Facebook Location Has Arrived!

Posted by E.M.R. under , , ,
So the location game has changed...again. Facebook, the 500mm behemoth just launched Facebook Places

Will it kill Foursquare and Gowalla? Probably not, Crowley's got some tricks up his sleeve and Facebook telegraphed its move months and months ago.

What it will do is make location mainstream. This is another platform that we'll be pulling into our platform and it will make your experience with NiteFly even richer. We will continue to stay on the cutting edge to deliver you the best experience so you never have to ask "Where are we going next?"

www.nite-fly.com
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NiteFly: Beta (for Promoters and Event Planners)

Posted by E.M.R. under , , , , , , , ,
Where the Magic Happens

Behind the search page you've seen is a powerful event management engine. If you have events you want to get people to and you're not using it...you should be. Don't let the comp expand their networks and throw better parties while you sit stagnant with the same list. But why choose NiteFly?

1) Our UX (User Experience) is designed to help our users make decisions quickly and easily. Rather than complicate those decisions with 10 different events and a paragraph of information each, we'll be taking into account past interest/patronage as well as how events are now to direct users to one or two places they would enjoy at that moment. 

2) You can reach a wider audience quickly and easily using our network. Our goal is to become the online and mobile destination for people looking to find where to go out. Because we take into account location and preference, we will be able to better target your event marketing. We aim to drive foot traffic, not empty RSVP's.

3) Deep Integration with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare to make your life easier. See who's coming by face so you can approve invites to exclusive or "doorman's discretion" events, one stop event management and promotion to all of your Facebook friends, Twitter followers and even your address book contacts. Send texts or emails to any of your contacts and people RSVP'ed to your event with one click.

The Engine Behind the Scenes(http://www.nite-fly.com)
Give it a whirl and let us know what you think. Any questions, comments or concerns? Email me at evan@nite-fly.com

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Everybody Yelling, Nobody Listening: The Future of Location Based Services

Posted by E.M.R. under , , , , , , , ,
Recently, we have seen the dawn of the “Real-Time” and “Location Based” ages. People—myself included—spew vast amounts of relevant and irrelevant information/data bites on sites like Twitter and Foursquare(http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/25/foursquare-push-notifications-for-the-ultimate-in-friend-stalking/). Regardless of whether you want to hear how I just caught the last bus by a second or checked into your mom’s room, I clearly want to talk about it. For that simple reason, this data goes out into the ether to be viewed or not by whoever sees fit.

Twitter took a great step forward by allowing people to share information about what’s happening “now” around them. This effectively creates a second—arguably more relevant—layer of information, enabling real time news and interaction in the moment. Likewise, Foursquare took another great step forward in imposing relevance on ambient information. By creating these “location buckets” where people spatially tied to an area can pipe up and share information, they form networks of interest grounded in reality. It’s actually pretty cool to know that you’ll get a free brew if you check into the pub enough and I would rather avoid the server who takes 45 minutes to bring my snacks with a stank face.

While both excellent and fast growing services, there are many more innovations to come that will change the way we communicate just as these two did. Both companies—in my estimation—are a step towards what the Foundry Group terms the “implicit web” (http://www.foundrygroup.com/wp/2008/03/theme-implicit-web/). At the heart of that concept lies leveraging networks of relevance to contextualize the vast amounts of information poured into you every day. Great idea, but in practice, it is far more difficult than one might imagine. Computers, for all of their speed, are dumb as rocks when it comes to making non-explicit connections and synthesizing imperfect data. The task then is to create better data. New types of data using all of the inputs at your disposal.

The great companies of the past decade first created new types of data (Facebook profiles, Twitter Updates) then scaled, fighting to the death to reach critical mass. We’ve seen this play out with Google v. Yahoo, Facebook v. Myspace, etc. Now we’re living through the “Location Wars” (http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/09/twitter-location-website/) and the main combatants are Foursquare and Gowalla. These companies offer a mashup of mobile, local and social datastreams. The “new data” in this case is where you are, what you’re doing and with who. To be clear, I don’t know nor do I care who wins. What I know, is that "Check-In"--and more abstractly--location based data will soon be a commodity and the player with more scale will win out. The winner will wind up operating as a high level platform/conduit of information. Small Business can’t keep parceling off their deals and people can’t keep checking in to multiple services. It’s downright ineffective. Tech Crunch’s MG Siegler calls it Check in Fatigue (http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/19/check-in-fatigue-location-war/) and I agree.

What interests me about this whole brouhaha is the wave of innovation that will come out of the combined streams of mobile, social, local and real time data. The potential for mashups and innovative products that harness the data for a real purpose is incredible. My bet (and also the reason why I started my company) is that the real winners will be people who dig down into a particular vertical and really master the relationships between users and the spaces (venues in my case) that they interact with.

Specifically, this means:

1) Stand on the shoulders of Giants: Nobody wants to duplicate their profiles or double-post. Use existing social networks like FB & Twitter to harness the data flow without wasting time re-inventing the wheel.

2) “Dig down into a vertical”: Your company should be building and managing relationships with the people in your space. You can’t know every establishment owner across Bars, Bakeries, Coffee Shops, Skate Parks etc. Choose one “type” of establishment and get to know the dynamics of that industry.

i.e. if you’re building a mobile, social, location based product for bakeries then you should know when each shop buys and bakes their bread, which one currently has the toasty bread and how long the lines are at each establishment.

How you get that data can span from user generated, establishment generated to even static data (Foursquare check in % increases and decreases to extrapolate line length, twitter feeds to target specific bakeries to highlights, bake times from the bakers themselves and static data historical data to back everything up). Knowing your users’ patterns can help you build data useful to the bakers (sales drivers…is there a latent population of corporate lunch goers a block away that should be advertised to?) while the bakers provide data useful for the users. This exchange of information--rather than a one sided stream--will be incredibly important. Currently, we have a situation where the users are yelling "I'm Here! I'm Here" and the establishments are shouting "Deal! Deal!" but the mechanisms to connect the two effectively are just not there yet.

3) Advertising by Incentives: Nobody likes standard ads on their phone. Location based advertising needs the kind of quid-pro-quo that’s beginning to become popular through Foursquare. Allow your users to interact with establishments in creative ways. i.e. a sporting goods chain hosts a “race for kicks” where users do verified check ins to one store and another store a couple of miles away acts as the finish line verifying check ins and offering a free pair of running shoes to the first 3 to finish. Maybe those shoes are sponsored by Nike or Asics. There’s a million ways to engage customers, a good platform should always have an idea for establishments to engage customers.

There's my two cents. For my vertical? I choose Nightlife. Why? I’ll explain that next post but suffice it to say, it’s very, very ripe.
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Wired.Com Epicenter Blog Piece

Posted by E.M.R. under , , , , ,
NiteFly was featured in Wired.com's Epicenter Blog: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/apple-allows-location-based-ads-in-apps-with-beneficial-uses/

Check it out, the piece discusses the implications of Apple's recent ruling on in-app location based advertising rules.

Keep your eyes peeled for a St.Paddy's day digest and an invite to a sweet event at the Griffin tomorrow (Wednesday the 17th)!

(www.twitter.com/niteflyinc)
(www.nite-fly.com)
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100's of Happy Hours at your Fingertips...

Posted by E.M.R. under , , , , , , , , ,

We are still in a recession.The way I see it, there should never be a time that I have to pay full price for an early evening drink. With 800+ venues in the city, there has got to be a $3 beer or a $5 rum and coke within 5 blocks of me at all times. Problem is, a lot of times you've got to wander around and maybe wind up in a dive where the percentage chance of broken kneecaps raises above 50%. Never again.

THE TIME HAS COME...

After several fortnights spent toiling in their mountaintop laboratory, our crack team of scientists has come up with the first of many formulas that will lead you to the nearest and best watering holes around Manhattan. You drop an address and we search our database of hundreds of drink specials/happy hours (and counting, we add more every day) to find the best ones nearest to you going on right now or soon.

One text message and at your fingertips are 3 venues within 5 blocks* that either:

1) Are vouched for by a promoter
2) Have a drink special or happy hour
3) Are of the criteria you set (more on that in a moment)
4) Are simply venues within 5 blocks (in the event there are no specials going on at the moment)

How is this done?? We'll leave the astrophysics to the scientists and keep it as simple as possible:

Step 1:

Sign up Here: NiteFly Manhattan Nightlife or in the embedded form at the bottom.

Step 2:

Add "takeoff@nite-fly.com" to your phone's address book. (you can send SMS or email to it, Email replies have more info)

Step 3:

Look out for a confirmation email. Then, send a message formatted like this: @Where you are? to takeoff@nite-fly.com

Examples: @43rd and Lexington Ave? @44 E. 84th St?

Step 4:

Enjoy your drank.

**THE GOLDEN RULE: Every query must begin with an @ and end with a ? or else the booze-bots wont be able to read it for you**

If you want to get fancy with it though, we've got you:

Want a specific type of venue?

Add a #bar, #lounge or #club to your message
(i.e. @45th and 3rd #bar?)

Need the phone numbers to set up a reservation or be a baller and buy a bottle?

Add "+phone" to your message (i.e. @rivington st #lounge?)

Have a hankering for tequila or martinis?

Add $martini, $tequila, $hookah or $anything to your query and we'll let you know if we have it close.** (i.e. @8th and Ave B $hookah?)

If you forget to end with a ? or you have "clumsy fingers", we'll shoot you a quick reminder and just resend it.

So the next question is...where are you going with this? What's the next move? Details on that to come in the next post as we implement but...

1) Twitter and Facebook Integration so you can tell the world where some of the sickest deals are...
2) More Promoted Events, more Venues, more coverage (300 specials more coming within the next 24 hours!)
3) Exclusive Access to "High End" Lounges and Sponsored events
4) Smartphone Apps (Think iPhone, Droid...)

We'll be keeping you guys updated as things progress. For now, let us know what you like and more importantly DON'T like about the SMS service. What would you add? Any and all suggestions are much appreciated!


*We're thinking 5 blocks is walking distance...should we up to 10? Comments much appreciated.
**Soon we are expanding searches across Manhattan so when you want that Jose Cuervo and its not within walking distance, we'll tell you anyway.
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A New Era in Marketing

Posted by E.M.R. under , , , , ,
Do you own/manage/market/promote/chef drinks at a club, lounge, bar, tavern or other type of venue?

Want to multiply the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising?

Sign Up to be a NiteFly Venue and get access to potential patrons who have already shown interest in a venue like yours and are in the area!

(Alpha) Here's how this works:

1) You sign up at the above hyperlink...

2) We come back with some ideas about specials and promotions for NiteFly users.

3) We pow wow, decide on what type of incentives you're going to offer, figure out verification and you join the system.

4) Your incentives/promotions are blasted via SMS to people who've shown interest in spots like yours, are in the area, or both.

5)Take some pictures (or at least try to...), NiteFly nights get a bit wild...

We'll keep making the NiteFly better (i.e. iPhone, BBerry, Android Apps)...you keep serving up the good times...everybody wins.

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What's Next?

Posted by NiteFly under , , , , ,
We've all planned a night out.

It's 4PM on Thursday and the minutes are stretching into hours. Market's closed. Coffee's empty. You are checked out just like everyone else but of course there's a few more hurdles to jump.You shoot off that quick text to a couple friends..."Whats going on tonight?" (or some more colorful iteration). After exchanging 3 or 4 messages, you've got your plan.

--Fast Forward--

It's 8PM, you're 3/4 full of food, 1/4 full of booze...Anybody down to go out? Of course, tomorrow's Friday, you know what time it is. So what's next??

Maybe it's next door. Maybe it's down the block. Maybe it's Uptown, Downtown, Eastside, Westside. What does it matter? The night is young and the world is your oyster.

This junction...where you and your friends go, is the "What's Next?" This is a critical decision point and it affects the course of the rest of the night kinda like R.L. Stein's "Choose your Ending" Goosebumps (I know you remember that if you had a childhood). I know you don't want to wind up being eaten by a werewolf or stuck in a cupboard with haunted tupperwear(It's been a while since I read one, cut me some slack, guy) and there's no backtracking in real life.

NiteFly is the answer to What's Next?

We want to provide you real, useful, contextually sensitive information that helps you to navigate your night, making each stop as fun as possible for you.

So what does this actually mean?

It means that in its prime form, you'll be able to whip out your iPhone (other smartphones eventually), pop open the NiteFly App and get a list of places to go next (drumroll please...) in Real Time.

The list you get takes into account your flavor (i.e. your preferences in nightlife) as you see it and as you do it (where you go and how it is will be taken into account and stored in your profile) and is informed by the scene at venues right now. It will fluctuate according to how the scene at the venue changes meaning that you're always pointed towards fun.

You know that uber-connected friend that always knows where to go for a good time? That's NiteFly.

Of course if you know exactly what you want and that thing is a $4 Margarita within 2 blocks...you got it (If we can find it...if not, there are elves on call)

--REWIND--

So that's the future. We're not talking UFO's future though, this is very, very forseeable. 2009 Forseeable.

Right now? We've got you with all of the happy hour's you can hit. Better yet, we'll generate a list of spots to go to complete with coupons for discounts/deals so you can stretch that buck over a few more cocktails.

Go ahead...get in on the ground floor:

www.nite-fly.com

What features do you want? What would you use most? Check the site, leave us some comments. We just want you to have a good time. (S%&t, I just want ME to have a good time :-)

- E-Ro




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Welcome to NiteFly

Our scientists are hard at work deep in a secret mountain laboratory smashing atoms, ironing neutrons and mixing together impossible combinations of terrestrial elements and cosmic chaff to bring you our greatest creation to date:

The Fun Button

These eggheads are top notch and they're down there with their white coats and their pipettes making the magic happen so that the next bar you hop to looks just like you want it to.

Check out the site in its primordial state...NiteFly


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