Facebook: A young network with an old mindset? March 30, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentYes, I know what you’re thinking. “Not another post about Facebook.” Forgive me, but in yesterday’s New York Times, an executive from the world’s fastest growing social network suggested that Facebook users will not have the final say in how the site evolves. The quoted statement suggests a very old-school, command-and-control mindset. In this age of consumer control, don’t the hip young managers of Facebook know that marketers are meant to “just let go?”
In his article “Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast?” Brad Stone presents an interesting overview of the social network and the difficulties brought on by its exceptional growth. What intrigued me most was the apparent discrepancy between what Facebook users expect from the site and the vision of the Facebook management team. This difference raises all sorts of questions about when a brand should exercise control.
Read The Rest—->Facebook: A young network with an old mindset?
Social Networkers Aren’t There for Ads December 5, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentUsers want to communicate with each other, not necessarily with brands.
Monetizing social networks was challenging enough before the economic news got so gloomy—it will get even harder now. That’s because the huge traffic numbers at MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and the rest do not necessarily translate into ad dollars. More than one-half of the US population surveyed uses social networking sites, according to IDC, but the ad dollars have not followed. The research company found more than 75% of social network site users logged in at least once a week and 57% did so daily. IDC also said more than 61% of those users spent more than 30 minutes per session on social network sites, and 38% remained parked for 1 hour or more. Good news for marketers, right? Not necessarily. Only 57% of social network site users said they clicked on an ad in the past year, compared with 79% of all Internet consumers.
Read The Rest—->Social Networkers Aren’t There for Ads
Learning to Work with Social Networks December 2, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentDECEMBER 2, 2008
A developing medium offers new targeting options.
While many marketers want to use social networks as part of their strategies, they still have no clear list of best practices for the medium. Getting friends to spread a marketing message to each other is a great goal, but how is that best done? A November article in Ad Age detailed efforts to use the connections between social network users. Paul Moore, director of insights at Yahoo!, found that targeting friends of a given sports fan led to more reach than targeting fans who did not know each other—even if the fan’s friends did not identify an interest in sports themselves. Read The Rest—>Learning to Work with Social Networks
MySpace ruling could lead to jail for lying online daters December 2, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe MySpace suicide case concluded last week, with the jury finding Lori Drew guilty of three misdemeanor counts of gaining unauthorized access to the popular social-networking site.
While most of the press attention has been focused on the specifics of the case, the more important issue is the potential impact this could have on the Internet in general.
Web site terms of service, which end users universally ignore, suddenly have teeth: violating them is a federal hacking offense, punishable with jail time. The days of being able to freely lie on the Web could be coming to an end. This could mean serious trouble for people who lie about their age, weight, or marital status in their online dating profiles.
Read The Rest—>MySpace ruling could lead to jail for lying online daters
Nokia buys social networking site Plazes November 12, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentHELSINKI – The world’s top cellphone maker Nokia said on Monday it has agreed to buy social networking start-up Plazes as part of its major push into offering Internet services.
Plazes (http://www.plazes.com/) provides location-aware services that people can use to plan, record, and share their social activities.
Nokia did not disclose the value of the deal.
Read The Rest Here—> Nokia buys social networking site Plazes
Facebook falls victim to account hijacking scam – Brand Republic News – Brand Republic November 11, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentLONDON – Nigerian scammers have infiltrated Facebook and are hijacking users’ accounts to request money by posing as friends in need.
In the latest scam, Australian Karina Wells received a Facebook message last Friday from one of her friends, Adrian, saying he was stranded in Nigeria and needed her to lend him $500 (£213) for a ticket home.
Social Media got Obama Elected November 5, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentOk, I know it was more than just social media, but he certainly had the best, well organized and strategic social media campaigns I’ve ever seen. It was truly brilliant.
Read the Rest—>Social Media got Obama Elected
Workplaces need to embrace social networking tools October 31, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentWe’ve all heard the ‘horror’ stories. IT departments who block Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace. We’ve all got friends who can’t access even personal email until they get home in the evening. Personally, I think it’s silly, because of some of the massive benefits that I, and others I know, have experienced through social networking.
A study completed by the UK ‘think tank’ and research firm, Demos, is trying to convince enterprise bosses to embrace the new technologies.
Any attempt to control employee’s participation on these sites can limit the way staff communicate, as the Demos study said, but also, can limit the firm’s opportunities for new business as well.
READ THE REST HERE—–> Workplaces need to embrace social networking tools
Facebook Lexicon Now Tracks Personal — and Political — Sentiment September 22, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Pulse of political insight?
Facebook’s new version of Lexicon sports features that let its user base play with aggregated data from.
Lexicon was introduced last April as a way for users to gauge the “buzzworthiness.” Lexicon searches all Wall, group and event posts for relevant words or phrases, then produces charts of their popularity.
In a nod to privacy advocates, Lexicon does not incorporate terms from messages, one-on-one chat, searches, or other private data.
Additions to the new Lexicon:
- Dashboard reflects the total number of unique users that mention a topic, the percentage of the Facebook user base that mentioned it, and the total number of posts.
- Demographics follow trends over time between users of different ages, genders and countries.
- Maps display where people are talking about a topic within different countries. It is currently limited to the US, Great Britain, and Canada.
- Sentiment shows how much people like or dislike a given topic. It also compares topics based their emotional appeal.
- Associations lets users see words and phrases closely associated with a topic in different points in time.
- Pulse highlights keywords that frequently show up in the profiles (Interests, Music, etc.) of people discussing the topic.
READ THE REST OF THIS GREAT MARKETINGVOX STORY BY CLICKING HERE
Show Me The Money: Facebook Tests Engagement Ads August 22, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentIn 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. All three flavors of Engagement Ads will appear in the new home page placement alongside the News Feed on the right. They will also show up in members’ News Feeds as people interact with the ads. The new Engagement Ads build on Facebook’s Social Ads, which typically appear in the News Feed and allow marketers to run ads tied to users’ actions within the network. This includes actions that people take on branded applications running in Facebook. Within Social Ads, Facebook is also rolling out a new program that would allow marketers to pay to expand the number of friends who learn about a user’s interaction with an application. Currently, Facebook uses an algorithm to figure out who among a user’s friends would be most interested in learning about a given activity. Under the new plan, marketers would have the option of sending a sponsored notification (marked as such) to all of a members’ friends. So if someone used a Fandango app to buy tickets to see “Pineapple Express,” Fandango and Sony Pictures could pay to tell all of their friends on Facebook about it. The social network triggered a privacy backlash last year when it launched its Beacon ad program, which notified members about their friends’ e-commerce activity outside Facebook. The company revised Beacon to require members’ opt-in consent, but the program was the subject of a class action filed only last week. In a briefing Thursday on the new ad initiatives, Tim Kendall, Facebook’s director of monetization, said the new Social Ads program would avoid the same privacy problems as Beacon because it only relates to users’ activities within Facebook.
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