Crenk » Social Networks

Facebook: Social Media by Numbers

Steven Finch — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:22:55 +0000

Pingdom is a great service and they have put together another great viral article.

Facebook has announced that it now has 400 million active users. Just one year ago Facebook had 150 million users, so 2009 was an incredible year for the social media giant.

There can be no doubt that Facebook is pretty much unstoppable at the moment, a real juggernaut.

Music Social Networks: Attack of the Music Communities Recap

Steven Finch — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:59:32 +0000

Since starting Crenk a couple of years ago I have written a lot about the music industry. The music industry has been a real fascination of mine and when I finally thought things were getting sorted out a lot has changed. In recent months Imeem was purchased by Myspace and then Myspace themselves really lost their way about what the site is actually about.

On Crenk we have written about the Top 5 social networking sites, World best music streaming service, but our key music article was the Attack of the Music Communities. Today I want to revisit that article and run through these leading music communities and recap their current situation (remember the previous article was written on the 8th April 2008).

Myspace – Myspace was once the leading social networking site online, but in recent times they have really lost their way. Myspace is now a place for crazy glitter webpages done by 16 year old kids claiming they are really 18, either that or people trying to spam you with stupid messages and comments. Myspace’s biggest disadvantage is that it just has no focus! Myspace doesnt know if they are a social network, if they are a music focused site, or even an entertainment hub. Every band seemed to be on Myspace, but it has quickly become an empty space for music.
Bebo – Bebo was once focused on being a music community, but after being sold to AOL it just seemed to lose direction all together. Bebo is now a social network that is largely in the distance behind Facebook. Music community Bebo is no longer!
Last.fm – Last.fm was purchased by CBS and has been growing pretty constantly as a music community. However, Last.fm is more focused on music streaming and discovering new music. Last.fm doesnt allow musicians to chat with each other in a transparent environment and nor find new gigs, selling their tickets and merchandise and even sell their music.
Purevolume – Purevolume has stayed pretty steady. Purevolume has really released anything new, they have just focused on giving bands a website and showcasing their music. I find Purevolume an interesting site with a great amount of potential, but has never really lived up to it!
Imeem – Imeem was the darling of web 2.0 music startups. However, quickly the site turned into a weird music social network that just couldn’t pay the bills. Imeem ending up having no choice and sold to Myspace recently, losing huge amount for all investors involved.
MOG – MOG has transformed several times and is now heavily focused on providing a music streaming service to USA only users. Previously MOG tried focusing on music news, but that seemed to only be filling the site while they got their music streaming licenses setup. MOG is no long a music social network, its just about listening to music online.
iLike – iLike is a great music service, but focused very much on providing music streaming and discovery. iLike can fit in nicely with a music larger music service, but as a standalone service it really doesn’t grab the worlds attention.
JamNow – Shut down.
Haystack – Shut down.
Sonific – Shut down.
Sellaband – Sellaband has been a great success for helping unsigned bands fund their new albums. However, this community has not been gaining that much attention from around the world. Sellaband has a very limited appeal that will soon most probably be sold and added to another service.
iJigg – iJigg is a music service in which users listen to music. Its that simple, nothing more, nothing less.
Flotones – Flotones has to be the ugliest site in the list, plus they just don’t have any traction or users. I pronounce Flotones dead!
ReverbNation – ReverbNation has grow into the leading digital marketing platform for musicians. ReverbNation tried to provide the best marketing solutions for bands while at the same time make revenues from their affiliate services. ReverbNation has a great platform, but it would be good to see them develop into something more than just providing digital music tools.
Jango – Jango has developed into a very interesting online radio service. I think Jango has a lot of potential but the site itself isnt very pretty, plus they are playing head on with services like Pandora (which are just so much better). Jango needs to lead in the markets Pandora isn’t in or soon they will be behind and struggling for survival.

Conclusion:

There doesn’t seem to be anyone taking music social networking seriously at the moment. There are a lot sites that focus on specific areas, but seem to be to scared to launch a much larger initiative. Someone needs to launch a open platform which promote bands to build their fan base, pushes new music to users, while also adding in the other features within the music industry. If someone can work out a service that has all these features, then they could be a force to be reckoned with.

Sony Dash Offers Wi-fi and Touch Connectivity

Luis Sandoval — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:45:54 +0000

I personally don’t know what all the craze is with boxes that apparently do what my laptop or desktop can already do, but they just can’t seem to make enough of them. I was first introduced to the Chumby, which was a device that I just saw no use for. I thought it would have been a nifty idea like ten years ago, but nowadays with mobile devices as they are, it seem irrelevant. I’m sure Chumby owners are happy with their purchase, and I don’t want to take anything away from that, but beyond the novelty, I didn’t see the need.

Most recently I came across the Sony Dash, which is another device that, like the Chumby, offer a bevy of internet services and multiple uses. The device can access the internet to show stream audio, video, check your social networks, work as a photo album, and and even give you the weather. Sounds pretty savvy, but like the Chumby, I only have one question…why?

The Sony Dashy ($200) has a seven-inch screen, wi-fi, a USB port, stereo speakers, and full access to Sony Bravia’s Internet video platform (Pandora, Youtube), and some 100o apps from the Chumby library. So apparently there’s some cross connection between the two devices.

Sony Dash is wi-fi enabled device that offers you connectivity to information on the internet.

Seesmic’s Acquistion of Ping.fm Secures Future Goals

Luis Sandoval — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:44:07 +0000

Seesmic acquires Ping.fm

One million posts a day you say? Very possible now that Seesmic has acquired Ping.fm. Personally it was a shock, I’m not privy to Silicon Valley chatter, but I think for most Seesmic Desktop users, this will offer a bevy of updating options. At last count there were over 50 sites that Ping.fm updated, and now Seesmic Desktop will harness this power. But this is just the top of iceberg. With some further API development and plug-in updates, this positions Seesmic closer to their goal of one million posts a day for 2010.

A huge congrats goes out to Loic Le Meur who not only acquired the application, but also the founding talent behind it, Adam Duffy and Sean McCollough who are now joining the Seesmic team full time. With talent like this in an already powerful application any other future goals seem like a no brainer when it comes to possibility of achieving. According to TechCrunch, Ping.fm boasts approximately 500,000 users with approximately 200,000 updates a day.

I’m interested to see how this plays out in the battle for social media supremacy. Currently Tweetdeck, which seemed to vie for the position of social media go-to app, will be left in the dust once Seesmic integrates the updating power of Ping.fm. Currently Tweetdeck updates, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn, a far cry from the 50 that Ping.fm reaches. Personally I’m a Tweetdeck user, but this acquisition could make me change my desktop app of choice.

Inbox2: Emails and Social Networks All In One Unified Stream for Free

Steven Finch — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:04:21 +0000

Inbox2 is a new web application that is currently available in beta, in which lets you pull all of your emails and social network communications to a single unified stream.

Currently, Inbox2 is completely free and you can either user their standalone application or a Facebook application. If you already spend tons of time on Facebook, for example, you can add your email, Twitter, and other updates to your Facebook notifications instead, as well as read and send messages from any of your non-Facebook accounts without leaving Facebook’s site.

Inbox2 also integrates well with your existing system, allowing you to import your existing labels and stars from other services like Gmail. It also has support for Microsoft Exchange 2007, and is planning on releasing an iPhone app in the near future (followed by apps for other smartphones). Take a look at their demo video below for a closer look at how it all works.

Personal Search for Your Twitter Contacts

Luis Sandoval — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:10:33 +0000

Personal search for your Twitter network.

Search is has been a big topic of discussion in 2009, and in 2010 is almost assuredly going to be a bigger deal as users look for ways to distill the internet’s wealth of information to more personal discoveries. Recently, with the surge of social networking, search has become an even more contested topic because the content created by the millions of users worldwide is not just prolific, but is being done daily. Real time search through your networks and contacts postings can be useful to discover what the pulse of your network really is. Unfortunately small steps have been made in this area, and as much as Search.Twitter.com is used, it’s still not giving you a personal search, but rather having you search the entire Twitter network.

One of the few personal Twitter searches is flocking.me. If you’ve got several hundred or several thousand friends in your network, you can erase the noise and focus on only the groups you want, for specific information. This is ideal if your’e looking for trends, industry news, or just looking to see what topics your friends think are hot button issues that you’d like to join in on. An interesting addition to this app is the ability to search your tweets via an interactive map. The map shows the location of the Tweeters and gives you a better understanding of the scope and range of your conversations as you span the globe seeing your search information pop up.

An added bonus is the ability to update your status straight from the site. Much like the Twitter homepage of old, you’ll need to refresh the page to see any of the updates on your profile or those that you’ve done a search for. While the concept is nice, I’m not sure how portable this application is. Mobility is key as we are all on the goal, so I’d like to see this concept put into a mobile app. There are a few out there that offer similar functionality, but nothing that I’ve seen with personal search like flocking.me.

Junaio: Augmented Reality Social Network for iPhone and Android

Steven Finch — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:19:55 +0000

Metaio is a very interesting company that has started to develop some great augmented reality iPhone applications.

Metaio has just announced a new social network called Junaio which is based around augmented reality.

The newest version of the mobile augmented reality platform includes new and improved features such as:

1) Enhanced live overlay and local search: powered using Google Local Search, now you can visually search for points of interest like restaurants, cafes, or anything in your location

2) New social features: Ability to rate, comment on others scenes, publish your own augmented reality to social networks like Facebook and Twitter

3) Improved user interface and enhancements: greater usability and fast download speed

To me this seems to be a very weird yet interesting mix between the real world and social networking online.

MySpace Assures imeem Users, Playlists Are Safe

Luis Sandoval — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:38:35 +0000

In what was practically the unplug heard around the world, imeem users were rudely awakened when upon loading their favorite playlists, they

imeem playlists moving to MySpace Music

were nowhere to be found. MySpace’s acquisition is not responsible for imeem going away, as the suffering company would have surely gone the way of the dinosaur on its own, but rather, shutting off the API killed a lot of apps, desktop and mobile alike. The impact was felt the world over as no word was even given, no warning, not even an explanation was made at the time of this event.

Recently MySpace has done right with the imeem community by assuring them that their playlists are fine, and are simply being ported over to MySpace music playlists. While I’m not entirely sure of MySpace’s music porting capabilities, I’d have to assume this is not an overnight process. Nevertheless, MySpace’s imeem acknowledgement provides some comfort to avid imeem users, but little those that have already migrated to other platforms. The service’s dedicated fans were the most spurned by this transition in ownership, and perhaps MySpace’s assurance comes too little too late.

In the announcement MySpace encourages users to use the existing music service provided by said company while the transition is taking place. It states it has the largest licensed digital catalog of music, hoping to lighten the blow even more, but for some of us, MySpace is not a site we thought of when we thought of music. Will the acquisition of imeem, will this change? Should be interesting to see the response once the imeem playlists have been brought over.

Social Media Revolution

Augusto Alvarez — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:07:11 +0000

How much is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google involved in your common day activities? Did you ever ask yourself that? Where would you be if those didn’t exist?

Well there thousands of those existential questions that you may or may not asked yourself, and there’s no need to get real philosophical about this, but we sure can be certain that those technologies, web apps and more have an important presence in most of our days.

About those presences, here’s a very interesting video about the facts of several of these social tools, technologies and media: “Social Media Revolution”

Here are some of the facts that caught my attention:

Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web
1 of 8 couples married in the US met via social media
If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest
TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users, Facebook took less than 9 months to reach 100 millions
Ashton Kutcher has more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway and Panama
80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices
Wikipedia has over 13 million articles
80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees
Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
35% of books sales on Amazon are for Kindle

“Social media isn’t a fad; it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate”

Silly Girl Loses Job Over Facebook Post

Dean Sherwin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:38:19 +0000

Different surveys have been carried out over the past number of years about how many of us actually like our jobs. The average of these surveys tells us that around 60% of us hate our jobs. It could be the hours, the pay, the conditions, the work or in this case – THE BOSS!

It’s well-known that social networking sites and blogs have cost people their jobs because they said bad things about the company and they were discovered by chance on the web. That’s got to sting. But how about this girl who actually added her new boss on FaceBook and then decided she would virtually tear him to shreds?

Needless to say, she lost her job and perhaps rightfully so – I mean, how stupid do you have to be to do that? She might as well have sent him the link.

I’d imagine there either from the UK or the Republic of Ireland as these are the only two countries that use P45 forms when jobs get terminated.

Here what the post and the bosses reply said. (Obviously their names have been removed).

US Marines Ban Twitter, MySpace and Facebook

Dean — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:26:29 +0000

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) are currently deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting day in day out against insurgency and terrorism under the constant threat of IEDs and enemy Kalashnikov or RPG fire. They bravely soldier on throughout.

However, when it comes to Web 2.0 they’re left quivering in their combat boots. The USMC has just announced that it is placing a network wide ban on Web 2.0 sites such as Twitter, MySpace and FaceBook in an effort to make their systems more secure.

They say that these sites are easily hacked and used by hackers and scammers and indeed those against US operations to post links to malicious sites in the hope a marine on R&R or a USMC staff member might click on them.

This would expose the soft underbelly of the USMC’s network and would lead to disaster. Here is what the USMC order read :

“These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries…”
“The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel… at an elevated risk of compromise.”

Top Social Networks for Advertising

Steven Finch — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:39:41 +0000

I came across this excellent list of social networks with their user bases and projected ad spending for 09. The list was put together by Borreall Associates and is a great resource. On the list are 118 networks that accept advertising and media buying.

Of course, Facebook and Myspace count for the majority of social media advertising, but there is still enough good traffic on other sites to be worth testing.

The download system is kind of a pain But since the report is free and this kind of data is valuable, its worth it. Download PDF or Excel version here.

Here are the top 30:

Microsoft’s Social Network: Windows Live Planet

Augusto Alvarez — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:42:05 +0000

I think it took a little more time to show up, but the Microsoft social network experiment is here: Windows Live Planet. Still seems that is very experimental since there are no big signs out there that encourage people to start getting involved with this site.

The marketing strategy seems to start focusing in one big costumer: India. The MSN India home page is linking to this new social network site; and already is using a Scribble Pad feature same as Orkut (India’s favorite social network site); that actually works very similar as Facebook’s wall, where your friends can stop by and write something for you.

The usability is the same as any other social network. You don’t need to create an account, with your Passport (Hotmail or any other) will give you direct access to your profile. And the cool thing that I found so far, is the Windows Live Messenger integration with the site.

Still, it needs a lot of work and improvement to actually be considered as a Facebook competitor.

Facebook’s Future: Not a Website

Augusto Alvarez — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:31:55 +0000

Who said it? Mark Zuckeberg, Facebook’s CEO.

He is quite sure that the real value from the web platform resides in multiple websites and applications across the Internet, and Facebook it’s not going to try to centralize all that; even better, Facebook will represent the entire platform that any user will need as for identification, business, relationship, etc. etc.

Here’s the interview with the whole concept that Mark gave it to Robert Scoble:

facebook.com/me get ready!

Augusto Alvarez — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:33:33 +0000

Facebook, the largest social network in the planet, has just announced that they are introducing a very cool feature for all users: including your name/nickname to the Facebook URL.

Meaning that whenever you want someone to visit your Facebook profile you don’t need to copy/paste that awful undescriptive URL, you will only need to choose an available name for you and your profile will be http://www.facebook.com/john.smith

This sounds like an option that could be published earlier, other important social networks already has this feature available (like Hi5). But anyway, it would represent a huge change for the network, making your profile easier to share; or even including the URL in your mail signature.

Spiral Frog (Ad-supported music service) In Trouble and Heading Towards Deadpool

Steven Finch — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:40:12 +0000

There is another music streaming service that we didn’t mention in our Top 10 free music streaming services and that is Spiral Frog. Spiral Frog is an ad-supported music download service which has had a huge amount of hype since launch.

Today it has been reported that Spiral Frog might be in a bit of trouble and heading towards the deadpool. These reports come from executives within the struggling company. Why is Spiral Frog in trouble? When launching Spiral Frog was in a growing advertising market in which was still yielding good CPM (cost per 1000 ads) rates, however now in the economic downturn these rates are quickly dropping. Therefore, companies need to keep increasing pageviews and presence to stay ahead of the curve. Spiral Frog has been losing a lot of traffic of late and this combined with the big licensing fees they had to pay upfront for major label catalogues means their in a lot of trouble.

There are only a couple of options that will save Spiral Frog. Firstly, a miracle could happen and they could turn around the traffic and the revenues, but that’s not going to happen. Secondly, they could get more funding and sell part of the shares, but they are running out of shares so I don’t think this would happen either. Finally, the only real option is for someone to step in and purchase the company just before they run out of money and get a bargain basement price.

To be fair in the past Spiral Frog has had a lot of issues and they have been in trouble a couple of times. This is probably what has lead to Spiral Frog getting a lot of media attention. I think Spiral Frog will be acquired by the end of 2009, its the only decent option of the company.

Adult Friend Finder Is Going Public

Steven Finch — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:41:54 +0000

US based FriendFinder Networks (formerly Penthouse Media Group) has filed a registration statement with the SEC to go public. The story was broken by Techcrunch and this seems like a huge leap for the adult network.

Little known Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital is representing them in the deal. The company hopes to raise $460 million in the IPO.

Penthouse acquired Adult FriendFinder in December 2007 for approximately $400 million. Currently the network has $244 million in revenues from the first three quarters of 2008.

This seems like a very interesting move by FriendFinder Networks. It shows that there is simply just so much money in the adult industry online and now they are looking to move public and grow the services even faster, while cashing out at the same time.

Twitter Is Leading The Top 10 Fastest Growing Social Networks In The USA

Steven Finch — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:34:04 +0000

According to Nielsen’s report, Twitter is the fastest growing social network site for the 12 months. It grew more than 300% in traffic, followed by Tagged on second place and Ning on third. Ning is a service for creating community sites. (see top 10 sites below)

You Could Be Britney Spears New Boyfriend!

Luis Sandoval — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:07:50 +0000

Okay, it’s a long shot, but with her track record, you actually might have a chance. I’m not saying anything is wrong with her, she just likes to meet a lot of people.

Well watch out world, Britney is online in the social media world. Where? You can connect with Britney on Twitter…or with her “people” at least. To coincide with the launch of her new blog site, fans can follow her on the Twitter stream and even reply to her. I wouldn’t hold your breath for direct answers, but stranger things have happened.

Any way you look at this, whether you like Britney or not, enough “mainstream” artists, performers, and other entertainers jump on Twitter, it will be hard to ignore its dominance in the market.

How To Get Your Content To The Top Of Social Networking Sites

Steven Finch — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:53:44 +0000

I came across a really great post today over at PingPongPie that helped to explain what you need to achieve with certain social networks, and how much traffic you can expect from them. I have added the exact numbers below.

Name of Network: Digg
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: 60 – 300+ on average
Consequence of Negative Vote: Requires more Diggs to become popular. NOTE: One Bury does not cause your story to be removed! You can have a significant amount of “buries” and the story could still go popular.
Expected Traffic: 10,000 to 100,000 UVs
Type of Network: Social News

Name of Network: Stumble
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: 30 – 40 typically, Reviews and Tags are also important
Consequence of Negative Vote: -1 to overall points
Expected Traffic: 2,000 – 50,000 UVs and the cycle can come again weeks to months later.
Type of Network: Toolbar – random

Name of Network: Propeller
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: 35+ on average
Consequence of Negative Vote: -1 to overall points
Expected Traffic: 1,000 – 20,000 UVs – Can go to 100,000 if the story goes to news.aol.com
Type of Network: Social News

Name of Network: del.icio.us
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: More than 120 bookmarks (as fast as you can)
Consequence of Negative Vote: -1 Vote
Expected Traffic: Up to 20,000
Type of Network: Techy, Internet based info, guides

Name of Network: Mixx
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: 30 – 60
Consequence of Negative Vote: -1 to overall points
Expected Traffic: Less than 100 UVs
Type of Network: Social News

Name of Network: Reddit
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: 3 – 300+
Consequence of Negative Vote: -1 total points
Expected Traffic: 3,000 – 30,000 UVs
Type of Network: Social News

Name of Network: Yahoo! Buzz
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: N/A. Popular is Yahoo.com and that is manually selected.
Consequence of Negative Vote: Unknown
Expected Traffic: 1-3 million UVs
Type of Network: Social News

Name of Network: Fark
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: Admin manually select for Popular
Consequence of Negative Vote: unknown
Expected Traffic: 5,000 to 15,000 UVs
Type of Network: Humor

Name of Network: Ebaumsworld
Number of Votes Needed to go Popular: 30
Expected Traffic: 500-20,000+
Type of Network: Weird, Wacky Stuff, Interesting and Funny Pictures work really well.

Attack Of The Music Communities: Part 2

Steven Finch — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:31:06 +0000

After the great response I received from my articles a couple days ago titled, Attack Of The Music Communities, I thought I would write a quick note about some of the communities I left of who deserve a mention. These two music communities were mentioned in the comments of the previous post, so if you do want to have your say then Crenk is the place to get heard.

Reverb Nation – Reverbnation is a social network mixed with widgets. Depending if your an artist, label, manager, fan or venue, Reverbnation has options to help you achieve your goals. Artists can promote themselves in a similar way as they can on myspace, but artists can also receive 50% of the revenues generate from advertising on their own Reverb pages.

Jango – Jango is a mixture between social networking and customising your own online radio station. Just type in an artist and your first station starts playing right away. The service is a little like Last.fm in the way you can customise your own online station, but it lacks the feature of allow you to find new artists. Still the interface is nice and sexy.

If there are still any music sites I have left out, then please let me know and I might even produce a Part 3, to this ever growing Attack Of The Music Communities series.

I also just wanted to thank everyone who either Stumbled or Dugg our last post. Participation and help to spread the word of Crenk actually existing it really appreciated.