Posterous is in the midst of an aggressive 15-day campaign to get users of other services such as Tumblr and Ning to switch to its blogging platform. Today the startup has set its sights on TwitPic with the introduction of a two-click TwitPic importer.
The TwitPic Switch to Posterous page instructs users to “rescue your photos from a TwitPic.” It’s a bold statement that attempts to position the service as a superior resting place for user photos.
The Posterous TwitPic importer is just as simple to use as each of the other import options. In this case, simply enter the URL of your TwitPic profile, complete the Twitter OAuth process and Posterous will begin the import process. TwitPic photos will be left intact, but copied over to Posterous. You’ll receive a notification e-mail when the import process is complete.
As we’ve previously noted, Posterous can be used in much the same way that Twitterers already use TwitPic, especially given that many Twitter mobile clients already include Posterous as a photo-sharing option. With the introduction of the Posterous TwitPic importer, the company hopes to convince holdouts to make the switch to a blogging platform that also moonlights as a Twitter photo-sharing service.
Posterous’s switch campaign is a brilliant way to drive home the utility of the service, even if it does attract the ire of competing services. So far, it has already gone after Vox, Xanga, Active Rain, Ning, Tumblr and now TwitPic users.
These are some pretty high-profile targets, and already Posterous is pretty pleased with the results. Vice President of Marketing Rich Pearson tells us that “activity is through the roof,” and that the campaign has been “very successful for both folks who are moving their content over to Posterous, and folks who already have an account but haven’t been back to Posterous in some time.”
Update: TwitPic has blocked the Posterous import tool, we’ve reached out to them for comment.
[img credit: KWDesigns]
Reviews: Posterous, Tumblr, Twitpic, Twitter, Vox, Xanga
More About: posterous, twitpic, twitter
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It’s all good and fine to propose via Twitter these days or to change your relationship status at the altar, but when your love has faded and your thoughts turn to divorce, you’d better unfriend your soon-to-be-ex long before the ink dries. What he or she sees on your profile may very well be used against you in court.
According to a detailed report from the Associated Press, social networks are a new favorite source of information for divorce attorneys.
In fact, many of them seem downright shocked and delighted that our web-based oversharing has yielded such a wealth of personal information about our dating lives, party habits, attitudes and financial status.
Consider, for example, the mom who lost custody of her kids because she was playing FarmVille or World of Warcraft when she claimed to be spending time with them, or the husband who denied anger management issues but flamed like a true troll, complete with violent threats, on his Facebook profile.
And of course, those pics of you with your sexy new squeeze won’t be looked on kindly by your ex or the judge, especially if infidelity is a question in your case.
All in all, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers says that around 81% of its members have had to deal with — or have themselves used — evidence from social media sources, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. And a UK site reported that the word “Facebook” alone appeared in around 20% of its cases last year.
Apparently, judges don’t have many compunctions about admitting such evidence, the reigning wisdom being that it’s difficult to impossible to make a fraudulent entry of some kind on a user’s Facebook page.
What do you think? Is it unfair to include such evidence in a divorce case? Or should people just be more careful about what they post online and with whom they share it?
[img credit: Ed Yourdon]
Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
More About: divorce, evidence, facebook, marriage, social media, trending
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Tags: divorce, evidence, mainstream, marriage, Web Apps
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Over the past two years, real estate professionals have found creative ways to overcome the real estate crisis, including finding innovative uses for social media. After facing drops in home sales well into 2010, real estate pros have been forced to utilize their offline skills in an increasingly social way online. By using photo and video sharing to enhance listings, along with professional networking sites to hone their sales skills, real estate veterans have made strides in moving inventory in tough times.
Agents, brokers and realtors have found successes in lead generation, sales and brand building through use of mass audience social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Meetup, and LinkedIn, as well as real estate specific platforms, like Trulia, Zillow, WellcomeMat and Architizer.
Whether they are sharing videos, listings or advice with their communities and prospective buyers or sellers, real estate pros are making progress in using social media for real results.
Attracting Buyers and Sellers
The core goal of real estate pros utilizing social media is to attract sellers looking to list their homes or buyers looking to purchase homes. Naturally, the 1.0 version of social media for real estate is setting up pages on social networks that fit your company’s content and audience.
Corcoran Group, the largest residential real estate firm in New York City, is a fitting example of how real estate agencies are going above and beyond to make themselves available for buyers and sellers. Corcoran differentiates itself by simply being available and open. The “Do More” tab on their Facebook page says it all — you can find them on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare, and Gowalla, among other sites. And if you need more, you can download their iPhone app, where you can find nearby homes for sale or rent and open houses. The app also promotes their Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages. If you dig a little deeper, you can also find Corcoran on Tumblr, Blip.tv and Vimeo. Simply put, Corcoran has found a way to be everywhere for its clients. This is the first step to converting fans and followers into buyers and sellers.
Matthew Shadbolt, Director of Internet Marketing at The Corcoran Group, filled me in on Corcoran's social media strategy. As a lifestyle brand, Corcoran doesn't simply create a presence, they participate in it. For example, the Corcoran YouTube channel features CEO Pam Liebman answering questions posed by Facebook and Twitter followers regarding the state of the housing market and New York living tips. Furthermore, Shadbolt proactively leaves local neighborhood tips on Foursquare and Gowalla for users to find. He notes,
“We have created and implemented a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy of leaving tips around New York based on the huge wealth of local neighborhood knowledge which we specialize in at Corcoran. Our brand premise of communicating what it’s like to actually live in a neighborhood and what living in NYC is like ‘beyond the four walls of your apartment’ is a key driver behind this approach.”
Shadbolt went on to explain that revenue from social media had been substantial:
“The main thing we’ve seen is that the quality of the referral traffic back into our main website has significantly increased. Not only are we seeing more traffic coming in, but visitors coming in from social media sites are staying longer and looking at more things — something we had also seen with search engines but not in such large numbers. We have generated business through both Facebook and Twitter, primarily on the rentals side. People engaging with us directly on Facebook in particular has been increasing significantly over the past two months.”
Another company that seems to be doing well with attracting customers is ApartmentHomeLiving.com, an apartment lifestyle guide and apartment finder. Their Facebook page is full of requests for apartments, which they promptly respond to with listings and ideas. They even have an admirable YouTube presence, with 1,600 videos, totaling over 113,000 views in the past year.
Sharing Listings, Tours, and Showings
In the real estate world, listings, open houses and tours are the main stepping stones towards making a sale, and the digital world has made those steps much easier.
Corcoran, for example, recently created a Twitter account, strictly for new listings, to accommodate demand. Meanwhile, the main Corcoran Twitter account stays fresh with local and industry news.
WellcomeMat, the largest community of real estate professionals, brokerages and filmmakers using full-motion real estate video tours to market themselves and properties, has made producing and sharing video property tours easier, as well. With a community of 18,000 real estate professionals, WellcomeMat serves real estate agencies, brokerages and firms of all sizes, and also partners with and powers video for some of the nations top real estate brokerages including Halstead, Weichert and Prudential Douglas Elliman.
The service offers over 3,000 local production teams for those who don’t have videographers on staff, and also allows for easy integration with your website and YouTube channel. Users can also take advantage of automated link distribution into Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist, and the advanced reporting tools offered.
Phil Thomas Di Giulio, Co-Founder of WellcomeMat, explained in depth how real estate pros are using the full-service video platform to make an impact on their bottom lines:
“The majority of the videos being uploaded to WellcomeMat involve property tours, neighborhood profiles, brokerage information and updates, or agency advertisements. The common identifier with each of the videos is their ability to engage and capture the imagination of the viewer online while delivering quality information about a property, place, person or town.
“Video enables agents and brokerages to share this local knowledge and connect with consumers in a whole new way. This is very important because consumers are more likely to work with an agent [or brokerage] who displays superior knowledge about the local area which they represent.”
After generating a lead, there are many options for scheduling, but one of the newest and easiest-to-use services is Tungle.me, a service that promises to mitigate “double bookings, time zone mishaps, or email ping pong.”
Drew Burks, 2008 San Diego Real Estate Broker of the Year, uses Tungle.me to schedule company meetings with his agents, new Realtor recruitment meetings, and to schedule showings on his listings. Burks elaborated on how his brokerage is continuing to experiment with the service:
“I believe [Tungle.me] will increase our agent showings, because there won’t be the missed calls and confusion over showing times, especially when the seller doesn’t allow us to use a lockbox on their property [where a spare key may be stored]. This technology is proving to be much more effective than scheduling appointments and showings via the telephone.”
Lending Expert Advice
While an occasional listing may be appreciated by your social media community, many experts advocate engaging your audience with industry knowledge and an expert perspective, rather than alienating users with useless information. Because there are so many factors that must align to make a listing pertinent to a single customer, such as pricing, location and size, there is a high probability that most listings do not pertain to most people in a given social media audience.
James Kimmons, real estate business expert on About.com, advises real estate pros to refrain from overwhelming their followers and connections with real estate listings. He advises,
“Promote you, your business, and your expertise in your local area real estate market. Do it with market commentary, education and statistics. Link out to your IDX search page, because a lot of your visitors will want to look at listings at some point, just not your listing du jour.”
There are many sites with specialized sections for real estate professionals to lend their expertise, such as Trulia Voices and Zillow Advice. Both sites are frequented by prospective home buyers, on the search for answer about topics ranging from pricing and relocating to financing and closing. A typical question on either site will yield quite a few answers from agents or brokers specializing in a specific geographic region or area of real estate. This type of interaction with folks on the market is a great way to build a credible reputation and build brand recognition for future consideration.
YouTube also presents a valid platform for sharing real estate tips. For example, Keller Williams Realty International, a real estate franchise company, maintains a YouTube channel full of videos on monthly real estate reports, real estate advice and current company events. Keller Williams boasts nearly 400,000 video views, 100,000 channel views and 2,000 subscribers. Those are numbers worth celebrating.
If you are a real estate professional, keep an eye out ways you to showcase your expertise and local knowledge. You should start to see an increase in interaction, as you provide useful, relevant information to others.
Connecting with Other Real Estate Professionals
In order to improve upon their skills and network in the industry, real estate professionals are using social networks specific to their industry. Some of these networks include ActiveRain and The Flipping Pad.
Although it is in beta testing, Architizer is the largest crowd-sourced database of architecture online, with over 10,000 finished and proposed projects posted from fans, owners and architects that are easily searchable. The site provides a networking space for real estate developers and architects, where developers can search for architects and architects can upload their projects. This type of social network is allowing developers to get a better grasp of the talent options on the market, while also giving architects a better chance at being discovered.
CEO and Co-Founder Marc Kushner, also an architect, explains that, “The old model revolved around magazines, in which architects had to make it into certain issues. So, say that that a developer picks up the November issue of a certain architecture magazine. The only way that the architect would have the chance of being discovered by the developer was if he happened to be in that November issue.” Architizer simplifies the connecting process by bringing architects and developers together in one place.
More well-known social networks, including Meetup, Flickr and LinkedIn are provided spaces for real estates pros to connect and learn from one another. Some examples of active Meetup groups include Chicago Real Estate Group and New Jersey Real Estate Social Network. Both Meetups are ranked highly and have received favorable feedback from attendees. For example, Loan Officer Lorna Roberts, said that the New Jersey Real Estate Social Network Meetup, is an “excellent way to network and learn more about what is affecting the community and businesses.” For more information on how to get a real estate Meetup started in your community, check out our tips on organizing a successful Meetup.
Other group settings on social networks, such as the National Association of REALTORS on LinkedIn, or the Photography for Real Estate group on Flickr, are great places to connect with specialized professionals in the real estate industry.
From connecting with buyers and sellers to networking with industry peers and lending expert advice, there are many ways to utilize social media as a real estate professional. What are your tips for using social media in the real estate industry?
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Reviews: Craigslist, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Gowalla, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Tungle, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, iStockphoto, video
More About: apartmenthomeliving.com, architizer, blip.tv, business, facebook, flickr, iphone app, lead generation, linkedin, meetup, real estate, real results, social media, trulia, twitter, Vimeo, youtube, zillow
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Tags: apartmenthomeliving.com, architizer, blip.tv, flickr, iphone app, lead generation, linkedin, meetup, real estate, real results, trulia, Vimeo, youtube, zillow
When we first wrote about LittleBigPlanet 2 for the PlayStation 3, we knew the pitch — you play, create and share your own home-made video games using robust but easy tools. But it wasn’t until we played the game at the E3 conference in Los Angeles that we got the full picture.
LittleBigPlanet 2’s crazy, accessible gameplay is designed for new players as much as it is for old, but it’s basically a familiar experience for anyone who’s played the first game. That said, it differs in two important ways.
First, it allows you to create radically different kinds of gaming experiences, whereas the first game only allowed for the creation of Mario-like platform jumping gameplay. It also greatly expands the social and sharing features found in the first game, adding search, web-based profile pages and friend activity feeds.
Make Any Kind of Game You Want
Now you can create something other than a Super Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog-type platform jumping game. LittleBigPlanet 2 offers vehicles, storytelling tools and other features that allow creative gamers to make much more sophisticated games in many different genres.
We played a few games made with the tools. One was a bumper-kart competition in which the objective was to push other players (either online or in the same room on the same screen) off the edge using booster rockets. It was a fun bit of mayhem, and it reminded us of something you’d find in a family party game like Mario Party for the Wii.
Another was a side-scrolling deathmatch. The new creation tools let you throw helmets into the game for players to wear, and you can apply any properties you want to them. In this case, the helmets shot rockets that obliterated other players.
Even the traditional platform jumping levels are made more interesting with cutscenes that have voice-overs and camera angles.
Finally, LittleBigPlanet 2 works with the new, Wii remote-like PlayStation Move controllers. We played a short demo in which one player pointed the Move controller at the screen to drag obstacles out of the way of another player controlling his character with a normal PS3 controller.
LBP.me and the Activity Feed
LittleBigPlanet 2 works a little bit like a YouTube for games, if YouTube more prominently featured a Facebook-like activity feed of your friends’ activity.
Each time a gamer friend plays or creates a game or level, it pops up in your feed. You can opt to play his or her level, or even join him or her in whatever activity he or she is doing at that moment. Alternatively, you can just search by keyword for levels that you want to try out.
When you like a level or game you come across, you can share it (ratings and all) with your friends just like you might share a cool link on your social network of choice.
This all takes place in the game, of course, but the other big addition besides the activity feed is LBP.me, a social website that hosts a personal profile for each user, including references to your creations and activities as they occur.
If you see something you’re interested in while you’re killing time on the site at the office, you can flag that level or game to pop up when you turn on your PS3 at home.
These new sharing and discovery features join the already web-inspired tagging system from the first game to make it easy to find user-generated content that you’d have fun playing.
Impressions
The game feels a lot like the first LittleBigPlanet in that it’s like the bass guitar. It’s very easy to pick up and play, but there are layers of sophistication that aren’t apparent when you’re first starting out. We didn’t get to play with the creation tools, but the regular gameplay was frenetic and accessible for any audience.
Most of the brilliant ideas are going to come out of the community of users who opt to create original content on their own using the provided tools, though we were told by a rep from LittleBigPlanet 2’s development studio that there are already select users working with the tools so there will be some good stuff to play at launch.
The social features and discovery tools will help solve the biggest problem with LittleBigPlanet: difficulty finding the diamonds in the rough. If you haven’t played the first game, though, we’ll recommend trying this one out anyway, if only because all two million user-created levels from the original library are playable in LittleBigPlanet 2, and it will be easier to pick them out now.
The game will go on sale exclusively for the PlayStation 3 game console shortly before the onset of the holiday season this year.
Reviews: Facebook, YouTube, mario
More About: e3, E3 2010, gaming, hands-on, lbp.me, littlebigplanet 2, media molecule, playstation 3, preview, PS3, social gaming, sony, video games
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Tags: e3, E3 2010, Games, gaming, hands-on, lbp.me, littlebigplanet 2, media molecule, playstation 3, preview, PS3, social games, social gaming, sony, video games
Despite the bungled launch and short hiatus, Twitter Places is back in action. The feature has huge implications for the geo-location space and the location-sharing movement.
Places is a big improvement on Twitter’s previous geo-location offering, which was never widely adopted or embraced by the majority of users. Whereas before users had to adjust their settings and agree to posting every single tweet with their geo-coordinates, now Twitterers are presented with an elegant way to attach a place to their tweet, one tweet at a time.
Right now Places is a Twitter web and mobile experience only, but soon developers will integrate the Places API into their applications and services. Only then will we see Twitter Places reach its full potential. If Twitter can fix the issues crippling the service, then Places has the power to turn location-sharing into a mainstream behavior and significantly boost interest in applications like Foursquare — not to mention the monetization potential of location-based ads.
1. Location-Sharing to Become Mainstream
As trendy and hip as Foursquare may be, it’s still only reaching a small subset of the online population. While Facebook — due to its size and reach — is the most mainstream of the social networks, Twitter might have the best chance at making location-sharing a common behavior.
Twitter is still the primary purveyor of real-time information and news, and location needs real-time visibility to thrive. Location-sharing amongst friends is certainly well suited for Facebook’s purposes, but the value of location supersedes knowing where your friends are.
Just two years ago, Twitter and its 140-character updates seemed silly, if not absurd. Now everyone from all walks of life including athletes, politicians, celebrities and media are tweeting. Location-sharing — via applications that use geo-location to tie locations to places for the purpose of letting users broadcast where they are — is prime for a breakout moment. Twitter can help take it there.
The tweet has proved to be a powerful and revolutionary way to communicate and spread information. Add location, in the form of places, to these messages and we could see a surge of interest.
Places add context to tweets, which means that breaking news — whether it be related to a natural disaster, event, conference or other situation unfolding in real-time — flowing out in the form of tweets can be localized for further value. It’s this context that will finally help location-sharing holdouts understand why location matters and how they could benefit.
2. Boost Interest in Geo-location Apps
As it stands, Twitter is not a threat to location-based social games like Foursquare and Gowalla. In fact, it’s a complementary service that will positively impact user uptake.
Given that Places integrates with both services, users of Foursquare and Gowalla have double the incentive to continue updating their friends on their whereabouts. Checkins from either service are tied to places on Twitter, which means those updates get sucked into the Twitter Place feeds/streams.
Checkins will also have broader reach on Twitter via the Twitter Place page, which means more exposure for Foursquare and Gowalla. More exposure will translate into more users who checkin more often, and so on, and so forth.
Plus, as location-sharing becomes more accepted, users will begin to appreciate the added values that Gowalla and Foursquare bring to the table. Saving money — whether that be at Starbucks, Domino’s or Sports Authority — is something that never gets old.
3. Promoted Places
With Places, Twitter has an opportunity to serve up highly targeted advertisements in the form of Promoted Tweets.
Ads could appear atop the Places tweet stream — a.k.a. search results for tweets at a particular place — and engage Twitter users with specific messages about a locale. Obviously this a feature that brands like Starbucks — an early Promoted Tweets user and Foursquare early adopter — could use for store-specific promotions or messages. Perhaps there’s even a “Promoted Places” product brewing that will function similarly to the new Promoted Trends feature.
“Promoted Places” may just be a projection at this point, but we are quite certain that Twitter’s current fixation on advertising revenue will extend to Places.
[img credits: MariShelbey and courtesy of iStockphoto, jorgeantonio]
More Location Resources From Mashable:
- What the Future Holds for the Checkin
- 3 Key Location Trends for Moms
- Are Location-Based Services All Hype?
- 7 Ways Journalists Can Use Foursquare
- Why Hasn’t Location Reached the Mainstream Yet?
Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, iStockphoto
More About: foursquare, geolocation, gowalla, twitter, twitter places
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Tags: geolocation, gowalla, Opinion, twitter places
The Daily Mail reported this morning that an iPhone 4 recall is underway, but don’t believe it; the UK publication’s source was a tweet from a fake Steve Jobs Twitter account. Apple hasn’t announced any plans to recall its new phone.
The Twitter account @ceoSteveJobs is a parody account — it says so in the profile bio, and even if you don’t read the bio, it should be obvious from the tweets, which include lines like “Be careful not to leave your #iPhone4 at the Genius Bar on the way out of the store. Gizmodo might pick it up,” and “I heard the CEO of AT&T got married recently. The service was great but the reception was terrible.”
The Daily Mail has pulled the original story, which began with a claim that a recall was coming and a quote from the fake Twitter account, and then continued to explain the issues users have had with signal loss when the iPhone 4 is held a certain way.
It’s hard to imagine that Apple didn’t know about the signal issue. The engineers at the company probably decided it was a worthwhile trade-off for otherwise improved reception, so don’t expect a recall for that reason.
Although you might be surprised that The Daily Mail ran a story based on a tweet from an account that is so obviously fake, it’s not the first time something like this has happened. That’s why Twitter implemented a system for verifying the accounts of important people and publications.
[via The Next Web]
Reviews: Facebook, Twitter
More About: apple, cell phone, gadgets, iphone, iphone 4, Mobile 2.0, News, parody, recall, social media, steve jobs, the daily mail, trending, twitter
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Tags: cell phone, Gadgets, iphone, iphone 4, parody, recall, steve jobs, the daily mail
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