the campaign SMS short codes
• Opt-out information
• Help or FAQs
• Privacy policy updates

What else should a web developer be doing?

• Set up a .mobi domain extension with cell specific content (I’m working with a colleague right now to develop some iPhone tailored content).
  • This includes device detection,
  • mobile specific markup (like
    <a href=”tel:1-408-555-5555″>1-408-555-5555</a>
    to call from a link on the iPhone),
  • and validation
• Keep your code open source and allow customers to access and change as much as possible (cell phones are highly personal)

I would love to hear from any web developers out there creating mobile specific sites. Post your trials, tribulations, successes and tips.

Three cheers for a great open source blogging software package! Even though my colleague and I are currently struggling with speed and page caching, I love this tool.

I have installed, configured, and managed more than a dozen WordPress blogs (including this one — transparency) both professionally and privately.

Here are some of the reasons I love WordPress:

1. It’s a quick and easy install. It’s up and running in no time. Of course, I can spend hours after that customizing the look, but that brings me to the fact that…
2. It’s fully customizable from the themes, to the plugins, to the source code
3. It’s built with PHP with MySQL, my favorite server-side scripting language and database respectively
4. As the site says, “WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.”