What do you think? Will Facebook die in 2008 with the Beacon fiasco? Google Reader RIP? Is social search just another Second Life?

Can Facebook help build your business?
Your professional brand?
How?

Will social search redefine vertical search and surpass the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask -- and force them to change or become irrelevant?

I need your help: In 2008, I'll give up my privacy and live online: I'll join Facebook for the first time; I've signed up for Twitter; I'll be experimenting with search engines with a social twist ...

Which social networks? Why should I join another (besides LinkedIn)? What are the measurable benefits?

Facebook is fun.... many of the people I know have joined and a hardcore group use it the way my teenagers use MySpace... to basically chat to each other

Social networks seem to be hugely popular and fun for the user, but a huge question mark for the advertiser.

Admittedly, I have not directly participated all that much in Social sites, I have registered and snooped around on all of them to see if they would be worth advertising on. Here are my thoughts:

Do I want to post pictures of me and my fam online for all to see? NO. Video's of my vacation? NO. Do I want the world to know where I live, work and hang out? NO. Do I want to live a fantasy life and lie and brag about my extravagant lifestyle? NO. Am I 13, shy and trying to figure out how to say hello to that cute girl in my English class? NO. Do I want to post a low grade video of myself claiming I was the first create a video on the latest release of Adwords 5.0 -oh boy!. NOT. Do I want to spend countless hours taunting and killing my enemies from around the world in the latest online war game? No.

From what I have seen this is what lurks on the most popular social media sites. In large part these sites boil down to popularity contests with nice picture, video and forum style features for pre-pubescent teens. This net savvy generation of kids and teens are click happy, have little brand loyalty (past this season's fad) and have little disposable income. Are there companies with products and services where this is a dream audience? Certainly! The entertainment, clothing, and zit cream industries to name a few can clean up on this kind of traffic. But even they have to be very careful to measure ROI and brand awareness.

For most businesses social media advertising is a fast moving stream of quicksand. Social sites are learning, maturing and offering a more refined product for "Professionals". LinkedIn is one, Yahoo has come up with it's version called Kick-start and Classmates with its ad laden site and frustrating prompts to join as a gold member (Austin!) is another. These business style networking sites are obviously a far cry from the likes of MySpace and Friendster, but at least they tend to attract an audience of professionals with disposable income.

I look forward to learning about your experiences and finding out what types of companies, products and brands might succeed on Social Media networks.

Living the boring, solitary, real world life...Discovery

I had to join facebook a couple of days ago and I think they need a usability-check bad :)

As far as branding I think Facebook is another way to increase brand awareness and brand exposure. At the same time, for users myspace was the hot ticket until facebook came along and I expect history to repeat it self.

Either way, be sure to join the Search Engine Watch group and Search Engine Strategies group on Facebook today! :)

Kevin, don't forget to get yourself a shinny new "Google Profile"!

Advertising on Social media:
As mentioned by 'beu', it is excellent for building brand awareness. Its like networking. Get out there, meet people, spread the word about your business to everyone.

Depending on your market, it can be amazingly excellent for advertising. For example, my wife was contacted via facebook by a candidate for Congress. This personal touch and friendly interaction has my politically apathetic wife suddenly enthused about politics - even at the Senate and Congress levels. (you'd be surprised how few people know their current reps at these levels).

Summary: Great for customer loyalty.
Like anything, advertising on social media sites needs to be done right to work. Unfortunately, there's no how-to guide for the right way. It will be different for every market. But becoming 'Friends' with your customers is a great way to build brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Probably the biggest question of all to ask is whether social networks are sustainable, whether advertising as a revenue source is enough to ensure longevity. Or will most of them go down the road of the dot com busts of a few years ago?

Time is money, and financial resources have to be allocated in terms of ROI. How much in the way of time and expenditure of resources is it wise to invest on the long shot in the race to the finish gate for getting the most bang for the buck?

I really have to question: is there really sincere enjoyment in social networks for folks who are beyond the age of pre-school knickers and teenage zits, or is it just another trick being turned by the armies of linkwhores looking for their place in the SERPs?

social networks are a part of the global village aspect of the web... they may change and be short lived individually but the popularity of the social part of the web will never go away... we are social animals after all

Facebook can undoubtedly help Grow & build your Brand, considering you have Targeted Ads & your Demographic falls in the Age Group of 16-40/45 years.

How you do it is onto personal discretion? You can use tools like:
Facebook Applications
Facebook Ads
Facebook Pages
Facebook Fans
Facebook Groups
Share
and many many more.........features that are really cool & give the optimum output, if put to well thought usage.

;)Try out for yourself, if you don't find it good enough to believe me.

What do you think? Will Facebook die in 2008 with the Beacon fiasco? Google Reader RIP? Is social search just another Second Life?

Can Facebook help build your business?
Your professional brand?
How?

Will social search redefine vertical search and surpass the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask -- and force them to change or become irrelevant?

I need your help: In 2008, I'll give up my privacy and live online: I'll join Facebook for the first time; I've signed up for Twitter; I'll be experimenting with search engines with a social twist ...

Which social networks? Why should I join another (besides LinkedIn)? What are the measurable benefits?

Referring to Viability & longevity issues, Social networks & for hat matter any advertising platform works for you, if you know how to make it work.

Quote Unquote, "Advertisers are just the Vehicles, not the Roads. Your marketing & promotional strategies & innovativeness are the keys to any of the longevity concerns for any Web or Off web business. :rolleyes:



Probably the biggest question of all to ask is whether social networks are sustainable, whether advertising as a revenue source is enough to ensure longevity. Or will most of them go down the road of the dot com busts of a few years ago?

Time is money, and financial resources have to be allocated in terms of ROI. How much in the way of time and expenditure of resources is it wise to invest on the long shot in the race to the finish gate for getting the most bang for the buck?

I really have to question: is there really sincere enjoyment in social networks for folks who are beyond the age of pre-school knickers and teenage zits, or is it just another trick being turned by the armies of linkwhores looking for their place in the SERPs?

So, Beu knows for sure, it works & I hope, by now Kevin would have tested the waters.
All the Best guys! :)


As far as branding I think Facebook is another way to increase brand awareness and brand exposure. At the same time, for users myspace was the hot ticket until facebook came along and I expect history to repeat it self.

Either way, be sure to join the Search Engine Watch group and Search Engine Strategies group on Facebook today! :)

Kevin, don't forget to get yourself a shinny new "Google Profile"!

Hey Kevin,

You have an ocean of choices on which Social networks to join. You ca simply narrow down your list by considering your target demographic & the nature of your services/offering. Here are a few I would suggest:

1 LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com): Best for professional contacts though limited to "give-n-take" kind of communication exchanges.
2 MySpace (http://www.myspace.com): Once a Web 2.0 invention, is now largely dominated by school teens & gay communities. You might not want to try your luck out there.
3 Facebook (http://www.facebook.com): Continues to keep emerging the Best Social network with its applications, ads, networks, features except for the Beacon Fiasco. Just make sure, you don't let out any sensitive information out to the anonymous crowd.
4 There are others like Twitter, Delicious, Delirious, Infodoro, Friendster, Hi5, Orkut & many more to go..........

By & large, all would help you expand your social network & spread awareness on your services, brand or whatsoever... Rest, all is published :p

What do you think? Will Facebook die in 2008 with the Beacon fiasco? Google Reader RIP? Is social search just another Second Life?

Can Facebook help build your business?
Your professional brand?
How?

Will social search redefine vertical search and surpass the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask -- and force them to change or become irrelevant?

I need your help: In 2008, I'll give up my privacy and live online: I'll join Facebook for the first time; I've signed up for Twitter; I'll be experimenting with search engines with a social twist ...

Which social networks? Why should I join another (besides LinkedIn)? What are the measurable benefits?

Thanks, everyone. This is a great thread.

I've been on LinkedIn for a while. Just started Twitter.

@ Information Search -- I agree with your 100% on the "one way" professional / business only communication on LinkedIn.

@ Basic ECommerce -- Great brand building and brand awareness advice. I'll pass on the marketing advice to our VP. He's always willing to test new media.

@ Discovery -- I know how you feel about posting on family. I share your concerns about privacy for my daughter's sake.

I just started using Facebook to see what all the fuss was about... it helped me connect with a friend that I've been trying to get a hold of for 6 years. That is just one of the benefits of social media like this, especially those that have mass appeal.

I firmly believe that so long as Facebook sticks to their roots without being over-corporate like MySpace, they will escape the Social Media Graveyard.

This study could be interesting with regards to social media measurement
http://www.aberdeen.com/c/report/research_previews/4679-RP-online-consumer-perceptions.pdf

Debby Richman posted on the Search Engine Watch blog about Mark Zuckerberg's 60 Minutes interview. Did anyone see it?

Did he say anything new or surprising about social media?

@ mooreseo -- thanks. Great news that you were able to find someone who's been out-of-touch. I'm going to create a Facebook account next. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Hey Kevin,

I didn't know about the 60 minutes interview either but, I'm curious about what he had to say.

I'll check it out later today:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080114-031013


:)

beu- Thanks for the blog link. I have been wondering about Facebook for a couple of weeks now.

beu- Thanks for the blog link. I have been wondering about Facebook for a couple of weeks now.

My pleasure, when you sign up for Facebook don't forget to join the SEW & SES groups. :)

Actually going to do that now. :) Thanks again!

On 60 Minutes, Zuckerberg didn't seem to touch on Facebook benefits in any meaningful way. Here's my two cents, for the "adult" segment.

--It's easy to browse through your colleagues and make connections. FB is much less restrictive than the LinkedIn environment where you can't see the second or third degrees or leave notes easily.

--It's useful to set up groups and see which people want to affiliate with you. It's almost like market research, to see if particular topics resonate with others.

Generally, FB can be used like other social nets. You can participate and share info/links openly. A few months back, I posted request for others to help me with SEO tactics and know it helped.

On the other hand, I'm sure there are ways to get "too promotional" with your colleagues. I already see some folks who I'm ready to turn off due to news-spam!

Some examples of how I've used facebook professionally:

1) Find people I've met at conferences that I need to get in touch with
2) Find out when colleagues birthdays are to let them know i care
3) Retrieve phone numbers, instant message screen names, email addresses
4) Find out more things I have in common with my colleagues, clients, and vendors
5) Find out who's on vacation
6) Find out where my colleagues went to school
Countless other purposes that are productive and not just ways to spend idle surfing time. It's a powerful business app!

great list avi - good points all

I am in the group now. Thanks guys and gals. :)

For me I benefit from facebook tremendously, trough the network I build increase many hits and back link to my wedding photograph site, and I generate a number of business trough facebook contact as well.

we it is all depends on the mind set of the people, you just can't live in a cave and hope to get business deliver to the stone age isn't?

There was an interesting Facebook story in my hometown just this morning that was all over the radio, TV and print news. A retailer (Lululemon) put out a notice of a sale ONLY on Facebook, and they were totally swamped.

People lined up for hours in sub-zero weather. There was no advertising at all, other than social networking.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2008/01/24/lululemon-sale.html

Ian

first i joined facebook or any other social media for fun and build networks.this social media has many feature to exploit as per one's need.you can build your own website page at their high page rank site which boost traffic volumes to your site.

Thanks for sharing the info.