Archive for June, 2008

Why do Corporate Facebook Apps Often Fail?

Posted 28 June 2008 | By | Categories: Case Studies, Social Media | 148 Comments

In a previous post, it was seen that two college students could, in their spare time, make an unofficial brand application that attracted hundreds of thousands of users. But what about the official applications? Why is it that so often, when companies invest a great deal of time and effort into creating applications, they fail? [...]

Are Privacy Concerns on Facebook and MySpace Warranted?

Posted 23 June 2008 | By | Categories: Industry News, Social Media | 142 Comments

Recently, reports from the BBC and Washington Post have raised questions about the privacy implications of applications on Facebook, MySpace, and other sites. As usual in today’s journalism, there is a bit of sensationalism, a little fear mongering, and a dose of misinformation tossed together with a few actual facts. In order to really understand [...]

Will Cracking Down on Spam Improve the Usefulness of Social Applications?

Posted 04 June 2008 | By | Categories: Social Media | 71 Comments

One of the most frequently used phrases regarding social media applications is “viral growth”. In an ideal world, this would mean that apps would provide some value to users who would then pass it on to their friends. In reality what happened is that the primary business model rapidly became forcing users to spam all [...]