Twitter's Mitro Acquisition Could Yield Better Targeted Ads

A few years after the purchase of location-aware app maker Mixer Labs, Twitter has acquired password-security start-up Mitro to collaborate on geo-related projects.

Twitter has inked a deal to acquire password manager start-up Mitro, which will be joining the microblogging service's location team in New York, and potentially helping the platform deliver better targeted ads.

Mitro's primary service allows users to share online passwords or manage passwords from a single account.

However, in the agreement, Twitter says it will keep Mitro's service as it is. And, as another component of the deal, Mitro will release a new free and open source password manager to its clients.

Interestingly, it seems Twitter will not integrate Mitro's password-sharing technology, as the start-up said in a statement that the two companies will be more likely to collaborate on a number of geo-related projects.

Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Since Twitter declined to provide details about these projects, it's too early to tell how Twitter will apply the geolocation technology.

However, industry insiders predict Twitter can use it in two ways: To generate more relevant content and to deliver better targeted ads or promotions.

"Twitter can use geolocation technology to boil up greater content of interest," says Jason Burby, president of the Americas at global digital agency Possible.

For example, if a user is at a sporting event like the World Cup, Twitter can use geolocation technology to identify where the user is and deliver World-Cup-related tweets to the user, he says.

"And based on where users are, and where they have been, Twitter can better target and deliver relevant advertising to consumers as well," Burby adds.

The acquisition of Mitro is similar to Twitter's Mixer Labs deal back in 2009. In December of that year, Twitter purchased the start-up, which created a GeoAPI product to help app makers know where their users were. Twitter integrated this geo-tagging technology to enable users to add location tags to their tweets.

Founded in 2012, Mitro was backed by $1.2 million in seed funding from Google Ventures and Matrix Partners.

(via)

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Uber to Airbnb: what can B2B learn from the prosumer model?

Piggy-back on consumer habits

Uber Garage is the innovation lab of Uber, the private hire car app.

The Garage came up with UberRUSH in April 2014, a courier service based on the same principles of private hire.

One of the obvious plus points for UberRUSH as it faces competition in New York is the number of users already familiar with the Uber interface.

The RUSH services sits on another tab in the app, making it instantly familiar to a large swathe of users.

The lesson for B2B companies is that a service should treat business prospects as consumers, not as prospects to add to a marketing funnel.

Mirror consumer facing interfaces, make the UX as familiar as possible, and allow me to do everything quickly without making a phone call.

Treat business customers with consumer levels of respect

Traditionally, B2B has been less transparent than B2C. Whether it be pricing or promises. That’s perhaps to be expected when talking about service propositions.

But increasingly corporate and consumer are merging thanks to increases in subscription based services on the consumer side and the decline of on-premise on the business side.

What this means in B2B is that talking to customers in a frank manner is advantageous.

Here’s a tiny and simple example from UberRUSH. Pricing is transparent, too, as opposed to many couriers that agree on a rate.

Understand consumer trends in the workplace

A more relaxed or flexible corporate environment is also shown in travel. Airbnb is looking to push into the business and hospitality markets.

Forbes reported that Concur, a corporate tool for expense and travel management, has seen an uptick in vacation rentals now surfacing on expense reports.

Whether it be buying Apple TVs for meeting rooms, or a grocery run from a supermarket, there are likely businesses using your consumer services without you knowing it.

Shout about the good things you do

Branding is something that B2C companies are traditionally better at than B2B, as so much of B2C depends on first impressions and relationships are more fleeting.

Shouting about the good things your company does can be done as part of this positioning. It’s not a cheap tactic, it’s merely an extension of that consumer facing mentality.

Look at the below. UberRUSH does a great thing for charity. It should make this apparent and does. Yes, there may not be a direct business benefit to the business customer (aside from meeting CSR goals) but appealing to the person in procurement and their values is a happy side effect of merely talking about this kind of activity. It’s what companies like Unilever, with its Project Sunlight, do all the time.

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Facebook Testing “Hover Metrics” And Other New Behavioral Data Collection

Earlier this week the head of Facebook analytics, Ken Rudin, said that the company may begin capturing even more data about how users behave on the social site. The data collected could include minute interactions or more specialized information than has previously been tracked.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Rudin told a conference in New York that the company would potentially be collecting data on, for example, cursor movements and “hovering”:

The social network may start collecting data on minute user interactions with its content, such as how long a user’s cursor hovers over a certain part of its website, or whether a user’s newsfeed is visible at a given moment on the screen of his or her mobile phone, Facebook analytics chief Ken Rudin said Tuesday during an interview.

Facebook is testing various scenarios. It’s unclear whether any of them will be implemented, however. The additional behavioral data, including “hover” metrics, could be used for both site design and ultimately ad-targeting purposes.

Even if adopted it’s unlikely that any of these micro-metrics would find their way into explicit ad targeting or analytics from a marketer perspective. Quite the opposite: Facebook has been trying to streamline its advertising programs. Along those lines the company recently introduced a simplified ad creation flow using a marketing objectives-based framework.

The company has been criticized for not delivering more clarity around ROI to marketers. Accordingly Facebook is trying to simplify and offer new ROI tools that make advertiser value more obvious and transparent.

(via)

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Durex Didn’t Practice Safe Facebook

A social media crisis management lesson

Social media polls and contests are great ways to both interact with your existing fans and gain new ones, but a recent Durex campaign gone-wrong demonstrated why you need to set firm boundaries before you start.

Here’s the story, from an ABC News article by Alan Farnham:

Durex recently asked its Facebook followers to pick which city they thought should get Durex SOS Condoms, which, according to the company’s website, are provided on a rush basis to customers via a smartphone app.

According to Durex’s website, London (with 594 votes) did not win. Nor did Paris (688), New York (363), or Kuala Lumpur (1,420). Tuscaloosa wasn’t even in the running. Pranksters, according to Bloomberg, swung the vote to Batman (1,731), capital city of a conservative Muslim province in Turkey, where condoms are unwelcome.

The mistake that led to Durex’s need for crisis management? No boundaries! Instead of listing an assortment of major cities around the globe, Durex allowed voters to choose any city they wished, leaving the door wide open for online pranksters (we’re looking at you, Reddit and 4chan) to coordinate Batman’s victory.

Durex didn’t even try to salvage this mess, instead scrapping the SOS campaign altogether and telling Bloomberg reporters that its social media efforts, “will move on to a new sphere.”

Any time people can take part in something anonymously, there are bound to be at least a few involved purely to stir up trouble. Before launching a public participation project, think to yourself, would a troll see opportunity here? If the answer is yes, then you have more boundaries to set.

(VIA)

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