In 2008, AOL bought the hot social networking site Bebo for a cool $850 million, just two years later, it’s going under or will be sold for a pittance of its original value.

Bebo was the “United Kingdom’s biggest social network in 2007,” according to comScore. So how did a titan in the social media world turn out to be a dud? In a recent cnn.com article, “How To Create an $850M Fad, Like Bebo Did, Pete Cashmore points out that Bebo’s Achilles’ heel was not responding to users’ demands and failing to innovate–much like MySpace. Both Bebo and MySpace failed to make technical innovation the guiding light of their mission. Twitter on the other hand, had the vision to open up its problems to its community, which included outside developers. Meanwhile, Facebook is enjoying success through innovations like leveraging its Facebook Connect log-in platform.

The SSN Take: While innovation for Twitter and Facebook will slow eventually, a business should keep abreast of the groundbreaking initiatives currently under way. You can start by checking out Chirp, the website for The Official Twitter Developer Conference.

David Hardt, April 21, 2010

Note: Post not sponsored.