I attended the Facebook Strategy Lunch yesterday and found it to be extremely informative. I am looking forward to the next one.

If you want to be informed of any coming events, join the group titled Utah CEOs With A Facebook Strategy in Facebook.

The luncheon was hosted by Paul Allen and his team at FamilyLink.com including Jason McGowan and Mike Jensen, each of whom presented during the 1.5 hour meet. About 40 people attended.

Paul Allen was first up, and presented some very exciting insights into the Facebook opportunity. I felt like I was watching Rocky for the first time, and left even more excited about the future of Linking Universe. Among the highlights I gleaned from Paul’s presentation:

• Facebook is gaining momentum (currently out pacing all other social networks in growth);
• The Facebook Platform is the first social environment to go ‘open‘, which is spurring unprecedented growth (the development community is jumping on the Facebook coattails faster than you can say ‘new applications’);
• Social networking, and Facebook in particular, is more than a ‘fad’ (not only is it here to stay, but new applications are adding functions and features that make it evermore valuable. Consider Linking Universe, for instance…).

Jason McGowan took over and led us through some incredible stats. He forwarded his presentation to me after the event (thank you, Jason). Here are a handful of interesting highlights:

• Facebook has over 62 million active users;
  • An active user is someone who logs in at least once each day;
  • More than half of active users return again each day;
• Facebook has an average of 250,000 new registrations per day, a remarkably huge audience of new customers that effectively stave off a saturation point for any application;
• So far, the number of active users has doubled every six months;
• More than half of Facebook users are outside of college;
• The fastest growing age demographic in Facebook is 25 years and older;
• Facebook maintains a marketshare of 85 percent among U.S 4-year universities;
• More than 95 percent of Facebook users have added at least one application to their account, or about 60 million.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that 34 percent of Facebook users are professionals, executives, and/or in sales, education, or technical fields. I quickly calculated the potential low-hanging-fruit for Linking Universe at over 20 million. Wow.

Jason wrapped up with a review of the Facebook interface and some tips about how to build applications more effectively, taking advantage of built-in features, and some marketing tips.

Mike Jensen spent some time discussing performance optimization and scalability. Among his advice:

• Go with Amazon’s EC2 platform;
• Plan ahead for scalability (he recalled the scaling nightmare they endured after going live and achieving overwhelming success);
• Loadbalancing techniques, memory optimization, and common practices regarding backups.

The meeting was informative, well informed, and well attended. The who’s who of our local Facebook community were in attendance, too, which made for a terrific networking opportunity.

Lunch was pretty good, too.

Our ‘Thanks‘ and appreciation go to the Utah CEOs With A Facebook Strategy for organizing a worthwhile event.

Bookmark to:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Linking Universe announces a new business application for the Facebook© platform that allows users to take advantage of professional connections

Application calculates the value of a business network and automates communications and
collaboration with professional contacts.

Salt Lake City, UT (January 22, 2008) Linking Universe announced today a business relationship management application for Facebook that uses network analytics to assess the business value of a social network. Linking Universe offers opportunity management capabilities that allow users to exchange business referrals, and track opportunities through a sales or hiring process. The Linking Universe solution is the first add-on applications for Facebook to combine social networking with the completion of business processes.

With the availability of this product, Linking Universe leads the way in transitioning Facebook, the leading social networking utility platform, into a platform for business productivity. “Up until now, Facebook business applications have been simple versions of standard software like messaging or word processing,” says Coleman Barney, Linking Universe President and CEO. “Our product is the first application that let’s business people actively use a social network to get work done.”

Linking Universe is scheduled to debut in beta by January 31, 2008. It will be available for general release by the end of February 2008. Users will need a Facebook account and can access the beta free of charge from the Facebook applications directory. Interested parties can sign-up to be included in the beta at www.linkinguniverse.com/contact-us.

“The Linking Universe solution was created based on the realization that as college and university students move into the work force they will expect to use social networking skills in their professional lives,” said Cary Snowden, Vice President of Products. “Integrating social networking with sales-force automation and CRM is a natural evolution.”

About Linking Universe
Linking Universe is the first business relationship management application that allows you to unlock the value of your professional social network. The solution allows users to set-up a professional network of social contacts, and then manage and improve the network through the automation of business processes such as sharing referrals, sales-force automation and hiring. In addition, the company offers powerful analytics that help users understand and improve the value of their network. For more detail, visit www.linkinguniverse.com.

Press Contact
Cary Snowden
VP, Product Management and Marketing
csnowden@linkinguniverse.com
801.938.3466

Download a PDF of this release here: Linking Universe Announces Facebook Application

Bookmark to:

The New York Times today published an article by Brian Stelter that sheds some very interesting light on the popularity and growth of MySpace.

The article shares an interesting insider perspective, in particular on the business numbers surrounding the sale and revenue potential of MySpace, and had some interesting things to say about Facebook.

Of particular interest was the assertion that “MySpace has challenges, especially from Facebook, which has leapt ahead of MySpace in technology and has been accumulating users at a faster rate.” Stelter goes on to say that “Facebook,… is also seen by some advertisers as a better bet.”

The article positions Facebook as a cleaner environment with more mature users against MySpace’s seedy reputation and privacy baggage.

Take a look at the article here.

Bookmark to:

I was just notified that Slide, a San Francisco-based Facebook application developer, has received $50 million in funding.

According to Reuters news service, Slide closed a round of institutional financing and will use the money to increase their staff and continue to build applications for both the Facebook platform as well as for MySpace.

This Reuters news brings yet more attention to the growing excitement around Facebook and the increasing valuation of companies focusing their attention on the Facebook platform.

Linking Universe, as you know, is one of these companies. We are edging closer to a public release of our Linking Universe professional business application for the Facebook Platform. As we get closer, we are keeping our ear to the tracks for exciting new stories such as this one about Slide. Our plans include a pursuit of funding immediately after our initial launch.

If you are interested in talking to us about funding, please contact us.

Read the Reuters article about Slide here: http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN1834455320080119

Congratulations to Slide from Linking Universe!

Bookmark to:

Update: Jesse Stay’s book about Facebook is available for pre-order.

I’m On Facebook - Now What? is an essential resource for Facebook users who want to experience the full potential of social networking, and get the most out of the opportunities most of us never knew were there. From getting started to gathering friends to building business, this book gives you the whole picture in a concise and interesting read.

I’m On Facebook - Now What? is available for pre-order by clicking here.

Jesse Stay and Jason Alba (co-authors) mention Linking Universe in the book as one of their favorite applications for business users in Facebook.

Bookmark to:

As you know by now, Linking Universe is nearly finished developing the first true business application for the Facebook community. We are seeing a lot of opportunity in the Facebook environment and have high hopes for our ability to succeed based on our research and market evolution.

Take for instance the article posted at CenterNetworks this week. Written by Allen Stern, the article discusses the lucrative valuations of the most popular Facebook applications.

The article is irreverently titled ‘Screw Winning the Lottery - Just Make a Facebook App and Get Your Millions Now!’. Stern compares the opportunity in building Facebook applications to winning the lottery, but speculates that the odds are better if you build for Facebook.

Stern references Adonomics, a Facebook analytics company that tracks application usage and has assembled a list of top apps and their valuation. Of particular interest is Stern’s recognition that there are 71 Facebook applications listed with a valuation of over one million dollars. The top ten are over 5 million, with the number-one spot suggesting a valuation of just over 28 million.

While these numbers are speculative, and subject to some scrutiny, they are based on an algorithm that includes potential ad revenue. In support of the valuations offered, an anonymous reader claims to be a developer for one of the apps ‘high in the list’, and says that their expected ad revenue for the coming year will be in the millions.

Linking Universe is excited to be a part of the Facebook community. We feel that our application is uniquely positioned to rise among the leading apps because we are the first full-featured business application with legitimate value. And while throwing sheep at each other is fun, we feel that legitimate business tools will appeal to the greater population of Facebook, and that Linking Universe will continue to succeed as users migrate from simple social networking to Business Relationship Management.

Click Here to find the article online.

Bookmark to:

For those of you who did not have the chance to see our original news release in November, I am posting it now for all to see…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Linking Universe Formed To Create New Business Networking Software That Combines Social Networking With Professional Sales Tools

Tools will measure the value of social networks and facilitate communications and collaboration between professionals.

Salt Lake City, UT, November 6, 2007 – A new social networking software company has been formed to create the first business relationship management application to take unique advantage of professional social networks. It will offer business users analytical measures to assess the value of their social network and unique tools for communicating and collaborating with business contacts.

The unique start-up venture, called Linking Universe, will initially focus on serving the Facebook social networking community, including the over 69 million people with Facebook accounts. Eventually, the company will expand to other social networking sites including LinkedIn and MySpace.

The company is the brainchild of three veteran software entrepreneurs – Coleman Barney, David Bradford and Cary Snowden – each of whom boasts a different expertise in the areas of social networking analytics, software development and sales-force automation.

Coleman Barney, President of Linking Universe, has been involved in developing social networking analytic software solutions for security agencies of the United States Government as well as successfully presided over software companies involved in developing web-based business process improvement applications.

Fund raising and Corporate Relations expert David Bradford, ex-General Counsel and Senior Vice President at Novell, Inc., will serve as Chairman and Senior Vice President Corporate Relations.

Cary Snowden has been involved in several software start-ups, most recently as President of Considered Sales, an on-demand sales-force automation application. Mr. Snowden will serve as Vice President of Product Management and Marketing.

About Linking Universe
Linking Universe is the first business relationship management application that allows you to unlock the value of your professional social network. The solution allows users to set-up a professional network of social contacts, and then manage and improve the network through the automation of business processes such as sharing referrals, sales-force automation and hiring. In addition, the company offers powerful analytics that help users understand and improve the value of their network. For more detail, visit www.linkinguniverse.com.

Press Contact
Cary Snowden
VP, Product Management and Marketing
csnowden@linkinguniverse.com
801.938.3466

Download a PDF of this release here: Press Release: Linking Universe Company Formed

Bookmark to:

I just received a pre-release copy of Jesse Stay’s forthcoming book titled “I’m On Facebook, Now What?”, and I think it is fantastic.

For more information about the book, including availability, keep an eye on Jesse’s blog at http://www.jessestay.com/

Jesse Stay is co-author of the book with Jason Alba. They plan to release it by the end of January 2008.

The book is designed to help you figure out ‘how to derive professional, business and career benefits from participating in Facebook’. This, of course, appeals to Linking Universe because we, too, are concerned about bringing professional business applications to the Facebook environment, and to helping you better understand your social business network so that you can leverage it more effectively.

Jesse Stay has provided consulting services to our Linking Universe project and has been helpful in building our understanding of the expanding opportunities in Facebook applications. He is a Facebook expert and has successfully launched his own Facebook applications. His co-author, Jason Alba, wrote the book titled I’m on LinkedIn - Now What?.

In his introduction, Jesse Stay discloses that he has specifically written about Facebook because of the ‘tremendous growth and flexible development platform it provides’. We couldn’t agree more; these are the reasons we choose to launch our Linking Universe business applications into the Facebook environment. Jesse goes on to state that Facebook is ‘a very exciting social network that allows businesses and professionals an opportunity to promote their message, offering, and brand to a professional audience’. We are very excited about this, too.

The book gives good instruction and advice about starting a page in Facebook, taking advantage of applications, and incorporating Facebook into business practices. The book provides great advice about privacy, addresses Facebook do’s and don’ts, and offers some enlightening strategies for building and optimizing your social network.

Linking Universe gets a mention in the book as one of Jesse’s favorite Facebook applications. Jesse has been watching our development process as a consultant and has provided great advice along the way.

We are excited to see this book come to light, and wish Jesse and Jason the best of luck. I’m On Facebook - Now What? will be available as an eBook and in hard copy.

Bookmark to: