turning popularity into profits. All have ambitious plans to make money, but few are actually doing so in any meaningful way.Facebook, for example, has amassed 110 million active users but has not yet hit on a solid strategy to generate the kind of revenue that many expected of the much-hyped Silicon Valley start-up. And some of its advertising efforts have backfired. This year, it’s expected to generate $265 million in revenue. Its executives say the big winner in social networking will emerge in the coming years, not coming months.

In fact, founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg says his company just isn’t laser-focused on making money. In an interview with a blogger for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he said: “Growth is primary, revenue is secondary.”

MySpace has a different philosophy, says CEO Chris DeWolfe. It wants friends and advertising dollars. And it’s working hard to get them both.

On Monday, the popular social network is officially launching a self-service advertising program called MySpace MyAds that lets small businesses and individuals create ads tailored to the personal information on its users’ age, gender, location and interests. The minimum ad buy is $25. Pricing is based on clicks on the advertiser’s profile. The ad campaign’s performance can be tracked. And small businesses can charge it on a credit card.

DeWolfe said 3,500 advertisers are already using the program, which has been in …

… private beta for the past three months. He said that average advertising spend has increased year over year and that revenue is up year over year, but he would not be more specific.

“This unlocks a brand new market for us,” he said. “The big difference with MySpace is that we have always been focused on building a real business. The other social networks out there are more focused on either selling their companies in some cases or just building new features.”

At least one analyst agrees.

“A year ago, people were questioning whether social advertising even made sense. This is another example of how the advertising model absolutely does work,” said Richard Greenfield, managing director of Pali Research. “If you put advertising on the page that is relevant to a given consumer, that consumer will not only look, that consumer will click. … This is a very intriguing additional opportunity for small businesses looking to target consumers in a portion of the Internet that is still growing rapidly.”

MySpace is owned by media giant News Corp. In September, News Corp.’s chief operating officer, Peter Chernin, told a Merrill Lynch media conference that the social network’s advertising business was operating “above budget, above where we expected it to be.”

MySpace has been making progress, DeWolfe said, with the launch of MySpace Music and the MySpace.com redesign that made the home page less cluttered and more hospitable to advertising.

It also commands a majority of all money spent on social networks, DeWolfe pointed out. That said, those dollars have not come easy.

Expectations for MySpace were ramped up in 2006 when the site announced a three-year, $900 million advertising pact with Google. Bearish comments in January from Google on how hard it was proving to wring profits from social networking were taken as a reflection on MySpace. “We have found that social networking inventory is not monetizing as well as expected,” George Reyes, then Google’s chief financial officer, said at the time. Under the deal with MySpace, Google must pay revenue even if consumers don’t click on ads.

More broadly, there is concern that social networking users do not view ads, no matter where you put them or how well you target them.

DeWolfe disagrees. And he defended the partnership with the Internet search giant. “Our feeling is that things are going quite well. I think their comments were more of a generalization,” he said.

DeWolfe also says MySpace has not yet felt any impact from the spreading financial crisis despite the expected slowdown in consumer and business spending on advertising dollars.

“We’re cautiously optimistic. We haven’t seen a slowdown here,” he said.

– Jessica Guynn

1. For most companies, 3.9% is the average budget increase for salaries.

Yes, sad but true. According to the 35th annual WorldatWork Salary Budget Survey, the “actual increase in salary budgets was 3.9% in 2008.” The number is expected to stay the same in 2009.

This means, that for most U.S. workers, the average raise will be about the same, with “high performers” receiving about a 5% raise, and “low performers” receiving 2% or less, the survey authors note.

“When people are looking for 6-8%, well, very few people are getting it,” says Rebecca Mazin, co-founder of the HR consulting firm Recruit Right and author of “The HR Answer Book: An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources Professionals.”

Knowing this can make it easier to stomach a 4% raise — while it may not equal big money, it actually means your employer values you. Anything more means you’re likely considered a top performer, and anything less means you may be underperforming.

2. Your employer (or future employer) may not know the current salary averages.

Just because a whole wealth of salary information is online these days doesn’t mean your company has any idea what the normal salary is for a person in your field and in your city. If you do your research and discover your salary is abnormally low, it can be a great negotiation tool when you talk to your boss about your annual raise — or when you’re accepting a new job offer. He or she will realize they could easily lose you since many competitors nearby are paying better.

“You need to go in with some data behind you; you at least need to know what the going rate is,” says Dawn Rosenberg McKay of About.com Guide to Career Planning. “[That way] you’ll know if you’re being outlandish or asking for something ridiculous.”

3. Most managers have a short memory.

Raises are given annually, and so it’s important to keep track of all your achievements within the past year — don’t expect your boss to remember your big project from eight months ago. Using a spreadsheet or a special email folder, keep track of your accomplishments as they happen, so when the time comes, you have a strong case for a raise.

Accomplishments that show you’ve either saved the company money or earned the company money are the best ones to highlight, especially if you can specify an exact figure. If that’s not possible (which is the case for most employees), take note of any extraordinary praise you received from managers or fellow coworkers, any special thanks from clients, and any other ways that demonstrated you went above and beyond your normal job duties.

4. Your manager probably has little influence over your salary.

Decisions about salary increases for all employees at a company are often made at a high level of management. So, even if you follow all the tips above, your manager may have minimal control over your raise. Case in point: Mazin recently worked with a nonprofit organization whose board decided to give every employee the exact same raise.

There’s not a lot you can do in this situation, but if it leaves you feeling dissatisfied or taken for granted, it may be time to look for a new job.

5. Threatening to quit can result in a big wage increase (but it’s risky).

If you’re hoping for a big raise, or were disappointed by a recent raise, you may want to start job searching. For most people, the biggest salary jumps they have in their careers occur when they get a new job or threaten to quit because of a tantalizing job offer.

Sometimes, telling your current employer about your new gig can be a potent bargaining chip — they may be willing to match the new offer just to keep you. But not always, as Mazin points out, so don’t let your plan backfire. Make sure you really want that new job — and are ready to quit your current one — before threatening to quit.

“If you do decide to do it, do it for the right reasons,” Mazin says.

Social networking has become widely adopted in the consumer and personal market place, but has not gotten the anticipated traction in the business world. I’ve been mulling over this market dilemma for a long time and have developed some ideas to explain the lagging business adoption. For clarity, social networking is defined as the bundling of all of the components of communication: wikis, blogs, podcasts, video, content development tools (document and presentation development, and spreadsheet functionality), instant messaging and email. I’d be interested in getting your feedback on these ideas, as well as your thoughts on why we are seeing such a slow adoption of social networking within the business community.

The value in the consumer arena is clear. There are literally hundreds of groups representing a wide variety of interests. These networks are essentially communities of interest. This week I saw a press release for a social network in the consumer market on the topic of shoes. Shoes are a serious topic for some shoppers, and I immediately saw the appeal of the network. Who doesn’t want to know the latest trends in shoes being shown a year in advance at the fashion shows of Paris and Milan? To get a jump on the trend affords buyers the opportunity to look for more affordable knockoffs or comparables even before the new models arrive. The point here, consumer-based social networks tend to be very narrowly focused on a specific topic.

The value of personal social networks is also obvious. By now I am sure you have signed up for Plaxo or LinkedIn or possibly both. Each of these personal networks also provides subdivisions to more narrowly focused networks such as MIT Alumni or Business Intelligence. Individuals obtain value through their professional relationships. Personal networks are not materially different than the old fashioned rolodex, it just puts the information in an electronic location. Where we once picked up the phone to speak with our business contacts, we now send emails or even group emails. The value of personal social networking has not changed, it has just gone electronic.

The value of social networking for business isn’t so clear. Most of the measurable benefits such as improved collaboration and document iteration management is already in place; ditto for customer feedback and customer forums. There are also forums and message boards on most vendors’ products and services that prospects can readily access. In terms of all the components of social networking being on a single platform, we already have that, too, in the form of unified communications (UC). In addition, mobility and mobile access is available from both types of collaboration offers. The drawbacks to social networking in the business environment are no different than those of UC. All of the issues of security come into play including access control and document sharing. I would argue that social networking outside of the corporate firewall, or offered as a service posses a substantial security threat and potential for intellectual property leakage.

What do you think? Is social networking a better solution than unified communications? Why aren’t we seeing a stronger uptake for social networking in business?

Social network software maker, Slide Inc has signed a deal with major media companies to distribute video content on Facebook, capitalizing on the success of social networking.The distribution partnership includes CBS Corp’s CBS Interactive, Comcast Corp’s E! Entertainment channel, Time Warner Inc’s Warner Brothers as well as News Corp and NBC Universal’s jointly-owned video site Hulu, among other companies.

Slide said it has signed revenue sharing advertising agreements with “several key partners” for the video service called “FunSpace Channels” which is to be launched on Thursday.

Other financial details were not disclosed.

San Francisco-based Slide, founded in 2005 by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, said it intends to roll out the service on other social networks over the next year.

“Media companies create and deliver entertainment, social networks connect people, and Slide is the conduit between the two; that’s social entertainment,” Keith Rabois, vice president of strategy and business development said.

Slide made some of the hottest programs running on Facebook and News Corp’s MySpace, including media-sharing applications Slide Shows, Top Friends, SuperPoke! and FunWall.

Slide says that FunSpace is the most popular third-party application on Facebook with 20 million active users monthly.

Frompo.com Provides Countless Hours of Entertainment to Bored Employees

October 1, 2008 — Frompo.com is MySpace meets Facebook. This latest social networking site is a dream for bored employees and a nightmare for their bosses. Frompo.com is the next generation of free, social networking sites. Members can stay in contact with their college friends, share photos, discover new interests and just hang out and play games. From previous experience, the people who work at Frompo.com have learned a lot about what makes social networks fun and believe that with Frompo.com, they have taken social networking to the next level.

Frompo.com is a highly interactive social network website that not only allows users to register their profiles but also provides several other outlets of entertainment and enjoyment. It’s the kind of site where hours can fly by while chatting with friends, blogging, playing games, meeting new people from other countries, getting updates on the news or meeting your next love.

Frompo.com features include:
- Video sharing
- 3D City Second Life Virtual Chat
- Free Video Chat
- Free VOIP Phone
- Flash Chat with Multiple Rooms
- Fantastic and Unique Flash Games
- Romantic 3D Chat
- Create Photo Gallery
- Make own Groups
- Personal Blogs

“Our main goal is to provide as many services to our members as possible, a one-stop networking/entertainment site if you will,” boasts Martin Nodskov, CEO. He continues, “We are constantly improving and adding features to the site to meet the members’ needs and demands. That is how we define our success.”

Contact information:
Martin Nodskov, CEO
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Website: http://www.frompo.com