The Economist recently issued a special report on social networking. The report, A World of Connections, provides a clear and high-level overview of the development/status of social networking sites and how they impact brand advertising, corporate internal communication, small business, talent search & recruitment, and privacy……

15th Janurary 2009, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) released the 25th Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China.

I went through the report and here is a translated summary of the key findings……

This morning, it came a HUGE news for everyone who involves in the China Internet industry. Google announced in its official blog that it was going to say NO to China government’s censorship policy due to amount of highly sophisticated hack attach to Gmail accounts.“We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,” said Google…….

EYES ON ME is a post series on IN2marcom. It is a monthly highlight of popular Chinese viral brand videos in the period. A viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or instant messaging, blogs and other media sharing websites.

In December, automobile brands were still the major players, as well as FMCG brands. I’m very excited to see more and more domestic brands like Chery, Harbin Beer, and Zhonghua Toothpaste started investing in viral marketing and presented very cool video clips. 2010 is the year of Expo and World Cup, so Coca-Cola and Adidas delivered relevant videos respectively at the end of 2009…….

ChinaMode is the first grassroots award to encourage innovative Internet and mobile applications and services in China, initiated by OpenWeb.Asia and operated by the 14 most influential Chinese tech bloggers Appin, Williamlong, Web20share, Kenengba, Jandan, MobiNode, Webleon, Showeb20, Vista2.o, Yunkeji, Riku, Herock, China Web2.0 Review and MobiNode.TV……

EYES ON ME is a post series on IN2marcom. It is a monthly highlight of popular Chinese viral brand videos in the period.

In November, some brands utilized viral video as a channel to promote their campaigns. Chevrolet again delivered a new video for the “CRUZE, Chasing in Marcao” campaign. RedBull produced five rough clips for the “It’s Time for RedBull” campaign and P&G made a clip for a campaign of LivingArtist. Castrol kicked off its 2010 World Cup sponsorsip program through three well-done videos. This month, some IT brands also stood out, including IBM Cognos, Lenovo ThinkPad, and Lenovo IdeaPad……

Recently, Forsman & Bodenfors made a creative social media campaign for IKEA to promote the opening of the new IKEA store in Malmö.

The campaign started with creating a profile page of the store’s manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Then Gordon uploaded 12 pictures of store’s showrooms to his photo album. Within a two-weeks period, the person who tagged their names on a product first can won the item. Through the campaign, people gladly added their name to an “interactive IKEA catalogue” and spread to all of their friends via FB profile page, newsfeed, links, etc……

Today, CIC released its latest white paper Making Sense of IWOM – “Topic Three: How Brands Can Participate in Online Communities.” This white paper is the final installment in a series of three white papers, including two earlier studies, “The Role of Internet Word of Mouth in Purchase Decision” and “How IWOM is generated and disseminated.”

Topic 3 looks to evaluate consumer online behavior and provide suggestions for how brands can participate in online communities based on these consumer preferences. Below are some top-line findings and highlights from the study……