In the screenshot, a user has the option to check-in to the event and also RSVP it accordingly. Further they say, the check-in icon will be available only on the day of the event and if you happen to be geographically close to the event venue.

In response to the story Facebook spokesperson said:

We’re currently testing this and it will be available with the next iPhone release.

Last week, Facebook Places had become operational in India. The service was launched in August 2010 for United States and a few other countries. Initially, the service is going to be made available on the iPhone application and on touch.facebook.com . It would come to the Android app at a later stage.

Where can it benefit?

• It would help event organisers in promoting the event. Attendees of the event would most likely share their check-in with their Facebook friends which would help gain eyeballs for the event and possibly pull more visitors.
• Event organisers could also see the number of people attending if all of them check-in or are required to check-in.
• People who have checked-in at the event can message each other to connect and build a network.
• Pictures could be shared to the event page itself – Users who are checked-in to the event can share pictures in realtime with not only their friends but also on the event page. It could quite possibly kill the competition from Twitter which is dominant when it comes to live updates of an event.
• Raffle competition – Many events give away prizes and gifts based on a raffle system, this could possibly be replaced with gifts going to those who are checked-in via Facebook. Additionally, the event page could tag the recipient of the prize along with their image/video which helps in being made visible to a wider audience.

What are the other marketing opportunities? Please share your thoughts.

It looks like its finally rolled out completely as many users have confirmed it to be working. So far we’ve tried it on an Apple device (iPod) and on an Android device and it’s working effectively.

Screenshots taken from the Apple device confirm its operation below:

The images above suggest nearby places for you based upon your current location as detected. In case you don’t see a place you are at, then you can add a new place as well.

Additionally, you can tag your friends who you are with which would show up on your feed as well as theirs. This information would be publicly visible so we suggest you tread carefully.

With Facebook Places finally working in India, do you think Facebook deals is not far away from being launched?

The study was conducted by interviewing 114 executives across 10 countries with majority of the respondents holding key positions in the organisation.

In comparison, the usage of Twitter dropped from 40% in 2009 to 33% in 2010. Astoundingly, the usage of Facebook reduced steeply with 51% in 2009 as compared to 20% the year after.

Speaking about the study, Donald Bulmer (VP of Global communications, industry and influencer relations at SAP) and Vanessa DiMauro (CEO of Leader Networks) wrote :

Hundreds of other networks were mentioned, many by only one or two respondents. Business professionals are changing how they collaborate as a result of online professional communities and peer networks.

In 2010, 55% of the executives use 3-5 social networking websites as compared to 50% in the previous year. A slight shift in the usage but indication of growth of social networks in general and going beyond the scope of the major networks.

Taking the professional networks into consideration, the main purpose of them as defined by the executives is for relationship management and decision support. 60% of the respondents found increased competitive brand monitoring and performance with equal percentage of people using these online professional networks for connecting with other professionals.

In terms of method of use, 97% of the users would use on a PC or a Mac. Usage of these social networks has also increased from mobile phones with more smartphones becoming available and almost all networks having a mobile friendly application. 59% used the social networks via a mobile device in 2010 as against 44% in 2009. Amongst these, 52% used an iPhone, 37% a BlackBerry, 15% on Android and 15% on an iPad.

The usage isn’t short term or an occasional basis as 43% login more than three times each day; more than 33% once a day and a small 2% login occasionally.

Read the full report here : http://www.slideshare.net/sncr/the-new-symbiosis-of-professional-networks-2010

Thereafter, some brands started using URL shortening services based on their brand name or website name thus giving it a customised look and feel to it.

Websites/brands using customised URL shorteners

ReadWriteWeb – Popular technology blogging website – ReadWriteWeb uses bit.ly’s PRO interface which allows for customised URL’s to be created keeping bit.ly’s regular interface in tact. The analytics dashboard reveals number of clicks, time of clicks, referrer information, location of clicks and conversations that have happened around that link. Shortened URL’s in the format of www.rww.to

TechCrunch – Another popular technology blog – TechCrunch also makes use of bit.ly’s Pro accounts and keeps a check on the clicks through that. The dashboard as mentioned earlier reveals number of clicks, time of clicks, referrer information, location of clicks and conversations that happened around the link. Shortened URL is in the format of www.tcrn.ch.

Coca Cola – Soft drinks giant – Coca Cola also uses a brand specific URL which goes along the lines of www.cokeURL.com/. The service is powered by budurl.

Advantages of custom short URL

Retweeting and sharing of information has become key in the current scenario. With more people seeing your brand name, there is a lot more exposure to even people who’re not aware of your brand. It also creates a sense of trust in the links for a user. With so many spam filled links doing the rounds on a regular basis, identification with a brand specific URL generates trust in the brand for the user.

Disadvantage of custom short URL

Custom URL shortners are used to get rid of the concerns surrounding the downtime or shutting down of some established URL shortening services such as tr.im and u.nu. But if the brand uses an in-house development team for its rollout, then the brand is giving away the option to be associated with services like bit.ly which offer much improved analytics.

Do you think more brands need to employ custom URL shorteners for themselves or should they stick to the established ones to be risk free?

Chang Kim, Product manager at Blogger announced the changes in a blog post with an insight into the development of the service in 2010 and raising expectations for 2011. Blogger is number six in terms of its Alexa ranking , more than half a billion blog posts were published, which were read by more than 400 million active users across the globe. The platform also saw various features being added to it such as template designer, real-time stats, comment moderation with automatic spam filtering,  mobile templates, web fonts and more. In terms of reliability it came as top over WordPress.com, Tumblr, Posterous and Typepad in an analysis by Royal Pingdom.

What are the changes?

The user interface would get a cleaner and modern look and it would use Google Web Toolkit, which is latest in web technology.

New post editor

New Blogger Dashboard

Content discovery to discover interesting content based on what you’re presently reading.

More features would be unveiled at SXSW (South by South West) event.

Google acquired Blogger in 2003 and the service underwent a major redesign in 2004. Since then there have been a few changes here and there in the product but nothing as big as last year. Interestingly, more than 75% of the traffic to blogger comes from outside US which highlights the international coverage of the service. Google has then made most of this user base by providing blogger service in multiple languages including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu.

As per a study in 2009, the usage of Blogger had reduced drastically as compared to other services like wordpress.com and self hosted wordpress. More recently, Tumblr and Posterous have gathered attention due to their easy interface and the ease of going viral as well.

How many of you still use Blogger? Will these additional features entice you to join the service if you don’t use it presently?

It seems the policy makers and politicians have come to realise the potential of social media beyond using it during elections and to advertise themselves.

Government organisations embracing new technology

• Delhi Traffic Police – Delhi Traffic Police joined Facebook as a page asking citizens to post pictures of errant drivers and to relay information on traffic information that might be necessary. They have been active in responding to the comments and questions. The page currently has more than 52,000 likes.
• Indore Police Department – Indore Police Department has been maintaining a regular blog in Hindi, Facebook page (more than 300 likes) and Twitter profile (now not being updated, nearly a 100 followers). Besides this, they also have a Google Map of police stations in Indore. It also employs a unique technique in digital crime mapper to track criminal activities in Indore.
• Maharashtra Police Department – Maharashtra Police Department launched an SMS based complaint tracking system (CTS) called ‘Turant Chovis’ which aimed at redressing citizen complaints by sending a message first response within 24 hours and resolving the issue within 30days. One of the department’s divisions, Nasik Rural Police Department were awarded at Manthan Awards 2009 for achieving 96% success rate with the scheme.
• Ministry of External Affairs – Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) opened its Twitter account under the name ‘IndianDiplomacy’ which is a verified account with more than 7,000 followers currently. The account was started on July 10, 2010. The department recently got a ‘face’ with Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao also joining Twitter. She currently has 7,000 followers and a verified account as well. The efforts of MEA have been commended by many during the recent crisis to evacuate Indian nationals from Libya as information was relayed on a regular basis. There is a YouTube account created as well which hosts more than 50 documentary films on various subjects and has received more than 19,000 hits.
• Municipal Corporation of Delhi – Municipal Corporation of Delhi has brought its entire process of form filling and submission to an online platform which is integrated on its website. This reduces the hassle faced by citizens in the past to travel back and forth to submit a form. Online forms include births certificates, information on filing a right to information (RTI) form, tax submission forms, health trade and veterinary licenses.
• Post Office India – Indian Postal service, world’s largest postal network took to Twitter for its interactions with users and citizens. They have been answering to queries posted by users in relation to the service and how it can be used easily. They currently have more than 6,500 followers. Additionally, the government department also launched an exceptional “ePost Office” which would add up as an e-Commerce platform in the future.
• Census 2011 – The process of counting of population was taken to social media as well to ask citizens to fill in their information accurately and in full during the time of visit of an enumerator. The initiative was launched on Facebook and Twitter with an on ground campaign in the offing as well. The Facebook page currently has more than 14,000 likes and Twitter profile has nearly 500 followers. (Read our post when the campaign was started)
• Planning Commission of India – Planning Commission of India have been using its Facebook page to ask users to submit their expectations and ideas for the twelfth five year plan (2012 – 2017). Following the ideas, they would be included in the approach paper to be approved by cabinet and National Development Council. (Read our post when the campaign was started)

At the recent Govt2.in awards 2011, Ministry of External Affairs was awarded for most innovative use of social media and web 2.0 tools in government. Other recipients of the award were, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, India Post, Delhi Traffic Police, Census India 2011 and Planning Commission 12^th plan.

While governments will face challenges in using social media, mainly in maintaining the secrecy of private and confidential information ; the positives would outweigh the negatives in the long run. Social networking would make networking and engagement with public simple and powerful, make research faster, provide mechanisms for getting rid of negative publicity and most importantly in understanding public sentiment to help form public policies.

Further, these networks can be used to post job openings in government departments which otherwise are posted in newspapers and as the example of Ministry of External Affairs clearly suggests – it can be used effectively in live broadcasting events such as an evacuation or an emergency where in a larger audience can be contacted at once with ease.

What are your views on government 2.0 and its growth so far in India? Which public department would you like to see go hi-tech next?

Currently, Zynga’s office has around 100 employees with focus on developing infrastructure and key technologies for its open source database application – Membase, which helps in sustaining the company’s increasing growth rate. The company has now disclosed that they would be looking to double the count of employees with focus now being on employment of creative talent, senior management and game developers amongst engineers.

On the recruitment side, Dhimant Vyas – designer of title sequence of Taare Zameen Par, who joined Zynga in December would become the creative director and Anand Ramachandran will be joining as game designer as per his tweet.

A few weeks back, Zynga introduced meet ups for its fans but more importantly, the company launched Zynga game cards where users could purchase virtual goods with much ease.

Zynga has 25 million worldwide users with games such as CityVille, FarmVille, Mafia Wars, FishVille and YoVille. Of these 25 million only a small 0.6% come from India; which in absolute terms is 1.5 lac users a day. This may seem less as compared to the global count but if we analyse the transition over a year, India has grown extensively when it comes to social gaming.

Last year we had highlighted the impact that social gaming could have in India and the emergence of India as a target country when it comes to social games. It is interesting to note that usage of social games is not limited to having fun alone but can also be used as a way to run a social campaign imbibed in a social game.

How can it help brands?

• Swarm Specials – In this category, users who checkin in a group would be rewarded by the branded. Example – If 5 people checkin at once, get free mozarella sticks.
• Friends Special – The social aspect of foursquare is being brought about here as a bunch of friends would be required to checkin at the same time to unlock this special. Example – Checkin with three friends and get a shared dessert.
• Flash Special – These are the ‘first come, first serve’ kind of deals. The first user to check in after a certain time (as set by the brand) would be rewarded in some way. Example – First 10 people to checkin after 10am get 20% discount.
• Newbie Special – This is a perfect way to bring in new customers into the store. A customer would be asked to give the store a try and get a reward in return. Example – Customers who check in for the first time after 10AM get a 25% discount.
• Checkin Special – This is the usual check in offer where a user checks in and gets rewarded by the brand. Example – Free coffee on every checkin.

• Loyalty Special – This helps in retaining old customers and also to increase visits to the store. Example – Checkin 3 times in 7 days to get a free book.
• Mayor Special – System of ‘Mayor’ is important for Foursquare and it can be for you as a brand as well. Mayor is the person who has checked in the most number of times on your venue page. Example – 20% discount to the mayor on their bill.