Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: March 11, 2009

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.

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Web Strategy Summary
Facebook launches redesign, indicates that the web is moving faster to real time with Twitter-like features. Social Networks grow in online activity, it’s becoming a mainstream activity. Jive made a lot of noise with their new product launch (Social Business Software) yet the market needs to see the product –beyond vapor.

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Redesign: Facebook becomes more real time
Facebook does a redesign (read the pronouncement), and makes it real time, you can see a variety of screenshots, all showing the real-time life streaming features. They are clearly watching what Friendfeed and Twitter are doing.

Usage: Social Networks 4th most popular online activity.
Nielsen Online shows that: Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email, Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population, time spent is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time, PDF, Nielsen Online, March

Launch: Jive attempts to redefine a category, yet where’s the product?
Jive has launched a new major version of their platform called Social Business Software (SBS) software which is intending to redefine this space as a new category for enterprise software. Will they succeed? It depends if customers are ready to adopt this phrasing –I’ll be watching. I want to get a product demo –beyond slides then I’ll blog some of my findings. Update: Scoble has a video interview with Dave the CEO, see part 1 and part 2. First video focuses on the famed tattoo.

Economy: Social Networks help cash strapped firms and brands
Forbes indicates that companies, marketers and PR professionals that want their money to go the distance are looking at social networks.

Ads: Social Networks should couple with Oscars
Interesting thought piece by CEO of Nielsen Online who suggests that social network adoption goes mainstream –esp during Oscars, giving advertising opportunities for brands. I say don’t limit this to just the Oscars, but look at other large TV events.

Identity: MySpace rolls out MySpace ID
Similar to other identity systems, this allows third party sites to access a MySpace users information and network contacts. Critics suggest that it’s too complicated and doesn’t support SSO. Why don’t they use OpenID?

Revenue: Tencent’s Monetization a Model
This interesting post suggests that China’s IM social network Tencent be a model that Facebook and MySpace copy. The stats? “TenCent was founded in 1998, has 355 million users, US$1.2B in annual revenues, and a US$11.2B market capitalization.” The challenge is that social networks act differently depending on each culture, deployment and features. Sure figure out what worked, but don’t expect it to work the same in Western markets.

Deployment: HiveLive
Thoughtworks launchess community powered by Hivelive, which is intended to be a customer focused community.

Opportunities for Twitter
Twitter has a few business opportunities, and this Business Week article shows that some of the opportunities include rich data about what people think and prefer –including celebrities.

Social CRM: Neighborhood America buddies with Microsoft
Although I’ve not seen what they are working on, they’re indicating that they’re going to connect with Microsoft’s Dynamic CRM, this is a trend, as we know that Leverage Software comes pre-integrated with SalesForce CRM. Expect to see more of this in the upcoming months.

I’m listening: 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 but first, read how to score your announcements.

Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.