Social networking has helped increase the amount of media sharing among individuals. Sites such as Flickr, Youtube, Purevolume, and blogger are all massive forms of media sharing. But as you look at the list of sites, media sharing is very segmented. For photos you go to Flickr, for videos you go to Youtube, for music and audio you go to Purevolume, etc. A few startups are trying to bring all of this together into one massive media sharing platform. I was able to speak with one of the founders at one such startup, Twango. From their site they describe themselves as: We recognize that people...

One of the companies I mentioned in my Best of 2007 Predictions is off to a great start. Sermo.com, an exclusive online community for physicians has raised a second round of funding of $9 Million according to employees within the company. This comes shortly after a previous round of $3 million in November 2006. For more details, see my original post about Sermo and general strategies for super niche social networks. [tags]Social Network, Social Networking, Social Media, Niche Social Networking, Online community, Sermo, Brian Balfour[/tags]

Facebook launched more to its facebook mobile platform. Some of the features that are being promoted are: Mobile Web Browsing facebook on your phone, with formatting to fit your mobile screen. Mobile Uploads Upload photos and notes straight from your phone Mobile Texts Send and receive Facebook messages, wall posts and pokes via text messages. Updating status and profile from your phone. They have had some of these features previously, but it looks like they are trying to push the mobile service a little harder. I believe social networking is going to move mobile especially with new devices...

There is a niche social network for almost every interest and/or demographic with numerous more on the way. While niche social networks usually have more revenue options then advertising only (if they’re smart), advertising will still be the dominant revenue source for many. This presents a problem. With a smaller target audience, how will social networks survive on advertising revenue? Ad networks such as TribalFusion, Google Adsense, FastClick, etc. take anywhere from 40% - 70% of advertising revenues in addition to having low CPM’s to begin with. To give you an example, TribalFusion...

I usually don’t stray away from non social networking posts on this blog, but I’m going to make a special case. As reported by BusinessWeek, a person who has had a huge impact on me has died: Momofuku Ando - Inventor of Ramen Noodles Ohhhhh how the impecable flavors of “Oriental”, “Seafood”, “Hot-n-Spicy”, and my all time favorite “Chicken”, have gotten me through my college and young entrepreneur years. In the words of my co-worker Jeff Clark, “Viva la Momofuku….Viva la Ramen Noodles.” [tags]Momofuku Ando, Ramen Noodles,...

Over the weekend I switched my blog over to another server. Surprisingly it went relatively smoothly, or at least I think. I usually don’t have good luck with these types of things which is why I am a bit skeptical. PLEASE let me know if you have been having any problems. The other important item is that my contact email has changed! It is no longer brian at brianbalfour.com, but rather brian at socialdegree.com. I love to hear from readers so please feel free to email me at any time. I’m also looking to redesign my blog. I’ve heard from a few that they have had to pull...

After announcing another round of funding a couple weeks ago, LinkedIN has introduced a new feature called “LinkedIN Answers.” In my opinion they just dramatically increased the value of their network. With the Answers feature, users can ask a question aimed at professionals in specific fields, and other users with knowledge in the specific area can provide answers. By providing quality answers you can earn expert points in particular subjects. Your expert points are featured on your profile and you can appear on the answers homepage. Why is this so powerful? 1.ÂÂ...

UPDATE: Enter in the promotional code “degree” when buying your ticket and receive $45 off. NOTE: I am NOT getting paid or compensated in any way to promote this event. I wanted to tell all my readers about an upcoming conference on social networks and online communites called Community Next. The conference is February 10th at Stanford University. If you are able to go, I HIGHLY recommend it. The line up of speakers is great featuring entrepreneur extraordinaire, Guy Kawaski, Ted Rheingold founder of Dogster and Catster, Jeffery Kalmikoff from Threadless, and more. This line up...

Every blogger is throwing out their predictions for the year 2007, so I figured I might as well throw mine into the bunch. Here are some social networks that I think will be winners in 2007: Yelp: Yelp has one of the most active and dedicated user bases out of any community site on the web. The reviews and content on Yelp far surpasses the quality and usefulness of any other local review site on the web. In addition Yelp is one of the few social networks that is transfering online connections, to real world connections, through Yelp organized events for their members. Next time when you have...

Just got back from a very long vacation. Catching up with everything, so if you emailed me within the past two weeks I promise to respond very soon. 2007 is going to be a very big year for Social Networking, and I look forward to see what will happen.