[Asis-l] Major-Major New Report: _Never Ending Friending: A Journey Into Social Networking_

[Gerry Mckiernan]

***APOLOGIES FOR RECEIPT OF DUPLICATE POSTINGS***

Friends/

_Never Ending Friending: A Journey Into Social Networking_ (April
2007)

A Major-Major New Report on Social Networking commissioned by Fox
Interactive Media:

_Introduction_
Depending on your vantage point, social networking represents:

***A fad, especially among the young and tech-obsessed
***An unprecedented tool for keeping in touch with friends and family
*** A disruptive, unscripted environment
***An unparalleled opportunity for brands and consumers to make real
connections
***Some combination of all of the above ... and then some.

Interestingly, despite all the talk -- the water cooler pronouncements,
the breathless media coverage, and the teenage conversations you may
have overheard at home and in your communities -- social networking
remains a relatively new and under-examined topic.

What's real? What's true? What works?

Nobody really knows.

In early 2007, MySpace aimed to change that. We embarked on a
nationwide "listening tour," a series of qualitative research sessions
among users of social networking sites. In concert, we fielded a
groundbreaking quantitative study among a national sample of social
networking users and non-users. Together, these two methods aimed at
uncovering the myriad motivations, attitudes, and behaviors that
underlie present growth of this exciting new arena and will shape its
future in the days ahead.

We wanted the answers to questions such as:

- Are social networks merely a fun sideline to real life, or do they
represent a fundamental change in the way people are interacting with
each other, and with media at large?

- How much time and energy are users devoting to social networking, and
to what end?

- How does social networking fit into the overall media landscape and
into the online media landscape?

- What*s the primary function of social networks?

- What opportunities, if any, exist for brands to create more
meaningful consumer connections within these social networks?

- Where does MySpace fit within the category landscape?

- What role does MySpace play in consumers* everyday lives?

- What activities do users participate in while on social networks?

- How do social networks generate value for brands?

- What are the right model and metrics to summarize and manage any
brand value creation?

After listening to respondents, crunching numbers, and working to
synthesize all this data into a singular narrative, we happened upon a
simple phrase that we think best expresses the emerging new world of
social networks: *never ending friending*. [snip]

In summary, we learned that social networking is a quantum change in
how we interact - with each other, with bands and brands, and with the
entire media landscape.

[snip]

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
The Insider*s View of the Evolving World of Social Networking -
Consumer research by TNS & TRU

Chapter 2
The Momentum Effect: Creating Brand Value in the Social Networking
Space - Advertising research by Marketing Evolution

Chapter 3
Implications for Brands and Agencies

Full Text Available Through 

[
http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2007/08/never-ending-friending-journey-into.html
]

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 5011

!!! Social Networking is People !!!
[ http://www.facebook.com/p/Gerry_McKiernan/16926735 ]

Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind Blows ...
[ http://alternativeenergyblogs.blogspot.com/ ]