WePlay is a new social network supported by various partners including Major League Baseball and Derek Jeter, who has personally invested and has a share of equity in WePlay.  The site allows youth athletes to create a profile and post videos and highlights of their skills.  Parents and coaches can manage practice times and organize car pools on the site too. 

For full article click here: 

In today’s society where child obesity is one of the hottest topics out there, we can see advertisers just clamoring to be a part of this community to promote healthy living.  It would be perfect for the Kellogg’s, Quaker’s and General Mills’ of the world.  Will be very interesting to see what happens

-interesting idea, but I have to wonder how many Facebook users would actually be interested in a widget like this- American Airlines might be setting themselves up for disappointment with this initiative…

“The widget, dubbed Travel Bag, offers features that let Facebook friends share personal tips and experiences through tools like Favorites, Travelogue, and Trip-O-Vent. American Airlines hopes that by learning more about consumers, it will be able to provide relevant information about services and destinations, rather than deliver a bunch of postal junk mail or email spam.”

Full article: http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=79237&Nid=40826&p=908552

TechCrunch just posted this article that announces that Imeem is going to open its site to application developers.  This is the latest rage in Social Networking, following the Google initiative.  Applications run their course, and only those that truly add value to the user experience will survive.  These applications have already been a staple of the Facebook experience, and with MySpace opening its doors soon, we will get a clear view of how applications play within that space. 

Per this article in Fortune Facebook is launching a new privacy setting that allows users to limit the amount of their profile that is viewed by sub-categories of their friends.  In other words, your work friends won’t see the lewd pictures you post.  While this is a good advancement to enhance the user controls, we would lean towards the thinking that if you need to edit who views the photo, you probably shouldn’t post it anywhere.  This technology will be very useful if you can communicate with the sub-categories individually through messaging, bulletins, wall posts, etc. 

 As for the global expansion, this speaks to the utility factor about facebook.  Should the Intenation editions be as simple as translating the site into the countries language?  We have heard rumors about MySpace’s International plans and they are taking a much more tactical approach.  MySpace will create a team of people on the ground within the native country.  Their job is to create a site full of relevant content, phrases, slang and overall experience specific to that country.  We think that MySpace’s methodology will prove more successful in foreign countries and deliver a more relevant and unique experience for users.

In a recent article in The Economist they explain that it will be hard for Social Networks to survive because it is increasingly harder to monetize the product.  It compares Social Networking to hotmail, IM and other web-mail type services which have succeed as a format, but are not the source of much revenue for the publishers.  I would argue that the element that the article failed to mention are the branded communities and profiles that social networks create for advertisers which not only enhance the brands opportunity to touch consumers, but also generate revenue for the social networks.

 What are your thoughts?

Here is a link to the article: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=348963&story_id=10880936

Got Milk is launching a campaign across social Networks aimed at the youth market (http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=79046&Nid=40725&p=934437).  This is a large step for the brand who traditionally utilized print and TV to market their “Got Milk” campaign.  The brand hopes that the music and videos will create a viral following, but is the content and experience compelling enough?  It will be interesting to see the outcome and we will keep our fingers on the pulse of this campaign as it progresses.

Here is the MySpace page they created: http://www.myspace.com/whitegoldiswhitegold

YouTube White Gold Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj1-ZZRajDU

According to this article in Online Media Daily, LinkedIn will be launching a Beta program that creates profiles for employers.  The profiles allow them to use the social network even more as a recruiting tool.  Social Networks should be a great tool for employers and we think this is a great first step towards utilizing the space effectively.

Check the article out here:

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=79048&Nid=40725&p=934437

TechCrunch posted this article about a company that has created an application that can be used concurrently across social networks like Bebo, Facebook, MySpace and others.  Basically, you can play games on Mytopia with friends no matter what social network they are using. 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/21/at-launch-mytopia-shows-social-networks-how-to-play-nicely-together/

Check this site out, My Starbucks Idea (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/home/home.jsp).  If you are a Starbucks fan, this is the place for you to visit.  They have created a community that collects ideas from Starbucks patrons, while others vote on what they think are the best ideas.  Starbucks promises to keep the My Starbucks Idea’s that have been implemented.

Some of the ones that stood out were:

- Birthday Brew – A free Starbucks on your birthday

- Punch Card – A reward system that gives a free drink after “x” number of purchases

- Automatic Order via Swipe Card – Frequent users can upload their regular Starbucks beverage of choice that gets instantly sent to the register

It seems there is a social network for everything these days.  Whether it is for mom’s (http://www.cafemom.com/), photo enthusiasts (http://www.flickr.com/), school friends (http://www.classmates.com/), music enthusiasts (http://imeem.com/), video lovers (http://www.vimeo.com/) and even sports (http://www.loopd.com/Default.aspx).  Are we getting to a point where there are too many “communities”?  I would venture to say no.  The more the merrier in this case.  Each “social network” has its own personality, identity and unique selling proposition for consumers.  With more choice, consumers can find the environment that suits them best. 

 We look forward to seeing more social networks to come.  Post any and all social networks that stand out to you here.