Small Investment: McKinsey Study Suggests Big Web 2.0 Divdends From Small Cadre of Highly Socially-Networked Users

An August 2007 McKinsey study http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=2041&l2=17&l3=104&srid=17 sees high returns in online participatory media from the quality contributions of a small cadre of high quality, widely socially networked particpants. So instrumental are the high-quality contributors to developing high-quality content, study notes that "to gain a wider audience, some sites in Europe and elsewhere are beginning to share a percentage of their advertising revenues with the top contributors."

Social Media Finds Traction With (Big) Boomer Demographic: Investors Take Note

Like other tech products that teens and early movers first seized on, social networking sites also are attracting a broader audience--of boomers--78 million in number and 3x the size of the teen market. Investors appear to be taking notice. The NY Times reports http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/technology/12social.html?em&ex=1189828800&en=dba0be3c324d09fd&ei=5087%0A
that several SM sites have opened catering to a demographic interested in sites of their own. "Last week, VantagePoint Ventures, an early investor in MySpace, announced that it had led a $16.5 million round of financing for Multiply, a social networking site aimed at people who are settled. In August, Shasta Ventures led a $4.8 million financing round for TeeBeeDee, a site coming out of its test stage this month. The name is short for “To Be Determined” (as in: just because you’re not trolling for a mate on MySpace doesn’t mean your life is over.) Also in August, Johnson & Johnson spent $10 million to $20 million to acquire Maya’s Mom, a social networking site for parents, according to a person briefed on the deal. The site has been in existence about a year."

Social Media Site Selected for Original Television Programming

Social media is accelerating the migration of original television programming to the web.
The New York Times reports http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/business/media/13quarterlife.html
that two television producers, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick made a deal with MySpace, to produce an original Web series. Called “Quarterlife”, the show is described as "a regular television series, made by network-caliber writers, directors and production crews. Each hourlong episode — about young people struggling to find their way after college — will be broken into six shorter segments, with a new one posted on MySpace TV each Sunday and Thursday night, beginning Nov. 11.".
..beginning to look like even 10X facebook's earnings may be too low a metric for prospective buyers!

Consumers Vote With More Than Wallets: Social Media's Growing Influence

...The Wall Street Journal reports http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/ that McKinsey study comfirms that "most companies undervalue"the influence tech plays in marketing: "In many companies the online marketing group is an offshoot of the traditional marketing group - a separate intity with a separate budget tasked with managing a company's brand on the Web. That structure may be preventing companiews from seeing how valuable the online channel activity actually is."

Social Media Not Just for Socializing...

Investment Banks Worry Social Media cuts Productivity: According to Rueters http://blogs.reuters.com/2007/07/31/banks-try-but-cant-block-facebook/Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Holdings, Bear Sterns, and UBS all deny it’s employees access to Facebook while on the clock, but almost 20 percent of Goldman’s employees belong to the Goldman Sachs network on Facebook, and Lehman has 10.3 percent of its employees on their Facebook network.

But Social Media Will Enhance Financial Services Productivity: Investment professionals should soon migrate to SM drawn to the professional networking, and efficiency-enhancing information-sharing that Social Media’s interface offers. As professionals migrate to sites, professional high-grading of Social Media image should follow.