The Social Media Minute (30 Jan ’09)

By John Conroy | Published Jan 30, 2009

Social Media moves so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Here’s the week’s top Social stories, in scan-friendly format.

This Week:

TwitterWorth US$250m, Gets US$20m Injection
Digg Restructures to Find Profits: Poaches Yahoo! Exec.
Facebook Rolls Out Ad-Driven Polls
Ad Network Social Media Bags US$6m
Superbowl Advertising, Web 2.0-Style
The Greatest Superbowl Snack Stadium Ever

Twitter Worth US$250m, Gets US$20m Injection

Michael Arrington’s sources tell him that Twitter has secured a new round of funding

totalling at least US$20m. You can add this to the pile that it got from Jeff Bezos’ venture capital arm during the summer. That injection priced the company at US$100m , but Techcrunch reckons that the new round prices Twitter at US$250m.

Facebook tabled an audacious takeover bid for Twitter a couple of months ago, offering a nominal US$500m deal comprised mostly of Facebook stock. Not least because nobody has any idea what Facebook stock is actually worth, Biz Stone and the boys knocked Zuckerburg back.

Digg Restructures to Find Profits: Poaches Yahoo! Exec.

Techcrunch reported in December that Digg pulled in close to US$8m in revenues last year and posted a loss of close to close to US$5m. One reason is that it’s top-heavy with engineers and technical practitioners, a bit of a hackers playground. Great product, great innovation, no monetization.

To fix this, it’s ‘restructuring’, which is bean-counter terminology for dumping around 10% of its 75 employees , while hiring some marketing and sales types to replace them to increase revenues per user. And first in the door under the new regime is new head of sales Tom Shin, who they’ve poached from Yahoo!

The job cuts are unfortunate, because the earlier plan had been to double staff to 150, and profits be damned until at least 2010. But the new approach should ensure either a drastic reduction in losses or a first profit for 2009. Which will give Kevin Rose a reason to attack the Digg fridge and crack open a Guinness.

Facebook Rolls Out Ad-Driven Polls

In contrast to some other social platforms we could mention, Facebook never takes its beady eye off the bottom line, and is always coming up with innovative ways to turn a buck.

The latest example extends its ‘engagement advertising’ ethos to polls. CareerBuilder.com is running Facebook ads which invite user participation by submitting to a poll (ie ‘Who’s going to win the game on Sunday, Arizona or Pittsburgh?)

Eric Eldon at Venturebeat reports:

“Advertisers can run a poll on a member’s home page, and when a user answers a poll question … they can see how this member’s Facebook friends and other people have voted.”

Ad Network Social Media Bags US$6m

Despite grim warnings about VC drying up all over, investors are still finding cash to splurge if the opportunity is good enough. Ad network Social Media delivers ads for the top social media platforms, and has shown enough promise to merit a sizable US$6m injection from its investment partners.

Social Media Co. pulled in between US$15m and US$20m last year from its ads on Facebook and elsewhere.

Superbowl Advertising, Web 2.0-Style

You might have thought that Super Sunday was all about watching 350-pound ogres pounding each other into the dust for nothing more than glory, and millions in salary and endorsements. But the real action will take place during the ad-breaks, where the corporate behemoths will do much the same thing to each other for the crown of ‘most-talked-about’ advertisement for their 30-second slot. And Social Media has become part of the overall strategy for corporations’ Superbowl campaign, as Internet News reports.

E*Trade is trying to generate buzz for it’s stock-buying baby on Twitter, CareerBuilder.com is all over Facebook, Cars.com is focusing on YouTube. And when all is said and done, the marketing teams will sit down and scour the social platforms as a primary source to see how their ads went down with the public at large, and to see whether they’ll have a job on Tuesday morning…

If you want to see Superbowl ads from years past, or have an interest in Superbowl-ad gossip, head over to SuperbowlAds.com. To view and rate your faves from this year, check out the AdBlitz YouTube channel.

The Greatest Superbowl Snack Stadium Ever

Finally, one of the most magnificent creations we've ever borne witness to. Like a team of latter-day Michelangelo's the crew at Holy Taco have brought the most mundane of ingredients and crafted something of such power and grandeur, It could 'nary bring naught but tears to the hardest man's eyes that might ever be blessed enough to behold it:

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, we sometimes get tied up with corporate greed and branded brainwashing, and forget what the Superbowl is really about. Which is of course stadiums made of Twinkies, bacon, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, four types of chips and Vienna sausage. Total calorie count: a mere 25,000 sans beer.