I’m scared for Facebook

Tags

Facebook, Facebook Changes, Facebook f8, Facebook Timeline, Mashable, Michael J Lis, Social Media, SPECK Media

The business of social media is safe…

But, I’m scared for Facebook…

I’m scared because I think we are coming to a cross-roads when it comes to Facebook. For the past 6 years Facebook has safely balanced ‘coolness’ with un-coolness’ always on the side of the user. By coolness I mean, keeping ads at a minimum and keep users needs at a priority. Have there been changes along the way? Yes. Has it mattered, somewhat – but for the most part the Facebook user community has adapted and changed with Facebook.

Change is one of those necessary things when it comes to a social media channel.

One of the most important things I learned from website user experience is that users need small changes, websites need to keep users engaged in actions. Small changes keep an audience active and involved. You could draw a timeline (no pun intended) to MySpace, one of the reasons for MySpace’s demise was that it didn’t change – it gave users complete control over what they needed from day one (customize everything). Users were bored and left. Facebook has taken a slower route and kept more controls in place. Little tweaks and changes kept users involved.

To be fair – Another huge reason why MySpace failed was advertising flooded in…………………. Adverstising (isn’t cool) and when advertising hit MySpace, users left in droves.

But, let’s go back to the changes. Facebook has unleashed a new, new, new design. One that’s going to shock the public. It’s called Facebook Timeline. If Facebook thinks users are a little upset at the tweaks they made last week, just wait. A firestorm is brewing and it’s going to hit 10/1.

I’m scared for Facebook because the bubble could burst… users could get so upset by the drastic changes that they might leave.

What do you think?

Below are some of the best links to information on the Facebook changes:

• Privacy Advocates Oppose Facebook Changes – Washington Post
• New Facebook Changes will Help You Change The World – Huffington Post
• Facebook Changes, everything you need to know – Mashable 

 

 

Advocates (part 2 of the social media value exchange)

Tags

90-9-1 Principle, advocates, conversation, Mashable, Michael J Lis, Slideshare.net, Social Media, social media advocates, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Value Exchange, SPECK Media

I find the whole topic of Advocates (more precise) social media advocates interesting.

First, no one really talks about social media advocates. When you mention the term, the natural definition is a person that is ‘pro social media’ but when I speak of social media advocates I’m really referring to the individuals that tweet, mention, fan, like, post, blog and overall support a company or brand through social media channels and platforms.

Advocates are often overlooked by companies when they participate in social media. Advocates play a huge role in the social media value exchange model – see my last blog post and SPECK Media’s presentation on SlideShare.net

So why are advocates so important?

The age of the socially connected consumer is here. A consumer survey ranked consumer content as the #1 aid to a buying decision, cited by 91% of respondents (e-tailer, 2010). Think about the fact that 78% of consumers trust other consumers for information.

Let’s start with some basic definitions. According to Wikipedia, social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. Social networking focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Social media and social networking are an integral part of our culture. Companies need to think carefully about both of these as they develop their strategy.

How do users participate in social communities? The 90-9-1 Principle states that:

• 1% of users are Creators who are actively creating content,
• 9% are Editors who are commenting and adding to content that already exists, and
• 90% are Audience or Lurkers. They are watching and consuming content.

The take-away from this is by fostering a conversation with 10% of the audience, you are building value for the remaining 90%.

This is the value companies can gain from knowing and conversing with their social media advocates. The value of participation is what social media is all about. Use advocates to highlight the following social media principles…

• Make participation a side effect. Even better, let users participate with zero effort by making their contributions a side effect of something else they’re doing.
• Edit, don’t create. Let users build their contributions by modifying the existing
• Reward — but don’t over-reward — participants. Rewarding people for contributing

But the sad thing is that most companies don’t even:

1. know who their advocates are
2. don’t target their advocates for help

I posted a few questions on Twitter to which I had no responses under the hashtag #smadvocates. I encourage anyone interested in this topic – send some feedback.

The other problem is that most social media strategies focus only on encouraging conversation. Without question, this is the right approach but more attention needs to be placed on the second part of that goal, which should be to identify, mobilize and engage advocates.

Let’s go back to the social media value exchange model…

Advocates work with (inspiration, opportunity and mentorship) when it comes to the ideas set forth by a social media strategy. These are all very important tasks when it comes to a company’s social media strategy.

The ‘Old Spice guy’ social media campaign is an excellent example of how advocates were used to vault brand awareness.. taking a quote from Mashable ” the social media team took great care to engage celebrities, influencers, common folk and popular social media sites in balanced quantities.

For Old Spice this is what drove the social media value exchange and participation.

I would love to hear from you – what do you think about social media advocates?

Foursquare, Crowd-sourcing and the Art of Gaming

Tags

check-in, Chicago Tribune, crowd-sourcing, Dennis Crowley, Foursquare, Jack Aaronson, location based, Mashable, mayor, Michael J Lis, Social Media, social media channels, twitter, YouTube

How many times do you check-in?
Twice, Three times or maybe all day? It’s ok, you can tell me.

For the past five months you have been telling Foursquare.

Yes, Foursquare the new craze, the new social media channel that encourages users to check-in, or become a mayor of the local bar down the street. In the short period of time that it has existed, Foursquare now dominates the mobile web.

About five months ago I was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about Foursquare – as a social media expert I was asked the typical questions: Is Foursquare the next Twitter? Can Foursquare make money? Is location-based social media the future? At the time I thought I had some forward thinking comments, but by no means was I able to predict how big Foursquare would become (in five short months).

How big is Foursquare?

Courtesy of Mashable: Just 12 days ago, Foursquare grew by nearly 100,000 users in 10 days, taking the total number of users to somewhere north of 600,000. Now a new update from the company reveals that Foursquare has almost 725,000 users. That’s somewhere around 100,000 new users in two weeks. The Foursquare bandwagon hasn’t lost any steam.

Foursquare also revealed a second stat: there have been over 22 million check-ins by its users. While that’s not the same as Twitter’s 50 million tweets per day, it’s a damn impressive number for a company that is barely a year old. It’s also more difficult to check into specific locations (you have to change locations) than it is to tweet.

Wow! – I’m impressed and so should Dennis Crowley @dens. From time to time we share some occasional tweets but he is way out of my league now and with the growth of Foursquare why shouldn’t he be.

My thoughts on Foursquare have changed a great deal in the last five months. I believe it has a chance of being one of the greatest social media channels around. Why? I have two reasons:

Reason 1: The involvement of people and gaming. Look at the huge following that Farmville has on Facebook (millions of people playing a virtual game). With Foursquare the game is real and so are the rewards - courtesy of Jack Aaronson’s article:

Here are some examples of companies using different reward schedules to honor their loyal customers:

• Alamo Drafthouse (my favorite movie theater chain in Austin) gives you two free movie tickets if you are the “mayor” of that location.
• Atomic Wings (in NYC) gives you 15 percent off if you are the mayor.
• Ben & Jerry’s (in Detroit) gives you a free small cone for every fifth check-in. Mayors get 10 percent off.
• The Doubletree Hotel Crystal City (Virginia) gives 20 percent off an entrée to all who check in. Mayors get 20 percent off their total bill.
• Nightingale Theater (Tulsa) gives a free bag of popcorn and a beer on your fifth check-in.
• Xoom (NYC) gives you a free smoothie when you buy one and check in with a friend.
• The Wynn Hotel (Las Vegas) gives you a free glass of champagne when you check in at the Blush nightclub.
• The Lite Choice (NYC) offers free upgrades to a larger size cup or cone just by checking in.

Unbelievable! – but also very believable and I find it increasing funny that more companies don’t take advantage of Foursquare’s unique ability to market businesses through gaming.

Reason 2: The ability to crowdsource. Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model. Problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users—also known as the crowd—typically form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions. The crowd also sorts through the solutions, finding the best ones. How does Foursquare do this? Example: Last week Foursquare launched a badge for gym-rats. What happened? millions of people started checking-in to gyms all over the country. The problem (people don’t workout enough) the solution (create a need to workout).

One word came to my mind – social.

I’m not going to bore the rest of my readers with more text. Here is the YouTube CNN video story on Foursquare – worth watching). And a video from Dennis

Feel free to add your comments – I would love to hear about how many times you check-in and thoughts on Foursquare.

(stage 2) Social Media

Tags

community, corporate bloggers, engaging, Indeed.com, Jordan McCollum, learning, listening, Mashable, Michael J Lis, people, PR Firms, Social Business, Social Business Design, Social Media, Social Media Ecosystem, social media policy, Social Media Strategy, social media tactics, SPECK Media, Stage 2 Social Media

By the looks of things we are in March – March Madness, Spring Cleaning, Green Grass all the signs of a new stage. The same is starting to hold true for social media. Gone are the days of evangelizing what social media actually is or trying to convince organizations that they need a Twitter account. By now most organizations get it, they understand that social media channels are here to stay and that listening, engaging and learning are top priorities.

March is here and we have officially begun (stage 2) Social Media.

Stage 2? Huh?

I would like to officially define (stage 2) Social Media as: companies that have a small social media team (usually consisting of 2 people or more) that are working on TOO MUCH STUFF. Thus (stage 2) Social Media.

Yes, it’s true, more companies have moved past (stage 1) social media the adoption stage and have graduated to (stage 2). Some quick stats to back all this up. I like images so here’s a few.

The first is an image from a great blog by Jordan McCollum read it here, the big headline is that 29% of companies have a social media policy. Meaning they have some form of rules and guidelines for social media. 29% doesn’t seem like a big number but it is. Policy is huge when it comes to companies, policies need to be thought out, crafted and approved by multiple levels of an organization. I would bet that by the end of 2010 we will see this number at 67%. Hence (stage 2) Social Media.

Next up a Mashable survey about what social media tools companies are using. I’m not surprised that the top three on this list are the most used social media channels and the easiest ones to use. Hence (stage 2), internal social media people utilizing the most obvious social media channels and making sure that they build a foundation for a social media ecosystem.

Moving on to my last portion of data – Job trends from Indeed.com. This trend points to the sharp January increase in social media jobs for the year What started out with a rise in corporate bloggers and web 2.0 practitioners has now completely been handed off to social media folks. Hence (stage 2).

So the norm that we have entered into is that “The Acme Company” now has two or more people working on social media strategy, tactics and analytics on a regular basis. A smile just came across my face. Is this good news? Heck yes! It proves to me that companies are starting to believe in the external as well as internal value of social media. They have taken the time to hire some very smart people in order to make sure that this value is achieved. I don’t care how good the social media agency, PR firm or Marketing firm is – no one understands a business better than the employees that work for it. Having social media minded individuals within companies is the best way to collaborate in order to build a community that works.

That’s really the most important statement in this post “building a community that works”. One thing that I preach more than anything else is that social media initiatives and tactics are only as good as the ‘story’ they tell, without a compelling story you have nothing. Having a social media team within company is key to building this story and then articulating and letting it grow through the community.

So welcome (stage 2) Social Media and a huge HELLO to all the newly formed and existing social media teams. My company and myself are here to help – so when you wake up every morning you don’t have to feel like….(didn’t have a pic of Superman handy).