All Annotations of Social networks challenged to remain relevant - Yahoo! News[Preview]

saved by3 people, first byBill H on 2008-01-11, last byCherrie K on 2008-02-01

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• critical mass of users
• David Liu, senior vice president of social media, messaging, and home pages at
  AOL, said Tuesday at CES that the key to the success of social networks is that
  they allow people to tell their "stories" online to make connections that can
  exist both online and in real life. Communities that allow people to do this in
  a user-friendly way will have the most success in the long run, he said.

• However, the expectations of users differ from those of advertisers, and
  companies running those sites must serve them both. So while users may find
  personal information -- such as someone's vacation photos -- interesting and
  useful, advertisers probably will not, unless they help them target ads to those
  users.

• There are a couple of reasons advertisers have not been able to take full
  advantage of targeted advertising on social networks, according to Jang. One is
  that people have been putting user-generated content into three buckets -- "one
  that is not that great or interesting to the user or advertiser, one that is
  mildly interesting, and one that is universally well-received," Jang said. He
  said advertisers and social-networking companies should broaden their
  preconceived notions of user-generated content to find new ways to create the
  right kind of advertising for their communities

• Another reason it's been difficult to target ads is the "creepy" factor, said
  Alex Blum, CEO, of KickApps, which provides software for building online
  communities and social networks. He cited the controversy surrounding
  Facebook's Beacon online advertising engine, which reported users' online behavior back to the
  company even when they weren't logged into the site .

• By knowing what people like to do by viewing their publicly available tastes in
  books, music, and films, companies can tailor ads related to those interests
  without making users feel as if their online behavior is being tracked, he said.

• "We look at these social networks the same way we look at Miami, London, and Dubai," he said.
  "(Facebook) is a city, and an incredible vehicle for people to create micro
  niches around news that is important to them."