Facebook launched video chat powered by Skype video chatting solution. The move is said to be to counter Google+ but looking at the complexity of the solution, they must have been working on it before Google+ was launched.

If you want to try it out, follow these steps;

1. Go to www.facebook.com/videocalling
2. You will be asked to “Set up“, click set up, download starts
3. After completing the download restart your browser

How to make a call

After you must have visited the video calling page, your chat box changes, select a friend from the chat, then from the chat window, click on Video Call Button. Your friend will be notified and as soon as he picks the call, you can start talking and winking!

The product is innovative as it improves the user experience making more people willing to add more pictures to their profiles. Photo is one of Facebook biggest product, users upload 100 million photos daily.

Facebook has surely become a power-house, big enough to take on almighty Google! Since the start of the battle to take over the social web, both companies have been slugging it out with each other. Recently, Google dropped Facebook from auto-syncing with Android contact API, sure you can say that’s the 1st in the year 2011, Facebook playing its own card too have just retaliated!

On Facecbook platforms, millions of developers build apps and make money off them. Most rely on Google adsense to make money while others (like Farmville) use Facebook credit. In Facebook credit deal with Zynga, it charges 30% of transaction; which is good enough considering the infrastructure it’s providing. As it is now, it does not seem Facebook is charging any percentage from ads revenue through ad-networks but providers MUST adhere to it strict rules available here. The list of prefered ad-networks is available here too.

Considering the history of Adsense, I think Facebook is suppose to have it at the top of the bunch but we can’t discount the current power-struggle between the two companies.

Facebook has(seemed) won the social web, Google is well positioned for the mobile web.  The question really is who will win the INTERNET?

Call it Facebook everywhere and you wont be wronged, Gemalto has come to the aid of Facebook to produce text-based Facebook for feature phone. Some of the things you can do with it include status updates, pokes and friend requests – to any GSM-compatible handset through the magic of the GSM SIM Toolkit and Class 2 SMS messages.

Facebook is really pushing hard to get everyone in the world on it’s plan. They have launched Facebook Zero in the past to address and they are also romured to be working on a Facebook phone.

The Register reported:

The SIM Toolkit is part of the GSM standard and thus supported on just about every GSM handset, from the dumbest PAYG talker to the latest iGear. It allows the SIM to present menu options to the user, collect responses, and pop up alerts when new data arrives, which is all that’s necessary for a basic Facebook client.

Modern handsets also allow the SIM to make TCP/IP data connections, but Gemalto is eschewing that for Class 2 SMS to ensure compatibility with the most basic handsets, and networks.

Class 2 SMS messages are delivered direct to the SIM without the user being involved, so can update friends’ status messages and deliver a poke or two. The application running on the SIM then prods the handset into alerting the user.

The big challenge now is to get this to work in the emerging market, this might not all be that necessary as Chinese phone have flooded the market (with Internet enabled-phones) giving every Dick and Harry access to internet-based phone. The era of feature phone is slowly but surely eroding from emerging market.

Do you see this strategy take off?

The meme started a couple of days and Nigerians are not left out. My Twitter timeline and Facebook news feed is filled with this Game.

What is it about ?

The Number Game is a fun, interactive game that you can play with your facebook friends! Here is how it works: Facebook users can ask their friends what they think about them by supplying them with a number through a message. The friend then gives the answer via a status, and attaches the number to their answer for identification purposes.

Step.By.Step.

::: Ask your friends via a status or on chat to send you their favorite number through a message if they want feedback on what you think about them

::: Post a status about that particular person, starting it with the number they sent you (It can be a compliment, something you like or dislike about them, or something you always wanted to tell them)

Below are listed a few examples!

Number sent to you: 21
Status: True friend; you’ve always been there and I’m grateful for our relationship!

Number sent to you: 1013
Status: I wonder why we never really talk… you seem cool, but we just never connect:/

Number sent to you: 10
Status: You’re gonna make it somewhere someday:P Keep up the good work and stay true to who you are

Courtesy of the official Facebook page

The secret behind the game is Secrecy and Anonymity, you share a secret about someone in public while no one really will know who the person is but the person will understand.

It’s bring about social lifestyle of people driven with technology.

Nokia sponsored Open Innovation Africa Summit is currently holding in Nairobi Kenya. Thought leaders in Africa’s Mobile and technology space gather under the same room to discuss what impact open innovation will have on Africa growing technology space.

We are currently following the tweets and picking highlights of the events.

Ellen from the World Bank talked about Innovation

Bob Day Talked on the Innovation Ecosystem

Tweets;

@mbuguanjihia symbiotic – design, develop, deploy #OIAS #riftvalleylodge #nokia #InnovateAfrica

@mbuguanjihiathink mobile first…leapfrog! #OIAS #riftvalleylodge #nokia #InnovateAfrica

@meanestindian Call for policy that demands local skills training as part as offshore RFPs #innovateafrica

@whiteafrican: “There r no low-end consumers, only a diff of affordability.” Purnima, Nokia. #OIAS #InnovateAfrica

@meanestindian: Focus on successful models not sectors. Peter Greenwood. #innovateafrica

@tunbosunt Market based solutions are all about how business models are deployed and used. #innovateafrica

@dorothyooko: Models worth watching to improve BoP engagement: M-enabled health, agriculture solutions #OIAS #nokia #InnovateAfrica

@takinbo “You can’t avoid risk and be innovative” – Bob Day

@meanestindian Collaboration seen as “career limiting” How to change this perception? 

The launch of Gmail came with a radically designed interface that gives you conversation-like mailbox this time around what you get from Facebook is your social interaction in a single spot. With the new system you can do the following;

• seamless
• informal
• immediate
• personal
• simple
• minimal
• short

In Mark’s word: “This is not an email killer. This is a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it,” and that “This is the way that the future should work,”
The platform is also integrated with SMS and will be rolled out slowly in coming months.

In my view, this is the future of communication…”INTEGRATED!” So, Facebook is relying on it’s current strenght to own the future.

Facebook also recently acquired fb.com an acronym of its name. So, we expect to get something like; possicon@facebook.com or possicon@fb.com or fmail.com. We still keep our fingers crossed as it will be announce 4pm(Nigerian Time) today.

If Facebook does, it can effectively lock people in by making it the centre of their online experience. Most people currently spend majority of their online time on Facebook, with the email… we could just see an internet within internet!

One of a company’s most valuable asset is its brand equity – that emotional connection that people have with an organization’s product/service. However, with the rapid influence of internet communities and the explosion of social media in particular, more challenges are being thrown at reputation managers and businesses alike. While some businesses are not oblivious of the obvious influence varied social media platforms are having on the growth or decline of their brands, it not unusual to see blogs, topics of forums, social networking sites and other forms of social media firing an attack on a brand/product/service. It is clear from a cross section of these platforms that though organizations are not ignoring the strength and leverage these communities offer, there seems to be a lack of strategy in dealing with these challenges.

Wishing them away might not be easy as global dimensions are reaching frightening proportions. Consider the case of Domino’s Pizza, whose brand reputation was dealt a serious blow when two annoyed employees uploaded a video on YouTube of themselves engaging in unhygienic practices (sneezing, nose picking into pastries during preparation) to rubbish their pastries. This video was eventually viewed by millions of customers and sales figures for its pizza nosedived. While BP was also battling the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Greenpeace orchestrated an online attack when it challenged the public to design a new BP logo to suit their “dirty business.” The competition garnered over 2,000 entries with damaging designs – the effects can never be wiped off the web.

As social media continues to become a vital part of most corporations, today’s businesses need to become more proactive at anticipating exploits and dealing with abuses that can tarnish their reputation and negatively impact their business operations. How can these be managed?

Have a clear social media strategy

Going online has gone far beyond the era of just developing a beautiful website. The evolving demand for online media marketing and social media engagement requires clear policies, guidelines and experienced staff that will involve employees in every aspect of your business operations – Human Resource, Customer Service, Branding and Marketing.

It also involves profiling your target audience before pouring resources into Facebook. Several PR tools will be useful in this regard. Don’t be busy spending money on ads if your audience is busy in traffic or with their phones.

Be prepared

Dealing with social media attacks require a robust crisis plan. Brand haters exist but unlike the past, a coordinated attack can easily be organized against a brand. Consider the Boycott British Airways campaign organized by the Nigerian Village Square and Respect Nigeria Coalition when officials of the UK Police forcefully ejected Ayodeji Omotade and about 136 other Nigerians from a Lagos bound flight from the UK. Thousands of online signatures were collated which later saw British Airways apologizing for its misbehavior.

When opening your brand to social media, you relinquish ownership of the brand, so before the case ever comes up you need to be sure if your agency has a community management expertise to avert or mitigate a social media crisis? Have a set of best practices been established? Think again.

Classify mud-slings and don’t fight dirty

Ok the deed is done and you have a crisis in your hands, what do you do? The next step is not to have a hurried response to your online audience. The next step is to determine the type of response necessary. It doesn’t matter the kind of crisis, one rule is critical – stay positive. Being bitter and negative about comments is the easiest way to expose your brand to bashing.

Some problems or complaints direct you to a particular challenge your customers are facing with your product/service, nicely thank them for bringing it to your notice and deal with it. If the comments are as a result of customers not understanding your methods and policies, you score a bigger point. Simply thank them and explain why you do it that way. You won’t take all suggestions, but be careful to win their loyalty and trust by being appreciative. But then some mudslings are downright dirty, they are designed to draw or bait you into an unnecessary I-am-right-get-lost fight thereby exposing you as inept and leaving your organization at the mercy of a community of angry comments and future readers of the page. Nescafe will never forget this lesson when they multiplied their challenges by mishandling Facebook attacks during protests by members of Greenpeace.

Finally, in going social, always remember a Facebook page isn’t a social media strategy. Using social media engagement strategies includes identifying your brand personality, profiling your target audience and going to engage them. If your brand is hoping to leverage on social media, it should be ready to create new teams to proactively listen, learn and engage your customers in real time. Cheers

About the Author
Deola Kayode is a Consultant at Teleios Consulting; a  Brand Consultancy with competencies in Brand Strategy, Social Media & Communication. He can be reached through deolakayode@gmail.com.

Social web is the future, web 2.0 is the precursor to this future and Facebook seem to have captured the future. Back in 2004, Google disrupted email services, though it is still not the number email provider but its entrance disrupted the industry big time and raised the bar. While Google was busy changing the world, Mark Zuckerberg was in his dorm room thinking about a connected world and how he can make it happen. Mark like every other nerds, would have dreamed of working for Google but with a better dream of a connected world, he’s now a big threat to almighty Google.

Google yesterday changed the term of service for its Gmail contact export service to denied Facebook access to the contacts of its users.

In 2007, the hype was everywhere about Facebook. Today, Facebook now has close to 600 million users using the site everyday. Also, with the ever-mounting data being uploaded unto Facebook, it is now showing that Facebook could be the most preferred advertising destination for everyone in the nearest future.

Google on the other hand have tried so hard to crack the social web market but has failed to do so. Well we still have much to expect as Google is rumoured to be working on a new social network “Google Me”.

Why the fight?

Data! Data!! Data!!! The more information in the hand of either of these companies, the more the money they can make in the long term. Open Email API is one of the Key factors that brought about geometrical growth of Facebook but now Google sees Facebook as being too close while reaping benefits of openness. Facebook allows you to extract your contact from your email account (Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail) while not allowing you to extract your social graph from it. Also with a deal Facebook recently signed with Hotmail and Yahoo to use its users contact, it is directly reducing the possibility of a viable competitor and threatening Google’s gold mine.

Can Google Win this battle?

Well, I doubt it! First off, it is rather too late to resolve to this strategy as a massive 500 million user is enough to extract more data from (and grow). At the start, Google didn’t see Facebook as a competitor, if it had, it would have done so long ago and Facebook wouldn’t have been this powerful.

Yea… Google is pointing the Gun directly at Facebook but it seem to me….it is a rubber-bullet and may just not hurt much!

Photo: technologynewsportal.com