Stop Clicking Banners and Maybe They’ll Go Away

Is it you?  Are you the one who clicks on the banner ads on social media and social networking sites like Digg, MySpace, Reddit, Facebook, Propeller, and everywhere else (except Mixx, where I haven’t really seen them yet)?  I’ve been looking for whoever it is that still thinks they’re the 9,999th visitor or that they really just won a free Xbox 360.  When I find this person, I have one word.

Stop.

It’s 2008.  Banner advertisements, as wonderful and beautiful as they were before the turn of the millenium, are now worthless.  Or are they?  They still seem to be on just about every website (this one included, though I don’t know why I bother since nobody clicks on them).  I would think that most people, especially the astute, tech-saavy readers of social media and users of social networks, are immune to them and barely register that they’re even there. [Read more...]

Who is Tom and how did he get so many MySpace friends?

Tom at MySpaceWhen I told someone that I wrote for a blog that covers social media, social networks, and social bookmarking, their first question was “What’s all that?”  When I told them what it was and gave them examples, the next question made me laugh.

“Who is Tom and how did he get so many MySpace friends?”

With over  220 million friends, Tom Anderson is everyone’s first MySpace friend.  You can read his MySpace Profile or even the entry about him on Wikipedia.  This story isn’t about him, though. [Read more...]

Social Niche: How Ning Makes Social Networking More Personal

NingThere has been a trend that has been percolating behind the scenes.  While Facebook and MySpace cultivate their mass presence by making the world accessible to people and people accessible to the world, Ning is bringing laser-precision focus to social networking, allowing the niche aspect of internet interaction to flourish.

While the social networking powerhouses offer limited platforms for people to form groups and interact with like-minded people, Ning has made it their purpose to offer flexibility in their product.  As the self-proclaimed “Home Depot” of social networking, Ning has a do-it-yourself platform (“you can do it, we can help”) that is simple to use and manipulate.  A person can create an account and start a social network geared around whatever they want in a few minutes. [Read more...]

Going Social for Marketing, Business, and Fun

porkfriedsocial.comSocial Media Marketing isn’t new. 2008 is simply the year that it emerges as THE thing to do if you want your business, charity, or blog to be “in” instead of “out”.

With companies that aren’t traditionally forward thinking in their marketing techniques, such as Ford Motor Company and Starbucks, making a push to enter social media marketing, it is clear that both big and small business are starting to take notice. Even local businesses are approaching anyone knowledgeable they can find on the subject to help them.

Below are some of the social media initiatives and trends from 2007 that tell of things to come in 2008. First, there are ways to create a web presence that goes beyond building a website or a blog. Then there are ways to drive traffic through social media to these websites. [Read more...]

2008: Year of the Mini Social Networks

OpenSocialMySpace, Facebook, and the other large social networks need not worry.  The small, niche social network sites that are popping up faster than poker rooms in the 90′s are not going to hurt the big boy’s bottom lines.  They’re just going to draw more people by the end of the year because of one fact.

They’re just more useful than the big sites.

The appeal that brought millions to form profiles and make friends on MySpace and Facebook will have the opposite effect in 2008 an beyond.  We built our MySpace page and started Facebooking because everyone else was doing it.  As closed social sites begin to gain in popularity, they will appeal to people because NOT everyone else is doing it.  Inclusion is easy on today’s internet.  Being part of something exclusive is becoming the new IT thing to do. [Read more...]

Facebook jumps ahead of Myspace in Traffic (depending on who you believe)

MySpaceFacebookThis really isn’t a question of Facebook vs. MySpace.  It’s a question of Alexa.com vs. Compete.com.

According to Alexa, Facebook jumped ahead of MySpace last week to technically take the #6 spot.  While it hasn’t changed on the official Alexa Top 500, a close examination of the line graph comparison shows the too big dogs in social networking neck and neck on Novemeber 20 and 21.  Facebook jumped ahead by a small margin after that.

Compete.com paints a completely different picture.  Despite the slower updates, MySpace still have a huge lead lead in October, 2007.  It shows MySpace at 65 million versus Facebook’s 24 million. [Read more...]

Facebook jumps ahead of Myspace in Traffic (depending on who you believe)

MySpaceFacebookThis really isn’t a question of Facebook vs. MySpace. It’s a question of Alexa.com vs. Compete.com.

According to Alexa, Facebook jumped ahead of MySpace last week to technically take the #6 spot. While it hasn’t changed on the official Alexa Top 500, a close examination of the line graph comparison shows the too big dogs in social networking neck and neck on Novemeber 20 and 21. Facebook jumped ahead by a small margin after that.

Compete.com paints a completely different picture. Despite the slower updates, MySpace still have a huge lead lead in October, 2007. It shows MySpace at 65 million versus Facebook’s 24 million. [Read more...]

ClosedSocial: A Growing Trend Towards Niche Social Networking

With the increasing popularity of huge social networks like Facebook and MySpace, it’s easy to see why niche networks are entering the market and falling off almost immediately. There seems to be no room for networks that focus on a particular hobby, demographic, or profession. They are too small, therefore they will all fail.

Or will they?
[Read more...]

What can fix (I mean save) MySpace?

MySpaceRumors are flying.

“MySpace is getting a complete redesign.”

“MySpace is getting bought out.”

“MySpace is losing money.”

When rumors like these start flying, it’s normally a bad sign, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed.  The Social Network’s meteoric rise and subsequent decline in users to Facebook has created these rumors, but there are still strengths that can be exploited.  If they are going to make it, they will need to make some changes, but more importantly, they will need to rethink their focus and reimpose their will through marketing-guided changes.

Instead of making it the easiest platform to spam and game, they need to appeal to their current best demographic, teens, pre- and post-, and create ways for them to stay with MySpace instead of defecting as they get older to Facebook or someone else.  More importantly, they MUST expand to the business sector. Sounds ridiculous, I know, when you consider the current state of the company and the growing disdain towards its inner-workings. Stay with me while [Read more...]

Using Social Networks at Work – Should Companies Allow It?

Of the 308 companies interviewed by Forrester Consulting, 58.4% said that they prohibit “playing” on social networks such as Facebook and MSpace. The common sense reason is that if they are social networking, they aren’t working.

The counter argument is that by allowing a specified amount of time to be used for social networking or whatever other “toys” are available, the overall team spirit and job satisfaction will increase.

What most companies are not taking into account is a concept that would make some people angry, make some people rebel, and even make some people quit.  Still, I think it would work in many situations.  What if you allowed X amount of time per week for “Facebooking” in exchange for [Read more...]