Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: July 16, 2008

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Web Strategy Summary
With many B2B companies asking how to reach business folks through social networks LinkedIn launches it’s Advertising product at an ideal time. Also the trend for social networks to become ‘containers’ continues to be a common feature, this time Xiaonei. Despite deflating home prices and increasing gas prices, small spurts of funding continue to inject this social networking space.

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Product: LinkedIn launches Advertising Product
These ‘direct ads’ are ways for marketers to reach LinkedIn customers. With the CTR rates being so poor for other social networks, will this work for LinkedIn? It’s possible as with organic social networks like Facebook and MySpace the primary task is on socialization and self expression –however with LinkedIn one task may to be get information quickly.

Funding: Webjam receives 1.9 Million in funding
Another white label player receives funding, I’m keeping track of this busy market on this post, including funding, partnerships and acquisitions.

Asia: Xiaonei Launched Developer Platform
Chinese social network Xiaonei now becomes a container platform and offers developers the opportunity to build applications that interact with it’s community –some critics suggests its not open.

Leadership: HiveLive CEO launches a Blog
There’s nothing like hearing directly from a CEO of a company his or herself, now CEO John Kembell of Hivelive has launched his own blog, if you’re watching this space, do subscribe.

Bezos invests in Social Gaming Network
I was recently over at the SGN headquarters in Palo Alto, and they appear to be on a growth track, and now with Bezos investments, this could catapult them further.

Article: Fight over enterprise social networking
Covering how startups and enterprise software vendors are going to battle out who will have the biggest footprint, this Infoworld piece discusses Visible Path, IBM, and other vendors.

Analyst: “Social Networking Just for Fun”
Gartner who has been bearish on Social Networks in the enterprise is starting to see some business opportunities for social networks.

Social CMS: CMS and White Label Social Networks to collide
More press around my blog post showing how CMS systems are leaving money on the table for community offerings.

Features: Widget Galleries
Widgetbox launches a gallery feature, this way any social network/platform can embed this gallery tool and extend widgets to their community. Also they are vetting widgets to ensure standards for security and privacy.

Save your boss time, send them this digest, leave a comment if I missed any. If you work for any company in this space (or represent them as their PR agency) keep me updated by sending me emails.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 6:36 am and is filed under Digest, Social Media, 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.