Christmas 2008 Brings Rejoice to Facebook

Social Networks were very busy during this year’s Christmas, especially the leading networking portal Facebook. The online giant witnessed a record-breaking traffic ever in the United Kingdom this year on the very special occasion of Christmas.

According to online statistics firm HitWise, Facebook kept the UK audience busy as users accessing Facebook went up by an astonishing 69 percent as compared to Christmas 2007. Friends and families flocked over the site to wish their dear ones on this big day, thereby creating history in the books of Facebook.

MySpace Embraces Google to Expand Reach

With Facebook dominating the social networking industry and spreading like wild-fire across various boundaries, MySpace has decided to tie up with search major Google and spread out its roots as well. Though being the number one player in the US, MySpace is well overtaken by rival Facebook when it comes to the global presence.

The strategy adopted by MySpace in its endeavor to strengthen the network is to make its login system and MySpaceID accordant with other Web sites willing to embrace it.

Social Networks Gaining Popularity Via Mobile Phones

If you ask experts what the future holds for social networking industry, one sure answer would be ‘increased accessing through mobile phones’. This is particularly true considering that about 10 percent of the US mobile subscribers are engaged in using it compared to just over 3 percent a year ago, a study by The Kelsey Group and ConStat revealed.

Precisely, 9.6 percent of wireless subscribers accessed social networks as of October this year in comparison to 3.4 percent in September last year.

Facebook Amassing Users Faster Than Before

Facebook seems to be running the marathon quicker than its rivals. The world leader in social networking is continuing to strengthen its user base with current standings at about 140 million. It is estimated that Facebook is increasing by massive 600,000 to 700,000 users each day.

Though archrival MySpace too is busy pulling in visitors day by day, much of the growth seen in Facebook’s operations is outside the US. This means Facebook is faring better on the entire global front than any other social network. This has given it enough scope to spread its roots wider and wider and attract such a huge number of users daily.

Survey: Businesses Double the Use of Social Networking Sites

According to a survey, social networking portals have gained more importance than before as businesses doubled their promotional efforts through them since the last six months.

After examining how small scale businesses promote themselves, how they network and what technology they utilize, the BT Tradespace research revealed some stunning results. It found out that 15 percent of these companies used social networking sites to market their business compared to mere 7 percent at the dawn of this year.

New Zealand Tourism Seeks Help From Social Networking

Marketing is all about using correct media channels to deliver specific message(s) to the correct set of audience in the most cost effective manner. Speed and accuracy determine the success rate of the marketing campaign, a need that has attracted the New Zealand tourism towards social network sites to communicate their latest marketing campaign.

As part of the strategy, a mobile recording studio is doing rounds within the country to capture visitor’s stories and upload them over the Internet.

Bebo Steps Up its Social Networking Efforts with ‘Social Inbox’

As ‘social networking’ continues to buzz around each and every corner of the world at a faster pace, social networks are left with no option but to innovate their offerings and sustain their position in the ever-increasing social networking space. One such example is Bebo, one of the largest networking sites in the Internet world today.

The newly released Bebo ‘Social Inbox’ integrates e-mail along with social networking and media recommendations into a single interface, a one-stop shop that promises to make things easier and faster for its users.

Jihadist Target Facebook to Collaborate

The social networking benefits have not only attracted common people to form communities but also extremists to carry out their activities. After adding propaganda videos on YouTube and urging supporters to wage a YouTube invasion recently, a member of an Islamic jihadist forum has initiated a similar attack on social networking leader Facebook.

According to the SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based monitoring service, the Facebook invasion appeal was carried out on a jihadist forum. The forum member described Facebook as a podium to reach millions of people and invited fellow members to start using the social network.

YouTube Gets Stricter With Profane Content Users

Video sharing major YouTube has announced a stringent step towards cleaning up its content. Members who upload ‘sexually suggestive’ videos would now be dealt with more severity.

YouTube, on its blog, stated that it would enforce a stricter standard for mature content and tighten the standard for what is regarded as sexually suggestive. Already, it has banned many users for uploading pornographic videos on the site.

YouTube Takes Feedback Seriously, Improves Channels

Companies who wish to succeed and create a dominant position in their niche have a useful lesson to learn from media sharing leader YouTube. The popular Google product has given serious thoughts to feedback from the YouTube community and announced new changes to its channels.

To enrich its users’ experience, YouTube has inserted a ‘Recent Activity’ box on content creator’s channels, enabling them to offer their viewers a snapshot of latest adjustments on the channel. Also, it will consolidate other YouTube attributes like ‘My Recent Comments’ and ‘My Recent Ratings’, which it foresees adding more dynamism, freshness, and timeliness to its channels.