There has been a lot of social networking news around today, and for once it has not all been surrounding Facebook and its privacy settings. BrandRepublic has an interesting post on how the progress of social networks will rise to create brand advocates, “highly influential, outspoken figures” who have real influnce in the social networks they partake in. They dub the brand advocates as one of the biggest challenges for companies trying to tap into user generated content. The FT further commented on this news, urging companies to set aside parts of their budgets to “woo”? these advocates. In this story, Facebook was quoted as the fourth most popular site in the UK this month – contradicting comScore figures as reported by GigaOm, which cites MySpace as having almost twice as many unique visitors as its rival in December, though usage is in decline.
Meanwhile the Guardian reports that social networks are set to rise due to specialist networking sites starting up for niche markets such as Saga zone that has been recently launched for the over 50s. The Guardian also points out that companies that did not understand web 2.0’s culture paid the price, and that 2008 will be no different. It seems that the social networking sites will be keeping everyone on their toes for another year yet.
