September 29th, 2008

UK secret service recruiting on Facebook

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:12 am

Categories: Facebook, Social Networks

Tags: Facebook, Advertisement, Recruiting, U.K., MI6, Professional Development, Recruitment & Selection, Career, Human Resources, Workforce Management

MI6, a branch of the UK’s secret service, is using Facebook as part of a recent recruitment drive to find the “next generation of spies”, reports The Guardian newspaper.

The ads, which begun appearing on the so-called social utility, reflect a change in tactics first introduced in 2006. Rather than targeting top tier Universities only, MI6 is reaching out via a number of public channels in the hope of attracting candidates from a variety of backgrounds. Last year the CIA also began using Facebook to reach out to potential candidates. Read the rest of this entry »

September 25th, 2008

Madison Avenue to Facebook: you'll never be the next Google

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 8:15 am

Categories: Facebook, Google, MySpace, Social Networks

Tags: Google Inc., Facebook, Advertisement, Valleywag, Karp, Steve O'Hear

In a renewed attempt to woo Madison Avenue, Facebook is “making a huge push” at Advertising Week, an industry-wide series of events for media buyers and publishers, reports Valleywag. The social utility’s “push” includes a full-page ad in the events program, a number of sponsored sessions, and throwing a party tonight in which Ziggy Marley (son of Bob) will be performing.

The motivation: Facebook has yet to turn its 100+ million user-base into a fertile ground for advertisers, with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly estimating revenue in 2008 to be around the $300 million mark

An unnamed New York ad-executive (via Valleywag) offers Facebook some unsolicited advice: Read the rest of this entry »

September 23rd, 2008

Gphone and Android will fuel the social web

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:11 am

Categories: Google, Mobile

Tags: Google Android, Mobile, T-Mobile Sidekick, Social Web, Social Networking, Advertising & Promotion, Online Communications, Marketing, Steve O'Hear

We’ve already seen the iPhone become a fertile ground for social networking applications and other forms of social software, thanks to its public Software Development Kit and modern standards-based web browser, but arguably Google’s Android mobile platform will have an even greater impact on the social web.

See also: Gallery: 25+ social networking apps for iPhone and iPod touch

The first so-called ‘Gphone’ powered by Android will be officially unveiled later today by T-Mobile, and based on leaked photos, combined with what we already know about Android, the handset (called the G1) shares a lot with Apple’s iPhone but also, unsurprisingly, takes a few cues from the T-Mobile Sidekick. The Sidekick is designed by Danger Inc., a company previously co-founded by Android head Andy Rubin, and was one of the first smartphones targeted at the consumer market by pitching Instant Messaging and non-corporate email as the centerpiece of the device. (Hence the slide-out QWERTY keyboard which the Android-powered G1 shares). Read the rest of this entry »

September 19th, 2008

Yahoo launches new social network; Twitter redesign; Rumor: Ebay selling off StumbleUpon

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 7:27 am

Categories: The Social Web weekly

Tags: Network, Yahoo! Inc., StumbleUpon, eBay Inc., Twitter, Yahoo Launch, Arrington, Social Networking, Text Messaging/SMS/MMS, Telephony

The social web weekly: a quick-fire roundup of some of the news, announcements and conversations that have occurred throughout the week…

• Yahoo launches new social network in India. Yahoo India announced that it has launched a new social network for the 16-24 age bracket, reports TechCrunch. Although it’s questionable if the world (or India) needs yet another social networking site, the new venture, dubbed SpotM, offers two potentially differentiating features: secret friends and anonymous SMS chat. “SpotM will allow users to make friends with other users and if they choose, make those friends private so other users don’t know about the relationship. SMS integration with anonymous chat will let users correspond via SMS without revealing their phone number”.
• Twitter redesign. It seems to be makeover week on the social web (Facebook, FriendFeed etc) and today my current favorite Twitter rolled out its own redesign. Tabs have been moved from the top to the right hand side, making them more obvious targets and providing room for more, according to Twitter, although the company hasn’t revealed what additionally functionality it has planned or wants to bring to the surface — CNet’s guessing search and keyword tracking based on its recent purchase of Summize. Another major improvement is the new design tool, “which allows you to change the colors on your Twitter profile with the help of a color wheel”.
• Rumor: Ebay selling off StumbleUpon. Mike Arrington claims to have the scoop: Ebay is attempting to offload StumbleUpon, the social recommendation engine/browser tool bar, less than a year and a half after acquiring it for $75 million. As Mathew Ingram notes, the two companies always seemed an fit, despite some speculating at the time that the e-commerce giant could leverage StumbleUpon’s technology and user base to create a powerful social shopping experience. But why offload now? Arrington says that StumbleUpon’s traffic is dropping or at least has stalled (although new sign-ups continue at a pace), so perhaps Ebay wants to find the service a more fertile home before it has to take too great a loss.

September 18th, 2008

Facebook's Zuckerberg makes Forbes' rich list

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 7:42 am

Categories: Facebook

Tags: Facebook, Forbes, Mark Zuckerberg, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Steve O'Hear

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the so-called social utility Facebook, has made number 321 of the Forbes 400, a list of the richest people in America, with a personal wealth of $1.5 billion.

Forbes’ calculation is based on an estimate that Facebook generates annual sales of $300 million, and the fact that Microsoft invested $240 million last October for a 1.6% stake, valuing the site at a very generous $15 billion. Although Forbes does concede that “analysts—and even a few Facebook investors—suggest [the] company’s value is far lower”. That being the case, perhaps Zuckerberg isn’t worth $1.5 billion after all? Read the rest of this entry »

September 15th, 2008

LinkedIn the ad network

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:54 am

Categories: LinkedIn, Social Networks

Tags: Advertisement, Network, LinkedIn, Social Networking, Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Steve O'Hear

Bucking the trend whereby advertisers are shying away from social networking sites, demand on LinkedIn is so strong that the site has decided to roll out its own ad network.

Announced today, the career-oriented social networking site for professionals will begin selling ads on partner sites, ads that specifically target its affluent user base. Read the rest of this entry »

September 15th, 2008

Facebook: no social networking here

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:13 am

Categories: Facebook, Net culture, Social Networks

Tags: Facebook, Network, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Steve O'Hear

One of the delightful things about creating a new web application or service is the way in which end users find unintended ways of utilizing said service. That’s a common story we hear from those who’ve created cutting-edge and disruptive products on the web and something that has become an aspiration of web startups.

An example that springs to mind is the way in which early adopters of Twitter made use of the @ sign, and how Twitter recognised this to evolve to become more than a micro-blogging system into a communications platform.

But Facebook is different. Arrogant even.

Either use the service how its owners intend or you’ll be kicked out. Read the rest of this entry »

September 9th, 2008

MySpace: 95% of ad revenue comes from 9 countries

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 6:06 am

Categories: MySpace, Social Networks

Tags: Advertisement, MySpace, Steve O'Hear

If you’re a burgeoning Internet startup, here’s two points worth remembering: Not all geographical markets are equal, and the World Wide Web is global (something Silicon Valley sometimes forgets). Case study: MySpace.

At the TechCrunch 50 conference, MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe explained:

“Our international strategy is different than our competitors. We look at advertising dollars, and 95% of all advertising revenues come form 9 countries… In those countries, we have 30% more unique users than our closest competitor in those 9 countries. So that is really our strategy.”

From this I’m interpreting that MySpace has more aggressively targeted countries that are further down the road in terms of how much brands have moved their ad spend online. And, where that’s the case, DeWolfe says they are winning.

But which nine countries are they? Please leave a comment with your own suggestions.

September 3rd, 2008

Facebook: when targeted ads cause offense

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 7:25 am

Categories: Facebook, Net culture

Tags: Facebook, Advertisement, Steve O'Hear

“You’re fat!” screams the ad. But in an online world of supposedly hyper-targeted advertising it’s hard not to take offense. And offense The Washington Post’s Rachel Beckman takes.

In a rather fun article, Beckman describes her own experience of Facebook’s ad platform. The site’s ‘proverbial brain‘ knows a little more about us than most web properties, and certainly traditional media such as television and newspapers. In particular, Beckman has declared her age and marital status.

When Beckman told the so-called social utility that she was engaged, she was targeted with weight loss ads, specifically “learn how you can shrink your waist.” Another offending ad asked: “Do you want to be a fat bride?”

After changing her status to married, Berkman was then targeted with ads offering advice on how to get pregnant. Read the rest of this entry »

September 1st, 2008

Live Feed: Facebook takes lifestreaming mainstream

Posted by Steve O'Hear @ 7:24 am

Categories: Facebook, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Blogging, Internet, Steve O'Hear

As much as I love Twitter (you can follow me here), and A-list bloggers constantly bang on about FriendFreed, Facebook will be the one to take lifestreaming mainstream.

In fact, in someways it already has.

The once controversial News Feed has already evolved to include aggregated activity updates from outside web services. The pending launch of ‘Facebook Connect‘ aims to make this feature ubiquitous by creating a simple way for third-party sites to send a users’ online activities back to Facebook’s proverbial brain.

While the newly launched ‘Live Feed’ provides a real-time view of Facebook’s lifestreaming data, whereby the latest friend update fades in AJAX-style and pushes the oldest update off the screen (not dissimilar to Digg’s Spy feature). It makes compelling viewing of all of your friends’ lifestream activity and certainly brings the concept of lifestreaming even further to the forefront of Facebook’s functionality. Read the rest of this entry »