Online social networking new lifestyle

Online social networking websites saw their ranks swell and values soar this year as everyone from moody teenagers and mellow music lovers to mate-seeking seniors joined online communities.

A woman looks at the MySpace website in this undated photo. Online social networking websites saw their ranks swell and values soar this year as everyone from moody teenagers and mellow music lovers to mate-seeking seniors joined online communities. [Agencies]

Google's freshly released "Zeitgeist 2007" reveals that seven out of the 10 hottest topics which triggered Internet queries during the year involved social networking.

A Top Ten list compiled by the world's most-used search engine includes British website Badoo, Spanish-language Hi5, and US-based Facebook.

Video-sharing websites YouTube and Dailymotion are on the list, along with the Club Penguin online role playing game where children pretending to be the flightless birds "waddle about and play" together.

Virtual world Second Life, where people represented by animated proxies interact in digitized fantasy settings, is the final social networking property in the Zeitgeist Top Ten.

The world has only seen "the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to online social networking, says MySpace vice president of business development Amit Kapur.

"It is a natural step in the evolution of the Web," Kapur said.

"The Web is getting more personal. I think you are going to see much more of that happen on every website across the Web."

MySpace aspires to become people's homes on the Internet, with profile pages serving as online addresses as well as springboards to online music, video, news and other content conducive to their tastes and interests.

"It is a next-generation portal," Kapur said.

Industry statistics show Facebook membership more than doubled in the past year to about 55 million, while reigning champion MySpace grew 30 percent to top 110 million.

One in every four US residents uses MySpace, while in Britain it is as common to have a profile page on the website as it is to own a dog.

"We are very social animals and this allows us to ramp it up to a whole other order of magnitude," says professor Jeremy Bailenson, who heads a Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University in Northern California.

A strong appeal of online role-playing games and virtual worlds is that they free people to "interact as their ideal self and not their real self," according to Bailenson.

"You can be whatever age you want -- 20 forever -- dress any way you want, be any gender you want, and be socializing with zillions of people at once all the time," Bailenson said.

His lab has created 3-dimensional digitized models customized with people's facial expressions and mannerisms.

"You can make a digital version of you that is animated so your grandkids' grandkids could put on a helmet and you can read them a story from the grave," Bailenson said, adding virtual communities offer a sense of immortality.

"People love virtual community."

Interest in online communities surged in 2007 as the gregarious nature of humans merged with increasingly available high-speed Internet and affordable computing hardware, according to Bailenson.

"It has reached a critical mass," Bailenson said. "It is not just the geeks doing it. It is my mom."

California-based social networking website BOOMj just launched as an online community for Baby Boomers, the first of which turned 65 years old this year.

"Boomers grew up meeting people through mutual friends, which a lot of times meant it was the bartender," said BOOMj spokesman Jim Welch, himself a "boomer."

"Now you have Boomers re-entering the single world, widowed or divorce, and on new-relationship terrain they haven't set foot on in many years. As they re-enter the single world they reach out to the Internet."

Younger generations are much more comfortable with the Internet, which has woven ever more tightly into their lifestyles.

"It won't replace face to face interaction," Bailenson said.

"It is another way of thinking about maintaining social relationships. It is here and it is not going anywhere."

Forrester Research senior analyst Jeremiah Owyang said the social networking rage is happening "where ever there is high-speed Internet."

Owyang said membership at the website Cyworld includes 85 percent of South Korea's Internet users. A major company in that country gave employees annual bonuses in the form Cyworld currency.

Online communities and virtual worlds are forums for commerce, advertising and business meetings, said Owyang.

MySpace's Kapur says social networking will become increasingly global and mobile as the use of Internet-linked handheld devices becomes ubiquitous.

The meteoric rise in popularity of social networking websites is driving up their values in the minds of investors as the firms grapple with how to cash in on membership bases.

Microsoft recently paid 240 million dollars for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing paid 60 million dollars for a piece of the San Francisco company.

The investments give three-year-old Facebook a theoretical value of 15 billion dollars. News Corp-owned MySpace wouldn't disclose its value, saying only it has about triple the membership and activity of Facebook.

chinadaily.com.cn

Social Networks Matter Less to Marketers than You (and They) Might Think

Yesterday’s much-awaited announcements by Facebook regarding its new advertising initiatives were quite in-line with the rumors that had been circulating in the lead up to ad:tech. Facebook’s move comes shortly after MySpace’s announcement of its advertising platform.

With these moves, Facebook and MySpace have tried to position themselves as powerful players in the online advertising space. Some have speculated that Facebook will eventually rival with Google. Previously, everybody knew that Facebook and MySpace were building data “gold mines” but they seemed ill-prepared to extract the valuable gold. Anecdotal reports indicated that despite their captive audiences, the most popular social networks were little more than a major disappointment for marketers.


The new Facebook and MySpace offerings are designed to finally leverage the two most valuable assets social networks have to marketers:

Deep demographic and interest data. In an age where the targeting of advertising has become increasingly sophisticated, the massive amount of data that popular social networks have amassed on their users in theory seem to provide the ability for targeting on a level never before seen.

The “social graph.” Word-of-mouth is arguably the most powerful marketing vehicle because it’s cheap and highly-effective. Many marketers make a considerable effort to create brand “evangelists” who will spread the word about their brands. Social networks potentially provide the perfect platform to spark viral word-of-mouth campaigns because they connect people together.

Now that Facebook and MySpace have wisely developed robust offerings that are tailored to take advantage of their strengths, the $15 billion question is: will these offerings deliver for advertisers? I would argue that Facebook and MySpace will wind up mattering less to marketers that some might expect because their new offerings will deliver lower returns than marketers are hoping for.

Targeting: Only One Part of the Equation

One might get the impression that targeting is the be all and end all of marketing. If you can target the right people, you have a solid basis for a successful campaign. But successful marketing is a bit more nuanced. Being able to reach the right people is not enough - you must reach them at the right time. I think many have overlooked this fact when evaluating the potential of social networks as advertising platforms.

MySpace may know my age (85), my location (Beverly Hills, CA 90210), my income ($250,000 and Higher), my religion (Scientologist), my marital status (Swinger) and even my body type (Bodybuilder). The company knows that my interests include brandy, cigars and yachts, that I listen to Young Jeezy, T.I. and Kylie Minogue, that I watch the Sopranos, the Colbert Report and Dancing with the Stars, that Scarface is my favorite movie of all time and that I enjoy reading Machiavelli and George Orwell. It can probably target me with relevant advertising based its knowledge about who I am. But if I’m more focused on viewing my friend’s party pictures from Tijuana and sending a message to a girl who wants me to chat with her on her web cam, the chances that I’m going to be receptive to the advertising MySpace serves up to me is pretty slim. And that’s where social networks face their biggest challenge: they are platforms for social interaction and when you’re busy socializing, you’re less likely to be interested by advertising.

While Google AdWords, for instance, may not offer the same deep level of targeting that the new Facebook and MySpace offerings can, the effectiveness of AdWords is a result of the fact that it provides good-enough targeting coupled with perfect timing: the AdWords ads I’m served are relevant to something I’m actively searching for. The ads do not compete with my current activity. Ads on social networks inherently do.

Word-of-Mouth: It’s Not Mechanical

I think Facebook recognizes that targeting ads better is not going to dramatically improve the dismal CTRs many of their advertisers have reported and thus their Social Ads offering is designed to more deeply integrate marketing messages into the Facebook experience with the goal of being more noticeable yet less intrusive to users. As Facebook describes, “Facebook’s ad system serves Social Ads that combine social actions from your friends – such as a purchase of a product or review of a restaurant – with an advertiser’s message.” The ability for Facebook to group ads with actions from friends, including your purchases on third-party websites, is clearly an attempt by Facebook to turn its service into a vehicle for viral word-of-mouth advertising.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, “Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people.” Zuckerberg is partially correct in that social actions can be powerful but the socially-awkward CEO of Facebook seems to miss a critical point. A system that turns social actions into recommendations via a mechanical, automated fashion risks marginalizing that power. Recommendations from friends are inherently powerful primarily because they are not artificial. When Pete called me up and let me know that I need to buy The Gilmore Girls 7th season on DVD, I valued the recommendation in part because Pete is not constantly bombarding me with recommendations. The fact that he thought that the 7th season of the Gilmore Girls was so good he took the time to call me and suggest I buy it is the reason I considered purchasing it myself; I was not interested because he tells me about all of his purchases. Facebook is doing the latter as opposed to the former. While being able to view what my friends are purchasing could be addictive and entertaining, the value it’s going to offer marketers in terms of driving tangible customer acquisition is, in my opinion, quite limited. A recent study revealed that social networks are not driving purchasing decisions for online shoppers and therefore it seems quite unlikely that Facebook’s Social Ads are going to become a panacea for marketers focused on customer acquisition anytime soon.

The Bottom Line

Facebook and MySpace have created decent offerings that leverage their best assets. But in my opinion, the challenges that social networks present as an advertising medium are likely to lead to disappointment for marketers who expect that social networks can become significant drivers for commerce. This does not mean that marketers will not spend money in this space. To the contrary, many continually spend in areas that don’t deliver results. If you’ve had the opportunity to talk frankly with interactive brand marketers, for instance, most will probably tell you that the CPM advertising model rarely delivers good results. Yet CPM lives on and they continue to do deals. It’s simply part of the “marketing mix.”

The real winners in all of this are Facebook and MySpace. Facebook, in particular, has masterfully played the PR game. Its offering is sexy and appealing even if the results aren’t likely to be. In the final analysis, Facebook and MySpace may be the best marketers of all. Coca-Cola convinces consumers that its product tastes better. Louis Vuitton convinces consumers that its handbags represent membership in a special club. Facebook and MySpace have convinced marketers that marketing platforms with significant limitations are the best thing since sliced bread. How ironic.

mashable.com

8 Tips B2B Mobile social networking

OV op je mobiel, datingsites, Hyves op je mobiel, aanbiedingen, tips en lokale zoekers naar toilet, taxi of winkel-in-de-buurt. Je moet de mobiele networker verrassen en zeer waardevol 'lastig' vallen op hun Smartphone. Denk daarbij wel aan de verschillen tussen b2b en b2c social networks. B2b gaat namelijk niet om entertainment maar om zakelijke contacten. En vooral: het moet zakelijk van waarde.

Acht stappen, acht tips voor meer 'engagement' met je b2b mobile social network. Vaak heel logisch, maar als stappenplan altijd handig:

1. Define your goals

- Do you want to improve or build better customer relationships?
- Do you want to increase your knowledge management capabilities?
- Do you want to facilitate sales or recruitment?
- Do you want to increase your personal and corporate visibility to gain more brand awareness or business opportunities?
- Do you want to build a community in which ideas and information can be exchanged and discussed?
- Do you want to hold one-on-one or engage in multiple conversations at the same time?
- Do you want to use certain tools or applications?

2. Determine available resources

What kind of resources do you have on hand to build this initiative, and do you understand what it takes?

3. Blend with your brand

Next, integrate your mobile social network with your brand positioning and strategy. Consider where your customers and your competition are and whether a mobile social network will improve your positioning and competitive advantage by making you more immediately visible and accessible.

4. Determine how you will get customers to use it

Customers, partners and colleagues will require tools to enable them to interact with you and one another. You will also need to come to grips with what will motivate them to use mobile networking.

- People will need something to talk about. This might require you to begin the conversation, to advertise an event or product, ask a question, set up a competition or encourage interactivity.

- You might have to allow customers to set up their own groups, blogs and community forums within your network based around common areas of interest.

Members of a custom-made B-to-B mobile social network, for example, might want to co-create or share information within an open or closed environment. B-to-B social mobile networks are more sophisticated than consumer social networks. “You want to meet somebody, discuss with somebody in a forum or post a blog” says Thomas Power, CEO, ecademy.com.

5. Understand cultural sensibilities and legal obligations

People in different countries interact with each other in different ways. Some accept certain types of content; others don’t. Consider who will monitor and censure conversations and what the legal implications and community guidelines are. Always be transparent.

6. Find the appropriate mobile social platform

You must determine the mobile social platform you want to use. Start by looking at those that complement the objectives you want to achieve.

7. Have a viral marketing strategy in place

What will make people flock to your mobile network? You’ll need to find evangelists who can influence others. Keep them informed about what you are doing. Much business is gained through referrals, so make sure people can connect with you and each other. Be prepared to respond and participate in conversations.

8. Integrate with other social networks

Look at your marketing strategies and channels from a tactical perspective: What are you going to do apart from the obvious?

Two typical measures are:
#1. Return on investment. How much time have you spent using it and how many sales have been generated, or how much has it cost to create your own in comparison to brand awareness or sales?

#2. Return on relationship. What did you get out of the relationships you’ve created in terms of customer loyalty, retention, referrals and new sales? You need to invest time in learning how your customers, partners or colleagues use the network.

MySpace cranks up heat in Facebook turf war

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

MySpace popularized online social networks and has a membership the size of the population of Mexico. It commands a gluttonous chunk of advertising, has a multibillion-dollar parent in News Corp. and boasts dynamic leadership in co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson.

Yet MySpace will have the mind-set of a start-up the next several months, with an audacious menu of business partnerships, technology initiatives and expansion plans to gain the attention of consumers and advertisers.

It has little choice. Though the most popular social network, MySpace is in an escalating battle with upstart Facebook. As major retailers such as Coca-Cola and Blockbuster pump up advertising on social networks to reach millions of Americans creating personal Web pages, MySpace is trying to be heard above the din of Facebook — a rival less than half its size. MySpace co-founders DeWolfeand Anderson have a few tricks up their virtual sleeves as they try to reassert their company — often stereotyped as a site for kids — as a preeminent power.

The goal is to make MySpace the starting point for people on the Internet, where they can check in on the activities of friends, peruse e-mail, get the latest on news and weather, and post their favorite photos and videos. "We're offering one place where people are in control," DeWolfe coolly explains at an L.A. restaurant near MySpace's offices, cradling a cocktail.

MySpace is competing with Facebook not only for advertising market share but for mindshare: Facebook is benefitting from the type of buzz in Silicon Valley that MySpace received a few years ago.

"There is a class divide between the two," says tech blogger Robert Scoble. "MySpace is Hollywood. Facebook is Silicon Valley. The tech influencers go to Facebook, but the mainstream crowd is MySpace."

While some may scoff at such stereotypical comparisons, Facebook's growing popularity is a concern for MySpace, financial analysts say.

"Is Facebook to MySpace as Google was to Yahoo?" posits Spencer Wang, a financial analyst at Bear Stearns, alluding to the upstart search-engine service that upended an older competitor. Since Facebook made its network available to anyone in September 2006, its user base has grown sixfold, to 59 million. Wang expects that to reach 100 million by mid-2008.

"The Facebook factor is a huge concern," Wang says. "It could lead to a potential cannibalization of MySpace's user base, less time spent by users on MySpace, and increased investments by MySpace to fend off Facebook."

Facebook, which had no comment for this story, has a higher percentage of college-educated users, considered attractive to marketers. MySpace users are more likely to click on ads because they are less private than Facebook users, Scoble and financial analysts say.

At the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco in October, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that MySpace may not reach its previous revenue forecast of $800 million for its 2008 fiscal year, ending in June.

Power to the people

Some may dismiss MySpace, with its unruly layouts and neon-glow graphics. But the masses — it has 110 million members — love it.

"MySpace is not a wild child," DeWolfe says, pointing out that 40% of the site's members are over 35 years old. "It is a company for everyday people who wish to express themselves in music and videos. Facebook is a utility."

No less an authority on mainstream tastes than News Corp. noticed that when it swooped in and plunked down $650 million to acquire MySpace in 2005.

Despite some initial skepticism at the time of the deal, it is now considered a "home run" by analyst Wang and others. Since the purchase, MySpace's monthly unique visitors have increased more than fivefold, and its daily page views have soared to 1.5 billion. Oh, and that $650 million acquisition? MySpace is estimated to now be worth $2.4 billion — nearly four times News Corp.'s initial investment.

What's more, MySpace's revenue has improved 10 times since the acquisition.

A big slice of that is ad revenue. This year, MySpace is expected to sell $525 million worth of advertising, about 58% of the social-networking industry's total, says researcher eMarketer. Facebook, by contrast, is expected to ring up a profit of about $30 million on revenue of $140 million this year, says Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck.

Webisodes of original productions such as The Fit and Quarterlife, condensed versions of old TV shows such as Fantasy Island, viral videos and presidential candidate forums run on MySpaceTV, the company's video channel.

About half of MySpace's 800 employees work in a tony office with a panoramic rooftop view of the Hollywood Hills, Rodeo Drive and palm trees. A game room is anchored by two Guitar Hero stations and basketball hoops. Walls are festooned with commemorative posters of famous MySpace users such as music groups Franz Ferdinand and Jet.

Indeed, MySpace has burnished its enormous following through its show-biz connections. There are 6 million bands registered on the site.

Before MySpace, many bands sent demo tapes to radio stations and music writers to get the word out. Now, they can post songs to their MySpace page. "It changed everything for us," says Joel Madden, lead singer of Good Charlotte. The band has tested new material on its page for feedback and posts messages for fans. It's even scouted other MySpace pages to find opening acts.

Jesse Carmichael, keyboardist for Maroon 5, says the five-member group started a MySpace page to communicate more directly with fans. It now has more than 300,000 friends.

Music is just a fragment of MySpace's vast constituency, however.

As MySpace turns 4 years old in January, it has grand plans to extend its reach.

Next year, it plans to offer members the option of creating multiple profiles tailored to friends, family and business associates. A channel with Oberon Media, a maker of multiplayer games, is in the works for the first half of 2008. MySpace unveiled a service that lets MySpace members make free Internet phone calls through Skype. And it just unfurled Transmissions, a program that lets musicians showcase music on their pages and sell performance videos.

The Southern California company has taken steps to raise its profile and show off its high-tech chops. This month, it opened an office in San Francisco with about 50 people. It plans to expand to about 200 by mid-2009. DeWolfe vows to raise his profile in Silicon Valley, as he did at the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

Wait. There's more. Next on the expansion agenda: offices in Russia, Brazil, Turkey, South Korea and Poland in 2008.

Meanwhile, MySpace's membership in OpenSocial — a Google-led consortium of about 75 social-networking sites that includes MySpace, LinkedIn and Friendster — should also buttress relations with makers of mini-software programs called widgets, some of whom feel MySpace has not been as supportive as Facebook, says David Gentzel, creator of Trakzor, an application used by 4 million MySpace users to track when their friends view their profiles.

The Facebook factor

What makes the horse race between MySpace and Facebook so interesting is the fluid nature of the market and its always-dynamic roster of players. Since 2003, there have been no less than three go-to networking sites: the since-faded Friendster, MySpace and — now — Facebook.

"Who knows? There could be a new hot company five years from now," says Konstantin Guericke, CEO of social-networking site Jaxtr and co-founder of business network LinkedIn.

Complicating matters, multiple sites can co-exist. Social-networking denizens have shown a predilection to use major sites in distinctly different ways.

Consider MySpace, Facebook and competitor LinkedIn: MySpace is treated as an uninhibited, open hangout for the young and creative at heart; Facebook is a more discreet destination for selected friends to schmooze and network; LinkedIn is for business dealings.

"I use all three for different reasons, but from a musical standpoint, MySpace has a hip music disposition," says rap legend MC Hammer. "Facebook is great, but it's for a more mature crowd."

Yet Facebook's mature — some might argue elitist — crowd is a highly influential one. "Facebook has won the hearts and minds of the techies," says Jennifer Simpson, an analyst at Yankee Group.

That became painfully clear to MySpace last month when — despite a new advertising plan and the new OpenSocial partnership with Google — it was lost in the vapor trails of Facebook, which also announced a new ad plan as well as an investment by Microsoft.

"We've always felt we were the original social network, but we haven't done as good a job establishing our place in the social ecosystem," DeWolfe says.

"Facebook has made inroads with the over-25, professional crowd," says Jason Feffer, a former MySpace executive who now is CEO of SodaHead, which makes opinion-poll widgets for Facebook and other social networks. "But MySpace is bigger, it has a lot more media relationships through Fox, and it has OpenSocial."

What's more, MySpace has a significant edge in the foreign market, where 80% of all Internet users reside. It has localized services in 23 countries. In other words, it has more on its mind than Facebook.

"We've been global for a year and a half," Anderson says. "There is more to what's going on than just the U.S. market. People focus on Facebook, but we have larger rivals in other countries."

Kyte Nabs $15M for Mobile Social Network

Mobile social-networking startup Kyte on Thursday said it got $15 million in funding from Spanish carrier Telefonica, Japan's NTT DoCoMo, and Nokia Growth Partners.

The funding, which pushed San Francisco-based Kyte's tally to $17.2 million, is the second venture capital investment in a U.S.-based mobile social-networking startup this week. Juice Wireless on Monday scored $6 million in what is now a mobile social-networking spending spree. (see Juice Taps $6M from Mobile-Funding Geyser)

Venture capitalists pumped $431.2 million into 92 mobile social-networking companies in the first three quarters of 2007, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association Moneytree.

But none of these firms have yet made a dent in the promising, but revenue-challenged, market.

"The market does not feel that crowded to us because frankly there are few services, no revenues, no users, and no one has yet established a footprint in the market," Kyte CEO Daniel Graf said.

Despite an industry trend toward open mobile networks in the United States, access to customers is still controlled by carriers and will be controlled by them at least for a few more years, Mr. Graf said, so Kyte will seek out carrier partners.

"There is a very high entry barrier related to carriers and device manufacturers and that's why we have teamed up with Telefonica, DoCoMo, and Nokia in this round," Mr. Graf said.

Kyte markets a multimedia service that allows mobile phone users to share video, pictures, music, or text that can be posted on web sites such as MySpace, blogs, or broadcast to other mobile phones.

The company is hoping to attract media companies and artists to create embedded interactive channels and produce multimedia shows from their mobile phones while on the road.

redherring.com

2008: Year of the Mini Social Networks

MySpace, Facebook, and the other large social networks need not worry. The small, niche social network sites that are popping up faster than poker rooms in the 90’s are not going to hurt the big boy’s bottom lines. They’re just going to draw more people by the end of the year because of one fact.

They’re just more useful than the big sites.

The appeal that brought millions to form profiles and make friends on MySpace and Facebook will have the opposite effect in 2008 an beyond. We built our MySpace page and started Facebooking because everyone else was doing it. As closed social sites begin to gain in popularity, they will appeal to people because NOT everyone else is doing it. Inclusion is easy on today’s internet. Being part of something exclusive is becoming the new IT thing to do.

Ning and other emerging websites offer places for people to “give everyone the opportunity to create your own social networks for anything.” Here are some of the more popular emerging themes for these closed social niche networks:

Age-Based Social Networks

There are social networks popping up for everyone from 8-year-olds to 80-year-olds. Websites like Boomj (social network for baby boomer), Whyville (”a virtual world where boys and girls from all over the real world come to chat, play, learn, and have fun together”), and Eons (”loving life on the flipside of 50″) are making it possible for people in particular age groups to interact with each other.

The appeal here is obvious. Age gives people an instant point of reference where they know that, no matter what else is different, they have something in common. Exploring these websites reveals that the members seem to be more open, willing to reveal more about themselves than they would on general social networking websites.

Local Social Networks

Quick story: a friend was at a party the other day and really hit it off with a girl he met there. They talked, laughed, drank… all was going well. As the night drew to a close, he asked for her phone number. She hesitated, saying that she didn’t really give her phone number out to people that she just met. Then, she took a card out and wrote something down.

It was her MySpace page.

She said they could get to know each other better that way first. He was disappointed, but it was better than nothing.

Social networks like Tribe and GoingOn to localize their networks and give the audience places to find local focus. While MySpace and Facebook have similar interfaces, it’s impossible to separate yourself into the closed networks, as the bulk of friends and members will still be crossing over to other general areas.

Social networks with local membership and flare are becoming more and more prominent, especially with dating. Being social with people you can never meet based upon proximity is one thing. Having them available within your city is something completely different. Local social networks act as that buffer zone where people can interact and get to know each other without having to meet for drinks or talk on the phone. In 2008, there will be multiple large social networks in every major city. Expect to start hearing radio ads and even a few television spots pop up.

Professional Social Networks

The car business, which is notoriously a year or two behind the times when it comes to the internet, has a few social networks for car dealers popping up. The presence of Automotive Social Networks is either a sign of the end of the world or an example of how any, ANY, profession can find itself with a social network specific to its profession.

Getting advice, networking, sharing experiences — we are professionally based individuals who revolve around our jobs. Few are willing to admit it, but it’s true. Having a place with like-minded people makes it easier to cope sometimes. That’s the appeal to social networks by profession.

Interest Social Networks

Forums fade. They pop back up, then they fade again. Slowly, they will be integrated into social networks that offer more interaction beyond the forums themselves.

Gaming, for example, has dozens of emerging social networks. Gaming Social Networks like Great Games Experiments offer networks within the networks to allow gamers to become even more specific about their wins and conquests.

Why Now?

What makes 2008 the year that Niche Social Networks will emerge? The answer has 2 parts: Money and simplicity.

With the Facebook Beacon debacle and other outcries for less user data being used for marketing, it makes sense to target networks where the advertisers already know they’ve got the right audience. Hyper-targeted marketing will continue to emerge, but for now, closed social networks make it much less controversial.

The simplicity aspect is even more important. It is simple from every angle - simple for members to find the answers and networking they need, and simple for developers to make the sites and promote them with very little investment. Google’s Open Social and several other applications will make it very easy for these types of networks to get started and grow.

socialnewswatch.com

Niche Social Networks to Take Off in 2008

Pringo Networks shares opinion for 2008 trends in social media

Interest and focus in social networks will move from behemoth sites to more personalized groups, according to Pringo, a leading provider of white-label social networking platforms. The company's president, Gary Hall, today published his opinions on the social-media trends for 2008, predicting record-breaking deployments of feature-rich, special-interest community sites.

2008 will see some specific trends, including:

1. In order to maintain stickiness in 2008, brands will need to employ social media tools and user-generated content (UGC). To keep their competitive edge, they will be proactive in understanding and identifying their users' specific interests, providing a more relevant and feature-rich community.

2. The greatest growth in social media will be in affinity groups and niches. The largest social media sites will become less relevant and attractive to those who want social media to be intimate and useful, rather than broadly distributed.

3. Social media sites will reap the benefits from an increase in advertising dollars being spent, but consumers will reject advertising that is not tailored for their specific needs. The growth in highly-targeted sites will attract advertisers looking for a quicker return on investment. This will further reinforce the ad-revenue sharing model between organizations and social-media platform providers. In addition, we will see emergence of advertising-based standards.

4. Customer-facing companies that do not employ social media tools in their external communications and customer relationship management strategies will lose to competitors who actively adopt these. Individuals will expect companies to leverage this type of technology so the consumer voice can more easily be heard.

5. People will continue to spend more time on the Internet; however, they will hop from one web site to another less frequently, only spending time on social media sites and networks that fully engage their interests and values.

6. In 2008, a more mature audience will embrace online communities, even though the young early adopters acted as the initial catalyst for social media. Although growth in terms of quantity will still be largest among teens and 20-somethings, the highest percentage rise will come from parents of children who use social media, professionals and senior citizens, among others.

7. Major corporations will use social media tools for building better communication with employees, replacing outdated intranet systems. The increase in popularity of social networks and online communities in corporate environments will create a demand among businesses for customizable, scalable and feature-rich platforms.

8. Mobile social media will take off in 2008. Up until now mobile services have played a minor role in the development of social media. Consumers will want to take social media with them everywhere, driving the development of more mobile applications.

9. We will start to see market consolidation. Larger social media players will acquire smaller, common interest sites so that the established portals remain competitive, attractive and relevant.

lewiswire.com

Community Networks versus Social Networks

Google (GOOG) has just bought Jaiku, a Finland-based mobile IM and presence company.
In the recent period many articles has touched upon sites like Jaiku, FaceBook, and LinkedIn etc and labeled them "social networks". But in my opinion they can't be classified as social network, but more as "free end-user driven virtual community networks" as real contact between members are rare.

Real social networks are a description of a "professional real life and closed company specific social networks" where real contacts between members are what the software displays and analyse on.

lars-kirstein.blogspot.com

Open Web Awards Announced Final Winners

The voting in the first ever Open Web Awards is over and Vizu has validated the results. The awards ceremony will be held at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California on Thursday, January 10th from 7:00 – 10:00 PM.

Here are the winners:

Mainstream and Large Social Networks - Netlog.com

Applications and Widgets - WidgetBucks

Social News - Digg.com

Social Search - Facebook.com

Sports and Fitness - Sportme.org

Photo Sharing - Vois.com

Video Sharing - Kaltura

Start Pages - Cafemom.com

Places and Events - MySpace

Music - Pandora.com

Social Shopping - Zlio.com

Mobile - Google Maps for Mobile

Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks - Cafemom.com

Are You My Friend Friend?

Social networking has altered the way that some of the more connected among us look at the concept of “friendship.”

If you are someone like Robert Scoble and have a stable of thousands of friends to contend with, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to ask the question what does friendship of this sort really mean.

There seem to be three major tiers of Friendship using this model. They go something like this.

Friend Friend

These are people who you have some real connection to. Whether they are old acquaintances who you are staying in touch with online or people at the periphery of your social circle that you want to keep track of. Friend Friends are the type of people who it wouldn’t seem strange to call up on the phone, and for normal users, these make up the majority of the friends in their network.

Professional Contact

These are people you might not know personally, but you know of them. Web marketers make great use of this kind of Friendship. These are people who, for whatever reason, you want to keep tabs, or often times people who are inaccessible except through a social network. Usually, this sort of “friendship” is a strange combination of voyeurism and one-sided debate. That being said, it’s not a terrible way to get to know people you may not have a more logical means of getting into contact with.

Hangers On

These are not your friends in any traditional sense, however, you have no qualms with allowing them to “think” they are. Generally, the percentage of hangers on increase exponentially with the number of friends you have in a network beyond the low hundreds. These are friendships where you have no real personal contact, no intention of ever having a personal contact nor are you completely aware that these people are actually your friends. In a way, hangers on have just become RSS feed subscribers to your lifestream.

Web 2.0 Roundup

I don’t believe social networks have created these distinctions, instead they have made them a lot more apparent. Celebrities, sports stars and politicians have aggregated their relationships in similar ways for years. However, blogging has given otherwise “normal” people a platform to work these layers of relationships into their lives. What are your thoughts?

howtosplitanatom.com

3 Principles of Social Network Design

Social software designers are learning that designing for group behavior and interaction is more complex than designing for individual users. Especially in social network design, the unpredictability in user response and group activities can pose design difficulties. In order for a social network design to be successful, there are several basic principles that should be followed.

1. Engage the user quickly—seconds matter. First impressions matter when users have millions of websites they can click to. You will need to make the core features of your network absolutely clear before distracting the user with too many peripheral features. Make sure there is a very short learning curve for users to be able to add content or change settings so that they can see the results quickly.

Continuing to engage users requires dynamic applications. In order to provide an ongoing quality experience across multiple sessions, the application must generate new content on a steady basis. One way that social network design can accomplish this is by exposing friend or contact activity. This is how MySpace and FaceBook have leveraged their technologies. As users become aware of how other users are interacting and using the network, this creates ongoing change and interactivity.

2. Enable self expression. The user’s profile page should be customizable to the extreme and offer a large variety of options for self expression. The profile will ultimately reflect the individual’s identity, expressing their likes, dislikes, tastes—opening themselves up to every other user. The more self expression available on the profile page, the more interactions are possible with other users as they connect and networks grow.

Conversations or discussions among users are another necessary way for self expression. As discussions continue, the interaction has a tendency to spawn new topics and new content. The growth of a network can be exponentially related to the interaction and interplay of its users as they have increasing numbers of conversations throughout the network.

3. Community Building. By following the first two principles of engaging quickly and enabling self expression, the network creates an environment that fosters development of huge connecting interactions. These connections can quickly grow too numerous to be able to track so smaller communities within the whole are created. As in a real public setting, users will tend to gather together in groups of similar interests or tastes. As these communities grow, contributors become emotionally vested in the network.

By forming these smaller communities within the larger network, users are given a much fuller and richer experience. As they become more and more vested in the community, they are less likely to leave and more likely to invite others to join them in the experience. Communities are what keep users coming back, helping them form permanent, virtual ties.

If you would like to read other articles and watch videos on topics like this one, you can join us at http://www.relativitycorp.com . We have tons of resources on Web 2.0 Marketing written by David C Skul CEO and Frank J Klein CIO. You can also sign up to get information in you email in box weekly at the site as well. Come by and engage in our community and leave comments on our blog.

keywordcents.com

The Rise and Fall of Social Networks

There is a broad discussion around the use of identity information at StudiVZ these days. They have changed their agreements with their users and will present personalized adverts. That has lead to an intensive discussion in their user community. Another interesting change can be found at Xing since some two weeks: At the starting page you can now directly see not only the number of new contacts of your contacts (like at LinkedIn) but the names of the new contacts.

I personally found that change a little bit to open. For sure you can look up the contact lists of your contacts as long as they aren’t hidden. But there is a difference between acting actively and this new situation where you are passive. I’m not sure whether I like that – and I doubt that other users are convinced of the value of this change.

But, more important than the question whether I will hide my contacts at Xing as a consequence of this change there is another aspect which is common for both described situations: Social networks are at a critical point. And their next steps will influence the future not only of some single social networks but of the approach in general.

• The business models of social networks.


• The question of information ownership.


• The respect regarding privacy concerns.

It is obvious that most of these points aren’t solved in an appropriate way in at least most of today’s social networks. That might lead to a situation in which most of today’s social networks will disappear – an expectation I share with my colleague Tim Cole who has started this discussion some months ago.

Regarding business models: The problem lies in the fact that there are only two business models. One is to earn money from the members for premium services or, to some degree, from partners who deliver premium services. That is somewhat limited but might work. The second approach is to earn money with the member data or the amount of members. The easiest approach are non personalized adverts. No one likes them but they don’t create privacy issues and problems with the information ownership. Any other approach, e.g. personalized adverts or selling of adverts leads to these issues – and thus is critical for any social network.

The second and third of the aspects mentioned above seem to be the same at first. But there is a big difference: One is about control and accessibility of my information, e.g. my contacts and other data in the network. There are to facets:

• Can I take my information with me?


• If there is a business with build on that information: Can I control whether I want it to be done and, if yes, can I participate?

Both aspects are contradictory towards the business models of the social network companies. Thus you usually can’t take your information with you. I’m member in Xing and LinkedIn. And I really don’t like to maintain two networks. I’d like to have an approach where I can take my information and transfer it. Others like to have a smart move from their study to their business career moving their network as well. But you are locked in to a network – and they do the business. And you have to pay for. Add some – from the customer perspective – doubtable features and you end up with a business model which is close to failure.

By the way we started a discussion around the portability of identity information in social networks at the EIC 2007 and will follow up next year at EIC 2008. Will be interesting to observe whether there will be any moves towards more openness and standards to interchange the information someone has in these networks – his information, not theirs!

Finally, there is the need for privacy. We have strong regulations in many countries. And social networks seem to have a tendency to violate policy regulations or at least stress them. The approach “we change our business policy and our end user agreement and you have to accept or leave”, like StudiVZ has done, is inacceptable.

Given these aspects it seems like there are more open questions than answers. And many of these questions affect the business models of social networks. Trying to expand the model beyond direct fees from the users ends up with high risk approaches which might end with less or no users any more. On the other hand the activities of social networks are against what the user wants. Thus the question is whether today’s social networks will survive or will be replaced by something with more control and consent of the user – the information owner. This is the same tendency like with VRM (vendor relationship management) and in fact, the entire user-centric identity management. I personally believe – and agree with Tim Cole – that the world of social networks will fundamentally change within the next years.

by Martin Kuppinger
blogs.kuppingercole.de

Don’t touch that social network! We’ll be right back…

By Josh Quittner

Hayden Black was thrilled—initially—to see traffic start to spike as his online-only sitcom, “Goodnight, Burbank,” found a fan base on Facebook. Then, he tells me, not so much: “Many people erroneously think that the success of your show is determined by how many people go to your website. But watching video on the Internet is an animal in and of itself.”

The problem was that Facebook fans like to stay put on Facebook. Instead of going to blip.tv — the video site that hosts “Goodnight Burbank” and sells ads on its behalf — Facebookers used video-viewing applets to stream the show back to the social network. That may have been good for the series’s popularity, but generated exactly zero income for Black.

So with his latest venture, “Abigail’s X-Rated Teenage Diary” Black built his own social network around his video content. It launched earlier this week. Or rather, he used Ning, the white-label service that lets anyone create a social network. “How do we bring people in? How do we fight the challenge of getting them to leave Facebook for a moment?” Black asks. “I think the best way is to use what Ning is doing — a social network in a box.”

A number of online TV companies are doing the same thing. Social networks on Ning support, or will soon support, video programs like NextNewNetworks’ “Epic-Fu” and Channel Frederator; the Animation Social Network; Jason Calcanis’s “Maholo Daily” and the popular video podcast “TikiBar.”

This makes a lot of sense to me. We live in a media world; we are awash in the stuff. We define ourselves by the media we choose to consume — that’s partly why people prominently display the books they’ve read. We carry around like flags the magazines we love, and buy “The Sopranos” on DVD because we want to physically possess it. It’s actually kind of shocking that HBO never thought to start a Soprano’s social network.

Of course, none of this is lost on the hungry folks navigating the edges of new media.

Some bigger sites, such as Funny Or Die, are even building out their own in-house social networks. Mark Kvamme, the VC from Sequoia Ventures, which funded the Will Ferrell-backed comedy video site, says that funnyordie.com uses the same platform technology as sister sites mybluecollar.com and skateboard king Tony Hawk’s shredordie.com. Kvamme calls this the “Or Die Network” and says that it will be launching three to five new celebrity-affiliated video sites over the next six months. “We’re building a platform to partner with creative folks to give them best-of-breed web technologies to help them communicate,” he tells me. “We’re baking in our own social networking features.”

Kvamme says that building a social network around a video site is a no-brainer from a viewer standpoint. “These audiences want to connect and communicate. They want information. We have thousands of people on the newsfeed looking for new videos coming out.”

While Funnyordie had 3.5 million unique visitors in November, Kvamme says it’s yet to turn a profit. “We haven’t figured out how to monetize Internet video yet.” But social networks, which can demonstrate to advertisers user engagement, among other things, could solve the problem. Kvamme predicts that within five years, “Internet advertising will surpass broadcast television.”

Jeff Macpherson and Tosca Musk live in Vancouver and produce “TikiBar,” an online series about cocktails and the bachelor life. They started their video podcast nearly three years ago as a hobby, and it quickly ramped up into a real business. Currently, each episode is downloaded around 500,000 times a month.

A social network, says Musk, “allows us to really communicate with the audience. Fan scripts and art and music would be e-mailed to us all the time, and very little of it was used. It just sat there doing nothing.” With the launch of the TikiBar network on Ning (still in beta), however, fans can create their own pages and share all that stuff. “Forums are a kind of limited way of expressing oneself,” says Macpherson. “They’re limited to straight, linear text. The social network is a less linear experience — it doesn’t feel like you’re looking at a database of messages. You have your own page, music, photos, documents, and even sets of icons the user creates. It really feels like it comes to life.”

techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com

8 Great Digg-like Social Networks for Designers in 2008

There are a lot of social networks available for every niche you can think of, some of them aren’t as good as others and the good ones always need a little attention. I’m sure a lot of you have been to a few of these but should be members of all of them. Interaction is important when it comes to social networks. Ensuring that you do your part as a member and contribute to them by voting on content or contributing to a conversation.

When it comes to social networks for designers the design of the site is a huge selling point, we don’t want to look at a poorly designed web site frequently. We need style in our social network designs.

The list of great social networks for designers

#1 designfloat

http://designfloat.com
Designfloat is an excellent social network that provides a ton of information all within separate categories that designers and developers would be interested in. This rising star has really got quite a bit of attention lately from the design community at large. It seems to have mostly good topics that are actually interesting and worth voting for.

The topics range from web standards, branding, marketing, advertising, design resources and print design. The site is simple and straight forward and even allows users to vote on the article without ever creating an account. A handy feature that ensures good content can easily rise in popularity without having to entice visitors to become a member.

#2 9rules

http://9rules.com
The 9rules site is more then just for designers, it has a wide range of topics for just about anything. It gives you politics, anime, Web++, blogging and even humor. The site typically leans towards design and technology though. 9Rules is a full circle social network with forums (notes) and RSS feeds from 9rules members. It has blogs and a point system that allows you to give points to notes and comments. You can easily spend a ton of time on the site, it is a web 2.0 forum with extras.

#3 design:related

http://www.designrelated.com/
This is an excellent site to find designer related articles. You must sign up to vote for the articles but you can find a wide arrange of topics on the front page regarding any number of different topics. A good portion of them aren’t necessarily web related or even computer related design fields. They still provide some great topics and inspirational articles from all over the web about nearly anything.

#4 design snack

http://www.designsnack.com/
This site allows visitors to vote on web designs and discuss improvements or their opinions on why they might not like the design. A great site to find some fantastic advice or inspiration for web design. The system is very subtle and provides featured sites on the front page that have received good reviews and ratio of positive votes.

#5 pixel groovy

http://www.pixelgroovy.com/
Another excellent site to find design topics of any kind. It is all tutorials about how to create various design elements or CSS objects. You can usually find fantastic design tutorials on this site and vote them up if the tutorial is well done. I have always recommended that even if you feel you have mastered web design to do at least one design tutorial a week for inspiration. I find them to be very helpful for discovering news ways to do things in your design field.

#6 Command Shift 3

http://commandshift3.com
This is less of a digg-style social network for designers then a fun way to look and vote on various submitted web sites. It works just like Hot or Not did but without voting on girls, you vote on websites. You can find some of the very best designs and some of the very worst designs on this site. Overall it can be a fun little game to go through the site and choose which design you like better. Some of them are a no-brainer but others it can be tough to decide which site is better. It really can make you think about “why” one site is better then the other. You can truly find some good self-created inspiration from choosing which site you like the best.

#7 Dzone

http://dzone.com
This site is really less for designers as it is for developers. It goes over very intimate topics on programming and code heavy topics. You can still find some pretty good news on it. There is limited sorting though, because it has such a focused topic it seems that pretty much all of the articles simply get listed on new links or popular links. A wonderful site for developers and programmers to find topics that will spark their creativity.

#8 Developers Niche

http://www.developersniche.com/
This is a great site for web designers to find and vote on articles related to coding, markup and design. The site itself really needs a facelift, but the overall quality of articles submitted seems to be pretty good. The site is relatively new so it needs some time to grow but it could easily develop into a real player in the digg-like social networking scene.

Designer social networks can provide hours of inspiration

It is easy to feel inspired when you go through some of these sites. It seems for designers the most difficult part of the job at times is to find inspiration. Whether it be from nature, other designs or a box of cereal we all have to find it somewhere. These sites are a fantastic starting point for any creative task and should be the first place to start when searching for a little quick and dirty inspiration (after you visit this site of course).

Profitable Social Networking

With the innovations in the Internet world, it is not a wonder that social networks are gaining their popularity. Information can easily be communicated to a larger group of individuals just by the viral effect of social networking. If you are starting up a business and would want to gain more connections, you should know the science of social networking.

Here are some special pointers that you can consider:

Get to know the places where the people on your target niche usually stay. If you want to meet people whose interest is more about cooking, then you should find social networking sites where their main topic is cooking. Most likely, these people are the ones who would frequently visit your website.

As much as possible influence partnerships in your network. People that have the same interest can help each other through these social networking sites. Start meeting more people. You would be amazed with the connections that you can get from each friend that you gain online.

Prepare your site and your resources before joining in social networks. Of course, you cannot expect words to spread fast but when words get to the people who are interested, you need to make sure that your website and resources are geared to sustain the traffic and clamors that would go your way.

badsun.net

Social Networking Tips for Jobseekers

Beware. Those of you who have posted personal information online might be under surveillance. Jobs candidate who maintain profiles on social networking sites, may want to reconsider its content.

Employers are now increasingly using social networks to assess job applicants, verify CVs or even find ideal candidates based on online profile. As is true with any other domain, recruiting is forced to acknowledge the area, which has the highest footfalls or coming together of professionals outside their normal work spheres.

The trend that started a few years back in the tech industry is fast spreading. With the emergence of the concept of blogs and social networks such as MySpace, Orkut, Facebook, Linkedin, a growing number of people are leaving significant online footprints.

"As the cliched ‘war for talent’ managers are being forced to resort to taking unconventional and ‘out of the box’ measures to cope with this shortage. An online social networking site provides an unbiased, unmotivated and easily accessible source of checking out a potential employee without compromising his or her privacy," says Shiv Agrawal, ABC Consultant’s CEO.

infotech.indiatimes.com

Mainstream or Large Social Networks

Open Web Awards Finalists

The top 3 nominees in the “Mainstream or Large Social Networks” category were a bit surprising, though, given our large following in the UK and our diverse set of blog partners for the awards, it’s not too shocking to see two big international names on the list.

Here’s a quick look at the nominees:

Bebo: Often recognized as the third most popular social network behind MySpace and Facebook, Bebo claims more than 40 million members worldwide. They also recently launched a platform that will allow developers to easily port over existing applications that they have build for Facebook. Bebo is the #1 social network in the UK.

Netlog: Another big European name, formerly known as Facebox, Netlog re-launched this year with €5 million in fresh funding. The site claims more than 28 million users worldwide, with market leadership in Europe. The company is based in Belgium.

VOIS.com: The most surprising entrant into the final 3 is VOIS.com, a relatively new social network focused on middle-aged users. The site launched back in July, and is actually a publicly traded company (VOIS.OB). VOIS is definitely the dark horse candidate of the group, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Voting post is here: http://mashable.com/2007/12/17/owa-voting-finalists-1/

Can Social Networks Change the Real World?

The United States is generally considered to be the most powerful country in the world. The head of this country is the President. The President is selected in a national election, but must first make it through the primaries.

The first state primaries generally predict who will be selected to run for the presidency. Not only do they predict, but they also influence. If someone believes after seeing these primaries that their candidate no longer has a chance, or vice versa, it can change their voting habits - they might not decide to bother.

Enter MySpace. They have decided to turn the system on its head by having their own primaries well before any other state. And we all know the reach of MySpace. As the linked article states, if it were a country, its population would make it nearly in the top ten most populous.

So maybe it will make a difference or maybe it will not. It is hard to say what the overall effect will be, but one thing is for sure. Many younger individuals who may care a lot about MySpace, but a lot less about politics may take interest. Politicians have tried for decades to bring these younger individuals to the polls. Will this be the year? As the elections have been so close in the past couple of years, is it possible that this incfluence could be enough to decide the leadership of the strongest nation in the world? Never underestimate MySpace!

viralvoodoo.com

Social Networks and Dating Sites

Only a few years ago, if you wanted to find a date on the web, you’d sign up for a dating site such as Friendfinder or Lavalife. Now, it seems, the place to be seen is on a social networking site but have social networking sites taken over completely from dating sites? Are social networks the new place to meet partners online or do dating sites still have something to offer?

The rise of social networking sites is hard to ignore and it would seem that traditional dating websites have taken a battering as prospective clients turn to social networking instead. Yet dating sites do seem to have something to offer that the social networks do not. Which is why you should not ignore those dating sites if you are looking for a date, a new partner or just seeking a good time.

One drawback of social networks is that not everyone on them is there for the same reason. Social networks attract a wide range of people who use them for various different means. On a dating site, however, you can be fairly sure that most people there are lookikng to meet and have dates.

The traditional dating site is quite likely to have certain facilities to help you find a date. Such tools or facilities may include chat rooms, search tools, video and personal profiles. Often the chatrooms may be geared to certain ‘themes’ or locations which can help you find a compatible date.

Also, of course, on a dating sites, once you have joined, people can find you. Which helps a lot! especially if you are shy. You simply complete your profile or a simple questionnaire and your info is available for potential dates to find. On a social site, your profile is hidden among thousands of others.

The exponential growth of social networks means that your profile becomes just one of many. Your wishes, desires, likes or dislikes are stored but hidden along with everyone else’s. On a dating site, your profile can be much more prominent, not only because there may be fewer members but also because the people doing the searching are more likely to be looking for something you put into your profile.

So, by all means join one of the many social networks that abound on the web but do not ignore the traditional dating or matchmaking sites if you really want to make a date with someone new.

What is Web 2.0?

The term Web 2.0 is used a lot now. Almost every discussion on new ways to generate traffic to a website includes some mention of web 2.0. Talk of new marketing strategies for online businesses is more and more regarding web 2.0 as a necessary component. But what exactly is web 2.0?

Web 2.0 was coined as a phrase in conjunction with a publishing companies media conference on changes in the internet that was held in 2004. The term has only been widely used over the past one or two years. If you looked at web 2.0 like a software upgrade you might get the impression that it describes a new and improved version of the technology that runs the internet. That is not the case.

Web 2.0 is not about technology, although advances in technology may have lead to the evolution of web 2.0. Rather web 2.0 refers to a new utilization of the internet in which the user defines and has direct input on content. It refers to the change in the internet from largely a read only system to an interactive community.

To clarify this more, think about the internet a few years ago. Almost all websites were one way sites. By that I mean that all the sites you visited were sites that you could read or buy something from but there were not many sites that you could actually add your comments and thoughts to.

The beginning of the evolution to web 2.0 were forums and newsgroups. There you could submit comments to other users and allow others to respond. But forums required you to join and you had no control over the forum itself. You could merely respond or start a discussion in the defined areas.

Then people started blogging. All of a sudden users could put up their own blog and create content about anything they wanted. The one special feature of blogs is that any user that reads the blog can post their comments to that blog. All of a sudden the users of the internet were creating the information on the internet themselves.

Myspace took the blog idea even further. It allowed users to set up complete multimedia sites about anything they desired. It allowed users to create friends lists which in essence were user created networks. Each of the friends on the lists created their own networks and the connected networks of users became gigantic.

How does this web 2.0 concept fit into internet marketing? Web 2.0 is important to anyone who wants to make a living online because the social networks that have been created are enormous. If you substitute the word consumer for the word user, you have millions of consumers networked together. Not only is the number of consumers participating in these social networks huge, but they rely on information they receive while interacting in these networks to form opinions and make decisions.

Since this massive group of consumers spends so much time in their social networks and because these networks create powerful influencing forces for these consumers, it becomes a huge market to be targeted.

There is an old saying in business, fish where the fish are. The fish are in these new social networks. If you want to catch these fish and market your product to them then you need to be where they are. This is why web 2.0 is important to you as an internet marketer.

ray-johnson.co.uk

Social Networking for the Socially Minded (Part 2)

Part 1

Project Agape's Facebook application -- soon to be replicated on MySpace and elsewhere -- shows early signs of success, at least by one measure. Some 10 million people have used it.

An open question is whether this mass of supporters, many of them young, will lead to more giving, said Timothy L. Seiler, director of the fundraising school at the University of Indiana's Center for Philanthropy. "I think people are joining to be part of a group and that's the primary motivation," he said. "The primary motivation isn't to be philanthropic."

On Facebook, the biggest group created through the "Causes" application, benefiting cancer research at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, has attracted nearly 2.9 million members. They've given slightly more than $52,000. A group supporting the Alliance for Climate Protection has generated $17,000 from 1.5 million members.

Another question is whether the for-profit companies can find a sustainable business model.

"People in the public and especially our users are really sensitive to somebody making money," said Matt Flannery, the founder and chief executive of Kiva.

Kiva, a not-for-profit Web site that connects lenders with people in poor countries who need tiny loans to start businesses, has received plaudits from former president Bill Clinton and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. Kiva asks lenders to make a contribution to the site at the end of the lending process, though it is not required.

The for-profit Web sites note that big corporations pay millions to associate with certain causes, opening up possible advertising and sponsorship opportunities. But for now, many claim not to care much about making a lot of money.

"We're not prioritizing revenue. We're prioritizing the product and audience," Traeger said.

Traeger, 33, who came to the Washington area after graduating from Princeton, sold Christianity.com to Salem Communications for $3.6 million in 2005.

A year later, he connected with several like-minded investors who wanted to back a Web site like Razoo. The name is a New Zealand term for a small coin; Traeger likes to say small contributions, when combined, can add up to great value. The site mainly focuses on networking but still needs to integrate fundraising and other functions. With about 20,000 members, the site has yet to achieve critical mass.

"We originally thought, 'We will build it and they will come.' That definitely took too long," Traeger said.

So Razoo has given about $20,000 in grants to charities who assemble the most members on the site.

Social Networking for the Socially Minded (Part 1)

District Firm Razoo Joins Other Web Site Builders Trying to Reinvent How People Give Money to Charity

washingtonpost.com
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 17, 2007

The office of Razoo on Connecticut Avenue blends two distinct cultures common in Washington.

It has the feeling of an Internet start-up, what with programmers clicking away, big flat screens, an espresso machine and funky green carpet. Yet the photos on the walls from Rwanda and other poor countries and the 11 employees, age 23 to 33, suggest it could just as easily be a nongovernmental organization.

The combination is no mistake. Razoo is a company that has built a Web site to connect people with one another, much like social networking giants MySpace and Facebook, but in support of humanitarian objectives such as preventing homelessness in the United States and helping families who live in a Nicaragua trash dump. Users and causes each have their own pages.

"YouTube is transforming TV. Google has transformed advertising," said Razoo founder J. Sebastian Traeger. "The Web will do the same thing for philanthropy."

Traeger, who built and sold a previous online venture, is following in the footsteps of several other Internet entrepreneurs who are trying to reinvent philanthropy. They hope to apply the tools of the digital age -- such as social networking and peer-to-peer and viral marketing -- to an industry long criticized for its slow-moving ways.

It's not the first time tech entrepreneurs or Web sites have gotten involved in directing money and attention toward social causes. What's striking about the current movement, though, is how technology and philanthropy are intersecting with the start-up, for-profit culture of the Internet.

Risks abound. The for-profit companies are operating in a nonprofit world. And it's not clear if the hype surrounding their potential will be met by reality. "While the fusion of commercial values and non-commercial values makes sense and has promise, it's not going to be this magical cure," said Jeff Trexler, a Pace University professor who has studied the phenomenon.

"Like with any movement there's going to be a shakeout," he said.

Last week, AOL founder Steve Case's foundation announced it would award $750,000 in grants to charities selected by Internet users. Part of the contest will be administered through a "Causes" application that lets users of Facebook affiliate with and donate to charities.

The application was built by Project Agape, a venture-backed start-up in Silicon Valley created by Sean Parker, a former Facebook president and founder of the file-sharing service Napster, and Joe Green, the Harvard roommate of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Others take different approaches. The Omidyar Network, started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, invests in for-profits, such as Digg, the social news site, and also backs a wide range of nonprofits. Google created a for-profit company for supporting social causes.

By merging social networks and philanthropy, the idea is that people will be more likely to give money or support to a certain cause if their friends do. The Internet also holds the promise of cutting down on bureaucracy and the high administrative and marketing costs associated with raising money.

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Companies Warned Not to Rush Into Social Networking

Many companies are thinking about how they can take advantage of social-networking technology, but analysts at Gartner are warning against getting caught up in the hype.

Businesses are advised to consider certain issues before investing in or developing internal social-networking tools. These include protecting personal intellectual property, as well as people's preference for using existing nonprofessional, external networks such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.com.

With Facebook saying it will license its developer platform to other organizations, it also could become even easier for companies to develop their own social networks.

But the Gartner report says the hype around social networking doesn't necessarily mean it's a mature enough technology to make it a critical business requirement.

There is also little evidence that social networking will be as beneficial for businesses as other Web-based communications technology, such as instant messaging.

Ultimately, Gartner suggests, the value of social-networking technology comes from content rather than the product itself. The analysts recommend that IT departments think very carefully before committing to expensive "social-networking white elephants."

Earlier this month, business networking site LinkedIn also said it will let third parties develop applications for its site and take LinkedIn content to other sites.

Tim Ferguson of Silicon.com reported from London

Social Network - what is it?

For social networks to work online they must function the same way that social networks do offline. If you look at your own social network of friends and family, there are three basic requirements:

1. A real identity

Each of us has an identity that is easily recognized by our social contacts. This isn’t just our name and our ‘look’. It’s also what we do, where we live, what we think, and so on.

A lot of this is background information that we store in our heads or in some note form.

We continuously update our list of facts our contacts. As lives change, for example, addresses and phone numbers, friends, etc. we update our knowledge about them.

2. Easy communication

In real life social networks there is an easy-going form of communication.

We ‘open-up’ to different degrees to various people, and they to us.

We like to talk about ourselves, about other people, and about things that happen to us.

The conversations we have can be thought of as ‘micro-socializing’ – short sentences, glances, gestures, are all forms of short messages.

3. Easy filtering

In our social circles, there is an automatic filtering mechanism that works. We have an understanding among friends and acquaintances that says what can and can’t be revealed about other people.

Online social networks need to provide the same functionality to deliver value to their users. It is this functionality that makes it work. Paul Buchheit has summarised what good online social networks are able to do.

There's no such thing as a "social network"

Paul Buchheit

Of course there are many things that people call "social networks", but that's more confusing than enlightening. The "social network" aspect of these products is just a mechanism, not the purpose, and their purposes are often more different than similar. It's like saying that something is a "Javascript". Many websites use Javascript, but hopefully the Javascript is only there in order to accomplish some other purpose. LinkedIn and Twitter, for example, both use Javascript and social networking mechanisms, but clearly they are very different products and have very different uses. Facebook likes to call itself a "social utility", but to me that's just as meaningless.

That said, there is something "social networky" that unites these otherwise-dissimilar "social networking" sites. The two features that seem to define the social network aspect of a product are:

1. Some kind of page or profile for each user. The contents of this page vary wildly, but it always includes a name and often a picture.
   
   
2. "Friend" links among the profile pages, which may or may not be bi-directional. These "friends" only sometimes correspond to real-life friends.
   

Those two features alone are very simple but also very useless. Real products need more functionality in order to somehow deliver value to their users. It is this other functionality that defines the real purpose of a product, not the "social network", which exists only to enable or enhance the core purpose.

So what ARE the purposes of these many "social networking" products? (in random order)

1. Enable people to send messages to their friends. This functionality basically defines email, which can be considered one of the earliest "social networks", though most email systems lack browsable profiles. Annoyingly, many other social networking products reimplement this function, with mixed results.
   
   
2. Enable people to send messages to non-friends. There are two aspects to this feature: discovery (finding the people) and control (preventing unwanted messages). Email is weak on both aspects, and for many people, this is one of the most useful features of products such as Facebook and LinkedIn (I can easily find and contact people that I don't know).
   
   
3. "Live" address/phone book. Sites like Facebook have fields for phone, email, etc, and since everyone maintains their own page, the information is generally up-to-date (vs the bad-old-world of everyone having to broadcast "please update your address books" every time they move).
   
   
4. Less private communication. Email and IM are often too private. Life would be much less interesting if all of our conversations took place one-on-one in closed rooms. Part of what makes parties, offices, and other social environments interesting is that we can observe other people interacting, overhear conversations, and often join-in. Features such as the "wall" create a kind of public or semi-public email, allowing our friends to overhear conversations. Twitter is often used as a public IM/chat.
   
   
5. Passive communication about my life. I don't want to interrupt or spam my friends every time I have some little bit of news, take some new pictures, or get a random thought, but I have no problem blogging or Twittering those things, or uploading to photo sharing sites (which all have social features now). Similarly, I enjoy seeing this information from my friends (but I wouldn't want them calling me on the phone to tell me about their lunch every day).
   
   
6. Passive sharing of non-personal content. I'll occasionally see an interesting or amusing web page and want to share it with friends. I used to put these things into my IM status, but now I add them to my FriendFeed. Email, Twitter, Facebook, and Digg/Reddit are also sometimes used for this purpose (though obviously Digg is less "friend" oriented).
   
   
7. Self expression. This is most prominent on MySpace, where user profiles are highly customizable and can have embedded music (which starts playing as soon as I visit the page). This behavior is very similar to decorating your house or bedroom in "real life" -- there seems to be some human instinct to define our identity through decorations, fashion, music, art, etc. Self expression is an element of all products which have browsable profiles, but on most sites identity is expressed more in terms of content (favorite movies on Facebook, job history on LinkedIn, tweets on Twitter, etc).
   
   
8. Background information. If I meet someone new (or am about to meet them), I sometimes checkout their Facebook or LinkedIn pages to learn more about their background, see if we have common friends, etc. Obviously this also ties in with self-expression and identity in more social settings -- people "friend" each other after meeting and their MySpace page (or whatever) becomes part of that "first" impression.
   
   
9. Dating. One of the earliest and still most popular uses of sites like MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, etc. It's less "explicit" than on dating sites, but by putting themselves online, people can see and be seen, plus get background info, see who their common friends are, etc. The Facebook newsfeed even tells us when friends break-up (or start dating).
   
   
10. Jobs. Job hunting and hiring are essentially the "professional" analog of dating and seem to work in somewhat similar ways.
    
    
11. Finding old friends. By enabling friend-of-friend and school class browsing, it's much easier to locate old friends, and therefore people do more of it. This also lets people track down old friends without appearing crazy (they can "bump" into them on classmates.com, or whatever -- no private detective needed).
    
    
12. Keeping in touch with "unclose" friends (related to "passive communication about my life"). It's fun to know what's going on with people who we've known in the past, even if we aren't close friends. Profile browsing and newsfeeds make this easier. This can also make unclose friends into closer friends, as we may coincidentally be in the same city at the same time, be attending the same events, or just start chatting.
    
    
13. "Micro-socializing" (I need a better term here). A lot of wall posts, poking, winking, commenting, Twittering, etc can go into the category. The comments on FriendFeed generally fall into this category as well -- someone shares a link or posts some photos, then they and their friends will end up chatting about it. This is somewhat analogous to the traditional "water-cooler" conversation.
    
    
14. Word-of-mouth recommendations. Shared links, news, Yelp reviews, some Twitters, and the like provide us with information about what our friends are doing. Word-of-mouth can be very powerful since we typically trust our friends much more than random people. The new Facebook "Beacon" advertising system is trying to use this effect to sell things.
    
    
15. General amusement for bored people. Clicking around on friends and friends-of-friends and even random people's pages can be kind of interesting. As sites provide more content (such as the links and videos on FriendFeed) or games (many popular Facebook apps are games) there will be even more of this.
    
    
16. Publishing. This especially applies to blogs, twitter, flickr, and the like, but being able to subscribe to the content produced by our favorite authors and artists as well as friends and family is very powerful for both the producer and the consumer.
    
    
17. Group sharing and socializing. This was traditionally done via mailing lists and that's the model behind Google/Yahoo Groups, but of course Facebook, Orkut and the like have have some basic group functionality too, and Ning seems to specialize in it by enabling each group to create their own social network.
    

Social Network Advertising's Promise

How much can social networks net?

Social networking is an Internet success story.

This year, 37% of the US adult Internet population used online social networking at least once a month. That figure will rise to 49% in 2011.

"The continued growth of social networking seems assured," says Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report "Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage", "unless teens stop social networking as they become adults."

Don’t bet on that.

Currently, 70% of all US teens visit social network sites on a monthly basis.



"By 2011, one-half of all online adults and 84% of online teens in the US will use social networking each month," says Ms. Williamson. "There is little to suggest that this activity will go away."

When it comes to translating eyeballs into advertising revenues, eMarketer projects that worldwide online social network ad spending will grow from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $2.2 billion in 2008, 82%.



In the US, spending is projected to rise to $1.6 million in 2008, from $920 million in 2007.

"MySpace and Facebook together receive more than 70% of all US social network ad spending," says Ms. Williamson. "And they are hard at work to convince marketers to allot more of their budgets to social network advertising."

The advertising offerings of the two social network giants are becoming more diversified, and now include not only profile pages but search, display ads, widgets and more.

"But if social network marketing delivers on its promise of peer recommendations the flow of advertising dollars will turn into a flood," says Ms. Williamson.

eMarketer.com

Li Ka-shing buys Facebook stake

Online social network Facebook.com has closed a $60 million investment by Li Ka-shing through the billionaire Hong Kong tycoon's foundation, a source familiar with the deal confirmed on Monday

The source said the deal, which values Facebook on the same $15 billion terms as the stake Microsoft took in the fast-growing social network site in October, involves an investment by the Li Ka Shing Foundation.

Li-backed companies such as Hutchison Whampoa and TOM Group were not involved, the source said.

The stake gives Li a 0.4 percent share of Facebook. Microsoft's holdings represent another 1.6 percent.

The All Things Digital blog, owned by Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., reported the deal on Friday.

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment. Spokesmen for Hutchison and Li's foundation also declined to comment.

Earlier on Monday, TOM denied it had invested in Facebook after reports of the investment by Li, TOM's major shareholder, helped push its shares 48 percent higher in Hong Kong.

"There is speculation that Li's investment could translate into closer ties or a partnership between TOM and Facebook," an analyst with a U.S. investment bank said of TOM's leap. "But I believe it's too early to talk about any co-operations."

Founded in 1980, the Li Ka Shing Foundation has focused on funding a variety of health, education, and environmental projects in recent years.

But it also has taken stakes in various Internet projects, including a $45 million investment in May in Joost, the Internet television site founded by the co-founders of Skype.

Facebook opened the investment round to a variety of partners but only Microsoft and Li's foundation have participated, the source said.

Providence Equity Partners, a $21 billion media-focused private equity firm, looked at joining the latest round but walked away, said a second source familiar with those negotiations, citing the high valuation Facebook had sought.

In October, Microsoft announced its $240 million investment that valued Facebook at $15 billion. Facebook also agreed to let Microsoft buy an additional $260 million worth of shares should Facebook seek further capital.

In prior rounds dating back to 2004, Facebook has taken about $40.7 million from venture capital investors including PayPal co-founder and former CEO Peter Thiel along with Accel Partners, Greylock Partners, and Meritech Capital Partners.


© 2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.

Online Safety on MySpace and Other Social Networking Sites

Safety Tips for Social Networking

Social Networks or Online Communities have become an integral part of the lives of many teenagers today. There are some real dangers involved, as there are in off-line aspects of a young person’s life. But rather than attempting to deny access and participation in this form of online socializing, we suggest that with some common sense, open, calm dialogue, and simple guidelines, participation in an online community can be a safe and enriching experience. Here are our tips for making this happen (More information about social networking is available by scrolling down this page.):

For Parents:

1. We recommend a minimum age of 16 for participation in on online community. Generally, children younger than 16 are not mature enough to handle the opportunities and challenges of social networking.


2. Begin an open conversation about your teens' social networking experience. Try to establish a context for discussion that is not combative or accusing.


3. Create your own account on MySpace or another social network. Spend some time browsing the network's site. This will give you familiarity with the world that is so essential to your teen(s) and their friends and will facilitate future conversations.


4. If your child has an account, require that they show it to you. Periodically monitor/read it.


5. Set the expectation that only people they know in real life should be on their "friends" list.


6. Know your children's passwords, screen names and account information. This will enable you to view their pages even if they set their profile to "private". (Private profiles are accounts that can only be viewed by thers given explicit permission to view it. This is a double-edged sword, in that it means strangers [like sexual predators] don't have an easy way to learn about or harass the private account owner. However, it also means that without being granted access, parents and other adults in positions of authority or care-giving cannot view the online activity of the owner either.)


7. Remove online privileges if it becomes a problem. This is only as a last resort and keep it mind that a young person can establish an account and access it school, the library, or a friend's house. Clearly, open dialog and trust is best.


8. As another last resort, consider installing keystroke capturing software on your family computer from www.getnetwise.org. Again, this won't deal with your child's using computers away from home.


9. Talk with other parents, with teachers, and other adults who work with kids. Also, check out the links to other helpful websites below.

For Children:

1. Talk with your parents. Let them learn and understand the role of social networking in your life.


2. Never post anything you wouldn't want your parents, teachers, or future employers to see.
   


3. Never post personal information (phone number, E-mail or address) on the web. The same applies for your friends' information. Be aware that information you post could put you at risk of victimization


4. Never meet with anyone you first “met” online and tell your parent if anyone requests a meeting.


5. Only add people as friends if you know then in real life. Set privacy settings so that you have to approve people to be added as a friend.


6. Include your parents and other trusted adults as friends. If your parents do not have an account, give them access to your profile.

What is Social Networking ?

Social Networking is a term used to describe the fairly recent breed of websites, also referred to as online communities. These sites generally enable their subscribers to post a journal and various forms of media content, to generate and maintain relationships with other participants, and to engage in discussions around common interests with others. Some of the most popular social networks are in the U.S. are MySpace, Xanda, LiveJournal, BlackPlanet, MiGente, AsianAvenue, Bolt, Hi5, Facebook, and Friendster.

These sites are immensely popular with teens and young adults and have become an integral part of their lives, much like television was for their parents. Social networks or online communities offer great opportunities for self-expression, relational support, new experiences, helpful information and just plain fun.

What are risks?

Objectionable Content:
On many online communities, users post material that is not appropriate for children or that many parents would find objectionable. This can include obscene language, racist or violent text or images, and a wide range of sexual content including pornography.

Overexposure:
Parents need to be concerned not only with what their children might see and hear, but also what they may present. Teens can make unwise decisions about what they post online. This includes posting pictures of himself or herself or of friends in a sexually provocative or incriminating manner; publishing personal information that sexual predators could use to learn more about a child or their friends; or bragging about exploits (real or made-up) or making threatening and harassing remarks that could have negative consequences.

Contact with predators: Much publicity has been generated around sexual predators (mainly adults) looking for minors to exploit. There are such individuals who frequent online communities that teens use. Sometimes, these adults will pretend to be teens themselves, but often they will be quite clear about their age and intent.

Contact with other inappropriate adults and businesses: Various segments of the sex industry (legal and otherwise) have a presence on social networking sites, often to recruit customers and workers. Minors should not have direct contact with such sex professionals and organizations, but it does happen. In some cases, teens could become victims of sex-trafficking or be persuaded to provide sexually explicit pictures or video for pay.

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