We Live Here is a cable show on Fine Living that has locals from a particular city give you, the viewer, the lay of the land from their perspective.

They launched an online version of their show called We Live Here [Uploaded] where anyone can upload their own video guide to their own city. The best ones will then be showcased on the television show. Pretty cool, eh?

I think We Live Here [Uploaded] is a great showcase for media properties - or any online brand - looking to create coordinated and integrated social networks with existing brands. Here are a few things to highlight:

• It's got a coordinated visual design that is complementary to their main We Live Here page on Fine Living's website but polished and distinct in its own right.
• It's domain mapped for fineliving.com.
• The search engine optimization that comes automatically with every network on Ning, even domain mapped ones, pops We Live Here [Uploaded] to the top of Google search results.
• They've watermarked their video player and photo slideshows for Fine Living.
• They've produced a great video introduction featured on the Main page which I love because video promos are extremely helpful to new or prospective members.

We Live Here [Uploaded] showcases both the features we offer for free to anyone as part of Your Own Social Network for Anything as well as the Premium Services anyone can purchase from us for your social network on Ning (domain masking, running your own ads, etc).

Most importantly, this is a great example of how the context, content, and members of a social network differentiate it and ultimately leads to its success. Online brands should take comfort in the fact that branding and content are what ultimately make a social network a smashing success. It's you, not necessarily the technology. Although, we think that when working with the right platform, the technology can certainly help. :-)

The Facebook integration that we introduced on Saturday night has Network Creators adding it like hotcakes. We love it! The Handbell Podcast Community is an old friend of Ning, so it's great to see them taking advantage of it. Here's their Handbell Podcast Community Main page: As you can see under their podcast/music player in the center column, there's now a link to add the player to your Facebook profile. I don't need to sign in to add this podcast player to my Facebook profile. The end result is the Handbell Podcast player on my Facebook profile: We love these examples in the wild across Ning, especially from networks that wouldn't otherwise have access to this type of Facebook integration. Thanks, guys!

Whether you're an individual entrepreneur or company, there are some things that widgets - or embeddable video players, photo slideshows, music/podcast players, and badges - should do for you.

1. Your widgets should be branded for you.

The proliferation of different widgets today - especially video players - makes it essential for you to take the time and effort to brand your player or widget.

To get a sense of what I'm talking about, spend a few minutes drinking from the firehose of different video players on NewTeeVee, a blog about the online video industry. After a couple of pages, you'll see what I mean.

And that's just one category of widgets. Add photos and music into the mix and it's an virtual cornucopia of players and widgets out there.

This is both a blessing and a curse for you, the online brand.

It's a blessing insofar as there are services, like Ning, that enable you to watermark your widgets for your social network or website incredibly fast and easily.

However, it's a curse if you are not watermarking your widgets today, as your videos, photos, music, and podcasts are getting lost in a sea of widget companies trying to build their brands with your content.

Widgets and players should be branded for you. To illustrate my point, here's a video from The Veloist:

This video player is watermarked for The Veloist with their logo.

This watermarked logo links back to The Veloist at their own domain name. The embed link comes from The Veloist at their own domain name. The share link takes you back to The Veloist at their own domain name.

This is straight out of the YouTube playbook. Not a bad path to follow as you carve out your own little slice of the online world.

You can now enable members of your social network to add videos, music, podcasts, and photo slideshows - branded and linked back to your network on Ning - to Facebook with one-click.

For a little interactive introduction to Facebook integration, Kyle's screencast should do the trick:

You can watch it here or view a full screen version as well.

If you don't know about Facebook, it's a general social network like MySpace, that has millions of people using it today. Initially, unlike MySpace, it was closed to things like embedded videos, photo slideshows, music players, and podcasts. However, a few weeks back, it "opened" itself up to embeddable widgets and the option for developers to add new features to its service.

Facebook integration is an excellent way to get the word of your social network out. Members of your network can spread videos, music, podcasts, and photos from your network to a whole new set of people with one-click.

We've got a new release we're excited to get in your hands this weekend. It's going to require us to do a bit of work behind the scenes Saturday night, June 16th from 8pm pacific time to 12am pacific time. We think you'll like the results.

We should be back in action before the clock strikes midnight here in California. Thanks!