Social Media Boom

A nice visualization of SM data

Too Much Noise

So much noise is created about social media channels that I wanted to distill it down into one simple statement and move on. Social media tools are evolving the way we build relationships. Bye for now.

The Propagation Of Ideas

An interesting study on Twitter Friends and WOM marketing:

http://skilfulminds.com/2009/01/16/twitter-friends-and-the-influence-of-influentials-in-word-of-mouth-marketing/

If you're too lazy to read the entire page here is the conclusion: In conclusion, even when using a very weak definition of “friend” (i.e., anyone who a user has directed a post to at least twice) we find that Twitter users have a very small number of friends compared to the number of followers and followees they declare. This implies the existence of two different networks: a very dense one made up of followers and followees, and a sparser and simpler network of actual friends. The latter proves to be a more influential network in driving Twitter usage since users with many actual friends tend to post more updates than users with few actual friends. On the other hand, users with many followers or followees post updates more infrequently than those with few followers or followees.

Many people, including scholars, advertisers and political activists, see online social networks as an opportunity to study the propagation of ideas, the formation of social bonds and viral marketing, among others. This view should be tempered by our findings that a link between any two people does not necessarily imply an interaction between them. As we showed in the case of Twitter, most of the links declared within Twitter were meaningless from an interaction point of view. Thus the need to find the hidden social network; the one that matters when trying to rely on word of mouth to spread an idea, a belief, or a trend.

Source: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2317/2063

Skittle-Twitter

I thought the Skittles Twitter promotion was a great idea mainly because it started a new type of conversation around the brand. Yes Skittles gives up a lot of control when it comes to the conversation/content. And yes it will probably be hard to quantify what the long term value is for the brand by doing this type of promotion. And who knows how many more bags of Skittles were sold because of this but at least they're attempting to connect with customers in a new way by pushing what's possible for the medium, the customer and their brand.

Opening Day

Several brands and products are attaching their wares to the Obama bandwagon during the run up to the Inaugural Address. Many fall flat simply because they're inauthentic.

The Chicago White Sox have have struck the right tone at the right time with their bringchangehome.com microsite. With spot on messaging and design it's part celebration, part social media promotion and all for the greater good.

Any guesses where the President will be throwing out the first pitch for the 2009 baseball season? 

Social Distortion

After browsing through a handful of agency blogs and reading the year end reviews it's pretty clear that almost every shop is trying to figure out how to leverage social media for their clients. I was more heavily involved with social media a couple of years ago and there was an underlying tension between agencies and clients because nobody couldn't really agree on how to use it. Not only was it literally changing by the day, most agencies were still figuring out how to integrate online and offline initiatives. But as I sit here with my iPhone downloading apps to make my mobile life more fluid you can feel the shift that social media is making into everyday communication and (brand) relationships. 

These three trends from the OgilvyPR blog (http://blog.ogilvypr.com) connect the social media engagement into tangible results.

- In crowdsourcing, My Starbucks Idea reported receiving over 75,000 suggestions since its inception in early 2008; the company has implemented several of those including complimentary wi-fi at stores

- In microblogging, Dell Outlet reported selling over $500,000 in refurbished items through Twitter promotions

- In applications, Acuvue reported greater brand awareness and an 18% sales lift in the quarter following the introduction of a creative corporate Facebook application: Acuvue Wink

Even the local deli is getting into the social media game and I particularly enjoyed Dan Shust's blog entry about Twittering Pastrami. http://blog.resource.com/2008/12/twittering-pastrami/

A spin on the 4P's that I thought was relevant for social media I came across on Mark Stinson's blog (http://brandinnovator.blogspot.com/2008/12/6-fundamentals-of-branding-in-digital.html). Mark suggests extending the "4P's" idea into Personal support. This is one area I think social media can play a huge role in connecting with customers beyond the typical (and reactive) customer service call center. 

If everything in social media is happening too fast for you Big Spaceship does a great job of taking a step back and looking at the big picture: "Way back when, email was scary too. Maybe in the near future, social media will be thought of as just another office tool." Read the full entry at: http://think.bigspaceship.com/2008/12/16/think-before-you-twitter/

Until then you can follow me at http://twitter.com/smithdidit