Bebo advertising | Bebo marketing | social network advertising

Bebo is quite similar to other social networking sites. It is thought of as a younger persons’ website, aimed at 13 to 24-year-olds. Each profile must include two modules - a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user's friends. Users can select from many more modules to add. The background of a person’s profile may be personalized by a design template, known as a skin.

Profiles may include quizzes, polls for friends to vote in, photo albums, blogs, a list of bands the user likes, a list of groups that the user is a member of. A “Video Box” may be added, either hot-linked from YouTube, uploaded directly to Bebo's servers via VideoEgg or copied from a Bebo Media Content Provider's page.

In July 2006, "Bebo Music" was launched. This allows bands or solo artists to create a profile showcasing their music. The band profiles include a band member list, a list of fans, an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo's media player, or which may be added to other user's playlists. These songs can be grouped by the band into albums, along with cover-art.

In February 2007, “Bebo Authors” was launched. In this section of the site, authors can upload chapters of their books and also get them reviewed with a certain module.

The recently added “Group” module on Bebo enables people to view groups which were previously joined to a school and were viewable only by school members. Bebo also gave an option to convert existing Authors or Bands to Groups. Group pages give users an option to join the groups they find interesting.

Bebo’s mobile service allows users to receive text alerts and update their profile via their mobile phone. The service consists of a mobile site, text alerts for new comments and photo only uploads via mms. Originally available to only O2 Ireland and Orange UK customers, in March 2008, Bebo launched a new mobile site which can be accessed by any mobile phone users on any network by pointing a web browser at m.bebo.com.

Users can add their AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Skype and Windows Live Messenger user names to their Bebo profile.

Bebo Open Media Platform is a platform for companies to distribute content to the Bebo community. Content providers can bring their media player to Bebo, and monetize the advertising within it. Each content provider has a specialised page designed for video which showcases any Adobe Flash video content at the top of the profile. Many networks are signed up for the service, including CBS, Sky, Ustream.tv, BBC and Last.fm.

Bebo, with the RDF Media Group, have implemented the “A Message From Earth”, and sent 501 messages to the planet Gliese 581c, which orbits the Red Dwarf star 581 and is more than 20 light-years away, but the nearest good candidate for an extraterrestrial civilisation. This is due to its distance from the star for life to survive. Some people think this was a very bad idea because, on the off-chance that there are alien beings out there, this will lead them straight to us.

Bebo can be linked to many other sites, so that, as they say, it’s a one-stop shop! This makes things a bit easier, as a lot of people join up with more than one. The sites Bebo’s linked to include: Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, Delicious and Twitter.