(I found this as part of another larger story about Facebook)

While costly, risky, and foreign to brands, the biggest missed opportunity for brands in social networks is to become part of the community, interact and build real relationships. Although we should expect interaction rates and viral spread to increase with engagement ads, brands should wait and see how these ads CTR perform. For those brands that are ready to forgo the risk, and pursue ‘Engagement Ads’ they should:

• Be community themed: Ads created by the brand will succeed if the content is first focused on the needs of the community.
• Rely on new interaction activities: The rules of the game have changed, the goal is to increase interaction within the community –not pull them offsite.
• Approach with an Integrated Mix: Facebook offers many tools, ‘Engagement Ads’ shouldn’t go it alone, instead increase chances of success by involving other tools.
• Change how they measure success: Brands must also change they way the measure success with these interactive ads, rather than weigh success solely on page views or referral traffic.

What Facebook's New Engagement Advertising Means to Brands

Published 04 September 2008 - 0 comments

A day after Google launched its Chrome browser, the blogoshpere is abuzz with inImplications of this major release.

Chrome Provides Entry Point for "The Google Social Network"

Google is certainly interested in Social Networking.  They released the Open Social API as a way to level the playing field and allow you and your profile to be free to join multiple networks, etc.  Facebook and MySpace represent closed networks.  Chrome could be a backdoor that allows Google to create a defactor social network.  Facebook has already shown us how this could work.  Starting around June, when you are logged into Facebook, you can see friends who are also logged on and you can easily chat with them, all from within the browser.  Google could easily allow you to do the same across your whole online experience.  Then they can leverage this into a defacto network by using the implicit social graph represented by who your have sent and received Gmail messages to or from. 

Google could either leverage this as a private entry point, which would diminish interest and growth.  OR they could combine it with Open Social to provide a completely open network where all social networks have to play on the same level playing field.  I expect them to do the latter.  Google has shown a definite orientation towards openness.  Besides, it only further expands their advertising reach.

Chrome will be used on the Android Open Mobile Phone Platform

This provides even more of a threat to Microsoft.  The so-called Smartphone has been a faithful extension of the Windows experience, and there is the problem.  Smartphones are not so smart, or easy, or fun, or useful.  Apple has shown what's possible by leaping far ahead.  So far Android is yet to be seen, but the early leaked info looks so-so. Let's hope the reality exceeds the early info.

With Chrome as the browser, Google could be right there with Apple.  Apple would represent the private platform.  Google would represent the open platform. 

Chrome Could Enhance Google's Ad Targeting

By owning the whole browser experience, Google could offer unprecedented targeted search results.  If anyone can, it's Google.  We could all be dead before Microsoft's Live search comes alive.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments.  Do you think Chrome is the beginning of the end for Microsoft?  Will Google force the future of Social Networking to be open?  Will Google take over the whole web?  Let us know what you think.

Published 03 September 2008 - 0 comments

NPR's show, On the Media, had the founder and CEO of CafePress on this weekend.  CafePress, is the place where you can upload your own designs for T-shirts, hats, posters, etc.  According to the CEO, GW Bush shirts were more popular than John Kerry in the past election cycle and we all know what happened there. 

The CEO felt that T-shirt sales was an indicator of the enthusiasm of supporters.  If that's an indicator, John McCain is in deep trouble.  Obama shirts are outselling McCain by a huge margin.  Some might attribute this to the younger supporters for Obama, but the Bush anecdote puts that somewhat in question.

And in this election we can also judge by the number of 'friends' each candidate has in the SocialSphere.  (copyright, and trademark hereby relinquished)

According to TechCrunch, McCain is way behind Obama on both MySpace and Facebook. 

In an attempt to shore up it's position in the online world the McCain campaign just relaunched it's online presence with a full private community.  Better late than never?  I'm not sure.

One thing is for sure.  The first clue that Sarah Palin would be the VP came when someone made extensive edits to her Wikipedia page a day before the announcement.

See More here - TechCrunch - McCainSpace Relaunches

	McCain	Obama	% Diff
Facebook	226,000	1,400,000	625%
MySpace	66,665	467,800	700%

Published 03 September 2008 - 0 comments

This just in - Yahoo has decided to pull the plug on Yahoo Mash. 

From CNET yesterday - - -

Yahoo Mash: When getting social isn't enough

Let's hope Yahoo has finally learned that the maxim "If you build it, they will come" simply does not apply to a social network.

The Silicon Valley mainstay and onetime Microsoft shopping-spree target is quietly shutting down Yahoo Mash, its latest foray into creating a general-interest social network like a Facebook or MySpace.

It's the latest social-networking failure for Yahoo, which was unable to get its earlier "Yahoo 360" network off the ground, and once attempted to purchase Facebook, only to have its billion-dollar offer turned down.

Mash was cute, with a slick interface, and Yahoo already had the advantage of millions of registered users to roll right into it. But its failure to catch on is indicative of a bigger truth in the social-networking world: a new player in this saturated market has to offer something legitimately new and useful.

Yes, really. And let it be a lesson to any other would-be Facebook killers.

Critics of social networks say they're nothing but gimmicky fads, pointing to the popularity of silly Facebook applications and the flashy glitter text that adorns many teenagers' MySpace profiles. That just isn't true: if you look at the two biggest social-networking success stories, Facebook and MySpace, each one has served a distinct utility since its debut.

Read the full article here ...

Published 30 August 2008 - 0 comments

The NY Times reported that Amazon is acquiring Shelfari, the social network for book lovers. This is a little surprising in that Amazon has a pretty good user-community already.  I'm not sure what Shelfari brings to Amazon, though I'm sure it won't hurt.  According to Compete.com Shelfari has over 170,000 unique visitors a month. 

In Feb 2007 Amazon invested $1 million in Shelfari's Series A round.

NY Times Article

Shelfari's Web Site

Compete.com Stats for Shelfari versus LibraryThing

Published 26 August 2008 - 0 comments

(from eMarketer.com)

Social Networks Get Down to Business

AUGUST 18, 2008

Think of them as digital water coolers—surrounded by thousands of workers engaged in serious business conversations.

Do business and socializing mix?

Apparently so. As the number of business users of social networks continues to increase, advertising expenditures will rise, too. In the US this year, advertisers will spend $40 million to reach a business audience on online social networks, and that is just the beginning. According to eMarketer projections, that ad spending will reach $210 million in 2012.

(Read the Full Article at eMarketer.com)

Published 22 August 2008 - 0 comments

Text messaging, blogging and social networking have reached critical mass, with more than half of adults now relying on at least one of these so-called Web 2.0 platforms for communicating with friends, family, or colleagues on a regular basis, finds the latest installment of an ongoing tracking study from Interpublic's Universal McCann unit. The research, which comes from UM's ambitious "Media in Mind" study, one of the first to show that things like blogging were becoming a meaningful personal communications platform several years ago, now finds that among digital media's bleeding edge - adults 18-34 - social media now is the dominant form of personal communication media, with 85% of this influential demographic group relying on one or more Web 2.0 platforms to stay in touch with others... (full article)

Published 19 June 2008 - 0 comments

Most people don't recall the exact start of the web.  I mark it with the release of the first web browser and web server, Mosaic.  The web has gone through quite a few generational changes since it's then. 

Web 1.0

In the first generation of the web sites were 'read' or presentation only.  They basically only told you things.  A very one-way form of communication.

In the second generation (which came along very quickly) web sites added some interactivity like catalogs, online shopping, store locators, and discussion boards. 

Then came networking features that allowed people to connect groups and interact with each other.  The earliest versions of these were sites like Yahoo!Groups, Tribe, and Friendster.  Tribe is virtually dead.  Tribe, Friendster and Yahoo Groups still have decent traffic but they have definitely leveled off.  Now each is being hotly pursued by NextGen community sites like Ning, Multiply and WetPaint.

You can see how the traffic to these sites has been leveling off in the chart below.  The older sites have all reached saturation points because of inherent flaws in their models.  The newer sites are coming on strong but they too will top out when their flaws become evident to their early adopters.





Web 2.0

The next major generation earned the moniker Web 2.0 and web sites added much more functionality and interactivity with AJAX.  Things like asynchronous direct updates of certain page elements, and highly functional Javascript User Interfaces.  So far Web 2.0 has mostly resulted in narrowly functional sites.  Many sites have been perfecting themselves as web services provided with embeddable widgets.

Web 2.0 is also marked by collaboration features that allowed many individuals to contribute and the 'wisdom of the crowd' began to emerge.  A few key sites like Wikipedia have emerged as major examples of what's possible when people are able to collaborate in an unrestricted environment. 


Social Networking

We're also now several years into the Social Network revolution.  While the group sites mentioned above did a nice enough job, they did not fully foster networking or connecting with friends and finding new like-minded friends.  Sites that did foster networking grew rapidly.  The most famous was MySpace, but it's being pursued aggressively by Facebook. 




Stay tuned for my next installment - The Next Gen Web.  See you then.

Published 24 March 2008 - 0 comments