Articles

Social Networking on Steroids
By Heather Albrecht

Trendstream have released a really interesting comparative Global Map of Social Media Use http://bit.ly/7u8Dw5and INDIA emerges as having the highest penetration of social media use ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.  With China emerging as the biggest user in number terms (population size being the reason of course). 

All marketers need to be asking what is their social media strategy to reach these socially connected consumers, clearly the values of social media – transparency, authenticity, sharing, collaborating, community, many points of view appeal to India’s populace – how is your brand aligning to these values?

You can download the PDF here: http://bit.ly/5vpCPZ

Streaming in the future
by Josh Sklar, josh@logicworks.us

There are all these people running around frothing at the mouth about “social media” and how it can be monetized and squeezed and loved and called “George.” When you ask the invariable “How?” follow up, there is either a sudden displacement of air as the person vanishes or you hear a lot of excited mumbling about authenticity and brand reputation and, “I don’t know… coupons?” The fact is, most of these people have no idea what the whole social thing is all about, how long it has been around, where it’s going, and what it actually means right now for consumers and customers. What they do know is that according to their own experiences and studies from groups like ComScore and Starcom, banner click through rates have fallen off by 50% over the past two years, and they weren’t very high to begin with. E-mail spam is effective only in attracting the people interested at that very moment by coincidence, and at the cost of brand value. Thus, the whole idea of marketing through online word-of-mouth is irresistible, if only they knew where to begin after buying banner space on social networking sites, that is.

First of all, understand that we are all heading to a future where we will be mostly dipping into an information stream that resembles something akin to Facebook’s new “News Feed,” which floats up what an algorithm believes to be the most interesting information for you from all of your friends’ and groups’ updates; only in the future, that data won’t be limited to one source. Sites of some form will still exist so people can go out and get content created, presented, and/or edited by whomever, but if trends hold, users will tap or plug into these feeds and streams they’ve subscribed to or that are being suggested by programs.

The infrastructure of most social networks are not set up to handle the sort of relationship building and commerce that corporations are looking for right now. That’s largely because those sites are also struggling with how to transition gracefully to the point where the audiences come along for the ride without fleeing in anger to some other network over a minor user experience issue (small to the company, huge to their user base). So the places to look at so the light bulb above your head can switch on are savvy online retailers like Howie’s: http://www.howies.co.uk. These guys are a typical brick and mortar chain of clothing shops that sell online, but they use their site and free, massively popular online services to get as close to their targets as possible and to give those customers and potential customers real insight into what the clothing brand is all about.

It’s all lifestyle, philosophy, travel, music, art, and any other subject that might create a link between the company, the founders, the regular personnel, and the customers. Their Facebook fan page has customers eagerly discussing their purchases, upcoming fashions, announcements of new product releases; on Flickr they can see exterior and interior shots of all their locations and biggest sellers; theirlast.fm channel sets the mood; vimeo-hosted videos let people watch the stores’ staff at play. There are blogs, discussion threads, links to lifestyle sites of interest, photo uploads, charities, and on that are separate from the pure product browsing and purchase area, but definitely help create the social ecosystem that draws customers back and, for others, gives an agreeable atmosphere that helps to present the products to folks with the ‘right’ frame of mind.

We’re not at the point yet where social=monetization (sic), so be careful to whom you listen (including me). But the technology is quickly catching up and more and more people are being sucked into the vortex of a lifestyle that is clearly no passing fad. The important bit is to understand that you can’t bend the development to something you’re comfortable with. You have to go with the flow and connect the personality of your brand with areas of compatible interest in the stream.