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
This has been one of the busiest weeks to date, so the need for this digest is great. A trend to launch lifestreaming features is taking off, also Facebook extends it’s reach by connecting to commenting systems –expect that to grow even further. Community platform vendors launch education suites and listening tools, and companies like Sharethis that are collecting data have a platform opportunity.
Trends: AOL launches lifestream product
We’re seeing more and more lifestreams appear out of products, as indivudals publish on disparate systems, the need to aggregate in one place becomes important for both personal and brands. AOL launches their own lifestream product, emulating what others before them have done.
Trend: CIOs seeing opportunities of social network
This ZDnet article suggests that CIOs and IT directors are coming around to the benefits of social networks based on a recent panel that had with practitioners.
Launch: Mzinga launches Learning Suite
This Learning Suite is intended to make corporate training socialized by encouraging students to learn with and from peers. With this launch, they’ll extend to different buyers within the enterprise, from sales to HR, but may still have to deal with IT stakeholders.
Launch: Lithium launches measurement suite
I’ve given my thoughts on the product here, this product is a next generation community gauging tool that can help brands identify troublespots as well as receive automated and human recommendations.
Strategy: ShareThis has data, seeks to be platform
Data collection is powerful, but when you are able to make sense of it, it can be monetized to those who want to reach influencers. Sharethis, a popular sharing embed is now expanding their reach and aiming to be a data platform, they know who shares what and how.
Deployment: Facebook connect deploys in comments boxes
Pretty simple deployment, you can now leave comments on blogs that have connected with Facebook, expect more and more of this to happen.
Viewpoint: Google’s view on social network and open stack
Google’s Kevin Marks does a guest post on Techcrunch (it’s not really an interview right?) that discuses Google’s view on the open stack and connective tissues.
Revenue: Facebook and Apps ecosystem grapples with monetization
Adweek stirs the importance of the ecoystem of an application tax that may go into effect in order for Facebook to monetize and drive revenues. There’s been critical eyes cast (myself included) about using advertising on their network to generate revenues. Here’s some options to monetize web apps –and a breakdown of what’s popular.
Culture: Social networks harm children’s development and your health
Interesting research that indicates that social networks teaches children to be too focused on just about nothing. With this reduced attention span and immediate gratification, this causes concern for children who are not learning from the ‘real ‘world. Oh it’s also not good for your health, time to go to the gym?
Elitism? Twitter suggest causes an uproar
LA Times captures the essence: “Some high-profile Twitter accounts have been seeing astronomical jumps in the number of users subscribing to their profile updates — tens of thousands of new followers, in some cases.” many who are not on the list, are well, jealous.
Awards: Social Networking awards by Codie
Who won this category for Best Social Networking Solution the Codie Awards? Dow Jones g2, Dow Jones Business & Relationship Intelligence, Lithium Technologies, Mzinga, Neighborhood America, Inc, RM Honeycomb, RM Educational Software, SchoolNet, Inc. congrats (Update: these are finalists, not winners)
Advertising: Shift to social engagement ads
SFGate suggests that the next evolution in advertisements will pivot around social networks and communities. The challenge is, we’ve yet to see true numbers on click through rates to prove. I wrote a report on engagement ads, do read if you’ve access.
Campaign: Ford reaches for Social Networks for campaign
Pitching it’s cost effective Festiva car, Ford launches the campaign page calling individuals to create a video to explain why they want this car.
Deployment: Innovis launches social network
I meet with a lot of brands that are deploying their own social network, and as a result, we see deployments for every type of vertical, in this case, Innovis launches one for vendors and suppliers.
Privacy: Facebook withdraws Terms of Service
After the dustup last week with Facebook’s change in terms of service, they’ve now retracted, the third time making a mistake when it comes to privacy. Tip: ask first, then act human.
Ethics: Yelp under fire for extortion
Growing social network that allows customers to review restaurants (it’s a decision maker for patrons here in the bay area) is under fire for being accused of being an extortion racket to small businesses. Article suggests that some restaurant owners are offered to remove negative reviews for a few hundred dollars a month.
Hurmous Self-Assesment: What type of Facebook friend are you?
Go on, be honest, what kind of friend are you? I’ll be honest, I’m an exhibitionist.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
Twitter raises a very large round of funding, potentially enough to last the economic drought for their small company. LinkedIn and Facebook demonstrate they continue to grow –especially in a recession. More individuals are worried by Facebook’s new Terms of service, which the CEO has responded to.
Funding: Twitter raises $35mm –without generating any revenue
Raising money in a recession is always tricky, valuations fluctuate, and business models do too. Twitter raised a cool $35mm (one of the largest rounds since the recession was announced in Oct 08), despite not generating any revenue. Their hype, buzz, and accelerated growth (albiet a small community of estimated of around 5mm from some news sources) leave many wondering if they will generate revenue from brands.
Recession: Linkedin continues to grow during a recession
The social networking industry has opportunity during economic downturns, perhaps this is due to people having more time to after being laid off, those want to connect and find new opportunities, or the natural instinct in many social animals to find safety in numbers. Comscore data shows an increase in total unique views since the recession was announced in Sept. Do see this report from Pingdom that indicates that Twitter and LinkedIn’s network availability may be changing.
Stats: Facebook continues to grow
Now reported to have 175mm users with 600k new users everyday this social newtork continues to grow. Already saturated with you, now the fastest growing demographic is “Women over 55, up 175.3% in the last 120 days. Facebook growing faster with women than men in almost every age group.”
Feature: MySpace to index and search images
MySpace has confirmed that it recently went live, and indexes around 3 billion of the site’s 7 billion photo according to coverage by Techcrunch. This feature will allow people to quickly find related content, and could help with contextual advertising.
Security: Dangers of Social Networks
Recent PCWorld article discusses with so many people in one location the dangers of a social network being hacked and exposing a great degree of personal information in one place. Given users don’t’ pay for a contract, nor terms of service, this is a liability most don’t foresee.
Privacy: Facebook’ Terms of Service Scare
More than a few folks are concerned about private and personal data, but when articles that suggest that Facebook’s terms of service mean they can do anything they want at anytime, (like forever) it starts to scare on folks, do read Mark Z’s response.
Ning continues to grow, despite porn removal
A few months ago, Ning made a bold announcement to remove all adult content from their network, despite this gash in content inventory, they still continue to grow, Techcrunch cites Comscore data
Usage: Surge in Europe, acceleration in France
Comscore reports that social networking in Europe is up, with France having a 45% year of growth. Key finding: “Of the 282.7 million European Internet users age 15 and older who went online via a home or work computer in December 2008, 211 million visited a social networking site – representing a penetration of 74.6 percent”
Culture: Facebook is for the old?
Time Magazine gives some pretty silly –and somewhat true reasons why Facebook is for old folks, funny thing is, my parents nor my grandma is on it …yet.
Culture: Hackers take aim at celebrity accounts
Apparently, Miley Cyrus, who plays Hannah Montana, knows how to write a lot better than her hackers led on. This is the second case we’ve heard of Twitter being ‘hacked’ in a few months.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
Facebook adopts OpenID, and makes more of their API available to developers shows a new leaf as the largest platform by registered users opens up –this should spur growth even further. MySpace, likely in reaction to all the Facebook clamor, and touts it’s engagement numbers and Hi5 aims after gaming, an activity ripe for a recession.
Data: Facebook adopts OpenID
The biggest news of the past days is Facebook’s adoption of OpenID, which will mean that universal logins will be available to users, and eventually sharing of data, portable information to pass around the social web is also amplified as they’ve announced that APIs are available to impact Status, Notes, Links, and Video to Facebook Platform
Engagement: MySpace touts user interaction
Perhaps in a punch back to Facebook’s total user claims, MySpace ignites a PR campaign and touts that it’s user engagement is high: “The average MySpace user now spends 266 minutes (4.4 hours) on the site every month; a 5% increase over last month and a +31% increase year over year. MySpace says its users spend nearly 100 minutes more per visitor than the closest competitor. ”
Launch: Hi5 launches games
Hi5, which has a high growth rate, is now introducing gaming to it’s social network platform, which are not only popular during normal growth but could skyrocket during a recession. There are sponsorship opportunities and advertising opportunities for brands that want to get into this space.
Best Practices: Craig Newmark on the secrets of Community
RWW distills how Craig’s list built their online community: Recognize the Importance of a Feedback Loop, Get out of the Way, and Understand we live in a culture of participation.
Stats: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr
This image, which I don’t have much background on, gives some data on some of the social networks. Also see these stats from Compete, collected by CNET
Culture: Don’t get Facebook?
While 150mm clammer on Facebook actively, some still aren’t sure of it’s purpose, and that’s ok. Read how some do get it, and even those that don’t may still be addicted. Others question if it can continue, despite being 5 years old.
Culture: Suicide on MySpace prevented
An odd, but ever so real story how those on MySpace were able to prevent another from committing suicide. Expect more stories like this to increase during the year.
2009 Social Networking Stats continues to grow
My not so secret collection continues to grow, read it, submit to it, and book mark it. Read Social Networking Stats for 2009.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
With Facebook half a decade old, it moves through adolescence and prepares to mature, secondly, LinkedIn takes a stab at the coveted German market, it’s noteworthy that MySpace purged an incredible amount of sex offenders, the question remains, where are they going now?
Localization: LinkedIn aims at Xing by launching in German
Xing (6.5 million users), which has had a foothold in Germany as the business social network in that area now has a competitor to take on. LinkedIn is now in German and will expand it’s existing foothold of over 40 translated versions.
Revenue: iMeem charges for service
Perhaps due to a depressed economy, or pressure from the board, or increased server costs or a little of all, iMeem starts charging for it’s upload and storage services. Thanks to colleague Peter Burris for the link
Milestone: Facebook turns Five
Mark Zuckerberg announces that after 5 years, things are going well for this skyrocketing social network, read my thoughts on what this means in this MediaPost article.
Science: Genetics Influences Social Behavior
Article based on research suggests that popularity and other social behaviors of individuals may be deep rooted in genetics. Could the children on Generation Y take on the traits of their parents?
Crime: 90,000 Sex Offenders Removed from MySpace
How come all these guys mug shots are so, well arch typical of that crazy man with the van with no windows? MySpace has booted off over 90,000 sex offenders off their social network. The question remains: Where do they hang out instead?
Finance: LinkedIn ready to go public anytime
Profitable social network LinkedIn has been known to be successful generating revenues in a variety of economies and markets, CEO Reid Hoffman suggests that the company can go public anytime.
Developers: Fragile Community Aches after Redesign
While some suggest it’s risky to build your business off someone else’s platform, Developers that are hooked into Facebook must be ready for changes and quickly adopt, in this case, some are still reeling from the pains of the last Facebook redesign.
Deployment: Social Network For Davos WEF Attendees
Davos’s World Economic Forum launched WELCOM a social network for the attendees, watch this video of the premise of the project. Let’s hope these influentials (who I doubt have the time) to try to fix the global economic challenges. Screenshots are available for you here.
Challenges: Why your Community Efforts may Fail
Good reminder of some of the key challenges of why your efforts may be failing.
Community: Jive launches Community for Customers
In my recent Wave report, I judged companies on eating their own dog food, whether or not they had a community for their own customer base. Jive has offered a community site for support, developers, and product. With 67,000 members, I have to ask, where is the community for the business folks? (Update: see comments below from Sam Lawrence)
Case Study: Lithium launches
Lithium, who was also in the wave, touts a recent case study with a community called ACT: “In the 12 months since its launch, the ACT! community has had over 8.9 million page views and 266,000 searches, far surpassing Sage’s expectations.”
Mobile: Mobile social networks
Match2Blue which offers a social network for mobile phones provides some interesting features, but with Google’s launch of latitude this week, quick innovation and marketing will be key.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
More growth shown in Facebook’s worldwide unique visitors, Leverage Software launches upgrade, and more twists on social networking in our culture from crime, religion, and parenting.
Release: Leverage Software upgrades to version 6.5
Leverage has made some improvements with it’s geo social maps, groups, and calendar functions, and has provided some detailed release notes.
Data: Social Networks overtake adult websites
Hitwise has collected data on UK social networking activity, and has found that social networking sites has overtaken one of the greatest triggers of internet innovation, the adult industry.
Data: Adults bulk of social networkers, but still leans young
eMarketer gives data on how “But younger online adults were much more likely than their older counterparts to use social networks, with three-quarters of those ages 18 to 24 using the sites, compared with just 7% of Internet users ages 65 and older”.
Culture: Woman killed for Facebook Status
This bizarre case shows how much social networking has infiltrated our culture. Obviously, this has little to do with social networks as this enraged husband rampages after wife turns her status to single on Facebook, and more about human psychology.
Usage: Facebook unique visitors twice as large as MySpace
More growth in Facebook’s arena as Techcrunch reports that unique worldwide visitors has overtaken MySpace.
Culture: Pope welcomes Facebook –yet cautions
Here’s a sign that social networks are bleeding into many areas of culture, when religion starts to comment on “gifts” such as these online tools.
Parenting: Friends of children’s friends
Linda Furrier poses some questions about parents monitoring the friends of friends (FoaF) within social networks, should advance parenting features be setup in social networks? Last time I checked, there was a minimum age required for some social networks.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
It’s important you track LinkedIn’s movement as they truly become an enterprise web service, their announcement partnering with IBM is a key step in their opportunity to become the future intranet of any company. Various community vendors have had some partnership announcements such as Pluck and Lithium boasts a large revenue gain over this past year. Social Networks reflect life, and we’ve seen a bump in activity around Obama’s inauguration.
Partnership: Linkedin integrates with IBM’s Lotus
Perhaps the most important news of the week, but overshadowed by election news is LinkedIn’s partnership with IBM which extends it’s social graph info to Lotus collaboration and community suite. Why is this important? It means that workers can now connect with people outside of work to get jobs done –the network has expanded significantly.
Politics: Inauguration spurs social network activity
RWW reports how the live player at CNN connected to Facebook connect helps to spur social interaction online –no one is watching by themselves now, it’s all one connected community.
Feature: LinkedIn launches polls
In a way to better understand the community, LinkedIn’s polling feature will help brands and others understand what’s top of mind for it’s members.
Revenues: Lithium has 100% revenue growth
Always a good sign: Lithium boasts that their “100% percent growth in new monthly recurring revenue in less than one year” as a result of growth in the community space.
Privacy: Chinese gamers must reveal names
Online games in China have exploded, which has caused changes in culture, both good –and bad. As a result, a movement to force gamers to share their real names online has been put in place.
Partnership: KickApps Integrates Meebo And Yahoo! Maps
Media savvy KickApps launches some key partnerships with Meebo, Yahoo Maps, and combines video players to allow brands to extend the experience of Meebo and Yahoo, but to also make community sites more engaging.
Layoffs: Mzinga cuts 6%
As with many tech companies, startups are a reality, Mzinga cuts 6%, which could mean good news for long term sustainability, but could challenge their ability to execute against their goals. Interestingly, I didn’t see an announcement from Mzinga folks (although they left a comment last week)
Future: Social Networks of the future? the car
Thought leader David Berkowitz interviews Ford executive on how the car (using Sync technology) will soon become a social network hub and node.
Culture: 10 top social network annoyances
Thank god, someone finally made this list, #1? MySpace Kitsch. Someone needs to create a ‘de-bling’ app.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
Usage of social media will continue to rise, the growth of China’s internet population bodes to growth off shores. Forrester has launched a Wave report over community platforms. “Diso” a technology that suggests social will be aggregated to one page will occur, and several make predictions for the upcoming year.
Usage: Surge in Chinese internet users.
Although the Chinese internet population is greater than the entire US citizenship, a sharp increase in usage is reported, primarily from mobile.
Research: Forrester “Waves” Community Platforms
I lead this research, where we’ve segmented the leaders in the community platform space. I know some folks are subscribed to this digest and not my blog, so excuse me if you’ve already heard.
Deals: Neighborhood American showcases wins
Community platform Neighborhood America showcases several client wins including Kodak, City of New Orleans, and Wharton Business school in their latest newsletter, you can subscribe on the website.
Tech: Future of Social Dashboards, Diso
Marc Canter has frequently been the guiding light for open data and suggests that the future dashboard of all things could be a technology called Diso, RWW has more info.
Data: Will Facebook US members overtake MySpace
Techncrunch highlights recent Comscore data and suggests that Facebook’s US members 54mm members will overtake MySpace in 2010, 76mm, one year from now.
Future: 8 Predictions for Enterprise 2.0
Dion writes like an analyst and breaks down his predictions for 2009 revolving around social computing within the enterprise. He highlights that community will be one of the priorities within the enterprise.
Predictions: Hivelive suggests what’s upcoming for communities
Hivelive, a Colorado community platform boasts a very flexible component based system so don’t be surprised about their predictions for the new year. Overall, I agree, specific use cases for community are going to be needed.
Launch: Cisco puts forth a community platform “Eos”
I’ve profiled this launch (and the Cisco team has responded) read this post for details. Surprisingly, other than a few press releases and blog posts, we’ve not seen much more from this highly secretive project.
Interview: Jive’s CMO on FastCompany TV
Thought leader and executive of 4 years, Sam Lawrence the CMO of Jive Software spends time with Scoble on Fast Company TV.
Contest: Sony community needs a name
An interesting way to drive community interaction and interest, Sony encourages it’s members to help name it’s own community. This community is run by Powered, who I had a briefing with yesterday, that specializes in content and editorial, in addition to just a platform. (edit: This is actually an Awareness community, but Powered does run these Sony communities backstage101, darkroom, and frontline)
Launch: Awareness launches Sony Blog
A different division of Sony has launched a community during CES that’s run by Awareness Networks, see the Sony Electronics Blog. Just goes to show that multiple vendors are often within one brand.
Vocab: Buzzword Leaderboard
The good folks at Royal Pingdom have helped to create this index of web buzzwords and terms, what’s really interesting is they’ve rated which terms are peaking –marketers responsible for messaging should take note.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
Due to slower news during holidays, this digest includes the last two weeks of news. Social Networking usage increases during the Holidays, and also due to a recession, this is a key opportunity for the industry to demonstrate new value by allowing people to connect, get retrained, and find jobs during this tough economy. More issues around culture, data, and privacy occur in Facebook, and the landscape is peppered with layoffs and partnerships. This is tumoltuous time.
Web Usage: Spike in Facebook usage during Christmas
More time with family? Desire to connected to friends during the quiet weeks? There was a significant increase in Facebook traffic this holiday season, the ironic thing is that retailers haven’t moved in to offer gift giving options for friends. For a UK perspective see what roared and bored during the Holiday season.
Web Usage: Job seekers seek social networks
No surprise here, when people want to get retrained, connect with others, or notify others of job needs, social networks (where their contacts are) is a strong place to start. On the other hand, some may work for free, if it’s just for ‘praise’, the new currency.
Facebook sues Power.com
Power.com a social networking aggregator, which means you can view all your social networking activity from one place has been sued by Facebook for copyright and trademark infringement; unlawful competition; and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, CAN-SPAM Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other charges. Facebook is known for keeping it’s member data close to it’s chest, while others tend to be more open.
Downsizing: Mzinga has layoffs
Heard through the twitter stream, a little birdy notified me that a few of Mzinga’s employee base has been let go. I sent each of them personal messages, and let them know of the job resources I have for social media folks, wishing them the best. Even though Mzinga doesn’t have an official press release announcing the downsizing –word rapidly spreads.
Cause: Facebook battles Lactivists, Growth in Argentina
Mothers who want to show pictures of them breastfeeding in Facebook were denied –the battle ensues. The line between ‘indecency’ and nature isn’t clearly drawn/. Mobile adoption and recently translated site versions has spurred growth in Argentina for Facebook.
Learning: Social Networks valuable to youth education
This article suggests that “exploring new interests and tinkering with new forms of media, young people are picking up basic social and technical skills, such as how to create a video or game or customize a MySpace page”
Partnership: Sean O’Driscoll Teams up with Jake McKee
Two community mavens, who I’ve intervewed both for Forrester reports on community, have joined forces, and Sean joins Ant’s Eye View to help brands with social networking and community strategy and deployment. I’ll be speaking to them soon to learn about their offerings. Also, read Jake’s announcement.
Biography: Ning’s Executive Gina gives interview
Ning’s Gina Bianchini gives a rare look into her life –and watching silicon valley.
Culture: Kids freak out when friended by Parents
My friend Jennifer Jones and I have had quite a few interesting discussions on how kids react when parents ‘invade’ their personal and social lives in Facebook.
Research: Forrester’s Wave on Community Platforms to publish Friday
Stay tuned, I’ll be releasing the high level findings at end of week.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008? Bookmark it, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
This digest contains two weeks worth of news as the end of the year tends to slow down. Even with that said there are some interesting happenings in the space such as Facebook’s growth exceeding 140mm users, more cases of viruses and scams, and increase of adoption of social networks during a recession.
Growth: Facebook’s user base at 140mm users
Facebook continues to grow at rapid speed, I met with Mark Zuckerberg last week, and he told me they now have 140 million users, Inside Facebook has more on the stats.
Virus: Look in the Mirror, your Face(book) looks like a KoobFace
The latest strain of the Facebook virus “KoobFace” is an evolution from a previous one, and now spreads to other networks. Beware of odd looking messages and don’t click on them.
Scam: Marketers create fake groups to spam future students
A marketer trying to reach college students has created fake groups in order to get them to quickly sign up and get their friends on board. In the long run this will result in the ability to glean info as well as market products to this group. Certainly not ethical, I’m sure if it’s illegal.
Identity: Facebook, Google and MySpace Logins
Respected thought and practice leader David Berkowitz sheds light on the differences between Google Friend Connect (go wide), Facebook Connect (new visitors), and MySpace’s (overlap of audience) registration specifics –and how media brands should choose.
Launch: Watercooler Aggregates their distributed network
This application network was primarily distributed on social networks like Facebook, but now is centralizing the experience by creating a stand along website called TVLoop that will aggregate all the discussions from various social networks to one location.
Press: Advertising on Facebook Questioned
This NYTs article reflects on P&Gs recent marketing efforts within Facebook. Aside from highlighting the Crest white strips campaign, it challenges that most campaigns are not successful.
Research: Consumers love social networks—but advertisers are still standoffish
eMarketer indicates that many marketers are not on board social networks despite that fact that millions of consumers are on board. Of course this doesn’t account for other forms of marketing –like participating. in the discussion or creating sponsored pages or groups. Given that advertising performs very poorly in social networks, we shouldn’t be surprised.
Communication: Facebook used to ‘serve’ legal notifications
Sign of the times, Facebook ‘pokes’ are being used for court notifications.In Australia, a court recently allowed a lawyer from a bank to serve papers for a foreclosure.
Usage: During recession, increase in social networks to increase –relieve anxiety
In this article by BusinessWeek “The Recession: My Facebook, My Therapist” people that were laid off can now communicate with others –to network, grieve and relieve.
Metrics: Bebo launches measurement suite
Bebo announced that it has launched new engagement metrics and tools for application developers. These tools will provide new metrics and engagement tools to nearly 100 Java, PHP, and Rails developers who have created applications.
Announcement: Yahoo launches Y!OS to build apps on top of email platform
This announcement, much in timing with Microsoft’s Live announcement will allow third party developed to extend their experience on the largest social network that we know of: email. Expect other email platforms to allow applications to interact with these large communities over 2009.
Ads: MySpace v. Facebook Advertising Showdown. Which Platform Is Better?
This comparison (although you should read the notes at the top showing this isn’t fully scientific research experiment) demonstrates why Facebook’s advertising system is better than MySpace.
Humor: This fun video shows how you’re my Facebook girl
Have a laugh with this one, I wonder where he got those glasses –they look mighty cool.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008? Bookmark it, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
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
This was a very busy week, so focus on this summary to get the highlights: Facebook connect extends, Google friend connect in hot pursuit. Bebo relaunches with new design encouraging social sharing, promises upgrades in near future. Ning removes adult content from website, leaving opportunities for others. The big trend? many systems are connecting to each other, data, and influence spread
Mobile: MySpace launches live streaming video
Just a week after Google announced it’s live streaming video features for mobile devices, enabling users to access shows on demand from their mobile devices
Trends: Is Social Networking Sinking?
This contrary view is an important one to revenues, layoffs and valuations, social networks may be waning. The other key measurement to look at should be adoption and usage –I expect them to increase during a recession.
Contest: HiveLive’s contests to help Tigers
This promotional contest, is a great way to tell the world about HiveLive’s flexible platform, and to do some good in the world. The winner for this contest is going to help Conservation International build a community site to benefit Tigers.
Security: Risks of Social Networks
This very long PDF discloses the risks of the social networking space, with a slight legal bent. I read as much as I could, it’s a bit dense. Takeaway: most don’t realize the personal, financial, legal risks involved as social networks intersect business, personal, and family lives. On a similar note, this very scary post demonstrates how easy it is to create a fake account and dupe people.
Redesign: Bebo’s Redesign Encourages social sharing
Much akin to the trend of newsfeed designs that were initially lead by Facebook, Bebo ads new features in their overhaul, perhaps most importantly is that they made promises to improve the major features, applications, and to integrate with AOL.
Vision: Where is Facebook headed?
In a classic Techcrunch style, Arrington interviews Mark Zuckerberg on his vision for products, revenue, developers, and valuation (oh and profile pics). With Facebook focused on so many different areas, this leaves questions in the minds of brands –as they are unsure where to focus.
Products: Physical Meets Virtual
At some conferences in Amsterdam, a new physical tool called a ‘Poken‘ has emerged that allows people to connect and trade information. What ever happened to Palm Pilot beaming?
Security: Facebook Virus Tears Through Network
The virus that we saw last week was apparently a strain of a previous one, I received one of the messages and am now very cautious about what to click on.
Predictions: What if Facebook Connect and Amazon were tied
Shiv Singh from Razorfish demonstrates what could happen if social networks tied with eCommerce and other websites in order to make web experiences social.
Connect: Pluck connects with Facebook
Facebook Connect allows third party sites to become social, and Pluck (of Demand Media) has initiated this with SFGate and other sites. This means leaving a comment on SFGate can now show on your Facebook news page, if you choose to do so. Understand what this means for Corporate Websites in the future.
Case Study: Failed Social Networks
This list gives the losers of the social networking space, starting with Wal-Mart’s the hub. Expect this list to grow during the recession as revenues dry up.
Identity: Facebook Connect Across the Web
Mark blogs about Facebook connect, which is designed to connect websites with their social graph on Facebook, the impacts to brands are astounding –corporate websites can now be social. Of course, the competition between Google and Facebook will rage over your friendships. Need more info? Watch this video to learn more.
Ning to remove porn for networks
I met with the Ning folks yesterday, which they briefly discusses removing adult content from their network, rSitez moves in for the pluckings and offers migration options.
Culture: Drunken Photos Cost Women her College Degree
This poor soul made a bad choice in uploading photos and patronizing her teacher –resulting in her loosing her college degree. Takeaway? Use permissions, realize that uploading is publishing and don’t be an idiot.
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.
Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008? Bookmark it, then share it with others as I continue to update it.
