Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Sept 19, 2007 (comments requested)

Categories: Digest, Social NetworkingPosted on September 19th, 2007

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary.

I’ve created a new tag called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. The hope? To make it easy for a web strategist to quickly scan the activity in the last week. I strive to make headlines on items categorized and succinct.

Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, or add me on Facebook (I’ll add you back for each).

Web Strategy Summary
This week, we’re seeing more players enter the platform space, advertisers gearing up for deployment and thoughtful theory and commentary about real applications and platforms. Expect to see more mashups between networks as data (and profiles) become shared. I’m pleased to see more coverage around other SoNets besides Facebook.

Facebook: Adoption, Viablity, and Growth
This is the Social Network that is getting the most buzz, in fact Facebook is starting to get traction here in Hong Kong I’m told that “Adoption went from 50k to 100k in two weeks in Sept”. Brian Solis believes Facebook to be a legitimate social network for business. New York times launches a “news trivia” widget for Facebook, part of it’s Web Strategy to embrace the new web. (and they’re going to stop requiring payment for their online site)

Theory: Sociology applied to Social Networks
Bernard breaks down the value of Social Networks, and weighs the value between gated and open communities and the balance between trust and openness.

Profiles: Yahoo Mash demographics not for you?
Scott Karp challenges the juvenile profile selections that Yahoo’s lastest social networking platform “Mash” provides. Or maybe it’s self-selecting the users they want.

Enterprise: Faceforce Sonets for the Enterprise
This mashup between Facebook’s profile system and SalesForce application AppExchange platform allows for a unique opportunity for collaboration between both systems.

Funding: Facebook raises 10 Mil for Widgets
A Facebook fund has been created that will invest in companies who want to build applications on thier platform, up to $25,000-$250,000 could be provided per development group. Google did something similar this summer, in any case, outsourcing development to the community is likely most cost effective than hiring folks to do it.

Web Usage: A third of Personal Data is Bogus
When users upload data to Social Networks, up to 31% of them enter false information. As a strategist, we should always anticipate this in our models of gathering intelligence.

Layoffs: Eons reduces staff
Eons, which is aimed for a community of members over fifty years of age has trimmed 24 employees. This is one of the first companies in this space I’ve heard of that had that many headcount reductions.

Funding: Viacom invests 40mil into Flux
This partnership between Viacom and Tagworld to create a social network for Viacom brands and others using Flux.

Advertising: Yahoo has a play with Bebo
Apparently Yahoo’s first major play on Social Networking Advertising (see above about Mash), they will deliver on Bebo UK and Ireland, a popular social network.

Mobile: Social Networks for Phones
Techcrunch lists out an index of social networks for the mobile phone. I really hope this technology integrates with other networks in mind, from an address book to a Facebook account.

Funding: Facebooks Ad Provider raises 500k
SocialMedia, the ad provider of Facebook raises half a million and plans to expand to also expand to MySpace.

Features: Digg to adopt Social Network Features
Popular user-voted stories on Digg have been an impact in the web community. Like-minded users will be able to find similar web users to network, share, and find additional useful content as Digg to deploy social networking features.

I’m considering stopping this weekly digest as I’m not seeing the indicators that this is helpful to you. I’m also watching analytics and don’t see a tremendous amount of attention spent on these posts (although measuring a blog is difficult, as all posts are on homepage) so I really need your feedback. Are these digest posts helpful?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Digest, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

i am new to reading your blog, but i do find the digest to be helpful. I find that i don’t always have time to read all the stories in full from other sources, so having the high level recap here is helpful on a busy week. But since nobody else is commenting, maybe i am alone on this.

Posted by Adam on September 19th, 2007 at 3:16 pm

I also enjoy your weekly digest. Although I try to stay on top of your posts as well as everything else out there, it’s a lot to absorb, and I always find something worthwhile in your recaps.

Posted by Tom on September 19th, 2007 at 3:51 pm

Digest is great. Please don’t kill it

Posted by Tim on September 19th, 2007 at 4:40 pm

I find useful information pretty much in all your blogs, so having a digest just interrupts the flow for me and means I need to scroll down to begin reading. For me, not useful.

Posted by Sandra on September 20th, 2007 at 5:58 am

A couple of months ago, I found your post listing all these social network websites. I was looking for an affordable or free social networking “platform” that could be completely customised and branded on other sites.
In other words, building a community on my website, using an existing platform.
Although I still haven’t found what I was looking for, I must say you provided loads of information, and I am sure these digest are great for guys like me coming on board without too much knowledge in the space.

P.S if ever you have a suggestion to my problem, do not hesitate to comment

Posted by Ludo on September 20th, 2007 at 7:08 am

I also find the digests extremely useful. You’re probably not getting a lot of time spent on them as people skim read them and then go onto the links you provide. Plus you know how people only comment when they really feel they have something to say. I’ve been a long time lurker but this is the first time I’ve felt the need to make a comment

I appreciate you’ve got limited time, but for me they really provide a great reminder to bookmark or tag stuff for the future

Thanks for all your great content so far.

Posted by Mecca on September 20th, 2007 at 10:10 am

Jeremiah, I find your Digest posts very useful. They are just what I need - a concise and to the point summary of what’s going on in SoNets space.

Don’t stop if you please. I really appreciate the time and effort you are putting into this blog - thanks!

Posted by Ihor Seheda on September 20th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

Thanks, this is the feedback I needed to hear, I’ll continue on.

Also, I’m learning a LOT by writing this content down, thanks everyone.

Posted by jeremiah_owyang on September 20th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

i would prefer a weekly digest too, makes it more easier to read and not too overwhelming.

@ludo, i see that you’re looking for a way to create a community, aside from the link given of the social networking sites, may i suggest you try to visit http://www.mobilemo.com too. maybe the tools that you need are there.

cheers!

Posted by hazel Hung on September 20th, 2007 at 11:29 pm

@jeremiah: nice to hear you won’t stop Digest posts

Posted by Ihor Seheda on September 22nd, 2007 at 9:47 am

[...] you for the feedback and comments last week, (I asked if I should continue this series) In addition to comments, I received emails, and messages [...]

Posted by Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Sept 26, 2007 (yes, we’re continuing on!) on September 26th, 2007 at 8:09 am

I love this concise compiling of most updates within the industry. It’s like an editor’s pick!