Now we’re told (via the Telegraph) that Facebook has a new revenue model, by turning the platform into a tool corporates can use for market research. Facebook will (says the Telegraph) allow companies to selectively target Facebook users to research their new products. They say companies will be able to pose questions to selected members, using the social network as a kind of straw poll. That’s great for companies, it can take a long time to get the right people selected for a survey or focus group, but you can make the selection process much quicker when you have access to the kind of data Facebook has about users.

So, what incentive for the users? I don’t know about you, but if I start getting random questions popping up in Facebook from brands who want my opinion I’m unlikely to respond unless I feel there’s some value in me doing so. If brands are going to use me to improve their product offering; and out of that Facebook is going to make some money, then should they be paying users for their time and opinions?

Building a brand with widgets gives a good overview as to why it may be important to your brand to embrace new technologies and distribution channels such as widgets in order to promote your brand and discusses the viral aspects that can make brands fly online.

Widgets: The future of online ads is a piece singing the praises of widgets and all they stand for. On the flip side Why widgets don’t work is a counterpoint playing devils advocate.

A widget mogul in between classes is about the up and coming Facebook app developer Ankur Nagpal who’s made six figures at the age of 19 creating apps for Facebook.

When Facebook ads flop introduces us to some of the many unused Facebook applications and gives reasons for their failure. What’s good about this piece is the fact that most of the apps are from large companies with mature marketing strategies and yet they’ve still got it wrong, should be a warning to us all.

The CEO guide to widgets is a podcast talking about the use of widgets for advertising on social networks.

Finally, Making money from widgets is a video interview with VideoEgg CEO Matt Sanchez discussing how to go about monetising the widget world.

Great series of articles, definitely recommend sending this to your CEO (or manager…) if they really don’t seem to get it yet!

Maybe there’s some jealousy leaking out in the recent stories… For my opinion on Facebooks traffic dip go here.

Yes, Facebook etc can be used to launch attacks or lure unsuspecting users to pages which contain malicious code but the stories I’m seeing keep talking about companies being put off implementing their own web 2.0 features by this.

Don’t let it put you off; architect it properly, monitor it and input to the conversation so you know whats going on and you should keep abreast of any issues.

If you’re planning another Facebook though then maybe try putting security at the heart of it

I have my own opinion… I think it’s purely the January blues. Think about it; December is a huge month for keeping up with friends, arranging events and parties and reconnecting with old acquaintances. Come January though, we’re all back at work, busy, tired, dieting, looking for holidays and generally keeping a lid on the credit card as we recover from the spending excess.

Now does a dip in January seem that unusual for a social network which basically encourages social interaction between friends?

Alright, I may be being a little blaise but I wouldn’t read too much into the dip and I certainly wouldn’t be talking about the demise of Facebook quite yet.

Figures like this make it hard for marketers and PR people to ignore. Any potential traffic source of that magnitude has to be tapped into and quickly before your competitors figure out all the cool ways to make use of a social network and you end up looking like someone who’s following their lead. It’s still imperative to add value though, just diving in with a load of offers isn’t good enough, you need to engage and add value to your prospects experience of Facebook (while at the same time acquiring new prospects and customers).

An admissions tutor from Cambridge Uni in the UK has admitted that he checks up on potential students Facebook profiles. Of course the uni’s insist that a students success or failure to be admitted is purely down to their performance in interviews, academic record etc, not because of what their social network profile contains.

Many people feel this is really intrusive, but I believe it’s a natural course for anyone to take when there is information out there. This again reinforces my belief that you should never post anything up on a social network that you wouldn’t want your boss/tutor/Mum/priest to see!

Watchmouse performed some tests on most of the major social websites of the moment. The Watchmouse Site Performance Index quantifies the users perception of website speed and availability using the load time of the homepage with added penalties for components that fail to load. A very useful metric.

Out of 104 sites monitored 51 showed a Site Performance Index of over 1000 which indicates a slow load time which could result in a poor user experience.

Facebook came off worst of the lot. I’ve been finding Facebook increasingly frustrating with it’s slow response times. I think it’s time they put some of that funding to good use and increase the size of their data centres (or maybe look at their architecture).

The full results of the testing can be seen here.

fbCal is an app that allows you to export date related items such as birthdays and events out of Facebook and import them directly into a calendar such as Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple iCal.

It’s brilliant! I’ve just organised myself for remembering friends birthdays for the first time ever!