As the number of business users of social networks continues to increase, advertising expenditures will rise, too says eMarketer.  In the US this year, advertisers will spend $40 million to reach a business audience on online social networks and it will reach $210 million in 2012.
“As compelling as the ad growth is, marketers will spend far more over the next few years to create and manage their own social networks for business customers, partners, suppliers and vendors,” says Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, More»

Labels: Online Advertising, social networks

The Internet is outpacing the TV for kids between 10 and 14 years of age. This, according to a study by DoubleClick Performics the SEM company, which found that 83 percent of Internet users in this age bracket spent an hour or more online a day, but only 68 percent spent that much time watching television. Kids this age apparently did online research prior to making a purchase with the exception of clothing which, much like adults, they preferred to choose at the offline store front.
Social networks were found to be very More»

Labels: internet, social networks, web 2.0

It’s a dog’s world and especially so at DoggySpace.com, the social networking site for dog lovers where you can post videos and connect with other dog lovers. In their own words: Doggyspace is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who love dogs. People use Doggyspace to keep up with friends, upload funny dog videos, and to give their dogs their own cyber place. It’s a combination YouTube meets MySpace but specifically for the canine persuasion.

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Labels: social media, Social Networking, social networks, web 2.0

Event organizing site Meetup, has received new funding from Union Square Ventures. No other details were released. Fred Wilson of USV’s writes about it on his blog: “Meetup is a perfect investment for our firm because it’s a company we know well and a service we use all the time. We have been wanting to invest in Meetup for years but we never could find the right entry point that worked for us and the company and its founders.”
Meetup, founded in 2002 by Scott Heiferman, has More»

Labels: meetup, social networks

One out of four online users are visiting social networking sites. This, according to a survey conducted by the Consumer Internet Barometer which is being reported on by MarketingVox. Such a high number is a testament to the popularity of sites such as MySpace and Facebook. This also suggests that “Online social networking is an integral part of many people’s lives and a natural extension of our means of communication which the internet has created. The next growth wave will be expanding and incorporating these networks into our business lives,” according to Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board More»

Labels: marketing 2.0, social media, social media marketing, Social Networking, social networks

MySpace plans to redesign its homepage, navigation, profile editing, search utility, and TV player. Starting this Wednesday, June 18, it will start launching the first of the redesigns. The social networking behemoth said the redesign will be global and is an attempt to widen its demographics and boost user engagement on the site. “This is more than a face-lift; we’re changing the way people interact with the site and with brands,” said a MySpace spokesman, adding that a major advertiser was signed for the U.S. MySpace home page on the first day of the relaunch.
MySpace has about 110 million More»

Labels: MySpace, social networks, usability 2.0, user experience

Yet another social networking site you’ve probably never heard of is - alas - shutting down. Following in the footsteps of Conde Nast and Verizon’s social networking communities, Monster.com’s personal networking community site, Tickle, is closing it’s doors. The company provides interpersonal content and services (self-discovery, matchmaking, career and social networking).
Silicon Alley Insider is reporting the story. Tickle apparently sent this email out to its 17 million members:
We will be shutting down Tickle as of June 30th 2008. You will no longer be able to access your saved test results after that date. If you would More»

Labels: conde naste, Social Networking, social networks, verizon, web 2.0

Yet another social network is shutting down. This time is it Verizon’s social network. The social network which let users write blogs, post photos, and discuss in forums, will close June 16, 2008. The existing social network on the Verizon website will be moved over to the Verizon page on Facebook. Verizon jumped into social networking like many other companies, thinking it would be easy. They even branded it as “Join The Conversation” however they soon realized that branded social network wasn’t worth the effort and they are moving to where the conversation is.
In January, Conde More»

Labels: Facebook, MySpace, Online Advertising, social networks

Go viral or go home
Since 1996 Tim Draper of Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson has claimed he invented “viral” marketing when his portfolio company, Hotmail, included a line on the bottom of each email that said “Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com/.”
Although viral marketing as we now know it was used by companies much earlier, the Hotmail example perfectly illustrates why marketers chase “viral” as if it were the cure to stopping spam. After getting the right message, the biggest challenges facing marketers More»

Labels: social media, social networks, viral marketing

While online advertising overall continues to grow explosively, a new report from eMarketer (as well as common sense) suggests that there are many challenges in the Social Network advertising arena.
Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst specializing in social networking at eMarketer said:
“Tapping into consumers’ conversations and spreading brand awareness virally has proven more challenging than companies originally thought.” Challenging indeed. As we have noted here at WebGuild several times nobody has found the holy grail of Social Networking: Good monetization of user bases and spectacular page view traffic.
eMarketer has revised More»

Labels: Online Advertising, social networks