There’s always a lot of curiosity generated in social media space as to when micro-blogging service Twitter is going to make money. Well, we could soon see that talk getting a stamp of confirmation as Twitter unveiled plans to launch its paid-for-business accounts next year. The privately held micro-blogging platform, which has a valuation of around $1bn after raising an additional $100m in new funding in September, would see this latest announcement as a huge source of relief not just in...

How does it feel when you are at the top at one time and when you no longer hold that position? Quite obviously, the feelings wouldn’t be the same. Social networking site MySpace has experienced both. From being the king in the social networking space (remember: it emerged as the most popular social network in U.S in June, 2006), MySpace is fast losing its presence in the U.S. market. Traffic to the News Corporation-owned social network is dwindling as users continue to migrate to Facebo...

Most brands, especially the new entrants, embrace social networks as part of their brand awareness campaign. And for all these startups, or even the well established corporations, social networking sites are just another route to ensure they are heard loud and clear. Similarly, most people try to seek out more information about a brand after getting to know about it through the social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace among others. But among all these popular social ...

If you think Twitter is the way to go, you weren’t exactly out of place. That’s because the micro-blogging service has become a sort of can’t-do-without-it kind of thing for many. And their recent move to forge a partnership with world’s largest professional social networking site LinkedIn, to share status updates not only underpins their growing importance in the social media space but also affirms Twitter as a hub for professional conversation. The deal, which comes on...

Google’s social networking site Orkut recently went into a makeover mode. The move was hardly surprising as Orkut has been working towards regaining lost ground from rivals Facebook and Twitter. The revamp exercise actually left quite a lot wondering as to why it took so long for Orkut to go for an overhaul considering the social networking company was launched in 2004. Orkut’s refresh look was probably just what the doctor ordered even as Orkut bids to fend off competition from Fac...

With every passing day, more and more organizations are embracing social media to promote their brand. In an era where there is cut-throat competition to acquire a slice of the market pie, organizations are looking at just about anything that can help to enhance their brand image. Generally, there’s a line of thinking that social media platforms can give organizations the cutting-edge market presence. Most organizations actually opt for the social media route as they feel that it helps th...

Different websites use different types of moderation for running their online communities. But generally speaking, there are four categories of moderation. 1.    Pre-moderation 2.    Post-moderation 3.    Reactive moderation 4.    Distributed moderation. Pre-moderation: It’s a process involving moderating the user generated content before it is posted on your site. When a user posts something on your website it can&rsqu...

It is asked sometimes whether Content Moderation is required for an online community to emerge successful. Well, to put things in perspective, it’s safe to assume that any online community, which wants to tread the success path can’t probably do without moderation of user generated content because of the potential threats they can pose to a brand. Moderation of user generated content helps to take the brand to the next level. It provides a brand the fuel to enhance its presence in t...

For any interactive environment that enables consumers to publish content to connect directly with a brand, the risk element can never be ignored. That’s primarily because the user generated content that can display itself to your target audience could at times pan out to be malicious, abusive and defamatory and can easily hurt a brand. It is here that Content Moderation serves as an extremely necessary ingredient in ensuring the user generated content in a particular community matches up ...

Conducting polls on social networking sites are increasingly becoming a regular feature among users. But, one user-generated poll, conducted on leading social networking site Facebook, went horribly wrong as it asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, prompting the US secret service to investigate the matter. According to the Associated Press, the unbecoming poll, posted on Saturday, asked respondents "Should Obama be killed?" The choices: No, Maybe,...