How To Avoid Downfalls Of Social Campaigns

Kevin Barenblat has a 5 step program to keep your social campaign on track:

1: Set quantitative goals and measure them.

2: Consider alternatives to custom application development.

3: Make sure you're building for today's platform.

4: Save some budget for user seeding.

5: Add complexity over time.

All the details here

RotoHog Partners With GoDaddy For Facebook Game

RotoHog.com, a fantasy sports operator and developer for major brands, media companies and professional sports leagues, has tapped GoDaddy.com to sponsor a new Pro Football Playoff Fantasy Football Game on Facebook.

Hut hut hike

More Ad Products To Come from MySpace

MySpace has introduced a flurry of new applications and services as it transforms into an advertising-supported social portal, chasing the big bucks spent on Yahoo and Google's YouTube. It is aggressively leveraging its 75 million active monthly users, each with about 111 friends and spending an average of four hours monthly in ways that Madison Avenue and Hollywood cannot ignore. When you can claim nearly 12% of all Internet minutes in the U.S., people will listen. Jeff Berman, MySpace president of sales and marketing, discussed future plans with MediaPost.

The interview

Google's Ad Model for Friend Connect, OpenSocial Widgets

Sites registered with Google's Friend Connect will soon be able to include AdSense-like advertising onto their sites and in Open Social widgets. This gives Google a window to shoehorn more advertising onto third party websites.

Friend Connect lets websites incorporate social features — like Twitter-style chat, and the ability to embed and share content on MySpace or Facebook — onto their pages. Users can log in once to participate in communities across a multiplicity of destinations.

Publishers will receive a cut of revenue from ads that appear within Friend Connect and Open Social widgets. According to TechCrunch, this business model earned Friend Connect the nickname "FriendSense" within the Googleplex.

More here

Facebook Extends App Invites To Non-Members

Facebook has begun allowing members to send application invites to friends who are not already using the social network. The move is aimed at boosting both the growth of Facebook apps and its user base.

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Study: Almost 10% On Social Networks Via Mobile

The proportion of U.S. mobile subscribers who access social networks on their cell phones nearly tripled to almost 10% over a year ago, according to a consumer study by The Kelsey Group and ConStat spotlighted Monday by eMarketer.

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Google Pursues Patents to Monetize Social Networks

The US Patent and Trademark Office published a handful of patent applications from Google, betraying the search giant's ambition to monetize social networks.

More about the Do No Evil's schemes

MySpace v. Facebook Advertising Showdown. Which Platform Is Better?

Ryan Hupfer at Hubpages advertises on both MySpace and Facebook. He recently compared the two platforms. In a nutshell, he finds Facebook a much better experience. When it comes to the results, though, things are mixed. Ryan’s test showed a lower cost per click on MySpace than Facebook ($.27 v. $.44). But the Facebook clicks were more productive: a new user cost just $5.11 on Facebook, v. $8.03 on MySpace.

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Paramount Pulls Campaign On Artsy Social Network

Paramount Pictures pulled a contest scheduled to run this week aimed at promoting the January release of DreamWorks's "The Uninvited" after the press got wind of the agreement and the studio lost control of marketing plans, according to sources close to the deal.

DeviantART has a community of 8 million contributing artists who submit 100,000 works daily. The Los Angeles-based site has built a database of 70 million works of art since 2000. Topics span 2,400 genres.

Many of the member artists have supported successful viral campaigns and contests for PepsiCo, Sony, Scion and gaming site Three Rings through their artwork. The works become viral by sharing the embed code through widgets on other social media sites and profiles.

More here

Facebook Continues Torrid Growth

Facebook is growing faster than ever, especially overseas. Active users on the social network have hit 140 million, according to new data released by the company this week.

More on this growing story

Facebook In The News

Unofficial Facebook blog AllFacebook launched a demographic widget that enables marketers to review comparative Facebook statistics in charts format. They also launched an analysis tool for Facebook Apps.

Here

Facebook new growing by over 600,000 users a day, and could reach 200 million active users by March. There are also lots of engagement stats in the article here.

Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites

The NY Times takes a look at advertisers efforts on Facebook, including P&G, and finds out things aren't going as well as planned. Some reasons are offered, and some advice dished out.

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Are Social Networks Sinking?

The economic downturn and uncertain business plans could result in an industry-wide shakeout.

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eMarketer Again Lowers Social-Net Projection

For the second time this year, online ad industry authority eMarketer has lowered its spending estimate for social-networking advertising for 2008 to $1.2 billion, down from the $1.4 billion benchmark set in May -- which itself was down from an earlier spend estimate of $1.6 billion.

Officials at eMarketer said the decision to lower its spending estimates for the segment was driven by the overall poor ad economy and weak performance by MySpace, which saw its revenue projection for 2008 drop by $170 million (from $755 million to $585 million) versus the company’s May numbers. Rival social network Facebook’s revenue estimate also dropped from $265 million to $210 million, indicating that the still unproven ad medium is gaining traction at a slower rate than once expected. Overall, MySpace and Facebook account for 70 percent of social media ad dollars, according to eMarketer.

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Online Social Networking And The Economic Crisis

In the fallout of the global financial meltdown, it's difficult to think of a positive side to the economic crisis. But it actually might be good news for Web 2.0 social networking.

Here's why.

Social Features Beef Up Bebo — and AOL — Value Add

This morning AOL launched a revamped version of social network Bebo, replete with social features that suggest relevant content and track the activities of "friends."

Heavy Bebo users will now be served recommended content, based on past activity, stated interests and the interests and activities of friends. Recommendations can include videos, music, groups and games. AOL reportedly built its content recommendation engine from the ground up.

More here

MySpace Exec: Marketers Should Embrace Fan Sites

A MySpace executive suggested Tuesday that using lawyers to shut down unauthorized, consumer-generated fan sites on the social network is a grave mistake. Instead, marketers should look to engage the creators and turn them into brand evangelists.

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Facebook Crowns Top Apps.

Facebook bequeathed five $250,000 awards to top Facebook apps from a group of 25 finalists (who each had already won $25,000).

Winners included GroupCard, Kontagent, MouseHunt and Wildfire among others.

More here

Apps: The Newest Brand Graveyard

So far, Facebook apps from brands like Coca-Cola, Champion, Ford and Microsoft are as popular as desolate Second Life islands.

Discover why here.

Facebook Closing In On MySpace.

Facebook is rapidly closing the gap with US socnet leader MySpace, according to Compete. Facebook blossomed to 49.4 million visitors between November 2007 and November 2008, wile MySpace dropped down to 56.4 million visitors.

See actual chart.

How to Use Social Networking Sites for Marketing and PR

The New York Times provides some helpful tidbits on advertising on LinkedIn.

More here

Power.com: One Ring to Rule All Social Networks?

With what looks to be a fair amount of fanfare, a company virtually unknown in the U.S. is aiming to disrupt the fast-growing social networking business. Tonight, Rio de Janeiro-based Power.com, which already boasts 5 million registered users, is coming out of relative stealth to offer a way to view all your social networks and synchronize your friends, updates, photos, and everything else on all of them. The company’s tagline: “All your friends is one place.”

More here

Facebook Connect: Scary But Good

Facebook Connect, the technology that lets its members sign onto third-party sites with their Facebook identification, has just gone live. This allows people to bring profile information, friends, photos, events, and groups to participating sites.

It seems Facebook could use information posted by its users to help other sites deliver more targeted ads. Likewise, those sites could tell Facebook what its members are doing elsewhere, helping make its own ads more targeted.

CNET has their thoughts on the matter.

One of the companies adopting Facebook's new log-in system, Facebook Connect, is CBS, parent company of CNET and publisher of Webware. I'm glad we're on board with this program, even if I do feel it's a bit of Faustian deal.

Here's why.

MySpace CEO Cautiously Optimistic On 2009

MySpace can grow advertising revenue in 2009, its chief executive said, even as the economic crisis erodes big media companies' bottom lines.

More here

If You’re On MySpace Now, You’re A [expletive] Cretin.

Businessweek's Jon Fine interviews the author of a Rubert Murdoch bio, and argues with him over the value and prospects of MySpace.

More censored language here

Social Web’s Big Question: Federate or Aggregate?

A sharp increase in the number of web services and social networks has many of us yearning for a single sign-on, which has led to the idea of “federation.” On the flip side, we also want one place to manage our diverse web services in one place — in other words, aggregation. These two diametrically opposed views of how we are going to come to grips with our social web are going to face an intense debate until consumers vote with their clicks.

The debate rages on

Facebook, MySpace Aren't Making The Marketing Cut

While chief marketing officers are intrigued by social networking sites Facebook and MySpace as potential marketing vehicles, actually using them is another matter, according to the results of a new survey.

More than one quarter (27%) of consumer and B-to-B chief marketing executives surveyed online in late October by GfK Roper Public Relations and Media for marketing services firm Epsilon identified social networking and word of mouth as the tools they would most like to introduce to their marketing mix to compensate for anticipated budget cuts--ahead of all other traditional or digital marketing channels.

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Social Networks Not Ready for Business?

Social networks like Facebook and MySpace have become enormously popular among consumers. But are businesses really prepared to embrace them?

Many businesses aren't ready to throw open their networks to Web 2.0 traffic unless it meets certain thresholds.

So what are these thresholds?

Social Networking Services Growing, Advertising Not So Much

The use of social networking sites will continue to grow, but advertising will not necessarily expand along with it, according to market research firm IDC.

Framingham, Mass.-based IDC says in a new study that social networks will face slow ad sales until they can get users to do more than just keep up with friends. That's because members of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo tend to click on ads less than the U.S. Internet users overall.

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LinkedIn CEO Touts Growth Of Network

The San Francisco Chronicle sat down with LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye to discuss the professional social network's fortunes in 2008. At last count, LinkedIn was the fourth largest social networking site, behind MySpace, Facebook and Classmates.com. It is also the fourth fastest growing social network, according to the Chronicle report, behind Twitter, Tagged.com and Ning, with membership of 30 million. The private company is expected to rake in $100 million in ad revenue in 2008, up from $10 million at the end of 2006. In June, LinkedIn raised new capital valuing the firm at $1 billion.

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TIME's 10 Social Networking Apps

Time put together its year-end top ten list of social networking apps. If I wasn't too busy working on my top ten list of Dio duets I want to hear, I'd put together my own list.

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A Really Poor Use of Facebook Connect?

Over at Socialized, JC Penney gets ripped for its Facebook Connect application, which allows visitors to easily put their Facebook boyfriends (or anybody else) in the "Doghouse".

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Moms on 3 Major SocNets Call Profiles 'Extensions of Themselves'

Research from Lucid Marketing shows that Cafemom members have a much stronger affinity there than they do with Facebook and MySpace, that they are more likely to say they are "addicted" to their network of choice, and more apt to say they greatly value the connections, support and shared experiences with other moms they meet there.

Lucid also provides a free report: Social Media & Moms, ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS Edition

More here

Dear Facebook: Don’t Forget the Marketers

Alisa Leonard-Hansen of iCrossing pens an open letter to Facebook:

With speculation around how you should monetize mostly a topic of conversation within the tech community, it always surprises me that a marketing perspective isn’t thrown into the mix. After all, it’s marketing dollars that you (and just about every other online entity) are relying on. So, taking a digital marketing perspective, I thought I’d throw a few thoughts into the discussion.

Her thoughts

Marketers Turn To Social Media As Recession Looms

More and more marketers are harnessing the power of social media, using blogs, viral videos, and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and Digg to reach consumers. According to Reuters, the common denominator in their advertising efforts is the high level of engagement that the ads demand from consumers.

More here

Facebook Attempts To Make More Money

Two things are going on over at Facebook. First, the social network has created additional ad inventory for sale on their sidebar. Secondly, they launched their Application Verification Program.

What does this all mean?

Social Networks Site Usage in 2008

Jeremiah Owyang conveniently collects numbers (visitors, members, page views and more) for select networks, including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.

More here

Can Social Networks Predict What You'll Buy?

Those stalking the social-networking field are betting that birds of a feather don't just flock together -- they buy together too.

While the merits of advertising on social networks are still debatable, there's emerging evidence that mapping the online relationships among consumers -- creating so-called social graphs -- can be just as valuable as traditional targeting and segmentation in predicting how people will respond to marketing messages.

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Consumers Open to SocNet Shopping

Nearly one-third (30%) of online consumers say special sales and exclusive products would make them consider shopping on social networks, and 27% say viewing comments about items for sale would similarly encourage them.

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Social Networks Are Better Seen Than Heard

Webbr was built from the ground-up to be a visual and interactive social experience. The visualizer (pictured above) is your window in the webbr social world. You can see the connections between people, their interests, their friends and their networks.

See a demo here

Sounds much better than Internet Shout, which is a voice-based social network.

P&G Digital Guru Not Sure Marketers Belong on Facebook

Social networks may never find the ad dollars they're hunting for because they don't really have a right to them, said Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co., at a Nov. 15 forum on digital media.

"I have a reaction to that as a consumer advocate and an advertiser," he said. "What in heaven's name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?"

He went on to apply a similar standard to the broader world of consumer-generated media. "I think when we call it 'consumer-generated media,' we're being predatory," he said. "Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren't trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. ... We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it."

While it's not a company policy, but rather a personal preference, Mr. McConnell said, "I really don't want to buy any more banner ads on Facebook."

That's not to say he believes P&G should end all involvement with Facebook. He cited Facebook applications as a potentially valuable vehicle for advertisers, one in which they can create an environment that's favorable for their brands and consumers alike.

More here

Social Networks - A Worldview

Oxyweb has created a world map of social networks.

MySpace Ads and the Big Leap

Certainly, there have been ways to leverage data inside social networks about people before last week. But MySpace Ads allows you to create, target and traffic an ad at the speed of...well...Google AdWords.

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Mercedes Intros 'Generation-Benz' Social Network

Mercedes-Benz USA wants an invited group of Gen Y netizens to open up about the brand. So it is running a social networking marketing program called Generation-Benz, intended to bring younger consumers into the brand while giving Mercedes insights about the 20-somethings.

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Vitamin Shoppe Launches Online Community

The Vitamin Shoppe has launched an online community including message boards and expert leaders giving health, wellness, and sports nutrition advice.

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Social Network Apps To Finally Monetize Within The Next Year

Today at OpenSocial’s first birthday event, a group of press, developers, and members of the OpenSocial team convened to discuss the future of the platform. Of the many topics discussed during the roundtable, perhaps the most pressing was the issue of monetization - many developers are simply unable to convert their users to a steady stream of revenue.

And while OpenSocial’s Director of Engineering David Glazer admitted that he didn’t know the answer, he predicted that within the next year we’ll see a standardized payment platform integrated into OpenSocial. And with that, we may start to see more of these applications transition into viable businesses.

More here

Live.com Goes Social

This morning the big news is that Live.com, Microsoft’s primary portal which was originally just a search engine has gone social, providing users with profiles and activity feeds of their friends’ latest activities. Users are automatically connected with any friends they have on Windows Live Messenger, which is by far the most popular instant messaging service worldwide.

With 268 million users using Windows Live Messenger, the company has access to around 16.7 percent of the world’s internet population. That’s more than double Facebook’s user base. It’s clear that social technology is becoming ubiquitous and this is one more step that emphasizes the trend. The largest news about the new site is news feed which imports user activities from around the web.

More here

Open Social: State Of The Union Presentation

It’s OpenSocial day today. It’s been roughly one year since the service launched to fight Facebook’s exploding platform product, and the main companies behind Opensocial are holding an all day press and developer event at MySpace’s San Francisco headquarters.

See what they saw

Facebook Announces New Advertising Metrics

Today Facebook sent an email out to their advertisers about three new types of Insights reports that will help advertisers understand how their advertisements are performing. The three new types are:

• “Responder Demographics” report - This report provides the aggregate age, gender, and geographic location of the users who have clicked on an ad.
• “Responder Profiles” report - This report provides psychographic information including common interests, favorite TV shows, movies, books, and music.
• “Advertising Performance” report - This report provides you with a downloadable version of existing ad metrics, as well as “a new section for performance data specific to” advertisements “that contained social actions, if applicable.”

More here

So What's Up With Bebo

Jeremiah Owyang knows. Here's an article from him regarding Dev Nite, Bebo's public courtship to startups and developers who make web applications on social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Hi5 (Examples: Vampires, Scrabulous, Superwall).

More here

Social networks Don't Always Encourage Engagement

Only 12% of adults would be more likely to click through marketing emails if they were linked to social networks, according to research by e-Dialog and YouGov.

The poll of over 1,900 adults found that 22% would be less likely to respond if the marketing email contained links to content such as video, microsites and social networks such as Facebook and YouTube.

Oy.

Facebook Tries to Woo Marketers

Despite its surging Internet audience, Facebook has yet to prove it can wring steady revenue out of advertisers. Now it's trying a new tactic to woo Madison Avenue. The Palo Alto, Calif., company is rolling out a new ad format called "engagement ads" that further blurs the line between marketing and social networking.

The new ads appear on the main screen when a person first logs in to Facebook. They prompt a user to do something within the ad, such as comment on a movie trailer or RSVP for the season finale of a TV show. If the user completes the action, such as adding Bravo TV's "Project Runway" show to a personal list of events, Facebook tries to get Bravo's ad in front of more eyeballs by sharing a notice about what the user has done with their friends.

More here

Dragging and dropping with MySpace

At MySpace, change is a gradual affair. News Corp’s online social network on Monday is introducingProfile 2.0, which it calls the “next step in iterative global site redesign, enabling millions of users to opt-in and customize the appearance of their profiles using an innovative new drag-and-drop user interface.”

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Pizza Hut Weds MP3s to Online Ordering Experience

Beginning today, users that make orders on PizzaHut.com can download 75 MP3s at no cost, courtesy of eMusic.

Free tracks come with an order of either the Pizza Mia, Tuscani Pasta, WingStreet Wings or any other Pizza Hut specials. The music has no digital rights management protection — meaning users can play them on any MP3 player or share them with friends.

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The Platforms: Google, Microsoft, Facebook And MySpace

Slide founder Max Levchin just kicked off a panel called “The Platform Advantage” at the Web 2.0 Summit. Participants include Google’s Vic Gundotra, Microsoft’s David Treadwill, MySpace’s Amit Kapur and Facebook’s Elliot Schrage.

The panel began with a general debate on exactly what a platform is, and how each of the companies play in the space. Kapur says a platform has to create an ecosystem that includes a core base of users, tools to build applications, and an advertising network to monetize the platform. Schrage says the Facebook platform is a place for users to interact, and for developers to take advantage of that social utility.

Here's what else they all had to say

How Nike's Social Network Sells to Runners

The Nike+ site is drawing hordes of runners, and its success may hold lessons for brand building on the Web. Since I get out of breath just lacing up my sneaks, I'll just give you the link.

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Facebook Connect: Coming Soon to a Site Near You?

Facebook Connect - the service that allows developers to access Facebook data from outside of the Facebook chrome - has been met with both cautious optimism and healthy skepticism. And with good reason. The service holds the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with social sites the Web over. At the same time, it gives Facebook access to a great deal of information about how users interact with other social sites.

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'MySpace Generation' Less Exposed to Online Ad Clutter

Young people between the ages of 2 and 17 experience the least amount of online advertising “clutter” on the internet, while online adults age 65+ are subjected to the most, according research from Nielson Online.

Since websites designed for children have little to no advertising, it is not surprising that the youngest Web visitors are typically exposed to a low level of advertising clutter, Nielsen said. But teens (age 12-17), the highest indexing age group on MySpace, also encounter relatively low clutter levels and are accustomed to less clutter than all adult age groups. This could potentially make them less tolerant of additional clutter than older adults.

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Facebook May Be Growing Too Fast. And Hitting The Capital Markets Again

When Facebook raised $240 million from Microsoft in 2007, and another $235 million in debt and equity in 2008, everyone thought they had plenty of cash to get through their big growth phase. With that kind of cash, the company could hire as many people as it needed to and not worry about profitability or going public until at least 2009.

But a confluence of factors may be conspiring to throw those assumptions out the window and force Facebook back to the capital markets much earlier than they originally planned. We’ve heard from multiple sources that they are testing the capital markets right now, in fact, and may be considering a near term capital raise at terms that could be much more favorable to investors than the previous $15 billion round that Microsoft kicked off in October 2007.

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LinkedIn Links With Apps

LinkedIn is the latest social networking site to to offer third-party applications to its users. As befitting a site for professionals, the first batch of nine apps released are all about business, not throwing sheep.

They include a "reading list" app from Amazon, a file-management tool from Box.net and a travel-tracking app from Tripit. Not just anyone can put up applications on LinkedIn. Developers and companies have to go through a careful screening process before their apps are approved. External ads aren't allowed either.

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Retailers Get Social with Facebook

More retailers have fan pages on Facebook than on other social media sites.

Facebook is the social media site of choice for many US online retailers, judging by an August 2008 study. Nearly one-third of responding businesses said they had a Facebook page, compared with 27% that had a MySpace page and just over one-quarter that had a page on YouTube.

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Drinking In The New Pepsi’s Social Media Strategy

Apparently, Pepsi has set up a room on Friendfeed called the Pepsi Cooler, which asks consumers to “Join us as together we shape Pepsi’s social media future. We’re changing the way we do things and want to have you along for the ride.” (Friendfeed, if you’re not familiar, is a social site that aggregates members’ social activity into a feed, so, for example, one’s tweets, blog postings and so forth can all be accessed in one place.)

More here

Pepsi Cooler

Social Networking Sites Good For Businesses

Good news for workers addicted to Facebook, Bebo and MySpace -- a British think-tank says bosses should not stop their staff using social networking sites because they could actually benefit their firms.

The report by Demos said encouraging employees to use networking technologies to build relationships and closer links with colleagues and customers could help businesses rather than damage them.

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Consumers Embrace Social Media Ads

Four in 10 online consumers have made a purchase based on advertising they saw on a social media site, while almost three-quarters welcome brand advertising on social networks, according to new research from Razorfish.

"What struck us was the massive impact of search, social media and widgets and feeds on the consumer landscape... and how that's creating a more distributed experience for consumers, and they love it," said Garrick Schmitt, group vice president of experience planning at Razorfish and editor of the study.

More here

Yahoo! Launches Facebook Connect Competitor

A few months back, Yahoo! announced that it would be opening up the site’s services to developers in a significant way. This afternoon the company rolled out a big iteration which has a massive social component. The service has a bunch of features that developers can use to detect any individual web user’s “social presence”. So what are the new component of this open platform and what does it mean for developers?

Find out here

Nooooooo! Blogs Influence Purchases More Than Social Sites

Too upsetting to read more.

Click if you want to.

Social Media Dilemma: The Post-Click Experience

Everyone is asking the same questions: What happens after a user clicks on my ad? What is the user experience AFTER the click? Is the user taken to a page outside Facebook? That's where most ads go. The problem is that most users don't WANT to leave Facebook.

So what the next big thing for advertisers on Facebook? Branded applications, apparently.

More here

Brands Want to Be a Pepper, Too

If you want to know the future of using social data for advertising, look to Dr Pepper. Specifically, the Dr Pepper fan group on last.fm. Kevin Menard, last.fm's senior vice president of U.S. advertising, introduced me to the social music site's multiple Dr Pepper fan groups. He sees these groups as key components in smarter last.fm ad buys.

Last.fm allows advertisers to target ads by musical genre and artist; by studying the musical tastes of Dr Pepper drinkers on groups like "Dr Pepper," Menard argues, the soft drink can target its ad placements to better match its users' musical tastes. For instance, at the time of this writing, the most popular artist among Dr Pepper group members is Oingo Boingo. Dr Pepper may want to run advertising when last.fm users play Oingo Boingo songs or similar tracks.

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Bacon Salt Shows How Social Media Help Young Companies Grow Quickly

Big company efforts in social media have mostly failed to this point. Facebook's application platform has become a graveyard of failed attempts to harness the platform, while other brands have suffered embarrassments at their ham-handed attempts to influence the blog world.

Yet for some small companies, social media has proven to be a godsend of low-cost, effective brand building. Take Bacon Salt, an unlikely product dreamed up last year after a night out drinking by two Seattle buddies. What began as a half-joking idea -- what if there was a spice that made everything taste like bacon -- soon became a bustling business that's sold 600,000 units in 18 months, thanks mostly to the harnessing of the word-of-mouth power of social media.

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Twitter, Tagged, Ning Grow Like Weeds Among SocNets

Twitter.com, Tagged.com and Ning, which racked up 343%, 330% and 251% year-over-year audience growth respectively, were the fastest-growing US online social networking sites as ranked in September.

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Social Web Now Socially Acceptable

U.S. consumers are flocking to use social networks and other participatory venues to the extent that the activity is now mainstream, according to Forrester Research.

The company's polling indicates 2008 has marked significant growth for social media, with a decided majority of users now taking part. A consumer poll done in the second quarter found that 75 percent of Internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56 percent in 2007.

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US Military Targets Social Nets

The social networking landscape could change beyond recognition with technology that maps the skills and needs of users.

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CBS Interactive Offers Social Viewing Rooms

Looking for new ways to boost its Web audience, CBS Interactive has added a feature that lets viewers chat and interact while watching the network's TV shows online.

CBS's "social viewing rooms" allow friends to gather in virtual rooms to watch top programs such as "Survivor" and "CSI" at the same time, evoking the collective experience of sitting around the living room TV.

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Pizza Hut Launches Ordering Application On Facebook

Pizza Hut has added the social network Facebook to its array of choices for delivery orders. It joins the mobile Web, text messaging, a desktop widget, the chain's own Web site, and of course, the telephone as methods for consumers to easily order their pizza pies, pastas, chicken wings and other menu items from the Yum Brands national chain.

The Facebook application, dubbed "Pizza Hut Interface," is accessible through a redesigned Pizza Hut Facebook page. The chain currently boasts more than 300,000 Facebook fans, and to lure more, on Wednesday it launched "Lotta Pizza Lotto." Any Facebook user who becomes a "Pizza Hut" fan through the end of the year will become eligible for the weekly prize of a $50 gift card.

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Meredith Corp. Serves Up Social Networking Via Mixingbowl

The upcoming launch of Mixingbowl.com represents Meredith Corp.'s first attempt at creating an independent social network. Mixingbowl takes the approach that authentic community building must happen outside the digital spinoffs of its established print products, which include Better Homes and Gardens and Parents.

The site provides a venue for consumers to share recipes and connect with others on food-related community groups. Due to launch in late November, Mixingbowl is powered by technology company Ripple6, which has built local mom networks for Gannett Co. and a health information site for Procter & Gamble.

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MyAds Give Access To MySpace

MySpace's solution to a dreadful economy is allowing small businesses and individuals outside its social network to affordably create and service their own graphic ads that are hyper-targeted to its 72 million domestic members, beginning Monday.



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Google Gets In To Advertising On Social Networks

Last night Google announced that they had launched Google AdSense for games. One of the largest gaming companies benefiting from the new advertising platform is Playfish. Google actually included a demo of AdSense for Games directly integrated into Playfish’s Word Challenge game. This is a big step for Google and one that competing advertisers should pay close attention to.

Why? According to sources within Google, games are not the only applications that Google is advertising on within social networks. Google is testing out their AdSense platform for other social applications. Take a look at some of the most popular applications on Facebook and you’ll quickly realize that Google is testing banner advertising on some of the largest applications.

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Facebook Intros Microsoft's Live Search

Which company partially owns Facebook again?

The deal should open more opportunities to serve local ads from Facebook's small and medium-sized business ad programs that allow advertisers to target users by location and demographics, according to the Kelsey Group.

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Publishers Ask Facebook Executive 'WTF?'

The astounding rise of the social networking phenomenon rightly has many traditional media executives wondering, "WTF?" or perhaps more accurately, "HTF did you do that?" So observed BusinessWeek Editor Steve Adler, drawing laughter as he introduced Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer for Facebook, at the American Magazine Conference in San Francisco on Monday afternoon. Sandberg had plenty of advice for magazine publishers, but was also careful to distinguish their functions from Facebook.

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Estée Lauder Hits Social Nets to Warn About Breast Cancer

The Estée Lauder Company is, for the first time, using social networks in a multi-faceted online effort to heighten awareness about breast cancer.

As do all the elements of the company's new Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign (BCA), the Web components stress the importance of learning about the breast cancer and the need for early detection. The company hopes the various social network-related elements of the online effort will prompt users to spread the message.

"It's the first time we've used social networks," said Marisa Thalberg, vice president of global online marketing for Estée Lauder. She said doing so "felt like a natural extension" of the social network marketing efforts of Estée Lauder's various brands. "Social networking and social media have been very important to several of our brands this year," said Thalberg. She said using these viral networks to warn about breast cancer and the value of early detection "seemed like an incredible opportunity."

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Branding on Facebook: Groups or Fan Pages?

Facebook allows for 2 networking tools:

1. Creating/ joining a Facebook group;
2. Creating/ joining a Facebook fan page.

Which one is better?

Find out

Hitwise: MySpace Tops, But Social Network Site Visits Down

MySpace.com received 67.54% of the market share of U.S. visits in August 2008 among a custom category of 56 of the leading social networking Web sites, according to Hitwise. But the market share of U.S. visits to the social networking custom category decreased 2% in August 2008 to 6.40% of all U.S. visits compared to July 2008. Visits to the category decreased 17% year-over-year.

Among the top 10 social networking Web sites, Facebook ranked second by market share of U.S. visits with 20.56%, followed by myYearbook, which received 1.65 %. MyYearbook experienced the largest gain in market share in August 2008 among the top five visited Web sites, increasing 256% compared to August 2007. Tagged and Facebook followed, increasing 147% and 50%, respectively.

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MySpace Music Debuts With Blue-Chip Sponsors

MySpace late Thursday night debuted its ad-supported free on-demand streaming music and video service, MySpace Music.

With Amazon integrated as its download store, and sharing and discovery tools like shareable playlists, the long awaited service eventually plans to offer consumers a one-stop-shop for artist ring tones, songs, merchandise, and concert tickets.

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MySpace Launches DIY Ad-targeting Site

MySpace looks to be kicking off a new do-it-yourself service for creating and placing ads on its site.

The service, called the Self-Serve Ad Services and still in beta, lets anyone capable of filling out a basic Web form promote a band or business on MySpace.com.

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Google's New Approach Could Offer Advertisers Coveted Online Communities

Imagine there was one number that could sum up how influential you are. It would take into account all manner of things, from how many people you know to how frequently you talk with them to how strongly they value your opinion. Your score could be compared with that of pretty much anyone in the world.

Maybe it'll be called your Google number. Google (GOOG) has a patent pending on technology for ranking the most influential people on social networking sites like MySpace (NWS) and Facebook. In a creative twist, Google is applying the same approach to social networks it has used to dominate the online search business. If this works, it may finally make ads on social networks relevant—and profitable.

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Jupiter: How To Make The Most Of MySpace, Facebook

By fawning over Facebook, social media marketers may be missing out on advertising opportunities on MySpace. According to a new JupiterResearch study, MySpace has twice as many U.S. users as Facebook. But three times as many marketers favor Facebook in their spending plans in 2008.

In comparing the pros and cons of advertising on the Coke and Pepsi of social networking sites, the report broadly recommends that marketers turn to MySpace for high-profile brand campaigns and to Facebook for viral efforts.

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Social networks More Popular than Porn

Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a web guru.

Bill Tancer, a self-described "data geek", has analyzed information for over 10 million web users to conclude that we are, in fact, what we click, with Internet searches giving an up-to-date view of how society and people are changing.

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Social Networking With Citizen Sports

Here's an interview with the CEO of Citizen Sports regarding application advertising on social networks.

Here

Paramount Hopes VooZoo Is More Than a Social-Network Fad

In March, Paramount became the first (and so far, only) major studio to make thousands of movie clips available for use on the internet. The studio launched VooZoo, a sort of catchphrase-generating application that allowed Facebook users to "quote" lines and even entire scenes from their favorite Paramount films by sharing an actual film clip.

Since then, VooZoo has quickly exploded, adding 20,000 members a day, eventually becoming used by several hundred thousand Facebook users.

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Baby Boomers Love Them Social Networks Too

The widely known maxim is that if parents like what the kids are listening to, it's time for the kids to ditch that music and move on. So what happens when mom requests you as a friend on Facebook?

The notion is not inconceivable, according to a new Entertainment Trends in America study by The NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y. Social networking sites used by teenagers and young adults are also being adopted by baby boomers (aged 44-61). The findings show that 41% of baby boomers have visited social networks, such as MySpace or Facebook, and 61% have been to sites with streaming or downloadable video.

The study, which surveyed 11,600 consumers online, also found that over 57% of Web users overall have stopped at social networking sites in the past three months. Baby boomers stopped on average of eight times in that period.

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New Social Network Targets Divorced Women

Nope, it's not called the First Wives Net.

The first online community devoted to women transitioning through divorce (www.firstwivesworld.com) is launching a social network designed specifically for divorced women of all ages.

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MySpace Ad Business Ahead of Target: News Corp

News Corp's MySpace advertising business is operating ahead of expectations and its digital ad business is performing better than the marketplace, the company's chief operating officer said on Tuesday.

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Who Can Beat Up Who: Facebook vs MySpace

A panel at Monday's PMA Digital Marketing Summit in New York tackled social media. Its biggest conundrum seemed to be this: Which is better, Facebook or MySpace? Everyone pretty much agreed that MySpace is out, Facebook is in. Hooman Radfar, CEO and co-founder of Clearspring, a digital marketing company that centers on widgets as an ad platform, says that while he agrees that there's a migration away from MySpace, "It is still relevant from a viral perspective. It is still huge, but there's segmentation where a lot of people are viewing Facebook as a utility."

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US Still The Most Social Country

The U.S. of A leads all other countries with SocNet users, followed by China. Greece came in last in the poll.

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58% Aren't Familiar With Social Networking

Apparently tweeting, friending and linking have not infiltrated popular culture as much as one might think.

A new study from Synovate reveals that well over half (58%) of those surveyed do not know what social networking is. Even more surprising, more than a third of those who do engage are losing interest in it.

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Amazon Peruses Book Social Network, Buys It.

Shelfari lets users showcase books they've read on virtual bookshelves. Books can be reviewed and discussed among "friends," which occasionally form on-site reading groups. Some months ago, Shelfari also made it possible to embed virtual bookshelves onto other websites.

Shelfari!

Vitamin Shoppe Launches Online Community

The Vitamin Shoppe has launched an online community including message boards and expert leaders giving health, wellness, and sports nutrition advice.

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New Platform Links Brands with Social Networks

Interpublic has quietly struck a deal to begin utilizing a promising new online marketing service that could finally enable Madison Avenue to unleash the power of social networks on behalf of their clients' brands. The deal, which is being officially announced today, involves a partnership between Interpublic's Emerging Media Lab and SocialVibe, a company that provides incentives for members of social networks to interact and endorse consumer brands.

The business--which has been in development for a couple of years--opened a public beta in May and already has begun quietly working with marketers ranging from Adobe to Coca-Cola Co. to Sprint, and now hopes to make a big push into the ranks of major advertising agencies. At the heart of SocialVibe's business model is a patented micro payment system that enables marketers to offer incentives--usually charitable donations to favored causes--directly to the members of social networks who promote their brands on their personal pages.

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Show Me The Money: Facebook Tests Engagement Ads

In what it calls the latest "evolution" of its ad model, Facebook is testing a new set of ads aimed at boosting click-throughs and further tapping into the social graph on behalf of marketers.

The first three types of Engagement Ads now in trial let users post comments, become a "fan" of a brand's Facebook Page and send virtual gifts. Within the units, people can also read friends' comments, and see who else is a brand fan or who shared virtual items.

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Konnects Eyes Turf Between LinkedIn, Facebook

Konnects formally launched its site Wednesday with the aim of filling what it views as a gap in the marketplace between business-focused LinkedIn and socially driven Facebook.

The company is targeting young professionals and early-stage companies with a social platform designed to be more open and informal than LinkedIn, but more business-oriented than Facebook.

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Advertisers Line Up To Reach Teens On Kiwibox

Facebook had its Beacon troubles, and Google brass has admitted that they're having a hard time trying to help News Corp. wring money out of MySpace, but for Kiwibox, a teen-oriented social network and online magazine, monetization is not a problem.

The New York-based company, a division of Magnitude Information Systems, has advertisers like Kohl's and Tampax lining up to reach its more than 1.9 million members.

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Bebo Produces Online 'Model' Drama Sponsored by Express

Bebo's newest web series, Model.Live, follows three IMG models as they globetrot to fashion shows in search of fame and fortune.

The show is 12 episodes long and begins in New York City with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Its intention, Bebo says, is to "[reveal] the truth about how professional models live." (Like most professions, the "truth" is about putting in the hard work and commitment necessary to achieving fame.)

Check it out

iVillage's Momtourage Rolls Out Facebook Apps

Momtourage--iVillage's newest property devoted to moms and the people that help them juggle careers, kids and households--has developed a pair of Facebook applications. The apps allow moms to share instant messages with their "momtourage" and get mom-themed astrological readings, as well as take quizzes to discover the type of mom they are.

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Seven Ways to Advertise on Facebook

Here's a nice and concise overview on Facebook's advertising options: Facebook Pages, Sponsored Story, Sponsored Social Story, Video Sponsored Story, Box Ad Unit, Display Ads and Gifts.

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Roll It: Facebook Launches Sponsored Video Ads

Facebook has launched a sponsored video ad offering as displayed in the image below. The videos display on the right hand side of the homepage in the area that Facebook announced would have sponsors when the site was redesigned. The only thing that the company failed to mention was that those sponsorships would be videos. The videos also enable comments. You can then view the comments that your friends have posted pertaining to that video.

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Facebook Adopts New Metric for Widgets

Facebook took a step toward standardizing the wild world of Web metrics by switching its engagement rating for applications from reporting daily usage to measuring monthly active users.

The social networking site disclosed the change last week via a company blog aimed at an audience of developers. The goal is to help developers focus on "longer-term engagement" and show them "the number of users who visit [their] application over a longer time frame than just one day," according to Facebook.

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Gather.com 'Rewards' Use of Social Network

Before, there was Microsoft's Live Search for Cashback program. And PayPerPost's get-paid-to-brand-blog model. Now Gather.com, an online social network for the over-30 crew, has announced an enhanced program that rewards members for using its social network.

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Bebo tries to contact Earth-like planet

Bebo and the TV company behind Wife Swap have teamed up with one of the world's experts in interstellar radio communication, Dr Alexander Zaitsev, to beam 500 messages from users into space in a digital time capsule.

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Social Marketing Limited By Advertiser Confusion

A recent JupiterResearch study underscores that actual spending on social media marketing has not caught up with the hype surrounding the emerging category.

The article goes on to give a few reasons why, and also how MySpace and Facebook are doing to alleviate marketing concerns.

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Microsoft Seeks an Ad Friend in Facebook

MySpace teamed up with Google. Bebo and Yahoo are in bed together. Searching for a quick way to expand the audience for its search engine, Microsoft is networking with Facebook.

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Summer Soc-Nets Sizzle, Just Not Like '07 Did

Here are numbers charting the action over at the social networks in June '08.

MySpace.com received 71.92 percent of the market share of US visits in June 2008 among Hitwise's custom category of 57 of the leading social-networking websites. Facebook ranked second with 16.91 percent, followed by MyYearbook, which received 1.54 percent.

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Why Facebook Connect Matters & Why It Will Win

Not my opinion, but that of one Mr. Om Malik. He's pretty sure Facebook can build a monetization engine that can offer branded advertising is a much less 'evil' version of the dreaded Beacon System. He just may be right.

His argument

MySpace Music Service to Launch in September

MySpace became a popular place for bands to connect with their fans early on. 65% of their members currently embed music on their profile pages. Soon, members will be able listen to free streaming music as well as purchase song downloads, ringtones, T-shirts and concert tickets.

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OpenID: Now Open to Half a Billion

MySpace’s 200 million users can now use their MySpace IDs on other OpenID places such as Google and Yahoo. However, MySpace still has yet to accept the OpenIDs of other sites. Meaning I can’t access MySpace with a Yahoo OpenID.

This may change. The sooner, the better.

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Wait, is Open ID the same thing as MySpace's Data Availability?

No. Data Availability, launched last week, is MySpace’s effort to tear down the wall that makes them a walled garden. They’re actually allowing data out of its server vault. Third parties can’t store that data, so MySpace retains ultimate control of it.

So what’s Facebook up to?

They’re trying to become more like Friendfeed, letting their members bring in third party data to their Facebook pages. However, they should be launching Facebook Connect this week, which is designed to let users get that data back out of Facebook.

Facebook did just launch a new look.

Facebook is now giving ads greater prominence through new display units launched as part of the home page and member profile redesign.

It Was The Best of Efforts, It Was The Worst of Efforts

Jeremiah Owyang just released his Best and Worst of Social Network Marketing, 2008 report (Forrester Research). In it he states that most social network marketing isn’t being done effectively. Mainly because marketers still don't get the space.

He reviewed 16 efforts. All but one failed, and half of them received a score of zero or lower. The only one that passed: BMW Series 1.

I have yet to shell out the $300 to read the report. But here's what BMW's been up to.

According to a NY Times article, BMW got Facebook members to design virtual cars and send them to their friends. I actually never saw this effort, but a couple of months ago, I reviewed BMW's Series 1 JoyRide app. I wasn't kind to it, although it did have 4,000 installs at the time. At a recent IAB seminar, this effort was brought up as a point of success, though they refused to release any numbers.

Looking at it now, there are hardly any users there. A mere 59 fans. And a few negative comments on the boards. A smattering of comments, some pos, some neg. I agreed with this one: "I expected much more of the application. minus 5 stars."

So that can't be it.

There was also a Road Trip app which allowed Facebook members to send a make-believe 1-Series on a journey from one profile to another, and a virtual toss of car keys between Facebook friends.

Probably BMW's best Facebook effort wasn't one of their own apps, but somebody else's. Over 6,000 Facebook people entered the "What Drives You?" BMW car contest through Graffiti's page. See the winners here. BMW isn't the only car company using Graffiti. Their sister, Mini Cooper used it as well. Not to mention Dell for their Regeneration experience.

Considering the effort BMW put into all this, you think they'd have a profile page linking to all this. As it is, searching BMW on Facebook sends one down a lot of false roads. Fan groups, members nicknamed BMW, etc.

I just may have to read that report. Well, if I can expense it.

If He Doesn't Win, Will He Just Steal It?

BAiNG The Locksmith is jingling. And I'm not referring to the bling in his hands. He's one of the top five finalists in McDonald's BIG MAC chant competition on MySpace. The winner's jingle will be played in a nationally-run commercial.

So what makes this MySpace contest any different from the others? The rapper, whose real name is Tamien Bain, once held up a McDonald's at gunpoint and served 12 years for the crime.

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Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money, Study Finds

A large proportion of corporate-branded online communities fail, becoming virtual ghost towns, according to a report by a Deloitte consultant, who puts the blame on three factors: overpriced bells & whistles, insufficient and inexperienced community management, and bad metrics and criteria.

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They're All Equally Horrible

One thing all social networks have in common, apparently, is horrible advertising. This according to a poll conducted by Mashable.

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Big-Name Brands Booking Ads on Facebook

The SF Chronicle takes a look at Sears and Slim Jim's Facebook efforts, among others. Sears' first social media effort involved a successful prom-dress campaign that asked high school girls to share their selections with friends on Facebook.

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If You Can't Sue Them, Join Them

Alt. title: Too Little, Too Late



The official Facebook version of Scrabble still faces challenges against its unofficial brethren, Scrabulous. The version, created by Hasbro and EA, is geographically hobbled, with only US and Canadians being able to play each other. Licensing issues prevents them from playing against the world at large.

How many points is Failure worth?

Coke, Target and 3D Worlds in Your Browser

Coke is at it again with creating a 3D world within Facebook. Last time it was for Burn. This time is for Coke Zero. But now they're teaming up with Target. This is done through Vivaty software, which lets you bring in photos from Flickr and Facebook, or videos from YouTube and display them on screens in your virtual room.

Target and Coke Zero Virtual Dorm

Vivaty Brings The 3D Web to Your Browser, Starting With AIM and Facebook

Vivaty's Facebook Page

BragThis Boasts New Social Network

People in need of a place to boast about their sporting, work or other life achievements have a new social network to turn to, called BragThis.com.

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Social App Network Puts Your Face in Ads

SocialMedia, a Palo Alto, CA, based ad network for social applications, is among the firms experimenting with socially driven ad formats. This month it began offering a new unit that incorporates the faces -- and in some cases the names -- of people in a given ad recipient's network of friends and acquaintances.

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Cartier pretties up MySpace with ad campaign

When you think about "bling" on MySpace, you probably think about glitter text on profiles, or maybe Swarovski-studded Sidekicks, not Cartier jewelry. But that hasn't stopped the legendary luxury brand from launching a promotional campaign on News Corp.'s social network.

Starting Thursday, Cartier began featuring branded pages for its "Love by Cartier" product line for MySpace's English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese sites. They'll be online for a year, and will feature new music from 12 artists, including Phoenix, Grand National, and Lou Reed.

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Visa Helps Facebook Glean Small Business Ad Dollars

Credit card company Visa is giving small businesses a reason to try advertising on Facebook.

Visa is availing $100 in Facebook ad credits to the first 20,000 small businesses that download a Visa app, which enrolls them in its Facebook-based network.

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Jonas Brothers Dial Up Bebo with Nokia

The Jonas Brothers plan a private acoustic session to be broadcast live on their Bebo channel.

The broadcast will be filmed entirely through a Nokia N95 handset.

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Fox Creates Online Community For Viewers

Fox is pairing with social networking service Passenger to launch a private online community giving the network access to ongoing audience feedback on programming and marketing efforts. Made up of some 2,000 loyal Fox Network viewers invited to join, the community lets members preview new shows, interact with TV producers, post comments, engage in online discussions and participate in polls.

"What comes out of this community is that we're taking 2000 of our loyal viewers and giving them a seat at the table in the decision-making process," said Melva Benoit, senior vice president for audience intelligence and research strategy at Fox.

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Modeling The Real Market Value Of Social Networks

Michael Arrington wants to compare the big global social networks on something other than unique visitors and page views to properly rank them.

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What’s Wrong with the White Label Social Networking Industry?

Jeremiah Owyang wants to know as he reviews the challenges expressed by the Online Community Unconference.

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Is "My Dow Network" a "Social Network"?

Dennis D. McDonald takes a look at a network thats predicated on the idea of generational knowledge transfer.

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Mac Daddy? Daddy Mac?

Apologies to Kriss Kross fans for making them jump, jump.

This is just McDonald's latest MySpace endeavor. Remix the Big Mac jingle for a chance to have it appear in a national ad.

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50 Most Bizarre Social Networks

No matter how weird, worthy, dull or deranged you are, there's a social network for you. CNET.uk takes a tour through 50 of them.

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This post brings back memories of Wired's six lamest social networks from a year ago.

Will Selling Goods be the Answer for Social Networks?

Asian social networks are monetizing their sites primarily through social goods. Why not in the US? Nick O'Neill of the Social Times thinks that Facebook’s new payment platform in combination with their Facebook Connect service is going to yet again transform the social web space.

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MySpace Might Have Friends, but It Wants Ad Money

With an eye toward monetization, MySpace is being redesigned with a new home page, which will be less cluttered and more hospitable to advertising. (The home page will also feature a “splash page” for an ad about the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”) The redesign, to be done by early fall, will include a new navigation bar, search tool and video player.

Here's an in-depth look courtesy of NY Times

Reality Check for Social Networks

U.S. visitor traffic for both MySpace and Facebook is beginning to show signs of maturing — and plateauing. The market has shifted its focus onto niche social networks, such as those dedicated to sports, music, automobiles and pets.

Rather than a service unto itself, social networking is becoming just another feature on many web services.

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Forrester Research: Steer clear of consumer-oriented social networks, except for more established players like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Ning. Instead, look to services such as Communispace that provide social tools to help bolster customer relations or customer service and cater to the more practical needs of corporations.

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Intel, LA Clippers Reach Fans At Virtual Watercooler

Watercooler is a year-and-a-half-old startup that targets the sports and media fans within five social networks: Hi5, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and AOL's Bebo. The Watercooler application includes a customizable profile widget, as well as over 700 microsites tailored to various sports teams, TV shows and other media properties. Users grab the widget from the third-party app sections within each social network.

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Facebook Catches Up To MySpace As They Do An About Face

Facebook isn't the only one getting a facelift. MySpace is doing something about its blotchy tan, poor dye job and double chin by giving itself a spacelift.

The redesign can't come soon enough for MySpace, which just saw Facebook catching up to MySpace in terms of unique monthly worldwide visitors this April.

Sharp Box Changes Life

From Lowe Worldwide comes a Facebook campaign that involves a box, co-ordinated game play and prizes. The client that it's for remains unannounced, but too many hints point towards Sharp Aquos HDTV.

Hmm, Life Changing Idiot Box?

Life Changing Box

Adrants article

Microsoft Testing Prototype of Facebook-like Social Network

At the request of its SharePoint and Office product development teams, Microsoft's Office Labs operation has created and is testing a prototype of an internal social network that can provide employees with feeds and updates about their colleagues.

Timesquare, an enterprise social network to be used by business, was launched internally in January and has already been used by about 8,000 Microsoft employees.

With a layout that is strikingly similar to Facebook's (in which Microsoft invested $240 million in October 2007), TownSquare is fueled by enterprise news feeds that use Web services to query SharePoint for public information, such as promotions and company anniversaries, about an employee.

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LearnHub Relaunches Its Social Learning Network

Online education has been booming recently, with new entries coming from startups eduFire and the upcoming Grockit (shouldn't it be Grok and not Grock?), among others. One of the newest is LearnHub, a startup that launched last March that has undergone a major redesign as it vies for a top spot in this space.

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Coca-Cola Launches CokeTag Facebook Application With Olympic Tie-In

In their words: The CokeTag application empowers anyone to promote themselves and their interests with a do-it-yourself, portable application.

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The Secret World of Sam King

Bebo announced that the social network's next original series will revolve around a Universal Music employee who secretly founds his own record label out of the company mail room.

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Why Some Facebook Applications Thrive, and Why Some Don't.

Here's a look at a few that have either succeeded or failed, and why.

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‘Lifestreaming’ Challenges Social Network Hierachy

A new generation of social networking sites is gaining support in Silicon Valley, challenging the established models of leaders MySpace and Facebook.

FriendFeed, a service founded by the creators of Google Maps and Gmail, is at the head of an anarchic counter movement of “lifestreaming”, where users themselves aggregate and order their online social activities from multiple sources.

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Verizon Moving Its Branded Social Network to a Facebook Page

Verizon is moving its Verizon Community social network from its website over to its Facebook page. Verizon Community, which let users write blogs, post photos, and discuss in forums, will close.

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Like Verizon and Conde Nast, Monster is shutting down their social network.

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Where's Waldo? On Social Nets Like Everyone Else

Waldo has been spotted online: MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

"We're building the Waldo online eco-system," said Nicole Blake, svp-marketing at Classic Media/Entertainment Rights, New York.

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Facebook Now Lets Users Vote on Ads

Facebook quietly added the ability for users to vote up or down on ads recently.

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Samsung, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo: A Social Networking Barbershop Quartet?

Samsung has teamed up with Facebook, MySpace and Bebo to offer four bands the chance to have their music featured in an ad campaign for its F400 handset. In an app created by Techlightenment - which launched simultaneously across the three sites as well as at www.f400share.com - hopefuls can upload a short clip of music for others to listen to and vote for their favourite. The winning clip will become the sound-track on the F400’s radio and online ad campaign, which launches in the summer.

f400 site
f400 MySpace
f400 Facebook
f400 Bebo

MySpace Stops Selling Advertising to Applications

MySpace is no longer charging for application promotion. Now, their editors are picking their favorites to showcase instead.

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A Social Network for Perez Hilton Groupies?

Buzznet, the social network whose CEO told CNET News.com in April that he'd like to build "the next Viacom," has launched a sister site: Celebuzz, a community for enthusiasts of celebrity news and gossip.

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Marketers, Don't Just Blindly Follow Latest Media Trends

Greg Andersen, director of engagement planning for North America at BBH, goes on to say: "Why, 'because all the cool kids are doing it' isn't a good excuse for running to nontraditional media."

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