Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Nov 19, 2008

Categories: Digest, Social NetworkingPosted on November 19th, 2008

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an industry analyst. By creating this digest (I started this over a year ago) it really helps me to stay on top of the space I cover.

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.

Subscribe to this blog in your feedreader, or use the email subscription box in the right column. Or you can subscribe to this digest tag only and not receive my other posts.

Web Strategy Summary
Deployment of social networking technology in verticals such as military, vets, and the Philipines continues to occur. Soon to e president Obama to publish weekly YouTube videos. Expect to see an increase in social networks adoption around politics and government. Jerry Yang removed from CEO role.

Military: Vets and US Military get their own social networks
After banning YouTube, soldiers need an outlet to communicate with their families, introducing TroopTube. On a similar note, veterans get their own social network.

Politics: Obama to have weekly YouTube address to nation
Forget Saturday morning cartoons, Obama will be on YouTube each weekend discussing the state of the nation, go to his channel at Change.gov.

Leadership: Jerry Yang resigns CEO role
CEO of Yahoo steps down from his position, here’s why Forrester’s analyst Shar Van Boskirk thinks this is a good move for Yahoo.

Viewpoint: P&G asks Should brands be in Facebook?
One of Proctor and Gambles top digital marketers questions should brands be in Facebook, or is it too invasive? There are thousands of brands already in Facebook, and most are doing it wrong.

Funding: Social Network Multiply Raises $5 Million
Florida-based Multiply, which boasts 10 million users (not sure how many are active), has raised funding through equity investment, and seeks to take on the Filipino market.

Applications: Facebook to enforce quality applications
Although announced a few months ago, Facebook’s program to anoint applications that pass the user experience and security test has started. Interesting to read how developers must pay to be in the program –resulting in incremental revenue for Facebook.

OpenSocial: Social Networks vie for Developers
Platforms continue to seek developers to build on their containers and platforms (aka social networks that can have apps built on it), from Bebo, Hi5, MySpace, and Facebook. Google inserts themselves right in the middle by trying to be the open protocol. Also, continued adoption occurs for the OpenSocial protocol after 1 year of launch.

Partnership: Facebook and SalesForce team up
It’s key to watch how businesses will be impacted by social networks, and this announcement, to enable games and productivity to work together. Expect to see a new category of applications to be built that meet both these needs.

Growth: Twitter’s rapid growth
Comscore tracks an increase of 25% more tweets in twitter due to political debates, as well as as ‘hockey stick’ curve of growth.
Facebook bans racists
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4AD3KZ20081114

Launch: Liveworld launches light edition
Reaching the mass markets, LiveWorld launches a lighter version of their product, although the price is indicated in their press release, I’ll find out from Bryan and team.

Deployment: Passenger wins Mercedes Deal
Passenger, an ‘insight community’ vendor wins deal to run Mercedes community for private label community. Passenger offers brands unique ability to glean customer insight –a real time focus group within a community.

Future: Social Networks to predict your buying behavior
Perhaps the holy grail for retailers, the ability to predict consumer buying behavior based on demographics, psychographics, technographics and social network behavior.

Culture: Teachers critiszed for use of Social Networks
Are teachers sanctioned to give their honest opinion in social networks, what if the content is intended to be private? This North Carolina school district is getting some heat.

If you’re a social network, or widget company, I want to know of your news, send me an email, or leave a comment below. Help me stay up to date.

I slowly work on this digest through the week in draft format, collecting information that I see is interesting, and it only takes me a few minutes on wed morning to publish.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 5:39 am 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.

Comments

Jay Bryant

No digest item about the Motrin roar on Twitter? That is probably the story of the week in Social Networking IMHO.

Thanks for the mention about our new product lines.

---Jay

jeremiah_owyang

Jay, I already focused two blog posts on it, I'd like to move on for now. This digest is intended to help see the bigger picture of the industry, so another good reason not to dwell on motrin moms.

Debbie Petras

I appreciate your weekly digest of the social networking industry. Your concise post helps keep me up to date on what's happening in this space.

We have a widget called Quick Comments. It's a way to easily gather feedback and is a cross between a poll and a survey. Users select or add keywords that best describe their opinion to a question and then rate them on a 1-5 scale, depending on the range used. The widgets can be easily created and posted on a blog or website. As people add their opinions it is updated instantly. The image can be linked to a video, ad or website for more info. It's a great way to test an ad, pose a topical question, or recommend a product without having to write long narratives. We're in the process of beta testing it and seeking 'feedback about Quick Comments'.

Len Kendall

My prediction is that facebook will make less than $100,000 on this verification system. The incentive doesn't seem to be worth it. What they should do instead if provide a revenue sharing program. Give the app devs a reason to put ad space in the application and then share the profit with FB.

Heather (How to be a Woman..?)

Thanks for the info! I'm going to subscribe to your digest tag. Not that the rest of your stuff isn't fascinating because it is.

jyl_mommygossip

Just followed you yesterday on Twitter. Glad to see this post.

I am relatively new to Twitter--2 months. Have found it influential. With little planning and less mkg, our team put together a fundraiser, had a Twitter party last night (#gno), and raised more than $1200 for Feeding America. I know it isn't millions, but it was immediate and will impact families facing hunger this season.

In my short time on Twitter, I have seen groups debate, influence large companies through candid feedback, and now raise money for families facing hunger. What else? And what's next?

Thanks for this digest/over view.

Also... interested to check out Debbie Petras' widget.

Matt Lehman

I respectfully disagree on your summary of the P&G speech. There is a question as to whether marketing should appear in the midst of people's "conversations" and the long term value of monetizing the huge time spent on social networks could undermine their commercial value, however I don't think he was questioning the value of having a well-executed presence (not banner ads but a true presence) on social networks. You've written extensively on what a well-executed presence could/should do and I concur with most of your items, but I've also seen a flurry of forwards of the P&G speech to denigrate any corporate presence on facebook.

John Walter

Meredith Corp. today announced an investment in Real Girls Media Network(www.realgirlsmedia.com), "a group of social communities connecting millions of women online." The deal will enable links between Real Girls Media Network and Meredith branded content, according to Meredith.