Landscape of Social Networking Sites
Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 07:49 AM by Ethan

            uAmplify has been collecting data and has grasped the social networking landscape in a greater sense through it’s observational study on some of the latest social networking sites across the web. In total 41 networking sites were observed, some of which are more widespread than others, the most popular sites being: myspace, facebook, Friendster, livejournal, orkut and bebo. The most well known of these are coming out with the latest ideas for making their individual site look hip and chic and as up to date as possible, so naturally some of the less known sites are catching up and are coming up with new ideas of their own. While just about all of the sites observed have the basic features, like friend lists, photo and video, internal email systems and content sharing, there are a good number that don’t have all the features found on myspace and other top tier sites.

            Some of the newest features that many social networking sites are in the process of adopting are applications, surveys, contests, forums, chatting and mobile capability. Myspace and Facebook have been able to reach just about everybody in all markets on an international level and they can only grow more and more, which is saying something about how far they’ve come. Myspace was primarily used at the start for music groups to promote themselves, while facebook was a site for college students to connect; at this point both can be used by anyone with internet use. Some networking sites are designed only for certain people and these sites don’t expect to widen their audience, like eons, faceparty, livedoor, opendiary, zorpia and others. Being open to limited users who fit a certain description is what makes these sites unique and allows them to set themselves apart from their competitors. If people with certain interests prefer smaller networking sites to share content and enjoy their exclusivity, then smaller networking sites are here to stay.  

 

Tags: uamplify, social networking, facebook, myspace, friendster, bebo, orkut, livejournal, niche social networking, eons, faceparty, livedoor, opendiary, zorpia
 

Brands Running E-cards
Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 12:07 PM by Ethan

              E-card campaigns continue to get popular and more widespread and more and more people see the many great uses that a card sent online can have. Out of 153 companies observed, just 16% of them have e-card campaigns on their sites. There are just a handful of major brands out there that have incorporated e-cards into their sites, and the chances of more catching on all depends on who is interested in e-cards and which brands find e-card campaigns to be worthwhile to begin with. Some consumers may go through with sending an e-card through a site that is strictly card oriented, as opposed to going to a corporate business site where a consumer might be more concerned with new products rather than an e-card. The most popular use for an e-card has appeared to be with holiday greetings, and for companies that like to connect with their customers and send out greetings, e-cards can be a useful tool.
            
            Build-a-bear workshop allows users to send a holiday e-card with a variety of layout possibilities with their company theme. Discovery Channel Networks allows users to send an e-card with program themes and animal themes. For someone who is an avid animal lover but who is not so interested in Discovery, perhaps receiving an e-card from a friend will get them interested. This can be just as effective as word of mouth distribution or friend referral or any viral method that can help attract more prospective fans to a website.
 
 

 

Tags: E-cards, greeting cards, holiday cards, e-card themes, e-card layouts, Build-a-bear, Discovery, observational study, brand study, uamplify
 

Rss Feed
Landscape of Social Networking Sites
Brands Running E-cards
December 2011
August 2011
December 2009
August 2009
July 2009
April 2009
August 2008