everything you ever wanted to know about social media

FasterFutureConsulting.com

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Social Media

…but were afraid to ask


Apr 12, 2023 2

Who am I?

20 years in media, advertising, marketing and organisational change

Author of The Power of the Network Blog ranked world No7 for publishing, UK’s

top 20 for marketing/advertising, Invited to speak on the impact of social

media from New York to San Francisco (the valley, too) Cannes to Cork

Helped Bauer/emap, Honda, Phillips, Sony-Ericsson, Gatwick Airport, Edge, UKBA, CWDC, DfT, Grey (London), MCBD, Digitas, RIOT/180, ThirdeyeT, The Met Police et al

Trustee of UK charity Citizens Online Director of Social Media at BrandoSocial FFC


See things differently

What is social media – and what does it mean for... Everything?

Apr 12, 2023 3


Apr 12, 2023 4

Context


Apr 12, 2023 5

Setting the scene

Defining the prize


Apr 12, 2023 6

What is social media?

Digitally enabled peer-to-peer networks

From email and sms to Facebook and Twitter

Distribution is by people to people

Content is by people to be shared with other people


Apr 12, 2023 7

What is social media?

Digitally enabled peer-to-peer networks

From email and sms to Facebook and Twitter

Distribution is by people to people

Content is by people to be shared with other people

POWER!


Apr 12, 2023 8

Power?

Every hotel Every restaurant Every shop Everywhere…

Filled with published critics


Apr 12, 2023 9

Peer-to-Peer?

The most powerful behaviour changer there is

We do what others like us do

Social media brings us together with people like us

Social media helps people like us act together


Apr 12, 2023 10

Many media

Broadcast media is one-to-many

Social media is many-to-many


Apr 12, 2023 11

Social media

Is not: A channel (it’s a network)

Is not: A place to broadcast (it’s for conversations)


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It’s all about the people, people

Where humans are talking to each other about things that bother/interest them – on a global scale

You are included. With or without your permission.

If you’re lucky/unlucky

If you contribute If you participate


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For example Text messaging; sms and

mms Email; including

webmail(gmail etc) and fixed (outlook)

Instant Messaging:eg Windows Messenger; skype

Forums; of the traditional message board variety.

Social networks: such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo

Blogging: Platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress,

Microblogging: eg Twitter, Plurk, Tumblr

Video sharing sites: eg Youtube, Vimeo

Image sharing sites: such as photobucket, flickr

Audio sharing: Lastfm, blip.fm, podcasts

Conversation aggregators: such as Friendfeed, Disqus

Human-powered search sites such as mahalo, and increasingly twitter etc

Human filtering sites such as digg, delicious, stumbleupon

Comments on more traditional ‘broadcast-style’ sites – such as the BBC, Guardian.co.uk

Wikis: wikipedia Googlewave?


Apr 12, 2023 14

The internet is winning

IDC reported in August 08 internet use was already outstripping TV consumption.

Internet: 32.7 hours TV: 16.4 hours Newspapers &

magazines: 3.9 hours


Apr 12, 2023 15

Does internet = social media?

Not 100%: but enough for you to take very seriously…

1. Google 2. Yahoo! 3. Facebook 4. YouTube 5. Windows Live 6. Wikipedia 7. Blogger.com 8. Microsoft Network9. Baidu.com 10. yahoo.co.jp11. Myspace 12. Google India 13. Twitter 14. Google.de Alexa Sep

2009

What no traditional media, BBC? New York Times? CNN? Fox? Guardian?

15. QQ.COM 16. RapidShare 17. Microsoft Corp18. Google.fr 19. WordPress.com 20. Google UK


Apr 12, 2023 16

Alexa records visitor numbers

Not time spent Not conversations had Not relationships fostered Not content created Not groups formed Not action enabled Not value created


Apr 12, 2023 17

We’re all publishers now

186m blogs globally 73% of web users read blogs Facebook members 132.1

million unique users in June 2008 (now over 300m)

MySpace had 117.6 million users in June 08 (now declining).

Twitter has now exceeded 50m – up 49m in a year! (overtaken myspace in UK)

More video added to Youtube in last year than broadcast by TV EVER!

The revolution is speeding up...


Apr 12, 2023 18

We’re all advertisers and marketers now

Friend-recommendation is responsible for 70%+ of all purchase decisions

34% write about products and brands on their blogs

20% of all tweets are brand related

23% of social network users have added applications

18% of bloggers install widgets


Apr 12, 2023 19

Social media. Shared media.

Very different measures required. Not consuming; participating Co-creating the experience Communities not audiences To take part, you have to create part Think ears and mouths, rather than

eyeballs

Very different from the world of mass broadcast media


Apr 12, 2023 20

How do we adapt?


The user is the destination now


Apr 12, 2023 22

Hits are worth(-)less in a networked world

The long tail...

The idea that the majority is made up of people who don’t want the thing that the largest single group do.

Twitter Trends, the charts and often elections – surface the largest single group – not, by a long way, the majority


Apr 12, 2023 23

Three laws describe how value growsand is distributed in networks…

The science bit


Apr 12, 2023 24

Sarnoff’s Law – the red line

The value of a broadcast network is proportional to the number of viewers/listeners:

Eg TV, Radio, Cinema


Apr 12, 2023 25

Metcalfe’s Law: the yellow lineyellow line

The value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n² growth):

Fax machines, telephones, one-to-one communications.


Apr 12, 2023 26

Reed’s Law: the green line

• The value of large networks, particularly social networks, grows exponentially with the size of the network.(2n)Because: The number of possible sub-groups of network participants grows faster than either the number of participants, ‘N’ (Sarnoff’s Law), or the number of possible pairs (Metcalfe's law) (N squared)


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How does this reveal the value of hits in the networked world?


Apr 12, 2023 28

Flip the graphs to find the demand curve

…and we discover why the long tail

succeeds in the group forming (Reed’s Law) world of social

networks that IS the internet.


Apr 12, 2023 29

Hits take more of the available valuein a broadcast world


Apr 12, 2023 30

Hits worth more in broadcast world

Shaded area shows hits account for a greater proportion of the available

demand and total value in Sarnoff’s broadcast world and in Metcalfe’sMetcalfe’s world

of one-to-one communications.

The biggest single group = the majority in a broadcast world but a small minority in the networked world


Apr 12, 2023 31

Hits are still worth having… but

They have less proportional value compared to the overall economics of the networked world.

In a broadcast world the hit was where MOST of the value resided

The opposite is true in a networked world. Seeking ways to create value in the long tail

therefore offers the bigger opportunity


Apr 12, 2023 32

Caution: Snakes

Long tail is getting longer…


Apr 12, 2023 33

Frightening Fragmentation

Q: How can we reach deep into and along the ever-elongating long tail?

A: Understand how messages/ideas and conversations evolve in the networked world


The internet is for people.


The internet is for people. For people to form groups



Groups with sharedpurposes



Groups with shared purposesGroups of people that can form at little or no cost


Apr 12, 2023 38

That changes everything

http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/


Three key disruptions

Who gets to create content?

Who gets to distribute content?

Who controls the user experience?


Three key disruptions

Who gets to create content?Any and everyoneWho gets to distribute content?Any and everyoneWho controls the user experience?The user is the destination now, they control their own A-to-anywhere journey


You can’t target every community of purpose

They can

Here’s howhttp://flickr.com/photos/caribb/


You can’t target every community of purpose

They can

Here’s how


Apr 12, 2023 43

THE STAGE

Scale = audience = where the eyeballs have gone

Message broadcast at audience


Apr 12, 2023 44

THE STAGE

But in (social) networks the broadcast message doesn’t arrive


Apr 12, 2023 45

They aren’t looking at The Stage.

They are looking at each other

Scale = lots of communities of purpose = where the eyeballs are focused


Apr 12, 2023 46

•They share messages among their groups.•They adapt them to suit their groups •They make the message theirs

We share what we think is cool with people who (we think) will think its cool, too


Apr 12, 2023 47

•The groups are not fixed (adhoc).•The message spreads when the groups reform around a new purpose

Users select what they think is cool (has utility) to take with them on their journey


Apr 12, 2023 48

Participants adapt the message

to suit the group they wish to share it with

The people best-placed to adapt the message are in the group, not on the stage


Apr 12, 2023 49

And so it continues; the message evolving to

survive. Or it dies out

We share what we think is cool. That which we co-create, we embrace


Apr 12, 2023 50

They aren’t your groups they are theirs

They aren’t your messages they are theirs

Communication is not done to them, it is done by them


Apr 12, 2023 51

In social media

WE are the distribution, WE are the content, WE are the 'user journey', WE are how messages are

transmitted. WE are the medium and the

media carried by it WE are the connections.

and how the connections are made.


Apr 12, 2023 52

Same as it ever was?


Key lessons for organisations

http://flickr.com/photos/cleversimon/


Apr 12, 2023 54

Key lessons for organisations 2

Respond

http://flickr.com/photos/daveyp/


Apr 12, 2023 55

Listen

The conversations are happening with or without your permission.

They are happening everywhere people talk

You can listen: twitter search; brandtags.net, Radian6, etc

Listen, enable, and serve.


Apr 12, 2023 56

Business case for listening

70% of purchase decisions are friend-recommended.

How much of your current spend is focused on connecting to the conversations?

How much value do you currently place on these conversations?

If the answer isn’t 70%...


Apr 12, 2023 57

2. Respond

Marketing isn’t done to them, it is done by them

Think less of where the eyeballs are and more about the mouths and ears

Place value on real-time, human interaction.


Apr 12, 2023 58


Apr 12, 2023 59

Homo Mimicus

Behaviour emulation is a key mechanic

Pic: Somargraphics via flickr


Apr 12, 2023 60

Social media works best

When users can adapt the message to better suit those they would share with

Eg Youtube’s many incarnations of the Cadbury’s gorilla ad.

Where they lower the technical barriers

Eg Pampers easy-insert of your own kids’ pictures into a Christmas video message.


Apr 12, 2023 61

Messy kitchens


Apr 12, 2023 62

Interesting + together

Create interesting things for people to do together

Co-create with those you were going to do your content to/deliver a product or service to.

Now do it with them. They’ll find that more interesting.


Apr 12, 2023 63

Connect communities of purpose

Make it easy for people who care to connect

People who care, act Action creates value (makes change) Their actions attract more people to the

purpose by amplifying and sustaining the conversation

This is how behaviour is changed – remember our monkey mimic?


Apr 12, 2023 64

The value of right now


Apr 12, 2023 65

Success requires:

1. A willingness to relinquish control

2. Toolkits users can play with

3. Creative users

2&3 are in place.

Ready for No1?

http://flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/


Apr 12, 2023 66

Remember

It ain’t social media if it doesn’t change your business…


Apr 12, 2023 67

Remember

If the world outside is changing faster than the world inside, something is going to tear


Apr 12, 2023 68

What makes me angry?

1. Businesses insisting on massaging (messaging?) the humanity out of their best efforts to communicate with humans. There's a kind of insanity in that which is beyond grotesque.

2. Those who think they can 'use' us (that's me and you, kid) as a channel.

3. Those who think the conversation is trivial. They belittle what it is to be human and the value we place on relationships. Their loss.


Apr 12, 2023 69

The networked journey

Listening to and responding to the network requires and drives cultural change within the organisation itself.

It raises and answers questions about ownership and control to make your brand or organisation better adapted to the networked world.

It is your safe passage to the future


Apr 12, 2023 70

Together 90:10

“The people who can make the biggest difference to your company don't work for it.

“Adapting to the network means they can.”


Apr 12, 2023 71

The great disruption has only just begun

Brian Eno 1991


Social + Media

Social = Groups, people, us, what we choose to do together

Media = Content, distribution, them, what they would seek to do to us

Apr 12, 2023 72


Contact:

David Cushman

FasterFuture.blogspot.com

twitter.com/davidcushman

[email protected]

[email protected]

Call or text +447736 353590

Or just Google me (no, really)

Apr 12, 2023 73

everything you ever wanted to know about social media

Business

media broadcast media

impact of social media

traditional media

shared media

social networks

people content

people power

social network users