Facebook Late to the Check In Game

This article is interesting, no matter how mislead. Will a FB checkin app get good traction out of the gate? Well, of course it will. FB has the biggest social pool to pull from, but lets not fool ourselves, FB has never been a geo-targeted application. Not to mention, several years late to the party. Good reading none the less.
buisnessinsider.com – One of New York’s hottest startups, Foursquare, is under heavy fire from more established Silicon Valley players.

A source briefed on the matter tells us Facebook is working on a feature that will allow users who access the network from mobile devices to “check-in” and broadcast their current location to all their friends.

Huge local business reviews site Yelp rolled out a similar “check-in” feature earlier this month.

Allowing users to “check-in” is Foursquare’s primary function.

Facebook, with its huge scale and wealth of engineering talent, could squash Foursquare. Mainly, that’s because like with Foursquare — and unlike with Yelp or Twitter — Facebook friends are your real friends. They are the kind of people you want to see that you’ve checked-in at a bar, and then meet you there.

We’d caution that this is a single source and that plans can always change. At a place like Facebook, lots of things are always being hacked together, but no one is ever quite sure what will make it as a full release product.

Read the rest at buisnessinsider.com.

Coca-Cola Social Media during Superbowl

adweek.com – Coca-Cola today launched a social media campaign on Facebook that teases its upcoming Super Bowl commercials while raising funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Through Coke’s Facebook fan page, members can send friends virtual gifts of Coke — a bottle image that appears on their profile pages and newsfeeds. In return, senders get 20-second previews of the new commercials the beverage giant plans to air during the Super Bowl. Coke donates $1 to the Boys & Girls Clubs for each gift sent. At noon on game day, Feb. 7, gift-givers will receive both full ads before they are revealed to the general public on the CBS broadcast that night.

“By using our Super Bowl ads to invite people to join us in supporting Boys & Girls Clubs, we’re going beyond simply airing great commercials on a terrific live television event,” said Katie Bayne, CMO of Coca-Cola North America. “We’re reminding people that whenever they enjoy a Coca-Cola, they play a role in helping us make a difference in the lives of others. By opening a Coke they create a happiness multiplier.”
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SF Guardian Lies Again

businessinsider.com – In a Bloomberg piece posted earlier today, reporters speculated that the Village Voice, a New York alternative newspaper, might face backruptcy court soon. Reporters spoke with lawyers from both sides of the court cases and added detailed analysis below a headline: “Village Voice May Face Forced Bankruptcy in Ad Fight.”

Michael Lacey, executive editor of Village Voice Media, just sent out a letter in response to reports that the paper was about to face bankruptcy court.

The false, inaccurate smear published by Bloomberg News regarding Village Voice Media litigation is outrageous. There is no bankruptcy proceeding against Village Voice Media or any of its publications nor are there legal grounds to bring one.
Read the full article at: businessinsider.com