Man vs. Food Uses Facebook Ads, Video & Poll to Kick Off New Season

Last week, I wrote about Starbuck's using Facebook Polls and Facebook's Top Pages (both all-time and daily growth). Here is another example of a rich, interactive campaign through Facebook: Travel Channel's Man vs. Food. The new Man vs. Food season begins tonight - and in preparation, the Travel Channel is running a major campaign through Facebook that includes:

- Sponsored ads - RSVPs and calendaring for the season premier - Interactive polls related to the food challenge - High-quality video trailers with in-video ability to "like" I am really impressed by the video quality - which is outstanding and runs smoothly and without any interruption. It is also the first time that I have noticed an ability to "like" from within the video.

Has it worked? The Man vs. Food fan page now has ~60,000 fans and tonight's RSVP has had another ~60,000 responses.

The inclusion of friends' names who also have RSVP'd gives the advertisement a more personal, communal feel.

Not exactly an impactful, insightful poll (or set of data) - but it is engaging, grabs the eye and led me to play the video.

The video quality is fantastic.

And the ability to "like" the video while watching it makes it viral by appears within my news feed.

Joining Polaris Ventures Partners

I am excited to announce that, starting Monday, I will be joining Polaris Venture Partners and will work out of the Dog Patch Lab on Pier 38. Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to get to know the Polaris team and I am eager to begin working with them in a different capacity. I have enjoyed my time at eBay, Widgetbox and beRecruited, but have always wanted to move into venture. My two questions were: what is the right them and where is the right fit. Polaris is certainly the right fit and the timing is particularly exciting because I will be based in the Dog Patch Lab - a vibrant collection of entrepreneurs and start ups on Pier 38 off of Embarcadero (portfolio company LOLapps and ThingLabs launched here). The lab is operated by Polaris and focused at connecting entrepreneurs and helping founders conceive and build startups.

If you read this blog, you know my interests: consumer internet, digital media, mobile and social media. I will also enjoy being exposed to other investment areas as Polaris is diversified across industries and stages: life sciences, growth equity and technology.

If you would like to tour the lab or find a time to meet, drop me a line!

Stay tuned for more information on events at the Dog Patch Lab (many are coming). You can find more about Polaris, the portfolio and the lab at:

- PolarisVentures.com - VCMike (Mike Hirshland): Blog, Twitter - RyanSpoon.com: Blog, Twitter, Facebook - TechCrunch: Polaris & Dog Patch Labs - Xconomy.com: "Dog Patch Lab - An Entrepreneur's Kennel"

Top Facebook Pages: All-Time vs. Today's Top Gainers

InsideFacebook's PageData tool is useful in understanding trends in Facebook usage, marketing and pop-culture. It is also a powerful way to track a brand's success on Facebook - and if they are engaging in marketing efforts, a way to track the efficacy of that campaign. Compare the top 15 Facebook pages of all-time and of the last 24 hours (measured by total fans and fans added, respectively). Notice that the major difference between the two lists is the mix of brands vs. celebrities:

All-time Leaderboard: 4 brands (Facebook, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, YouTube); (Mafia Wars & South Park could also be considered)

Today's Top Gainers: 7 brands (Ralph Lauren, Kohl's, Harry Potter, Kellog's Pop-Tarts, Facebook, Herbal Essences, A Perfect Getaway); (Mafia Wars, Sooty & Sweep and Texas Hold'em could also be considered)

Not only are there more brands in today's top 15 Facebook pages, but Ralph Lauren and Kohl's represent the top two positions and 47% of the new fans added. It suggests that:

- users have a natural, organic affinity for celebrities (not shocking - 6 of top 7 pages are celebs) - brands are experimenting on Facebook and are increasingly focused in engaging fans (also not shocking) - marketing plays a significant role in Facebook page growth. Ralph Lauren, Kohl's, Pop Tarts and the Perfect Getaway (an upcoming movie) are likely engaged in on-Facebook advertising campaigns

It will be interesting to revisit data for these Ralph Lauren, Kohl's and Pop-Tarts and see if these bursts in usage equate to long-term, organic user-growth.

Introducing RandiSpoon.com

My sister Randi Spoon is a very talented fashion designer. She just graduated from Syracuse University and their College of Visual and Performing Arts. Her portfolio is now available on her new website, RandiSpoon.com. Enjoy:

The site was designed by Eric Hikade, co-founder of InGameNow and founder of EHIK Design

World Record Holder Gemma Spofforth is a beRecruited.com User

This week, as world records crumble at swimming's World Championships in Rome, Gemma Spofforth took home a gold medal and a world record in the 100 meter backstroke (today she is competing in the 200 backstroke). While her swimming accomplishments are certainly exciting - her story is also interesting because she, like 100,000s of other athletes, was a beRecruited user. The 21 year-old is from Portsmouth, UK and used beRecruited to find an athletic scholarship. It is another example of how beRecruited is helping athletes of all abilities and all geographies connect with coaches, athletic programs and scholarships:

After going on the website, berecruited.com, which offers scholarships to American universities, Gemma had to choose between going to university in either Florida or Hawaii.

She picked the University of Florida and flew out to America in 2006 to take up her place in the competitive swim programme there.

Gemma will soon begin her fourth and final year at the university, but is expected to remain across the Atlantic after she graduates as she focuses on getting ready for the Olympics in 2012.

You can read more about Gemma Spofforth in today's Portsmouth News And you can watch her world record-setting performance on YouTube.

iPhone App Store: Top 25 Game Developers Evenly Distributed

Great blog post from Flurry about the ecosystem of iPhone Application developers and how it differs from other mobile storefronts: "Rise of the New Middle Class - Indie iPhone App Developers, Part I". If you are interested in the iPhone App store and/or mobile game development, it's a great read. The high level takeaways:

- The ecosystem of game developers is much different between app stores - The iPhone App store is very balanced: 24 of the 25 top paid game developers each represent 3%-4% of the publisher share - In contrast, AT&T's Media Mall is very unbalanced: EA represents 36%, Namco 12% and Gameloft 12% - Similarly, the balance of developers is different between platforms... what Flurry is calling the new "middle class" on iPhone Apps - Finally pricing and inventory (...and developer communities) differentiate the platforms and top game developers:

EA Mobile is notably absent from the App Store Top 25 snapshot. However, this can be somewhat attributed to the fact that several of their titles are priced at signficantly higher price points, between $4.99 and $9.99

Gaming is the dominant category within the iPhone App store - representing 19% of applications. It would be interesting to see if these trends hold up in other major categories like Books (14%), Entertainment (10%) and Utilities (7%). I assume that is coming in Part II of Flurry's post.

Bitly + Twitter Has Driven 350,000 views to Youtube's JK Wedding

In less than a week, Youtube's hit video "JK Wedding Entrance Dance" has been viewed over seven million times (and nearly 1.5m times in the last 24 hours). So what does that look like on the real-time web? And how much traffic have Bit.ly and Twitter sent?

One of the reasons I love Bit.ly is because of its transparency and ability to deliver meaningful analytics. For a given URL, you can see a page's real time traffic, referrals and geographic usage (all of which originated with a Bitly URL).

350,000 of the JK Wedding's 7m views arrived from Bitly alone. That is 5% of the video's views.

Even as the video's virality slows down, that is still 25-50 clicks per minute:

And Twitter.com represented over half of the traffic. Facebook was only 20,000 visits (but the video of course can be embedded directly into Facebook - Bitly's normal use case on Facebook is through the Twitter app integration):

Proof enough that this video was a viral hit: it collected 5,000+ Diggs and over 800 retweets on Tweetmeme... and that is from a Youtube embed off Youtube.com (outspokenmedia.com).

YouTube Immediately Boosts Sales of Chris Brown's Forever

Much has been made of YouTube's ability to monetize... but the most viewed video of the week (the JK Wedding Entrance Dance) clearly drove sales - boosting Chris Brown's 'Forever' into the seventh most purchased song on iTunes. Considering the recent public outcry against Chris Brown (who essentially went into PR hiding), the sudden popularity is even more impressive:

The video captures a wedding party's entrance dance set to Chris Brown's 'Forever'. The video is less than a week old and already has 5.6m views on YouTube - at least 5m of which occurred yesterday:

Another Opportunity to Learn from Starbucks & Facebook

I write a lot about Starbucks and their social media activity - in part because I drink a lot of their coffee and in part because they are one of the best big brands doing it on the web (don't just take my word for it...). By following Starbucks on Facebook (and Twitter to a lesser degree) you get a sense for: - how a big brand uses social media - how users engage / interact with the brand - how Facebook plays a role in that engagement / interaction The below example showcases Starbucks' integration a new Facebook poll within the feed. While the question is very insightful, the poll is clearly a powerful way to collect targetted feedback and data. Within 24 minutes, Starbucks collected 1,600+ comments, 2,250+ likes and 1,000s of votes.

Equally important, it showcases the types of products that Facebook is working on to help brands connect with users (similarly, Facebooks Ads now integrate ways to drive fans and create polls). Ultimately, advertisers will pay for a fans, engagement, data, etc than for a standard click or pageview: