Switching Teams: Why Facebook Places Might be Worth a Second Look

Without a doubt, the office favorite here at Axiom is Foursquare. If any of us use Facebook Places, it's rare and infrequent--in opposition to some staffers' obsessions with checking in daily on Foursquare. First Facebook took MySpace, then it took our beloved chatting services MSN & AOL, and now we're about to witness its first real attempt to take down our favorite location-based social network.

So what did Facebook Places do to make us take a closer look? They combined it with our nation's newest obsession: local deals. Simply titled "Deals," the service will provide four different special offers available only through Facebook Places. Individual Deals will offer a single deal just for you, while Friend Deals will allow you and a buddy to be in on the savings. Loyalty Deals will be similar to Foursquare Mayorships for frequent customers, and Charity Deals will allow you to donate to a particular cause.

And of course, in true Facebook fashion, every time you cash in on a deal it pops up on your newsfeed.

What does this all boil down to? Where Foursquare held the monopoly in the location-based marketing arena, they now have a direct deals competitor with a social networking giant. Sure, Facebook doesn't have the bragging rights that can only come from a legit Foursquare Mayorship, but with brands like Chipotle and GAP already signing onto Facebook Deals, there might be reason to switch.

Virtually Fired

Some of you may remember this summer’s run-in with Axiom’s own Foursquare Cheater. Some unknown user had checked into the Axiom offices often enough to steal the mayorship from an employee.

It just so happens this employee is very competitive and did not appreciate the virtual lies.

After a few emails to Foursquare urging them to reconsider their security system, we finally learn that they’ve granted businesses the authority to fire fake mayors. According to Foursquare representatives: 

Yesterday we gave verified business owners the ability to oust a Mayor if they have reason to believe the Mayorship was not gained through legitimate check-ins. If a Mayor is flagged by a business owner, they’ll be removed from office immediately and the next user in line will take over as Mayor.

That’s right. Businesses can now go all Donald Trump over cheaters, given they’re paying enough attention to know who’s legitimate and who isn’t. Even though this hardly matters for an office such as Axiom, I imagine it will cause quite a stir amongst bars and restaurants that are offering mayoral perks. But what happens if a newly-fired mayor was let go by mistake? What if the next in line causes a fuss over the legitimacy of a mayorship? Will businesses need to listen to this back-and-fourth rivalry to ensure their mayors are authentic?

Even though I was able to earn the Axiom mayorship back by old school check-ins, I don’t know if firing mayors is helping or hurting the issue. Nothing says 'don’t patronize my business' more than virtually getting fired.

Axiom Brings Home the Daveys

Not long after Axiom was awarded with a Gold MarCom for our 1K Country Adventure campaign with Country Inns & Suites, we learn we are also being recognized with two Davey Awards!

We're proud to share that our 1K Country Adventure campaign was awarded with a Gold Davey in the Online Marketing Effectiveness category. In case you missed what the campaign was about, here's a recap from our esteemed videographer.



We also won a Silver Davey for our Toro Facebook video titled, "How Old is Your Toro?" The video was created to showcase the durability and longevity of Toro mowers, and we were blown away with the number of responses.



We're all honored to have received awards for our work, especially from the International Academy of the Visual Arts and the Davey Awards.

To see more of our award-winning work, visit us online at www.axiomcom.com.

Foursquare Adds a Dose of Duper with New Swarm Badges

When I first signed up for Foursquare, my sole mission was to unlock the once-elusive Super Swarm Badge. I still remember hitting refresh over and over as I watched the number of other people checking in slowly grow until at last it peaked at 253 people.

But the pride I felt for that 250-person accomplishment dwindled with each subsequent check in at a baseball game (with 300 other people), concert (400 other people) or music festival (with over 600 people checking in).

Every one of those massive check ins made my just-barely-qualifying 253 person check in seem downright puny, and I longed for Foursquare to add some new Swarm badges.

Finally, my location-based prayers have been answered with the introduction of Super Duper and Epic Swarm Badges. The Super Duper Swarm Badge is for groups of 500 users checking in at the same place and the Epic Swarm Badge is for when 1,000 or more users get together.

With a user base just hitting 4 million and growing fast, it seemed it would only be a matter of time before we saw larger Swarm Badges.

Now I just need a ticket to SXSW and I'll be all set, because you can be sure Foursquare is anxious to make a big return to the event that launched it to the forefront of location-based social networking.

Questionable Moves by Google Worth a Second Look

Usually when I talk about recent developments from Google, it's in reference to some big announcement or new feature and why it is/isn't a good idea. But today, I'd like to switch things up a bit and talk about a couple non-product issues that have come up over the past 24 hours that I found interesting.

The first was a story from TechCrunch about MySpace getting ripped on the discussion forum Quora when a user asked whether or not MySpace will be able to recover. Not so bad, right? But what was surprising was that one of the answers came from Google's VP of Corporate Development, who responded with a very sarcastic "Is this a real question?"

The reason this caught my attention is that Google is a major advertising partner with MySpace, so I'm surprised that Google would publicly criticize them. But is this a sign of an upcoming split, or Google simply being realistic?

The second move by Google yesterday was the announcement that new Flickr users will now be able to use their Google account to sign in, rather than using/creating a Yahoo account. My main criticism of this move is the fact that existing Flickr users still have to use their Yahoo account (which I only use to get into Flickr, usually after 3 or 4 failed attempts because I can never remember my Yahoo login info!)

My personal criticisms aside, there is one other huge reason people are questioning this move; Google owns Picasa, a direct competitor with Flickr. At first I agreed with these critics, but let's face it: Flickr is the gold standard of photo-sharing and Picasa is a distant second. So in many ways this a win-win, because Google will keep people from creating new Yahoo accounts to use Flickr while Yahoo will get more people to use Flickr instead of Picasa.

Both of these moves by Google show that even the little moves a company makes can have a major ripple effect.