Filed under: facebook, social media, social media promotion, social networking | Tags: face book, facebook, social media, social networking
It is the social networking phenomenon which has taken 2007 by storm but I have started getting a little bored with Facebook of late. Now that the thrill of connecting with old friends has passed and the days of logging in to a potful of notifications is behind me I’m struggling to get excited by it all. All I seem to get these days or invitations to join the latest application doing the rounds and numerous postings of those annoying chain letter style messages (for the last time, nothing bad is going to happen if you don’t pass it on, no-one is going to delete your profile and you aren’t going to come into any money!). There are a few friends who I contact through it which make the process of logging in worth while but aside from that its all a little dull for me now. Maybe I am alone in this feeling? I know for a fact many of my close friends are still wildly addicted to it and if they go a day without logging on they start breaking into cold sweats and having panic attacks. But I just don’t get that feeling of anticipation when logging in anymore. Sure, I still use it, but more out of habit than enjoyment and also the fact I use the internet all day everyday at work so have access all the time. I certainly wouldn’t be too worried if I had to go with access for a period of time though and can’t see Id miss it at all. Maybe this is the start of the great Facebook decline, where the casual user drifts away and only the hardcore remain, leaving thousands of redundant accounts. This is how I see Myspace’s current existence, I haven’t seen their take up figures recently but I would imagine they are in sharp decline, part due to the rise of Facebook but also because they are no longer the flavour of the month and only the hardcore survive. Facebook is a long way from this status as they are still in the stage of sign up growth but they need to keep one eye on the future and think about how to avoid the decline, either that or get out while the going is good. As they say, timing is everything, but I doubt they will ever be valued at more than the current $15 billion so it may be time to cash in.
Filed under: facebook, social media, social media promotion, social networking | Tags: facebook, social media, social networking
Its finally happened after a long period of speculation. Facebook have removed the “is” from the status option. I speculated a while ago about what they may replace it with and I have to say I’m disappointed they went for the easy option and just removed it all together. I would have liked to have seen some imagination used into what it could be replaced with they have gone for the safe option and simply removed it.
Filed under: facebook, myspace, social media, social media promotion, social networking | Tags: facebook, myspace, social media, social networking
It was reported today on the New Media Age website that Kylie Minogue is to launch her own social network KylieKonnect.com alowing her fans to interact with one another.
One KylieKonnect fans will be able to create personal profiles, make new friends and hold conversations with one another. They will also be able to download Kylie tracks via 7digital and mobile ringtones of their favourite Kylie tunes. And on upon joining the site Kylie will be their first friend!
The article claimed Kylie is going head-to-head with Facebook and MySpace which is a little creative license from the author but it is an interesting development. I would be intrigued to find out about the additional functionality of the site above and beyond what can be found in message boards on other fan sites and it will be interesting to see how it is adopted by her fan base. It is certainly something which could be picked up on by other artists if it takes off could be the first of an influx of people trying to ride the social media wave. Im not sure I will be rushing off to sign up just yet though!
Filed under: acquisition, facebook, microsoft, msn, purchases, search engines, social media, social media promotion, social networking | Tags: facebook, live search, microsoft, social networking
Following Microsoft’s $240 million investment in Facebook for a small slice of their pie rumours are rife about this deal paving the way for the integration of live search functionality within the social networking site. The inflated valuation of the small stake is undoubtedly an attempt by Microsoft to keep Google at bay but could also be an indication that there is elements of the deal which incorporate an agreement to have live search integration. If this is the case then it could be a good investment for Microsoft as they have struggled to achieve any significant share in the search market place and the volumes available through their paid search platform have disappointed advertisers since its release.
The benefits to Facebook come from the simple fact that users would no longer need to leave the site to perform a search and so would spend more of their timeon the site, thus increasing appeal to advertisers. Oh, and theyve probably negotiated a revenue share on the money generated from Facebook based searches too. The only question that remains is will people using Facebook actually want to perform a web search? Well Myspace and Bebo both have the functionality, powered by Google and Yahoo respectively, so logic would suggest there is something in it. Whether thats worth $240 million, only time will tell.
How the search function may look:
