Sky Interactive US Election Map - how it might look on Facebook

Sky News just launched a funky interactive election map for the US elections - you make your predictions, compare with current polling and you can review the results of past elections - all in a nice Flash format on their site.

However, being a social animal, I don’t live on the web any more - I expect more from my online media. In particular I want it to be social - what do my friends think? What are my US friends voting? This would make it much more interesting.

So I’ve mocked up, Toby style, a screenshot of how I’d socialise the interactive map. I can see which friends are in which States and (if they let me) see who they’re supporting. I can see what they are predicting and we can discuss politics amongst ourselves.  I can even filter supporting intentions by all of Facebook, my network and by my friends.

With Gordon Brown on the ropes there must be a UK version in the pipeline soon - food for thought for those clever people at Sky News…

On my amiando ticket to a techcrunch event on Thursday that I printed from my PC I found there was a funny deranged chess board pattern in top right corner.

Sticking my camera barcode reader onto it I found I could “read” it and discover the underlying number.

Turns out its called a “QR Code” and is a type of mobile phone friendly bar code.

It works by scanning the code into your phone which converts into either a long number, a telephone number or web address.

To try it use the QR Code above:

1. See if your mobile phone supports QR Codes (Nokia N82, N93, N93i, N95, N95 8GB, E66, E71, E90 or 6220 Classic)

2. Go to applications / Barcode

3. Open your camera shutter

4. Point it at the QR code at the top of this post until it registers

5. Go to the URL and see the funny picture.

I tried this for the first time today and it worked fairly well.

I guess this would suit an offline media campaign where you want to direct response to a complex URL.

So say for example say I was advertising Mamma Mia on DVD I could include the following QR Code on the billboard. 

In theory it will let you Pre-order Mamma Mia on DVD for £12.98 and save £9.01.

Unfortunately I found that this particular QR code was too big for my phone to read. It’s also a bit fiddly to get working in real life. Let me know if you have more luck!

However it does save on typing and is faster than typing out a long URL on your mobile phone.

To create  your own QR Code go to http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Duncan Arbour, from Lbi, gave a great presentation at the London Garage last night. Very much declaring that the emperor has no clothes when it comes to Facebook Apps and Pages as pure virals. Just not enough take up.

“If people wouldn’t wear your brand on a t-shirt, then they aren’t going to stick it on their Facebook profile” said Duncan.  He also said that social media is as “immersive as TV” and we were just in the early days.

I like to think of Facebook Apps as a magazine.  When a client comes to us I tell them to think in terms of “launching a new publication” - get a design which you stick with, structure it (the rules and features of the app), fill it with content (some professional but mostly user-generated) and interweave ads to pay.  

I0% of your “readers” will become the journalists and add content while 90% remain “lurkers” - happy to see what their friends have been up to and maybe occasionally comment. The editor is nowhere to be seen except in the rules of the application which structure user generated content into a digestible format for others. This is social media in action.

It’s a far cry from the “brochure” metaphor which is how brands approach web sites and micro-sites. A magazine is obviously more expensive an enterprise than a brochure; requires more long term investment, forces you to consider distribution but the benefits of a committed readership (or user base) will pay off.

 Here at Nudge we’ve just launched our new app together with Picasso Pictures - Spotted! - in public beta mode - which seeks to be the online application equivalent of Hello!, Heat or OK magazine.  Only in the Spotted! world the IT girls and high society flyers are your friends who have brushed shoulders with the stars.

We’ve started it with some basic features and sections - we’ve interwoven celebrity adverstising and its only on Facebook for now. If you’ve spotted, chatted to, hugged or kissed a celebrity recently then this is the place to share your spots with your friends. Try it:

http://apps.new.facebook.com/getspotted