What the heck is Scoville?

Written by in Social Media on May 8, 2011
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A little site just hit the mainstream radar called Scoville. Actually it’s http://www.goscoville.com/ You might be seeing invites from some of your friends in your inbox.

What is it?  Why would I want to join?  It’s not another Second Life is it?

scovillesite

First of all – it’s NOT Second Life.  Details are still coming but this is what their site says.

Scoville started with a simple idea. Every Tuesday we’d share with our friends the best places we’d been to in the past week. Only awesome places had to be shared. And that’s how every Tuesday we’d get a list of awesome places from our friends and plan to visit some of them in the coming days or over the week-end.

The Scoville asks for your permission to tap into your Foursquare account.  It then allows you to also tap into your Twitter and Facebook Accounts.

When you check in to a place during the week using Foursquare those sites will show up in your Scoville.  You can then add them as a “Favorite”.  You can even add a tip within Scoville for each place.  There’s also a “secret” way to add a Favorite  – just use #toptuesday in your shout out when you check in with foursquare.

checkins

Then come Tuesday Scoville will tweet and post on your Facebook wall your Favorite Sites if you gave them permission (http://www.goscoville.com/settings/connections).

permission

Like Foursquare it’s a game and you earn points with activity.  Add a Friend, Add a Favorite, Leave a Tip and you’ll move up the points scale.  Since it’s a play on the Scoville Scale for all things spicy they use Chili Peppers as badges.

scoville points scoville points2

So, what the heck is Scoville?

Besides the fun aspect you might be wondering what the incentive is.  Have you engaged in FollowFriday on Twitter?  This would be the same thing only for "Places" and brought to Twitter and Facebook.

UPDATE: I wanted to see what and how Scoville tweeted my TopTuesday venues.  Here’s what they look like

Here’s Facebook

Facebook Scoville

And here’s Twitter:

Twitter Scoville 

The link takes you to my Scoville TopTuesday Page for the week (http://www.goscoville.com/user/mikemueller/toptuesday/2011_19.html).  Once you are on that page I’m wondering what the average person would do with the info.  The links don’t go to the Foursquare Venues I chose to highlight.  What would you do with that info?  Right now it’s a definite “meh” for me.

Want to connect with me on Scoville? http://www.goscoville.com/user/mikemueller

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Mike Mueller

Mike builds the custom Apps that create the Tabs that make Custom Facebook Pages special. He builds Discount WordPress Blogs and shoots commercial high def video. He's an avid hockey fan, rides a motorcycle (a really fast one), loves strong beer and good red wine.
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42 Comments - Leave a comment!
  • http://www.Decorate-A-Room.com/ Debbie

    Terrific content! Thanks for posting this. WE can all use a little help when it comes to social media.
    Debbie Fiskum, The Home Decor Genie!

  • http://www.HeatherLord.com/ Heather Lord

    Mike I have a Facebook Business Page – Charleston SC Real Estate – but no custom URL…. I created my page before 05/31/2009…

    What do you charge to format an existing page and set up the custom URL…?

    Many thanks ….. Heather Lord…. hlord@HeatherLord.com …..

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ginger-Moore/1121281161 Ginger Moore

    great info! thanks for sharing! see ya on twitter and AR!

  • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller
  • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

    You can Jeremy Blanton (@myrtlebeachblog) to the list – go Fan him up!
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeremy-Blanton-Consulting/216452570322

  • http://twitter.com/paulheagen Paul Heagen

    I’m puzzled. Are they “fan” pages or “business page?” Your narrative seems to say both.
    Why are you charging? For design? Do you somehow broker the sites “names” or handle the administration of set-up?
    Isn’t his something I just do myself on Facebook?
    Facebook tlaks aobut business pages, but they have very arcane language in there about how the pages have a lot of restrictions.

    Thanks or any help.

    • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

      Paul – a Fan Page is a Business Page, they are one and the same. The Fan Page sounds wrong on so many levels but it’s just the name, get beyond the label and there’s so much value in a Page.
      I’m building custom designed pages. No brokering, you own the page.
      Can you do it yourself? YES! Absolutely and for free. Unfortunately you’ll end up with the same tabs everyone else has with no real content.
      I earn my fee from the custom FBML coding done to create that real content.
      For more information see: http://areweconnected.com/facebook

  • Anonymous

    Great information on this post — thank, Mike.

  • Anonymous

    Mike, Looking forward to finishing up our page — I have several questions — what is the best way to communicate with you?

  • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

    Giving away a Custom Facebook Business Page on tomorrows show. http://budurl.com/jckc to win – leave a comment here with #jckc in the body.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Shouse/694319487 Chris Shouse

    Mike I am totally lost with this facebook thing I have a page but am lost as to what to do with it:( lets talk on facebook I am there almost all day long:)
    Chris

  • http://Robin4Homes.com Robin4Homes

    Would love to win a custom business Facebook page, Mike. Ah, but Ive never won anything. Well…
    maybe tomorrow will be my lucky day! Here’s hopin’ #jckc :-)
    Cheers! Robin

    • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

      Robin – there’s always tomorrow!
      Good Luck
      : )

  • http://SacramentoREALEstateVoice.com Gena Riede

    I would LOVE to have a free page…can’t wait!!!

  • Anonymous

    Hoping to win the drawing for a free Facebook fan(business) page. #jckc @RochesterREguy

  • http://www.facebook.com/durrell.thomas Durrell Thomas

    Mike hook me up with a business page #jckc. I am new to this facebook and socialmedia marketing. My niche is Short Sales and Distress properties.
    tweet me @durrellT

  • http://www.facebook.com/lanethegarageguy Lane Bailey

    #jckc Mike, you are doing some great work. I have recommended you to several people. You are THE GoToGuy for FaceBook Business Pages…

  • http://www.facebook.com/saundraallmanandGodParticipating Saundra Allman

    Yes, I will want to do this soon as I can afford the cost and my own website too. Sincerely, Saundra Allman, DRE #01188528, Eureka-Humboldt County

  • Anonymous

    Mike, I think I may be screwing up this process. I am setting up a clients FB account, but set up the business as the “personal” site first. He had no real presence yet. In creating the business page, we have folks signing up as friends on the personal site, but not going to the business “fan” site. How do we start over…

  • Anonymous

    Is this recommened for people just starting out as well? The reason I ask is I may not completely know what I want to put up. I just started working as a Realtor in the Twin Cities.

  • Anonymous

    I just started working as a Realtor in the Twin Cities and was wondering if this is a good product to use this early in my career.

  • tony
  • http://www.TheCoralGablesStory.com Janie Coffey

    I am TOTALLY LOVING your Cooliris wall and videos! How awesome are you!

    • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

      Thank you! I’m loving being able to play with CoolIris in so many ways. Video, Flickr Sets, virtually most anything! : )

  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

    Mike.

    Interesting post.

    Can you share with me where you got the data on Fan Pages? I can’t find a public source for this. I am preparing a keynote for a conference and will credit you info if you can provide a source.

    I’m working with a client that launching a social video app on Facebook that can let a Fan Page act as the broadcaster. Over 2000 businesses have adopted it in the early stage and it is something that might be of interest to your clients. Ping me if there is interest.

    My thinking on Facebook on my blog @ http://arnoldwaldstein.com

    Arnold

    • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

      Arnold – absolutely! I referenced the source in the blog post here: http://areweconnected.com/2010/01/heres-14-reasons-why-your-business-should-be-on-facebook/ but to answer your question directly it’s from Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
      One word of caution – they tend to update on an irregular basis, more like whenever they want to.

      Interesting on the video aspect. I just suggested that very item 2 weeks ago. I’m very interested in what you are working on!

      • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

        Mike

        Thanks

        Two things:

        1. Fan page numbers are squishy…to the point of being questionable.

        Seems like it should be a simple answer-how many Fan Pages by country over time? I can’t see this answer. Even a percent increase without baseline would show growth. Your opinion on this please.

        2. Email my your contact info @ arnold@waldstein.com and I will connect you to the client. Very cool stuff. Exploding.

        Thanks

  • http://easisell.com/ Clement Yeung

    Well done Mike, this is a great breakdown of your service. I love your approach – lots to learn from re. engagement here!

    • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

      Thanks Clement! I’m still not sure on the Matrix reference – worried too many people might not get it.

      • http://easisell.com/ Clement Yeung

        One of my pre-requisites that I stipulate to new clients is that they have watched the Matrix. I suggest you do the same – life is so much easier now because of that <

  • http://www.heatherlord.com/ Heather Lord

    Facebook page creation must be booming…. First time I inquired the cost was $75 – then $275 and now $400…. Have I misunderstood something? Is the price now $400 …. Perhaps they are more robust ?

    Many thanks

    Heather

    • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

      Heather – Good question. Yes I would have to say – looking back they are more robust. When I first started doing these each page would take me around two hours. I did a promo to get the ball going at $75. Then bumped to my regular at $225. There was a big difference in the creation process then and now. At that time I was asking my clients what to give me their vision, all their working links, their assets and content for what they wanted on their tab. We learned a couple of things. Most people didn’t know what would work and what wouldn’t in FBML. Most people wanted to rely on my expertise instead. In that early process I built some pretty dysfunctional pages based on the clients vision (no they are not in my gallery).

      Today, the form I ask my clients to fill out is 5 questions long, not 25. I’ve turned the table around. Give me a blog or website that you call homebase and I’ll dissect it, examine everything and create something that best works in Facebook. With this new approach I believe the end product is stronger and better, the turn around time faster, and each tab is visually more engaging with stronger calls to action as well. Each Page now takes me 4 hours to build.

      There’s another aspect to relying on someone who has extensive experience. There’s a HUGE change coming to Facebook Pages that will effect every custom tab built. When Facebook makes that change, millions of custom tabs will be broken. Since the change was announced, I’ve been building pages in anticipation for the new specifications so that none of my clients tabs will be broken. Yet everyday I see new tabs built by others based on what will soon be obsolete specs. Either the custom builders don’t know or they are intentionally building something to become obsolete in the very near future. I wouldn’t expect my clients to know about the coming change, that’s not their field of expertise.

      There are other options out there. I’ve seen a service for $50 that simply inserts your main contact information into a colorful image and creates a single tab. In my opinion there’s no value there. I’ve also seen $5,000 solutions. Then there was a company called Sprout that was doing something cool for free, until they changed their structure. No longer free, it cost $3,000 a year in rent – you never owned your tab content. I wrote about it here: http://areweconnected.com/2010/03/sprout-facebook-fan-pages/

  • Lee

    Hi,
    I am so so confused and I am hoping you can help me since there is no one at Facebook that you can contact. I work for Nordstrom and we are allowed to create a facebook page to build our customers. So I followed all of the instructions and now I have two different pages. I have a profile page and a Company page. How did this happen. I only want my: Designer handbags Lee Harrison Nordstrom page. Since I just started, I am trying to tell my customers to join, but it seems that I have some on the profile page and some on my comp. page. What happened? I created the username: Designerhandbagsnordstrom and it goes to my profile page. Since this happened I had to double everything that I create for my page. Maybe you can offer me some direction since no one seems to know. I truly would appreciate it. I am so frustrated.
    Thanks

    • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

      Lee-
      Facebook just doesn’t make it easy do they?
      Are you asking to hire me to straighten this all out?

      • Lee

        Mike,
        I would be interested if you are able to combine the two page into one without losing the existing fans from either one. To maintain just the Comp page. That would be the first step. What would your fees be?
        Thanks

        • http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

          Lee-
          They would be the same (fees). That’s the good news.
          The bad news – it sounds like you have 1 Page and 1 Profile (or maybe 2 profiles).
          and even if you did have 2 Pages, no you cannot combine the two (fan wise).
          There’s other bad news – If the profile you created is deleted by FB for a violation of TOS – so too will any Pages created by that profile.
          I had one instance (not a client) where a bad profile that was deleted took down a Page with many many fans.

  • Chris

    Mike – can you create a tab that shows all my products with a shopping cart feature for my fans to have the ability to purchase my products without leaving facebook?

  • http://wowgoldsale.ru Tim Gold

    Thanks a lot! This showcase has inspired me to create my own custom FaceBook landing page! http://www.facebook.com/FlashScope Looks attractive :) Waiting for more Ideas and inspirations from you! :)

  • http://twitter.com/WaterwayRealty Mott Marvin Kornicki

     ………..Now, I get it!………….

  • http://www.BayZest.com Brendan

    Pretty Cool – Considering my twitter account is now pretty much 80% foursquare checkins (not saying this is a good strategy; wish I had more time to tweet lately). This could be a good way to tie what I have going togehter.

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