The Social Media Cookbook / James Collier

[ a hotpot of facts, figures & forethought on today’s major social platforms ]

[ About me...the author ]

My name is James Collier and I’m a hopeless coffee addict,

social media obsessive, wannabe (but failing) neat freak

and all round nice guy! I live in Sydney, Australia with my

beautiful wife and 8 goldfish.

Platforms covered in detail

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

Foursquare

Platforms briefly covered

Flickr

Stumbleupon

Delicious

Wordpress

Reddit If you would like to get in touch or read more of my ramblings then I can be found at;

/ www.foursixty.com where I share my musings & mutterings on social media

/ For more frequent ramblings you can find me on twitter @James_Collier

www.foursixty.com

[ Facebook Pro’s... ]

Big numbers

/ Facebook has grown at an incredible pace since 2004, dislodging many already establishedsocial networking sites such as MySpace & Bebo on route to dominance. Worldwide Facebookhas over 500 million active users who on average spend 278 minutes on site per month across28 visits with 58% returning daily. Numbers that any advertiser should take note of!

Flexible

/ Although fan pages are templatised and must operate within the defined tabulated structurethere is still opportunity to create a unique and exciting brand experience. Brands such asCoca-Cola and Victoria’s Secret have utilised Facebook Markup Language (FBML) to create richconsumer experience pieces to add depth and interactivity to their presence.

Founded in sharing

/ Everyone is familiar with their activity feed, its the killer feature Facebook was built around.Through the activity feed an individual shares everything with their network, from their statusupdates, the brands they like to the games they play.

‘Off-book’ experience

/ Facebook has worked extensively over the last 12 months to deliver the connections a user hasmade within Facebook to them across the wider web. Facebook Connect and know their SocialGraph API have already gained big brand attention with Levi’s, Amazon and many more creatinga more social web presence through Facebook integration.

Ability to promote a brand presence through engagement ads

/ An often overlooked feature within Facebook is the ability to promote a brand presence throughtargeted and involving advertising know as engagement ads. Ads can be targeted againstcertain strands of profile while involving consumers through in banner brand polls, fan requests,commenting, video sharing or even event registration.

What is Facebook?

Facebook is the world’s largestsocial networking site with morethan 500 million active users(July 2010). Users are able tocreate a profile of themselves,connect with friends, sharephoto’s & videos, play games,IM, share their current thoughtsas well as participating in manyother social oriented activities.

Stats

Largest Social network in the world with over 500 million active users globally

Over 50% of users log onto to FB everyday

The average user has 130 friends

There are 150 million users accessing FB through mobile

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Checklist

Content plan

Participation policy

Voice/moderator/engager

Depth of experience (multi-tabbed presence)

Marketing plan/engagement ads

Competitive platforms

MySpace

Bebo

Orkut

Friendster

Ning

Dispora

[ ...Facebook Con’s ]

Default entry of wall once a fan

/ Fan pages are an amazing brand opportunity but Facebooks sometime obsessive focus on theconversion means that once an individual has become a fan of a brand any visit to theassociated fan page will result in a user landing on the ‘Wall’ tab by default. This limits theability of a brand to maintain a fresh presence in the users eyes as new experiences are alwaysa tab click away. Facebook’s rational is that repeat visitation is largely the result of theconversation but regardless it begins to commoditise a brands presence somewhat.

Walled Garden

/ Facebook is a walled garden and as a result the majority information and activity remains onlyaccessible and discoverable to registered users. This can mean that great brand work remainslocked away and cannot contribute to larger marketing initiatives that live and breathe in thereal world. Twitter for example is completely open with many search engines now indexingindividual tweets. Good brand work, positive relationships and sentiment often spill out acrossthe web and contribute to other marketing programs such as SEM and SEO.

www.facebook.com

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a social networkingand micro blogging tool thatallows participants to sharewhatever is on their mind in 140characters or less, known astweets. Participants can followother users, friends or notableindividuals/celebrities as ameans to stay up to date withwhat is going on in their livesthrough their tweets.

Stats

Largest microblogging platform with 145 million registered users

90 million tweets sent daily, est. 1.5m in AU

Adding 300,000 users a day with a annual growth rate of 5% (USA) & 8% (other)

Platform ecosystem containing over 300,000 registered apps

[ Twitter Pro’s... ]

Conversational Channel

/ Twitter’s core strength is the conversation. This presents an interesting opportunity for brandsto create relationships with new or existing consumers through a dialogue within a familiar andaccepted platform. Many brands have adopted twitter as an extension of their customer serviceand relationship management proposition, helping and managing disgruntled customers.However twitter also enables brands to engage consumers, share content, information or specialoffers to create a more positive relationship and drive up buzz within the online conversation.

Live environment

/ Twitter is a live environment where tweets can be consumed, shared and responded toinstantly. Much like texting on a mobile but with a one to many delivery model (as opposed toone to one). This means worthwhile information, news and content, potentially about or from abrand can be dispersed through the social ecosystem very rapidly driving up earned exposure.

Ability to monitor conversations

/ Unlike Facebook’s walled garden the twitterverse can be monitored (free or paid tools areavailable) allowing a brand to proactively find conversations about and around their brand andconnect with the individuals to build, enhance or even save a relationship.

Open source API

/ Twitters success has also been due to the ability of developers, publishers and brands to buildon top of the platform to create new and interesting experiences or integrate within an existingpresence. This flexibility has led to 300,000 plus apps being developed such aswww.tweetwhatyoueat.com and brands such as Uniqlo building its appeal.

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Checklist

Monitoring tools

Response guidelines

Empowered not restricted staff

Willingness to learn

Competitive platforms

Tumblr

Lifestream.fm

Facebook (elements)

[ ...Twitter Con’s ]

Limited Customisation options

/ Twitter is a simple idea simply executed (thank god ) but it does mean that brandcustomization options are limited to background imagery and colour schemes.

Content is fleeting

/ Given the volume of tweets sent everyday and the average number of individuals a participantfollows, each particular tweet has a short window of exposure. There are many tools andservices that offer a means to schedule multiple tweets of the same content to improve bothexposure and social traction, but the fleeting nature of a tweet is inherent in the conversation.

Ability to scale

/ The opportunity to create a large group of followers is there, think Obama, CNN or KimKardashian. If you are interesting, engaging, involving and add value to the conversation thenscale can be achieved. The problem is that more often than not it’s not that easy. Many brandstry and fail to build their audience, they offer discounts, special twitter offers or exclusive accessto content but unless a consumer wants you to be part of their social ecosystem there is nothingyou can do.

www.twitter.com

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional socialnetwork that actually predatesFacebook launching in 2003.Users are able to create a profilecovering their careers,qualifications, education andinterests while building anetwork of professional andbusiness connections.

Stats

75 million users worldwide

Active in over 200 countries

Executives from every Fortune 500 company are members

Growing by one new member every second

[ LinkedIn Pro’s... ]

B2B Marketing capability

/ Consumer focussed social marketing garners all the media’s attention but B2B organisations canstill build their brand reputation, engage their customers and contribute to the conversation.The style and tone of voice will change but the social marketing principles don’t.

Targeting

/ Being a professional social network LinkedIn builds member profiles through a variety ofdifferent data layers vs. the likes of Facebook and MySpace. This unique data offers a numberof discrete targeting options that are very valuable for B2B marketing.

Professional groups

/ Community is a major part of the LinkedIn platform with professional bodies, industries andcompanies all creating vibrant and valuable communities. The ability to assemble and energisea collective of like minded individuals is a powerful opportunity to build brand reputation,relationships and advocacy.

Intelligence sharing

/ Like any social network the opportunity to share is inherent, however unlike personal socialnetworks the real positive that professional platforms offer is the ability to share, discuss andgather intelligence on business and crowd source solutions and opportunities across countries,industries and perspectives.

Recruitment

/ A business is only as good as its people, and ensuring you have the best brains in themarketplace is imperative to maintain your edge. Being a professional social network LinkedInis an ideal platform to find and engage with new talent.

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Checklist

Content plan

Participation policy

Voice/moderator/engager

Competitive platforms

XING

[ ...LinkedIn Con’s ]

Cost

/ Although LinkedIn does offer a free version this is aimed squarely at individual users who arelooking to create connections and share their professional profile. To gain access to all of thepremium features and tools in LinkedIn then a subscription is required. For medium to largeorganisations the investment required is minimal and the potential reward is great, but for thesmall business the cost isn’t necessarily justified by the potential reward.

Business Spam

/ With the number of businesses and executives on LinkedIn its no surprise that new businessdevelopment teams have taken a liking to the platform. Many of the communities will have anNBD presence from one organisation or another lurking in the shadows, and although there aremany that understand how and where a sales pitch should be delivered there also are those thatdon’t which leads to inappropriate spam and pollution of the conversation.

Limited Visibility

/ Without paying the monthly subscription individuals have limited ability to make connections.Introductions are often required to build out your network beyond your immediate sphere ofinfluence which is a great protective feature for a user but not ideal for smaller business users.

Limited Interactivity Options

/ If you are a business that has a Facebook presence then you’ll be accustomed to a certain levelof interactivity. The ability to create, share and engage freely. LinkedIn, although offeringfunctionality in each of those spaces is limited vs the personal social networks.

www.linkedin.com

What is YouTube?

Founded in February 2005YouTube is a video-sharingwebsite on which users canupload, share, and view videos.The platform became famouscourtesy of the incredible growthof user generated content andwas purchased by Google in2006. YouTube has sincebroadened its offeringintegrating longer form andpremium content as wellstreaming live events.

Stats

2 billion video’s are viewed every day

24 hours of content are uploaded every minute

Technically is the 2nd largest search engine in the world

Currently available in 22 countries and 24 languages

[ YouTube Pro’s... ]

Reach

/ YouTube is to video what Facebook is to social networking. Its size provides any contentproducer, including brands with easy access to a vast audience through a single platform.

Level Playing Field

/ YouTube’s tag line of ‘Broadcast Yourself’ is a perfect encapsulation of its biggest strength, theability for anyone, any brand, regardless of size to become internationally recognised. If thecontent is compelling, unique and worthy people will watch and share.

SEO Assistance

/ Google loves multimedia content and as a result can award a higher organic search position. Sothe creation of a branded YouTube page with frequent, correctly tagged and linked content canhave an impact on broader brand marketing.

Google Analytics

/ Being a Google owned company YouTube has a robust analytics package available to anyone.Individuals or brands that upload videos can access a variety of information from geographicalhotspots to major content influencers all from the comfort of the video’s YouTube page.

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Checklist

Production capability

Content plan

Participation policy

Moderation process

Competitive platforms

Vimeo

Hulu

Metacafe

joost

[ ...YouTube Con’s ]

Dog’s on Skateboards

/ A victim of its own success, YouTube receives so much content, 24 hours are uploaded everyminute (much of which is dogs on skateboards ) that even great video can be lost. As a resulta brand can no longer rely on being discovered but must market their video content to drive theinitial spark to light the social fire.

Moderation requirements

/ More and more brands are encouraging consumers to create content as part of a promotion ormarketing campaign. Involving individuals with your brand is a great way to build affinity,however on open platforms such as YouTube, and where video is involved, there is need to havea moderation process in place. This can be a costly and time consuming process but is animportant layer in brand protection.

www.youtube.com

What is Foursquare?

Launched in 2009 and thecurrent market leader in theemerging geo-social space.Foursquare is a location basedsocial network allowing users toshare their current whereaboutsvia a mobile application. Theircurrent user base is in theregion of three million but willlikely come under pressure asFacebook laces gains traction.

Stats

3 million users worldwide

Generating more that 1 million check-ins per day

Over 15,000 businesses experimenting with location based marketing

[ Foursquare Pro’s... ]

Location marketing

/ Location changes everything. Knowing where a consumer is and what they are doing presents apowerful opportunity to create a more valuable and instant connection. Location based offers,incentives or rewards are powerful motivators and allow for a more meaningful and relevantbrand experience.

Reward Loyalty

/ All geo-social platforms allow consumers to ‘checkin’ at a specific location whether it be a shop,restaurant, entertainment venue etc. Regular users of both location based services and aparticular establishment are able to make their loyalty known to a socially minded brand, suchas via regular checkin’s to your favourite coffee shop. Business owners then have the ability toreward that loyalty creating a stronger consumer/brand relationship as result.

Added value

/ Beyond straight forward offers or rewards knowing an individuals location allows a brand to addvalue to a persons immediate experience. This could be in the form of added information,directions or guides. For example attendees at a music festival could be given band and triviainformation for the stage they are closest to.

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Checklist

Accurate presence

Clear guidelines

Localised offers

Educated staff

Competitive platforms

Facebook Places

SCVGNR

ShopKick

Gowalla

Brightkite

Loopt

[ ...Foursquare Con’s ]

Security concerns/PR

/ Location based services have exploded in popularity in the last 12 months and as a result havereceived more and more media attention. Through this media coverage certain securityconcerns have been raised. For example as a parent do you want the world to know where yourchildren are, or as an adult would you want strangers to know you are out of the house/onholiday? Until the media hyperbole calms down there is always a chance of negative mediabacklash toward brands that encourage consumers to reveal their location.

Anonymity

/ Even with a location based layer of information a brand still cannot identify any uniquecharacteristics for an individual. This means that marketing opportunities are still delivered in ageneralised form. For example a coffee shop can’t reward a loyal customer with a free cup oftheir favourite coffee, just the chance of a free coffee.

Ability to fake

/ Although GPS technology has come a long way in the last decade its still isn’t 100% accurate.This opens the door to ‘geo-faking’ where individuals check into nearby locations withoutactually going there. From a pure social nature this has no impact other then creating asomewhat false persona for an individual within their network, but when you are trying toreward real customers it becomes very difficult to identify those that have actually been on yourpremises.

www.foursquare.com

Appendix

[ additional platforms of note ]

flickr

/ Photo hosting and sharing platform as well as an online community built aroundphotography

www.flickr.com

Stumbleupon

/ StumbleUpon is community that allows users to discover, rate and share web pagesand content. Inherent in Stumbleupon is a personalized recommendation enginewhich uses peer and social-networking principles.

www.stumbleupon.com

Delicious

/ Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering webbookmarks.

www.delicious.com

Wordpress

/ WordPress is the leading open source blog publishing platform allowing anyone withbasic computer skills to become a content producer on the web.

www.wordpress.com

Reddit

/ Reddit is a social news platform where users can browse and submit content to thenews stream. Articles are rated up or down by the audience surfacing the mostpopular content for the community to enjoy

www.reddit.com