Marketers Identify Social Networks As Top Priority

Social networks may become home to a lot more marketers this year.  The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) surveyed a number of senior marketing execs, and found that many of them have made social networks and applications their top priority in 2010.

Indeed, a whopping 45.4 percent of the people involved in SoDA's Digital Marketing Outlook study indicated that they consider social networks and applications to be a top priority, and although this isn't quite a majority, significantly fewer people said the same thing about digital infrastructure, search optimization, and everything else.

Extremely few marketers consider social networks and applications to be irrelevant, too.

These are likely to be good signs for Facebook, MySpace, and perhaps Twitter in particular (since it's still in search of a steady source of revenue).  Even users shouldn't mind the corporate participation, since an ad from a mainstream company is likely to be better received than something promoting a random dating site.  And social media campaigns can be better still.

Of course, SoDA's information is a bit odd in light of the fact that people speaking for both Facebook and Twitter have said the companies won't IPO this year.

Have You Read This?

> Facebook Investor Promises "No Near Term IPO"

> Twitter COO Effectively Rules Out 2010 IPO

> Facebook Page Owners Getting More Stats

Twitter Not Ready For IPO Fortunes

"We’ve raised all this money. We’ve created this global brand…Now we have to go build the business that lives up to that valuation."

Twitter COO, Dick Costolo, January 20, 2010

And that, my friend, is why we won’t see a Twitter IPO this year. That, and this really obscure New Yorker reference:

“My view of our financial future is like that old New Yorker cover where the New Yorker looks at the view of the United States and the IPO is way out west somewhere,” Costolo said yesterday during a panel discussion at Bloomberg’s San Francisco bureau. “Bronx and Queens are our 2010 financial plan, and that’s what we’re focused on right now.”

You could argue, that Twitter needs to be closer to Madison Avenue than the Bronx, but I think we all get his point–Twitter’s just not ready to head west and make its fortunes in an IPO.

Aside from figuring out how exactly it plans to generate revenue, the other monkey on its back isn’t actually a monkey at all–it’s a whale!

The company really needs to figure out how to avoid such random outages. A few of these immediately prior to an IPO, and it won’t be just whales that are sinking–Twitter’s opening-day valuation won’t be able to tread-water either!

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Inactive Twitter Usernames Scheduled For Recycling

If you're not happy with your Twitter username - or if you are, but don't love Twitter and haven't logged in for a while - listen up.  The usernames attached to inactive accounts may soon be made available for the taking.

In fact, the release of idle usernames is almost sure to occur.  The cutoff regarding inactivity has probably been set, too - Martin Bryant found a policy referring to the automatic removal of accounts after six months.

The most important detail - when the big release will take place - is just a little fuzzy.  Bryant wrote, "We reached out to Twitter for comment . . . and a spokesperson for the company told me that the company plans to release all inactive usernames and deleted usernames in the future but doesn't have a date set yet."

So make preparations for the event as best you can, whether that means signing into a few accounts you've let collect dust or setting up a sophisticated email alert system for when a username becomes free.

Something of a land rush is practically guaranteed to occur, and insofar as that'll represent (and generate) more interest in Twitter, the company's decision to make this move is looking pretty smart.

Have You Read This?

> More Reporters Using Facebook And Twitter For Story Research

> Twitter COO Effectively Rules Out 2010 IPO

> Twitter Earns Itself A Candy Heart Phrase

(Private) Facebook Shares Up 42% In Four Months

Some time ago, Mark Zuckerberg began allowing Facebook employees to make a quick buck by selling their shares through private channels (as opposed to waiting for Facebook to hit the Nasdaq or Dow).  Since then, many have done exactly that.  The interesting thing is that the price of Facebook's stock has risen a whole lot in recent months.

Brian Womack talked to Adam Oliveri, a managing director at SecondMarket, and discovered, "Facebook shares are currently selling for about $21 each . . . .  That's up from $14.77 in July."  Which works out to a gain of 42 percent.

The Dow, by comparison, has risen about 23 percent in the same period.  And the Nasdaq - which, with all its tech stocks, makes for a better point of comparison - is only up 20 percent.

So why all the interest in Facebook?  Well, its growth rate has been spectacular.  And it's not like similar companies are going unnoticed; just yesterday, we reported a big transaction involving Xing.

Still, it looks like folks are again expecting a Facebook IPO.  Paul Bard, a Renaissance Capital analyst, told Womack, "The fact that the stock on these private exchanges moved - I'm sure that has to do with the fact that people think a deal is coming sooner rather than later."

Have You Read This?

> Facebook Catapults Into Third Place Among Video Sites

> Facebook Most Widely Used Network Among Businesses

> Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More For Google/Bing Rankings

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