Below is a series of screenshots from within the Facebook iOS app that allows users to match their Facebook friends against their iPhone Contacts: “Find Friends on Facebook: Choose contacts on your phone to add as friends on Facebook.” It’s a basic concept – but it’s tremendously powerful since your mobile contact list is really your tightest, most significant network…. and those users are surely also Facebook users.

Of course Apple performs the matching by uploading contacts from the device and then sorting them on Facebook’s servers. You may remember this practice was critiqued publicly – but Facebook is very clear about how they are using the contacts.

It is also worth noting that Facebook is clearly aware of the potential growth here (in one click I can add 1,109 new friends!) but wants to balance some quality control: “Please send invites only to friends who will be glad to get them.”

Just a terrific, creative and well-timed use of the Facebook Timeline by Nike Basketball. Coinciding with the NBA Playoffs – and a handful of new sneakers for top stars like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant – Nike Basketball is releasing a series of basketball rules:

“Every EPIC moment has a story. And every story has a lesson.
Lesson No. 1: The deeper the bench. The stronger the squad.”

Each rule is placed atop a basketball poster that ties into the playoffs and relevant players. Two or three rules are posted a day (so far, 38 rules and posters have been loaded). Nike also mixes in other timely promos like a congratulations to Lebron James for his MVP award and this graphic for the evening’s Lakers / Thunder game:

It’s clever, fun, on brand and highly visual – which means it is highly engaging on Facebook. It is also something that only Nike can do (the talent, the imagery and the production) and something that really can only be done on Facebook and with Facebook Timeline (no offense to Twitter, but this would be neither as effective nor engaging).

Two trends within Facebook that I have written frequently about:

- Facebook Offers: which has morphed from a Groupon-like platform to an extension of their sponsored ad format

- In the River Marketing: which is particularly important for large products / platforms like Facebook (examples here: New Facebook Photos and Facebook Places)

Combine those and you have the following series of screenshots: Facebook’s In the River promotion of their new Facebook Offers product. When you visit your Facebook page, you are prompted with a takeover atop the status box:

“Welcome to Facebook Offers: Drive people to your busienss with an offer that people can share with their friends.” Various examples are cycled through – starting with Red Robin in this case ($5 off).

You can then “take the tour” and Facebook walks you through the various components and how to set up a campaign. Notably, its placed in-line next to the Status and Photo box…. that is prime real estate.

The walkthrough itself is not exactly noteworthy (write a strong headline! Choose a great thumbnail!) – however, the presentation of the tour and the location of the product is important. Furthermore, the final step of the tour is very interesting because it demonstrates the friction of online to offline content and commerce:

“Prepare your staff: Let your staff know about the offer so they’re ready to accept it from people who show it from a mobile phone, or in printer form.” Easier said than done as this is a far bigger problem than a one-line reminder to tell your staff about the coupon.

This is pretty significant news out of Amazon: all seven Harry Potter books are now available in the Kindle Lending Club. It is the all-time bestselling book series and is a testament to Amazon’s willingness to put marketing muscle behind Kindle and the Lending Club. And considering the reach and popularity of the Harry Potter franchise – it is a win for Kindle owners, Harry Potter fans, and Amazon users.

It is also worth noting that it is a couple days from Mother’s Day and Amazon’s merchandising exists (upper right corner) but is far smaller than the Harry Potter announcement or the Amazon Local promotion. I would have assumed that the week would be dedicated to Mother’s Day preparation – particularly highlighting one-day shipping, etc.

Not a ton to say here except that:

- I reached the New York Times paywall
- And it is visually very bold / intrusive
- But while it is disruptive – and that’s the goal of course – it is really not very actionable: The only part of the entire screen that is clickable are the two orange buttons.That is <5% of the screen's real estate and a wasted opportunity to users right into an upgrade flow. As it currently stands, I need to read the promotional box, click the orange button, land on an educational page and then choose an upgrade package. Too many steps and too much effort.

(Lastly, I am not entirely sure what constitutes exceeding the paywall... it says after 10 free articles but it appears intermittently)

I haven’t logged into Google Plus in a little, so I cannot tell if this is a new feature or a result of my infrequent usage – nevertheless, I was taken aback by Google’s new Trending on Google+ module… which looks exactly like Twitter’s. While it is interesting to see that the topics are related (ie Junior Seau, NFL), I was most interested by the use of hashtags on Google. Within my Google+ network, I have not seen hashtags used with any regularity (whereas they obviously are part of the Twitter culture) – I also would have assumed they would relied on real-time search and trends to populate the list.

Email unsubscribe flows are typically binary: either super simple to unsubscribe (how it should be) or super convoluted (having to uncheck preferences, confirm email addresses, etc). This is a clever flow by Jetsetter because it is in fact super simple (just one click)… but it gently ‘upsells’ users: “How about just one email a month?”

First, that’s such a gentler, kinder way to ask for email access than having me check a slew of boxes.

Second, it comes after they have unsubscribed me – so there is established trust. When they say “just one email a month”, I believe it.

Lastly, Jetsetter promotes their Facebook and Twitter pages. If you are going to lose an access point to your customers – might as well push other avenues to communicate and interact with them.

This is the front page of Tuesday May 1st’s Wall Street Journal. It’s a well done graphic overlaying Microsoft’s big-dollar entrances into “markets where it lags behind rivals”:

- Search: Yahoo (2009): Microsoft’s billion-dollar+ deal to power search and ads.

- Mobile OS: Nokia (2011): billion-dollar+ deal to push Windows Mobile OS

- Social / Video: Skype (2011): $8.5B acquisition

- Mobile / Tablets: Nook (2012): $605m investment to bolster tablet strategy

It’s an expensive but necessary (?) avenue into three massive verticals that, as WSJ notes, Microsoft is far behind in: search, social, and mobile (OS + hardware). It is marks about one of these big, billion-dollar bets a year (four deals over the 2009-2012 period).

Price aside (Skype in particular feels very expensive unless deeper integrations in Office & on XBox emerge quickly), the Nook deal is is the one that strategically feels odd. Windows 7 users love the product – but the Nook is so far behind iPad and Kindle, that it feels as though Microsoft is better served entering the tablet market elsewhere OR focusing primarily on phones and then paying-up when the 3rd place tablet-provider has greater share. Of course that’s my take from a very, very distant seat.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to watch the Facebook IPO Roadshow video. It’s fascinating and well done. There is a ton in there worth discussing / pointing out, but I wanted to highlight one of my favorite screens (shown below):

It shows Facebook’s growing advertising revenue and the four stages of advertising platform growth that have helped it grow (of course alongside monstrous user growth!):
- Reach (their userbase)
- Relevance (targeting)
- Engagement (like, share, etc)
- Social Context (sponsored, open graph, etc)

And what’s missing? How about off-Facebook advertising…

More here:
TechCrunch / Roadshow Video / WSJ

I admire how much The Verge (by Vox Media) has bushed the boundaries on content presentation / visualization. For a blog-like content hub, The Verge looks entirely unlike it’s peers: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Engadget, etc. It’s one part traditional blog, one part Pinterest, and one part Flipboard. Where it really shines is mobile – specifically iPad.

The screenshots below show my favorite treatment – which I personally have not seen elsewhere:

- There is a navigation bar on the left column (actually more like a table of contents)
- As you scroll through the page, the corresponding section highlights (ie Video Review)
- But the bar is also clickable – so that you can easily jump from section to section
- I imagine over time, you also include small Facebook and Twitter buttons

Of course this is in addition to the persistent header that sits atop the browser. The Verge uses that real estate to promote breaking news, hot articles and membership (Login / Join).