Socialnomics – Social Media Blog

Entries from August 2009

Audio Wikipedia?

August 31, 2009 · 3 Comments

shepard-fairey-obama-hope-imageAs many of you know I’m a huge fan of Wikipedia.  Yes, it has it’s warts, but all and all it’s a good thing.  When I was in the Hard Rock Hotel Lobby yesterday there were several pieces of memorabilia artistically placed around the casino floor.  From Jimmy Hendrix’s guitar to Michael Jackson’s leather jacket.  A thought struck me as I took this all in.  A few weeks prior in Boston I had walked through the  Institution of Contemporary Art (ICA) to check out Shepard Fairey’s exhibit (Fairey is well known for his Obey Giant and Obama Hope imagery).

As you walked through Fairey’s exhibit you were given the option to call a telephone number on your  mobile and discreetly placed next to each piece of art was a three digit code you could punch in to listen to a plethora of information about that particular piece.  This was extremely helpful.  Now, since I was one of the few people taking advantage of this mobile phone feature I was getting “nasty looks” that said I can’t believe that guy thinks he’s so busy that he’s on his phone as he walks around this beautiful art exhibit, what a jerk!  These stares become more intense with time, so I stopped having my phone to my ear after a few minutes.

However, back to the Hard Rock memorabilia.  I thought it would be cool if they had the same type of technology (as in the ICA) here as well as other appropriate places around the world.  They could even used the popular 2-D/QR barcodes used in Japan rather than a number you had to punch into your one.  With the barfairey-obey code you simply place your phone up to the code (downside is that some phones don’t have this capability).  Then you would have your choice of reading the information or having it played back to you in an audio format.  There are already tools that help convert Wikipedia into audio.  I haven’t checked these audio tools out, so I’m no sure how good they are, but if the need is there they will quickly become robust.  Also, the technology of pointing to something or typing in a code to get information on something local been around for years.

Entrepreneurial minds could figure out appropriate ways to integrate value added marketing to the listener.  For example they could promote the band that is playing at the Hard Rock that night, free appetizer at Noburestaurant inside the Hard Rock, current off-Broadway show, etc.  At the same time it could give me the option to send a Facebook status update or Tweet with a fun fact about the Jimmy Hendrix guitar I’m checking out.   This would give the Hard Rock some additional publicity while at the same time helping me look cool – which I’m always in short supply of.  Do you think Wikipedia Audio or something similar is the next big thing?

Note: There is a good article by Rita Chang in Advertising Age about companies using 2-D barcodes.

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Categories: Wikipedia
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Viva Las Social Media

August 28, 2009 · 9 Comments

iphone-vegasLas Vegas, NV — I’m in beautiful Las Vegas so I thought it appropriate to see how social media is being used out in Sin City or how it could be better leveraged.  It’s 107 degrees here and I must have had five hundred people tell me “yeah, but it’s a dry heat.”  True, but it’s still wicked hot.  Speaking of hot, anyone that has flown into Las Vegas knows they are usually greeted with a long wait in the taxi line (think Disney Space Mountain line without the 6-year-olds).

As you know social media takes many forms and the advance of mobile technology is a great enabler of social media and vice versa (for mobile Internet penetration).  Just think how often you look up something on Wikipedia on your phone (usually over an argument or friendly wager – we are in Vegas  ), update your Facebook status, or send someone a tweet.

I still can’t believe they haven’t built a light tram/train in Las Vegas that shuttles from the airport to the Strip.  I know part of it has to do with the strong taxi union here.  Anyhow, I digress.   Since there will be long taxi longs at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport for the foreseeable future, how can social media make this bearable?  Aside from the fact I was able to engage with Facebook and Twitter while I waited in line here’s my thought for a mobile app:

When users approach the daunting taxi line let them enter into a mobile application which hotel they are going to.  You already see the “offline version of this” with people shouted who’s going to Ceasar’s Palace and wants to split a cab!?”  Obviously this takes some onions to be willing to shout this out; no problem for a New Yorker, but maybe not the forte of someone from El Paso.

The mobile application could quickly aggregate 2 people from El Paso and 2 people from the Bronx to share a cab to The Bellagio Hotel.  And for those that don’t see the benefit of social media this example helps showcase the benefit:

  1. Consumers (taxi riders) win as they have reduced their taxi fare by 50%
  2. Environment wins as there are less total taxi rides for the day
  3. Rest of the line wins as it dramatically shortens the taxi line
  4. Airport wins as they need less people to manage the taxi line
  5. More people from different backgrounds meet each other – it is social media afterall

There could very well already be a mobile application for this that I’m not aware of, if this is the case please let me know as I could have used it last night.  Now, I list the four benefits above, however with every winner there is often a loser.  As a result of the increased efficiency from this mobile application there will be less of a need for taxi drivers and workers at the McCarran International airport to handle the line.  However, in net, social media once again comes up aces.

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Categories: Uncategorized

Boeing TV Campaign = Poster Child for Old School Marketing

August 24, 2009 · 38 Comments

You’ve heard me opine that old school marketing tactics just will not cut it anymore.  I’ve come across a campaign from Boeing that is a poster child for this type of marketing.  Many of you know that I don’t currently have a traditional television feed, rather I watch everything online (e.g., Hulu, iTunes, etc.). 

boeing-logoWell, I’m a huge fan of David Gregory and his show, Meet the Press.   I download this show every Sunday free from the iTunes podcast store.  I’m grateful for this being free and part of the reason it is free is because of sponsors like Boeing.  Hence, Boeing is doing a good thing by progressively finding new mediums (podcasts) to place their branding.  Since I’m grateful to Boeing for helping to enable this supply of content, I’m giving them some free advice today.

Free Advice to Boeing and Other Traditional Advertisers:

I readily admit that I know almost nothing about the airplane supplier business.  But, what I do know is that I’m not buying an airplane anytime soon; unless I sell 100,000 more copies of my book :)

1.  If there are only two major suppliers of Airplanes (Boeing/Airbus) I’m pretty sure that the handful of buyers that exist in the universe to purchase these planes are well aware of the product offerings.  It isn’t like a package good product where it may be news that a new soap just came on the market.

2.  The same audience downloads the Meet the Press podcast every week so showing the same 30 second commercial is not only dumb, but really annoying for the viewer.  With technology it’s easy to develop inexpensive versions of the commercial.  Why not a series of “Fast Facts” or trivia  type commercials touting the products differences, benefits.  This gives viewers a tangible piece of evidence that they can discuss at the cocktail party or better yet publish on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

3.  Is a television or iTunes media buy really the best way to target the airplane buyer?  As my wife shouts every time the commercial plays  – “Honey can we buy a Boeing Today?”  There are only a handful of airplane buyers, why would you spend $100,000 plus on producing a commercial and then 10x that on the media buy in the hopes of reaching one of 50 buyers?  This commercial screams of someone in marketing at Boeing wanting a fancy commercial, and why not, it’s fun and easy.  After all, what’s easier than producing one commercial over the course of a year and then having your agency buy media spots?  Unfortunately, this is called marketing to yourself my friend.

So what should Boeing be doing?  They do have a Facebook Fan Page which is the step in the right direction with 4,951 fans.  Airbus has a fan page with 11,746 fans.  There are no posts/messages on the Wall of Boeing’s fan page, so they might as well have 0 fans.  There are a few discussion posts.  Airbus has tons of posts, but they are all from Airbus (shouting – which may be worse). 

Boeing should look to leverage social media to have an ongoing dialogue with engineers/technicians.  What do they like, what would they improve?  For the average traveler they should take  page from Intel (Intel Inside) and explain to the end user why they should care which plane they are getting on.  This can be done with some hard work in social media.  At least Boeing has a Twitter account @boeingairplanes.  This account is currently protected (requires you send a request to follow) – which will limit the number of followers, but if the return is I get more inside product knowledge than that may be a worthwhile payoff for the privacy hurdle.

The biggest advice I can give Boeing is to start having conversations with your buyers, engineers and passengers both online and offline, rather than hoping to reach one of the few buyers with a fancy :30 second commercial.

That being said, the commercial isn’t completely useless, because I did write about it in this column ;)

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Categories: Social Media
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10 Ways Twitter Can Make Money

August 19, 2009 · 14 Comments

The below is primarily composed from my social media column on Search Engine Watch from earlier this year, but it is still one of the top question I get everyday.  Hence, I thought it an appropriate post for today – also the response to the book launch of Socialnomics has been overwhelming (in a good way!) so I’ve been responding to all the positive feedback (thanks to all).

twitter-makes-moneyHow can Twitter make money? That’s the billion-dollar question. This question is important for Twitter, as well as its users and global advertisers.

With traditional advertising proving less effective, marketers need new outlets like Twitter and Facebook to help create interest and demand. Here are some ways Twitter can make money.

1. Answer a Person’s Product Need

We all search in Google, Yahoo, and Bing because we’re looking for something. How do the search engines make money? They make money from sponsored listings when people click on them.

A similar revenue stream could be Twitter’s. Simply ask a question, such as, “Where can I buy the foam things for my iPod headphones?” If a user tweets this, they could get answers from their “followers” — in other words, real people (think organic results). Or, if they opted in, they would receive information direct from foam ear bud cover suppliers (think sponsored listings).

Now, the key for this to work, just like in search, is the relevancy. A good first step would be a simple “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” relevancy button for the supplier tweets. This puts the onus not to spam back on the advertiser, similar to Google’s quality score.

You can see why Google is possibly interested in acquiring Twitter, and also why Google launched Google SearchWiki, which allows users to rate search results and comment on them. Google understands that social media is their most daunting of competition.

2. Be a Recruiting Tool for Job Seekers/Recruiters

Just like Craigslist or LinkedIn Twitter could have employers pay a small fee to easily tweet their jobs. The user would select which titles and occupations they want to receive tweets for.

3. White Label Twitter Functionality for Fortune 500 Companies

Fortune 500 companies don’t understand the Web, but think they do. These companies believe they need micro-blog functionality to keep up with the “Web 2.0 times.” Don’t believe big companies do this? American Airlines and Lufthansa unsuccessfully tried to build their own social networks.

Or going back to the ’90s, remember when every company wanted to build out their own portal? AT&T thought everyone would make their My AT&T page instead of MyYahoo. A company called MyWay (part of Diller’s IAC) made some serious bucks off these portal wannabes.  However, I feel companies are now more open to tapping into best of breed, so this may not be as lucrative.  They could do something like Yammer though, that is more for internal chatter and connectivity and charge a small license fee per user as a result of the more robust privacy/security needed.

4. Analytics Packages for Companies

Break down the conversations occurring within Twitter into digestible data. The categories can be as simple as: Bad Review, Good Review, Product Question, Top Complaints, etc. The challenge here is that a third party may come along and offer this service for free (e.g., Google Analytics).

5. Local Coupon Pushes

This is probably the most obvious. Someone can simply ask for restaurant specials nearby and be pushed digital coupons.

Due to these tough financial times, visits to coupon related sites were up 33 percent, according to comScore. Cellfire ran a test with retail grocery client Kroger and saw mobile coupon redemption as high as 20 percent.

The time is right for this on Twitter. Other researcher (looking for the source I jotted this down from)  indicated that 16 percent of all buyers wouldn’t make a purchase these days without some form of coupon or incentive.

6. Micro-payments for Answers to Questions

Willing to pay 75 cents for the best answer to: “Trying to register my Mac & iTunes so I can rent a movie, but I can’t figure out where to do this on the iTunes Menu – please help!”? Some people certainly are willing to pay 75 cents to assuage a major pain point.  Twitter would take a cut of the 75 cents and give the majority to the person answering the question.  The beauty here is that the Twitternation does the work and Twitter takes the “pass-thru” cut.  Heck, the students at Auburn can probably answer the majority of these questions.  If you ever need an answer to something you can call the Auburn Hotline at 334-844-4244.  This has often ended many a drunken debate.

7. Analytics Packages for Individuals, Small Business

Just as it’s helpful for big businesses, it would be very useful for journalists, reporters, authors, etc., to be able to easily get a sense of what the public likes and dislikes about their work.

8. Quickly Find Sources for Reporters/Bloggers

Writers on a deadline can pay a subscription to easily be connected to the proper professionals to answer questions germane to their story or post. Professionals would register with the service to make themselves available for the free publicity.

9. Capture Revenue from Wireless Carriers

It’s in the carriers’ best interest to have many text messages flying across their networks. The wireless carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) could offer a $5 all-you-can-tweet (has a nice ring to it, no pun intended) monthly package.

10. Premium Service

If you launch a version with paid advertising, then you can launch a premium service that scrubs all the ads — say $4 per month for an advertising-free Twitter.  Or the ability to send 3 direct messages to anyone (similar to LinkedIn’s premium package).

Item 10 may be counter-intuitive. The key (and challenge) to all of these ideas: they need to be incorporated into the Twitter experience and enhance it rather than being interruptive detriments. If this isn’t done properly, then the Twitternation will definitely let you know in seconds, and that’s the beauty of it.

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Categories: Twitter
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Tiger Loses, But Social Media and Y.E. Yang Win

August 17, 2009 · 19 Comments

On Sunday, Y.E. Yang caught golf’s greatest, Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship.  It was the first time that Tiger had relinquished a lead in a major tournament after leading for 54 holes.  It was also one of the few times that a traditional broadcast entity got things right with it’s online video coverage.

tiger-loses-pga

I’m one of the growing number of people that don’t pay $100-$200 per month for a traditional television/cable feed.  Rather I’m reliant on everything that is served to me online or my phone.  This works great most of the time using primarily Hulu and iTunes, except when it comes to major sporting events.  I’ve sited numerous examples in the past where I’ve been left out in the cold.  The Olympics only showed live events online we didn’t care about (massive coverage on female cycling, limited coverage on Phelps/Bolt).  Or when trying to watch my Detroit Red Wings online, often it was an iso-cam on one player – so you only witnessed a goal if it happened to be the one guy they were following. Also, it’s often a non-high definition feed that doesn’t even go full screen on your computer.

PGA Combines Social Media, Video & Mobile

Why do I always feel like I have to go to an online black market to watch the sporting events I desire?  The technology is there, but broadcasters have just been hesitant since they don’t understand what all this new technology means for their traditional ways of measuring advertising.  But, eyeballs are eyeballs.  Whether it’s viewwed on a  computer, phone or TV with bunny ears is immaterial.

Hats off to the PGA for getting things right this weekend!  If you went to www.pga.com you were able to view the

Online Viewers of the PGA Championships Could Stay Connected Via Social Media

Online Viewers of the PGA Championships Could Stay Connected Via Social Media

tournament live.  And it wasn’t like other golf tournaments where you could only view certain holes.  They were following Tiger and Yang shot for shot as they came down the stretch.  Even better, users had the ability to chat live on pga.com via their favorite social media tool:  Twitter, Facebook or MySpace.  I was actually surprised at the amount of posts from MySpace, maybe they aren’t dead just yet.  It appeared this live chat was being ported thru Gigya’s collaborative API (application program interface) tool.  There was also an iPhone app that let you watch the live video also.

Advertisers Win

The PGA realizes that just as many households no longer have landlines in their homes (mobile phone only) many households are also simply viewing their televison/media via their phones or laptops.  The PGA is smart in tackling this now as it will only become more and more prevalent in the future because a) this is how people want to view things b) enhanced tracking & demographic targeting capabilities.  Other winners were the PGA sponsors.   Banners, commercials and sponsor tags for American Airlines, IBM and Mercedes-Benz were prevalent throughout the online broadcast.  And guess what? I couldn’t TiVO them!  I also had a special place in my heart for these brands because they were helping enable this FREE content (remember when TV used to be free?).  I didn’t view the sponsors as a nuisance, rather I viewed them as a benevolent enabler.

Other Items of Interest for PGA Online Viewers

  • #PGA and #Tiger were top trending topics on Twitter
  • Facebook was easier to get on via the PGA Gigya’s setup than Twitter (kudos to Facebook Connect)
  • Often online broadcasts go to “dead air” during commercial breaks which isn’t good for anyone.  This time it worked more like a real broadcast with appropriate commercialization (yes, I said it!)
  • PGA made you login to view the online stream, which is fine.  They did have double opt-out to receive information from the PGA or their partners which isn’t best practice.  Also, they wanted to be able to update my status on Facebook whenever they wanted — uh, no thanks.  Imagine someone is at work on a Thursday and the PGA updates: “Jim is watching the U.S Open right now.” That would be far from optimal for Jim’s professional career.
  • One of the American Airlines advertisments was cool as it had an image of a Long Boat in Railray Island (Thailand) which I recognized from my honeymoon…do they already have that target?  Not yet, but it will be soon.

So, when are you canceling your cable/satellite television?

Categories: Uncategorized
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Social Media FEAR Results In Twitter Ban from ESPN

August 14, 2009 · 2 Comments

You’ve heard me discuss social media FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real) before and it occurs to continue at aespn-bans-twitter rapid pace.  The latest example is ESPN.

ESPN recently banned its broadcasters/on-air talent from Tweeting about sports.  That’s like asking Tony Hawk to turn in his skateboard and become an accountant.  It’s a S’more without a marshmallow.  The reason this decision is surprising is that ESPN has not only been a leader in sports (their tagline) but a leader of innovation as well.

ESPN is a smart company so my guess is their decision must be based on money.  Let me go through a hypothetical thought process.  If on-air talent like Bill Simmons and Scott Van Pelt are Tweeting the sports news as it happens then there may be the notion that ESPN followers will be less likely to read ESPN Magazine, visit espn.com, watch Sports Center, download podcasts, etc.  These are the properties where ESPN makes money – they don’t make money off Tweets.

However, this is perhaps where the thinking is flawed.  Case in point: When I Tweet something that people find of interest on Twitter what happens?  I probably get more followers so my future capacity to have impact increases.  This is a positive thing.  The other event that generally happens is that the traffic to this www.socialnomics.com increases, not decreases.  A Tweet for this article could have been along the lines of ESPN thinking flawed in ban of Twitter.  If you want more information I’m not going to post 700 words on Twitter, you need to come to this blog for the full story.  The same holds true for ESPN:  Having dinner with Tiger Woods.  Didn’t, know he doesn’t eat red meat on Thursdays.  These type of Tweets increase ESPN’s followers not only for Twitter, but for all their properties which in the end equals more money.

But alas, I was mistaken, the reason for the ban wasn’t money at all, at least according to this great interview of ESPN’s Rob King on Sports Business Daily:

SBD: Is there a concern that you were sending too much traffic to Twitter at the expense of ESPN?
King: No. The audiences are very different. That did not come up at all in any of our conversations.

I’m surprised that how Twitter affects ESPN’s revenue line didn’t come up during this important conversation.  That would have been topic #1 if I were an executive.  However, the reason appeared to be more of a legal one:

SBD: Let me ask that another way. What’s out there that made you raise an eyebrow?
King: I can think of cases in which folks have re-tweeted breaking news that turned out not to be true. Some day somebody’s going to get sued somewhere for re-tweeting something that is false. That’s part of a great IQ test that represents the introduction to social media. That’s just from a journalistic perspective, one that has to be taught and managed very carefully. I don’t know which media company is going to run into it. But some day, somebody’s probably going to find themselves in a court of law. That was in no way a line of thought that drove this conversation. But if you’re asking me, personally, sometimes I see folks re-tweeting stuff that is essentially breaking news without really a sense of the sourcing. It runs counter to the journalistic training that folks ingrained in me.

So, in the end, it appears the reason for the Twitter ban was just as I FEARed.

Another great article on the subject can be found at Mediaite

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Categories: Twitter
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Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think

August 11, 2009 · 245 Comments

by Erik Qualman

Is Social Media a Fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?  Welcome to the Social Media Revolution:

Stats from Video (sources listed below by corresponding #)

  1. By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network
  2. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
  3. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
  4. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
  5. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia (note that Facebook is now creeping up – recently announced 300 million users)
  6. Yet, some sources say China’s QZone is larger with over 300 million using their services (Facebook’s ban in China plays into this)
  7. comScore indicates that Russia has the most engage social media audience with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month – Vkontakte.ru is the #1 social network
  8. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
  9. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
  10. % of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%
  11. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females
  12. Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres (combined) have more Twitter followers than the  population of Ireland, Norway, or Panama.  Note I have adjusted the language here after someone pointed out the way it is phrased in the video was difficult to determine if it was combined.
  13. 80% of Twitter usage is outside of Twitter…people update anywhere, anytime…imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
  14. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
  15. What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
  16. The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube
  17. Wikipedia has over 13 million articles…some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica…78% of these articles are non-English
  18. There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
  19. 54% = Number of bloggers who post content or tweet daily
  20. Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth
  21. If you were paid a $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia you would earn $156.23 per hour
  22. Facebook USERS translated the site from English to Spanish via a Wiki in less than 4 weeks and cost Facebook $0
  23. 25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
  24. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
  25. People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them
  26. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
  27. Only 14% trust advertisements
  28. Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI
  29. 90% of people that can TiVo ads do
  30. Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009
  31. 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video…on their phone
  32. According to Jeff Bezos 35% of book sales on Amazon are for the Kindle when available
  33. 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
  34. In the near future we will no longer search for  products and services they will find us via social media
  35. More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.
  36. Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy Listening first, selling second
  37. Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser
The above statistics and “Social Media Revolution” video tell the story, social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.  Please feel free to share with any non-believers!
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Huge Thanks to These Outstanding Sources
Below are the sources I used to compile this video.  Keep your feedback/questions/challenges coming as it will collectively make video #2 that much better – you know leverage this whole “social” thing.
A huge thanks to all below:
  1. Source: Grunwald Associates National Study – Trendsspotting Blog | Millenials Conference
  2. Source: Huffington Post
  3. Source: McKinsey Study also posted by David Dalka
  4. Source: First Stats: United Nations Cyberschoolbus Document
    Facebook Stat: Mashable
    iPhone Stat: Apple
  5. Source: Facebook
  6. Source: TechCrunch
  7. Source: comScore
  9. Source:  Attempting to relocate
  10. Source: Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey Note: 80% will use social networks in their assessment.  95% will use LinkedIn in their assessment.  When we revise the Video needs to be updated changing “their” to “a” primary tool need to see if we bump 80% to 95%
  11. Source: Inside Facebook Blog
  12. Source: Twitter & World Population Data
  13. Source: Attempting to relocate
  14. Source: Metro Newspaper
  15. Opinion, not a statistic
  16. Source: TGDaily
  17. Source: www.wikipedia.org - calculated based on # articles per language category; Colorado State University Wikipedia Accuracy Study; open debate and of course very biased information is also found on this Wikipedia Accuracy page.  If I had to do it again I would have made this say as accurate rather than more – obviously some articles will be more accurate (think of the realtime update of Michael Jackson’s death, but also some will be less accurate.
  18. Source: China Internet Information Center, Technorati, Wikipedia
  19. Source: ClickZ Stats SES Magazine June 8 page 24-25 Chris Aarons, Andru Edwards, Xavier Lanier Turning Blogs and user-Generated Content Into Search Engine Results
  20. Opinion, not a statistic
  21. Calculated based of Wikipedia article data found at www.wikipedia.org
  22. Source:  TechCrunchThis says 4 weeks so I may have been a little off here as my source at Facebook had said 2 weeks adjusted above
  23. Source: Marketing Vox and Nielsen BuzzMetrics SES Magazine June 8 page 24-25 Chris Aarons, Andru Edwards, Xavier Lanier Turning Blogs and user-Generated Content Into Search Engine Results
  25. Opinion, not a statistic
  26. Source: July 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey (actually 90% now – updated above but video still shows 78%)
  27. Source: “Marketing to the Social Web,” Larry Weber, Wiley Publishing  2007
  28. Source: “Marketing to the Social Web,” Larry Weber, Wiley Publishing  2007
  29. Source: Starcom USA-TiVo
  30. Source: Nielsen
  31. Source: Solutions Research Group
  32. Source: Henry Blodget Silicon Alley Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-kindle-sales-now-a-shocking-35-of-book-sales-when-kindle-version-available-2009-5 Just as the URL shows it’s not 35% of all books sales, but rather if a Kindle Version and a Book Version are available the buyer selects the Kindle version 35% of the time.
  34. Opinion from Socialnomics
  35. Source: Facebook
  36. Music in video provided by Fatboy Slim “Right Here, Right Now” (1999) – if you like it buy the single

If anyone sees any inaccuracies or has better source information please let me know!

Also, if you haven’t seen Marta Kagan’s “What The F**K is Social Media” presentation,  it’s amazing! Many of the same eye-popping facts are contained in it – as well as many more.  Plus, it does a much better job of providing insight than my video which is designed to grab attention.  Kagan’s presentation informs, check it out!

To watch a video with millions of YouTube views and deservedly so, please check out Karl Fisch and Scott McCleod’s Did You Know? It is filled with compelling stats that relate to globalization, education and technology – Love it!

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Categories: Social Media
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Twitter & Facebook Outages Showcase Millions Being Addicted to Social Media Crack

August 6, 2009 · 1 Comment

Twitter and Facebook experienced network issues around 9 am EST.  Like millions, I couldn’t reach or reply to people I needed to within this time frame.  For many of the people I needed to respond to, I didn’t have their mobile numbers or email addresses.  The problem was much worse for big and small companies alike that have outsourced large amounts of their customer service to Twitter.  They couldn’t respond to the customer tweets that poured in this morning.

This morning's Twitter outage left several individuals and businesses frazzled

This morning's Twitter outage left several individuals and businesses frazzled

A few of the following examples by the Jacksonville News showcase this issue.  Ryan Thompson works for the Dalton Agency, which is a PR firm.  What happened when he couldn’t get on Twitter this morning?”I was panicking,” Thompson said.Thompson works for the Dalton Agency, a local PR firm.To a lot of his clients, Twitter isn’t fun, it’s business.”Just trying to monitor what’s going on with our clients,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of interest and a lot of value knowing what the general public thinks about clients of ours. Being in touch with Twitter let’s us keep a constant pulse and beat in terms of what everybody else is saying.”

When one woman found out about the Twitter outage, she started worrying about her mom.”My mom uses it for business,” Jana Lambert said. “She communicates on it all day long.”

Symantec blogger Marian Merritt posted an explanation for the outage “It’s often the case that DDoS attacks come from computers infected with bots, turning them into zombie computers doing their cybercriminal’s bidding. “

“There are people that, for whatever motives, want to bring other people’s companies and services to a halt,” said Walt Mossberg personal technology journalist for the Wall Street Journal on this WSJ Blog. “We need to make these things serious crimes, and we need to get smart in law enforcement, much smarter than we are now, about trying to stop them. I don’t see it as any different than somebody going into a physical business and shooting it up or shutting it down or blocking access to it.”

Mossberg added that while Twitter has millions of users, the start-up is lightly staffed. “When they get hit by something like this, it undoubtedly puts a big strain on them.”

While this was going on many businesses and individuals hopped over to Facebook as a back-up to only find that that too wasn’t functioning properly.  It was later confirmed that Facebook suffered some network issues in several countries.

“When they were both down, I thought, oh no my company has decided to block these while I’m at work!  I was relieved when I found out that everyone was having the same issues,” said one employee.

Yes, we are all relieved that the Twitter outage and Facebook outage were short-lived this time, but isn’t it a little disconcerting how quickly we’ve become addicted to the social media crack?

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Categories: Facebook · Social Media · Twitter
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Microsoft/Yahoo Will Take Google’s Eye Off The Ball – Twitter & Facebook Can Pounce

August 4, 2009 · 9 Comments

I’ve long professed that search and social are going to merge and that those big Google dollars will be up for play.  An interesting wrinkle has occurred with Bing and now the Microsoft & Yahoo deal.  It’s anyone’s guess on how this will play out.  But, one thing is certain, it now has Google’s attention.  This is good for Twitter and Facebook as it takes Google’s attention away from Social Media; which I would argue is still Google’s greatest threat.  People want to be pushed products and services just like we are pushed the news.  We no longer search for the news, rather the news finds us.  Why shouldn’t products and services that our social graph has vetted be pushed our way?

microsoft-bing

Or why wouldn’t I search on Facebook to figure out what my friends purchased and their ratings of the products?  Yes, Facebook and Twitter are happy to see Google have to turn their attention to the resurgent Microsoft.

I thought the below post from my Search Engine Watch column from 1.5 years ago when Microsoft and Yahoo first started dating would be of interest to some:

March 6, 2008 SEW Article:  Has Yahoo Lost It’s Yodel?

It seems like only yesterday that Yahoo was the darling of the Web.

The Yahoo Way or the Highway?

The irony of this proposed relationship is palpable. In the early years, Yahoo cautiously and adroitly avoided confrontation with Microsoft. But one thing was clear in Sunnyvale: there was a Yahoo way of doing things, and often that way was the exact opposite of how Microsoft conducted business.

That is why this particular partnership is peculiar. It would be difficult to watch an iconoclastic brand like Yahoo slowly dissolve into nothing — just like many of us lamented the Cingular brand being absorbed by AT&T. Losing such a spirited brand as Yahoo would be a sad day.

We often joked when I was at Yahoo (less than 2,000 employees at the time) that you could slap the Yahoo logo on an old shoe and people would clamor for it. Yes, the brand was that powerful (credit Karen Edwards, John Costello, Murray Gaylord, et al.).

Have we heard the last of Yahooooooo!? Funny enough, a few years back, we all recall when Yahoo accidentally let lapse the royalty contract for this famous Yahoo yodel sound bite. What originally cost them $30 cost them millions in royalty fees to renew. At stake now is much more than dollars. At stake is one of the “brand souls” of the original Internet boom. Is it worth it?

Vulcan Mind Meld

The task of melding the culture of 14,000 Yahoo employees and 80,000 Microsoft employees would be daunting. It could take at least one to two years to properly get things aligned. And, while resources and energy are being spent on merging rather than innovating, Google will neither have the stiff competition nor incentive to evolve search results. As I pointed out in part two of my column, “Why Search Is Still Prehistoric,” Google sorely needs innovation. Is MSN buying Yahoo analogous to the second- and third-place runners in a sprint tying their legs together in a hope to catch the leader?

Instead, Google can focus more attention on other things, like its mobile strategy, which is becoming exceedingly important. Many non-U.S. citizens only access the Internet via their mobile device. They’ll be the most likely to connect with a Google Android.

The U.S., once a laggard in this realm, is rapidly catching up. Case in point: I’m typing this on my mobile device in the Toronto airport.

Google Morphs into Microsoft

It’s astounding to think Google has almost morphed into the next Microsoft. How else could one explain Facebook and Yahoo aligning with Microsoft? It’s a classic NIMBY strategy to keep Google at bay. Google is a much better fit for both Yahoo and Facebook culturally and demographically (Mountain View is in the back yard of Palo Alto and Sunnyvale).

Speaking of Facebook, wouldn’t Microsoft be better served to focus its efforts on cultivating this relatively new relationship? Even though Facebook has only 400 employees, they add 250,000 new users each day. That’s an astounding growth rate considering that they already have 64 million users. Of those 64 million, 50 percent visit Facebook every day.

Assuming Facebook is the next big thing, why wouldn’t Microsoft leap ahead with them rather than play catch-up with Yahoo? Or should they purchase a smaller player like Bebo? In South America, they didn’t invest in building landlines where they hadn’t previously been laid; rather, they went straight to building cellular towers. Hence, countries that were lagging behind suddenly jumped to the technological forefront. (It doesn’t always pay to be the first mover).

The Next Frontier

The same argument could be made here. Does it make sense for Microsoft to build up an arsenal with weapons that would potentially be less relevant (e-mail, portals, search, etc.) if the next battleground is social networking, mobility, and beyond?

One thing Yahoo and Microsoft could do in the short term is leverage Internet Explorer’s virtual ubiquity (90 percent browser penetration). Federal regulators and the EU willing, they could combine their impressive marketing power to inform the general Internet population there’s no need to go to a search engine to perform searches.

Instead users could type in their search query directly into the IE browser’s URL address field. (I realize toolbars perform this function, but many of the “Internet unenlightened” — think mom and dad — are unaware toolbars even exist.)

MSN/Y! would take you directly to the most relevant page with a list of other search results below (in case the page they took you to wasn’t relevant). This would save the users two steps:

  1. Typing in www.google.com
  2. Clicking on one of the results.

Of course this assumes MSN/Y! search results are fairly relevant. That’s the $40 billion dollar question isn’t it?

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Categories: Facebook · Google · Search Engine · Social Media · Twitter · Yahoo
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