The tale of Facebook’s late, well-planned, and well-executed entrance to the geo-location space followed by Foursquare’s and Gowalla’s single-file submission to Facebook’s geo-location system reveals what Facebook has become. It is no longer the social networking website that once competed with other social media websites such as MySpace. In fact, Facebook is no longer primarily a social network at all. Facebook is now a new entity entirely which is defined by it’s social graph and the open graph protocol, a mechanism it has created by which your online behavioral information is collected, analyzed, and a platform upon which to integrate and apply those analyses into business strategy and political policy. This new Facebook has no viable competition and the anti-trust lawyers have yet to catch on.

While Facebook has extended its influence to other sites outside its proverbial walls, it has also been developing an internal economy. This economy is based upon social apps. Places has successfully positioned Facebook to be at the center of the mobile commerce and mobile gaming revolutions further securing Facebook’s position as the primary social development platform for at least the next decade. Facebook will be connecting people to people, places, and businesses both online and in the real world. The convergence of smart phone technology, geo-location, and Facebook’s open graph platform will allow the creation of a new dimension by which we understand and interact with the physical world in ways previously unimagined.

In my next post I’ll lay out what the future holds; it’s going to help people save money, help businesses make money, enable charities to raise even more money… and, oh, it’s going to be really fun.

Facebook Places, unlike Foursquare and Gowalla, is a feature not an app.

Since the public unveiling of Facebook “Places”, the proverbial ”jump-to-conclusions mat” has been unfurled gratuitously by social media types across America. The implications of “Places” is not quite as revolutionary as many, including myself, had previously anticipated. While many seem focused on the consequences of “Places” for geo-location apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, I have become more fascinated with what “Places” tells us about Facebook.

Before I get into the deeper implications, let’s start with what “Places” is, or better, what it isn’t. “Places” is not an app, it’s a feature that merely adds ability (read: opportunity) to Facebook. “Places” has carved a place for geo-locating apps in the Facebook universe. This means that geo-location apps like Foursquare will be  integrated with, and build their applications upon, the Facebook system. So Facebook “Places” is not the killer app. To the contrary, it will likely supercharge the geo-location app market by removing the complex back-end development costs necessary to implement such an app.

For all who were hoping to witness Facebook and Foursquare engaging in an epic battle over the digital map of Middle Earth: Foursquare, my friends, is merely a game and Facebook is now the operating system.

The Los Alamitos Varsity Song are on their way to the UDA Nationals, February 6-7 in Orlando, FL!

“My Aunt Does the Best T-shirts”
Ah, the coveted 18-24 demographic. What if I told you that I have a lock on this slice of heaven on a micro-level, nationally! Shocked? Don’t be. I have honed these connections since their birth and now my notoriety is viral. I’m talking t-shirt designs! Sure, I’d like to be the go-to in brand marketing on the web, but in the 18-24 demo in my family, this is my rep. My nieces or nephews can’t resist to raise their hand and say: “My Aunt does the best t-shirts!” Hey, I’m not putting this all on them: give me a Peer Leader Group with the theme of super heroes and I’m all in!  We begin with a bit of brainstorming. As we sit around the table, we talk about their group and get to the heart of the look. I’ve been told this is considered a form of torture at times, but it produces great results.

Here’s how it usually rolls out:

• What’s their message,
• Why did they join,
• What type of members are there,
• Who is their audience,
• What is the outcome they would like from the new look.

Does this list look familiar to any of my clients?
That’s right. It’s my tried and true interview style to get to the answers I need to be effective in marketing. It’s such a simple list but so many will lunge into a project without answering these simple questions. People can envision their business thriving and successful, but they all too often forget to create and execute a plan to get themselves to the goal. With just a little brainstorming, planning and project management, the successful result will be all you hoped for!

Back to my thriving t-shirt business.
Last month, I undertook a long distance assignment for my niece in California. Her group is the Los Alamitos Varsity Song group. As I went through the paces, I could tell there was great passion to  creating this shirt. As a senior, she and her co-captain got to decide the look for this years shirt. Big doings. I could hear in her voice the excitement of how extra touches would be impact-ful, but most importantly, the group’s name needed to scream out. I thoroughly enjoyed the back and forth and, in the end, the look was connected and fun. The best part is I got a shirt! Go LOS AL!

Happy 2010 everyone!