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Posts Tagged ‘social’
FanCru Is a Sports Social Network With a Twist
Posted on April 25th, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: A place for fans to connect with other supporters of the same teams, find the best places to watch games and get aggregated, team-specific tweets and articles.
Genius Idea: A back end platform for teams, businesses and brands to tap into that concentration of hardcore and cash-strapped sports fans.
With a seemingly ever-growing number of social-based services for sports fans, it can be hard for a startup to stand out. But Fancru co-founders John Wagner and Bill Diamond believe their app has what it takes to rise above the pack — thanks in large part to what outside businesses can do on top of the Fancru platform.
Fancru launched late last year, and has so far attracted about 10,000 users despite “zero marketing and zero PR,” Diamond says. Thursday morning, the company will begin a publicity push with the announcement of its most recently updated iOS app. An Android version is scheduled to arrived soon as well.
“It’s really cool to see how people are engaging because I feel like sports is just so social to begin with and apps overall have had a hard time allowing sports to embrace them,” Wagner says.
Fancru lets sports nuts connect with other fans of the same teams, find the best gathering places to watch games, check scores and other updates, and access filtered feeds of tweets and articles about relevant teams and sports.
The idea was actually born several years ago, when Wagner was a displaced fan of Auburn University living in the Bay Area and trying to find where to watch his favorite team with like-minded supporters. Both tech-industry veterans, Wagner and Diamond began seriously building Fancru in mid-2011.
For all Fancru’s social capabilities, however, the co-founders believe the power of the app’s platform for other businesses is really what sets it apart.
“Our focus is with the consumer but, at the same time, we want to really give teams and brands the ability to reach these fans,” Wagner says.
Fancru’s back end allows others to create their own promotions and features within the app. For example, a team could offer deals on unsold stadium merchandise. A pub could track check-ins to, say, a televised college football game and offer free pints for every fan who once 20 people check in. Fancru already has ongoing promotional deals in place with about 20 bars in the greater New York City area, and has been discussing the possibility of partnerships with sports teams and leagues as well.
“It’s no more complicated than setting up a Facebook account,” Diamond says. “Any bar owner is capable of running these campaigns.”
Do you think Fancru has what it takes for longterm success? Let us know in the comments.
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adamkaz
More About: social networking, sports, Startups
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Bus Rider Jams Loud Cell Phone Calls To Bring Back Social Nicities
Posted on March 22nd, 2012 • Filed under Look • No Comments
A man in Philadelphia frequently uses a handheld device that blocks phone signals to stop conversations that bother him and bring a return of general etiquette.
Read the original post on @PSFK
Is Social Media Actually Making Us Less Connected?
Posted on March 1st, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Checking email during meetings. Shopping on your smartphone in the middle of class. Texting at funerals. These are a few of the examples that MIT professor Sherry Turkle offered during her TEDTalk on Thursday, in which she argued that “technology is taking us places we don’t want to go.”
Turkle, a psychologist who leads MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self, believes that while our constant communication and social media engagement does make us more connected, it’s coming at the sacrifice of real conversation.
And she thinks that will have some serious consequences for our relationships, our self-perceptions and our emotions.
One major issue, she said, is that when we text, email or post to a social networking site, we’re able to project ourselves as we want to be seen. “We get to edit, we get to delete, and that means we get to retouch.”
Inversely, Turkle notes that a face-to-face conversation “takes place in real time and you can’t control what you’re going to say.”
Further, with our phones at our constant disposal, Turkle says we’re only paying attention to the things we want to pay attention to. And that leaves us increasingly disconnected from our friends, family and co-workers as we simply turn to our devices when a conversation no longer interests us.
This creates a situation that Turkle said makes us, “expect more from technology and less from each other.” In the long run, she thinks technology is ultimately headed towards creating a Siri-like program that can offer “companionship without the demands of friendship.”
There’s certainly plenty of data that supports Turkle’s argument. Surveys showing that we’re increasingly texting and social networking during meal time or in the bedroom have become commonplace.
But what’s to be done about it? Turkle isn’t calling for a return to the dark ages of pre-smartphone life. Rather, she says it’s time for us to have a more self-aware relationship with technology. And in turn, we should do things like create sacred places at home and at work where we leave the devices out.
Turkle’s remarks drew an emphatic standing ovation from the TED crowd. But we want to know what you think: Does technology threaten the quality of our relationships and personal development, or are such fears an overblown perception of a generation that didn’t grow up with digital? Let us know in the comments.
More About: psychology, Social Media, TED
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How Much Do Sports Fans Love Social Media? [INFOGRAPHIC]
Posted on February 15th, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments
Sports and social media are a marriage made in heaven. News and score updates break constantly. Heated debate is a big part of the fun. And fans love any chance to interact with the athletes they idolize. But just how much do sports fans love and use social media overall?
The brand-engagement firm GMR Marketing recently conducted a study and came up with interesting results, presented in the infographic below.
According to GMR, people today are 10 times more likely to check the Internet for breaking sports news than they are to turn to sports radio. Slightly more people use Facebook and Twitter than national news websites, at 41% to 40%. By comparison, just 13% said they get their breaking sports news from TV, and 4% from radio.
And it doesn’t matter where fans are; social media lets them get their sports fix in any place, any time. Nearly three quarters of respondents said they’ve checked social media for sports news at a party, nearly 70% during a meal, and 58% said they’ve done so while in the bathroom.
Don’t just take our word for it, though. Check out this infographic and then let us know in the comments what jumped out at you:
Infographic courtesy of GMR Marketing
More About: infographics, Social Media, sports
Read the original post on Mashable!