On Strategy and Google
I am not an expert strategist, but I’ve picked up a few tidbits over time. In school I learned that strategy leaves a trail - You can divine a company’s strategy by the products it launches, partnerships it forms, and companies it acquires. When I moved on to Booz-Allen, I learned that when you are [...]
Top 10 Facebook Feature Wishlist
After using Facebook, attending a developer conference and speaking to advertisers, I’ve built a Facebook roadmap. Not an application, widget or API wishlist, it’s a wishlist for Facebook platform functionality. To be sure, Facebook has initiatives focused on growing site and “ecosystem” functionality. They encourage app development through the fbFund. They encourage partner interfaces through [...]
Facebook’s Social Revenues
Articles on potential Facebook revenue models run the gamut. Comments following those articles span the galaxy. The consensus on Facebook revenues falls into two general categories:
They’re like Google - They’ve got oodles of traffic and oodles of ways to monetize it.
They’re like eToys - They’ve got an unsustainable business model, users prone to flip and [...]
fbFund Winners, Some Killer Apps
Facebook is actively expanding platform functionality launching Facebook Connect and free classifieds in May, 2008 and redoubling efforts to build a music service in October, 2008. All point the way to a more robust platform.
Then, on October 15th 2008, Facebook announced 25 winners of its fbFund $25,000 application developer grants. Each is entered to win [...]
Applications on LinkedIn, Niiice
On October 28th, 2008 LinkedIn took a big step forward by announcing the launch of “Applications on LinkedIn” (or InApps) and officially joining MySpace, Facebook, Google and Apple’s iPhone in the “platform” business. However, unlike other open platforms, LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman focused attention on ten applications by eight companies. It appears LinkedIn is going [...]
Select Stories, 29-Oct
Right Music For Your Viral Ad - SharpNine
Tom Belton of SharpNine Music overviews considerations for use of music in your next YouTube viral advertising video. While some concepts are familiar ground for TV and radio advertisers, many of the points are not intuitive to the online-only advertisers. Tom uses a three-part framework of Entertainment, Structure [...]
Facebook to Developers, Build Your Own Traffic!
Facebook Platform (fbPlatform?) is Dead, Long Live fbConnect! While this is bad news for Facebook app developers, it won’t come as a surprise as they’ve probably noticed the almost 50% fall in traffic to their widgets since the Facebook site re-design.
What can Facebook widget developers do? According to Scott Rafer, they should get on [...]
All Social Media Is Local 2008 - Edelman
All Social Media Is Local 2008
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: edelman social)
Edelman takes us on a walk around the social networking world:
Asia: Bulletin boards & forums drive social media. China 120M board users of 250M internet users. Language (2200 languages) + Relevance (gossipy nature) requires in-depth local knowledge.
Russia: adoption is slow due [...]
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Tweets (@MichaelDowns)
- Bill Gross' "Ring of Fire" was my favorite investment article last week. Debt, deficits and 2010 investment - http://bit.ly/8OBTjT
- Brand New's "Most Relevant Identity Work of the Decade" is a thoughtful collection of what works - http://bit.ly/4Y9l8K
- I supported Gwendolyn Strong Foundation by voting for them to win $1m with #chasegiving - http://bit.ly/4ILNPV