Category: Uncategorized

YAHOO NEWS — June 8 — 85 million users and counting — Myspace grew 14% in April, 1 million new users every four days. Fox was among the first studios to take full advantage of what MySpace could do. Now many studios and indie distributors are exploiting the site’s extraordinary reach, especially for teens. From simply setting up your own MySpace page, to Fox Searchlight’s one-day ad buy on every single MySpace page for its March horror remake "The Hills Have Eyes," which cost about $500,000. According to Paramount Pictures SVP interactive marketing Amy Powell, MySpace helped the opening of "Failure to Launch" by "getting people engaged in the themes of the film." The MySpace profile offered a contest that would reward the winner with $6,000 to leave their parents and move into their own place.  "I believe the future of interactive marketing is integrated content." 

Mark Brooks: Seems Myspace is spawning a new marketing paradigm. Integrated content.

THE NEW YORK TIMES — June 11 — When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company's president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois. At Facebook the executive found the candidate's Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin' blunts", shooting people and obsessive sex. 

The full article was originally published at IHT.com, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Doh!

PR NEWSWIRE — June 8 — YouthNoise, the (non-profit) social network for young people who want to create social change, raised $2.5m from a consortium of the Omidyar Network, the Surdna Foundation, Skyline Public Works and Virgin Mobile USA. Omidyar Network is a mission-based investment group committed to fostering individual self-empowerment on a global scale. Surdna Foundation is a family foundation that makes grants in the areas of environment, community revitalization, effective citizenry, the arts and the nonprofit sector. Skyline Public Works provides administrative and grant making support for non-profit that promote civic engagement.Youthnoise has 113,000 registered users from 170 countries, with 3 million page views per month. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

OPW — June 8 — Evan Katz, of e-cyrano.com, has authored a cool new book. "Why You’re Still Single: Things Your Friends Would Tell You If You Promised Not to Get Mad"  Very cool. He’s enjoying some great press. So far…Today Show, Extra, CNN’s "Showbiz Tonight", "Fox and Friends", "DaySide" on Fox, New York Daily News, New York Post, Shape Magazine, Tango Magazine, Village Voice and lots more.  Congrats Evan! – Mark Brooks

PR WEB — June 5 — TagDeaf was developed by Alex Chu, founder of the popular deaf forum at AllDeaf. It provides searchable information of interest to the deaf community. FULL ARTICLE @ PRWEB

YAHOO NEWS — May 30 — Classmates (10 years old, 40 million members) will turn users favorites links into advertiser links. e.g. a visitor to a profile listing Shakira as a favorite artist could click on 'Shakira' to hear a song for free, courtesy of RealNetworks' Rhapsody, which sponsors the section. United Online bought Classmates.com for $100 million in October 2004.

PR WEB — May 18 — RateItAll.com social network and review community has leveraged the latest Google Adsense API to enable revenue sharing for its contributing members. Members earn cash for using adding listings, creating a profile with a photo, and referring new members. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Mark Brooks: Buy.com tried luring users/business in with a social network called yub.com, paying commission on sales to members. Nice try. However, 'connectors' won't connect en masse when there's a real and apparent commercial agenda.

PRWEB/PRNEWSWIRE — May 30 — The goal of both MobileDatingWatch.com and OnlinePersonalsWatch.com is to provide news updates to executives, allow the press to research the industry and connect with executives, and be a watchdog protecting user interests. MobileDatingWatch.com: No ads, no fluff, just raw news relevant to the emerging mobile dating industry. FULL ARTICLE @ PRWEB

MARKETING VOX — May 26 — News Corp. is expected to integrate MySpace with its newspaper properties. Murdoch, who was initially skeptical of the internet, now thinks online media operations are fundamental to the survival of publishing. News International publishes The Times, Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World.

The full article was originally published at Marketing Vox, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: OLD WAY: Pick up the newspaper in the morning. NEW (MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY) WAY: Check Yahoo/Google News, NY Times and CNET news and keyword based news alerts. Get daily news via email from favorite industry specific news services/blogs (e.g. OnlinePersonalsWatch.com). CONSEQUENCES: Newspapers acquire online media to quickly learn and retool for the new news way.

NETMIPERATIVE — May 26 — According to Nielsen//NetRatings, MySpace and Bebo, are the fifth- and sixth-biggest brands online in terms of total web page views for April. 33% of Bebo users visit MySpace. 25% of MySpace users visit Bebo. 69% of MySpace's audience is 18+ while the majority of Bebo users, 54%, are under 18. Both Bebo and MySpace have more than 1.2 million female users, but Bebo's smaller size means a greater percentage of its users are women. Bebo reports the higher number of page views and amount of time spent online, 1 hr 52 mins, per user each month.