Consumers Await on Social Networks

Befriended and poked by companies

eMarketer, October 10, 2008 — Nearly six out of 10 Americans who use social media interact with companies on social media Websites, according to a September 2008 study by conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for Cone.

The researchers found 85% of social media users thought companies should interact with their consumers through social media, at least when needed.

“Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” said Mike Hollywood, director of new media at Cone, in a statement. “It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

New York Times, September 5, 2008 — On Sept. 5, 2006, Mark Zuckerberg changed the way that Facebook worked, and in the process he inspired a revolt. Zuckerberg, a doe-eyed 24-year-old C.E.O., founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard two years earlier, and the site quickly amassed nine million users. By 2006, students were posting heaps of personal details onto their Facebook pages, including lists of their favorite TV shows, whether they were dating (and whom), what music they had in rotation and the various ad hoc “groups” they had joined (like “Sex and the City” Lovers).

The Social Network as a Career Safety Net

New York Times, August 14, 2008 — If you have avoided social-networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook with the excuse that they are the domain of desperate job hunters or attention-seeking teenagers, it’s time to reconsider.

In a world of economic instability and corporate upheaval, savvy professionals like the technology consultant Josh So epitomize the benefits of brushing up your online image and keeping it polished.

New Tool From Facebook Extends Its Web Presence

At its annual conference for developers, the company announced Facebook Connect, a way that other Web sites can integrate parts of Facebook’s service

New York Times, July 24, 2008 — Facebook, the rapidly growing social network, unveiled some new features on Wednesday as it works to broaden its reach online and to recalibrate its sometimes contentious relationship with the thousands of developers writing programs for the service.

In a speech at his company’s annual conference for developers, called F8, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s 24-year-old chief executive, also demonstrated the company’s new design. He predicted that there would soon be a wave of social Web sites built on top of the information users give to social networks.

Kiva Launches Facebook Campaign Using New Marketing Tool, Involver

ReadWriteWeb, July 10, 2008 — Kiva.org is the world's first person-to-person lending web site that helps empower entrepreneurs in the developing world by connecting them with others who lend them small amounts of money called "micro-payments." Founded in 2005, the site now connects lenders in 70+ countries with business owners in 43 developing countries and works with 89 microfinance partners. Now Kiva is tapping into the power of Facebook to attract new members to their cause.

RadioShack Brings the Big Picture to Facebook†

Brandweek, July 10, 2008 — RadioShack is turning to social networks to raise brand awareness among younger consumers. The company this week partnered with Facebook to launch an application called MyMosaic, which forms multilayered mosaics from users' pictures.

Facebook Launches Ad Feedback; MySpace Ditched for Offensive Ads

MarketingVox, June 9, 2008 — Facebook has launched a feedback feature for ads on its site, reports robwebb2k. Each Facebook ad now comes with a pair of "StumbleUpon style thumbs," he writes. Rating a Facebook ad "thumbs down" results in the ad being changed. When users rate an ad, a pop-up feedback window asks why it was either liked ("interesting," "relevant to me," "good offer," "other") or disliked ("misleading," "offensive," "pornographic," "irrelevant," "repetitive," "other").

New reloadable debit card from Edo targets teens

DMNews, June 2, 2008 — Edo Interactive has launched the Facecard Prepaid MasterCard, giving teenagers and young adults a new way to spend money and retailers a new way to market to this audience...Funds can be loaded onto the card via reoccurring direct payments from a bank — a parent, for example, could use this option for a child's allowance — or from other debit or credit cards and payroll direct deposit.

What Accountants Can Teach You About Using Social Media†

H&R Block Cast a Wide Net With a Campaign That Included Profiles, Videos, Twitter and Widgets

Advertising Age, May 14, 2008 — Tax software isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of marketing in social networks or on YouTube, spaces dominated by movie trailers and goofy viral videos. But H&R Block proved that it, too, can be successful in the space, but it's about matching content to the social community and then making that content valuable to consumers, said Amy Worley, director of digital marketing for H&R Block.

Finding cracks in Facebook

The social-networking supersite is taking flak from users, developers, and advertisers. Right about now a young CEO like Mark Zuckerberg usually steps aside quietly. Not this time.

FORTUNE, May 13, 2008 — Late last year Mark Zuckerberg, the 24-year-old CEO of social-networking phenomenon Facebook, got onstage before a Madison Avenue crowd and declared that he was leading a once-in-a-century media revolution. Long story short: The revolution hasn't panned out. Six months later, advertisers could be forgiven for mistaking Facebook for a smaller MySpace or a much larger Friendster (remember them?). And far from changing media as we know it, the virtual home of Superpokes, Funwalls, and other such time wasters is showing cracks in its foundation.