Social Gaming - Good Job on Getting Us Addicted

So for the past month or so I've been sorta obsessed with this new game called Candy Crush. I remember seeing on my Facebook newsfeed that more and more of my friends were playing it and it looked to me that it was just a weird version of Bejeweled. But I was wrong. I also thought that it was just another one of Zanga's games. But I was wrong again. Candy Crush was made by King, another social gaming company. So how does Candy Crush, just like other mobile games get money out of us?

Well that's easy: first, they make a great game that gets you hooked, and then, they only give you a minimum amount of lives or turns and you either have to wait to play, ask friends for lives (here's your social aspect - how to show your entire Facebook entourage that you spend hours playing a dumb game), or make you pay for them. Additionally, after each turn, you have to see a 5 second ad on either a product or another game form that same company. And if you click on it by mistake you're taken straight to a browser or to the app store.


Now, you probably think that if something is offered for free then most people wouldn't dare paying .99cents for 3 lives...well I think you're wrong. Candy Crush came out with a commercial! What? A TV spot for a phone game that's free? Doesn't it sound crazy? And there's more....Words With Friends actually made a board game out of the app game...I mean what happened to the good ol' Scrabble? Oh yah, it's the exact same thing except the new generation has never seen a Scrabble commercial but they sure have seen one fore Words With Friends.

So the trend this day is to take the physical and make it virtual..but what if we start doing the opposite? Words With Friends did it. I guess well have to see...

IFTTT

So what's new this week in my social media world? Well now that most of the people around me know that I'm trying to be a social media guru, they always come up to me with new cool things they find that could interest me. This week, I was approached with this website called IFTTT, that stands for IF This Then That. What if you could get a text message every time this cute guy you like posts a photo on Facebook? (creeeeepy I know) Well now you can thanks to this site that comes from the principle that you can pretty much link every single social channel to each other by creating your own customized "channel linkage". They call it "the IFTTT recipe" when the This is the trigger and the That is the action. It is a quick 7-step process that differ depending on the channels you pick.
For example, let's say you're looking to buy an Iphone 4S, you can create this recipe: IF This: every Iphone 4S under 200$ on Craigslist Athens Then That: create a status on my Facebook with URL.
 

 For someone like me who always opens a million different tabs on my browser, this idea is quite brilliant!
Not only this site is easy to use, it also has a very simple and cool graphics, making the experience very engaging and interactive for the users. Though according to the founder this tool is kinda "nerdy" it is really about the simplicity of use and making your social media life a lot easier! 

PS: it's pronounced like GIFT without the G! :)

The Word-of-Mouth of Online Dating

Online Dating really? Now here is why I decided to take the time to write about this topic:

Last year, I became really good friend with a new UGA student that I met at a small gathering. We totally hit it off which is probably why he thought it was okay to tell me that he had a terrible time meeting girls. He soon decided that I was gonna be his wingwoman, helping him expand his social butterfly wings. This year, after being tired of playing around at parties and ready to settle down, he decided to join OKCupid, one of the various dating sites. After 4 months on the site, he somehow found the exact female replica of himself: UGA student, Jewish, Russian, a year younger than him, friendly, etc...Not to use other online websites' slogans or anything but it was totally a match made in heaven. So obviously when a week after their first date they decided to make it official, like FBO and all, everyone around was wondering how this happened.

Exactly, HOW did it happen so suddenly? He was honest about it, told us about that free website where you enter your info and somehow you find people. Remember like 2 or 3 years ago when everyone was ashamed of admitting that they had a profile on a online dating website? Now it's like a thing to brag about "Yah we met online and it was love at first click".

Once the online dating fad started with a wide approach such as match and eHarmony, some smart business people quickly thought about entering niche markets: JDate, ChristianMingle, BlackPeopleMeet,...

So what do I mean by WOM of online dating? Well, last night I was hanging out with a couple of friends who told me that another of the guys was on a date as we were speaking, and how did they meet? on OKCupid. They then proceeded to tell me that half a dozen of them had joined too! I love seeing the exponential snowball effect of WOM. 1 success story in a group of friend causes 5 or 6 people to join the website, that's how powerful WOM is.

Now what's the implication for marketers of online dating sites? or marketers in general? Well I think if you have watched TLC, E, or Bravo in the last year you'll know what I'm talking about. The key is to emphasize that someone close to you has probably met their significant other through an online dating site, making it more personable.

Now how do free online sites make money? Ads, as usual. Or by providing some kind of basic vs. premium accounts.