Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Monday, 3 January 2011
Facebook Raises $500 Million, Now Worth $50 Billion [REPORT]
Facebook has received a massive new round of funding: $450 million from Goldman Sachs and $50 million from Digital Sky Technologies, according to a new report.
Monday, January 03, 2011 0
Saturday, 1 January 2011
6 Predictions for Social Networks in 2011
The past year was an eventful one for the world of social networking. Facebook went on an acquisition spree. Twitter started growing up. And MySpace? Well it’s the same old story over there.
In 2010, we predicted that Facebook would conquer the web. We just didn’t know the social network would do it so convincingly. We’re not oracles, though, and we did miss on some of our acquisition picks. Well, time for round two.
Now that Facebook is clearly king, what is going to happen to the rest of the world’s social networks? What will happen to Bebo? What’s next for MySpace? And will Facebook finally hold that IPO?
Here are my predictions for what will happen in the world of social networking in 2011:
1. Google’s Social Networking Efforts Flop Spectacularly
Google dominates search. It has nailed mobile. Oh, and it owns YouTube, the web’s biggest video property. So why the heck does it fail so miserably at social?
Until this year, Google’s had middling success in social — YouTube, Gmail, Gtalk, Blogger and Orkut have all had varying levels of success. This year though, Google Wave was shut down, Google Buzz flopped and Google’s big social initiative has been delayed due to in-fighting and a lack of clarity and purpose.
Here’s my first prediction of the year: Google’s social media efforts will be spectacular failures. TechCrunch nabbed a screenshot of the “Google +1″ social toolbar, one big component of Google’s social plan, we’ve been told. We remain unimpressed, though. As Buzz demonstrated, sticking something social on a page doesn’t mean people will instantly use it.
More importantly, Google as a company is built for speed and efficiency, neither of which are critical to the success of a social network. That’s why we predict another horrendous year for the search giant in the social realm.
2. A Middling MySpace Is Sold Off
Despite a total redesign and overhaul, MySpace continues to plummet like a boulder pushed off a cliff. While we’re fans of the social network’s attempt to reinvent itself as a “social entertainment destination,” the frank truth is that MySpace is bleeding money and there’s no end in sight to the bloodshed.
Eventually MySpace will bottom out; we just don’t know when. It won’t come soon enough for News Corp. though, and it will start looking for someone to take its high-profile Internet property off of its hands. MySpace is still a valuable asset in the right hands, so somebody will pick it up.
3. Bebo Gets a New Owner… Again
Bebo’s fall from grace is one of the sad stories of social networking. When we first covered Bebo in 2006, it was on its way to becoming a powerhouse. In 2008, AOL acquired Bebo for $850 million, an astounding (and overvalued) price point.
Six months ago, AOL sold Bebo for about $10 million to Criterion Capital Partners. Then they made a few big moves: they hired Kevin Bachus, co-creator of the Xbox, and brought Bebo co-founder Michael Birch back as an advisor and investor.
Bebo’s still shrinking though. Unless Birch and Bachus can orchestrate a comeback of Rocky proportions, Criterion Capital Partners will start looking to make money on its investment or at least minimize its loss. Even if it makes a comeback, Criterion’s reportedly interested in selling Bebo this year.
We expect Bebo to be in new hands by this time next year. The most likely acquirers, we believe, would be a group led by Birch himself.
4. No Facebook IPO in 2011
There have been countless rumors about a Facebook IPO since 2007. The media has been waiting with baited breath for the day that Mark Zuckerberg cashes in on his baby and turns his company public.
I’m here to tell the media: Don’t hold your breath.
I could create a list of reasons the size of an SUV why Facebook and its billionaire leader aren’t going to be raising money on the public markets. Here are just a few of them:
- Mark Zuckerberg is famously uninterested in money. He believes in delayed gratification and has lived in a modest home for years — he’s the opposite of the far more extravagant Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Oracle. In other words, he’s in no rush for a big payday.
- Secondary markets like Sharespost have changed the game for cashing out on investments. In the past, VCs needed to cash out on their investments by acquisition or IPO, but as Accel Partners proved last month, VCs no longer need an IPO to do so.
- Zuckerberg sees no strategic advantage to an IPO. In fact, it’s just a lot more paperwork, headaches and scrutiny. He’d love to delay that as long as possible.
- Facebook doesn’t believe it’s ready for an IPO: “Facebook would benefit from another year of growth absent the added scrutiny that comes with a public listing,” Business Week reported earlier this year.
The result is that there won’t be a Facebook IPO in 2011. So long as the company’s growth metrics are strong, Facebook has no need for the public markets. When it hits its saturation point though, that’s when you should expect the social network to make its move. I predict that will happen in 2012.
5. Twitter Has a Very Boring 2011
While I don’t consider Twitter a social network, many people do, so it’s only appropriate that I provide a prediction for what will happen to Twitter in 2011.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with anything interesting: Twitter’s going to have a steady and boring 2011.
Sure, Twitter will launch new features, and senior execs will continue to step down and new people will take their place, but that’s what happens to any maturing business. Now that Twitter has new funding, has launched its ad platform and has launched a complete redesign, is there an earth-shattering event that could take us by surprise?
I don’t discount it; I just don’t predict there will be one. An IPO makes no sense with the new round of funding. A redesign isn’t necessary. Really, Twitter is focused on its ad platform and will launch features that enhance it. Twitter will slowly continue to grow, but I don’t expect Facebook-like hockey stick growth.
In 2011, Twitter is going to be one of the most boring social media services around. And I know the Twitter team is just fine with that.
6. The Social Networking Trend of 2011: Mobile Photos
“We’re in a unique time right now because of the power of the cell phone with the two cameras, both the front and the back, and the broadband networks that allow photos to be shared simply and consumed through social networks in realtime.” ~Brian Pokorny, Dailybooth CEO
Pokorny was discussing during his Ignite talk at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. He argued that publishing has evolved from the desktop (blogging) to the phone (tweeting) to the smartphone (photo-taking).
While social photography is nothing new (Flick) and Facebook dominate), mobile photography is just beginning to blossom, thanks to apps like Instagram, PicPlz, Path, and Dailybooth. Other services like Tumblr, Gowalla, Posterous and most recently Foursquare are only pushing the trend further.
2011 will be the year mobile photo sharing becomes all the rage. These services will hit critical mass as smartphone users install apps in order to keep up with their friends. I also predict that Facebook will join the fray and implement new mobile photo-sharing features integrated with its Places platform, bringing the whole trend to another level.
Saturday, January 01, 2011 0
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Friend Count Linked to the Size of a Certain Body Part?
We’re social animals, but some are more social than others. If a university study published this week is correct, the number of Facebook friends you have might be due to the size of a small part of your brain.
It’s all in the size of your amygdalae, small almond-shaped portions of the brain nestled within the temporal lobe, say scientists who conducted the study using 58 participants. They concluded that the amygdala’s size can predict just how social anyone will be, regardless of age or gender.
“We considered a single primate species, humans, and found that the amygdala volume positively correlated with the size and complexity of social networks in adult humans,” says the leader of the study, Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, a professor at Northwestern University.
Another one of the scientists conducting the study says its results are consistent with the “social brain hypothesis,” the notion that the human brain evolved to adapt to increasingly complex social structures.
Could it be that all our extensive Facebooking and Twittering is causing our brains to evolve further? On the other hand, perhaps correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation. After all, another study showed we’re only capable of handling 150 Facebook friends anyway.
uploaded vi @mashable
uploaded vi @mashable
Thursday, December 30, 2010 0
HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Facebook Insights for Small Business
David Hartstein is a partner at JG Visual, an Internet strategy company that works with organizations to develop and implement their online presence. You can connect with David on the JG Visual Facebook Page.
You’re a small business owner and you’ve decided to create a Facebook Page for your company. Or you’re an employee in an organization and, since you are the only one who “gets” social media, you’ve been charged with running a Facebook Page.
You set it up and make it look nice. You put up some photos and videos that you think represent the organization well. You e-mail a bunch of your friends and the page has almost 100 “Likes.” But one day, your boss comes in and asks you the question that you have been dreading: “Is this Facebook Page helping us or just eating away most of your time?”
Enter Facebook Insights, a powerful analytical tool that can help any organization evaluate the effectiveness of its Facebook presence. But, for a small business where time is perhaps the most important (and often rarest) resource, Facebook Insights can help you evaluate whether you’re investing or wasting your time.
The following scenarios are illustrations of how a fictional small business, “Bill’s Tech Company,” can leverage Facebook Insights to evaluate the effectiveness of its new Facebook Business Page. Within each scenario are the different aspects of Facebook Insights that Bill could utilize to answer his questions. Beside each measure (in parentheses) is a note on where to find that specific piece of data in Facebook Insights.
Facebook Insights Overview
Before delving into the specifics of Facebook Insights, it is helpful to understand some of the basics. Once you have 30 “Likes” on your Facebook Page, Facebook Insights will automatically be activated and available on the left sidebar of your Facebook Page.
When you navigate to Facebook Insights, you are brought to the main dashboard, which shows you two summary graphs titled “Users” and “Interactions,” both providing overviews of subpages with the same names. Below is a list of the measures you will find on each of these subpages:
Users: monthly active users, daily new “likes,” total “likes,” new “likes/unlikes,” “like” sources, demographics, page views, tab views, external referrers, media consumption
Interactions: daily post views, daily post feedback, daily story feedback, most recent posts, daily page activity
Now that we’ve outlined the basics, let’s dive into the scenarios.
Scenario 1: Are “Likes” Enough?
Bill’s Tech Company launched a Facebook Business Page two months ago. When he created the page, Bill sent out messages to all of his friends and it quickly grew to around 100 followers. While he feels good about having 100 “Likes,” he wants to know if having these “Likes” is enough.
- Daily active users (top of main dashboard): Bill should avoid the lure of looking only at the number of “likes” that his page has received. Realistically, passive followers that “like” his page and never come back aren’t helping his business grow. Instead, he should focus on daily active users, which are the number of users that actually come to his page or consume his content on a given day. If a follower engages in some way with Bill’s page, it is far more likely that Bill’s Tech Company will be on the top of this follower’s mind, which is crucial for any small business.
- Daily page activity (bottom of Interactions): To go beyond “like” counting, Bill should use daily page activity to measure his followers’ level of engagement with his page. In particular, he should pay attention to the number of mentions that his page is receiving. When someone mentions Bill’s Tech Company, they are broadcasting his company to their friends. Mentions can help a business reach a whole new audience.
- Daily story feedback (top of Interactions): Is Bill engaging his followers? Is he alienating them? Daily story feedback can provide Bill a glimpse into the minds of his followers. Whenever a follower “likes” or comments on something on Bill’s page, it will show up here. Bill could go a step further by looking at particular days of the week that his followers are more active and targeting the release of his content to the days that are more likely to garner a response.
- Spikes in “likes” and “unlikes” (top of Users): Bill should take time to check his “likes” and “unlikes” for any deviation from the norm. A spike in either is worth investigating. To help him understand such a spike, Bill should align the date of the spike to the content he has released using most recent posts (middle of Interactions). He can sort his content by date posted to see what he did on a particular day that may have caused users to “like” him or leave him. If he sees that a certain subject or type of content seems to cause a spike in people “unliking” his page, he should avoid this content in the future.
Scenario 2: Producing Content Your Followers Want
Bill’s Tech Company only has two full-time employees and can never seem to find enough hours in the day to get everything done. They can’t afford a full-time social media strategy coordinator but definitely want to leverage the “power of social media” that they keep hearing about. In the little time that they have between serving their clients, Bill wants to know what content he should focus on to use his time most effectively.
- Most recent posts (middle of Interactions): Bill can’t afford to waste time producing content that no one cares about. By utilizing most recent posts, Bill can sort his recent content first by impressions to see how many people are seeing a post on his page, on a news feed or on a follower’s profile page. Generally, the more that followers share a post by posting it to their profiles or sending it to their friends, the more impressions it will receive. Bill can then sort his most recent posts by feedback percentage to see which of his posts are leading his followers to comment or “like” an individual post.
- Media consumption (bottom of Users): Bill loves the idea of producing videos, recording audio and shooting photos to engage his followers, but each is quite time consuming. Bill should use media consumption to see how many views each type of media is getting per day. If Bill’s active users are not listening to the audio files he uploads, he should either change the nature of these audio files (perhaps try a new topic) or scrap them and use this time elsewhere.
- Daily story feedback (top of Interactions): Bill can leverage daily story feedback to see if a particular day has a spike in “likes” or comments. If so, Bill has clearly found a topic that resonates with at least some of his followers. He can focus his efforts on producing content that is similar enough to receive the same favorable response.
- Tab views (bottom of Users): This measure allows Bill to see how active users are engaging with his Facebook Page. If he’s spending a lot of time writing in the discussions tab but none of his visitors are viewing this tab, Bill should probably spend his limited time doing something else. Conversely, if one of his tabs is particularly popular, he should use it to engage his followers. To optimize the use of his tabs, Bill should ask himself the following questions: “What tabs are my fans engaging with?” “What content is within these tabs?” “Can I cut out any tabs?” “Should I change the order of my tabs to prioritize what I want active users to see?”
Scenario 3: Evaluating Facebook Beyond “Facebook.com”
Bill devoted an entire weekend to setting up his web presence. He created accounts on many social media sites, put Facebook Like buttons on his company website and began promoting the company’s Facebook Page all over the place. Bill wants to know what worked and what didn’t.
- External referrers (bottom of Users): Bill’s concern is a common one. He wants to know if the time he spent setting up everything was worth it. Fortunately, Facebook Insights has something called “external referrers,” which shows the top external domains from which visitors are finding a Facebook Page. Bill can see which sites are driving traffic to his Facebook Page and use these successes to change his profiles on less successful websites. Additionally, if Bill is getting traffic to his Facebook Page from his website, he’ll know that something on his site is piquing his visitors’ interest.
- “Like” sources (top right of Users): Since he added the ability for visitors to “like” his Facebook Page from his own personal website, Bill now wants to track whether people are actually doing so. He can find out simply by looking at his “like” sources. Most of his “likes” are probably coming from his Fan Page, but he may get some from other sources. If Bill wants to prioritize getting more “likes” from another source like his website, he should consider making the button more prominent and seeing if it leads to more “likes” from external sources.
- Insights on an external domain: Now that Bill took the time to add “like” buttons to his company’s website, he should definitely set up Facebook Insights for this domain. By going to facebook.com/insights and clicking the “Insights for your Domain” box, Bill can easily copy a bit of code onto his website and link it to his Facebook account. By doing so, Bill can see how users of his website are interacting with his content including what users are “liking” and sharing with their Facebook friends.
- Website analytics: Since Bill is interested in how effectively his Facebook Page is integrating with his overall Internet presence, he should definitely keep an eye on the website analytics on his company’s website. Ideally, Bill wants his Facebook Page to drive traffic to his website, which would show up as a referring source on his website analytics.
Scenario 4: Reaching the Right People
Bill has been using Facebook Insights to create content that he thinks will be popular with his followers and has been linking to this content on numerous tech blogs. He has been seeing steady growth in “likes,” which he is very proud of, but Bill runs a local service business and wants to make sure that he is reaching the right audience.
- Demographics (middle of Users): It is important that Bill first identifies the target audience for his Facebook Page. Does he want to target older men and women that may own businesses in the area? Does he want to target a younger crowd in the hopes that they will be influential when it comes to making decisions about tech spending? Once he has his audience identified, Bill can use Facebook Insights to evaluate how effectively he is reaching this target group.
Since Facebook collects personal information from all of its members, it can give page administrators demographic info about page followers. Bill can see who “likes” his page according to age and gender. He can also see what countries and cities his followers come from as well as the languages that they speak. If the demographics of his followers do not match his target demographic, Bill may need to adjust his content or even his entire Internet strategy to target a different group of people.
- External referrers (bottom right of Users): Bill can use external referrers to see if he is effectively driving traffic from the established tech blogs that he is posting on regularly. By adding his voice to conversations in his industry, Bill can establish his own authority on technology-related topics and drive traffic to his Facebook Page. If he’s not seeing any traffic from these websites, he may need to adjust the content he posts or the websites that he frequents.
Conclusion
Hopefully the scenarios above resonate with you and your organization. While Facebook Insights won’t provide you with all the answers to your questions, it can be a powerful tool for any organization to utilize when evaluating its online strategy. By utilizing Facebook Insights, you can ensure that you are making the most of your business Page while using both your successes and failures to craft a solid presence on Facebook.
Thursday, December 30, 2010 0
2010: The Year Facebook Dethroned Google as King of the Web [STATS]
Facebook was not only the most searched item of the year, but it passed Google as America’s most-visited website in 2010, according to a new report from Experian Hitwise.
For the second year in a row, “facebook” was the top search term among U.S. Internet users. The search term accounted for 2.11% of all searches, according to Hitwise. Even more impressive is the fact that three other variations of Facebook made it into the top ten: “facebook login” at #2, “facebook.com” at #6 and “www.facebook.com” at #9. Combined, they accounted for 3.48% of all searches, a 207% increase from Facebook’s position last year.
Rounding out the list of top search terms were YouTube, Craigslist, MySpace, eBay, Yahoo and Mapquest. Other companies that made big moves in terms of searches include Hulu, Netflix, Verizon, and ESPN. The search term “games” also made its first appearance in the list of Hitwise’s top 50 search terms.
More interesting though is Facebook’s ascension to #1 on Hitwise’s list of most-visited websites. The social network accounted for 8.93% of all U.S. visits in 2010 (January-November), beating Google (7.19%), Yahoo Mail (3.52%), Yahoo (3.30%) and YouTube (2.65%). However, Facebook didn’t beat the traffic garnered by all of Google’s properties combined (9.85%).
It’s only a matter of time until Facebook topples the entire Google empire, though. We’ve seen the trend develop for month: Facebook is getting bigger than Google. According to comScore, Facebook’s U.S. traffic grew by 55% in the last year and has shown no sign of slowing down.
article by @Mashable
Thursday, December 30, 2010 0
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
HOW TO: Customize the New Facebook Profile
Just when you thought you had mastered your Facebook account, the company redesigned profile layouts, giving you a lot to think about in terms of what you want to showcase and share with others.
If you’re wondering how to make the most of these changes — and how to modify sections to have a little more control over what is displayed — here are some ways to put your best features forward.
If you’ve already made progress on customizing your Facebook profile for the new layout, let us know about it in the comments.
The Quick Summary
The new Facebook profile layout
In the old days, we could type a summary bio of ourselves in a small box under our profile photo. We could control that space and add a URL if we wanted. Now that box is gone, and Facebook has placed a quick reference summary of key information about us pulled from what we input into our profiles. That could include employment, education, where you currently live, marital status, hometown and birth date.
To edit what you see in that section, click on the Edit Profile button on the top right of your profile page. Most information in your quick summary is pulled from the basic Information, profile picture, featured people, and education and work sections.
You don’t have a lot of options for what you show and don’t show. In order to remove employer, for example, you have to delete it entirely, as there isn’t a checkbox to show it or not like the “gender” category under the basic information section. If you decide you don’t want your employment or education information front and center at the top of your bio, your only option right now is to remove it. If Facebook decides to put in controls at some point, you can always add those details later.
The Bigger Reveal
Facebook lets you reveal more about what you are doing, including classes you are taking, projects at work and other personal activities. You can even include who you’re doing these things with, tagging and linking to them in your activity description. Under the employer header, you will now see a link for “Add a Project.” Click on that and you can name your project, add who you’re working on the project with, describe your project, then specify the time period.
Education history has also become more beefy. You can edit college/university and specify class year, who you’re taking the class with, concentrations and whether college or graduate school. For high school, you can edit your class year and who else is in your class. For both college/university and high school, you have the option to add the name of a class, a description of the class, and which friends are taking it with you.
If you’re doing a lot of extracurricular things, under the activities and interests section, you can now edit your activities and add your friends with whom you’re engaging in those activities.
Top Photos and Friend Photos
The strip of photos across the top of your profile are the five images of you most recently tagged by others. This can be disconcerting to someone who wants more control over what photos they showcase on their profile. If you see something you don’t want featured, just hover your cursor over the image and click the tiny “x” on the upper right hand corner of the image. While this doesn’t remove the tag or the image from your photo area entirely, it is no longer placed at the top of your profile.
As always, you can still untag yourself from photos. If you really don’t want that photo appearing in your profile photo area, click on “Photos” and, immediately underneath the image, you should see a link to “remove tag.” That doesn’t mean the image is gone forever but just that it is no longer appearing in your profile.
You can also decide which friends to feature on your profile under Featured People. This feature includes your relationship status and link to your partner, your family members, and now featured friends. To remove anyone from this more prominent position on your profile, you have to delete them. To control which friends get top billing on your profile, you can create a new list or add an existing list or group rather than letting Facebook pull from your entire friends list.
Updating Your Status
While it may seem a bit counterintuitive, your status update box is only a click away. Tastefully tucked below the photos are your share options: status, photo, link and video. Gone is the lingering status update that remained at the top of your profile page until you posted a new thought.
Where Did My Tabs Go?
You may have added applications to your Facebook profile to enhance it, such as a SlideShare tab showcasing your PowerPoint presentations or a resume tab pulling in highlights from your LinkedIn () profile. Those are now gone. This is part of Facebook’s larger plan that has been ongoing for months to remove third-party application tabs. The company cites “low usage” as the reason for the removal of these tabs as outlined in its Developers Forum.
)Getting Geeky With Your Profile Pics
Not everyone is feeling discombobulated by the new Facebook profiles. Instead, some are “hacking” the system to create playful presentations that exploit new features, particularly the photo strip of five images at the top. The trick is to either use a large image (692 pixels wide or larger) and break it down into six smaller images that present the larger image like pieces in a puzzle, or to use images that combine in an interesting way when they appear across the top of your profile.
Are Old Profiles Gone Forever?
The old Facebook profile layout
There was a small window of time when people were able to revert their Facebook profiles to the old version by deactivating their account for a small amount of time then reactivating it. This little trick, however, no longer works — or at least, not consistently. Rather than stressing over the new look, find ways to embrace it.
There are still folks out there who haven’t switched. If you are one of them, the main thing to consider about the new profile is whether or not you want more or less control over what is showcased on your profile. As long as you have the old version, you may want to stick with it if you prefer more control. At some point, however, the new profile will most likely become universal.
The new Facebook profile changes might make you rethink why and how you are using your Facebook account. If you were just using it for friends and casual, personal communications, you may feel a little uncomfortable with your employment and education information taking a more prominent position. Just edit and delete if it’s really an issue. Otherwise, just go with the flow, and eventually you may not even remember what the old profiles looked like, and you’ll settle in to your new look on Facebook.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 0
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