The Social 7 - Episode 03
Thanks for tuning into the third episode of The Social 7, recapping the top seven stories in social media and marketing from the past week. Enjoy, and as always, feel free to e-mail us tips for next week’s episodes!
Episode recap plus tweet of the week and social shutterbug after the jump.
Top 7 Stories
7. Online Award Voting: More award nomination deadlines are quickly approaching including the first annual Shorty Awards, honoring “the best producers of short content on the Web” (aka, Twitter). According to the Web site, you “can nominate as many people for as many different categories as you’d like until midnight December 31st.” Are you following The Social 7 on Twitter yet? Just checking 
6. 40 Million Americans Contribute to Social Networking: Last week, Netpop Research released a report, finding that 40 million in the US contribute to social networking sites with 93 percent growth since 2006.
5. Top 10 Viral Videos: On Wednesday, the San Francisco Gate printed a list of the Top 10 Viral Videos of 2008. From Sara Palin impersonators to cute Shiba Inu puppies and loveable lions, YouTube has made it’s mark on pop culture. Conclusion from the list? Looks as if people like cute animals or… not so cute politicians.
4. AOL Relaunches Bebo: With only 5.9 million US uniques in October, compared to Facebook’s 46 million and MySpace’s 76 million, many baulked when AOL swapped $850 million for the ill-fated social network named Bebo. But this week, in efforts to “reintroduce” the social network, AOL launched several changes in hopes to rekindle its fate. Will these small, but distinctive, changes be enough to boost uniques in the long term? Only time will tell.
3. FbFund Grant Winners Announced: On Wednesday, Facebook announced the 5 winners of its FbFund program. The winners included GroupCard, Kontagent, HitGrab, WedSnap and Wildfire; each winner received $225,000 cash to develop and run their application.
2. eMarketer Forecast on Online Ad Spending: Sounds as if tough economic times are affecting more than just auto makers. Last week, eMarketer released a revised forecast for ad spending on social networking sites. Despite studies that show consumers who actively engage in social networks spend more money than those who don’t, tough times are causing budgetary decreases on all fronts.
1. Blogs Now Eligible To Win Pulitzer Prize: A monumental moment in Blogging history, this past week the Pulitzer Board announced that the award criteria have expanded “to include many text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet.” While Seth Godin points out that personal bloggers might not qualify, this is the first step in recognizing bloggers and online-only reporters as credible journalists.
Tweet of the Week:
Our Tweet of the Week today comes from @themediaisdying who tracks layoffs, closings, and other signs of decline in the media (check out this NY Times article about them!). As you’d expect, they quickly posted about the Tribune Co. filing for bankruptcy last Monday.
Social Shutterbug of the Week:
Tokbox (a Bay Area startup that provides live video calling) setup a taco truck (complete with job applications) outside Yahoo’s headquarters this week to recruit some of the engineers that were let go. One flicker’er (a site ironically owned by yahoo) snapped this photo of the truck and the accompanying press waiting for the workers.
Upcoming Event News:
If you’re in Los Angeles, come join us tonight at the Green Door for the Digital LA Holiday Party, starting @ 7pm.
Just in this week: BlogWorld and the New Media Expo have merged to become a single event: Blog World Expo - check out the blog for details.
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