NEWS: Enterprise Social Networks

What Is Marketers' Biggest Challenge When It Comes to Social Networks? by Advertising Age

Published: March 17, 2008 Marketers still haven't figured out that the interaction between people on social networks is unscripted. And like the people interacting within these networks, marketers have to learn to just react to what's going on...

HAVE ANY MARKETERS FOUND SUCCESS IN THIS SPACE?

A number of big-name brands immediately come to mind as probable movers and shakers within social networks. Nike, Coke, Axe and Proctor & Gamble already have found some success in the space. But Forrester's Ms. Li said there's one company using social networks effectively that probably isn't obvious: Ernst & Young. "Ernst & Young does a good job in recruitment on Facebook," Ms. Li said. "They put up a schedule and provide all the recruitment information, and when people write questions, recruiters are there to write them back."

Brand-based social networking: Will it work for Imagini? from Venture Beat

One notable thing about today’s major social media brands — Facebook, MySpace and others — is that they worked their way up to become giant web presences on their own. Imagini, a startup based in the United Kingdom, would rather hedge its bets with a brand partnership with Pepsi, just announced this morning.

Imagini is the parent company of Youniverse, a site that offering a few picture-based personality quizzes and some simple social networking tools. Youniverse is so simple, in fact, that it comes across more like an application than a social network.

Pepsi’s version of the site isn’t much more complicated. Centered around six major football (or soccer, in our parlance) stars like David Beckham, the site offers a way for fans to compare themselves to their idols and each other. Pepsi will also run a global ad campaign to promote the brand site.

Obligatory "Hot Mom" Joke Here: CafeMom Raises Another $12 Million by Peter Kafka March 18, 2008 7:25 PM

Last summer we worried that the $5 million Highland Capital and DFJ had handed over to CMI Marketing and CafeMom.com represented some sort of market top. So what do we do now that the same investors have given the same social network another $12 million, bringing the total raise to $20 million? ...

Allen Stern reports that the site is working with "Walmart, Playskool, Disney, HP, Kraft, General Mills, Nestle, Unilever, JCPenney, Johnson & Johnson and Best Buy", selling custom campaigns for up to $500,000 a pop.

'Indiana Jones' Trailer Spreads via Widget -

Paramount's viral video marketing will reward the fans who share the most copies of the upcoming promo... Clearspring supplies creative, widget, and campaign management.

Facebook Pages

Represent your business, band, product and more by creating a distinct and customized profile.

VC confab: Please, no more social networks

Posted by Stefanie Olsen March 19, 2008 7:52 PM PDT

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--The consensus here at the Dow Jones Web Ventures conference this week seems to be that the world doesn't need another social network.

Starbucks caters to digital crowd with social-networking site

Posted by Elinor Mills

You know social networking has jumped the shark when Starbucks gets into the act.

Starbucks has launched My Starbucks Idea, an electronic suggestion box where people can offer up their best ideas for making the already ubiquitous coffee retailer even more successful.

Ning, king of custom social networks?

On Working Webware, ZDNet Editor in Chief Dan Farber and Webware.com's editor Rafe Needleman sit down with Ning CEO Gina Bianchini to find out ...

Ning - 150k sites, 2% pay $20/month to earn AdSense fees & resell their own advertising

March 21st, 2008
Companies get profiled on LinkedIn, ZDNet

LinkedIn, the career oriented social networking site, has rolled out a new feature today called Company Profiles, described as “a new research tool that helps you find and explore companies that you might want to work for or do business with.”

Each Company Profile page, of which there are initially 160,000 or so, is deceptively simple, featuring a short description of each company, along with some other size and history (licensed from BusinessWeek’s Capital IQ database). However, the fun really starts (can you have fun on LinkedIn?) with the additional ’social’ data that LinkedIn supplements, pulled from existing user profiles. Read the rest of this entry »