Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Dec 11, 2008

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

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

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

Web Strategy Summary
This was a very busy week, so focus on this summary to get the highlights: Facebook connect extends, Google friend connect in hot pursuit. Bebo relaunches with new design encouraging social sharing, promises upgrades in near future. Ning removes adult content from website, leaving opportunities for others. The big trend? many systems are connecting to each other, data, and influence spread

Mobile: MySpace launches live streaming video
Just a week after Google announced it’s live streaming video features for mobile devices, enabling users to access shows on demand from their mobile devices

Trends: Is Social Networking Sinking?
This contrary view is an important one to revenues, layoffs and valuations, social networks may be waning. The other key measurement to look at should be adoption and usage –I expect them to increase during a recession.

Contest: HiveLive’s contests to help Tigers
This promotional contest, is a great way to tell the world about HiveLive’s flexible platform, and to do some good in the world. The winner for this contest is going to help Conservation International build a community site to benefit Tigers.

Security: Risks of Social Networks
This very long PDF discloses the risks of the social networking space, with a slight legal bent. I read as much as I could, it’s a bit dense. Takeaway: most don’t realize the personal, financial, legal risks involved as social networks intersect business, personal, and family lives. On a similar note, this very scary post demonstrates how easy it is to create a fake account and dupe people.

Redesign: Bebo’s Redesign Encourages social sharing
Much akin to the trend of newsfeed designs that were initially lead by Facebook, Bebo ads new features in their overhaul, perhaps most importantly is that they made promises to improve the major features, applications, and to integrate with AOL.

Vision: Where is Facebook headed?
In a classic Techcrunch style, Arrington interviews Mark Zuckerberg on his vision for products, revenue, developers, and valuation (oh and profile pics). With Facebook focused on so many different areas, this leaves questions in the minds of brands –as they are unsure where to focus.

Products: Physical Meets Virtual
At some conferences in Amsterdam, a new physical tool called a ‘Poken‘ has emerged that allows people to connect and trade information. What ever happened to Palm Pilot beaming?

Security: Facebook Virus Tears Through Network
The virus that we saw last week was apparently a strain of a previous one, I received one of the messages and am now very cautious about what to click on.

Predictions: What if Facebook Connect and Amazon were tied
Shiv Singh from Razorfish demonstrates what could happen if social networks tied with eCommerce and other websites in order to make web experiences social.

Connect: Pluck connects with Facebook
Facebook Connect allows third party sites to become social, and Pluck (of Demand Media) has initiated this with SFGate and other sites. This means leaving a comment on SFGate can now show on your Facebook news page, if you choose to do so. Understand what this means for Corporate Websites in the future.

Case Study: Failed Social Networks
This list gives the losers of the social networking space, starting with Wal-Mart’s the hub. Expect this list to grow during the recession as revenues dry up.

Identity: Facebook Connect Across the Web
Mark blogs about Facebook connect, which is designed to connect websites with their social graph on Facebook, the impacts to brands are astounding –corporate websites can now be social. Of course, the competition between Google and Facebook will rage over your friendships. Need more info? Watch this video to learn more.

Ning to remove porn for networks
I met with the Ning folks yesterday, which they briefly discusses removing adult content from their network, rSitez moves in for the pluckings and offers migration options.

Culture: Drunken Photos Cost Women her College Degree
This poor soul made a bad choice in uploading photos and patronizing her teacher –resulting in her loosing her college degree. Takeaway? Use permissions, realize that uploading is publishing and don’t be an idiot.

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

Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Site Usage: Visitors, Members, Page Views, and Engagement by the Numbers in 2008? Bookmark it, then share it with others as I continue to update it.

26 Replies to “Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Dec 11, 2008”

  1. Thanks for this digest it was a good read to pick and choose items of interest from.

    Please forgive the bit of self promotion below…

    I am a business professional with 17+ years experience without a degree.That has changed! I worked my way up with Subaru of America from an entry level position till I was a highly successful District Operations Manager known as a team leader with a passion for customer service. I now have a degree in Corporate Communications and have a strong desire to combine my past experience with my degree in the Social Media/Marketing/PR field.

    I have public speaking and training experience, I am making contacts in the Social Media community and have a very strong work ethic and desire to be successful.

    I currently live in the St. Louis area and I am open to travel and telecommuting.

  3. I think the Bebo case is really an indicator of something bigger: the user’s trend to aggregate contents when “listening”, to live all the passive social experiences in one place. This is in contrast to the other trend: targeting when speaking. Targeting means speak to selected people only in selected social places.
    Here’s my last post about it, please let me know your comments and what you think about aggregating vs targeting http://stefanomaggi.blogspot.com/2008/12/aggregate-and-target-what-happens.html

  4. Hello –
    As head of marketing here at Paltalk, one of the largest chat communities on the planet, I am anxious to have my say about whether social networking is sinking.

    Is social networking dead? Of course not. But like the tech boom of the 2000™s- reality has finally, thankfully kicked in. Now real companies that have real technology and real business plans can emerge from the hype and the fog. As one of the innovators in this space, (Paltalk started in 1998), we were web 2.0 before people understood what web 1.0 was. And our results speak to that. We are one of the few highly profitable social marketing businesses out there, (I might even say in this day and age – we may well be the only profitable social networking company out there “ hmm would be interesting to research 🙂

    We did not create a one trick pony business as did many of our competitors. We did not hinge an entire business around the iffy proposition of monetizing lots of people through an ad network. It was becoming obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of advertising that there was not enough ad dollars on the planet to support all the sites that were going to be dependent on them. And that was before the financial meltdown of the last few months.

    Instead, smart business people (and yes I use that word on purpose instead of saying smart technology people) created business value the old fashioned way “ through a well organized portfolio revenue approach. Now will be the time that separates the social networking business leaders from the kids who were playing in the big field.

    Now is when the fun really begins. I welcome helping shape the dialogue.

    Judy Shapiro
    VP, Marketing
    Paltalk

  7. Offlate I have been hearing a lot of questions about these kind of blogs. Yeah, the question arises is that how safe are they? Are they giving out the right guidance to the people or are they misleading them in anyway. This article seems very interesting indeed. Thank you for posting it.

  8. Offlate I have been hearing a lot of questions about these kind of blogs. Yeah, the question arises is that how safe are they? Are they giving out the right guidance to the people or are they misleading them in anyway. This article seems very interesting indeed. Thank you for posting it.

  9. Today, almost everyone is on the social networking sites. They are neglecting their lives and their near and dear ones and being online the whole time. This can be harmful to your personal life. We need to face the reality and need to come out of the web of facebook and twitter. Life is much more than these sites and we should know about it.

  11. You can certainly see your enthusiasm in the article you write.
    The sector hopes for more passionate writers like you
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    All the time follow your heart.

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