The only place for social networks to go is down. Or out.

Posted on November 30, 2007 by marc meyer

After posting several “top” social network lists over the past few weeks, I started thinking about what will happen when the early adopters tail off and all of these new and existing social networks fall in line with all of the other new and as of yet unknown social networks. What will they do? What will social media consultants do? Picture South Park: Blank stare.

So now what? What do we now? Do we wait to be bought? I thought our widget was so cool. etc etc. The reality is that at some point, and I don’t think it has happened yet, but social networking will become this bloated animal of a technology where you can only do so much with your network of friends. You see, there will come a time in which you will say, “I can only write about so much mundane trivial drivel.” To the extent that you are bored. Unmotivated. That finding the NBT in widgets won’t even get you excited. Then what? Now if your Mark Zuckerberg, it really doesn’t matter at this point, does it?. His 30 year vision notwithstanding, I just don’t see what the value add will be for most social networks. They have to give me more than just a snapshot of you and what you are doing and when you did it! Yeehawww…

Which leads me to what I think will be the NBT for social networks. Through a series of revelatory emails with one of the founders of introNetworks, Mark Sylvester. We both are in concurrence as to what will happen, we have found some common ground so to speak. See if you agree: Here are some snippets from those emails:

Mark Sylvester:

” Would like to call your attention to introNetworks, one of the first true B2B social networking platforms. introNetworks debuted at the TED Conference in 2003 and since has created gated communities for employees, partners, customers and events for hundreds of companies. The software specifically focuses on providing an easy to deploy and easy to configure system that delivers business intelligence that serves to help management improve their product, services and offerings to their various audiences”

Me:

Hi Mark, thanks for providing an addition to the list of business related social networking sites. Your site/company seems to have a valuable proposition. Although a thought came to me just yesterday that, at some point we are going to reach a saturation level with social networks, and then what? What happens next? There has to be some sort of pay-off here. Granted I can use a social network to meet people, co-workers, business contacts etc etc…But where do they go from here? I have a feeling that the next great app is going to take social networks to another level that we haven’t dreamt off yet. All I can think of at the moment is some sort of melding of a mobile app and social networks on a platform that will change the way people live and conduct their lives.

Mark Sylvester:

“Right now it looks like the early adopters and innovators (according to Crossing the Chasm) are embracing the technology and finding applications that extend beyond the obvious ones – like inside the corporation for succession planning, team building, managing a flexible workforce – etc. But that over time, we will start to see some definitive use cases that have shelf life. I agree that there has to be a compelling reason to ‘come back’ to the sites. Remember, we are appealing to business and professional users, not kids with a lot of free time. So, we have to deliver value immediately.”

“Regarding MoSoSo (mobile social software) market, I couldn’t agree more. That is why we have such a great relationship with Neighborhood America”

Thanks Mark for a great exchange. So what do you think? Where do social networks go from here? There needs to be more of a value add. The new ones on the block need to know that but of course that was and is always the premise of any new app or site. What is the value proposition? How will you drive traffic and make money? The bottom line is that social networks need to change the offer now. The ones that are thinking further down the line will survive. The others, will not make it beyond the next 18 months.

Back to South Park, Cut to the blank stare. Now what?

BoomVote

Posted on November 28, 2007 by marc meyer

Lets see, lets pay people to use our site. What a novel idea! Thus is the premise of Boomvote.Boomvote awards cash and prizes to the most frequent voters and vote recipients. They also award cash for random reasons like the best video, most viewed, lowest votes, and best picture of BoomVote wear.

According to the site, all you have to do is register. Once you are registered and your profile is approved, you can start getting credit for votes and voting for other members. They claim to offer variety of contests each month as well, to keep you coming back of course.

Every month BoomVote awards $500 to $1,000 in cash and prizes through many fun and random contests. Past contests include: “Most Interesting Essay,” “Cool CollegeGuy/Girl,” “Best Sporty Photo,” “Hip High School Guy/Girl,” “Hot Young Professional” and “Best Newcomer.” Coming soon, BoomVote will reward a $1,000 cash prize to the member with the most Boom Votes on January 31st.

The more you vote, the more you increase your chances of winning. They award cash based on votes given and votes received. In order to win, you have to check the site each day and look for their Win/Win day promotion in which they give you a vote for each vote you give to another member.

BoomVote is quickly growing, and estimates active membership to reach 1 million by the end of 2008.

GodTube

Posted on November 27, 2007 by marc meyer

It’s official, social networking has got religion. GodTube the website which set the record as the #1 fastest growing website in the U.S. according to ComScore during its first official launch month, continues to break new ground by announcing an innovative new partnership which, for the first time in history, brings together 50 diverse, faith-based organizations that span across the wide array of denominations, ranging from Protestant to Catholic.

These Ministry Partners will join with GodTube.com to extend the website’s reach to 300,000 out of the 360,000 US churches and a global/domestic audience of more than 1.2 Billion. Thomas Nelson Publishers, American Bible Society, Liberty University and the Crystal Cathedral are among the initial leaders on this distinguished roster which
includes some of the most respected and renowned faith-based organizations in the world.

The website has attracted 4 Million visitors per month, and is currently on track to attract 5-7 Million unique visitors per month for the month of November. GodTube.com recently launched its Social Network and already has over 200,000 registered users and approximately 25,000 churches with active profiles.

With more than 38,000 videos representing over 800,000 hours of footage offering a wide array of content and its live and interactive technology, GodTube.com provides users face-to-face interaction in virtual Bible studies, chats, and live broadcasts, as well as opportunities to connect through messaging, email, and video blogs.

So social networks have now reached into the US churches and can now connect with its flock on a more one to one level. We wonder how open the door is to other religious beliefs? Only time will tell, but could this end up being the largest social network on the planet? If it makes the world a more peaceful place then bring it on.

Lemonade.com deserves to succeed

Posted on November 19, 2007 by marc meyer

I’ll tell you why. Last week I checked out their site and was impressed by their product, their site and their plan of action. What I didn’t like was the business model. It wasn’t solely based on affiliate marketing but enough of it was to throw it in that direction. I wasn’t so much railing on their business model as I was the whole notion of affiliate marketing in general as a business model. I just have never been wild about having to rely on other peoples traffic for the success of my product or business.

Well after saying as much, about an hour later or so I received the following email from Thomas Zawacki the Co-founder and CEO of Lemonade.com:

I read your blog and appreciate your opinion. Like you, I have been in the internet marketing industry for a long time. I agree with you that relying on an affiliate program as your sole source of income is a very difficult business to be in. That is exactly why we have built the Lemonade Social Commerce Server to be able to receive data feeds from a variety of revenue generating opportunities. Currently, we have integrated revenue from commissions from sales (affiliate deals), cost per acquisition offers (CPA deals), cost per click ads (CPC) and cost per thousand online advertising offers (CPM deals). The Lemonade Social Commerce Server also has the flexibility to add auction based revenue streams (e.g., Ebay) and revenue a user might get from selling their own products. All coming soon. In addition to aggregating revenue streams in our flexible back-end, the user experience must allow for three things to happen: 1) easy to join and set up the application (e.g., widget or Lemonade Stand); 2) easy for the consumer find what they want and interact with; and 3) the Lemonade Stand owner must make a significant amount of money per month to make it worth while – this is a combination of impression levels, click-through rates, conversion rates, etc.It takes under 3 minutes to set up a Lemonade Stand. Lemonade Stands live at http://www.lemonade.com and/or as a widget/application on Facebook, Blogger, and other key distribution points. This means that there is a built in amount of traffic to the stands that our users can monetize. Lemonade Stand owners can then make money via four different revenue streams, commissions from sales, CPA deals, CPC or CPM ads. This aggregated revenue is what makes it worth it to the user, not solely the returns from affiliate deals.Thank you for validating our model. We hope millions of people have fun setting up their Lemonade Stands, enjoy the social community aspects of http://www.lemonade.com, and make a bit of money along the way to pay their cell phone bills, donate to a good cause, or buy that gift for the holidays that their loved one really wants.

TRZ

So riddle me this. Here is the CEO of a company, taking time out from his busy daily schedule to actually reply with thought, meaning and honesty on a) why I was partially right and b) why I might be wrong. And yet, he feels that it is worth his while to respond.

This tells me a few things. First, here is someone that knows what the viral effect of blogs can have on a company. Second, rather than getting defensive, he decides to point out why he thinks their product will bet better. So now, instead of me saying, “boy what a jerk”, he gets, “Boy, what a class act”!

I don’t know if his widget will set Web 2.0 on it’s ear, but if I were to teach how to be the CEO of a company, what he did would certainly be a lesson. he took the time to address a blog that mentioned his company, spun it in his favor and didn’t burn a bridge in the process. He made an ally. So what if he only responds to one a day, or whatever. The fact is, he took time out, to handle a little guerilla marketing on his own. A little hand to hand, if you will. Good Job TZ.

Lemonade.com and Affiliate Marketing in a Web 2.0 World

Posted on November 16, 2007 by marc meyer

I came across this site just recently, Lemonade and a couple of things came to mind. The first of which is that essentially any name can be turned into a website anymore. Oh to have cybersquatted on hundreds of generic terms back in the early 90’s! My second thought was though at first a novel idea, Lemonade has highlighted a nagging pet-peeve of mine and that is the assumption or ascension of affiliate marketing as the way to go in regards to making money online. It may have worked for Amazon and for a handful of others but to me it just seems like a tough road to hoe for the average site owner.

I suppose that the efforts made by the Advertiser is nill and equally as such for the Publisher, bearing in mind that it really is the strength of the network that makes it work, along with price, quality and payout…(lots of intangibles there don’t you think?) but to have it as the sole business model for your site to make money, just seems to be looking at the world wide web through rose colored glasses.

The first and foremost issue with most affilate programs is that they don’t pay. If you are looking to join an affiliate program you need to know that you are not likely to have a huge sales volume. The problem lies in the fact that any affiliate marketing system you do use needs to get good results for both the advertiser and the affiliate. So You have to identify sites that target similar audiences and have traffic. But here’s the kicker: You have to make sure you pay them enough to make it worth their while.” There is a but here, but wait there’s more…

Even for for the serious players, affiliate marketing should be looked at as a way to market products and services without utilizing the reseller channel. The affiliate’s job is simply to generate qualified leads, in the case of Lemonade, they are looking at affiliates to push the products of the participants in its network. So really no sweat equity for them. The serious “Playa’s” can save money on marketing, increase branding to core audiences, broaden the reach of current marketing campaigns, decrease dependance on resellers and increase the amount of leads flowing to the sales team, and or flat out, sales.

So does it work? yes and no. If you have the product, then yes it can work. If you have the traffic, yes it can work. If you have one without the other, it will not work. But the product has to fit the type of traffic you’re getting. If I have a knitting website and I’m trying to push printer toner, what do you think will be the result?

One other thing, like MLM’s, what works best is an awsome affiliate, someone who has the viral capability to make your product fly off the shelves. Pay them well, and they will evangelize the hell out of your product to their network. But these are few and far between.

So will Lemonade work? In this Web 2.0 world it’s hard to say. I suppose it’s a matter of how many widgets can your site, blog, page sustain? With some affiliates or folks who have the right trafffic and are selling the right product, they might be able to hit the ball out of the park. For others, go ahead and put up your Lemonade stand and watch the lemons whither.

43% of teens who instant message use it for things they wouldn’t say in person.

Posted on November 15, 2007 by marc meyer

Further enhancing the notion that you don’t need “beer muscles” to say something outrageous, America’s teens have now resorted to hiding behind their pc’s to say things to people they otherwise would not say face to face.

However, on the flip side IM’ing has led to a significant spike in dates to the mall and the movies since Twenty-two percent of teens use IMs to ask people out on dates or accept them. Unfortuntaely, fearing the fallout from rejection and or puppy dog eyes, 13% have used IM for breaking up.

Interestingly enough for parents, this latest data has shot holes in their notion that their teenage son or daughter was banging out the rough draft on that report due next tuesday. Instead, nearly half of teens age 13 to 18 said they use instant messaging.

Among teenagers, about half of girls and more than a third of boys said they have used instant messages for things they wouldn’t say in person. Which means whatever you want it to mean, and we’ll leave it at that!

Teens also dominate when it comes to high usage. One in 10 say they spend three hours or more a day instant messaging, that’s right 3 hours. Nearly a fifth, or 17%, send more than 100 IMs daily. Ok so lets do some math. They go to school from 7:30 to 3, then there might be practice or homework or a job, so that means the better part of the evening is spent IM’ing. There is a some sort of cultural message there, but I’ll let you figure that out on your own.

The online survey of 410 teens and 836 adults was conducted from Oct. 25-Nov. 5 by Knowledge Networks. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 6 percentage points for teens and 4.3 points for adults.

The Top 30 Social Network Sites for Baby Boomers

Posted on November 13, 2007 by marc meyer

With Baby Boomers and Generation Jones (the long-lost generation between the Boomers and Xers, born 1954-1965, 26% of all U.S. adults) receiving huge media attention in Western Europe, and now increasingly in the U.S. It has only been natural that marketers flock to them like moths to a flame.

Boomers and Jonesers were both born during the post-WWII 20-year boom in births, but they were raised with very different experiences, which is why so many credible organizations and individuals have been validating the GenJones concept, and spending big chunks of cash targeting Jonesers and Boomers.

Now that they have reached the pinnacle of their spending capabilities, social networks and their advertisers are now trying to seperate them from their cash with the premise that they should connect, explore and share with other likeminded Boomers.

Having said that, we have compiled a somewhat uptodate list of sites. A quick glance through of all the sites and we noticed that some had obviously have been well-funded and designed, and that others looked more like those old subdomain tripod/earthlink/geocities sites. The top three that caught our eye were reZOOM, BOOMj and BoomerGirl. They had clean layouts, and yet were visually interesting and inviting. It made you want to drill down a little further.

http://www.myboomerplace.com/
http://www.e-seniors-village.com/
http://www.boomersint.org/
http://www.babyboomerpeoplemeet.com/
http://www.bbhq.com/
http://www.babyboomers.org/
http://www.grandtimes.com/index.html

http://www.eons.com

http://www.boomj.com

http://www.myplanafter50.com/

www.topretirements.com

www.boomertowne.com

http://www.mycircles.com

http://www.genbb.com/

reZOOM.com

Boomer Girl

eldr

Redwood Age
eGenerations.com
Boomer Time
Growing Bolder
Boomer Living

TeeBeeDee
Life Two

My Boomer Place

My Primetime
Second Prime Time
Maple and Leek (UK)
GrownUps (NZ)

Wanobe.com (UK)

The top 10 Social Music Widgets

Posted on November 13, 2007 by marc meyer

In an effort to help you streamline your ability to find and listen to and share the music you want, we are including some widgets that may help you:
Mercora Music Matrix-This widget allows you to select nine (9) artists to be displayed in the matrix. Each artist image is linked to a biography type information page with links to their music and other useful information.

Pandora Widget-Stream Pandora from your desktop. Pandora is a pretty nice app. The music is free and is tailored towards your tastes. Just hope that Congress eases up on them.

Qloud– This one is going to have some steam behind it. The Qloud My Music application is a revolutionary music service that delivers online music to users how they want it – legal, cost-free, on-demand and linked to their personal music libraries – and where they want it – inside social networks where they can share music with and discover it through their friends. By supporting OpenSocial, Qloud will dramatically expand its availability on social platforms and accelerate adoption of its popular music service.

Qloud delivers free, on-demand music directly from a web browser, leveraging an iTunes plug-in to connect users to others in the community with similar musical tastes, and provides a Qloud Facebook application for sharing music with friends. The company’s investors and directors include Revolution Chairman and CEO Steve Case and former AOL, Yahoo!, Warner Music Group, EMI Music, and Island Records music executives.

Mini Streampad Music Player for your blog-The Streampad Player Widget allows you to put a mini Streampad player right on your blog. All you have to do is put the url of your blog and it will find any mp3 files you have posted.

Sonific-Dive in! Find the music you like, create your playlists, make your widgets, grab the code and add it to your profile page, site, blog or photo album. Artists, Labels and Producers can also add their own music to sonific’s catalog.

Tourb.us-Ever find out the day after one of your favorite bands played a show you didn’t know about? We’ve had that happen too often and we hate it. Now you can find out ahead of time so you’ll be laughing at your friends when they find out the show is sold out. Every fan gets their own custom RSS feed for all the shows they’re attending. And every band and venue has their own feed for all of their upcoming shows.

LastFM Share your music anywhere, Last.fm widgets for MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, your Blog, a website, the possbilities are endless!

Seeqpod-Currently in Beta, SeeqPod’s first consumer site empowers users by allowing them to search and discover music and video all over the Web. Our intelligent software robots work with targeted crawling systems to auto-submit content to the site. This, combined with user submissions, results in a large and rich search and discovery index. This process can be viewed in real-time via the PodCrawler.

Yourspins-YourSpins is a new kind of music community for fans who want to immerse themselves in world of remixes. Within YourSpins, you’ll be able to share your mixes of top songs with others, rate and comment on other mixes – and chat, mail and IM other people too. Plus you can make your own unique ringtones to be sent to your phone. Each user gets their own homepage, with all their mixes and ringtones listed. Soon, we’ll introduce blogs for each user, but for now, all mixes can be exported to your own blog by pressing ‘Blog this mix’ on the mixpage.

Snocap We love the premise of this site. SNOCAP’s products include:

SNOCAP MyStore – allows “stores” to be embedded anywhere on the Internet where html can be edited
SNOCAP Linx – a flexible solution for those who wish to seamlessly integrate content sales into a website
P2P Plug-in – allows P2P technology to be used in a copyright respecting manner

Lastly, we realize that the likelihood that every social music site may have a widget, it takes a while to review them. So Just crunch on these for awhile and let us know about some that you think we need to check out.

The top 44 social music sites

Posted on November 9, 2007 by marc meyer

In no particular order, we present one of the fastest growing and extremely loyal aspects of social networks. That would be the networks that revolve around Music. Music being the social creature that it is, it is no surprise that this aspect of social networking is so attractive and so appealing to so many. So the fact that social networks, not the least being Myspace, which is the mother of all music social network sites, has evolved so quickly is no big surprise. Look for this sector to continue to explode and surprise as it straddles the hump between Web 2.0 and Web 2.5 within the next year. If not already. Feel free to add!