Channel

Overview
Social network for sharing text posts, images, videos >1 billion users (>600 million active users)

Benefits
Brand pages provide stronger customer/partner experience Ad platform increasingly effective for B2B lead gen High user engagement and content sharing activity

Considerations

Sample Metrics
Likes (Posts/Pages) Comments Shares URL Clicks Referral Traffic

Facebook

Instagram integration grew user base, image sharing Increasing B2B applications and lead generation

Interactions are relationshipdriven, needing regular engagement Limited control over content sharing or commentary

Professional social network with >200 million users 60% of members live outside the U.S. in >200 countries

Generates more B2B leads than Facebook or Twitter Effective for branding and recruitment Employee interaction can aid reputation and recruitment

Referral traffic limited, but targeted with potential customers or recruits Employee interaction requires clear guidelines for behavior Trend toward more engaging design for brand pages

Job Applications Brand Page Followers Group Members Comments Shares

LinkedIn

Users can interact with other professionals, companies and topic-specific groups

Microblogging platform with 140-character text-post limit Share (tweet) text updates, links, images and videos

Can allow for quick customer/ partner communications Strong use among journalists and investors Highly trafficked: 6 million monthly uniques Increasingly indexed in Google search results Strong for product and service education, featuring partners/ customers Integrated into other social media channel experiences (esp. Facebook, Twitter) Videos highly integrated into search results

Short form content can provide challenges for key message communications Requires consistent content syndication and monitoring

Followers Retweets Mentions URL Clicks Referral Traffic

Twitter

>200 million active users Vine service shares sixsecond video clips Video sharing site with >800 million monthly uniques #2 search engine in the world (behind Google)

Video creation can be expensive find a balance of value, exposure and cost Allows for comments to be turned off to limit negative exposure

Video Views Average Drop-off Shares Subscribers

YouTube

70% of traffic comes from outside the US Localized in 53 countries

Channel

Overview
Social network sharing status updates, images, videos, etc. >235 million active users Lower overall engagement than Facebook Users +1 content/pages they like Presentation sharing site for uploading slide decks >60 million monthly visitors >130 million monthly pageviews Strong sales force use

Benefits
Highly integrated in Google search results Connect with partners and customers using Circles, Communities or Hangouts Can be integrated into other Google applications Branded channels host multiple elements (slides, videos, documents, etc.) Embed audio tracks for a more engaging experience Presentations can be embedded on other sites Strong platform for syndicating web pages across various consumer interests Paid Discovery can drive significant, cost-effective traffic Audience targeting is accurate to interest categories Heavily indexed by search engines, with image search assisting brand exposure Helps organize and syndicate images from events, product launches, etc. This channel does not require significant time or resource commitment Integrated with Yahoo (owner)

Considerations
More limited adoption/active users than Facebook Administration can be difficult Audience skews male Limited ability to control content sharing or commentary Limited referral traffic or SEO benefit Free accounts limit uploads, tracking and display settings Paid accounts provide more uploads, analytics and lead capture B2B community adoption has been limited Brand presence emerging, with positive effect on search Visual content (images, video, experiential demos) perform best

Sample Metrics
Followers +1s (Posts/Pages) Comments Shares URL Clicks Referral Traffic

Google+

Followers Presentation Views Shares Comments

SlideShare

Social bookmarking site and browser application >25 million users Paid Discovery (ad platform) pushes brand content to users in an organic format

Followers Referral Traffic Paid Stumbles Organic Stumbles Cost Per View Effective Cost Per View

StumbleUpon

Image sharing site creating social networks around visual content Upload images/videos, create galleries/groups

Provides little referral traffic Image licensing options can be selected, though Legal department may require monitoring to assure appropriate third-party usage In-depth metrics available only through paid accounts Views Group Members Top Images (paid) Visitor Behavior (paid)

Flickr

Recently added video sharing capabilities >50 million members >80 million monthly uniques

Channel

Overview

Benefits
Has shown ability to provide noticeable referral traffic Business pages create a unique, image-based brand experience Business accounts have access to a free analytics tool Perhaps the most active userdriven community online today If content resonates, referral traffic can be extremely high Interesting subject-matter experts with captivating images can gain strong exposure Other reputable sites pick up front page content Q&A format follows search behavior, providing strong position in search results Q&A threads can provide valuable insights for messaging and content creation

Considerations
Does not facilitate direct consumer engagement Users skew heavily female Emerging B2B business presence and content Copyright holders can request content be removed Sites can opt-out of ability for images to be shared Content perceived as spam will receive strong negative attention Content must be seen as nonpromotional Community can ban users pushing branded content Users skew heavily male and interested in technology Direct brand communications (answering questions) is difficult, but not unheard-of Approved employees would have the best engagement opportunities Referral traffic is limited, with little SEO benefit Little precedent for B2B usage Among the more progressive content syndication and audience engagement tactics Little SEO benefit

Sample Metrics
Followers Clicks/Most Clicked Repins/Most Repinned Reach Visitors

Community site for sharing (pinning) web content, primarily in image collections

Pinterest

>48 million users >25 million monthly uniques

Bulletin board-style social news and entertainment site Users submit links and text for community commentary

Comments Points Up Votes Down Votes Karma

Reddit

>43 million users >33 million monthly uniques

User-generated Q&A site Login required to see all answers Tags categorize questions

People Viewing Questions People Following Questions Relevant Questions Relevant Answers

Quora

Top answers (as voted by other users) appear at the top >1.5 million monthly uniques

Photo sharing and manipulation site Strong mobile usage

Instagram

Integrated into Facebook >100 million users

Strong user base and Facebook integration for highlighting images of products and/or services API allows images to be displayed on websites

Followers Likes Comments

Channel

Overview
Social bookmarking site Users interact with each other around similar content and interests

Benefits
Stacks feature allow users to follow brands or subjects they like Highly bookmarked links will appear on the sites front page for added visibility

Considerations
There is no direct communication between brands and customers Site experience is geared toward individuals, not overall brands Traffic (and referrals) has trended downward recently Traffic to Digg (and from Digg to other sites) is on a decline

Sample Metrics

Bookmarks Referral Traffic

Delicious

>5 million users >180 million bookmarks Social news/bookmarking site Users up vote (digg) or down vote (bury) posted content

Digg

Content can be categorized into Reading Lists for easier consumption >3.5 million monthly uniques Location-based social network Users check-in to locations, share images and text posts

Community of users can still generate strong referral traffic Image

No brand presence, but new ad platform allows for content to be pushed to users Little control over user interaction with content

Diggs Referral Traffic

Work spaces and events can be leveraged for greater employee/customer interaction Branded check-ins syndicate socially for greater reach (especially Facebook, Twitter) Does not allow comments on stories (yet)

Greater consumer-product and entertainment usage Special offers and badges havent made a relevant transition into B2B

Check-ins Favorites Brand Mentions

Foursquare

Foursquare Explore (search engine) provides localized results >25 million users