“The Mail & Guardian Online nudged you from Facebook! ‘You can now send free SMSs to all your friends worldwide.’ Invite UR Friends 2 Nudge Them!”
You have just been “nudged”. Normally this message would apear on the screen of your cellphone when it is sent through a new application on Facebook.
The application, launched by South African company Fontera, called Nudgemii, allows users to send short text messages of up to 70 characters to their Facebook friends all over the world -‒ for free.
The application — through which the user sends nudges, effectively integrates Facebook‘s existing “poke” functionality (like a virtual poke in the ribs) with SMSs.
This means that any person using Facebook can keep in contact with their Facebook pals 24/7.
Understanding the potential of Facebook with its 30-million active users, Simon Leps, CEO of Fontera argues that, “for something considered a true form of social networking, it needs to go beyond your computer. Creating an application that links to your cellphone therefore seems like the logical next step”.
Users can install the Nudgemii application on Facebook as they would any other application — such as virtual fortune cookies or horoscopes.
Once installed, a Nudgemii button appears as part of the user’s Facebook profile. From here the user can send nudges together with SMSs to their Facebook friends.
Why is the service capped at 70 characters? According to Leps, this is what’s left after the company’s advertising message. “I personally hate spam. I think that type of advertising is ridiculous, but we can offer this service for free this way and make the whole Facebook experience more mobile”, says Leps.
At present the advertising text reads “Invite UR friends 2 nudge them”, but in the future advertising targeted at the individial can be expected. The information that a Facebook subscriber chooses to leave behind on the website will be used by Fontera to advertise directly to a specific user group.
“We don’t want to be unobtrusive by trying to keep our advertising to a minimum. But future advertising will be targeted on the basis of certain demographic characteristics for example,” says Leps.
With up to 5Â 000 Nudgemii clients, Fontera is currently in the process of developing more cellphone applications for Facebook.
Facebook is the first social networking site to open its system to outside developers.