While on a recent trip to San Francisco, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brian Solis who founded and runs PR2.0 to discuss his new book “Putting the Public Back in PR”. We had a interesting dialogue not only about his new book but also about his perspective on how organizations are adopting and best equipping themselves around the social channel. Note how customer service involvement is mentioned by Brian as key. Always great to hear some perspective from one of the leading PR and social practitioners in the space. Thanks for the conversation Brian!
Interview with Brian Solis “Putting the Public Back in PR”
7.1.09 by Blake Cahill {General}
FTC Getting Closer to Weighing in on Social Media Marketing
6.8.09 by Blake Cahill {Blake Cahill, Brand Management, Social Media, WOMMA}
Proposed changes on the horizon to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines could further impact social media marketing while radically altering some marketers practices of using third-party spokespeople for online brand marketing. Michael Lasky, a senior partner at Davis & Gilbert LLP, a New York law firm that specializes in advertising and communications law says “Agencies and clients, especially those working in the social media space, must understand that the FTC’s efforts to address deceptive practices can create liability and exposure.”
Additions and modifications now under consideration by the FTC are, “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials.” It is expected that a final ruling on the Guides will occur sometime later this summer or early fall. Behind the proposed changes is what Lasky terms, “The 10 Commandments of commercial marketing as found in Section 5 of the FTC Act — summed up as — thou shall not commit a false or deceptive practice.” The FTC is working to address this: A blogger or spokesperson’s failure to disclose a fact or event that could alter the consumer’s decision regarding a product or service.
Now, I know some agencies and marketers may have tried this approach of non-disclosure but most cases have been very unsuccessful and actually created more bad that good for the brand in question. The practice of full disclosure for social marketing is really the only way to really operate otherwise it just rooted out as not genuine and in many cases deceptive. I think part of the great value of the social graph is that it self-polices on much of this. Also, organizations like WOMMA publish guidelines and best practices for agencies and marketers in addition to have formal process for grievance filing when tactics are in question.
Brands and agencies should examine the FTC’s efforts understand their meanings and interpretations and to avoid problems down the road. A clear liability can and will arise when and if marketers pay bloggers or provide other “consideration” such as free products and services in return for a favorable post. Disclosure is necessary.
Agencies and clients, if they haven’t already, should adopt written guidelines that come into play when any “consideration” is involved. The guidelines must work explicitly to “make it clear the company wants the blogger to disclose whether any compensation or any other item of tangible value, such as free product, has been received in return for a favorable post or review,” said Allison Fitzpatrick, associate counsel at Davis & Gilbert LLP.
I would encourage agencies and marketer to go the WOMMA site to familiarize themselves with the organization and much of the guidelines and best practices they have organized around this topic.
Some Very Interesting Stats about Twitter Gender Breakdowns from HBS Study
6.2.09 by Blake Cahill {General}
Bill Heil and Mikolaj Piskorski from Harvard Business School recently published a study looking into the phenomenon known as Twitter, examining the activity of a random sample of users and comparing their findings to other social network statistics. Many call Twitter the “giant echo chamber” but there is some very interesting data in this study which is different than what I have seen published about participation on other social network platforms like FaceBook and MySpace. One very telling stat is that “the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets.” I think @guykawaski and @chrisbrogan maybe 1% of all traffic between the two of them - they are very proflic! Kidding aside I would if this backs out news organizations like a CNN and NYTimes that distribute/promote content via tweets. Below are some highlights from the research. Enjoy.
- Activity of a random sample of 300,000 Twitter users in May 2009 was examined to find out how people are using the service. The findings were then compared to activity on other social networks and online content production venues.
- Sample (300,542 users, collected in May 2009), 80% were followed by or followed at least one user. By comparison, only 60 to 65% of other online social networks’ members have one friend (when these networks were at a similar level of development). This suggests that actual users (as opposed to the media at large) understand how Twitter works.
- Although men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers than women. Men also have more reciprocated relationships, in which two users follow each other. This “follower split” suggests that women are driven less by followers than men, or have more stringent thresholds for reciprocating relationships. Intriguing, especially given that females hold a slight majority on Twitter: they found that men comprise 45% of Twitter users, while women represent 55%. To get this figure, they cross-referenced users’ “real names” against a database of 40,000 strongly gendered names.
- Even more interesting is who follows who. They found that an average man is almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman. Similarly, an average woman is 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman. Finally, an average man is 40% more likely to be followed by another man than by a woman. These results cannot be explained by different tweeting activity - both men and women tweet at the same rate.
Bill Heil and Mikolaj Piskorski also reveal that the results are stunning given what previous research has found in the context of online social networks. On a typical online social network, most of the activity is focused around women - men follow content produced by women they do and do not know, and women follow content produced by women they know. Generally, men receive comparatively little attention from other men or from women. We wonder to what extent this pattern of results arises because men and women find the content produced by other men on Twitter more compelling than on a typical social network, and men find the content produced by women less compelling (because of a lack of photo sharing, detailed biographies, etc.).
Twitter’s usage patterns are also very different from a typical on-line social network. A typical Twitter user contributes very rarely. Among Twitter users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one. This translates into over half of Twitter users tweeting less than once every 74 days.
At the same time there is a small contingent of users who are very active. Specifically, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production. To put Twitter in perspective, consider an unlikely analogue - Wikipedia. There, the top 15% of the most prolific editors account for 90% of Wikipedia’s edits ii. In other words, the pattern of contributions on Twitter is more concentrated among the few top users than is the case on Wikipedia, even though Wikipedia is clearly not a communications tool. This implies that Twitter’s resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network.
Nice article and analysis. Will be sure to share with our clients many whom are participating or trying to decide how to interact with their customers and prospects via Twitter.
Marketers Seek Alternatives to Traditional Media Channels Amid Recession
6.1.09 by Blake Cahill {General}
As another major corporation files for bankruptcy, marketers search for more cost-effective methods to combat difficult economic conditions. Down are spending in television, magazines, radio, and newspapers while social networking and word of mouth are most likely to be increased.
The latest ANA Brand Building Survey shows social networking and word of mouth activities likely to increase by 26 percent in the current economic environment, but not without some help. “Social media ranked highest as the media channel that marketers would like to use but have not yet been able to implement.”
This is inline with what we are hearing from customers and partners in the market.
The Future of the Social Web - Interview with Jeremiah Owyang
5.5.09 by Blake Cahill {General}
It’s been about a year since Forrester hired Jeremiah Owyang where he has been developing his platform/niche from a research perspective while serving and educating many a Forrester customer about the rise and impact of Social Technologies on brands and companies. In his latest report, Jeremiah lays out some of his predictions about the “Future of the Social Web”. I had a chance to interview Jeremiah about this recent piece of research last week in San Francisco at the combo Society of New Communications Research Forum and the Inbound Marketing Summit.
The report begins under the construct that “Social Networks Proliferate, Yet Communities Are Locked in Disparate Islands”. Basically, consumers and businesses today are experiencing high levels of frustration with respect to the closed nature of the social platforms that they are interacting with. Jeremiah predicts that social ID’s (like Facebook Connect) will begin to pry open these platforms and the various interactions that consumers and brands have with each other. Ultimately, the consumer will determine their social credentials and decided whether they would like them to be carried across networks. This would enable the connected consumer to be in even more control of customer experience, product reviews, purchase behaviors of brands.
A great report and roadmap that brands need to digest and heed. For those that are already very actively involved in social technologies some of this may not be a leap of faith, but to many it may be. Additionally, the progression of events many unfold over a longer trajectory that Jeremiah lays out. As wells as some challenges along the way such as consumer privacy, social network overexposure/fatigue, and the need for social networks to beef up data processing abilities. I would strongly encourage marketers to get a hold of the report and digest a potential scenario of the “Future of the Social Web”.
Jeremiah, a personal thank you for the video synopsis of the your insightful 18 page report in just a few minutes!
