Tag: twitter

  • Social Advertising

    A post on the WindChimes blog sparked off an interesting argument on whether banner advertising on Facebook is called Social Media Marketing. But before we step into that, a quick look at what Facebook has been upto recently.

    Facebook recently announced that users had uploaded 10 billion photos on the network. Considering that Facebook’s not a flickr or picasa, this gives an indication of the quantity and quality of users’ relationship with the social networking service. Facebook also recently announced its Fb fund recipients. Read about this effort to help seed innovation here. For those who want to check out Facebook as a desktop app, check out Visual Sage. (via Startup meme) Facebook Connect has also been in the news recently. It is scheduled to launch on Nov 30. You can check out CNN’s Facebook Connect implementation – for the post presidential debate discussions, here. There are also links to the implementations of CBS, Red Bull etc. And the last ‘collateral’ links to a wonderful take on Facebook friendship, and this on social networks, revenues, and brands’ expectations from them. Meanwhile, Facebook can draw solace from the fact that it was the social network of choice of 1/3 of theĀ  US online retailers interviewed. (from a study by Internet Retailer and Vovici via WildBlueSkies)

    As far as advertising goes, the inclusion of Microsoft Live Search into the social network is quite a significant development. Goes without saying that along with the search results, a few ads would also be thrown in. šŸ™‚ Looks like win-win, for both Microsoft and Facebook. (with their revenue/cost concerns).

    And now, whether Facebook Ads are social media. I’d say (technically)any advertising on a social network would automatically qualify for social media marketing, since advertising is a way of marketing. Now, with specific reference to Facebook, as part of its redesign earlier, Facebook had also categorised the different kinds of ads that can be purchased. Out of the 6 categories mentioned, #5 is akin to a first generation banner ad.Ā  I’d written about some unique features of Facebook Ads earlier. Like I’d mentioned in that post, this normal banner ad has been given a cool social twist by allowing users to give it a thumbs up/down and give their reasons for doing this. Let me go a step down and ignore the rating. Connecting my profile and actions to the kind of ads served, it gives the ads at least some contextual connection, and hence appeal.Ā  So, in practise too, I’d consider banner advertising on Facebook a part of social media marketing. On Magpie, over on Twitter, however, I’m still in two minds.

    until next time, social soul searching

  • Corporate Talk

    I’ve always maintained that social media has this uncanny way of stripping the veneer of most entities – be it people, products or organisations.

    At one point of time, Mouthshut used to be my preferred destination for user reviews. All the ads, all the DMs, and all the brand ambassadors would be collectively shown the door, if the user reviews declared the product a failure. Although, niche portals have taken away quite a bit of my dependence, I am still a user and so, was pleasantly surprised to know about the new section called Employers. (via AlooTechie) Yep, Mouthshut now allows users to review organisations that they’ve worked in, something like what Jobsnetwork.in has been doing, though that’s more a discussion board. Criticat seems to be doing this very well, though.

    But they’re not the only guys with this agenda. I also came across a site called Jobeehive, whose proposition is “Before making your next decision, see company reviews, salary and advice given directly by employee”.I wonder why a service like LinkedIn (hey, they got more funding recently) hasn’t gotten into this, though. It could be the social angle to the networking relationships that are the problem. The typical user would be connected with his ex-boss on the network, and would hesitate before giving a negative review of work conditions/ salaries/ experiences etc. Everyone loves un-burnt bridges, social media be damned!! šŸ˜‰ Shine, the career portal from HT, also limited itself to salary tools, and hasn’t built a review feature. I guess there are somethings people don’t want to share, for everything else there’s social media. šŸ™‚

    However, I live on the hope that transparency – in employees, and employers, will eventually become a reality. I read about a new service called BeenVerified, which helps employers verify candidate backgrounds. (via CenterNetworks) Meanwhile, in the last couple of months, the enterprise tools based on popular social media tools like Twitter have also been seen in the market. I’d written about Yammer earlier, the winner at TC50, and its premise of ‘Twitter for business’, and about a similar service, Present.ly. Later, Yammer also introduced Yammermail, you can read about it here. I also read about Co-op recently, which adds time tracking and project management to the ‘what are you working on’ feature. Smibsnet, seems to be on the same premise.

    But the most interesting service I came across has to be SocialText 3.0, which “applies next-generation Web 2.0 technologies to the critical challenges facing businesses”. It seems to be a mashup of several web 2.0 entities like wikis, microblogging, Facebook, Friendfeed..and Twitter (as SocialText Signals) So it allows people to describe themselves, subscribe to others’ activity streams, edit information streams, and all of these get updated on a dashboard, which would help users in organising and using data better. By using the collaborative properties of all these tools, SocialText does seem to have gained an edge over other enterprise services in this genre.

    The tools are definitely being built. It remains to be seen though, whether/how much organisations are willing to use them. Such tools would also dispel concerns about social media being just a productivity reducing mechanism.

    until next time, organisational chats

  • Everybody, Friendfeed, right now!!

    In a way, Friendfeed’s latest offering has revolutionised my usage of social media services. My experiments with FF had been limited since Twitter used to give me a fair amount of good conversations on various subjects of interest – from Bollywood to advertising campaigns to social media to social issues. I didn’t see any value that Friendfeed could’ve added, inspite of it being an aggregator of several services i use including blogs, Google Reader, delicious, Linked In, twitter, Google Talk status messages and recently last.fm among others.

    With every new service, I’ve needed a catalyst to use the service more. With delicious, it was the toolbar plugin, with Facebook, it was the critical mass of friends to get me in there, and then apps like Scrabulous. With Twitter, it was the browser plugin. I’ve been lax on most services which make me open a separate web page. And that was the case with Friendfeed, Kwippy and Social Median. These three, because they are excellent services which i should ideally have used more. A quick plug for the last two before we move on.

    Kwippy, a very neat Indian startup, about whom I’d written about a few months back, has moved on from a ‘twitter like service’ to a great place to have focused discussions. It has an awesome crowd too. But I do wish they’d work on a few things I had mentioned in the earlier post. Critical since information overload is bound to cause a consolidation soon. Social Median, with whom i was very impressed, and had written about sometime back, is a great filtering service that connects you to people and topics, by sharing links that interests you, and then have conversations around them. You can also create customised news networks on topics you’re interested in and then add sources. It is well connected with other networks and even has a toolbar plugin that allows easy sharing of links. In a sense, it works better than FF on many fronts.

    And so, back to the catalyst. Last week, FF added a new feature – real time updates. What it does is that it helps me get instant reactions to the things I have shared via various other services. It can be anything from a comment to a blog post to a photo to a tweet to a Google Reader shared item. One small snag i see in the real time interface is the lack of bundling that the standard view of FF provides. It could mean I miss out comments and end up replying to them much later. I also have issues with my Google Reader shared items since they aren’t reflecting on ‘real time’. And lastly, why can’t I include my Facebook statuses??!!

    A look at how all this affects my usage of other services. Twitter Search has real time updates for specific queries, and as Louis Gray points out about FF, “the team hasn’t yet connected its capability to search or keyword filtering, which, if ever delivered, could be a body blow to Twitter search.” (via The Inquisitr). Now,Ā  when i see a friend’s tweet on FF and decide to comment on it on FF, i am given an option to also send an @reply to twitter. How about pulling all the @manuscrypts tweets live for me on FF and giving me the same option?

    My usage of Google Reader as a sharing device was limited. I have noticed that with real time FF, that has increased. I am sure that will also influence the posts I do here. Meanwhile, I can use FF to share links, with a comment. I can also choose the room I want to share it in. What does this mean to Delicious and Social Median, especially if FF can bring the easy search (and tags) features of delicious and the functionality and interface of rooms is jazzed up to the levels of Social Median?

    With conversations happening everywhere, the need for aggregators will only increase, and whatever be your take on noise (there’s a great note here) a service like Friendfeed can only help. It’d be interesting to see the other services’ reactions to real time.

    until next time, when there’s information overload, a friend in need…..

  • Digital User Divides (2 of 3)

    Technorati recently released the ‘State of the Blogosphere 2008‘ report which throws some light on the trends in blogging. While the numbers might indicate that the phenomenon of blogging is also experiencing a slowdown, but that depends on the definition of a blog. With the increasing popularity of micro blogging services and social networks, the stream of consciousness has more than a single host – I could write restaurant reviews on Burrp, 140 character status messages on Twitter, movie or book reviews on an app in Facebook and so on.. and when i read a great post, I might not link it on my blog, but share it on delicious…I might not be blogging as Technorati defines it, but my take on life is still being ‘broadcasted’

    So, like this article, I would say that the medium and forum of expression and the nature of ‘blogging’ is changing. There is no decline in people expressing themselves. Thats growing. As per the technorati report, among global bloggers, 2/3 rds are male, 50% are 18-34 years old, and bloggers are more affluent and educated than the general population. While Technorati divides blogs roughly into personal, professional and corporate, I’d say that the long tail of personal blogs would be quite exhaustive and of key importance to brands. The pointer to this can be found in the report itself ”Ā More than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews, and blog about brands they love or hate. Even day-to-day experiences with customer care or in a retail store are fodder for blog posts. Companies are already reaching out to bloggers: one-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates.” Ā There is also an indication of how the credibility of blogs is increasing.

    But let’s not make this about blogs, after all that categorisation is only one parameter of reference as far as the participation on the net goes. There could be micro bloggers, social networking enthusiasts, those who use the net for basic purposes and passive readers!! Even within these groups there are different kinds of users. For example, this post writes about the different types of social media users. and the roles they play in the entire system. I figured I was an EmCee, read the post and let me know if you agree šŸ™‚

    So what does all this signify for brands? A recent study claimed that only 7% of customers shared their disappointment with online transactions on blogs or social networks. While that might look like a tiny number, the perspective that needs to be added is the viral effect that it could create via the readers, and unlike the bad WOM generated offline, which would cease after sometime, the post remains for a long long time.

    Meanwhile, I read a good article a few days back on Google’s work on figuring out a number that would define a user’s influence in social networking sites, basis the same principles as Page Rank. Such an idea has the potential to completely transorm the way brands use online networks. This assumes all the more significance when coupled with the findings of this study. “According to the survey, 93 percent of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media. In fact, 56 percent of users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment…….Likewise, of younger, hard-to-reach users (ages 18-34), one-third believe companies should actively market to them via social networks” (via Marketing Pilgrim)Ā While on the topic of social media users, this is a good but slightly off-topicĀ read on the whys or rather why nots of adding people on social networks. There are some good lessons in it for brands too.

    With networks like Facebook offering different ways to interact with consumers, its time that brands took the digital medium seriously and perhaps (at least) test the waters beyond the banners. There is a great article that refers to the digital divide that exists between users and non users of social media, and the role that old media can play in bridging it. It also talks about the ‘ambient intimacy’ of a micro blogging service like Twitter – “The intimacy possible over social media is at best approximate, and the proximity at best ambient. Social media can only approximate the relationships and interactions of the real.”

    I think that brands have a great opportunity to bridge the divide too, and it is important that they utilise it. The new media puts them more in touch with their consumers than ever before, gives them the opportunity to present themselves as stories in the context of their consumers’ lives, bridge the divide as common talking Ā points in consumers’ lives, allows them to get instant feedback which can be used to better themselves, and make evangelists out of regular users. The alternative, of course, is to continue the one way communication on mass media and hope their shout is the loudest.

    until next time, can a shout be better than a viral whisper?

  • The new brand ambassador – you

    Sometime back, I saw a press release of an entity called AdBhai. It is positioned as a no-frills classifieds portal and according to the release, has implemented Google’s Friend Connect. It means that you can use your Orkut/GTalk id to post comments on the site, giving the entire thing a social twist.

    I have come across quite a few interesting sites which link shopping to social media. There’s Tribe Smart, which allows you to make a profile and use crowd wisdom to know about the product. And its not just a product, it could be a website, a movie. In the process, you end up meeting people who share similar interests. Skimbit is a browser add on that allows you to make a project page you can configure, for your purchase, add products from different sites, and then allow others to rate these. Ā Another startup working on a plugin based model is Notches, which works on two fronts – allows product sites that tie up with it to add review buttons to its product pages, and users who have downloaded it can review any product from any website. (via Center Networks) Meanwhile, there’s a very interesting online music sale model at PopCuts, which rewards you for spotting trends early. You can buy a track, and when someone buys it from then on, you get a cut. A very cool idea, I thought, and would like to see how it pans out. Just like the earlier site, you start meeting people who rock to the same tune.

    Mashable has written about a widget based service called TurnTo, which works on the concept of social shopping. Deviating from the path of the above two, this one lets you add people from your existing circle of friends. During TC 50, which I’d written about earlier, a couple of startups working in the social shopping/reccomendation space were showcased. One was GoodRec, which shows users reccomendations of restaurants, books, movies nightlife, and displays the location on a map. It allows you to make reccomendations, which can also be shared on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed etc. According to StartupMeme, GoodRec scores over the existing player – Yelp, in terms of usability. Another player, who is into ‘social’ based decision making is CityVoter, which ‘allows insiders who know a city best to share their insight with information, ratings, and reviews on everyday decisions’.The other startup is GoodGuide, which aims to provide users with information onĀ social, environmental, and health related aspects of consumer products. With people becoming increasingly aware and conscious of the environment and the impact of their lifestyle on it, this is a good space to be, especially because of the clutter of ‘green’ goods that have been hitting the market. You can read more details on them here.

    WOM is no longer a buzzword, it has become a fact of life, if not in ‘low involvement’ categories, at least in ‘high involvement’ ones.Ā Amazon has recently beenĀ using passionate Kindle users as brand ambassadors.We are on our way to what this post (quoting from a report) very correctly describes as an ‘influence economy’. As more and more users enter the social realms of Facebook, Twitter etc, their purchase decisions are becoming increasingly influenced by their social peer group. I come across this regularly on twitter – social based decisions on everything from restaurants to laptops and mobile phones. The post also gives a simple path for brands to get invloved in this process. But the essence is that brands need to be truthful, transparent, listen to their customers, be accessible, and most importantly, have a great product, for the reality is that communities cannot be bought. It has to be earned, and this post has a few tips on that. RWW has shared some data on super influencers, from a McCann study doneĀ Ā among 17,000 active internet users in 29 countries.

    Though brands are only beginning to take consumer voices seriously, it is great to see market leaders like Unilever and P&G understanding the limitations of current consumer research procedures, and making efforts to embrace online buzz. Meanwhile, HUL has introduced the concept of a customer ombudsman in india. The ombudsman works on behalf of the consumer and will tackle all cases that cannot be dealt with by Lever Care. A wonderfully radical move, which shows why they are market leaders. Read all about it here. Ā While on the subject, there’s a company calledĀ BazaarVoice, which helps brands create business value out of the positive consumer PR they generate. As fanboy cults emerge on Facebook and impromptu brand wars (among consumers) occur on twitter, I think this space has great potential. Speaking of Facebook, they’re also using users as brand ambassadors in Germany. (via Tech Crunch)

    until next a sociaholic shopaholic?