Web Trends
FACEBOOK & TWITTER
For an active social networker, Facebook and Twitter are two of the largest trends to engulf the web space in the last year. With 400 million active users on facebook alone it is rare to find a demographic that isn’t currently using one or both. More than 1.5 million local businesses currently have active pages with the majority attaching links to their site (shown below) which allows the client to either ‘become a fan’ of their profile page on facebook which sends updates to the client, or ‘follow them on twitter’ which automatically send all alerts to the clients account.
Many people have their twitter and facebook accounts linked to their mobile phone, allowing them to be constantly aware of individual business activity and inevitably turning these applications into research tools. It also creates an ideal way to drive brand awareness and keep positive brand recognition with the target market. An example of Friday Media’s current work is on the Make your Mark website (http://makeyourmark.savethechildren.org.au). It has to be taken into account that a community manager may be needed as these applications are only suited to businesses constantly updating and reviewing.
ONLINE QUIZ
An online quiz is a great way to make a website interactive while gathering customer information. This could include personal details, email address for email marketing campaign, their thoughts on client products, current trends and any other information needed by the client. A quiz can be treated as a form of market research tool, at a fraction of the cost, to help future campaign work.
FOURSQUARE
Foursquare is an application suited mainly to hospitality as it uses a rewards based system to encourage customers. This is done by combining a friend-finder and social city guide elements with game mechanics. Users earn points, win mayor ships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting old favorites, via ‘smart phone’. This also helps new users locate venues quickly while on the go. From a developer’s side, it is quite easy to sell as the program is built to enable them to create applications that interact with the foursquare platform making anything possible!
DotMobi
A large number of people are using next generation phones (such as I-Phones) as an internet source. DotMobi (http://mtld.mobi/) allows the client to register their URL and create a phone friendly website. It ensures the page is a good size and formatted in a style that doesn’t require resizing the browser to view the full page. An example of this can be viewed at http://www.bmw.mobi (for a better understanding view through a mobile phone)
ADD THIS
Fairly new on the scene is an add-on called ‘Add this’ (http://www.addthis.com/) which is an effective way of combining the above ideas using one unique button on a clients website. This button gives multiple options to the user to keep them up to date with the company’s workings. The button can also be adapted to suit the site with 4 different styling options (shown below).
AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented Reality (AR) basically involves a computer virtually generating images through a webcam off something physical in a real world environment. It can best be described by watching the following link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFns6uk9UkU) it gives a real life example of what can be achieved using AR. If you have a webcam you can try it for yourself on http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality. It entices customers as they don’t need to leave the house to view a product or service thoroughly.
RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS (RIA’s)
Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) allow gadgets to be created and displayed on your desktop or phone at all times. Some of the programs used currently for this are AIR (Adobe's AIR platform), Microsoft WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and Laszlo (OpenLaszlo platform). A prime example of the abilities of a RIA is the Yarra tram tracker, it can be downloaded to your desktop or Iphone and basically gives a live stream feed of the tram timetable/s on your selected route/s. Ideas such as these desktop widgets leave a much more positive impression in the mind of the customer as it is your company giving its target audience something of value for nothing.
Not all of these ideas will relate to everyone but it is something to keep in mind that could suit one or many perfectly. If any of the above information is of interest to your company we would be more than happy to discuss your options. You can contact either Hannah or myself (David) and we can get the ball rolling.