Already, January has shown some major negative coverage on Social Networks:

1. MySpace is Engagement Are Down?
   “The average length of time users spend on all of the top three sites is on the slide. Bebo, MySpace and Facebook all took double-digit percentage hits in the last months of 2007.” From the Register.Co.UK
2. Google sees issue with Social Network Ads
   “We have found that social networking inventory is not monetizing as well as expected.” George Reyes, CFO of Google. From the Financial Times
3. Facebook Applications (Widgets) Decrease in Popularity
   “All of the top 10 leaderboard applications have seen substantial drops in daily users since peaking in November and December,”
   From Read/Write Web

Of course not all negative press on Social Network will pan out to be true (such as the suspect Register article above). However, overall the fickleness of users people and the notoriously low CTRs for Social Networks will become more and more common talk. And how will this be addressed?

My colleague, William Gaultier, over at e-Storm’s Blog will be writing about how marketers doing Social Networks Ads need to look less at direct CTRs but rather “view-through clicks” as a the smarter metrics for success. “View-Through” tracking through cookies allows marketers to correlate between ad impressions with latent clicks, such as users who see an ad on Facebook for an “iPod Cases” website, but visit the website later directly and not through clicking on the ad.

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Ever wanted to reach Halliburton Employees, 30-65, from Texas?
I’ve been playing around with the Facebook advertisement system, even posting a few ads here and there. The most fun I have right now is using Facebook’s ad targeting tool to mine the demographic data from their user profiles.

A marketer can target users by workplace (ranging from the French Embassy in the US to Exxon-Mobile), countries (over 30 countries representing +39 million users) and interest (”A Clockwork Orange” to Judaism) and other data. For example, I can now target about 40 people who work for Halliburton (They have a Facebook Network?), live in Texas and are from 30-65 years old.

And more then that, I thought it would be interesting to get some high-level demographic data on Facebook in the following areas:

1. Top US Geek Cities and Facebook Users (Geek Cities as defined by Wired Magazine)
2. All Countries Facebook Advertising targets for by Population: From Lebanon to the Dominican Republic
3. US Facebook Users by Age Group: College Age Still Dominates
4. US Facebook Users by Educational Background: 21% are Highschoolers?
5. Largest US Cities and Facebook Users: 20% of Chicagoans on Facebook?
6. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask and Facebook Users: Where are the Ask/IAC people?
7. Microsoft Facebook Users by Age Group: Over 30% over 35 years old
8. Top Software Companies and Facebook Users (Software Companies defined by Fortune)

Top US Geek Cities and Facebook Users (Geek Cities as defined by Wired Magazine)

Note that while the data from Facebook is interesting, one should be cautious about the data:

• Self-reported profile data always has accuracy issues
• Many users do not report their age, workplace, full interests etc
• Just because there are 10,000 Microsoft employees on Facebook does not mean they are active on Facebook.
• Despite Facebook’s stringent policies there are fake and multiple profiles on Facebook

With that said, see more below graphs and data below.

All Countries Facebook Advertising targets for by Population: From Lebanon to the Dominican Republic

US Facebook Users by Age Group: College Age Still Dominates

US Facebook Users by Educational Background: 21% are Highschoolers?

Largest US Cities and Facebook Users: 20% of Chicagoans on Facebook?

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask and Facebook Users: Where are the Ask/IAC people?

Microsoft Facebook Users by Age Group: Over 30% over 35 years old

Top Software Companies and Facebook Users (Software Companies defined by Fortune)

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Summary: Mayor Gavin Newsom & the Personal Brand

There has been a lot of talk on the need to develop the “Personal Brand” and to help build connections to the audiences, customers or even voters via Social Media.

While there is a lot of theory and experimentation, one great example of this has been the Facebook profile of Gavin Newsom, the Mayor of San Francisco. This posting will breakdown and identify what the folks behind Newsom’s profile have done so well.

Quick Background on Social Media and the Personal Brand

Todd Defren and his SHIFT team have developed some interesting approach to apply Social Media as “connection builder”, such us with their Social Media Press Rooom (plus a must see powerpoint).

On the Personal Brand side, there is are two thought leaders I’ve been following Rohit Bhargava, who has written extensively on it, and Brian Solis who recently wrote on how to approach Facbeook as a “Personal Brand” builder.

Gavin Newsom’s Facebook Profile: Social Media Press Room and Brand Builder

Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Facebook profile, or who we call “Mayor McDreamy” at our office, is the first live example I’ve seen of taking “Facebook as Brand Builder” in a well executed way. While the profile is of Mayor Gavin Newsom, it is positioned as a profile for “Act Locally SF”, which is the official campaign group for Gavin Newsom.
The profile makes it feel very transparent on what Gavin Newsom’s interests and passion are and what he is involved in through simple “Notes” postings, “Group” associations, video, photos – the whole shebang.
At the same time, it is also an active profile: As his friend on Facebook, I’ve seen his status message change at least once a week (e.g. “Gavin Newsom is Proud of San Diego’s Mayor”) and received invites to charity events that he is involved in.

Let’s further break down the components that make the profile work:

Using Groups and “Causes” Application:

• Shows what Gavin Newsom is compassionate about, give a glimpse beyond what he cares about beyond local issues, such as “Doctors without Borders” and “Free the Jena 6″

Using the “Kyte” Application for Video Distribution:

• Use the “Kyte” application, to show videos of Gavin Newsom that also link back to his own video channel on kyte

Using “News” and “Post Items” to Inform the Community

• “Notes” and “Posted Items” acts as fliers on everything from what events Gavin Newsom is attending to job openings/volunteer opportunities

Flickr Photos on what Gavin Newsome has been up to

• This one is pretty self-explanatory

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Last Saturday, I attended the CommunityNext Viral Marketing conference in Silicon Valley. The Conference, by Noah Kagan and Adam Kalamchi, brought together an interesting array of speakers to talk about Viral Marketing – from tactics, strategy, philosophy to viral marketing as Facebook widgets to community building.

Most of the speakers ranged from the experienced serial entrepreneurs (Dave McClure: PayPal, SimplyHired) to founders of accidental start-ups (Eric Nakagawa of icanhascheezurger). The atmosphere was very much on the casual side, with some point reaching nearly 1990s dot-com humor with of Adam Rifkin of Booze Mail making a cocktail during a talk to clearly very sharp and serious with Keith Rabois of Slide.

Below are my notes on:

1. Widgets – Metrics, Key Points on Facebook Widgets
2. Notes from Keith Rabois, one of the most impressive speaker at CommunityNext (Definitely Read This)
3. Flickr Photos: Including PowerPoint Slides given by Speakers. Plus: All Photos of the event
4. Feedback for the next CommunityNext Conference

** General Notes by Theme **
The Power of Leveraging Existing Networks: iLike v. last.fm

• The long established music discovery service from 2002, Last.FM, has been quickly overtaken by iLike which grew quickly once it launched the iLike widget for Facebook. (Tom Conrad of Pandora)
• Leveraging Existing Off-site Networks: It is a simple feature for your product to ask if the user if wants to import her Gmail Address book (or Yahoo, etc) and see who else is on the site and to “friend” existing contacts.

The Appeal of Widgets on User Profiles – Unique, Media, not Technology (From Jia of RockYou)

• “It’s like the first day of highschool” and you want to show-off how you’re different.
• Think of Widgets as a Media tool and a product, not a technological gadget
• It is not about “being technologically cool” but “being cool to use”

Facebook v. MySpace Widget Marketing Channels (Flickr Slide)

• There are 14 channels (opportunities) for spreading widgets, such as from the mini-feed, refer a friend (shown when adding a widget) and the profile page. (From Jia from Rock You).
• MySpace channels were mainly focused on In-Profile, Profile Comments, Bulletin Messages (e.g. “Your Friend Daniel has added Widget X”), and Forums (not often talked about, but highly effective).

MySpace v. Facebook Differences, Openness (From Jia of Rock You)

• FaceBook: Users do not necessarily browse around by visiting profiles, they have more reliance on using the FaceBook Mini-Feed on keeping touch on their friends
• In FaceBook, you need to rely on the Mini-Feed to place your call to action, e.g. “Daniel Riveong has just added the widget ZYZ, you should too”
• In Facebook, a user can only invite 10 friends a day to add a widget, making the friends feel more special

UGC Challenges

• With Yelp.com: Debate the use of paid-reviews to seed reviews. How authentic is it?
• Use MyBlogLog, Friendster and Others: Spam. Black-Hat marketers will always look for cheap tricks to hijack a platform for spam marketing tactics.
• From Friendster: The need to constant “prune” bad content to help develop the culture of the community and thus the brand

Miscellaneous Viral and Widgets Metrics

• Booze Mail on Facebook was able to grow its userbase at 30% per day
• RocketYou achived 9 million users in Facebook in 1.5 months
• Friendster: For every 1 (Exhibitionist) profile, there is 5,000-10,000 (Voyeurs) viewers
• Development of Widgets: ranged from 2 days to 4 weeks, using 1-2 programmers.

** Keith Rabois of Slide **

Lesson 1: “Viral Growth is Really Hard”
A very, very good reminder that Viral marketing and growth (user adoption) is just not magic and not just putting a YouTube video of a “funny video” and expecting traffic. It’s a mix of luck and strategy.

Examples:
Only 1 really great viral video every 6 months
Facebook Widgets: LinkedIn and Yelp.com have 2 widgets each, all have so far failed to reach beyond 4000 users each.

Lesson 2: Knowing the Value of a User: Viral Marketing v. E-Commerce Projection
E-commerce (Online Retailers) have data on the “tangible of users”, and so there is no real need for viral marketing. They know how much they are willing to spend for each user.

In a space where the value of each new user value is unknown viral marketing becomes very attractive; it has potentially the “lowest marginal cost for user acquition”. It is the safe choice to go far, when you don’t know how much you should spend, so you spend as little as possible.

Lesson 3: Is PR helpful in Viral Marketing? Not Really.
Keith felt that the best PR is done in-house, based on his experience and from talking to others. He cites the story that out of 5-6 start-ups in a room, only 1 company raised their hand when asked if they were happy with their PR firm. Other speakers repeated a similar theme.

Lesson 4: Viral/Social Network Structures & Business Model Changes
Yelp was originally an “Ask a friend where to eat tonight” referral service. YouTube was more focused as a dating service, but changed after utterly failure in the Los Angeles market. Slides was originally desktop-based before going into the Widget space with Facebook.

** For Next Time: Suggestions for Improvements **

Noah, Adam and the rest of the CommunityNext gang pulled off a heck of a conference. So I’m providing suggestions here, but in no way are they intended to criticize either the CommunityNext team or their invited speakers. This is stuff both CommunityNext and the speakers will hopefully (I hope that is) find constructive and useful.

Overall, I think a quick 30 minute session on refreshing one’s presentation skill will go a long way in making many of the speaker’s performance. We all need reminders! Also, maybe invite folks from the Marketing Agency world too to talk about their experience, especially working with a client to understand the viral/social-media space…of course, I’m not suggesting merely me. :)

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SEO is Dead! Well, maybe your Google SEO

Why is SEO important? Because the majority of people search on the Internet to find things…reviews, contact numbers, shopping etc. But what is Search? Google? Yahoo?

If you’re search engine optimization campaign is targeting Google, then what are you doing about the “searches” on Del.icio.us, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Yelp, Wikipedia, Oodle and even Digg? Maybe those searches are not for the mainstream (yet), but it maybe where the Linkerati, the savvy “Influencers”, go?

Is your SEO really just “Google Search Optimization”? Have you brainstormed with your marketing team to see if your company, product and/or service needs to do more?

The Linkerati: Where Are They?

Rand Fishkin has made much about how SEO folks need to make sure their linkbait (and ditto for Viral/WoM campaigns) needs to cater to the Linkerati audience, the savvy online influencers who create and forward content.

But moving beyond finding what appeals to the Linkerati, is the need to find out where are they online, We need to diversify our thinking on 1) how where/how they create content; and 2) how they find content.

Recently, ValleyWag noted that while the number of active blogs tracked by Technorati has stagnated “personal publishing is still growing, but the fastest growth is occurring on social media properties”, such as MySpace, Digg, Yelp, and Twitter. Indeed, a recent study suggests that “40% of all social networkers said they use social networking sites to learn more about brands or products that they like”.

Questions to Ask:

1. Where are my customers? Who are the influencers within those circles?
2. Where do they search?
   (Do they search on Yelp, Technorati, Digg or Del.icio.us?)
3. Have I distributed my content there?
   (E.g. Placement of Yelp, Blog on Technorati, Content on Digg, Bookmarked on Del.icio.us)
4. Is it searchable? Or, simply, Findable? Is it “optimized”?

Counter Point: Who needs the Linkerati? Web-2-What and Big Seed Marketing.

There is the question of how important the Linkerati crowd is in shear physical numbers and how important the Linkerati and influencers are in general.

In May’s Harvard Business review, Duncan Watts and Jonah Pertti proposed the idea of “big-seed marketing” as opposed to “Influencer”-based viral marketing, which:

combines viral-marketing tools with old-fashioned mass media in a way that yields far more predictable results than “purely” viral approaches like word-of-mouth marketing.
…
big-seed marketing harnesses the power of large numbers of ordinary people, its success does not depend on influentials or on any other special individuals; thus, managers can dispense with the probably fruitless exercise of predicting how, or through whom, contagious ideas will spread.

The Tiny Linkerati

According to a Pew Internet May 6 study, 49% of the US audience are those that have “few “tech assets” and limited use of technology”. The survey goes on to show how little of the US audience are among the Web 2.0 Internet savvy. They are so little of them. Is it worth the effort on being on Yelp, Twitter, Digg, MySpace etc to appeal to them?

Of Course, It Depends

It is important to understand that you can create online marketing success without getting caught in the buzz about about “influencers” or the Linkerati. It depends what market your client and your customers are in. Of course, innovation carries risk – but this is not to forsake the long-hanging fruit for risk taking and vice-versa. You need both.

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Beyond Mobile 2.0, Here Comes Consoles 2.0
(We’re on the roll with Web, Mobile, Marketing, [Insert Word Here] 2.0s. )
Just as the idea of Mobile 2.0 (the integration of internet with the uniqueness of mobile phones) is picking off, so will the idea of gaming consoles integrating into the internet gain currency.

Recently, Read/Write Web discussed the “55 Piece Mobile Search Tool Kit” that are shaping the mobile landscape along with who are active in providing these particular “mobile tools”. Some of those mentioned include:

• Mobile site builders
• Mobile search engines
• Local sites
• Mobile portals
• Mobile social networks
• Mobile visual search (matching your cell phone camera’s pictures)
• Mobile video search
• Mobile downloads
• Real estate search
• Mobile map apps

Soon, there maybe a need to think of adapting these “tools” to gaming entertainment consoles themselves. The online world is moving to the Consoles too, not just Mobile.

What is the Wii up to on Social Media?

Nintendo’s Wii has seen to movements on territory that is usually found in traditional social media: 1) StumbleUpon Video; and 2) Online Group Polling.

Nintendo’s Wii partnership with StumbleUpon Video creates an interesting integration of TV-based Entertainment Consoles (Wii) and StumbleUpon Video (Social Media Video).
Wii also has a “Everybody Votes Channel” as discussed by lifefilter and TC399, which allows:

• Vote on regional or worldwide polls
• After vote is placed, predict how the majority voted.
• Allow users to submit questions that they would like to be asked

Just like Hot or Not evolved from a online polling website into a social network/dating website, the potential evolution of the “Everybody Votes Channel” can clearly be seen.

Overall, it is way too early to tell, but it will be interesting to see how all of this evolves in 1-3 years.

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LinkedIn’s Question and Answer Service: Summary

Today, LinkedIn launched its version of a “Question and Answer” service, bringing a new level of interaction to its users that will help the social network mature and be a more powerful tool. The question and answer service presents many interesting opportunities:

• More Open/Informal Interaction: Rather than relying on email introduction (a too formal of a process), it allows members to introduce each other positively by answering each other’s questions.
• Encourages Participation and Community: Users who frequently answer questions are featured as experts (see below), installing a sense of pride and encouragement to continuing participating. I would expect a more user-based rating system to develop over time.
• Marketing/Business Channel Opportunity. Contests can be created between LinkedIn and a company looking for potential employees, think something like the games and puzzles Google uses to attract potential hires. Or how about a potential client asking potential agencies “What’s your approach to integrated SEO/PPC marketing?”; thus making the LinkedIn a place for informal RFIs.

Building and Leveraging Niche Social Networks

One of the many trends, many including myself are expecting to see in 2007 is the growth in niche social community websites, those that cater to a certain audience, crowd and profession. Tribe.net (alternative, political, burning-man lifestyles), Consumating.com (nerd, hipster, alternative lifestyle) and LinkedIn (professionals) are some of the examples of niche markets.

LinkedIn’s “Question and Answer” service is familiar to those who have seen Yahoo! Answers. But in actuality, focusing on Consumating.com’s “Question and Answer” feature maybe a better explanation of its function within a social network.

Questions and Answers on Consumating

Consumating (www.consumating.com) builds a sense of community through encouraging interactive behavior that appeals to its generally hip and sometimes nerdy audience. There are weekly questions, some tongue-in-cheek like “So we met on the internet…What crazy tale do you tell people about how we met in real life?“, and a weekly photo question that are voted by the community through the use of points.

There are also questions that can be asked by users themselves, independent of the weekly contest presented by Consumating.

Some key points:

Encourages Participation: Like Yahoo! Answers, the points are not redeemable for anything but a sense of pride for getting points, a system that is motivation enough for Yahoo! Answer and Consumating users to actively participate.

More Open Interaction: “Questions-and-Answers” contests also helps users learn more about each other in a way less intimidating (or creepy) than “Hey, I saw your profile, I think we have things in common, can we chat for coffee?”

Creates Marketing Opportunity: Essentially, these questions are built-in call-to-action or even a contest. Currently, the Cartoon Network has been promoting its Adult Swim programming block by sponsoring the question “Space Ghosts asks, What you gonna do when the ghost zaps you?” (a reference to one of their late night cartoon shows).

The banner acts as both passive branding (visual displayed on site) and active branding (encouraging people to respond to the banner as a contest).

Conclusion

I would expect more niche social networking sites turn to question-and-answers as a feature to help build a stronger sense of community and also expand marketing opportunities.

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From WOMMA’s Word of Mouth Research Symposium
WOMMA/Research – Mom Power Thrives in Digital Domain

After doing an extensive amount of research on blogs, B&M began to look closer at female/mom bloggers. This was triggered by seeing that one of the Technorati Top 100 bloggers was a mommy-blogger. The term they’ve come up with is ‘mom-fluentials’.
…
Mom-fliuentials are a subset of E-fluentials. Their research has shown that moms are approached for advice and often give purchasing opinions. They find that when a mom-fluential does give advice it is followed. Mom-fluentials will give an average of 13 positive recommendations per week.

Social Networkers Ask Peers for Recommendations

Social networkers are moving away from traditional media and are increasingly consulting peers for information and recommendations, according to a recent Compete Inc. study. The study shows that, when it comes to purchase decisions, online “socialites” are influenced more by peers and colleagues than any other source.

Grey Wolf on Tag Spam on Technorati
See: http://www.wolf-howl.com/blogs/tag-spam/

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The recent Comscore analysis of social network websites’ audience is being widely and incorrectly reported across the blogosphere and news media. If you haven’t seen the report, here’s a quick glimpse at the takeaway statistic.

As you can clearly see, the statistic being reported is unique visitors, a common web analytics statistic indicating that an IP address has made one visit to a website. Unfortunately, the statistic being reported in the press is user, which is distinctly different from a unique visitor.

I recommending reading the rest at Unit Structures

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1. Ads – or, the interestingness problem
2. Product affiliation groups – or, the non-scalability of affiliation
3. Partnership Opportunities – or, limitations of partnership
4. Micropayments – or, the selling of value
5. User payments/gatekeeping fees – or, the virtual country club

Stutzman goes on to present alternative models:

1. Exogenous or alternative markets
2. Brokering of trust
3. The negotiation of community

Read the whole article.

Sidenote:

At Search Engine Strategies 2006 in San Jose, an attendee did ask Tim Mayer, Director of Product Management at Yahoo, asked directly about the “interestingness” issue. Mayer said, disappointingly, that he did not have enough data to comment on this issue.

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