social networks
Why your brand MUST have a presence on social networks
At first glance, I said false when I read “Brand Presence on Social Networks Trusted Almost As Much As Peer Advice” — but when I looked more closely, it read “most credible source for information about a brand.” This is significant because a “brand itself” SHOULD be the most credible source of accurate and up-to-date information. Even consumers are not always the best source or always have the latest information. And further notice that “a marketer” is next to the last on the bottom. Consumers want accurate and up to date info but they do not want to be sold to.
Consumers are good for “subjective” input on the quality and value of a brand’s products or services. A brand must be responsible for the accuracy of its own objective information. Formerly a brand’s own website was the best place to house objective information such as technical specs, nutrition information, etc. While third party sites like reviews sites are the best place to house subjective information like customer reviews, etc. Today, since most customers frequent social networks and seldom visit brand’s websites (they never did much anyway) the place to put objective information is on brand pages on social networks. Note that this does not mean a marketing page designed to “sell.” It means place “credible information about a brand.”
Brands Vie for Credibility on Social Networks
APRIL 2, 2010
Asked what source was most believable when it came to information found about brands on social networking sites, Internet users were most likely to favor their peers. But “the brand itself” came in a close second, far ahead of journalists, considered traditionally to be an objective source. Notably, users were much less trusting of marketers—a separate response from brands—and didn’t put much faith in a brand’s competitors either.
source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007608
Case In Point: It is Better to be Better
Gmail versus Hotmail
Retailmenot.com versus Dealcatcher.com
Flickr vs ofoto, snapfish, kodakgallery
Facebook vs social networks like Myspace and Friendster
Cybercrooks Target Social Networks
Source: http://feeds.marketingcharts.com/~r/marketingcharts/~3/16mASWhC9kU/
Cybercriminals are turning their attention to users of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, according to a new report [pdf] from IT security and data protection firm Sophos.
Spam, Malware Attacks on the Rise Sophos’ Security Threat Report: 2010 indicates criminals have increasingly focused attacks on social networking users in the past 12 months, with a [...]<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/marketingcharts/~4/16mASWhC9kU" height="1" width="1"/>
The Grand Unified Theory of Marketing(tm) – Digital String Theory
Just as physicists and mathematicians have been searching for the grand unified theory of the universe, I have been looking for a way to tie together the disparate disciplines of marketing and advertising, a way to correlate metrics from different industries that interrelate with marketing (e.g. market research, Nielsen, etc.), a way to put all past theories in context and perspective (Michael Porter’s Five Forces, Net Promoter, etc.), and a way to explain marketing successes and failures — all in one.
My method is the scientific method – which is simply put doing experiments and making observations that either support or refute hypotheses.
A grand unified theory will also need to be able to take into account phenomena such as social networks, etc. What are the organizing principles of such; what is the value? Why now?
Using digital tools — such as search volume trends — we can start to correlate marketing spend effectiveness across different forms of media and also different advertising and marketing techniques. The example below compares eTrade and @Drobo. What is most embarrassing is that eTrade, a well known brand from the first dot-com heyday, spent lots of money creating and airing TV ads which it hoped would go viral. They even paid for Superbowl ads for the last 2 years to promote the “eTrade talking babies” as you see from the 2 spikes in search volume during February of 2008 and 2009. However, when compared to Drobo (a startup company that developed a very easily upgradeable back up hard drive array), it is shocking to note that Drobo spent NOTHING on advertising and relied entirely on word of mouth and an awesome product. And their search volume is not only larger than eTrade but also sustainably larger despite zero advertising and media cost. The “totals” even suggest that the volume under the curve of Drobo is 8X (EIGHT TIMES) that of eTrade.
So if you consider that eTrade spent millions of dollars to create the TV ads and even more millions of dollars to air them on TV in order to drive interest, demand, and hopefully new customers, then Drobo can be considered to have gotten the equivalent of 8X more dollars in advertising and media – for FREE using techniques and channels other than TV advertising. So what does that say about the relative value of TV advertising compared to these other, newer techniques?
godaddy vs megan fox
Top Posts for Week Ending July 26th
Top Posts Week Ending July 17, 2009
Smaller social networks are losing even the few users they have…
…to larger social networks like facebook where more of the users’ friends actually are.
Hi5, Bebo, and even Ning — the social network predicted to “host some 4 million social networks serving up billions of page views daily” by Gina Bianchini (FastCompany: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html) — are losing traction.
Related: ”If you’re just a feature, someone else will just add you and your raison d’être vanishes (you “tweet” your status in Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.)
What is Web 3.0? Characteristics of Web 3.0
2009 06 16 What Is Web 3.0
2009 06 16 What Is Web 3.0 – Presentation Transcript
- What is Web 3.0? Dr. Augustine Fou June 16, 2009. June 16, 2009.
- Evolution of the Internet microprocessor 40 yrs 10 yrs 20 yrs 5 yrs present web internet 2.5 yrs social networks e-commerce 1.5 yrs Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Web 3.0? June 16, 2009.
- Evolution of the “Web” content commerce search social networks social content social search social commerce As each stage reaches critical mass, the next stage is tipped into present June 16, 2009.
- Key Characteristics present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- Speedy
- more timely information and more efficient tools to find information
- Collaborative
- actions of users amass, police, and prioritize content
- Trust-worthy
- users establish trust networks and hone trust radars
- Content
- content destination sites and personal portals
- Search
- critical mass of content drives need for search engines
- Commerce
- commerce goes mainstream; digital goods rise
- Ubiquitous
- available at any time, anywhere, through any channel or device
- Individualized
- filtered and shared by friends or trust networks
- Efficient
- relevant and contextual information findable instantly
June 16, 2009.
- Illustrative Examples – retail/shopping present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- what friends bought or want to buy
- drag-to-share items which friends know friends are looking for
- item collections
- value in the aggregation
overstock.com amazon.com FB app: MyFaveThings
-
- contextual reviews
- reviews of reviews
- what others bought
- individualized recommendations
June 16, 2009.
- Illustrative Examples – social networks present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- aggregates all your online identities
- syndicates all your updates to all social networks
- social actions visible to friends
- trust networks across geography, time, and interests
- collection of personal homepages
geocities.com facebook.com peoplebrowsr.com June 16, 2009.
- Illustrative Examples – restaurant reviews present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- Yelp content vetted through a user’s trust network and individual recommendations made based on situation and need, in real-time
- user submitted reviews
- related items based on similarity of user preferences
- infrequent publication
- centralized editorial control
zagat‘s yelp need reco for great Italian + GPS + Yelp 5-star Babbo, been there, love it June 16, 2009.
- Illustrative Examples – photos present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- real-time, contextual “do you like this knit shirt?”
- friends give immediate feedback
- share photos with friends and strangers
- enable visitors to tag and comment
- individual albums
kodakgallery.com flickr.com ? June 16, 2009.
- Illustrative Examples – real estate present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- information vetted by fellow users, recommended directly an in context
- listings plus relevant information like school zones, comparable sales, alerts
- listings based on parameters
corcoran.com streeteasy.com trulia iphone app June 16, 2009.
- Illustrative Examples – encyclopedia present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- content is ubiquitous and available through any channel or device
- trust network proactively forwards relevant info to user who needs it
- created, updated, and edited (policed) by user actions
- digitized version of printed encyclopedia
britannica.com wikipedia.com chacha.com June 16, 2009.
- Illustrative Examples – online coupons present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
- coupons delivered contextually and proactively when user needs it (without the user even asking for it)
- instant feedback
- community action makes it more accurate and useful for others
- collection of online coupons – value in the aggregation
dealcatcher.com retailmenot.com June 16, 2009.
MySpace, Facebook, Twitter
Updated: 7/9/09
MySpace is half of Facebook now and Twitter is catching up quickly
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