photo by Zellaby on flickr.

com

Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When its finally done there is surprise its not better.
Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, Google

Officially, though, social media is not like teen sex.*

* Phew!

Officially, social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos, and audio.
http://www.wikipedia.org

Its also a fancy way to describe the zillions of conversations people are having online 24/7.

photo by Kris Hoet on flickr.com

REASON #1

BECAUSE 3 OUT OF 4 AMERICANS USE SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY.

Forrester, The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, 2008

REASON #2

BECAUSE 2/3 OF THE GLOBAL INTERNET POPULATION VISIT SOCIAL NETWORKS.

Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009

REASON #3

BECAUSE VISITING SOCIAL SITES IS NOW THE 4TH MOST POPULAR ONLINE ACTIVITYAHEAD OF PERSONAL EMAIL.
Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009

photo by Bruno Girinon flickr.com

REASON #4

Because time spent on social networks is growing at 3X the overall Internet rate, accounting for ~10% of all Internet time.
Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009

REASON #5

Because social media is democratizing communications. Big time.

Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now its the people who are in control.
Rupert Murdoch, Global Media Entrepreneur

REASON #6

BECAUSE SOCIAL MEDIA IS LIKE WORD OF MOUTH ON STEROIDS.

Because, dear friend, social media is a force to be reckoned with.

photo by Balakov on flickr.com

13 HOURS
The amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

The length of time it would take to view every YouTube video.

412.3 YEARS

100,000,000
The number of YouTube videos viewed per day.

13,000,000
The number of articles available on Wikipedia.

3,600,000,000
The number of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009. Thats roughly 1 photo per every 2 people on the planet.

1382%

The monthly growth rate of Twitter users from January to February 2009.

3,000,000
The average number of Tweets per day on Twitter.com

5,000,000,000
The number of minutes spent on Facebook each day.

1,000,000,000
The amount of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.

The word blog is irrelevant. What's important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.
Seth Godin, Author

5,000,000
The number of active Barack Obama supporters across 15 social networks.
photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com

14,200,000
The number of views Obamas famous Yes We Can video got on YouTube. An additional 15 of the 1,800 official and 139,000 unofficial Obama videos received over 1 Million views.

photo by EricaJoy on flickr.com

$6,500,000
The amount of money 3 Million online donors contributed to the 2008 Obama campaign.

photo by jmtimages (better!) on flickr.com

IF FACEBOOK WERE A COUNTRY, IT WOULD BE THE 8TH MOST POPULATED IN THE WORLD, JUST AHEAD OF JAPAN.
Mark Zuckerberg, January 7, 2009

But wait, theres more.

93% OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS BELIEVE A COMPANY SHOULD HAVE A PRESENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA.
Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008

Believe it or not, that doesnt mean that 93% of social media users think companies should treat social media as yet another channel for

broadcasting bullsh*t.

YOU SEE, ITS SUPPOSED TO BE A DIALOGUE,

NOT A MONOLOGUE.

Marketers don't understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time... The marketing industry's idea of a two-way communication is to put an 800 number or a web address in an ad and take orders.

Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009

This couldn't be more obvious than with email. Your company has a chance to turn its email list into a two-way communication. Except that most mass emails from companies are "do not reply".

"We want to talk to you," they say. "But we don't want to hear back from you. Unless you want to place an order, and if so click here."

Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009

The people in charge of talking are in the marketing department. The people in charge of listening are in the research or service or sales department. They hardly ever talk to each other, let alone have full-duplex conversations with customers.

Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009
photo by Jamie Mellor on flickr.com

This won't fly in social technology because the minute you talk, people expect you to listen. And if you start to listen, you'll be tempted to talk. It's a full-duplex channel that befuddles one-way marketers.

Josh Bernoff, Why marketers have trouble with full-duplex social technology, June 30, 2009

FACT:

Social media playtime * is over.

*See http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,47665,00.html for more on that topic.

SO, PLEASE. STOP PLAYING AROUND & GET SERIOUS ABOUT HARNESSING THE POWER OF THIS THING.
*Cmon, I said please.

85% of social media users believe that a company should go further than just having a presence on social sites and should also interact with its customers.
Cone, Business in Social Media Study, September 2008


photo by Archie McPhee Seattle on flickr.com

For companies, resistance to social media is futile.

Millions of people are creating content for the social Web.
Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn't putting itself out there, it ought to be.
BusinessWeek, February 19, 2009

Unfortunately, most companies are still treating social media like JUST another marketing channel. *

*Oops.

When in fact, * its so much more.

*Wait for it...

1: PUBLIC RELATIONS

2: CUSTOMER SERVICE

3: LOYALTY-BUILDING

4: COLLABORATION

5: NETWORKING

6: THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP

AND YES, CUSTOMER ACQUISITION, TOO.

SO, HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

photo by cyndie@smilebig! on flickr.com

Hope is not a strategy.

photo by quest for the heartstone on flickr.com

photo by eye2eye on flickr.com

STOP THINKING CAMPAIGNS. START THINKING CONVERSATIONS.

photo by Malingering on flickr.com

And because ID hate to see you mess IT ALL up, ILL ADD THIS TINY BIT OF ADVICE:

photo by arlen on flickr.com

IF YOUR PRODUCT SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA WONT FIX IT.

(HOWEVER, IF YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.)

photo by gari.baldi on flickr.com

IF YOUR REPEAT BUSINESS SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.

IF YOUR COMPANYS WORD OF MOUTH SUCKS, SOCIAL MEDIA CAN HELP.

Final words of * wisdom:

*a.k.a. The dramatic finale.

Never forget the basic rules.

RULE #1: LISTEN

Google Alerts TweetDeck SocialMentions RSS

(FOR STARTERS)

RULE #2: ENGAGE

RULE #3: MEASURE

Audience Engagement Loyalty Influence Action

(METRICS SHOULD MAP TO GOALS. PERIOD.)

NOW GO OUT THERE & GET SOCIAL!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Espresso http://brandinfiltration.com TORONTO e: jacquelyn@brandinfiltration.com t: @infiltrators BOSTON e: marta@brandinfiltration.com t: @mzkagan

All photos in this presentation were purchased from iStockPhoto.com unless otherwise noted.