American Greetings buddies up with MySpace, Facebook

American Greetings (NYSE: AM) knows how to deal with changing times. After all, the company got its start in 1906.

In fact, the company was an early adopter of dot-com technologies (going back about 13 years), and has purchased a variety of digital companies, such as BlueMountain.com.

And yes, American Greetings is also making moves on the social networking front through its popular Kiwee.com destination. In its first six months out of beta, the site has attracted more than 1 million members. A key has been its IM Toolbar, which allows for cool digital icons and expressions for messaging platforms like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX)'s AOL.

However, Kiwee is not a social networking site. "There are already strong players in social networking, such as MySpace and Facebook," said Rajiv Jain, the SVP and general manager of Kiwee, in an interview with me Wednesday. "Instead, we focus on our core strength, which is creating great content."

No doubt, the content is pretty cool. Most importantly, there are a variety of tools to allow for customization, letting users easily create unique online personalities.

So far, it seems the formula is getting traction -- and shows that old companies can still find ways to innovate.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.