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The first physical Facebook fan counter for local businesses
- gmichiels 13y agoInnovative idea, why was this not designed before...
- mourique 13y agobecause it was designed just now?
- fady 13y agowhoa. mind blown.
- joering2 13y agoBecause most likely there is still a niche market for that. That's why the $450 pricetag, I believe. The bottom line is I think the killer, for now, would be that noone wants to put this with 13 likes. If I see a coffee shop with 13 likes its goes this way in my hand "damn I wish I would try but they only have 13 likes? Maybe their coffee sucks, where is the nearest Starbucks?". You see, the problem is that most people will compare this number of likes to other similar. So someone running small business does not want to show how few likes they have. Big business, on the other hand I dont think would care about this, unless its starbucks or hand of other large companies, but most likely than not you wont see your local coffee shop with the one (thats why I believe they price it so high, comparing to something reasonable like $99).
- melkisch 13y agoThat's cool. Are you already building the Instagram, Twitter, etc... versions?
- Mibou 13y agoI'd love to have it in my office.
- nubela 13y agois there a counter where i can actually connect to my own metrics?
- Gauhier 13y agoYep, we'll work on that, we wanted to make it very simple and very clear at the beginning and in the future we'll expand this device with an open api!
- pavel_lishin 13y agoNitpick, this seems to have some funky grammar: Connect you to the “Smiirl” Wi-Fi network & connect Fliike to your own Wi-Fi via your browser
- joezydeco 13y agoI just want those split-flap modules. Those would be fun to play with.
- 91bananas 13y agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYhlQDS03KM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYhlQDS03KM This fellow built a controller for some, looks pretty simple
- joezydeco 13y agoThe controller part is pretty simple. The hard part is finding these modules. Most were made by Solari in Italy, Omega in Switzerland, or Salient in Australia. All are either out of the business or won't sell to consumers. Like the youtube like you posted, the modules are surplus or salvaged ones. I've seen kickstarters for little cardboard replicas, but nothing more durable than that. I've also found one guy that built his own module and put his designs online: http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-based-Split-Flap-game/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-based-Split-Flap-gam...
- bobsy 13y agoInteresting. My local chipshop has had a like us on Facebook sign up for the past year. They have 13 likes.. The only use for this I can see is in an office so everyone can see the count going up. Putting it on the shop front of a small business would be a bit embarassing as the majority of small businesses have a miniscule number of likes..
- joebeetee 13y agoI don't think a minuscule amount of likes is embarrassing. People expect that for a small local business. The big difference is that those likes really count for something - 13 likes at a local chip shop probably means 13 people who go there once a week.
- Moral_ 13y agoOr the 13 employees who work there.
- anigbrowl 13y agoThere's a Chinese restaurant near me, and whenever I walk past it's always empty, with the owner/manager standing there with a long, sad face. I feel guilty about always looking in and never entering, but part of my brain tells me there must be some reason that nobody else is in there.
- joebeetee 13y agoThis is a cool idea. Although isn't 5 digits a little limited?
- Gauhier 13y agoWe've build this device for local businesses such as little stores, shops, bars, restaurants...etc, it seems that the average number of fans of these types of fan pages is comprised between 0 and 99 999 fans.. Plus we are sure that Facebook pages with over 100 000 fans would prefer a custom version of Fliike.
- tomschlick 13y agoThis could be solved by adding a period and "K" flaps. That way if it got bigger it could display 212.5K... not big deal for small businesses but I could see you offering that to a bigger chain of businesses.
- robbiea 13y agoI like that approach too, but a big part of it is seeing the numbers change in real time. Your approach would have to wait 100 like's, but I guess at that amount it still can change fairly frequently.
- aresant 13y agoThis is genius and fills a real need, here's why: I've spent the last two years building out a customer acquisition program for a brick & mortar chain with ~50 locations. We CONSTANTLY try to train the people in the store to ask for reviews / likes / etc which is a cornerstone of local SEO and the customer acquisition process. The biggest issue that we encounter is that store employees have trouble figuring out how / where to have the conversation, and how to ask. With one of these on every store counter we literally have a conversation starter and the novelty for the customer of clicking the "like" button on their phone and seeing the physical roll over is just enough bait to make it worthwhile for them. I see two issues with the hardware: a) €300 (~$450 US) is steep. I get this is prototype. But at $100 I would put them in every store. b) There's nowhere on the sign for the URL / or a call to action "Like us at fb.com/blahblah" which means literally every Like you get requires a transaction / discussion w/a store employee to guide people there vs. just letting it hit organically. Regardless I'm going to buy one, and if the devs are here and watching and would like us to knock out a case study of how well this works feel free to drop me a line via my profile -
- Gauhier 13y agoWow, that's encouraging for us, you totally seized what we are trying to do with this device. Let's get in touch!
- wtvanhest 13y agoYou should definitely make it easy for them to "like" the store they are in while they are on their visit. I understand that searching for he business on the mobile device would work, but if there was faster way, you should consider adding it as an upgrade.
- wikwocket 13y agoIn the meantime, people could probably print up signs with a QR code and instructions telling people to scan the code, 'like' the store, and watch the sign.
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- MartinCron 13y agoOnce you've saturated the local businesses market, you can also sell this to narcissists.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- MartinCron 13y agoI'm both horrified and intrigued by the idea of a Bluetooth lapel pin. It's like a smartwatch, but with other people as the target audience.
- DASD 13y agoI was aiming for the former myself. Sadly the latter is likely a large enough population to see something like this come to fruition. Further along that train of thought, it would not be surprising to see Google Glass discounted for users who agree to display Plus numbers/info.
- DASD 13y agoFor those who are charisma blind, something portable like a Bluetooth lapel pin that dynamically displays Klout score/Twitter followers.
- moron4hire 13y agoThat would be brilliant. Insta-filter for avoiding people!
- alan_cx 13y agoI assume you are being a bit naughty there, and your comment did raise a smile, but I do think people would buy them. I mean, lets face it, deep down, don't we all have varying degrees of narcissism?
- klous 13y agoOne could also build a version of this with a Raspberry Pi, LCD screen an a little scripting for less than $60.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- asciimo 13y agoOr drop a bit more cash on an android tablet displaying a web page using the FB API.
- donretag 13y agoThe selling point of this device is the novelty aspect. You can interact with a physical device simply by Liking a Facebook page. By keeping it digital, you do not traverse mediums and it will be adding very little to the smartphone age. You can fake the flip transitions, but it is just not the same.
- WestCoastJustin 13y agoCool idea. It would be nice if this was generic and hackable. For example, I have a mailing list, and it would be cool to see the # of users on the mailing list, or website subscribers, etc. It would need some type of API to go along with it, I'd purchase it, if the price was around ~100. Branding, maybe just send along a pack of stickers, so if someone wants a facebook tracker, they just apply the facebook sticker, etc. Maybe just a template that people can print their own branding, etc. then you don't need to print anything on your end!
- kunai 13y agoGreat idea, but I once tried something similar with a Raspberry Pi and a 15" cheap TN LCD panel to hang in my apartment for the amount of "likes" one of my Facebook pages received. This is far more elegant, although far more expensive as well.
- bluthru 13y agoIt was a really smart decision to eschew a LCD or LED display. The old-school flip display really humanizes the numbers.
- bdamm 13y agoWhat happens when a business makes a bad choice and people "unlike" en-masse? Does the counter go backwards? Probably this has not happened much, but I do "unlike" businesses when they start to get quite spammy.
- awy 13y agoI'm pretty sure those flip things don't like to go backwards. So I'd assume an unlike would just freeze the number and absorb the next like.
- joezydeco 13y agoThe digits can spin independently. The computer driving the display can go "backwards" by just advancing the digits until the correct one is shown.
- ThomPete 13y agoI once used to lead 20 telemarketers. I would create all sorts of board games on a whiteboard, using magnets and a marker. 1 Sale would equal 1 move. Adding bonus fields, and a finish line, Those who made it to that where allowed to go home for the day. Believe me, it did wonders to sales
- massarog 13y agoInstead of saying on the page 'pre-orders are coming tomorrow' you should have an email collection form there. You're likely getting a large amount of traffic and could be losing out on a lot of potential pre-orders because people will forget to go back to your page tomorrow. Just toss in an email collection form saying you'll notify people when pre-ordering opens. Otherwise, neat product.
- Gauhier 13y agoDone! Thanks for the insight!
- dotcoma 13y agoAm I the only one who thinks this is stupid beyond any reasonable limit?
- skimmas 13y agoyou're not alone
- Helpful_Bunny 13y agoNo, this is the perfect point that shows Face Book is over. Retro 1970's style physical counters, with a plug lead only 2' foot long, for "I LIKE THIS". This is satire so perfect, I suspect this is a viral insert for the FB replacement[1]. If this team isn't the newest, hottest AdBusters viral team, I'll be disappointed. This crew is pitch perfect. [1]http://www.tech.sc/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Doomsday-Clock.jpg http://www.tech.sc/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Doomsday-Clock... (Please note, this is no longer correct: we are currently at 5 minutes to midnight, not 7)
- notnotnine 13y ago$450 per unit and they couldn't design it to run on a battery? #fail
- segmondy 13y agoYeah, that's what a business needs. Charging and swapping out batteries every other day. Hey, how long does your phone battery last?
- quackerhacker 13y agoGiven the price tag, this is obviously tailored to businesses, to be showcased on a front counter. Running on a battery would be counter productive in the sense of imagine running a call center with cordless phones.
- philk10 13y agoDoes it cope with unlikes and the counter having to decrement?
- Lighty04 13y agoyes, it does
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- ErikAugust 13y agoI'd love this to be more general/programmable. Great to put in an office for morale-building around a major metric.
- jesusx 13y agoYou should build one for google analytics too
- tharshan09 13y agoIs everyone really serious saying this is amazing? I really do not understand the price tag being stated and what the product actually does? - Just to be clear this shows a particular business's facebook likes? with an added bonus for real time and turning numbers. Maybe I just do not get it.
- joezydeco 13y agoBringing the virtual back into the physical world is kind of an interesting thing. See also: 3D printing.
- anderspetersson 13y agoBuild in an NFC tag so users of recent Android Phones (and hopefully the next iPhone) can like by just touching the device with his/her phone.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- darwinia 13y agoIs the counter in _real_ realtime? I mean, updated every seconds? Do you have backend layer or your device is directly consuming the Facebook API? I'm asking because with an intermediary layer you could provide different types of counter. In a few seconds, I could be able to choose from different sources of data for the counter. Through a simple web interface hosted by you. Uses would becomes unlimited. Twitter followers, Foursquare checkins today/this week,... Even number of kilometers traveled with runtastic as an example,... At max 100€ people could buy one for their home. More like a moving/interactive object for decoration. This market is potentially bigger. I didn't found the price too high for a prototype. And +1 for the NFC tag!
- darwinia 13y ago(and then you could upsell custom changeable skins for the different usages)
- Gauhier 13y agoThe counter is in real realtime, in fact we'll slow it a bit so that you have the time to see the flap going down. We focused on Facebook for this first launch in order to stay focus on one product well designed for businesses, and to "market" it the simplest way (and as you said, it's still a bit costly for a particular). And for NFC, we didn't announce it for now cause we have a lot to work on but our goal is to deliver Fliike with NFC tags to our clients.
- umsm 13y agoWhat happens when you have more than 100k likes? Our business will soon grow out of this limit...
- quackerhacker 13y agoWhile I may not be on Facebook anymore...this is actually real intuitive. Kudos. I hope they implement more products similar to this...like twitter followers.
- ebbflowgo 13y agoWhat a great idea.
- imrehg 13y agoIn the Taipei Hackerspace we had a number Facebook Like Counter designs a few months ago, and in the Maker Faire Taipei there were a bunch of others too, so this is definitely not the "first". Looks nice, though, and finished up. Arduino+Wireless Routers+7-segment displays: https://plus.google.com/b/100085911445404984901/100085911445404984901/posts/4dtfnEW3FZt https://plus.google.com/b/100085911445404984901/100085911445... PyMCU + computer + LCD display: https://plus.google.com/b/100085911445404984901/100085911445404984901/posts/PaxuRAgYdqR https://plus.google.com/b/100085911445404984901/100085911445...
- glomph 13y agoThe website should have a webcam of one running for Smiirl's facebook page!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]