MySpace has been in the news because its traffic is sliding, again. Rumors about Bebo shutting its doors continue to swirl. So, the question is, can social media companies, even the rock stars of today, ever be on safe ground?

In his recent article, “The Social Media War: Face Facts,” Matt Nash, chief executive of OOSocial, writes of the precarious climate that exists for social networks. To survive, companies require technology that is flexible and can easily be integrated with other products and services. We know this because like Microsoft in the PC software market, Facebook is methodically nesting themselves amongst other online services. The beauty of their continued growth and business model is that Facebook is built on a single flexible platform. A company like Yahoo, with multiple businesses to coordinate, must always deal with immense integration problems.

The SSN Take: Don’t pick your social media platform based on buzz, but rather on their ability to easily integrate with other services.  Otherwise, you and your customers may be looking for a “new” leader in a year.

David Hardt, April 26, 2010

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First quarter results for Coveo indicate enormous growth potential for their easy-to-use enterprise search platform and smooth implementation.

The strength of Coveo lies in their centralized, unified index that lives up to their customer’s enterprise demands. According to an April 21st press release by ASElabs.com, Coveo made substantial progress in the first quarter of 2010 by signing 24 deals with new or existing customers. Founded in 2005, the company provides a user-friendly and customizable enterprise search platform that focuses on customer information access solutions. What’s more, they also posted an impressive 55 percent year-over-year increase in license revenues. Recognition from industry insiders included “Best Enterprise Search Engine” by Software and Information Industry Association.

SSN Take: Coveo should continue its winning streak well into 2010 if it continues to enhance its flexible, yet dynamic index interface.

David Hardt, April 24, 2010

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As consumers look to connect with networks of friends, family and patients who share their health concerns, the demand for better social search tools continues to thrive.

In a recent webpronews.com article, “Consumers Turn to Social Media for Health Support,” Mike Sachoff explains that consumers of health information are heading to social media for emotional and rational reasons–and they are showing up in big numbers. According to a recent Epsilon study, “Forty percent of online consumers use social media for health information (reading or posting content).” One of the most common characteristics of the online health sector is that they are highly engaged. Using social search for health needs enables individuals to connect with others in a more intimate way than traditional web search.

The SSN Take: As social search continues to meet the needs of highly engaged online health communities, look for other industries to start drawing on the reassurance and familiarity that social search offers.

David Hardt, April 24, 2010

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The upheaval over health care reform has led to a surge in online health-related communities, blogs and social media, but marketers in this area are not rushing in.

One of the greatest attractions of health communities on the web is that patients can share their medical experiences and seek advice from other patients. In a recent clickz.com article, “Health Marketers Drag Feet as Patients Flock to Social Media,” Joan Voight reportst that it’s not just patients that are flocking to this DIY style health education, doctors are also gravitating toward these websites.  However, credibility and liability remain two of the biggest deterrents for marketers when it comes to social media and the online health and wellness field.

The SSN Take: Participating in online discussions and sponsoring them could prove to be a risky move for health marketers, but the payoff could be enormous. Click the link to Voight’s article to read what Dove plans to gain by sponsoring Sharecare, the latest health exchange website.

David Hardt, April 22, 2010

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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

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Twitter’s openness led to a flood of 70,000 applications that helped propel the the microblogging service to unfathomable success, but now that sea of opportunity appears to be drying up quickly.

It’s a fear that has probably crossed the mind of every application developer outside Twitter: what if the company decides to to build the same features in house? In her recent nytimes.com article, “Tensions Rise for Twitter and App Developers,” Claire Cain Miller discusses Twitter’s new gameplan. Although Twitter’s official direction may be unconfirmed, the writing is on the wall. Recently, they acquired Atebits, maker of Tweetie for the iPhone. In addition, they stated that they will be working with Research In Motion to cover the BlackBerry market. If that weren’t enough to give developers a scare, Evan Williams, Twitter’s co-founder, said recently, “When we launched, Twitter was incomplete, so developers rushed to fill those holes, but eventually we’re going to have to build a lot of features in because they should be there.”

The SSN Take: Watch closely as Twitter unveils new applications, which you can expect to deliver advantages that outside developers can’t.

David Hardt, April 20, 2010

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In the real world, a small number of people decide who we trust or don’t trust, but on the Internet, that paradigm is rapidly evolving.

Thanks to sites like Facebook and Twitter, small groups and individuals are wresting control from those at the top of the online food chain, who arrived there by way of money and power. Craig Newmark of cnewmark.com writes in “Trust and reputation systems: redistributing power and influence,” that social media allows peer networks, thriving communities and even individuals, to influence and build credibility. Becoming a trust leader still takes place through many traditional methods. For example, sharing personal experiences, spreading a pervasive message and being backed by other experts or professionals. While there will always be quality issues and manipulation problems, the openness of social media and sites like Wikipedia has created a powerful grassroots-like system of trust.

The SSN Take: Evaluate your company’s social networking image through trust metrics like history, reputable recommendations and the context of the message, to ensure you maintain a strong currency of trust.

David Hardt, April 20, 2010

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Facebook is attempting to clear up the often confusing line between official fan pages and the anything-goes third-party ones.

In his recent article, “Brands Hope ‘Community Pages’ Make Facebook Presence Clearer,” Christopher Heine from clickz.com breaks down what should be a win-win initiative for companies and individuals on Facebook. While big brands like Coca-Cola have healthy followings (5.3 million fans), the more than 500 third-party Coca-Cola fan pages surely siphon off a good deal of traffic from the soft drink maker. For example, the fan page, “Coca-Cola In a Glass Bottle Is Better Than Plastic,” created by a third-party fan, has collected about 400,000 Facebookers. This activity is a big reason why Facebook is on the verge of replacing “fan pages” with “community pages.” The move benefits companies by more clearly delineating their official brand page, while leaving individual Facebookers less confused about the term “fan.”

The SSN Take: Take advantage of the upcoming move from “fan” to “community” pages by making sure your organization’s Facebook site screams “official.” Special note: Facebook is advising marketers to replace phrases that currently use “fan,” with “find us on Facebook” or “like us on Facebook.”

David Hardt, April 19, 2010

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If a simple formula using Twitter mentions can predict a movie’s success better than the prestigious Hollywood firm, just imagine the forecasting possibilities for your company’s product sales strategy.

In his updated article, “Twitter Predicts Box-Office Sales Better Than a Prediction Market,” Fast Company’s Cliff Kuang describes how two researchers at HP Labs devised an algorithm that was highly successful at predicting the opening weekend and second weekend Box Office performance of 24 movies. Their tactics included computing the rate of tweets and a ratio of positive to negative tweets.  While there are many unknowns about the study, it’s 97.3% accuracy in one instance, says a great deal about the potential of mining real time buzz.

The SSN Take: This story is another reminder of the growing possibilities that are available when real time data from thriving social media communities is put to creative uses.

David Hardt, April 17, 2010

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Just as the overabundance of SEO companies can make finding an expert frustrating, so to can the avalanche of self-proclaimed social media gurus create confusion for SMBs.

If you are a small business and want to learn the ins and outs of social media, the best way is often to get your hands dirty. Lisa Barone from smallbiztrends.com writes about five methods that are great for social media education in her recent article “How Can SMB Owners Learn Social Media? Blogs are her first recommendation. Following a few social media blogs is an excellent way to gather fresh information. Online communities like forums can get tough questions answered and provide a more conversational environment. Webinars are ideal for going deep into a social media topic, while local conferences take the conversation to the highest level. Lastly, experimenting with social media is perhaps the best way to move forward and chart your company’s social media course.

The SSN Take: Find sources you believe in, learn from their bag of tricks, experiment, then put your best ideas into practice.

David Hardt, April 15, 2010

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