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The Archives
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06.19.08Social Media Deal Flow Continues
Social Media, Venture CapitalPaidContent has released its second installment of the Social Media Deals Report. The team analyzed deal flow a 15-month period starting in January 2007. Some highlights... Venture Investment in Social Media: Total number of investments: 400 Total number of disclosed investments: 341 valued at $2,763,715,000 Average investment size: $8,104,736 Best estimated value of overall investment in the space (disclosed and undisclosed): $3,074,215,000 total invested Acquisitions in the Social Media Space: Total number of acquisitions: 131 Total number of disclosed acquisitions: 41 disclosed valued at $13,422,310,000 Average acquisition size: $327,313,415 Click here to download a free executive summary
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05.11.08Who Are We? Welcome to the Tribe.
Social MediaThe other day I was talking to a friend about the various communications outlets I use such as this blog, my RSS reader, Twitter, Facebook and a host of other services. My friend then asked what kind of people read Leveraging Ideas? I explained that the make-up of my readership is basically smart people who ‘get it’ technology wise. He was surprised that my readership comes from all over the country, including a huge span in age and profession. I explained that this same group of highly-connected people tend to use and interact across a number of different mediums ...
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05.05.08The Anti-Facebook
WorkstreamrWe recently met with a well-known VC who offered the following observation (I am paraphrasing): At its core, Facebook is pure entertainment. It helps people waste time and feel important – and that’s good. However, we believe that there is an opportunity for a company that does the exact opposite of Facebook. Instead of helping a community of people waste time and be entertained, this service would help them get work done and accomplish productive things. The potential market is enormous. Indeed.
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03.24.08The Resurrection of Starbucks
Brands and MarketingIt’s been a while since I wrote about brand reputation optimization, a term I coined last year. However, Starbucks has recently been facing a storm of controversy and I believe how it is handling the adversity is well worth paying attention to. Not too long ago as I sat in a Starbucks already annoyed at having to pay $9.95 for wifi, a barista awkwardly approached me – clearly something was up. “Sir, all Starbucks will be closing early tonight. We are having a major training session among all locations worldwide.” The events of that ‘training session’ have been chronicled on many blogs. While ...
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02.02.08Do I Want to Be Friends with a Brand?
Brands and Marketing, CSRThe relationship of brands within and among social media communities is still in flux. Facebook is one of the first new media companies to attempt to embrace brands outside the context of paid-advertising with the creation of Facebook’s “brand pages.” These pages essentially allow brands to have profiles and friends just like regular Facebook users. At a breakfast I recently attended several people were outspoken over the “friends-with-brands” concept, believing it absurd that people would choose to be friends with a brand. They questioned what benefits a brand could really extract from a ‘social relationship’ with an individual and ...
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01.10.08There’s Something Happening Here…
Brands and MarketingInteresting stuff happening in the interactive space! Brand Architect reports via the Wall Street Journal that, “In an unusual arrangement, which began Jan. 1, (Nokia) has hired Wieden + Kennedy, an eight-office agency with a reputation for creative work, and JWT, the 196-office behemoth based in New York, to market its cellphones globally.” States Patrick, “The implications...are enormous…Global advertising agencies become the production shops of smaller agencies that are essentially the idea company.” So small is the new big, at least in terms of ideas? Can reach and creative be balanced? Innovation Playground believes so, suggesting the future belongs ...
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12.31.07Disney to Spend $10M Per Virtual World
Social NetworkingWeb Playgrounds of the Very Young - New York Times via kwout
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10.31.07Social Architecture
Social MediaA term I have been using with increasing frequently is “social architecture,” particularly in the context of explaining an area of my expertise. To me, social architecture is best thought of as a cross between three elements: interface design, social media functionality and user engagement strategy. The roots of social architecture are in sociology principles, especially relating to community. Social architecture is a sub segment within the growing field of technology, specifically social media. Social media itself spans many genres; from marketing (SMM) to optimization (SMO), to design to PR to communications to development. In my opinion, social architecture ...
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09.27.06I am Going to Tell You the Future of Social Networks - Listen Up!
Social NetworkingBy: Sam Huleatt Social networking is a very hot topic among young professionals and college students because social networks are engaging and they are fun. Because of this, millions of young people subscribe to various networks such as Facebook or MySpace or Friendster. And because millions of young people subscribe to them, other thousands of people are trying to make money off the popularity of these networks. Simple. However, for most fickle 20 somethings the 'shelf life' of a social network is inherently limited, unless the user receives some value that compels them to stay on the site. It's sort of like ...
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