In Facebook’s latest in-house promotion of Credits, its virtual currency, the company is running advertisements for its retail gift cards above third-party applications on canvas pages.
The ad simply says: “Facebook Credits Gift Cards: Power up your play on Facebook — visit a Target Store near you to buy a card.” The “near you” is linked to a Target store locator application, making it easy for interested people to buy a card.
Facebook introduced these gift cards with retail chain Target at the beginning of the month as another way to get more users purchasing the currency. Social game developers like Playdom and Zynga began offering their own gift cards last year, following in the footsteps of MMOs and other online games with virtual currency systems. As Facebook has more recently pushed to make Credits the only paid virtual currency for canvas applications, it in turn added this payment option (along with a wide range of others)
To redeem the amount of Credits purchased in one of the cards, users first scratch off the concealment material to reveal a secret code, then enter the code within the Credits interface. Their account will then be credited with the amount.
Source: Inside Social Games
Tuesday, September 28, 2010