Qik and Facebook

(image found via mashable)

Qik just announced that they are lunching a instant uploading videos to facebook via facebook connect. I really think this is going to be a big deal especially once iPhone activates video. Qik has already shown they can create a pretty good iPhone App via jailbreak (see my video's here).

Also, I was talking to a co-worker about FB and he said something to the effect of how, over the years, he has seen all the next big things go down in flames and that was the reason he wasn't on FB. I tend to agree that several years ago there were a lot of social networks that started strong but went down in flames. I think one of the biggest reasons that happened was they tried to make money off of the product too quickly without really solidifying strategy. This tended to alienate and annoy their users. FB has had some negative feedback on some of their changes (the most notable is beacon) but I think most of their changes have been for the best and following the trend of feed aggregators like FriendFeed. And now with FB connect they have created something really powerful with and I really think they are being smart by trying get FB almost as a default platform. If you are a small company, what better way to engage with your customers than through FB, a network they are already highly vested in.

As for Qik if they can get live streaming to FB that will be a game changer and will bring mobile video broadcasting to the forefront and if at that point the iPhone does not embrace video Apple will leave the door wide open for a device that can shoot quality video with same the functionality of the iPhone (I really doubt the latter will happen because Apple has always been able to gauge the where the market is headed and move quickly to that path...and I love the iPhone so it can do no wrong).

Brand Tracking in a Web 2.0 World

Brand tracking has always been an Ad Agency function that is shrouded in a bit of mystery. Now it is more than ever important to know how people perceive your brand and what kinds of conversations they are having about you. For small start ups who can't afford an agency to track brand perceptions there are several DYI ways to get a good pulse on what is being said about your brand. 

Ice Rocket blog search has a great function called Big Buzz that will give you a running timeline of anything that is said about your brand. People are also using Twitter to track what people are saying about brands, below is a map of tweets about brands during the Superbowl (found in the NY Times)

Facebook groups are also a good way to see if there is any positive or negative discussions are happening about your brand. Ultimately, you have to be vigilant about about keeping a finger on the pulse otherwise you will be caught off guard when something good or something bad happens.

Facebook Connect

Several months ago Facebook announced Facebook Connect as part of the Facebook Platform. FC is an interesting addition to the Facebook Platform because it allows other content producers to use the Facebook as a means of additional distribution. FC allows you to see how your friends have interacted with the site where FC is activated. It also allows for easy distribution and social sharing of the content. 

There are a lot of sites starting to use FC (Joost, Hulu, Digg, etc.) as a means of content distribution and sharing but I am interested to see how an advertiser will use it. Most marketers are having trouble trying to figure out what is the best way to engage with social networks; actually this is what most marketers should be doing when in fact most marketers are just want a specific segment or target to be aware of their message. I think FC allows some advertisers who are doing the old "share your moments with us" campaign to help with social networking and specifically engaging the Facebook user. If you see a campaign currently running that is doing this post it in the comments.

Facebook Data Visualized

This is a pretty cool video of Facebook data visualized of how people interact with each other across the world.

I am a total nerd for simple and efficient ways to visualize complex data.

Via Greg Verdino