Social Media v. Social Business

The evolution of “Social Business” from social media is a hot topic of discussion these days and I’ve dug up info from a few leading authorities on the subject.   

First, Peter Kim, (@peterkim) a Darden MBA and managing director of business transformation at R/GA, Interpublic Group's big digital agency brand, provides an insightful and thorough report on “social business.”

In his 30-slide presentation, Peter explains how (1) increasingly powerful devices, (2) better access to bandwidth, and (3) consumerization of IT are helping to usher in a new era of online business beyond eCommerce.   Much of what he has to say operates on the premise that people do business with other people companies, a theory that aligns closely with our own GSB mantra of always keeping the end consumer in mind when developing business strategies. He defines social business as

“[Social business is] social media applied to communications, whether B2B, B2C, or E2E to make money or save money.”    

Michael Brito, author of a popular blog on the subject, Britopian.com, outlines the key points of differentiation between social brands and social business.  (Michael’s full report: “From Social Brand to Social Business.”) 

 Ethan McCarty, Senior Manager of Digital and Social Strategy at IBM, offers another simple explanation that helps shed light on the difference between social media, a familiar term, and the relatively new concept of social business:

 “Social media is about media and people, which is one dimension of the overall world of business. With social business you start to look at the way people are interacting in digital experiences and apply the insights derived to a wide variety of different business processes.”

A number of companies have already embraced this concept as highlighted in this report by Constellation Research,  Research Summary: Introducing The 43 Use Cases For Social Business (Social Enterprise).

Facebook Or Twitter, Which Is Better For My Local Business?

Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/facebook-or-twitter-which-is-better-for-my-local-business-0313333

This article seems to be interesting to people not only who run local business but also who are interested in social media marketing. Thus I feel like sharing and discussing it!

1. What is Your Objective?

  Please be very clear about what you want to do on a social network. Why does your business need a social presence and what are you trying to achieve from being on social media? If you have a visually appealing business and want to interact with customers closely, then being on Facebook makes more sense. Of course, you can upload images/videos on Twitter but then your followers have to click on “Expand Media” to view the image. On the other hand, if your objective is to announce and promote your business broadly to people on a regular basis, then Twitter would be much better.

 2. Facebook works better in India, Twitter works better in Japan?

  How can we know it is true? We can get useful information from the latest data revealed by” We Are Social”.

3. Cost

  Both Facebook and Twitter don’t cost too much to local business people but if you want better targeting and reach to customer, you need to spend money on advertisement platform/applications.

4. Running Contests/events

   Twitter platform seems to be more relaxed when it comes to contest guidelines. On Facebook, you can’t run contests on the wall. So you need to build a Facebook app which involves cost. There are brands who run contests on the wall but that is against the guidelines. On the other hand, you can easily run those small weekly contests on Twitter and create a buzz weaving around conversations on the platform. You can always tie up some incentives and you can run them as and when required without bothering too much about the platform. 

Digital marketing firms take to Facebook to run brand, ad campaigns

Increasing levels of acceptance of Facebook (FB) as a major force in branding and advertising is having a momentous effect on the advertising industry. The digital and interactive marketing industry is making use of FB page almost like a business portal (like a replica of websites) and deriving business advantage out of it.

Sample this: When Mumbai-based interactive marketing solutions provider Contests2Win, which developed FB applications for Cadbury, NGC and ICI Dulux, ran a campaign for Future Group's hypermarket format Big Bazaar, the latter got 10,000 fans on FB in just three weeks.

“2010 was the year when Indian brands discovered FB. In 2011, most brands are allocating money on FB for experimentation ... they are dipping their toes in the water by acquiring fans/likes and hiring specialist agencies to run social media campaigns. FB will soon become an integral part of most Internet media plans just as Google, Yahoo! and Rediff are,” says Rajagopal Menon, chief operating officer of Contests2Win.

Menon says brands will go where the consumers are, and with 20 million-odd consumers on FB, the social media site will replace a lot of ‘Brand’ sites. “Sony Pictures, for example, keeps updating its FB page with its latest international and national releases. Hollywood fans can comment and share this content with their friends, thus giving the brand a readymade viral platform. Very soon, we will be releasing India’s first branded social game on FB on the lines of Farmville for a major TV brand,” he adds.

According to Suresh Reddy, chairman and managing director of Hyderabad-based digital marketing solutions provider Ybrant Digital, in India FB has the highest reach with 24 million people accessing it, followed by Google’s Orkut with 18 million. Together, they cater to 90 per cent of the users of social media sites. It is estimated that Rs 85 crore was spent on social networking sites last year and is expected to grow by 25 per cent this financial year, he adds.

Ybrant Digital, which was declared as the biggest advertiser on Facebook Social Ads outside of the US in August 2010, has developed an enhanced advertising solution christened ‘FBM’, which allows it to target users that have not clicked the FB ad and present them with relevant banners on other websites.

“We currently serve roughly 4 billion impressions and 55 million clicks per month around the world. In the next couple of years, we forecast 15 per cent growth in our business with Facebook,” Reddy says.

Online ad spending was pegged at $61.18 billion worldwide in 2010, which is forecast to leap to $96.8 billion, growing at an 11.9 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) despite the slow, uneven and fragile global economic recovery. In India, online advertising is estimated to have reached Rs 785 crore last year, and expected to grow 26 per cent this year.

“Much of this increase in spends will revolve around FB and Twitter. Typically these would be about 40 per cent of total digital marketing spends. While FB leads the pack as the ‘place to be’ for most brands, there is a limited understanding of how really to use the medium,” says Chris George, founder and chief executive of EBS Worldwide.

EBS Worldwide’s services around conversations on FB are driven by its Online Reputation Management (ORM) services, where it provides brands with an audit of ‘who is saying what’ about their brands in the online world.

George says brands, quite often, will spend well on creating a digital presence but totally ignore what is happening to the brand on social media. “Our ORM services provide brands with a dash board of where their brands stand, followed by a comprehensive plan to engage in those conversations. Our social media solutions to the brands we work with are not just limited to the number of ads we have executed on FB for them. We are seeing brands spending more and more on social media like FB and we see this rising to about 80 per cent of the total new media marketing budget in the coming two years,” he adds.

Non-profit organisations like Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which manages a majority of the zoos in Singapore, are also taking to FB by opening fan pages to increase sustained attendance of visitors to its zoos.

WRS, which served 3.6 million visitors across the Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari and Singapore Zoo of which Indian tourists accounted for a low double-digit percentage, has over 25,000 fans on FB — close to 80 per cent are active fans. Of this, fans from India make up almost 3 per cent.

“In a landscape filled with millions of organisations and billions of messages, sometimes we have to make our presence known so we run social advertisement campaigns on FB to reach out to those who are unaware of us. In the last month, we had almost 600,000 page views and we expect to break the 1-million barrier soon,” says Isabel Cheng, director (sales, marketing and communications) of WRS.

Source:        http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/digital-marketing-firms-take-to-facebook-to-run-brand-ad-campaigns/435644/

Digital Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Last year, American Express estimated that 103 million Americans shopped at a small business on Small Business Saturday. This is 15% higher than pre-Thanksgiving projections. With the year’s most popular local business shopping day less than a month away, it’s important to include digital media in your marketing mix.

To get the full exposure and awareness that your small business needs and deserves, here are some digital marketing tips to help you prepare for this year’s Small Business Saturday, coming up on Nov. 24.

1. Think social
With Facebook recently announcing 1 billion users online, their audience is too big to be dismissed. Whether setting up a Facebook page, organizing events or building a fan base, social media marketing plans for Small Business Saturday are a must. Consumers are already used to interacting with larger brands online, so small businesses need to get on board to maintain customer relationships and build new ones. Whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, each of them should be on your radar for your marketing checklist – and even better, they’re free.

2. Be found
As a small business owner, it’s important that your company is listed in all relevant online directories, maps, apps and popular Internet websites all year round, but especially for Small Business Saturday. In addition to being a popular shopping day for local businesses, many consumers regularly visit online directories while on-the-go, to find local shops or restaurants. You don’t want your business to be left out or even worse, lose that customer to a competitor.

3. Make sure consumers know who you are
Websites are a standard showcase for local businesses and they’re a great way for local customers to get a taste of your business, products and services. Remember a website requires key ingredients such as prominently placed local phone numbers, email addresses and a form for customers to reach your business. Having your hours, driving directions, address and a map are also critical. As the online storefront for your business, you should ensure your site is professionally designed before Small Business Saturday, complete with videos, slideshows and photos, as well as links to other online platforms where you have a presence.

4. Be mobile-enabled
Forty-five percent of Americans 18 years old and older now own smartphone devices, according to data from Pew Research, so don’t forget to ensure your small business Website looks great when viewed from a mobile device.

Importance of Digital Marketing and Big Data for Businesses

I recently came across an article from McKinsey that talks about an annual survey that McKinsey conducted about the key trends in digital business, the extent to which companies are investing in new digital technologies, and the value that they expect to reap from these investments. Below are few highlights from this article that talks about the importance of digital marketing and big data:

• It appears that most C-level executives say the three key trends in digital business—namely, big data and analytics, digital marketing and social-media tools, and the use of new delivery platforms such as cloud computing and mobility—are strategic priorities at their companies. 
• These executives have high expectations for the potential value their companies can generate from the three trends, and one-third of them even expect digital business to increase operating income by more than 10 percent over the next three years.
• Of the three key business technology trends the survey asked about, just more than half of all respondents say their organizations have made two of them—big data and analytics and digital marketing and social tools—at least a top-ten corporate priority on their strategic agendas.
• Executives also say their companies view these digital business trends more as offensive strategic weapons than as defensive moves. About half of respondents indicate their organizations’ primary objective in addressing big data, digital marketing, or flexible platforms is using the technology to build a competitive advantage in their existing business.
• The results indicate that companies are indeed supporting these priorities in their budgets: one-quarter of respondents expect their organizations to spend at least 3 percent of their total cost base on digital business initiatives this year.
• The pace at which respondents say their organizations are adopting different practices, however, varies greatly. With big data, 49 percent say their companies are focusing their efforts on customer insights, segmentation, and targeting to improve overall performance; an even higher share say their companies should focus their efforts on using data and analytics to generate these insights.
• Most respondents say their companies use digital marketing techniques either to position and brand material across channels or to engage customers through social-media channels at least selectively, while the adoption of other practices is more modest. A slight majority say their companies use social technologies to improve customer engagement, while fewer have deployed these tools internally or with business partners. McKinsey says that companies are still building the foundations for new delivery platforms such as cloud or mobile; not surprisingly, respondents say their own organizations’ efforts are focused on the more basic functions in these areas.

Tough challenges ahead: Despite their optimism, executives consistently cite two challenges in fulfilling the promise of digital technologies: organizational structures and shortcomings in their infrastructure and IT systems, which can be too inflexible or ill equipped to take advantage of a data-rich world. 

Using social media for gathering social intelligence and for decision making

Below is few highlights from an article by McKinsey that I read about how marketers can use social media for gathering intelligence and guiding decision making:

In many companies, marketers have been first movers in social media, tapping into it for insights on how consumers think and behave. As social technologies mature and organizations become convinced of their power, McKinsey believes that marketers will take on a broader role: informing competitive strategy. According to the article, social media should help companies overcome some limits of old-school intelligence gathering, which typically involves collecting information from a range of public and propriety sources, distilling insights using time-tested analytic methods, and creating reports for internal company “clients” often “siloed” by function or business unit. However today, many people who have expert knowledge and shape perceptions about markets are freely exchanging data and viewpoints through social platforms. By identifying and engaging these players, employing potent Web-focused analytics to draw strategic meaning from social-media data, and channeling this information to people within the organization who need and want it, companies can develop a “social intelligence” that is forward looking, global in scope, and capable of playing out in real time.

The article explores four distinct ways that marketers can use social technologies to augment the intelligence-gathering approaches of companies:

• From identifying data to mapping people and conversations: Social media creates a new information map. Competitive analysts today differentiate between primary sources of information (from experts, competitors, employees, and suppliers), on the one hand, and secondary sources (such as published data, articles, and market research), on the other. Social intelligence operates on a different plane, identifying people and their conversations in social spaces. Its logic is that if you can find the right “curators” and experts collecting and channeling vital, accurate information, that eliminates the need for extensive searches of traditional databases and published information. Identifying the right people ultimately should induce companies to join existing online conversations and even shape them. This real-time information may help preempt key actions of competitors or lead to adjustments of strategy.
• From data gathering to engaging and tracking: Analysts typically spend 80 percent of their time gathering information before they begin to analyze it. Social intelligence radically alters this process. Numerous tools allow analysts to create dynamic maps that pinpoint where information and expertise reside and to track new data in real time. The most effective way of obtaining new information is to engage a carefully mapped network of experts on specific subjects.
• From analysis and synthesis to structuring and mining: Availability of vast quantities of social-media data points has spawned an array of new analytic methods that can structure and derive insight from complex information. New analytic techniques employed, includes “buzz volume,” to isolate relevant messages about the company’s brand and those of competitors; “discussion topics,” which distills a random sample of messages about the company and each competitor and arrange them by the topics that arose in discussions; “qualitative insights,” targeting notable quotes from the messages; and “consumer sentiment,” categorizing messages as positive, negative, mixed, or neutral. Equally interesting is the range of sources that can be surveyed—blog entries, discussion boards, Usenet groups, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. 
• From reporting to curating and embedding: In the old approach, intelligence reports often are formal documents sent by e-mail, broadcast by corporate newsletters, or posted on intranets. Content sometimes covers the waterfront of competitive topics, and information can be dated by the time it gets into decision makers’ hands. By contrast, new social software now on the market lets companies rapidly, even automatically, curate highly pertinent information—from news sources, Web discussions by experts and influencers, freshly minted market data, and customer feedback. Almost any user within a company can create a personalized information dashboard, which “democratizes” intelligence and embeds relevant data deep within the organization.

Twitter or Facebook? Or both?

The phenomenon of social networking is still in its infancy and it remains to be seen exactly which network might become the 800-pound gorilla in the space. It is reminiscent of the dotcom 90s, when I worked in the search industry; dozens of venture-backed search firms battled for dominance and search appeared to become a commodity, with limited monetization potential, or so we all thought at the time.
There are now so many social networks vying for users that even the most elite “Digerati” have trouble keeping up with the ever-shifting landscape. And most are still struggling to find effective monetization strategies, casting doubt on their long term survival and pointing to massive consolidation at some point.

The Evolution of Social Networking Compared to Search

In the now-infamous dotcom era, Yahoo, Lycos, Excite and others evolved into portals in a desperate attempt to find ways to make money, since nobody had really found effective ways to monetize search. That was, until companies like Goto.com (which became Overture and was eventually bought by Yahoo) and Google invented the concept of paid search and contextual, pay-to-click advertising models. The rest is history and we all knew who won the war.
So it seems today that applications like Twitter and Facebook, while attracting new users at astounding rates have not fully defined their business models and the 800-pound gorilla has yet to emerge. It is still early in the game and, as with search in the mid 90s, the eventual winners in the social networking space may not even yet exist, but I would argue that Twitter and Facebook are emerging as potential contenders to dominate.
The differences between the two networks are substantial and in some ways a direct comparison between the two is actually difficult to make. Twitter is simple and feels like Google did in 1998, while Facebook offers a portal-like interface somewhat reminiscent of Yahoo.

Key Elements of Facebook and Twitter

Facebook appeals to people looking to reconnect with old friends and family members or find new friends online; the mashup of features like email, instant messaging, image and video sharing, etc. feels familiar, while Twitter is a bit harder to get your arms around at first.
Most people can very quickly grasp how to use Facebook to connect to friends and family, using it to share thoughts, images, etc. Like MySpace but more geared to adults than teens, Facebook is a social networking Portal; beckoning you not to leave but rather to stick around and communicate within the network.
Twitter on the other hand, encourages you grab ideals in byte-size chunks and use your updates as jumping off points to other places or just let others know what you’re up to at any given moment.

Why People Love Facebook

Facebook appeals to social animals and can be very addicting to people who have an insatiable appetite to stay connected with friends and make new acquaintances. In fact, some people report they rarely use email or IM tools anymore in their online social communications anymore, relying almost entirely on Facebook for email, chat, image and video sharing.
Facebook addicts prefer the social portal model versus having to log into AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Gmail, Hotmail, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, etc. Instead, Facebook gives them a single alternative to all these applications, with one login and interface to manage their online social interaction needs. This largely explains the explosive growth Facebook continues to experience and why the company reportedly invested $200 million in data center upgrades last year to keep up with demand!

Why People Love Twitter

The usefulness of Twitter is not readily as obvious to some people as Facebook; although it may be more addictive once you get the hang of Tweeting; you get more immediate responses and it seems to live somewhere between the worlds of email, instant messaging and blogging. Twitter encourages constant “linking out” to anywhere and, in that respect, is more analogous to a pure search engine; another way to find people and content all over the Net.
Twitter has quickly built brand awareness and a loyal following, especially among the technically adept; bloggers, online marketers, evangelists, basically anyone with something to promote seem to find Twitter extremely valuable.
When asked why they love Twitter, users say like “I can ask a question and get an instantaneous response”. They crave the ability to “tap into the collective consciousness” of others on the network, bouncing ideas off others with whom they would otherwise have no means of connecting. Twitter addicts claim it’s like the old fashioned water cooler, where people can gather to shoot the breeze on whatever topic is on their minds. Twitter is like a communications stream you dive into for an invigorating swim.

Different Communication Styles for Different Social Settings

Let’s say you go to a wedding or other social gathering where lots of people know each other. The style and tone of communication there will be more like using Facebook; you chat with old friends and acquaintances, mixing and mingling in an intimate manner. In this setting, people tend to feel more relaxed and “in their element”. Conversations are familiar and center on shared experiences and connections.
Now, when you go to a large party or social event where you don’t know most of the people in attendance, you will use a very different style of communication, more like Twitter; you want to meet people and somehow make yourself known, stand out from the crowd, make an impression, self promote and make new connections. Twitter is like getting the podium and not everyone feels comfortable or knows how to stand comfortably in the spotlight.
In fact, almost all of us, when first approaching Twitter, tend to use it to post useless updates like “Going to lunch”, thinking of it as a another tool to communicate with friends, when in fact, it is more like stepping on to a stage, where you are communicating with an audience and quickly find that you need to find a voice and say something useful and interesting or quickly lose the attention of your audience. People refer to Twitter as a mini or micro blogging platform.

So Which Social Network is the Best?

While zealots will immediately point to either Twitter or Facebook as being superior, the truth is that each has its advantages and disadvantages and will tend to appeal more to different types of people and for different reasons. Each can have great or little value to anyone; it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish in a given situation. Consider some of the pros and cons of each network:

Twitter Pros

• Easy to navigate and update, link to and promote anything
• Reach far beyond your inner circle of friends
• One feed pools all users; anyone can follow anyone else unless blocked
• Pure communication tool, rapid responsiveness
• You don’t have to be logged in to get updates; you can just use an RSS reader
• Very interactive, extensible messaging platform with open APIs
• Many other applications being developed (Twitterific, Summize, Twhirl, etc.)
• Potential SMS text messaging revenue from wireless networks (although Twitter states they are not currently getting any cut)
• Potential future advertising and/or enterprise subscription-based revenue streams
• With its “thin” overhead, Twitter is probably more scalable than Facebook, giving it a cost advantage

Twitter Cons

• Limited functionality; find people, send brief messages, direct replies
• Limited to 140 characters per update
• Not all people find it immediately useful
• Over-emphasis on follower counts
• Easily abused for spam and increasing the noise level
• Relatively smaller installed user base
• As yet no readily apparent monetization strategy

Facebook Pros

• Application mashup; find people, make connections, email, instant messaging, image/video sharing, etc.
• Most people can quickly grasp the value of connecting with friends, family and established contacts; some people report they use Facebook instead of email and IM
• More emphasis on deep connections with others vs. who has the most connections
• “True Friends” feature increases your transparency to selected connections; almost like having private and public profiles
• Huge, rapidly growing installed user base
• Inherit stickiness, third party applications, “gift giving” and personal data collection make Facebook a powerful advertising platform

Facebook Cons

• More difficult to navigate and update
• Requires investment of time to realize sustained benefit
• Opt in model requires a user to allow others to connect
• Less immediate responses; unless you stay logged on continually
• Overhead of mashup and “thick” applications could limit scalability, bloat cost structure

The Future of Social Networking

In the end, both Twitter and Facebook are simply communication tools; both will continue to evolve and morph as users find new ways to extract value and either network may or may become a long term winner in the rapidly evolving social networking space. Ultimately, the fact remains to be seen whether either application has a profitable, scalable and sustainable business model or whether the exit strategy is simply to be acquired.
As we learned in the search space, consolidation will eventually prevail. Unless they can find a way to turn all those eyeballs into profits, social networks will lose relevance. It does seem obvious that the venture capitalists are betting they will not only continue to enjoy tremendous growth but will also successfully monetize all that traffic.
But, will either Twitter or Facebook become the next Google or will they fade into the rear view mirror of technological and social evolution? What do you think?

Source: http://www.twitip.com/twitter-versus-facebook/

Twitter Goes Female

* source: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2220597/twitter-goes-female-and-what-it-means-for-your-social-media-marketing
 

    I have to say that the header attracted me much because I had an image that twitter consists of full of male users who are late 20s, and early adopters. However, It seems that things are changing now! Women are increasingly turning to Twitter for interaction and information. Here are several important facts about Twitter that have an impact on business these days. 

   Twitter skews female. It's still quite surprising to me that sspecifically women outnumber men on Twitter 53 percent to 47 percent. Since as technology platforms most social media venues tend to attract men as early adopters. Therefore this shift toward female usage signals that Twitter is maturing. Thus, It's time for companies to focus more on female users on Twitter! What's more, this is what social marketing media firm Beevolve has to say about the average Twiter user. She's an American of indeterminate age, uses an iPhone, likes the color purple and has 208 followers. The gender split was 53-47 in favour of women, but the survey, which monitored 36 million Twitter accounts, also found that a quarter of them had never been used.

   Women tweet more than men on average. It's somewhat obvious that women tweet 610 times on average while men tweet 567 times on average. This makes sense since women are well known as communicators. Further, this is consistent with communications usage on other platforms and devices. To be specific, while men trust opinions of “experts,”  women trust the opinions of “people like me.”   If wine industry guru Robert Parker gives a wine a high mark, that’s an indication to men and women that it’s a quality wine.  However, women still want to know, “but will that wine appeal to someone like me?”  For women, to trust or not to trust often depends on the details that are shared.   The more product details and the more details about the reviewer the better.  She wants to know not only that someone liked the product, but specifically why they liked the product.  She also wants to know who the person or reviewer is.  Again, she’s wondering, “is this person like me?” That can partly explain why conversation is important on Twitter for women.

   Twitter usage by sex varies by country. In areas where Twitter is a more mature platform, women are the dominant segment. By contrast, in regions where Twitter usage is newer, men are the dominant segment. (I am sure that most of them are early adaptors.) Specifically, men tend to dominate in India, Brazil, and France. Thus, If you have plans to run business and do Social Network Marketing at those countries, You need to target men users first. By the way, higher female Twitter usage is consistent across age groups. In other words, being female trumps age in terms of Twitter use.

   Twitter conversation focus has shifted to family. This reflects the interests of the majority of women. This is an opportunity for B2C marketers looking to engage women around topics related to their products. Given the popularity of family-related topics, companies can create one or more Twitter feeds that offer a tip of the day or other regular information. Alternatively, companies also can use Twitter to curate other people's content on the topic. In addition, We need to keep in mind that with over 90 percent of U.S. businesses on social media, the shift on Twitter represents a significant marketing opportunity. As the third largest social media platform after Facebook and YouTube, Twitter is already a mass social media venue. I have to say that this is particularly important for B2C marketers.