add a comment
Tweet
This week’s weThink podcast includes discussions on Google+, streaming music, credit card deals, social networking and much more.
Is it Interesting?
Headlines featuring American Express, Twitter and Nickelodeon led the team’s discussion of topics that may or may not be interesting this week.
- American Express offers deals based on Facebook likes: A new program from Amex lets customers link credit cards to deals that are offered based on social graph ‘likes’. The team found the “Link, Like, Love” service—which offers statement credits when users buy deals with their Amex card—quite interesting. They also hoped the program has plans to combine users’ purchase history with their social graphs in a mobile, location-based service.
- Twitter’s CEO expects commerce to be a revenue stream: With Google+ challenging Twitter’s messaging platform, the team discussed why this is a critical time for the company to add a commerce element. The question, according to the experts, is whether or not commerce is actually the long-term revenue stream that Twitter needs.
- Facebook groups drive Nickelodeon to create programming block: Nickelodeon brand TeenNick is starting a Classic 90s programming block after a number of Facebook groups pushed for the return of shows such as Clarissa Explains It All, Doug and Keenan & Kel. The RI:Lab panel found it very interesting that Nick has been paying attention to and responding to relevant Facebook groups.
Google+ and Social
Google+ launched as an invitation-only social network just three weeks ago and it’s already grown 821 percent to more than 18 million users. As the network moves toward a public release, there are questions around what it means to Facebook, how it could affect Twitter, what kind of consumer will use the service, when will brands begin to get involved and more. The weThink panel took a few moments to offer their initial impressions on where Google+ stands today, opinions on how it will impact social networking and expectations for where it will be tomorrow.
Early adopters and tech industry users are driving the adoption of Google+, which the panel sees as a different animal than Facebook. With its connection to Google’s other services, including documents, email, operating systems and more, Google is a suite of items that give users the power to get things done while being social. The question for brands and marketers is how they can use Google+ to deliver targeted advertising based on users’ searches, service use and information.
Listen to the podcast for the complete discussion and read these related articles:
Picks of the Week
Barce: The U.S. arrival of digital music service Spotify earned Barce’s Pick of the Week praise. The streaming service that’s been a European hit for a few years provides on-demand song access at free, unlimited and premium levels.
Dan: This week, Dan’s favorite use of technology comes from Stocktouch. This iPad app uses colored sectors and live, up-to-the-minute information to help users monitor the market. Companies doing well are green, ones breaking even are black and those who are down are red.
Matthew: For his Pick of the Week, Matthew selected Photovine. This social photo app lets users take pictures with their iPhone and share them in user-created groups called vines. The ‘vines’ are topics, such as “warm and fuzzy”, that invite users to share photos fit for each topic.
Get the full podcast
Download and subscribe to the weThink podcast for all the insightful opinions and interesting banter.
