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Two Big Social Media Lessons from 2011

Social media enjoyed another banner year in 2011. New services such as Google+, Path and Pinterest appeared on the scene, popular services endured dramatic changes, and more people became fans, users and enthusiasts.

With such an interesting and fast-moving year, we would be remiss not have learned a new lesson or two; some of which will carry their importance well into next year. Here are two of the biggest lessons this year:

1. There is room in the digital sandbox

Google+ burst onto the digital scene and made the “+1” graphic something we now expect to see everywhere on the Web. Google+ offered variations of and, in some peoples’ opinions, an evolution on Facebook and YouTtube. The content being shared by users now reaches into the billions, although it is left to be seen whether Google+ can continue to enjoy strong user growth.

Unthink (discussed in this post) was another example of a new and different social media forum that elbowed its way into the social market. Even though it has yet to fully take off, Unthink has attracted serious media interest, and the number of usersy could grow in the near future.

In 2012, there will be another wave of forums and experiences and it would be very surprising if a small handful of them didn’t find an audience.

2. Users will embrace change

Social media users are often seen as incredibly rigid but also very loyal. When a service changes, the cycle usually starts with resistance, then mild acceptance, and then full-out embracing the change that they originally vehemently opposed.

Facebook recently unveiled its Timeline. By reading the comments and posts in the months before it launched publicly, you would never have thought the reception would have been so warm. Lo and behold, many people have downloaded the Timeline app, and are they’re not unsure how they ever lived without it.

There are dozens of more lessons we should take from the past year, and the astute user and observer already has embraced them. As we head into 2012, it will be hard not to believe there will be more new services, changes, stories, personalities and don’t forget…cautionary tales and important lessons.

By Mark Evans - December 27th, 2011 - No Comments »
Tags: digital, facebook, Social Media, sysomos, twitter, unthink
Posted in Social Media

Social Media is Not Like Taking Vitamins

To be engaged on social media, do you have to be active all the time?

For brands and individuals looking to establish a strong social foothold, there seems to be a belief you need to a constant and consistent presence. This means many brands and people never take a break from using social media. It’s a 7/24 kind of thing.

This ideology struck me last weekend when I saw a tweet from a well-known digital executive: ”Please don’t mistaken my lack of activity on Twitter for a lack of activity.”

To me, it came across as an apology or a mea culpa for taking a break from Twitter. It’s not only absurd but sad that someone has to explain or justify why the tweets have stopped coming, even temporarily.

Truth be told, social media is not like taking vitamins; it doesn’t have to happen every day to maintain a healthy social presence.

As much as we may enjoy social media and benefit from participating in it, it’s not a daily necessity. In fact, I would argue that if the inability to take a break from social media is unhealthy and counter-productive.

What’s interesting is how a growing number of people are starting to talk about how we use social media and how we may have to embrace a new approach.

In a recent blog post, Seth Godin said the focus on quantity – following lots of people, and pumping tons of links through social networks while offering no value or context – is a “double-edge form of losing”.

Instead, he counselled people to: “Relentlessly focus. Prune your message and your list and build a reputation that’s worth owning and an audience that cares”.

At the recent Le Web conference in Paris, Forrester CEO George Colony also put the spotlight on the current state of affairs by talking about how many time-consuming social media services will disappear because people have run out of time.

My sense is more people are beginning to struggle with how they want to approach and use social media. While social media can be a valuable professional and personal medium, the question is whether being too engaged or active is a good or productive thing.

Godin and Colony appear to be suggesting quality is more important than quantity. Do you agree? How do you think our approach to social media is changing or evolving?

By Mark Evans - December 14th, 2011 - 5 Comments »
Tags: george colony, seth godin, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media

al-Shabab Takes to Twitter

Recently one of Somalia’s militant Islamist groups, al-Shabab, has embraced Twitter in an attempt to gain a digital voice and combat their opponents.

This is a significant and strange development for Twitter and social media as a whole.

Some African nations (specifically Kenya) have used Twitter to announce and denounce events and opposition but it still feels very peculiar to see a militant rebel group use the same mainstream tactic.

Maybe the issue is optics as we label these groups as rebel, yet social media is a tool for all and tends feature more “fluff”. Amidst all the lightness, there have been polarizing figures that have come to Twiiter, but none of this nature.

For awhile, al-Shabab has been locked in a military battle with Kenya, and overall they control much of southern and central Somalia. Does it not strike you as odd they have the time and strategic marketing foundation to even consider social media as a proper conduit to further their cause?

The real question is what do they hope to gain? Their fight is localized and their existence and actions controversial so it seems the broad reach of social media would have not necessarily have a profound affect on their day-to-day operations.

Their tweets have mainly been about their opinion of Kenya’s military failure in Somalia. On the surface, it doesn’t look like they plan on communicating much else.

Many believe this will compel other militant groups to take to social media. Based on the current al-Shabab model, I don’t see this happening at this juncture.

It’s possible that al-Shabab was compelled by the active Twitter account of Kenyan military personnel, but the cause does not always justify the means. The difficult part is that outside of Kenya, the world might not take to the complexity of the situation throughout Twitter.

It’ll be interesting to see this develop, and what the fallout will be. For now, the consequences exists but the action isn’t leaving a pronounced mark on the social media world beyond raising a few eyebrows.

By Mark Evans - December 13th, 2011 - No Comments »
Tags: al-shabab, Somalia, twitter
Posted in Social Media

A Sign of the Times…Think Before You Tweet

Everyone has likely experienced the sensation of putting their foot in their mouths. Never is this more true than in social media in which the wrong tweet or status update can be blown to epic proportions.

People, brands and agencies need to take heed of this foot-in-mouth issue, which jumped into the spotlight recently thanks to Mr. Twitter himself, Ashton Kutcher, who fired off a tweet that subsequently made him decide to let his management team to take over his Twitter account.

In fact, tweets or status updates gone wrong happen to a lot of major personalities in social media but it was the second time in recent months it has happened to the Two and a Half Men star in a significant way.

Most recently, Kutcher tweeted: ”How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste”.

For those who don’t know, Jo Pa is Joe Paterno, the head coach of Penn State’s illustrious football team, who was forced into early retirement for failing to notify authorities about alleged sexual abuse by one of his assistant coaches. It is a sensitive topic but it didn’t stop Kutcher, who has more than eight million followers, from wading in.

A few months earlier, Kutcher tweeted “This without a doubt the greatest day ever” to the start of the NFL season. Of course, the NFL season just happened to commence on September 11.

We need to learn from this kind of episodes that whether you have a dozen followers or a million, you can not approach social media without a plan and a solid foundation of information. Perhaps the real lesson for brands, influencers, celebrities and the average user is to put social media activity in capable, thoughtful hands.

We’ve all witnessed the hostile current climate of social media, especially when we act in bad faith or without knowledge. Opinions are the driver of social media, something that is not going to change anytime soon.

The key lesson here is the value of taking an extra second to think about a tweet. A lot can go wrong in 140 characters.

By Mark Evans - November 14th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
Tags: ashton kutcher, joe paterno, penn st., Social Media, sysomos, twitter
Posted in Social Media

Should We Be Meek about Keek?

Sorry about the bad play on words in the title but Keek seems to be a social media forum that people are paying a bit more attention to, whether we should be or not.

What’s their deal, you ask? Well, Canadian startup Keek is hoping that micro video blogging will be the next big thing in social media.

Keek is targeted towards the under-30 crowd (maybe even under-20 by the looks of it), and all it asks is you turn on your webcam, and film and upload short video blogs. Apparently, it’s a service banking on short attention spans equaling social media paydirt.

Personally, I was intrigued enough to check out Keek after hearing about it. That said, my initial thoughts were based on not having many fond memories about other video blogging platforms that didn’t resonate with audiences.

Overall, Keek’s layout is clean and the service is easy but I found the appeal ends there.

Video content needs to be dynamic, interesting and engaging but what Keek does is make even a 36-second video mundane and rather vanilla. Keek will only go as far as the users and uploads take them, which right now that doesn’t seem so far. There are better ways in social media to spend 36 seconds.

The micro element isn’t the only similarity to Twitter as Keek is trying heavily to lure in stars and celebrities into their community. They even display the name on the top of the homepage as a means of enticement. After watching the ticker for close to 10 minutes, Keenan Cahill and the Canadian Football League are the biggest names that were displayed.

The video status update could take off but my guess is more people will flock to a more substantial and easy way to get updates. Of course, these already exist in the form of Facebook and Twitter (and to a lesser extent Google+), and users will also seek more substantial video content.

By Mark Evans - November 8th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
Tags: facebook, keek, twitter, video
Posted in Social Media

Is There Room for a New, Big Social Media Player?

Last week, we took a look at Unthink, which is looking to establish itself as an alternative social network to Facebook.

As more people become concerned about Facebook’s dominance and approach to privacy, Unthink is looking to establish a foothold by giving users control over their profiles and all their information. So far, it has attracted more than 100,000 registered members.

It is an encouraging start but it is difficult to say whether people are simply curious about Unthink or seriously interested in the idea of a new social networking service.

As much as people may like to complain about Facebook, you’re not seeing a wave of defections to the revamped MySpace or startups such as Diaspora. Instead, most people are sticking with Facebook because, after all, their friends and family are there.

So what would it take for a new social networking service to catch fire? Is it possible for a new player to wiggle its way into the top tier along with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+? (Note: For the sake of argument, I don’t consider Google+ a new social player given Google’s search dominance.)

One of the challenges facing a social startup is it has to have more than just more features than the incumbents. A good example is Pownce, which had more bells and whistles than Twitter but, for whatever, reason didn’t have Twitter’s buzz or cache. As a result, Pownce disappeared into the bowels of TypePad.

To capture enough users to become an established player, a social startup needs to have a service that’s user-friendly with almost no learning curve or “grit”, and strikes people as cool and happening. It would also help to have a few high-profile mavens such as Robert Scoble and Walt Mossberg embrace it in a major way.

Even this may not be enough to get a social start-up over the hump. The gap from the bleed-edge/leading-edge to mass adoption is huge. As much as online users are finicky and not terribly loyal, many social media users are creatures of habit. Once they establish a presence, build a community and integrate a social media service into their personal and/or professional lives, it’s hard to leave.

For a new social media service to close the gap, it needs a combination of great timing, luck, a service that delights for a variety of reasons. It doesn’t necessarily have to been chock-a-block with features but it just needs to do a few things really well with perhaps a few interesting wrinkles.

In many respects, we’re talking about a David vs. Goliath world in which startups battle against large and well-entrenched market leaders. It’s not an impossible task but it would take a lot of things to unfold in the right way to materialize.

What do you think? What would it take for a startup to become a top-tier social networking player?

By Mark Evans - November 7th, 2011 - 4 Comments »
Tags: facebook, linkedin, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media

“Unthink” Social Media

As we all know, social media is in a constant state of flux and innovation is always at the forefront.

When you think of social media, it immediately conjures up thoughts of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and most realize what they are about – advertising engines and not necessarily based on socializing.

There’s a new kid on the block called Unthink, and it’s mission is to show you exactly how Facebook got it wrong, by showing you how they think social media should be done.

Unthink’s approach is you control your profile and all the information contained on it. As a result, there is no frustrating privacy policies to constantly haunt you.

With 100,000 members since it launched eight days ago, Unthink is starting to make waves. Once people get wind of the lack of advertising and updates, it shouldn’t be long before those numbers are doubled.

Those who have grown frustrated with Facebook and are waiting for Twitter to go down the same road now have a place to migrate to. The question will be how many of the complaints are real and how many are actually willing to cut the Facebook umbilical cord.

If Unthink is the revolution within social media, the site itself is making no bones about it. Self-labelled as the “emancipation platform”, Unthink might really find its audience in the current political climate of the world which is screaming revolution.

Social media has always been a tool for the people to claim control of the media and not relinquish power to the authoritative bodies. Even though Facebook’s main tenets is connection and communication, it is seen by many as a corporate entity, not a social one.

“No ads. Not now. Not ever”. What a novel idea, lets see where Unthink goes from here.

By Mark Evans - November 4th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
Tags: facebook, Social Media, sysomos, twitter, unthink
Posted in Social Media

What if Twitter Isn’t a Big Business?

Here’s the financial update on Twitter: In 2011, Twitter is expected to have $140-million in revenue, while CEO Dick Costolo recently disclosed the company’s valuation is pegged at $8-billion.

On the surface, both numbers are impressive given Twitter’s revenue will more than triple from $45-million in 2010, and its current valuation is a staggering 60X sales.

The big question is whether Twitter’s business can get large enough to justify its sky-high valuation. eMarketer expects Twitter’s revenue to hit $400-million by 2013 based on the assumption the momentum from Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts will continue.

With a $8-billion valuation, there are obviously huge expectations among investors that Twitter’s business will thrive as it finally lands upon a vibrant and robust business model after struggling for several years to find a winning formula.

So far, advertisers seem happy with Twitter’s offerings, although it is still early days. One of the key challenges for Twitter and advertisers will be the willingness of users to accept more and/or different advertising as part of the overall experience.

The appearance of a handful of Promoted Tweets is one thing, a steady stream of Promoted Tweets is another thing altogether. As Twitter looks to ramp up advertising, it will be interesting to see how it can successfully integrate more advertising within the overall experience in a way that users will accept.

As much as eMarketer is bullish about Twitter’s revenue prospects, I would suggest it’s far from a slam-dunk. The overall economic landscape is uncertain and Twitter’s advertising model is still work in progress.

There is no doubt Twitter has successfully evolved into a business from a project but the big question is how big of a business it will become.

More: According to eMarketer, people who use Twitter a lot are more likely to click on ads.

By Mark Evans - October 24th, 2011 - No Comments »
Tags: advertising, business model, twitter
Posted in Social Media

Is Twitter an Effective Customer Service Tool?

Twitter has a great reputation for being a good way to improve customer service but it is receiving too much credit?

It’s a question that deserves some attention in the wake of a survey by Evolve24/Maritz Research of 1,298 U.S. consumers who had complained about a specific product, service, brand, or company.

While just over half (51%) of the respondents said they expected to get a response about their complaint, only 29% said they were contacted by the company. Of the people who did get a response, 83% said they “liked or loved” hearing back from the company.

The 29% corporate response rate is surprising because you’d expect it to be significantly higher given Twitter’s reputation as an effective customer service vehicle.

It begs the question about why the low engagement rate.

Is it because companies are listening and monitoring social media activity?

Do most companies dismiss complaints as the vocal minority or not want to engage publicly about a problem or issue?

Do many companies not care about complaints on Twitter, accepting them as part of the social media landscape?

Or are there simply too many complaints for companies to respond to many of them?

It is difficult to determine why companies wouldn’t respond to a complaint on Twitter given it is public forum.

One of the challenges facing companies is figuring out which complaints deserve a response. In the scheme of things, complaints fall into several categories:

1. Rants, which are passionate but made by people who appear to be constant complainers. In some situations, responding may only encourage someone to complain some more rather than address their problem.

2. Minor problems that may not want or need a response. This requires a company to make a judgement call on whether to address the problem or not.

3. Major problems that definitely deserve a response but require a company to determine how, who and when to do it. Some of these complaints can be handled on Twitter, while some should be handled via e-mail or by phone.

One of the interesting things about people who complain about company, product or brand on Twitter and other social media services is how quickly a problem can disappear by simply responding to someone. In many cases, someone who tweets about a problem simply wants to be heard.

The challenge for many companies when it comes to complaints on Twitter is being prepared to handle different situation quickly and effectively. This means being able to identify complaints as they are made, determining which ones deserve your attention, and then providing the appropriate response.

Links:
- Jay Baer has a post on the survey at Convince and Convert. Jay believes the two biggest factor that stop companies from responding to complaints are fear and a lack of resources.

By Mark Evans - October 17th, 2011 - 3 Comments »
Tags: complaints, customer service, maritz, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Social Media

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