Today I decided to check out Zwinky.com to get a feel for it and how it works. To start, I had to sign up – which I was expecting – however what I wasn’t expecting was to do anything in this virtual world I had to download “add on” programs.

Feeling a little too lazy to sift through a 21 page user agreement, and curious to the detriment of my downloads, I discovered an article by The Media Desk that points out that once the Zwinky is installed, the MyWebSearch toolbar is installed. Zwinky tells you this in the agreement. But what they don’t tell you is that this toolbar collects personal information through tracking cookies and pixel tags, which allows the company to see where you came from, what you do on the web, and how long you stay there.

Yes – this is spyware. And those harmless emoticons are installed automatically without a user’s knowledge are what’s known as malware. Put on without your knowledge, and sometimes more harmful to uninstall.

Humorously enough, Zwinky states the following:

“We hate adware and spyware as much as you do. Toolbar companies that sneak these annoyances into their downloads hurt the reputation of every company that provides a free toolbar for download. Rest assured, we only provide fun features on our toolbar”

Google is at it again – another acquisition that leads to free tools and services. The latest? News feed management service FeedBurner.

If you have a website or blog I encourage you to check it out. Because what an acquisition by Google really means is that Feedburner’s RSS analytic and management services such as TotalStats and MyBrand (once only available for paid members) are now free.

It also means that optimization just got easier and you have no excuse (not even price) to know who you are speaking to and how effective your site or blog is being. It’s reporting can tell you exactly how many people have clicked in your feed, the number of subscribers you have, and even the total number of podcast downloads you receive.

And in case you think this is too good to be true – there’s even more stats it can provide that I haven’t listed.

Check it out. Enjoy.

Essentially, Crowdsourcing has emerged on the internet by the ability of using the talents or time of the masses to contribute to an end product. This concept has made open source ideas like Firefox possible, and numerous sites like Flickr flourish.

However, in a very interesting article in Wired, I learned of a 19 year-old Ragnar Danneskjold, the creator of Subvert and Profit that is using the concept of crowdsourcing for his own good.

Under the alias of the fictional character in Ayn Rand’s book, “Atlas Shrugged”, Ragnar is actually making a business out of manipulating social media sites like Digg or StumbleUpon by outsourcing votes and guaranteeing paid advertisers front page placement.

The concept itself is simple - not getting caught by the sites, however is the challenge. Sites like Digg continually investigate and ban suspicious users to maintain the democracy of the site. However, as S&P grows in users, the harder they are to detect.

Believe it or not this business practice is completely legal - all that social media sites can do is ban members who violate the terms of service. The real question is - is this ethical? Is there a difference between optimization and manipulation?

Lately there has been much talk in the media (and our blog) about Web 2.0 within consumer markets – primarily the success of social networking sites.

However, while many of these Web 2.0 applications have been primarily focused on consumers, on the horizon are applications of Web 2.0 that can be applied to the business and industry setting.

One such application of this is Open Architecture Network , a site that sheds light on the potential influence and impact of Web 2.0 within the business arena. The site currently serves as a web-based network and database for architects sharing the same goal: to improve the living standards of 5 billion people -a number proposed to be living in poverty by 2020.

While it is easy to dismiss this as “just another advocacy site”, I think it shows enormous potential. The free site allows users from around the world to share information on specific architectural projects, post design tools, and ultimately provide cultural and geographic-relevant solutions to low-cost housing.

And while this seemingly resembles a forum, nearly 40% of its members are using it as a project management tool – a way to manage project schedules, share information, and even draft drawings. The site is also building multiple-language versions, a Google mapping application that will plot projects and areas of need, and the ability of users to view CAD files.

OAN has utilized Web 2.0 to bring collective intelligence and peer production to the business forefront. How long will it take for other organizations to realize its application?

According to a recent article by AdAge, consumers are seeking elsewhere to build their “second life” – ironically in places other than SecondLife.com .

Second Life (a video game virtual world that allows users to create real-life versions of themselves) has no doubt hit a wave of attention over the past year as it hit mainstream news media. And along with this added attention, companies have and continue to enter into the virtual world of Second Life hoping users will interact and connect with their brands.

Surprisingly however, emerging sites such as Zwinky, Stardoll, and Doppelganger are noticing higher volumes. For example, while SecondLife.com accumulated just under 4 million unique visits in an entire year, Zwinky gained nearly 3.6 million in May alone.

What is causing this shift? I think that it is the developments these emerging sites are making; many of which are offering safer, more controlled environments, while leveraging to a younger audience.

Take Zwinky.com for instance, who just accomplished the first avatar-only concert, featuring Columbia Records artists Kelly Rowland and Teddy Geiger. And Stardoll.com, (a site that lets visitors dress up virtual-paper-doll likenesses) is now leveraging partnerships with Avril Lavigne and Hilary Duff in order to attract and interact with the 8-14 demographic and to promote the artists’ album releases, clothing, and tour dates.

These sites are smart – simply because they understand how to segment and expand to a different audience. In order to effectively use these sites however, advertisers must be slightly ahead of these trends and aware of emerging sites.

If you’ve ever watched the movie Weird Science, you remember the two nerds that create their “dream woman”. Perhaps the same is happening over at Proctor & Gamble, who created Miss Irresistible – the “freshest” babe to enter the social media network and specifically designed to promote P&G products like Crest and Scope. With over 40,000 friends on MySpace (and growing), she is equipped with a profile listing her “most irresistibles”, including none other than her favorite toothpaste and mouthwash, favorite dessert, and yes – her secret weapon: fresh breath.

Beyond this is the encouragement (and viral marketing attempt) she brings for viewers to send “naughty or nice e-Cards”, e-cards designed with witty sayings like “I wanna get fresh with you” and allow users to personalize with user’s photos.

Is this an attempt to reach niche audiences or an attempt to freshen a decades old brand? It seems P&G is and other large companies are beginning to understand social media marketing campaigns like Miss Irresistible can do both. H.J. Heinz Co. has a create-your-own video commercial contest, and Hellman’s mayonnaise is behind a food and cooking site featuring a video series and blog with chef Dave Lieberman.

Particularly interesting is the effect these key players will have on social media. Will audiences that are targeted by these companies move to newly emerging and less mainstream social media sites?

You hear it regularly. “MySpace is dead. Everyone is going to Facebook.” But the same article I mentioned in the last post makes a point that few too people consider as they lump them together.

MySpace is a space for your interests—like music or movies, and it’s a place to have fun with your personality. I mean, nobody thinks that the avatar in Second Life with the rodent head actually looks like that.

Facebook, on the other hand, started out as the online version of that college directory we all got freshman year. We called it the Pigbook more than the Facebook, but you get the idea. So it was, from day one, about you in a very real way. So instead of being a place for fantasy, it was a place to share a bit about yourself, to connect with friends, to stay in the loop with your group.

To this day, the legacy of both of those formations continues. MySpace was free and open from the beginning—thus the 68 million to 26 million user advantage over Facebook, which started as a tightly controlled community before recently opening up.

It is, and will continue to be interesting to watch growth rates, but in some ways watching the growth of LinkedIn versus the growth of Facebook is more logical.

www.ignitesocialmedia.com

For a lot of chief marketing officers and vice presidents of marketing, figure out social media and social networking sites is challenging enough. But for those willing to put a toe in the water, knowing where to put that toe based on good data is challenging, too.

Business Week is reporting now on data from comScore, which shows a tremendous amount of important statistics on two of the big social networking sites, including:

• Traffic counts put MySpace way in the lead
  • 68 million users on MySpace last month
  • 26 million users on Facebook last month
• MySpace has an older demographic
  • 50% of MySpace users are over age 35, while only 17% are 18-24
  • 40% of Facebook users are over age 35, while 29% are college students
• Facebook attracts a significantly wealthier demographic
• They are not mutually exclusive audiences. In fact, there’s a 64% overlap between the two sites.

This sort of data are becoming increasingly important as advertisers start to shift more media dollars to social media sites. Google alone paid $900 million to advertise on MySpace.

More to come…

Funny story emerged on the blogosphere about Facebook, the power of social media and the power of social networking sites.

Turns out some guy named Thomas Crampton decided his Facebook profile shared a bit too much public information. He and his fiance had indicated they were engaged to one another. They both decided to remove that bit of information. Seems simple enough, right?

For those of you who don’t use Facebook, a step back… Facebook has a news feed feature that sends your updates to all your Facebook friends, appearing as one line updates on their pages. A nice way to keep in touch I suppose. Here’s the rub:

Facebook sent out this news when they unchecked that box: “Thomas Crampton and Thuy-Tien Tran are no longer engaged.” It sent it to everyone in their friends network without him realizing it. The friends forwarded it. One Twitter’d about it, which goes to his 800 readers. Across the globe, before he’d even known about it. He figured it out when people started asking if he was ok.

That’s funny… And also a bit of a cautionary tale.

MySpace Fashion has launched, an effort by MySpace to chunk their massive user network into groups that advertisers will pay for. So far, they have 50,000 friends on the network. Look for it to become its own tab along with “music” and videos.

But the real reason is to find a way to host banner ads from fashion companies. Here’s the challenge: Ads from which companies?

As AdAge points out in a good article, MySpace Fashion is currently running a banner ad for Bratz, which is a decidedly young demo. Is that the niche, or is it more mature, or more upscale. And will upscale brands advertise on MySpace, which isn’t exactly a luxury brand. InStyle.com, on the other hand, has it right. They are serving up buckets of content via MySpace Fashion (the average visitor to MySpace Fashion reads 26 pages of InStyle’s content), which helps extend their brand.

While MySpace works out the wrinkles, the fact remains that marketing via social media sites is here to stay. Let’s hope some smart folks realize it’s much more than banner ads.