Strategy+report+draft+edit


 * Below are the revisions I suggested in class for the first two sections of these strategy report drafts. You can see the original text at: @http://engl317s10.wikispaces.com/page/view/Strategy+report+draft+edit/122113619**

To: Proximity Social networking team From: Date: February 18, 2010 Subject: Google Buzz strategy analysis

Below you will find my strategy report on Google Buzz. Still needs to forecast Buzz strategy and Gen-Y implications.

Google Buzz was established as a free social networking application by Google, which was incorporated in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PhD students at Stanford University. Its current CEO is Dr. Eric Schmidt. The company is based out of Silicon Valley.
 * Profile**

Google has revolutionized the internet with its array of technology, websites, and applications, and its automated search engine. The mission of Google is, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful.”

Google gets most of its revenues by selling targeted ads associated with search words rds and phrases In 2009, it reported revenues of 23.65 billion dollars, up 9% from 2008. Besides its popular search engine and its newest edition of Google Buzz, Google is also well-known for applications such as Google Docs and Google mapsas well Google Nexus, a smart phone unveiled in 2010.1

The social networking competitive landscape is dominated by two forces:
 * Competitive Landscape**
 * head to head rivalry between Facebook and MySpace
 * user's ability to easily switch sites - e.g. when consumers left Myspace to pursue networking on Facebook.


 * Google Buzz’s Strategy**

This section still needs work

Facebook is the prevailing social networking site Facebook offers users the ability to connect instantaneously with each other through the use of wall posts, picture uploading, and link and video sharing.3

Google Buzz offers similar capabilities and once it has been created a user can opt to have their Gmail contacts imported into their feed. Another feature that Buzz offers a “localization powerhouse,” meaning that users can see where a user is and the activity in his or her geographical location.4

TO: Proximity Social Networking Team FROM: DATE: February 22, 2010 SUBJECT: Faceook strategy analysis

Here is my Facebook strategy analysis. Although Facebook dominates the social networking market, many analysts think consumer power jeopardizes Facebook future. Needs Gen-Y implications.

Facebook, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc, was started by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates at Harvard. The website's membership, initially limited to Harvard students, was expanded to include students from other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. It currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide (Wikipedia, 2010.)
 * Profile **

Facebook's estimated annual sales is $300 million. Microsoft bought 1.6% stake for $240 million last October. That deal led many to suggest the company is worth $15 billion (Bertoni and Gell, 2008

The dominant forces shaping the social networking landscape is consumer power and the head to head rivalry between Facebook and Myspace (134 million views vs. 51 million views in Jan. 2009) Although Facebook is clearly winning this battle, users easily switch to another, more intriguing social networking site. It must therefore continually upgrade its features to keep a critical mass of users for advertisers to target.
 * Competitive landscape **


 * Facebook’s strategy **

The rest of this info needs to be organized to show what Facebook is doing to retain users and stay ahead of the game.

Since each Social Networking site offers different features, the number of social networking sites available on the web could add competition to Facebook, and or, could decrease the number of users who obtain a Facebook account.

Some companies provide new innovative features which extend the social networking experience into the real world. Another social networking feature in a professional aspect is Linkedin.com. This social network allows professionals to exchange information, opportunities, and ideas. Professionals are able to stay informed with new knowledge about their field (Wikipedia, 2010).

Other social network competitors include Friendster, LinkdIn, Myspace and Twitter. However, Siteanalytics.compete.com, reports that Facebook has accumulated 133,623,529 visitors, where as, LinkdIn, had only accumulated 6,431 views, in January 2010. However, Facebook’s biggest competitor in the social networking world is Myspace who accumulated 50,615,444 views. As stated on Facebook.com, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the [|US] with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better (Eldon, 2008).

The biggest question regarding Facebook’s future income is how Facebook will make all their money off of their users. The company has been experimenting with a variety of ways for users to share information about advertisers on the site. For example, an advertiser can set up a “Page” about a product, and then users can become fans. When a user becomes a fan, the user’s friends see a message about that action in their news feeds. Now, more than 2.5 million users are joining pages each day (Eldon, 2008).
 * Gen-Y implications **

Since Facebook makes most of their money by advertisements displayed on their site, another problem this social networking site could be faced with is advertisers cutting back ad spending. Third party marketing analyst firms like [|eMarketer believe that “experimental” forms of advertising], like advertiser Pages, will be cut (Eldon, 2008). **References**

Bertoni, Steve and Gell, Erin. (September 17, 2008). Want To Marry A Billionaire? Forbes. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from www.forbes.com/2008/09/16

Eldon, Eric. (December 18, 2008). 2008 growth puts Facebook in better position to make money. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from []

Press Info. Facebook. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from []

Wikipedia. ( February 22, 2010). Facebook. Retrieved February 22, 2010 from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook