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Video games see social networks as growth engine – MarketWatch

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By Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — For those wondering when the video-game industry will enter its next console cycle, some argue that the new cycle has already started, with social networks as the next big opportunity.

Such was apparent this week at the Game Developers’ Conference in San Francisco, an annual gathering of video-game designers and publishers. while the event saw some big developments among traditional gaming — most notably, Sony’s new motion-control system — a big theme running through the event was the rapid growth of social networking and the related opportunity for game makers.

The opportunity is big indeed. The largest social-network site — Facebook — alone has more than 400 million monthly users. MySpace, its closest rival, has 100 million monthly users. Those numbers are far above the number of people who own traditional video-game consoles.

“We have a new mainstream mass audience,” Gareth Davis, platform manager at Facebook, said during a panel discussion at GDC. “We think this is a lot of opportunity for game developers to tap into.”

Games are becoming hot property for social networks. The soaring popularity of games such as “Mafia Wars” and “FarmVille” over Facebook has attracted the interest of both game makers and investors looking to pump money into the next Big thing.

Such was apparent at GDC this week. Among the crowd of programmers and designers were venture capitalists, financial analysts and private equity funds, sniffing for opportunities in the market.

These investors are not looking to sink money into the next PlayStation or Xbox game; rather, they are looking for the next Zynga — the San Francisco-based company that makes “Mafia Wars,” “FarmVille” and other social-network games. still privately held, Zynga landed $180 million in funding late last year from Digital Sky Technologies, or DST, the Russian outfit that also bought a large stake in Facebook.

Media reports said the investment gave Zynga a market valuation between $1.5 billion and $3 billion. The company reported 100 million unique monthly users in November, and reportedly has about $250 million in annual revenue.

“Amazingly, there are over 200 million people playing games on Facebook each month, out of 400 million total Facebook users, suggesting a 50% penetration rate,” said Todd Greenwald of Signal Hill Capital, who also noted that more than 500,000 gaming apps have been developed to date.

Competing for gamers — and developers

For game makers, the growing interest among social networks provides a new opportunity beyond the industry’s typical channels — which are largely consoles such as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and associated handheld devices.

These social networks are competing against each other to lure developers — and each offers its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages.

Sony moves toward Wii-like motion

Sony unveiled the details of its new motion-control video game system called PlayStation Move, which is expected to hit the market later this year. MarketWatch’s Dan Gallagher and Walt Mossberg explain why we’re likely to see this technology play a role beyond video games in the near-future.

Facebook offers the largest base of users, by far. Offsetting that is recent developments whereby the social-networking giant will be taking a portion of the revenue generated by games in the form of virtual goods sales. The company has also changed some of its policies that had previously allowed game makers to market their games more aggressively, after several users compared the efforts to spam.

“When you have 400 million people, it’s important to protect the user experience,” Facebook’s Davis said.

MySpace — which runs a distant second to Facebook in terms of market share — is taking a slightly different approach.

Video games see social networks as growth engine – MarketWatch

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• OhGizmo! » Archive » GDC: Sony PlayStation Move Motion Control System
• Mark Pincus on Facebook, the iPad and an IPO | Tech Blog | FT.com
• Jon Worth » Facebook isn’t working
• How to Create a Facebook Fan Page Editorial Guide | Social Media Examiner
• Global Voices Advocacy » Facebook Deactivations
• Lose Your Life Savings on Facebook ~ Chris Pirillo
• Game Retail Store » GDC Vault Adds Free 2D Boy, Bungie Video Lectures
• Activision Files Countersuit Against Video Game Makers | JD Journal
• arcade game makers classic arcade games | Online Arcade Gamez
• The Fantasy Art Of Computer Games | Games Misc | MediaVerso

Report: New York Jets to play host to Thanksgiving game

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The New York Jets accepted the NFL’s offer to play host to the Thanksgiving night game this year, the New York Daily News reported.

The game will kick off at 8:20 p.m. the NFL will make the announcement on Monday at the league meetings in Orlando, Fla., the newspaper said. it will also name the Jets’ opponent for the Monday night opener on Sept. 13.

If the Jets are hosting the late game, then the Detroit Lions will host the New England Patriots earlier in the day. the Lions game is on CBS and the only AFC teams playing at Detroit next fall are the Jets and Patriots.

Report: New York Jets to play host to Thanksgiving game

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Technology Alerts: Mashable: Latest 25 News Updates – including …

Soren Gordhamer is the organizer of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, which brings together staff from Google, Facebook, and Twitter with others to explore living wisely in our modern age. Mashable readers can use code ‘Mashable‘ for a discount when registering.

There have never been more things that call out for our attention: We have tweets to read, Facebook statuses to check, and now Google Buzz updates — not to mention text messages, e-mails, and cell phone calls. And the amount of data is growing each day. Recent reports estimate that the average American consumes 34 GB worth of content a day, including 100,000 words of information.

While this access to information has numerous benefits, learning to live and work skillfully amidst an active social media lifestyle is an art in itself — one that will be increasingly challenging in the years ahead.

When we do not manage our social media life, our attention (the essential element for any task) gets more and more divided, and we end up constantly busy, but not very effective. We find ourselves at the end of the day overwhelmed and fatigued, wondering, “Just what did I actually accomplish today?”

Below are four lessons in staying sane and focused amidst an active social media lifestyle.

1. know the External Reflects the Internal

“The biggest (and hardest) lesson I’ve learned in life is that the external world is just a reflection of the world within.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

One of the essential questions for those of us who live active social media lives is, “Where should I put my attention? How much of my attention should I give to Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, YouTube, or another site?”

However, while the amount of our attention that we give to social media is important, so is the quality of that attention. It is hard to give our full attention to anything when internally we are feeling overwhelmed and unfocused. Our internal state gets mirrored in the external world, so even though we may spend a lot of time on social media sites, it may not be spent productively.

Taking time to settle your mind when you notice yourself off balance or overwhelmed — whether it is through a walk, a visit to the gym, or whatever works for you — can shift the state of your internal world such that you have a greater chance of making your time on social media more effective.

Lesson: Balance the internal before taking action in the external.

2. do One thing at a Time

“When people try to perform two or more related tasks either at the same time or alternating rapidly between them, errors go way up, and it takes far longer — often double the time or more — to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially.” — David E. Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognition, and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan

I know this may sound counter-intuitive, but give it a try. whatever you are doing, put all your attention on that. this means resisting the tendency to multi-task. In fact, a recent study at Stanford found that the more people multi-task, the worse they become at it.

Yes, that’s right — the more you do it, the worse at it you get. the illusion, of course, is that the busier we are, and the more we “do,” the more we accomplish. the research, curiously, paints a different picture.

Instead of checking Twitter or Facebook while also talking on your cell, finish one first, then do the next.

Lesson: put all your attention on whatever you are doing at any given moment.

3. Invite instead of Force

“Do or do not. there is no try.” — Yoda

The idea that the harder we try, the more we will get done, and the happier we will be is a myth. Of course, some effort is needed in any endeavor, but the real question is, “what kind of effort are we putting forth?” We have all likely met people who work like mad at their endeavors, including social media, yet consistently get very few results.

Some time ago I interviewed George Mumford, the sports psychologist who helped Chicago Bulls players during the Michael Jordan era get “in the zone” (he later also helped Los Angeles Lakers players). He said that the first thing he often tells players is that “if they try to get in the zone, they can’t.” instead, it involves an open alert attention, and the same applies to our social media lives.

Trying too hard, whether it is to make a basketball shot, gather more followers on Twitter, or increase sales of a product, creates tension that impedes our work. We cannot force these things, but we can invite them through a balanced, steady effort.

Lesson: Engage with a focused and open attention that invites instead of forces.

4. know where Your Attention is most Needed

“When players practice what is known as mindfulness — paying attention to what’s actually happening — not only do they play better and win more, they also become more attuned to each other.” — Phil Jackson, who has won a record 10 NBA Championships as a coach

How many times have you been talking with someone, and the person’s cell phone rings, and without even knowing who it was or if it was important, the person immediately vacated your conversation to take the call? It was not even a choice. He or she was attentive to you for one second, and then poof! the person was mentally gone the next.

Of course, there are times to take calls and respond via text while with a friend, but if we are not careful in the age of social media, our attention can get bounced around like a ping pong ball, from this call, to that text message, to that tweet, such that by the end of the day we are exhausted. Mindfulness, or attention to the present moment, is lost. We spent our day “chasing,” letting others determine our focus, not choosing for ourselves where to put our attention and attending to the tasks most important to us.

Lesson: Ask yourself where your attention is most needed and direct it there.

Conclusion

In the coming years, the amount information at our disposal is only likely to increase. When Google recently launched Google Buzz, their team addressed the challenges of this information era, saying, “we want to present some tools and techniques to help you manage your attention better.” While this is partly a technological problem, it is also an internal and life balance problem.

The challenge of our time is to live connected and use all the great social media available to us, while at the same time harness and direct our attention where it is most needed at any given time. After all, where we decide to put our attention is, essentially, how we choose to spend our life.

Please let us know in the comments: how do you stay balanced and focused amidst an active social media lifestyle?

More social media resources from Mashable:

- 5 Levels of Effective Communication in the Social Media Age
– Zen and the Art of Twitter: 4 Tips for Productive Tweeting
– The Tao of Tweeting
– 5 Tips for Building Lasting Online Friendships
– 4 Steps for Effective Online Networking

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, webphotographeer.

[Image Credit: Allan Reyes]

Reviews: Facebook, Google Buzz, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto

Tags: advice, buzz, facebook, google buzz, List, Lists, productivity, social media, social networking, texting, twitter

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How to make money online using Twitter and Facebook

Twitter and facebook are the social networking favorites of the web used by a large chunk of the online population. Not only are young college students using these sites but people from all age groups have started using these as a major networking tool. Facebook has millions of Unique Active Users and the site if free for every one to join. There are a number of ways of making money with facebook and the most important is through advertising yourself or your products and services. There is also a advertising feature built into Facebook which works much like Google adwords but only specific to Facebook

Advertisers are using Facebook applications to sponsor their products and services. People can also make purchases of the goods and services offered. One can also earn by writing Facebook blogs and company pages which can help direct traffic to your business site. Facebook will allow you to build repertoire and gain acceptance in your industry. If you are on the computer or web side of business you can also become a Facebook application developer and earn revenue through your app.. If you have the ability to create applications you can get great money by partnering with AdBrite for CPC/CPM ads. One can also start reaching out their communications by using Twitter. Twitter is another way  money with Twitter.

EasyTweets is the important tool for making money through your Twitter account. You can place an ad in the blank space at the end of your message. You can also earn by sending out an advertisement every 20^th or 40^th twitter. If you have some valuable information like news piece or a blog post you may charge a subscription based service by which you can charge an amount to access your account from the users. You can also charge commission for setting up services to buy products from your account. Making money with Twitter in such a way will require users to pay by way of Paypal account or credit card the transaction can occur after the account holder gets the confirmation for the same.

Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Advertising

I have read some articles around social network advertising and thought I’d start a blog of my own to document some experiences I have had with the social network advertising functionality of Facebook.

Advertising on Facebook is relatively easy if you are new to the game. They recently rolled out a newly formatted advertising page that gives you an overview, preparation section, and a step by step guide. They show you the guidelines which they accept for advertisement and make creating an ad pretty simple.

In a nutshell there are two ways to advertise on Facebook. The first is a Cost per Click (CPC) model or what Facebook calls “Pay for Clicks”. The second is a “Pay for Views” strategy. We will discuss both in a breakdown below.

Pay for Click Advertising

This form of advertising allows you to pay only for clicks on your advertisement. It’s a pretty simple theory. You create an ad then allocate your daily budget limits to spend on that ad including the amount you are willing to pay for each click on your advertisement.

Goals and Objectives

Generate Website Traffic

Exposure

Cost per click – Can be Low to Medium

Cost for an impression – Low

Example:

You create an ad that you want to spend $2.00 a day on advertising on Facebook. You allocate a $.20 pay per click on the ad. This gives you 10 clicks on your website a day before your maximum daily budget is reached. Once the daily budget is reached Facebook will stop publishing the ad for that day. Each day the ad will be displayed until the daily budget is reached.  

Pros

This is a good model for online business. You are only going to pay for views of your website. This model also helps you control your advertisement a little better I feel. In reality you are trying to get people to click on your advertisement right? If you want to sell product then you need to translate ad impressions ( we will get to that in a moment) into clicks.

Cons

There are drawbacks to both models. If you have a small daily budget and a low “Pay per Click” allotment on your ad you will not get a lot of impressions. Impressions are the amount of times your ad actually appears on Facebook. Don’t be fooled it does not mean your ad appears anywhere in particular just that it “appears”.  You must also manage your bids constantly to increase the impressions which in turn generate clicks.

How to get those needed impressions

In order for you to get more impressions Facebook makes a recommended bid amount for each ad that you create. I have experimented with this a lot and can give you some pointers. Facebook gives you a suggested bid amount for each ad. I found this varies from day to day. The recommended amount is based on many factors. From what I can see it depends on the ads running that day in comparison to the traffic the site is getting during your advertising hours. If you are trying to get your ad to run in the top sections of Facebook and on the right sidebar the recommended bid amount for the ad is actually low. Most times you will not see your ad appear even though in your management screen, which shows you how many impressions of your ad are being shown, you may see thousands of impressions being made.

What is a Bid?

A bid is the amount you are willing to spend per click. What happens is this. Facebook puts you into a bidding war with other advertisers. Whoever has the highest bid on their ad gets the best visibility on the site. This returns more profit for Facebook logically so it makes sense for them to create the most impressions for the highest bids.

My suggestion  

Give your advertising budget some flexibility. Start out with a $.25 bid on your ad and work your way up. Each time you raise your bid you will see more impressions being generated. I have raised my bid up to $.60 and still have not seen my ad appear. Be careful with this as well. I have noticed more clicks on my ad and my budget being reached must faster at this higher bid level.

Pay For Views

This form of advertisement allows you to create impressions rather than focusing on overall clicks. It is independent of clicks so to speak. You are paying for impressions which are “appearances” on Facebook.

Goals and Objectives

Brand Awareness

Exposure

Cost per Click – High

Cost per Impression –Low

Pros

If you are confident your site will generate many clicks this may be the way to go. This translates into your click per impression ratio. You don’t have to worry about how many times your ad is clicked on so you aren’t paying for them. It works well with viral marketing ads, high traffic sites, popular advertisements, and high profile ads. One good thing is that you can generate large amounts of impressions while controlling the cost to do so.

Cons

Okay, so this sounds great get your add shown to possibly millions of people. Well first question is where the ads are being published. This again goes back to how much you are paying for the impressions. Ever see that “more advertisements” section on Facebook? Your ad may just as well be showing up in the gutter if you don’t pay enough for your impressions. This is costly if you are selling niche products and services.

My Suggestion

Use this method if you want to get your name out but aren’t as concerned with people visiting your site as a result. Brand recognition is important today. You must differentiate yourself from the competition. It is sometimes more valuable to get people thinking about your products and services rather than having them make a purchase that day. Use this for sites you think provide a vast value to many people.

Overall

Both methods offer pros and cons so use your best judgement to pick which one will work for you. Experiment, it isn’t set in stone that you can only advertise one way. If you try both ways you will know for sure which works best for you. Facebook offers some nice guides to getting started. I was actually contacted directly from their staff to assist me in my ad campaigns which was a nice surprise.

Facebook Advertisement in General

To be honest some of my colleagues have told me that they haven’t generated any sales as of yet from Facebook advertisement. It leads me to believe that clicks on the site are taking place only to collect from the advertiser. This is the reality of advertising. Facebook needs to make money and the way they do that is through advertising. It wouldn’t surprise me if people were just sitting around clicking on ads so they get paid.

To access Facebook Advertising visit:

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/

Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Please submit any additional information to us so we can share the experiences and know-how of our reader community.

Thanks,

Mr. Foil