Much like the Facebook 500 million and Your Stories by Google Twitter Tales aims to bring stories of its users together by asking the simple question ‘How do you use our service?’ A great source of case studies when you need them.

EuropebyEurostar is a new social media platform by Eurostar. The site crowd sources reviews of destinations like Paris which are served by the train and offers unique insights into the cities hidden gems. Great for planning last minute getaways!

Hmmm Foodspotting…. website and app that lets you share photos of good food and recommend it to others. It also recently featured on The Times Top 50 list.

The Fridge is another social network except this one is ‘private’. Same principle as Facebook except you won’t be sharing your content with 500 million members just a personal group that you create.

Facebook continues to expand its offering on a monthly basis with recent releases like the Open Graph and “Like” button. They are now turning their attention towards local marketing. As with all of Facebook’s new initiatives, most of the online chatter is asking how Google intends to combat this and, more importantly, how it will position itself as a leading social decision making engine.

There is no doubt Facebook will put Google under pressure, but a lot of the claims regarding Google’s demise are wide of the mark. Although Google is losing market share to Yahoo and Bing, we shouldn’t forget along with their search dominance, they also have a 98% share in mobile and are banking on location based marketing for mobile being a considerable revenue stream.

In relation to search, there has been a lot of misinformation recently on how Facebook, Twitter and other social metrics are affecting search results. There is no evidence of metrics from these properties being used in the main algorithm however they may use social metrics when applying their QDF algorithm. Dave Harry has some great information on this subject in the post “The Evolution of Ranking Signals: Google is Getting Past the Link”. It discusses how Google can move towards behavioural data and social data. If the search engine results are based on those areas it becomes more difficult to rank a website based on spam tactics. You are not going to spam yourself (behavioural) and will not build a network of obvious spammers (social).

Google has its own social graph through user’s Google profile which, if connected to their Twitter, Flickr, Picasa and friend feed accounts, provides Google with plenty of social content which can then use to enhance a person’s search results. These ‘social results’ were rolled out recently in Google US and Google UK but are still in beta.

Alongside Google’s own social graph, it already has a wealth of information on users’ online behavior and tastes through their past search history. Personalised search means results are no longer the same for each user. They now include Google Maps, Google Places results, tweets, and forum results, all relevant to the user who is searching.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, explains that Google already roughly ‘knows who you are and where you are’, and from past searches what you like. Google’s goal is not to simply return a list of the best results for a given search, but to tell you ‘what you should be doing next’.

Well, finally the long wait is over. Facebook has taken the plunge into the world of geo-location with their long awaited Facebook Places. Not good news for Foursquare as highlighted in Nick O’Neill’s AllFacebook piece “Facebook Punks Foursquare, Gets Them To Announce Nothing”. Foursquare will have to pull something pretty special out of the bag to counteract this maneuver from Facebook. As for the new offering, well essentially according to the Facebook’s Graph API documentation, developers will be able to access the read and search APIs as of today. However the write APIs are to remain in “private beta” with a limited set of partners.

Over the last few weeks Facebook has been tweaking Notes and changing ‘Like’ buttons but this really could be the coup de grace for other LBS services. This announcement now enables a new class of location-powered applications to reach the mass market for the first time and drive significant value to businesses and developers. So what is possible?

Well there are three key components: share where you are, find where your friends are, and discover new places around you. It will be available on mobile devices (web) and on the company’s new iPhone app as of tonight.

Check-ins are part of the platform and so is adding places. It has photo tagging functionality so you can “tag” friends that are with you at a specific location so everybody doesn’t have to check-in on their own. What does this mean from a privacy perspective? Well you can remove any check-in and settings are defaulted to friends only. “Here Now” is on after you check-in and tagging only lets you tag your friends while notifying you whenever you’re tagged. In addition you can remove any tag and turn off being tagged in Facebook Places. On the iPhone app, you can report a place if it’s inaccurate or don’t want it on the system.

And from a developer’s point of view? Well according to Justin Smith from InsideFacebook, Facebook has created new extended permissions for Places. To be able to get a user’s check-ins, developers will need to request the “user_checkins” extended permission. To be able to get a user’s friends’ check-ins as well, developers will request the “friends_checkins” extended permission.

Once that is done, Facebook says developers can do three things starting tomorrow:

1. You can get details on individual check-ins
GET https://graph.facebook.com/[checkin_id]

2. You can get a list of check-in information about specific places, pages, or users
GET https://graph.facebook.com/[place/Page/user_id]/checkins

3. You can search for recent check-ins for an authorized user and his or her friends

Let the games begin!

It seems that the news of Domino’s Pizza ‘takeaway’ success is the hot topping of the week! With online sales reaching £56.9m in the first half of 2010, Chris Moore, chief executive of Domino’s attributed the increase to innovative marketing and a foray into location based servive Foursquare.

Woddy Allen once said that relationships are like sharks, they have to constantly move forward or they die. The same could be said for hestitant businesses and executives who are fearful about engaing in the social media space. But with ROI’s like this they would be wise to take a leaf from Domino’s book.

Domino’s engagement is impressive, their Facebook page has in excess of 36,000 fans and there are numerous fans of individual store sites too. In addition, they have led the way with social media initiatives such as affiliate marketing, and the development of a link up with Foursquare, offering users free pizzas and discounts when they check into Domino stores.

Fortune favors the brave and those willing to experiment are paving the way and reaping the rewards. In a recent Mashable article Brian Solis identified that the CFO, CEO, and CMO of any organization would be remiss if they did not account for spending and resource allocation for social media. Yet MarketProfs recent study indicates that they still want measurable results from social media.

The study also found that social media still evades CMOs with:

– 53% are unsure about their return on Twitter (Twitter)

– 50% are unable to assess the value of LinkedIn (LinkedIn) or industry blogs

Most importantly, about 15% believe there is no ROI associated with Twitter, and just over 10% cannot glean ROI from LinkedIn or Facebook (Facebook).

More often this resistance to engaging in the social media space is an indication of the pace of change and the lack of ability to quickly adapt. Confusion abounds and businesses cannot see the wood for the trees as the rules of engagement constantly shift. The first step is to know what success looks like then it’s a matter of planning and strategy. The terrain is new and more than often it takes individuals and organisations who are familiar with the topograpgy to help you along the way.

The trueism “fail to plan, plan to fail” is particurally true in social media, it’s no longer just about having a Facebook page or a Twitter Page, it’s about knowing where you want to get to and using the best tools for the job.

Domino’s and other pioneering brands know what the three simple ingredients of success are, listening, engaing and measuring. Time to get cookin’.

We are delighted to announce the launch of Coca Cola Ireland’s new Facebook application in support of Coke’s global sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup. While sadly Ireland did not qualify for the World Cup, Coke decided to develop this great application to give Irish teens a digital platform in which to celebrate a team of their choice competing in the World Cup. Come on Argentina!

Given the continued growth, Facebook was an obvious choice for us to promote Coca Cola’s World Cup sponsorship, especially among teen audiences. This presented Coke Ireland with a unique opportunity to fill that gap and address the specific needs of the Irish audience – to give them a reason to engage with the World Cup even though Ireland was not participating in the competition.

The application acts as an interactive hub, where teens can follow the progress of the World Cup, vote on the outcome of games, and share in the excitement with their friends. Take the time and check it out now on Facebook.

The extraordinary growth in mobile within the last few months will no doubt encourage more and more people to get involved with the latest online, or more to the point, offline trend of Mass Mingling. According to Trend Watching’s June briefing ‘reality’ is back in Vogue.

Mobile is already liberating people from the shackles of the desktop and allowing them to get back in touch with their locality. The butcher, the baker, and rumor has it, the candle stick maker are all going loco about local as the rise of location based services like Foursquare continue to grow. In a recent TechCrunch piece Mark Zukerberg hinted that location based features are coming to the platform and set to put location on the map.

Meetup recently launched a service for organizations, companies and movements to launch global events via the web. Meetup Everywhere is an open and free platform which aims to spark offline events amongst communities of like-minded individuals, across the globe. The website enables organizers to map the meet-ups and share announcements and updates through users Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Online communities like ReadyMade and Etsy.com are working with DIY crafters to host their own local “craft ups” where organizers receive a free downloadable Craft Party Kit containing crafty project ideas, instructions and templates, along with tips and ideas for hosting their crafty meetup party.

June 14, 2010 if you didn’t know was the worldwide-meet-the-tribe-of-Linchpins Internet guru Seth Godin. If you are part of the Tumblr tribe then you now have the opportunity to put a face to the interesting tumblog you’ve been following.

The power of the Mass Mingling cannot be under estimated from and business and marketing perspective but more importantly for its power to affect real and positive social change in the ‘real’ world. Are you aware of any Meet Up events in Ireland? If so please let us know.

For all you sports enthusiasts, be sure to check out the GPS race tracker on the website of Round Ireland Yacht Race. You can follow, in real-time,  the37 yachts as they make their way around Ireland.

Our support goes to Team Daft, led by Mick Liddy and Mark Pollock. Check out their daily video reports via their Facebook page.

Science fiction often has an uncanny way of predicting the future and turning into science fact. Forty years before the first atom bomb was dropped on Japan, HG Wells was writing about it, while more recently, William Gibson predicted the spread of the internet and virtual reality in his cult classic Neuromancer. In 1982 Bruce Sterling coined the term “spimes” to describe objects that can be “tracked through space and time throughout the lifetime of the object.”

It now seems that time is upon us as we enter into an era where the cost of sensors, processors and transmitters are so low that it’s fast becoming cost effective to put them inside everyday objects. Even your humble toothbrush may soon sense and communicate socially about where it is and how it’s being used in space and time.

In last weeks post we looked at Stickybits the people helping you to ‘tag your world’ through threaded conversations around objects and confirming that the age of the ‘Internet Of Things’ is truly upon us.

The possibility now exists for brands to track the consumer’s usage of their products while uncovering a mountain of data about customer habits. Combine this with what your customers are saying on social networks like Facebook and Twitter and hey presto! You have the ability understand how they use the product, what features they use and where they use it.

The possibilities are endless, DoGood Headquarters has developed an ambitious concept for a reusable foldable coffee cup that can be folded back into your pocket or purse. It’s BPA free – and possesses a solar powered clock, Bluetooth integration with your mobile phone and respective real-time Twitter feed. Not to mention automatic Foursquare check-in.

All this of this signals the transformation of Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 where more and more things/objects/appliances become connected to the web and communicate with each other. Sounds a bit like Skynet from the movie Terminator? Who can tell? But this much is certain; when products are connected to the Internet it will open up a whole new world of commercial possibilities for manufacturers and retailers alike who can rub their hands together with glee at the future ahead.

In response to growing concerns about privacy, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook has announced changes to the privacy controls on the site. They will become simpler and easier to use. The roll out begins soon. Here Zuckerberg makes a rare video appearance to explain the new system, apologize for the mistakes they made with the old one and remind us he’s a CEO at only 26.

If there is one topic of conversation that has been prevalent across blogs, social media resources and news sites alike this week, it’s that of  Facebook Privacy. Facebook privacy settings have been criticised for their complexity with users generally unaware of the impact of what having lax profile privacy in place really means for them. According to the New York Times, Facebook’s Privacy Policy is 5,830 words long, while dozens of apps have been developed allowing you to rate your privacy scale on Facebook.

Just as any smart social-led company does today, Facebook has listened to the public cry for a review of privacy settings, announcing yesterday that its privacy settings are due to be simplified within weeks making it easier to protect data such as your age, marital status, religious and political beliefs.

Facebook’s Chief of Public Policy Tim Sparapani stated in a US radio interview “We are going to be providing options for users who want simplistic bands of privacy that they can choose from and I think we will see that in the next couple of weeks.”

But as one commentator put it, ‘The best security setting on Facebook is common sense’. We couldn’t agree more. The social web is a fantastic place and it’s incredibly empowering to be able to voice your opinion and have it shared with others. It’s also great to have some element of control over who you want to share it with, so do the common sense thing and take a read over Mashable’s highly informative article concerning Facebook Privacy Tips. And stay tuned for more updates from Facebook.