Amazon Launches Video Streaming Service

In January I wrote about Amazon buying a popular European movie streaming service, and how many of us were assuming this meant Amazon would soon be entering into the video streaming business.

Apparently "soon" meant about a month, because Amazon has officially released a video streaming service for their prime members. Although a prime membership on Amazon costs $79 per year, the video streaming service is free, which is a great additional feature.

For those debating whether to go with Netflix, Hulu or Amazon for their streaming needs, that $79 per year makes Amazon the cheapest of the three, at about $6.60 per month.

The downside of Amazon's service right now boils down to two things: clunky navigation and less titles than their established streaming counterparts.

However, I expect Amazon to tweak their system a little bit over the next couple of months, and this is a big first step for the online retailing giant in gaining a solid foothold in the Netflix/Hulu video streaming conglomerate.

32% of Local Businesses Use Facebook Places

Due to its low price point (free), Facebook is obviously a route that many small, local businesses have wanted to pursue in a still-recovering economy.

But Facebook-adoption rates among those local businesses is actually much higher than I would've guessed, with a recent MerchantCircle report showing that 70% of local businesses are using the world's largest social network.

While 70% may not seem like a completely overwhelming number given how prevalent Facebook is nowadays, it's still a 20% increase from last year. That's a significant jump, and a sign of where small business marketing priorities are.

Another interesting stat from the report is that 32% of local businesses are utilizing the Facebook Places check-in feature, while 9% use Foursquare. At first glance, this appears to be simply Facebook Places outpacing Foursquare. However, I see two takeaways here:

1. Facebook's stature and popularity are paving the way for new users to enter the location-based arena, making Facebook Places a desirable option for location-based marketing.
2. Marketing and business interest in location-based marketing is much larger than general consumer interest. All of the statistics I've seen on location-based networking point to an adoption rate right around 5-8%, which is less than the usage rate by local businesses and much less than their use of Facebook Places.

All in all, this is great news for location-based networking as a whole. If the numbers in this report are correct, about 40% of local businesses are utilized location-based services. So although the general population isn't using it as much, that number could grow.

Axiom is Hiring!

Axiom is looking for a social media manager that has the experience to create online campaigns and the management skills to execute them flawlessly. The position will focus on video production and social media relations. Responsibilities will include:

• Brainstorming and campaign development
• Managing a small team of interns
• Develop blogger and online journalist relationships
• Create new online metrics for results reporting
• Account management and daily client contact
• Manage Axiom Marketing Communications social media strategies
• Write and distribute traditional press releases, media alerts and fact sheets as needed
• Travel to relevant blog conferences to create and solidify relationships
• Plan, coordinate and execute events

Think you have what it takes to join the Axiom team? Get all of the details here to apply.

Video Post: Texting Still A Titan

With the prevalence of social media, you'd think that Twitter and Facebook would easily be the most-used feature on smartphones. However, based on a recent Deloitte report, that's not the case. In fact, the study found that far more smartphone users texted than trafficked social media sites. I look into this and more in today's Daily Axioms Video Post.

Oreo's Chances at World Record Not Wayne-ing

Yesterday Oreo announced their plan to break the Guinness World Record for most Facebook likes in 24 hours. It wasn't necessarily huge news, mostly due to the fact that it's a social media-based record rather than a cookie-based record (World's Largest Oreo? Count me in!).

Oreo worked closely with Guinness, who set the bar at 45,000 likes for the 24-hour period. Oreo was easily able to beat that mark, ending with 114,619 likes for their single post. Guiness awarded them with the record and Oreo was officially recognized on Guinness's website.

Seems pretty cut and dry right? Wrong.

Unfortunately for Oreo, the record does not come without a much-publicized caveat, thanks to rap superstar Lil Wayne, who decided to try and break the same record at the same time as Oreo. 

The issue is that Lil Wayne crushed Oreo's 114,619 likes by getting over 500,000 likes of his own. This means that Oreo still did break the record, but they only held it for about 4 hours.

The other side to this is that Lil Wayne didn't register with an official Guinness World Record adjudicator, so the record may or may not be counted. However, Guinness addressed the situation on its blog, saying:

We are, however, aware of Lil Wayne’s attempt for the same record which is currently ongoing. Guinness World Records will review any applicant’s evidence once they have completed their attempt, which in this case is at the end of the 24 hour period.

What that means has yet to be seen, but we should hear in the near future. The other big takeaway is that while promoting a social media record attempt online is usually a good idea, you run the risk of others trying to one-up your efforts.