Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it s finally done there is surprise it s not better. Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, Google photo by Zellaby on flickr.com
Officially, social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos, and audio. http://www.wikipedia.org
IT S ALSO A FANCY WAY TO DESCRIBE THE ZILLIONS OF CONVERSATIONS PEOPLE ARE HAVING ONLINE 24/7. photo by Kris Hoet on flickr.com
REASON #1 BECAUSE 3 OUT OF 4 AMERICANS USE SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY. Forrester, The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, 2008
REASON #2 BECAUSE 2/3 OF THE GLOBAL INTERNET POPULATION VISIT SOCIAL NETWORKS. Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009
REASON #3 BECAUSE VISITING SOCIAL SITES IS NOW THE 4TH MOST POPULAR ONLINE ACTIVITY AHEAD OF PERSONAL EMAIL. Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009 photo by Bruno Girinon flickr.com
REASON #4 BECAUSE TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL NETWORKS IS GROWING AT 3X THE OVERALL INTERNET RATE, ACCOUNTING FOR ~10% OF ALL INTERNET TIME. Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009
REASON #5 BECAUSE SOCIAL MEDIA IS DEMOCRATIZING COMMUNICATIONS. BIG TIME. Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it s the people who are in control. Rupert Murdoch, Global Media Entrepreneur
REASON #6 BECAUSE SOCIAL MEDIA IS LIKE WORD OF MOUTH ON STEROIDS.
BECAUSE, DEAR FRIEND, SOCIAL MEDIA IS A F**KING FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH. photo by Balakov on flickr.com
13 HOURS The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
412.3 YEARS The length of time it would take to view every YouTube video.
100,000,000 The number of YouTube videos viewed per day.
13,000,000 The number of articles available on Wikipedia.
3,600,000,000 The number of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009. That s roughly 1 photo per every 2 people on the planet.
1382% The monthly growth rate of Twitter users from January to February 2009.
3,000,000 The average number of Tweets per day on Twitter.com
5,000,000,000 The number of minutes spent on Facebook each day.
1,000,000,000 The amount of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.
The word blog is irrelevant. What's important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world. Seth Godin, Author
5,000,000 The number of active Barack Obama supporters across 15 social networks. photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com
14,200,000 The number of views Obama s famous Yes We Can video got on YouTube. An additional 15 of the 1,800 official and 139,000 unofficial Obama videos received over 1 Million views. photo by EricaJoy on flickr.com
$6,500,000 The amount of money 3 Million online donors contributed to the 2008 Obama campaign. photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com
IF FACEBOOK WERE A COUNTRY, IT WOULD BE THE 8TH MOST POPULATED IN THE WORLD, JUST AHEAD OF JAPAN. Mark Zuckerberg, January 7, 2009
93% OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS BELIEVE A COMPANY SHOULD HAVE A PRESENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA. Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THAT DOESN T MEAN THAT 93% OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS THINK COMPANIES SHOULD TREAT SOCIAL MEDIA AS YET ANOTHER CHANNEL FOR BROADCASTING BULLSH*T.
YOU SEE, IT S SUPPOSED TO BE A DIALOGUE, NOT A MONOLOGUE.
Marketers don't understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time... The marketing industry's idea of a two-way communication is to put an 800 number or a web address in an ad and take orders. Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009
This couldn't be more obvious than with email. Your company has a chance to turn its email list into a two-way communication. Except that most mass emails from companies are "do not reply". "We want to talk to you," they say. "But we don't want to hear back from you. Unless you want to place an order, and if so click here." Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009
The people in charge of talking are in the marketing department. The people in charge of listening are in the research or service or sales department. They hardly ever talk to each other, let alone have full-duplex conversations with customers. Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009 photo by Jamie Mellor on flickr.com
This won't fly in social technology because the minute you talk, people expect you to listen. And if you start to listen, you'll be tempted to talk. It's a full-duplex channel that befuddles one-way-marketers. Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009
85% of social media users believe that a company should go further than just having a presence on social sites and should also interact with its customers. Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008
For companies, resistance to social media is futile. Millions of people are creating content for the social Web. Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn't putting itself out there, it ought to be. BusinessWeek, February 19, 2009 photo by Archie McPhee Seattle on flickr.com
1: PUBLIC RELATIONS
2: CUSTOMER SERVICE
3: LOYALTY-BUILDING
4: COLLABORATION
5: NETWORKING
6: THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP
AND YES, CUSTOMER ACQUISITION, TOO.
photo by cyndie@smilebig! on flickr.com DEFINE YOUR COMPANY S SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY.
photo by quest for the heartstone on flickr.com HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY.
photo by eye2eye on flickr.com STOP THINKING CAMPAIGNS. START THINKING CONVERSATIONS.
photo by Malingering on flickr.com ASK FOR HELP, IF YOU NEED IT.
DON T ASSUME SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING.
photo by arlen on flickr.com IF YOUR PRODUCT SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA WON T FIX IT.
(HOWEVER, IF YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.)
photo by gari.baldi on flickr.com IF YOUR REPEAT BUSINESS SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.
IF YOUR COMPANY S WORD OF MOUTH SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.
RULE #1: LISTEN Google Alerts TweetDeck SocialMentions RSS (FOR STARTERS)
RULE #2: ENGAGE
RULE #3: MEASURE Audience Engagement Loyalty Influence Action (METRICS SHOULD MAP TO GOALS. PERIOD.)