My definition of Social Networks - why Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and App.net have authorization being here

App.net - the newest of all activities to "beat" Facebook, to be different, to be the "better" social network. Watching my and others habits, there is finally no "best" or even "better" network.

Let's start with Facebook. For sure it has the biggest audience which means it is and has to be for the masses. It has to serve the most common ground of social interaction, which is having fun and sharing private stuff with a peer group - your friends & colleagues. That's it - Facebook is for leisure.

We have Twitter. Twitter has only 140 characters and has a post awareness beyond 1 hours. By its definition it is meant for real-time and therefore for time-dependes events like the Olympics, TV-Live-broadcast, simply events that happen at a certain moment. Therefore we can conclude: Twitter is for media and real-time.

Let's get to the often called "Ghost town" Google Plus or Google+ which by mistake gets always compared and benchmarked by FB & Twitter. But it is neither of them, Google Plus is perfect for integrated services of Google, perfect to share longer textes and opinions and to discuss longer threads. It is a mixture of a blogging service and a forum, it is more professional and for geeks and nerds then Facebook and it is much more detailed then Twitter and less focused on real-time. Let's face it, Google+ is for writers and meaningful conversation.

The most recent one App.net which at least cost 50$/year for being part of the network and allowed to use it. It is definitely for developers and users that value the freedom of 3rd party companies that want to make money by advertising or other sales activities via the network. Users of App.net want pure communication without disruption and are willing to pay for it. It has for sure the least common ground and compared to others not the goal to reach the greatest mass (because scale and advertising depend each other). App.net is made for very professional discussion and elitear people that value freedom of use.

So - can we stop the whole discussion now what is best? Just pick one, or two or all of them and enjoy being social :)

Friday App-Test: Facebook Camera & Pages, Score, Paper Airplanes

Facebook-Camera app: Despite the upcoming Instagram-Purchase FB decided very surprisingly to offer an own developed camera app. The reason? I suppose this project started month ago before the IG-deal and it simply display the recent development FB has made. What is it good for? Well, it is a very slick and beautiful made app with quick view on all of your friends (not pages or groups) shared and your own pictures. You can share single & multiple pictures and you have a crop feature and 15 filters to "beautify" your photographs. Additionally you can tag, like and comment on all pictures, but that's basically it - very basic, very beautiful but nothing ground-breaking. I expect that this app came to stay and will get all the sexiness and features of the upcoming IG-developments. A nice to have I would say http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-camera/id525898024?ls=1&mt=8

Facebook-Pages app: Another logical "outsourcing" of the FB-App after the Messenger and the Camera app is an app for page administrators. Obviously it is too hard to integrate the admin tool into the old app and FB seems to be focusing on keeping their mobile service slick. The app does as expected: quick and easy access to owned pages, basic input & insights - simply made for the first quick overview. It is expected that features will added very soon and that this is app is also made to stay :) A must have for FB-Page-Admins.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook-pages-manager/id514643583?mt=8

Score (0,79€): I stumbled upon this one because it stayed for some weeks now on the very top of the download charts. It is a beautiful little game that let the user replay very famous soccer goals by passing and shooting as it happened years ago. It is exactly the game you will look for in some weeks when the European Championship has started. Definitely worth a try for all soccer fans :)
http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/score!-classic-goals/id490952152?mt=8

Paper Airplanes: Do you remember, 20 years ago, when you were in school and you built that cool paper airplanes? You forgot? Well - me too! But "there is an app for that ;) Follow the easy instructions and get some youth back :)
http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/how-to-make-paper-airplanes/id479845845?mt=8

Google+ Engagement Still Way Behind Facebook, Twitter

Google+ Engagement Still Way Behind Facebook, Twitter [STUDY]

I was observing the exact same and actually a tremendously decreasing interaction in general within G+ (in my circles)

What do you think? Are you actually "opening" G+ anymore frequently?

Facebook Hits 50% Mobile Users [Infographic]

As seen @socialbakers stats, Facebook has a very good reason to push any mobile activity, because almost 0.5 billion users, which is almost 50% of all Facebook users, are accessing the site via any mobile solution (mobile web, iOS, Android etc.).

This is a very high number given the fact that the mobile offerings are still very limited compared to the desktop site, especially the sharing and filtering is a big pain for the mobile user.

Nevertheless this proves that mobile and social are heavily depending from each other and that we can see a lot more new ideas and creations in this combination.

Happy mobile social world :)

Facebook Hits 488 Million Mobile Users [Infographic]

Google+ iOS app with fresh and beautiful UI

As noted earlier today (http://j.mp/LmvXdt) Google provided its iOS app (only made for smartphones) a really beautiful new UI with a lot of graphical elements that are completily revamped and differ completely from the old version.

In comparison to other social network applications (Facebook et al) this sets a great new standard and proves Google's capability to improve and develop software, especially for mobile.

Unfortunately social networks' UI is only one component of the complete experience and especially the lacking activity of Google+ users is significant low compared to users at Facebook or Twitter etc.

Driving activity to social network applications could be created by a better UI, but social interaction (sharing, messaging, gaming) needs to be pushed harder to get people switch from other networks.

The recent attempt by Facebook to integrate applications and especially mobile apps into theor offerings is exactly a step to keep users even tider to the framework of FB then the UI optimization of G+ for mobile could possibly bring to the table.

Google+: a mobile app with sense and soul

Facebook announced its own AppStore (for desktop & mobile)

This is going to be very interesting: Facebook moves into the territory of Apple & Google (and Amazon) and is offering its own AppStore. Given the amount of time the average online user is visiting Facebook the possibility of success for the Facebook Store (especially for mobile) is very high.

The assumed social component (what apps are my friends downloading etc.) has not been really successfully adopted by the others and might be the critical success factor for the upcoming store.

What will change? Well, basically Facebook will ensure that every app offered has some sort of facebook integration and the login and profile building might even increase. App usage and user interactions are tider linked to Facebook and world domination continues ;)

Introducing the App Center

Facebook offers - the end of Groupon?

I must have overlooked that, but I believe the introduced and now as well tested (with Hellofresh.de in Germany http://j.mp/INVpLX) "Facebook offers" will most likely be the new hub for digital coupons. Friends will easily "inform" you about a new offering and the higher trust to the social network and the brand facebook + the easiness to get the price advantage or offering is really convincing.

The question now is if it needs to have a Groupon to push offerings or is the biggest network of all the logical successor of the coupon game?