Every year closes with summaries of the top stories as well the predictions for the year ahead. Heading into Twenty-Ten, I contributed to several prediction roundups including Junta42, ContactCenterWorld, ZDNet, among others. What I didn’t do however, is write about the endless predictions for the future of marketing, media, business, et al. While there were many excellent contributions, I focused on other writing priorities.

When I received an end of year 2009 report on the Top Social Computing Predictions for 2010 from Forrester Research, my attention shifted. Fueled by a timely post by Forrester’s newly appointed social analyst Augie Ray, “The Year that Marketing Dies,” I was compelled to read and share what I learned.

As Ray observes in his post:

The role of the new marketer will (edited):

- Focus on outbound messaging in addition to consult with sales, customer service, and human resources on how the brand must be communicated in every consumer interaction, every tweet, and every touchpoint

- Fashion programs that are seamless with the actual product and service experience beyond the imagination of creative messages

- Respond to and be part of the ever-changing dialog with consumers, not plan bursts of communication on a yearlong calendar

- Look beyond the quantity of friends, page visits, eyeballs, readers, and viewers to measure changes in consumer attitude and intent

- Listen to and engage customers one to one

- Build relationships and not campaigns

- Create experiences not impressions

- Earn media and not buy it

Augie’s post about the death and rebirth of marketing coincides with the release of the new Forrester report, but doesn’t represent nor summarize it officially.

Forrester’s Top Social Computing Predictions for 2010, written by Emily Riley, Nate Elliott, Josh Bernoff, Sean Corcoran, Augie Ray, and Emily Bowen, envision the rise of social computing this year, gaining credibility and accountability in the process.

To set the stage, Forrester’s use of “social computing” may seem confusing to those who usually associate the term with workflow, collaboration, and productivity.  In this case however, social computing is reflective of social media marketing. As such, in 2009 Forrester observed an increase of social media adoption by interactive marketers which was reflected in pilot programs and entry-level engagement and community-building strategies last year. In 2010, marketers will evolve beyond testing to contribute to the maturation of social media marketing resulting in the establishment of formal, not borrowed, budgets and the creation of an official workflow for listening and measurement.

As I believe, Social Media is not owned by any one department. The entire company will eventually socialize represented by each division that warrants an outward and participatory voice. Conversations always map to the activity that exists across multiple networks, spanning a multitude of subjects and potential outcomes. What’s important to realize is that the nucleus of every conversation represents the beginning of something independently important to the person voicing it as well as the theme it embodies.

Social Emerges as a Business Channel

Forrester Research predicts that interactive marketers will prove the value of social media marketing in 2010, leading with insight at the C-level and pushing deep metrics and relevant data into other departments. The goal is to establish long-term strategies, budgets, and measurement practices.

New Media Advisory Boards/Social Councils

In 2010, companies will officially establish social councils, or what I call New Media Advisory Boards, to attain budgets and power. While Forrester observed the creation of these advisory boards in 2009, this year, cross-functional teams will become pervasive, sharing ideas and exploring opportunities for social media. Although councils will emerge as an internal resource, their stature within most organizations will continue to be informal, thus relying on the budgets and capabilities of its members. However, their role is no less critical to the success of creating, deploying, managing, and measuring social media programming as well as governing the processes that bind them.

Over the years, I have participated in the creation of many Advisory Boards, internal and external, within small businesses and Fortune 500 companies as a way of facilitating collaboration, minimizing control debates and corresponding politics, securing buy-in across the organization, pooling budgets, and fortifying governance and accountability.  Members should include representatives from each division that requires a social presence as well as those who ensure that participating employees are denoted.

Making the Case

In 2010, we will move from a “ready, fire, aim” approach to social media to one of strategy and meaning. Marketers will now have to justify social marketing plans with actual business cases to obtain the resources necessary to execute effectively. Using a map such as The Conversation Prism will help brands discover and weigh relevant online interaction and their potential for formal response and programming.

From Information to Intelligence

Businesses that explored the social landscape in 2009 most likely employed one of the many listening tools available in order to monitor and document activity in popular social networks and blogs. Forrester believes that we will move from an era of listening to one of data mining, trend analysis, and ultimately action. Listening and observation will impact other departments including customer service, PR, among others in order to foster collaboration and cooperation between departments.

According to the report:

Product development, customer service, and upper management will begin to align with marketing and customer intelligence to create customer feedback councils as they focus on giving customers what they want, rather than what the company thinks they want.

I believe that in 2010, the valuable insight that emerges from a formal research program will also channel through to affected divisions, persons of interest, and decision makers to evolve the company into a fully adaptive entity that lives and breathes awareness in order to earn relevance.

Measurement

Metrics will encompass greater significance beyond the number of friends, followers, views, and clickthroughs. Forrester reveals that marketers don’t “think” they’re very good at measuring social media today, rating their own efforts at 4.5 out of 10. As the need for accountability rises in conjunction with the creation and employment of more strategic initiatives, measurement is the connection between present and future activity.

Forrester notes that a silver bullet does not yet exist, nor should it. Social Media is a dynamic medium and the mold that’s currently employed by businesses including the creation of a Facebook Fan Page, profiles on Twitter, etc, quickly emerged as standards without first assessing why their initial creation was necessary.

Metrics are elusive without first exploring the objectives and matching social programming and engagement to help deliver against them. Forrester recommends a systematic approach in order to identify the right metrics for their social media initiatives. They should tie to businesses objectives as well without emulating the traditional sales and top-down marketing voices of old.

Take caution however, when determining if out-of-the-box formulas or “scores” will help measure success or progress.

This is why I implore all brand managers and interactive marketers to STOP reviewing existing case studies and social media success stories because many of them were forged and cultivated without the definition of strategic business- and industry-specific metrics including increased revenue, customer loyalty, advocacy, and market share. Measuring sentiment analysis, would-be referrals, and increases in share of voice are entry-level techniques that do not necessarily capture the potential of socialized media channels. Tie metrics to that of action and trackable activity. For example, it’s not about “would you recommend this product or brand” it’s about driving and assessing whether or not someone “did recommend this…” and if so, what happened next.

We must focus beyond positive and negative horizons. We grow by enlivening the neutral and the negative commentary through analysis. Reading the commentary to feel the true state of the market and surface opportunities to incite measurable activity towards a desired direction. Business metrics and key performance indicators are also worthy of integration into new media. Dell continues to serve as an exemplary model.

Twitter

Forrester gazes into the crystal ball and sees one of two outcomes for Twitter by the end of 2010, either it will become profitable and/or it will get acquired. Perhaps the report was published prior to the release of financial information concerning the Bing and Google search deals, but the economics of Twitter actually proved beneficial for the company’s bottom line. At the end of 2009, Twitter reportedly earned a profit and is expected to do so again in 2010 with the release of commercial products and services in addition to an official advertising channel.

Is Twitter an acquisition target? With a $1 billion valuation, potential suitors are finite. Remember, at the height of its boom, MySpace sold for $580 million. In another example, YouTube sold to Google for $1.65 billion. As Twitter is a cultural and social phenomenon unlike any network before it, perhaps Twitter’s best play is to start making strategic business decisions to remove itself from the targets of would be acquirers in order to grow the Twitter ecosystem, along with its loyal user base, organically. Don’t get me wrong however. In 2010, money will get thrown at Ev, Biz, Jack and team out of our view…but how, when and why will have yet to be seen.

Facebook

Privacy concerns continue to plague Facebook and Forrester sees this as an ongoing challenge. As such, Facebook is expected to protect its own interests by helping users protect theirs as well through the release of new tools that offer more intuitive ways to limit the visibility of their photos, updates, and data to different sets of followers.

As a user, I’m not sure where I stand on Facebook privacy. In general, I view online media equally. Therefore I employ a sweeping rule, assume that anything shared online, even if it’s through email, becomes discoverable when, where, and how you least expect it. Knowing this, proceed to shape and cultivate your online persona, your way.

Stowe Boyd suggests we embrace an era of “publicy” while Erick Schonfeld and Andrew Keen believe, “Instead of making the private public, we will make the public private.” When public is the default, you deliberately select what to keep private instead of the other way around.”

Forrester suggests that new privacy controls and tools make users elusive and difficult to target. It’s absolutely true. As a marketer, Facebook is indeed a silo and its limited interaction potential for brands also impedes genuine engagement across the network. While widgets, apps, groups, live video, and Fan Pages provide the ability for brands to attract friends and fans, Facebook does not facilitate the ability for a brand to maintain a profile or benefit from the advantages inherent in profiles within the network today. While yes, a brand can host a fan page, it cannot interact with users as the brand outside of the page. Unfortunately, in order to do so, fan page admins would need to interact using their personal accounts, which blurs the line between personal and professional engagement and ultimately dilutes the personal social graph.

While this isn’t a prediction, it is a public request for fan pages to resemble “profiles,” providing brands with the ability to truly interact in and outside the page as a branded entity and with the potential to earn more than “5,000″ friends (note: not fans).

As real-time search becomes pervasive, Facebook will need to carefully ensure that content appears in dedicated search engines. Many experts will testify that Twitter gained rapid adoption when Twitter search provided a lens into the activity and conversations of its users. Prior to the New Year, real-time Web search engine Collecta introduced the ability to search conversations and content in MySpace – for the first time. Perhaps this move will actually help MySpace matter once again.

Mobile

Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, et al, the 2010 prediction report could benefit from specific insight and updates into an overdue move towards an open Web. Facebook’s hiring of David Recordan and Google’s hiring of Joseph Smarr represent hope and peak curiosity. Forrester does state however, that incompatible mobile devices and siloed social applications will shatter the social experience.

While the move towards Data Portability, OAuth and Open Social are promising, the reality is that users maintain multiple profiles across an exhaustive list of social networks today. And individual portfolios of social presences expand and contract with the demise, acquisition or introduction of services.

Our attention span is thinning and the “dream” of a common identity is not, according to Forrester, expected to materialize in 2010. Forrester predicts that our social graphs will in fact grow in distance as mobile social networking becomes increasingly pervasive.

As a result, Forrester emphasizes the need for brands to focus resources and budgets:

Marketers, already bamboozled by social media and with limited budgets, will be forced to make choices. Staff a Twitter feed or focus on Facebook? Having done so, they’ll then have to worry about how those choices squeeze through the tiny interface of a mobile device — and about testing and maintaining multiple device experiences. Look for marketers to pick a set of tools — say Twitter and iPhones — and spend 2010 looking carefully at other platforms to ensure they haven’t chosen poorly.

Brands don’t need to be everywhere, only where customers and influencers communicate and seek information today and tomorrow. It’s how we compete for current market share as well as improve our faculty to compete for the future.

In late 2009, I actively explored the ideas of the Golden Triangle and Three Screens, which represent the fusion of social, real-time and mobile as they connected portable devices, desktops, mobile phones, and ultimately TVs.

With the proliferation of smart devices lead by the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Palm Pre, users will find their interaction with existing and new location-based social networks (Loopt, FourSquare, Gowalla) and their respective social graphs increasingly mobile. As such, interaction becomes further distributed… And brands are already taking notice.

However, geo-local social networking and augmented reality are strangely missing from Forrester’s 2010 social computing predictions.

2010 represents a market for intelligent mobile marketing in addition to the incredible opportunity rife within appstores dedicated to each platform.

As Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt, recently stated in the San Francisco Chronicle, We [Loopt] want to use location to bridge the gap between the virtual and real world. That’s where…the technology is the most powerful.”

Geo-local networking represents the connection between online and offline, bringing people and businesses together based on location and interests.

Whether it’s through reviews, mobile coupons, free or discounted products and services, the opportunities for consumers, marketers and advertisers are abundant.

We’re already realizing the power of connecting people to nearby friends, restaurants, bars, stores, events, and now special offers. And, when combined with augmented reality, we can literally see the bridge between the virtual and real world.

Yelp’s Monocle is an early, but exceptional example…

Augmented Reality will benefit mobile and desktop users alike, providing brands with a platform to engage consumers through immersive activity. For example, Rayban’s augmented reality application (click virtual mirror) allows customers to virtually try on sunglasses before making a purchase decision.

Additional marketing examples of Augmented Reality applications are viewable on Mashable.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, or Facebook

—

Get the new iPhone app!
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

—
Image Source: Shutterstock

In 2010, Social Media will rapidly escalate from novelty or perceived necessity to an integrated and strategic business communications, service, and information community and ecosystem. Our experiences and education will foster growth and propel us through each stage of the Social Media Marketing evolution.

As MarketingSherpa observes, “2010 is the year where social media marketers gain the experience required to advance from novice to competent practitioner capable of achieving social marketing objectives and proving ROI.”

It’s a powerful prediction and it’s one that I also believe. This is your year to excel, teach, and create your own destiny.

To document the evolution in maturation of new media marketing, MarketingSherpa published its 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report. The undercurrent of the report is rooted in the shift from hype to methodology, observing that many marketers jumped on board Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social media platforms without a plan for defining, achieving, or measuring success. The general reaction of the more than 2,300 marketers who participated in the report was that current social media tactics were counter-intuitive to proven marketing principles.

This is why I believe that business success stories shared to date were wonderful to read, but they didn’t necessarily serve as a framework for my work. Too many assumptions have been made and business considerations compromised while they learned how to embrace and employ new media in a very public spotlight.

In the report, MarketingSherpa condenses the ten stages of social media marketing to three phases of maturation:

R.O.A.D.

Research – Monitor target audiences about brands and competition

Objectives – Define objectives with target audiences and social metrics

Actions – Create a social marketing strategy with a definitive plan of action

Devices – Deploy social platforms based on audience, objectives and strategy

Phase I: Trial – no process is used and social platforms are implemented first.
Phase II: Transition – an informal process is used and performed randomly.
Phase III: Strategic – a formal process is used and performed routinely.

I believe to the contrary however. The maturation process of social media enlightenment and mastery is far more sophisticated and incremental. In my experiences, I’ve documented on average ten stages, and in some cases several more – not including the realization of resource costs per engagement and instance. For example, many organizations can assess the cost per tweet, blog post, response, and their impact on achieving objectives. Perhaps that level of social prowess will reside in the 2011 Benchmark Report.

MarketingSherpa asks in which phase of marketing maturity is your organization. With maturity, strategy and effectiveness ensue. Assessing the average of all elements, 40% of organizations reside in the Transition Phase, 66% are experimenting within the Trial Phase, and 23% are advancing, learning and adapting towards the Strategic Phase.

When reviewing the total responses, MarketingSherpa learned that those organizations in the Trial Phase were mostly focused on Devices (Social Media Platforms). Research becomes the catalyst for evolving to the Transition Phase. And as we’ve always learned, actions speak louder than words, and it is Action that catapults brands into the Strategic Phase.

A pattern which started to take shape in early 2009 continues into 2010 – Social Media defies economic concerns.

Leading the way, retail and ecommerce will increase budgets by upwards of 79%. Publishing/Media appear to finally grasp that the statusphere holds the key towards future engagement and earned relevance, following in second with an increased social spend of 63%. Computer hardware/software, business and consumer services, and manufacturing/packaged goods follow closely with 55%, 54%, and 53% respectively. Travel/leisure and education are also investing in social media marketing with budget allocation rising to 52% and 43%.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it does grow on tweets…

One of the interesting aspects of social media is that budget isn’t necessarily created entirely to support it. Money is redistributed from other projects. The report, which I don’t have full access to, shares the responses from marketers…I would love to read it. In my experience, money has moved mostly away from traditional advertising, interactive, and also traditional PR to help spark new social programs and teams. As referenced earlier, human resources (cost of labor) accounts for most of the expenditures as social media marketers are leveraging free tools and services to engage. According to the data, MarketingSherpa estimates that 60% of social marketing is allocated towards the human factor and 20% will go towards outside agencies and consultancies to help with social endeavors.

Metrics will become instrumental in assessing budget allocation for 2011 – whether it’s a fiscal or calendar year. It is a quest for meaningful metrics that inspire more accurate and beneficial programs that introduce business acumen into new media.

Respondents were asked to align business and social objectives with corresponding metrics.

At the top of the list, increased Web Traffic led the way across each phase. However, if you follow a stricter regiment for social media orientation and practice, Web traffic is among the easier elements to measure and honestly, increase. It is this revelation that leads to the creation of a strategic path and experience – usually resulting in the remodeling of the online corporate presence.

In second, lead generation was followed by increased sales revenue in third. Expect to see those metrics increase with the sophistication level of practitioners. In fact, you could also bet that product/brand reputation and stature, reduced costs in customer acquisition and retention, and improved customer support will rank at the top as well…instead, the early phases of indoctrination place these towards the bottom of this in terms of importance.

MarketingSherpa visualized the resource investment social media tactics that reflected effort required versus effectiveness. Of course most erred on programs that lowered the barrier to entry and ongoing activity including email, social media news releases, Microblogging (most likely Twitter), social networking, and content sharing (read: uploading, not promoting). However, in social media, your returns are representative of your investment and cultivation and bankable in the form of connections and earned authority. As such, on the opposite end of the Social Marketing Tactics, SEO and Social Media Optimization (SMO), Blogging, and Blogger Relations indeed required the greatest amount of effort, but also delivered the greatest returns.

Influence is tiered and conversations are distributed. Decisions are guided by the information and insight available to those seeking it where they choose to search and ask. One of the least discussed aspects of social media in any study is the point of enlightenment when an organization realizes that it must socialize at multiple levels, from marketing to service to HR to product/service and everything in between. We are ambassadors not only for the brand we represent but also the value proposition and the benefits we offer and how they apply to the set of circumstances and hurdles that surround each community of nicheworks.

MarketingSherpa revealed that independent voices are among the most trusted voices across blogs, boards/forums, microblogs, and wikis. However, to earn a trusted voice within any community, intelligent, thoughtful, and genuine insight and expertise is the minimum investment required. Earning trust and establishing authority are among the goals in any social program.

In Social Media, we earn the prominence and relationships we deserve.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app!
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

—
Image Source: Shutterstock

In July 2009, experts predicted that advertising on Facebook would surpass MySpace by 2011. What represents a tectonic shift in social media spend is now anticipated in twenty-ten (2010).

A new report published by eMarketer, “Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook” documents the major shifts in social network advertising spending that emerged in 2009 and will ultimately unfold in 2010.

eMarketer observes that Facebook is becoming the premier destination for marketers in the U.S. as well as many worldwide markets. At 350 million users, its momentum appears unstoppable.

In 2009, marketers funneled an estimated $2.2 billion to advertise on social networks worldwide, with $1.2 billion spent in the U.S. In 2010, Facebook will account for nearly 25% of all social network ad spending worldwide, up 20% over 2009. 2010 also represents the year that Facebook officially surpasses MySpace in ad revenues. eMarketer predicts that Facebook will earn $605 million versus $385 on MySpace.

The shift represents a significant loss to MySpace, dropping 23% in U.S. ad revenue in just one year while Facebook jumps 34% in the U.S. and 65% worldwide.

“As more marketers incorporate social networks in their business, they will no longer look at them as siloed destinations. Instead, they will look to increase the impact of their social network presence by linking it to other marketing initiatives, both online and offline,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report.

eMarketer predicts that U.S. online social network ad spending will increase 3.9% over 2009 and will grow 7.1% in 2010 and 7.7% in 2011. As social media becomes ubiquitous in marketing over the next year, I anticipate 2011 numbers to increase significantly.

These increases come at a time when total U.S. online ad spending is falling and thus represent a greater share of online spend.

Advertising, however, represents only one facet of an overall integrated marketing program. Engagement is something funded by “sweat equity,” dedication, and a genuine desire to help someone do something they couldn’t do before they met or heard from you.

According to Williamson, “When companies budget for social media marketing in 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of their expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales.”

As eMarketer documents, 2010 will be the year that social network advertising intersects with other forms of social marketing, including earned media. Earned media is just that, it’s earned. It is the result of strategic community cultivation and the investment of time, resources, and expertise in a network of passionate brand beacons and empowered advocates.  While earned media is usually advertising-free, otherwise it’s then referred to as sponsored conversations (paid, not earned), budgets still must cover time, energy, and the people who lead community-focused programs across multiple social networks.

Sponsored conversations are also expected to rise in 2010. Josh Bernoff at Forrester Research wrote a thoughtful post in March 2009 that offered guidance on how businesses can introduce paid media into the overall social mix.

Together, earned and paid media are far more effective when the programs are humanized. The difference between social network advertising and marketing and traditional online campaigns are the ecosystems where engagement is fostered. Social networks are “social” and therefore respect and empathy are the minimum antes necessary to potentially earn attention, a precious commodity in Social Media. Without a genuine intent to offer value, trust is elusive.  It’s the difference between shouting “at” people and speaking “with” someone.

Before you’re a marketer or advertiser, you’re a consumer. Bring that perspective to the marketing table…

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app!
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

—
Image Source: Shutterstock (edited)

Social Media impacts every business, every brand, and in doing so, connects a network of distributed communities of influence, making the world a much smaller place in the process.  Small businesses are in fact at an advantage in Social Media Marketing as they can focus on hyper-local activity that can offer immediate rewards or at the very least, the real-time feedback or lack thereof says everything about next steps.

A recent survey conducted by Citibank offers a contrary point of view, citing small business executives who believe social networks offer no benefit or promise to expanding their business. This isn’t all that uncommon however. The truth is that without knowledge or direct experience, it’s virtually impossible to envision the potential of something where they’re most likely absent as a consumer themselves.

But, if a conversation takes place online and you’re not there to hear it, did it actually happen?

Of course it did…and it continues – with or without you.

The “I” in ROI does not stand for ignorance. It does however stand for investment and in cases where new media is “new,” it also stands for intelligence. We’re learning together and that’s both an opportunity and an impediment. We need guidance to better understand the promise and also how to reap its reward.

Ad-ology published its “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010″ report that revealed that among the other benefits of social media, lead generation is the biggest benefit of online networking. Other benefits ranked as follows…

Keeping up with the industry

Very Beneficial: 16%
Somewhat: 29%
Not Beneficial: 55%

Monitoring what is being said about your business

Very Beneficial: 16%
Somewhat: 28%
Not Beneficial: 55%

Generating leads

Very Beneficial: 16%
Somewhat: 34%
Not Beneficial: 50%

Competitive intelligence

Very Beneficial: 14%
Somewhat: 29%
Not Beneficial: 57%

Improving customer experience

Very Beneficial: 12%
Somewhat: 29%
Not Beneficial: 59%

Resolving problems

Very Beneficial: 11%
Somewhat: 22%
Not Beneficial: 67%

Finding vendors/suppliers/partners

Very Beneficial: 10%
Somewhat: 28%
Not Beneficial: 62%

Recruiting for new employees

Very Beneficial: 8%
Somewhat: 19%
Not Beneficial: 73%

Background checks – employees, suppliers, etc.

Very Beneficial: 7%
Somewhat: 20%
Not Beneficial: 72%

Among those surveyed, Facebook appeared as the most beneficial social network. Perhaps tied the reverberation of activity across social graphs. LinkedIn, while cited less often, ranked just below Facebook, but ahead of Twitter – for now at least.

Facebook

Very Beneficial: 10%
Somewhat: 23%
Not Beneficial: 14%
Do not use: 53%

LinkedIn

Very Beneficial: 6%
Somewhat: 15%
Not Beneficial: 13%
Do not use: 67%

MySpace

Very Beneficial: 6%
Somewhat: 11%
Not Beneficial: 15%
Do not use: 68%

Twitter

Very Beneficial: 6%
Somewhat: 13%
Not Beneficial: 12%
Do not use: 69%

YouTube

Very Beneficial: 5%
Somewhat: 10%
Not Beneficial: 12%
Do not use: 73%

The study shows that education and awareness are needed among small businesses to better understand the promises, advantages and the commensurate commitments necessary to generate visibility and ultimately the activity necessary to sustain or at the very least, contribute to a lucrative and growing business.

31 percent of small businesses claimed that their primary hurdle was the perception that “our customers do not use social networks.” Equally, business owners complained that they do not have the time or resources necessary to run an effective social media marketing campaign. Sound familiar?

While yes, it’s true, small business owners must focus on the core products, services, and values of their business. However, without visibility, customers do not possess the information necessary to connect the dots between their want or need and you.

The Top 10 Ways to Monetize Real-Time Conversations in Social Media

No story is complete without providing ideas to move forward and compete for the future. By competing for the future, we also cultivate a flourishing state of “now.” One of the primary advantages of social media for small businesses is the relatively low cost associated with uncovering relevant conversations within your geographic or service area. It’s how we can identify and personally connect with customers. It’s how we learn what they’re seeking. It reveals interests and cravings.

For example, take a moment to run a real-time search activity search using Collecta to get a feel for the volume and velocity for relevant conversations online. Then, run a local search on Twitter (choose by geography) using a keyword related to your business, but not necessarily that of your business or product name. For example, Pizza, Coffee, and local yogurt shops are searching those words specifically to offer specials and free items to those within proximity to stop in and give it a try. Business owners report that while offers and freebies reflect a notable investment, they always increase clientele and business overall.

To help entrepreneurs and small business owners capitalize on the “now” or real-time conversations populating social media, Web 2.0 investor extraordinaire Ron Conway offered his vision for the top 10 ways to monetize real-time conversations.

10. Lead generation
9. Coupons
8. Analytics, analyzing the data
7. Enterprise CRM
6. Payments
5. Commerce
4. User-authentication, verifying accounts
3. Syndication of new ads
2. Advertising – Context and display ads
1. Acquiring followers

New mobile social networks such as FourSquare, Loopt, Gowalla are also emerging that connect people within local areas based on where they are and what they’re doing. These services require you to “check in” to a location or an establishment and as such, local businesses are encouraging patrons to do so by offering incentives, “check in here on FourSquare and get a free slice of pizza or a free beer.” Why? Each time someone checks in, their social graph follows the establishments they frequent and as such, brands the venue within a very trusted circle. There are also opportunities for paid sponsorships. Each time I check in to venues in Redwood City, a local wine shop and tasting room, Savvy Cellar, pops up with a “nearby special.” If I pop in and show my iPhone with the special, I receive 50% off any tasting. Brilliant.

To learn more about specific examples for increasing awareness and revenue using Social Media, please read Forbes’ piece on 21 Top Twitter Tips (Story | Through Pictures)

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app!
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

—
Image Source: Shutterstock

From intent to purpose…

Good friend Jeremiah Owyang recently wondered whether or not the real-time Web was fast enough to keep pace with our insatiable appetites for information and connectivity. As such, Jeremiah introduced the emergence of what he refers to as the “Intention Web.”

With event planning features, like Facebook events, upcoming.org, we’re starting to see people make explicitly public remarks on what they want to do, when, and with who.  Welcome plancast.com a startup by Mark Hendrickson formerly of Techcrunch who created this simple website that allows people to broadcast what they plan to do next using Twitter or Facebook.

Owyang summarized the true opportunity for the Intention Web as follows…

Bottom Line: Intention Web will provide consumers with contextualized experiences. People will work together to share their information about what they plan to do, and improve how they work or organize. Expect Social CRM systems (Salesforce, SAP), Brand Monitoring vendors (Radian6, Visible Technologies), and Search Engines (Bing and Google) to quickly try to make predictive models on what could happen, and what are the chances. Businesses that have a physical location like retail, events, or packaged goods can use this data to anticipate consumer demand. They may offer contextualized marketing, or increase or decrease inventory or store hours to accommodate. Don’t be surprised in the future and you walk into a store with your preferred items, meal, or drink already nicely packaged for you.

His reference to Plancast is indeed representative of an emerging medium to publish future activities and intentions. And as such, they trigger a social effect that introduces new opportunities and incites potential activity among those within an immediate social graph as well as those defining the friends of friends network. While Plancast is a new service, Facebook events, Upcoming, as well as travel services such as TripIt and Dopplr, among many others across multiple verticals, have long represented an emerging category for the publishing and sharing of planned activities and goals. These activities serve as social objects and as such, they reveal information that can transform activities into relevant content and experiences that are presented to us in the near future.

The Predictive Web

Social Media becomes less about a move-and-react strategy and sets the stage for engendering meaningful interactions as well as building more tuned business infrastructures to support anticipated activity based on the intelligence and insight extracted from online behavior.

As 2010 begins a new decade, we also usher in a new genre of context and personalization in the evolution of an intelligent and semantic Web – a Web that Tim O’Reilly, refers to as Web Squared. Among the hottest trends taking place in and around The Golden Triangle of social, mobile and digital innovation is the emergence of geo-local networking (such as Loopt, FourSquare and Gowalla), augmented reality, and social filtering.

In the Future of the Social Web, I discussed the materialization of technologies and applications that would introduce a new era of social context in 2010. The reality is that these capabilities have existed for quite sometime, however, the iteration of new products and underlying algorithms have matured to a point where we can consider solutions for mainstream applications.

After several years of harnessing the power of participatory media, the wisdom sourced from crowds proves that crowdsourced insight is not an exact science. As Andrew Keen author of the best-selling book The Cult of the Amateur once observed, “Sometimes the Wisdom of the Crowds is not so wise after all.”

On the other hand, the idea of collective intelligence is extremely promising as it registers and converts activity and interests based on how we as individuals interact with content and objects within a site or community and as patterns and paths emerge, the algorithm adapts to create more efficient passages.

Jack Jia and Dr. Scott Brave of Baynote are fusing crowdsourced intelligence with social sciences. As such, they built a sophisticated platform that transcends mob rule into swarm intelligence – a form of artificial intelligence based on the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems.  Ants, for instance, wander randomly until food is found and returned. In the process, ants leave pheromone trails which eventually lead other ants to following and eventually optimizing the path. The greater the concentration of ants who pick up the trail in shorter periods of time, the denser the pheromone trail becomes. On the contrary, if other ants do not pick up on the path, pheromone evaporation occurs and over time, the path is lost.

Baynote uses swarm intelligence to employ a type of ant colony optimization that enables an online system to automatically learn from organic behavior to personalize and enhance the online experience – reducing click paths and surfacing relevant content to connect people to relevance expeditiously. If you were searching for a particular product on Zappos.com, for example, you may have to sort through product after product until you finally matched the result with your choice of keywords. If Zappos.com integrated Baynote, as users replicated the activity, the system would automatically identify the pattern and reorganize the content based on keywords and clicks to match products to people faster and more efficiently.

Social Intelligence

In many ways, we click aimlessly today, and as we search for information, people, and social objects, we do so until we stumble upon something that captivates our attention. We then react, save, share with others, but without movement on a mass scale, the direct path to the content or the experience is erased. To help, meme trackers (or trend watching) technologies such as Tweetmeme, TechMeme, Blogged.com, among others,  help create direct paths to the data online that enchants us en masse within fixed periods of time.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it does grow on Tweets

In a recent issue of MITSloan Management Review, the writers observed,

There’s a new tool that can help companies predict sales for the coming weeks, or decide whether to increase inventories or put items on sale in certain stores. It’s Twitter.

The post captures something that I believe represents the defining spirit for excelling in what is shaping up to be an online Darwinian survival of the fittest.

In a new era of socially conscious and responsible businesses, we will manually observe and maneuver the adaptation and streamlining of products and services as well as the customer experience based on online social activity. A majority of these events will follow the path proven by the likes of Baynote to herald a coveted, predictive Web that surfaces personalized focus and value.

If we review a basic model of a tag or word cloud, not unlike the ecosystem that tracks and pools “trending topics,” we can visualize the most commonly used keywords related to most online activity. As Huaxia Rui, Andrew Whinston, and Elizabeth Winklery wrote in the MITSloan Management Review,

We believe executives can make accurate predictions about sales trends by analyzing tweets that mention their products or services, and we have created a model based on Twitter’s keyword-search function to help them do that.

I call this trendcasting, the ability to spot themes and pinpoint opportunities to deliver a solution to a need that either exists, is emerging, or is on the horizon based on the concentration of social conduct.

But as we see in technology similar to Baynote, we can surface trends without the need for manual search, and I believe this technology exists today and will soon become prominent. Imagine improving the experience within social networks such as Twitter and Facebook and in turn, within every stop along a sales cycle, to ensure that in each instance, we’re presented with content that matters to us at the right moment, in the appropriate context.

Improving the Signal to Noise Ratio

While improving the signal to noise ratio is a never-ending quest, in social media, noise is amplified exponentially.  In an era of the predictive Web, platforms will emerge that present people and content based on who we are, what interests us, and how we navigate the Web.

During the proliferation of RSS feeds and the feelings of being overwhelmed by  those who over-subscribed to their favorite sources, services such as AideRSS (now PostRank) and also mSpoke created platforms that organized feeds based on our preferences, implied explicitly (something we say or do) and implicitly (how we interact with what’s presented.) The goal was to organize feeds to prioritize the content each system formulated would best match what we should read.

Recently, My6Sense (note, I’m an advisor) recently launched a new iPhone app that channels social streams into a river of relevance. The app takes social and RSS feeds and analyzes content based a sophisticated algorithm (dubbed digital intuition) to serve tweets, updates, and posts without requiring manual input of preferences. Essentially, it predicts what you would find most interesting as determined by how you react to your content normally. Through a “top messages” function, you are presented with qualified content. It improves the more you use it and quickly, you’ll realize its potential for expediting the future of the predictive web.

What if the technology powering My6Sense was built into your attention dashboard (Tweetdeck, Seesmic, or Tweetie)? What if digital intuition powered CNN or Techmeme, presenting only the stories, comments, and reactions across social networks that aligned to your interests?

From Estimation to Prediction

Suddenly the predictive Web comes into focus. The innovation that materializes into products and platforms creates an ecosystem that wires the individual human algorithm to the technology that will work on our behalf to mine and present data, content, products, people and companies that match what interests us based on who we are – not solely derived from what we have in common. Just because we viewed a common item, purchased a product or service based on our click patterns or share contacts within networks, doesn’t imply, nor does it guarantee, that we share interests, ideas, and ambitions. Therefore, the ability to predict is only as accurate as the technology that focuses on who we are defined by all we do.

Make no mistake, the web will evolve from social chaos to genuine social “ME”dia to personalize experiences and solutions. Attention is a precious commodity and it is not to be taken for granted. Our attention only thins with every new and interesting object that traverses across our horizon. As such, technology will help save us from our insatiable appetite for information and eventually predict what it is that interests or benefits us before we may realize the need or desire.

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook

—

Get the new iPhone app!
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

—
Image Source: Shutterstock

I spend a great deal of time working within the B2B sector, among other things, and social media is a growing and or pervasive program within a comprehensive, integrated communications and service strategy. In almost every scenario I’ve encountered, executives, marcom and service executives, and brand managers have generally assumed that social and interactive activities and programming were ideally best suited for consumer applications. However, as we recently explored, in Social Media, it’s not just business, it’s business-to-business.

Indeed, Social Media is not limited to B2C applications, its impact and effects are actively measured and felt in B2B as well as government, education, military, and other prominent verticals. As decision makers take to the social web, their research, activity, communication, and most importantly, their relationships only intensify over time.

If you’re working in B2B, perhaps this post will provide you with value. Or, at the very least, it will arm with you data necessary to convince, compel, and persuade those skeptical or uninspired colleagues, clients, and managers.

Business.com recently conducted a study that evaluated Social Media activities of those in B2B and B2C. In its report, “2009 B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study,” Business.com found that North American companies focused on B2B were much more rigorous in the world of social media than those in B2C. As you’ll see, B2B leads the fray across the entire regiment of campaigns and programs.

Social Media: B2B vs. B2C

Maintained company-related profiles on social networks:

B2B: 81%
B2C: 67%

Participate in Twitter:

B2B: 75%
B2C: 49%

Host blog/s:

B2B: 74%
B2C: 55%

Monitor brand mentions:

B2B: 73%
B2C: 55%

Engage in discussions:

B2B: 66%
B2C: 43%

Participate in Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn, forums:

B2B: 59%
B2C: 44%

Upload content (social objects) to Social Networks:

B2B: 50%
B2C: 32%

Manage a community dedicated to customers or prospects:

B2B: 49%
B2C: 51%

Monitor/support user ratings and reviews:

B2B: 49%
B2C: 51%

Produce Webinars or podcasts:

B2B: 46%
B2C: 22%

Advertise on social networks:

B2B: 42%
B2C: 54%

Utilize social bookmarking sites such as delicious and digg:

B2B: 38%
B2C: 21%

Employee recruiting:

B2B: 36%
B2C: 27%

As expected, those companies engaging in social media, whether B2B or B2C, focused efforts on creating social network profiles, microblogging, blogs, and brand monitoring, hitting a high of 81%. Most social activities however, maintained a level of participation with an average of around 50%. There is room for growth for brand engagement regardless of industry.

Business.com also evaluated where companies were focusing their attention and resources. The study surfaced that not only are a greater number of B2B companies experimenting with Social Media, they are also extending their presence across multiple networks. However, B2C businesses dominated engagement within Facebook and MySpace.

Notice the disparity between B2B and B2C adoption of Twitter. If these numbers truly reflect that of the greater community of businesses, B2B companies are at the forefront of this wildly scrutinized and popularized social property.

Facebook

B2B: 77%
B2C: 83%

Twitter

B2B: 73%
B2C: 45%

LinkedIn

B2B: 56%
B2C: 27%

YouTube

B2B: 43%
B2C: 30%

MySpace

B2B: 14%
B2C: 23%

FriendFeed

B2B: 9%
B2C: 2%

Plurk

B2B: 1%
B2C: 0%

Other

B2B: 4%
B2C: 8%

Also according to the Business.com study, 60% of B2B respondents leverage Twitter search to monitor brand or company mentions compared to just 35% of those in B2C. With Facebook slowly revising their privacy settings to open up real-time search capabilities within the 350 million strong network and MySpace recently announcing the availability of a real-time API, businesses will have the ability, and the responsibility, to search for relevant conversations outside of Twitter and Google.

Google search results, at least prior to the real-time search revolution, also proved valuable for mining and unearthing relevant content. 59% of B2B and 40% of B2C companies report using Google Alerts and 61% of B2C and 60% of B2B reported that they actively googled themselves.

With the rapid evolution of search, business monitoring will assuredly shift its focus from traditional to real-time. Just recently, Google announced both Social Search, the inclusion of content generated by your social graph in traditional search results, as well as real-time results from Twitter and other social networks. We already know that customers, regardless of industry, are actively taking to search engines to learn more about brands and products mentioned in their social stream.

A New Era of Influence

- 20% of tweets published are actually invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives

- About half of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information

- 8% of those who came into contact with a brand name on Twitter went on to search for additional information on search engines with 34% searching other social networks

Customers Take to the Social Web

- 44% admitted that they have recommended products in Social Media and 39% stated that they have discussed a product specifically on Twitter

- 46% of Facebook users talk about or recommending products on the 225 million strong social network

- Social Media already accounted for 18% of all information searching in early 2009

- 30% claim they wished to learn more

- 27% reported that they were receptive to receiving invitations for events, special offers or promotions

- 25% stated that they visited a site after learning about a product on their social network of preference

Engagement Has Its Rewards

In a recent Razorfish study, 40.1% of consumers reported friending a brand on Facebook or MySpace. Once a connection was established, the resulting activity was profoundly beneficial to the awareness and potential revenue of the brand.

Recommend the brand to others:

Always: 22.94%
Usually: 39.15%
Sometimes: 33.92%

Consider the brand when in the market for a similar product of service:

Always: 22.69%
Usually: 40.90%
Sometimes: 34.41%

Raise awareness of the brand:

Always: 21.45%
Usually: 38.65%
Sometimes: 36.66%

Purchase a product/service from the brand:

Always: 17.46%
Usually: 42.89
Sometimes: 36.66%

ROI: Return on Investment or Ignorance?

I recently wrote about the lacking of an industry-wide practice for measuring social media. According to one study, 85% of businesses engaged in interactive programs were not measuring the ROI.

Even though measurement was more pervasive in B2B over B2C, participating companies appeared to actively measure social media in this case – at least those surveyed anyway. B2C companies tended to focus on revenues to assess ROI (where the I represents investment and involvement). B2B companies typically evaluated Web traffic, brand awareness, and the quality and volume of lead generation. That being the case, B2B and B2C reported that Web traffic was considered the top metric.

It appears that an industry typically characterized as lethargic is in actuality, pioneering new forms of communications, service, sales and branding in the social realm.

Questions remain for me however, in order to better ascertain how and why businesses are using these new tools and to what extent. For example, I would ask those within B2B and B2C what their level of engagement and commitment to social media is across multiple departments within the organization. I firmly believe that every department affected by outside behavior or those that have the ability to affect it will ultimately benefit from socializing. Therefore, conducting a benchmark survey to capture the state of the industry as it corresponds specifically to service, sales, branding, communications, HR, etc., will help us better surface opportunities and potential strategies. In addition, I suggest introducing one more set of questions that focuses on what I refer to as the “ a ha” vs. the “uh oh” moment, when a company decides to embrace or experiment in Social Media. Are businesses jumping online because they realized the opportunity specific to a network or because they felt it necessary based on a negative discussion or series of negative and public instances.

The Attention Economy and Earned Relevance

Attention is increasingly thinning and as such, it is considered a precious commodity.

Whether it’s B2B or B2C, we are each in the end, consumers. And, as consumers, we seek information online in order to make more informed decisions based on research, the advice of friends, peers, and experts, and the recognition of our questions and commentary directly from brands. In order to make an impact on the bottom line through sales and the ongoing investment in engendering goodwill and earning loyalty, we must focus our time and resources on the attention dashboards of our prospects and customers, as well as those who also influence them. If we do not, we will quickly find ourselves outside of the parameters within every business decision-making process.

If it is one thing that we learn right here, right now, is that Social Media affects every part of the buying cycle. This is why a company-wide SRM program must be engineered and deployed in order to effectively monitor behavior and sentiment to effectively and genuinely shape perception, cultivate meaningful relations, and inspire action.

General Buying Cycle

1. Acknowledging the need

2. Awareness

3. Research

4. Consideration (the short list)

5. Evaluation

6. Purchase

7. Applications

8. The Experience

9. Reaction

10. Opportunity for advocacy

It should also not go unsaid, that while women rule the social web, the buying process in B2C is also influenced by women in a relationship setting. According to Marti Barletta, author of Marketing to Women and PrimeTime Women, when men and women buy as partners, women control at least four out of five stages of the purchasing process. While this isn’t representative of the bigger pitcure, it is still nonetheless interesting and worthy of consideration.

This is why in the world of B2C marketing, women are considered the Chief Household Officer as they’re actively driving and steering purchase decisions.

Five stages of the purchasing process:

1. Kick-off – women
2. Research – women
3. Purchase – men
4. Ownership – women
5. Word-of-mouth – women

It is how we engage at each step of this cycle that determines our place and stature within the inevitable path of attention, analysis, and action. Once we learn how and where to engage, we can then focus our efforts on earning affinity and advocacy. This is our time to garner relevance through the intelligent practice of poignant and relevant listening, understanding, and participation. In parallel, this is also our opportunity to establish authority and attention. Without it, it’s easy to vanish from the cycle of awareness and consideration. Out of sight, out of mind…

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app

Read BrianSolis.com on your Kindle
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

—
Image Source: Shutterstock (edited)

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
- George Santayana, Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, 1905

A few years ago, I was part of a dedicated group of people who worked together to establish Social Media as an official stage in the progression of New Media. An evolution that is well documented and a conversation still continues today.

As referenced in the original Social Media Manifesto published in June 2007, “Monologue has given way to dialog.”

Before Social Media was officially “Social,” several well-known pundits observed the composition of socially-driven ideas and technologies and as such collaborated to help document the landscape and also define and defend Social Media as a legitimate classification for the democratization of publishing and the equalization of influence.

As the category gained momentum, it elicited a series of opposing views and introduced new ideas as the saga unfolded. At the same time, it also opened Pandora’s box and consequently invited the very masses it was designed to empower to define Social Media. Years later, the definition and its history as documented in Wikipedia are truly representative of just how much and how little we know and also agree on its definition and its destiny.

The initial entry was submitted to Wikipedia in July of 2006 and since then there have been hundreds of edits and iterations – most of which are inaccurate and misleading.

In June of 2007, I called for evangelists, experts, and visionaries to collaborate on seeking and documenting a simple and functional definition for Social Media. The goal was to establish a common point of departure from which we could convert uncharted paths into navigational waypoints documented through shared experiences. In many ways, we were, and still are, digital cartographers.  Those actively involved in the ongoing discussions included Doc Searls, Stowe Boyd, Robert Scoble, Jay Rosen, Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Shel Israel, Chris Shipley, Deb Schultz, JD Lasica, et al.

After much analysis, hosted conversations, debates, and continued research, a working definition was proposed, and for the most part, continues to guide many practitioners today.

Short Version

Any tool or service that uses the internet to facilitate conversations.

Long Version

Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism, one-to-many, to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers.

The discussion continues, inspiring modified definitions that are both brilliant and sometimes inexact. Perhaps uniting around a common definition is implausible.

As Social Media evolves it elicits advocates and experiences as it migrates from the edge of early adoption to the center of prevalence.

But as it pursues ubiquity, Social Media, as a designation, is largely misunderstood and as such, guides many practitioners away from their true opportunity and purpose. Their social compass is unknowingly misaligned and what should point to true North may in fact, displace their center of principles and values.

Indeed, Social Media was embraced by many and still continues to trend upward today as the methodologies and opportunities linked to it persevere, inspiring optimism and igniting ambition along the way.

However, the moment social media was christened, its path towards coalescence was imminent. Experts predict that as soon as 2010 or 2011, Social Media will simply merge into the ongoing development of New Media to set the stage for what’s next. Simply said, Social Media will eventually become “media,” representative of an important chapter in its advancement and transformation.

As I shared with Jennifer Leggio in a recent post on ZDNetthat collected 2010 predictions exploring the potential ubiquity of Social Media:

2010 will be the year that we save us from ourselves in social media…we will stop drinking from the proverbial fire hose and we will lean on filtering and curation to productively guide our experiences and production and consumption behavior and interaction within each network. 2010 will also be the year that leaders and pioneers stop referring to social media as a distinct category of media as they/we usher in an era of new collective and machine intelligence that improves collaboration and interaction – freeing us to focus on the engagement that engenders long term relationships.

It’s not so much what it’s called, but what it represents that counts for everything. This is the democratization of information and the equalization of influence. But, in the end, Social Media is only but a chapter in the evolution of New Media and the pages are slowly turning to the future.

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app

Read BrianSolis.com on your Kindle
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

pr pr+2.0 pr2.0 public+relations marketing advertising interactive social+media socialmedia brian+solis social media media2.0 media+2.0 2.0 smo social+media+optimization marcom communication publicity advertising expert interactive spin brand branding guru social+architect

At Gadgets.alltop, we’ll have total coverage of the new gadgets and gizmos from CES. We aggregate over 130 websites and blogs that write about gadgets there.

Source: Shutterstock (edited)

As the flame of 2009 flickered into the history books, Facebook celebrated its rise to 350 million users and certain dominance in the U.S. social networking market. However, in December, analysts questioned whether or not Facebook was losing its cool as time spent on the popular social network dropped three consecutive months among 18-24 year old users. Experts feared that the “family effect” was having a negative impact within this highly coveted demographic.

As I observed:

Facebook is beyond relevant, regardless of age group. Not only are we changing how we form relationships in the social web, how and where we’re engaging is also evolving. Do not underestimate the extent of mobile and other vertical platforms.

But amidst the controversy, Facebook’s preeminence comes into focus. Web analytics firm comScore reported that traffic to Facebook, for the first time in history, surpassed 100 million U.S. visitors in November 2009.  This is an elite milestone reached by select Web properties including Google Sites, Yahoo! Sites, and Microsoft Sites.

comScore’s media Metrix data also ranked Facebook as the fourth largest property, the highest position it has ever reached.

According to the data, Facebook accounts for 5.5% of all time spent online in the U.S., which is up from just 2.5% a year ago. As such, Facebook is at the center of attention – captivating a significant percentage of the average U.S. Internet user’s time online.

Facebook’s ascendancy is significant when compared to the month-over-month activity defining the state of MySpace and Twitter. Note that MySpace showed a slight decline while Twitter’s momentum appears to subside.

Source: Inside Facebook

As action speaks louder than words, not only is Facebook dominating in visits, Experian Hitwise published a report that documents its prevalence in search – placing “Facebook” as the number one search term.

This is the first year that the social networking Website has been the top search term overall, accounting for 0.67 percent of all searches. In fact, four variations of the term “facebook” were among the top 25 terms.

And, now there’s also data to suggest that Facebook is indeed relevant among college students. Anderson Analytics recently reported in its “American College Students Survey” that more than 25% of students surveyed rate Facebook as their favorite Website overall. As the survey documents, Facebook jumped nearly 12 points in just one year, placing it more than 20 points ahead of Google, which currently resides in second place.

Source: eMarketer

Anderson Analytics also surfaced important behavior that should serve as a roadmap to any social networking strategy and program. Among the most interesting revelations, nearly 60% of female and 44% of male college students learn about products on social networks. And, 80% of females and 76% of males reported that they obtain product information from Websites they regularly visit, which is ahead of friends and family.

Sources of Product Information

Regularly Visited Websites

Female: 80%
Male: 76%

Friends and Family

Female: 68%
Male: 48%

Social Networks

Female: 58%
Male: 44%

TV Commercials

Female: 54%
Male: 39%

Magazines

Female: 44%
Male: 29%

Forums/Discussion Boards

Female: 24%
Male: 24%

Blogs

Female: 22%
Male: 19%

Newsletters

Female: 22%
Male: 14%

RSS Feeds (although this most likely represents blogs)

Female: 6%
Male: 10%

Other

Female: 2%
Male: 3%

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app

Read BrianSolis.com on your Kindle
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

pr pr+2.0 pr2.0 public+relations marketing advertising interactive social+media socialmedia brian+solis social media media2.0 media+2.0 2.0 smo social+media+optimization marcom communication publicity advertising expert interactive spin brand branding guru social+architect

Are you coming to CES in Las Vegas next week? If you are, be sure to drop by the American Express Open Forum booth. Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Anita Campbell (Small Business Trends), John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing), Ben Parr and Barbara Dybwad (Mashable), and I will all be at the South Hall booth. This is the current booth schedule:

Thursday, January 7

11:30 a.m.—1:30 p.m.—Tony Hsieh, Zappos

2:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m.—Guy Kawasaki, Alltop

Friday, January 8

11:00 a.m.—12:30 p.m.—Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends

1:00 p.m.—2:00 p.m.—John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing

2:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m.—Guy Kawasaki, Alltop

Saturday, January 9

11:00 a.m.—12:30 p.m.—Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends

1:00 p.m.—2:30 p.m.—John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing

3:00 p.m.—4:30 p.m.—Ben Parr & Barbara Dybwad, Mashable

Sunday, January 10

11:00 a.m.—12:30 p.m.—Ben Parr & Barbara Dybwad, Mashable

You can check the current schedule here.

I’ll be giving a presentation on The Art of Innovation on Thursday and How to Kick Butt with Twitter on Friday. It would be great to meet you!

by Cathy Brooks

Even though I’m pretty sure there isn’t actually a portly old dude in a red suit who slips down chimneys with presents, I wished pretty hard for something this Christmas.

It didn’t come.

Okay, so I’m Jewish and maybe that had something to do with the fact that Santa blew me off, but to be honest the problem isn’t what didn’t come … it’s what did and, as with all holiday merchandising, it started early.

It was about a week before Thanksgiving when the flood, really more like a tsunami, began – pitches, pitches and more pitches all seeking to set up a meeting with me at the Consumer Electronics Show. Here’s the thing, it was glaringly obviously that not a single one of them had taken a moment to even glance at the writing I do. If they had, they’d have seen that not only do I not review products, I don’t write about technology really at all. Okay, so I write about how technology impacts our lives from a social and operational basis, and I may talk about products that I use personally but even a cursory glance at anything I write - whether via a social media platform, blog or even radio – shows quite clearly that pitches proclaiming the latest release from pioneering-trailblazing-industry leading-superduperproductmojo company and asking to “schedule a meeting in booth XXXX to see the product” just aren’t a fit.

Here’s the problem. Every last one of these pitches was a mass mail, clearly a cut and paste of a generic pitch blasted out to the entire press list for CES. (Disclosure: I’m registered as media for CES 2010 through my involvement with the Intel Insider program.) In spite of the bulk mailing, most of them attempted to be jovial, overly personal and – in at least one case – almost inappropriately familiar in language, as if we were life-long buddies.

Now to be fair, I have worked on the PR side of the fence and know all-too-well the ferocious challenge of heading to a massive trade show with a client (or more than one client) tasked with the responsibility of securing press briefings. That is why every single pitch I received, yes every single one, got a personalized response that read something like this:

Dear XXXX,

First off, thank you for sending your pitch. I appreciate your outreach, and understand the Herculean task of scheduling press meetings that you face. That said, if you had taken a quick look at my work, or even just done a quick Google search on my name, you’d see that I don’t review products and don’t write about product or company news. What does interest me, though, is the way in which technology is impacting our lives, changing behaviors and that sort of thing. In other words – it’s not about the tools, it’s about what we do with them that I care about. If, with this information, you have a more targeted reason for why we should meet, then I’m all ears. If not, I wish you the best of luck with CES and a Happy New Year.

Best,

Cathy

That was nice, right? I mean, I can’t very well complain about people not giving me pitches that are a fit if I don’t give them some guidance, so I thought I’d use the opportunity as a teaching moment.

My mistake.

While there were a few thoughtful and grateful replies (none of which provided a more targeted pitch I should add), more than a few of the responses I got to my replies were, put simply, nothing short of an embarrassment for the communications industry. The responses ranged from snarky to downright rude. Some people were nasty. Some people failed to answer my questions or address my suggestions at all. In several cases, it was almost as though they were merely plodding through their pitching script having been told if their first pitch was rejected here is the thing to say.

Bad choice.

Like I said, the need for communications people to mass pitch large numbers of press and bloggers at major events is nothing new, but the sloppy manner in which such a massive number of communications people seem to feel it’s appropriate to achieve that goal was, put simply, shocking to me. I mean COME ON PEOPLE, shouldn’t we know better by now? Has no one been paying attention? In the last year countless things have been written – including a stellar view on how public relations has changed by Brian Solis – cajoling, educating and otherwise crying out for the communications industry to get with the program and realize that the world has changed – and that means adjusting processes and protocols that have been in place for years.

Yes, I realize that is tough, but at the same time there are any number of stellar communications professionals and agencies that firmly grasp the changes and are stepping carefully and resolutely down the path towards improving the way in which they leverage technology to do their jobs. As one example I hold up Edelman Digital as a group that really seems to “get it”. It doesn’t hurt that one of the leaders in the charge for that firm is Steve Rubel - a talented communications professional who spends ample time himself wandering the digital hallways of social media to keep his own perspectives fresh.

For the record, I also realize many of those pitching me were probably the low persons on the proverbial agency totem pole – junior account people with little experience who were tossed into the fray with little guidance. To those agencies who did this I say shame on you! By failing to mentor or teach your junior staff, you are perpetuating the problem. Hopefully along the way these junior staffers will have media and bloggers who provide constructive feedback as I did, but more often than not those pitches will either go ignored or – if they catch someone on a bad day – may result in their being flamed or verbally eviscerated. I know, because back in the day I was one of those hapless young folks and I recall quite clearly one conversation with a now very well-known writer (he was just starting out at the time) who ripped me a new one for “wasting my valuable time with a worthless conversation.”

Ouch. But you know what? I never did it again.

So while Santa didn’t heed my plea to staunch the flood of relatively worthless pitches, I’m proffering a clarion call to communications people for the New Year with my list of resolutions to consider. I’m avoiding a top 10 list, and not even offering 5, figuring that by giving only three hopefully people will adopt at least one:

1) If you’re doing a mass mail pitch – call it one: We ‘re not stupid. We know you have to toss lots of stuff at the wall for big events. So just call a spade a spade. Don’t try to be cute, funny or overly personal with people you don’t know.

2) Be prepared to go deeper: If someone does reply to your generic pitch and asks questions – answer them. More than likely it’ll pay off.

3) Do your homework: Okay so perhaps this one should be first and should actually preclude a mass mail, but taking a step back and doing some research on people will never steer you wrong.

Image Source: Shutterstock

Social Media is fundamentally transformative and is rapidly evolving the architecture of business, communications, and the dissemination of information and influence.

Today, there are businesses that engage in social media and those that do not. Those at least experimenting with the formidable, yet shifting landscape of intelligence and communication are learning how to adapt and connect in a new world of conversation, networking, and influence. Those that have yet to evaluate the opportunities and advantages for socialized marketing, service, sales, and branding will find it increasingly difficult to learn, adapt, and magnetize customers, prospects as well as their influencers.

As markets evolve, consumers gain a greater sense of adeptness and perspective. They too learn and adapt. In the process, individuals and the authoritative communities they form, possess a more sophisticated understanding of media literacy, community support, and prowess in new media communication. Consumers have choices and they’re increasingly practiced through natural selection.

There’s a sense of social Darwinism at play here and while it might sound overly dramatic, it is for better or for worse, true. In the new era of influence, those businesses that understand where and how to compete for the future will earn a genuine and advantageous position to shape and steer the perception, prominence, and impact of the brand. It is this idea of competing for attention where it is focused, as it evolves, that will help businesses connect with people and thus set a new, efficient, and effective foundation for advocacy and community.

In order to earn a place within online societies, we must first recognize where they’re emerging, flourishing, and thriving, and also how to engage through authentic and attested immersion.

Social Media: Reporting from the Field

Recently, the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth updated its annual study on the adoption and practice of social media by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US.

The essence of the report shares the tools that are carving the evolution of the fittest. At a minimum, Social Media is affecting and shaping the pillars of business.

The study found that most businesses recognize the importance of experimentation and engagement, with 91 percent of companies reporting the incorporation of at least one social media service or tool in 2009. Literacy and awareness was also on the rise with roughly 75 percent stating that they were now “very familiar” with social networking. This was reflective in the impressive drop in Inc 500 companies that did not use social media whatsoever, plunging from 43 percent in 2007 to 9 percent in 2009.

Messaging/Bulleting Boards

2007: 33%
2008: 35%
2009: 28%

Social Networking

2007: 27%
2008: 49%
2009: 80%

Online Video

2007: 24%
2008: 45%
2009: 36%

Blogging

2007: 19%
2008: 39%
2009: 45%

Wikis

2007: 17%
2008: 27%
2009: 25%

Podcasting

2007: 11%
2008: 21%
2009: 12%

Twitter

2009: 52%

This is the first year that Twitter was asked specifically, which is interesting considering that the network has been discussed as a business application over the last three years.

No Use of Social Media

2007: 43%
2008: 23%
2009: 9%

Social Media is indeed pervasive. Social networking, podcasting, blogging, and Twitter adoption are nothing less than profound. The number of Inc. 500 companies embracing these platforms and networks increased year over year, and most likely will do so in 2010 until we start to see the segmentation of targeted social activity in the networks that reach and connect niche markets or nicheworks.

The rise in the usage of wikis is encouraging. Even though 2009 numbers are slightly lower than 2007, at 92 percent, it is significantly higher than the 2008 reporting of 77 percent. Applications for wikis include user generated content, ideation, and governance, internal employee communication, as well as the organization of collective intelligence.

I am also pleasantly surprised at the growth in recognition of the importance of social activity within message/bulletin boards. In fact, when I conduct a listening and observation exercise to uncover where, when, how, why, and to what extent relevant conversations are transpiring using the Conversation Prism, messages boards and forums rank among the top of the list, in many cases, outperforming Twitter and placing second only to blogs in terms of consequence.

Not surprisingly however, video appeared to experience a small downward trend but 2009 activity still is significantly greater over 2007. What many either don’t yet realize or learn through a baptism by fire experience, online video requires much more than a Flipcam. Content must be engaging and entertaining. You literally have seven seconds to hold the attention of the viewer and without forethought, most videos are incredibly underwhelming. As such, content requires programming and creativity, much like the programming of any television network or motion picture company. We as consumers need something that captivates and holds our attention. Concurrently, online video also requires a dedicated content marketing strategy in order to connect the theme, essence, and value of the videos to those who could benefit from viewing them.

The Sociology of Social Media

The Center for Marketing Research observed that the Inc. 500 is outpacing the Fortune in many social media activities. In fact, respondents believe that Social Media is introducing a competitive advantage, with adoption ensuring survival and success through practice and evolution. As of now, the Inc. 500 documented success by measuring key, and not so important, indicators such as visits, impressions, comments, leads and sales leads and revenue.

As you interpret and process this information, it’s important to understand that the networks and adoption numbers aren’t necessarily reflective of the strategies you should integrate and pursue. Everything is specific to the behavior, activity, and locations of your community and thus requires an initial listening and observation exercise and audit to uncover the answers to the questions you may have or don’t yet know to ask.

This is why sociology prevails over technology when it comes to engagement. Essentially, brand managers become veritable digital anthropologists or sociologists in order to identify and document the culture of a community, gather information, analyze data, report findings, apply statistics and surface necessary communication and listening skills.

Our work subtly reflects that of a Margaret Mead or nowadays, Intel’s Genevieve Bell or Whirlpool’s Donna M. Romeo, Ph. D. – at the very least, we’re inspired by their work to apply their methodologies and learning in new fields.

While brand hierarchy isn’t necessarily established through social media alone, it is a highly concentrated and relevant amalgamation of integrated services, programs, and values that ultimately establish prominence.

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app

Read BrianSolis.com on your Kindle
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

—
Image Source

How would you like to offer an iPhone application for your website or blog? Check out AppMakr if you do. It allows you to make an iPhone app for your website or blog without any programming skills in a few minutes. The cost to create an app is as little as a one-time $199 fee.

The process is that you go to AppMakr.com, provide some graphics and RSS feed information, and then the site builds your app and submits it to the iTunes App Store. You can monetize your app with ads and sponsorships or by charging for it via iTunes. This is what you what you need to get started:

• RSS or Atom feed. (If you have multiple feeds for your website, you can also add them to your app.)
• 320 x 480 pixel splash screen
• 320 x 46 pixel header
• 512 x 512 pixel icon for itunes

Here are examples of apps built from Alltop topics. All of these are free apps that people can use to stay on top of popular topics.

• Macintosh.Alltop
• Design.alltop
• Lifehacks.alltop
• Social-media.alltop
• Photography.alltop
• Celebrities.alltop
• Marketing.alltop
• Twitter.alltop
• MyAlltop/GuyKawasaki

In other words, I can now offer custom iPhone apps for each of the 800 Alltop topics. How cool is that? And anyone can build a custom iPhone app for their personalized MyAlltop page too. The Atlantic, U. S. Army, PRWed, Inc, and Seth Godin are also using it to provide iPhone apps for their sites.

If you’d like to try the service, go to AppMakr.com and use coupon code “GUYK” to pay $49 instead of $199. This offer expires on January 18, 2010.

Source: Shutterstock

Happy New Year!

Well, this is it. The final installment of the most read, shared, and discussed posts of 2009. I hope that Part X as well as the other nine parts help you to leap into 2010 with confidence, inspiration, and direction.

Let the education and stimulus continue this year…

The Greatest Hits of 2009 Part X

1. Is Facebook Losing its Coveted Demographic?

2. There’s an App for That: Mobile is the Next Frontier for Brand Engagement

3. The Evolution of A New Trust Economy

4. In Social Media, It’s Not Just Business, It’s Business-To-Business

5. Live Video Streams Go Mainstream

6. Twitter: The Business of Community

7. The Future of Interactive Marketing

8. Facebook Brings Fans into Focus

9. Top Twitter Trends of 2009

10. Twitter Economics

11. Ning Proves That There’s Life Outside of Facebook and Twitter

12. Ideas Connect Us More than Relationships

The Greatest Hits of 2009: The Series

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX

Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, or Facebook
—

Get the new iPhone app!
—
Click the image below to buy the book/poster:

pr pr+2.0 pr2.0 public+relations marketing advertising interactive social+media socialmedia brian+solis social media media2.0 media+2.0 2.0 smo social+media+optimization marcom communication publicity advertising expert interactive spin brand branding guru social+architect

There is no better way to please and impress people around Christmas time than to make them something. If you can cook, make them a meal. If you can paint, make them a painting. If you can sculpt, make them a sculpture—you get the picture.

What if you don’t have these talents? What if you’re out of time? I have a totally conflicted suggestion for you: Build them a customized MyAlltop page. Surely you can point and click.

It will take about thirty minutes, but the output of those thirty minutes says, “I didn’t just rush out and buy the first thing I saw at BestBuy. I used my unique geek expertise to craft you something that you can use every day of the year."

It will be our secret that building a MyAlltop page is quick and easy. Here are the steps:

1. Create a MyAlltop account in their name. You start here. Be sure to use your email address, so that you get our confirmation otherwise they’ll get it and wonder what’s going on. (Here’s a tutorial that will step you through the process if you want more help.)

2. Make a mental or physical list of their passions. If you don’t know which topics, blogs, or websites they like, casually bring up the question.

3. Compare their list to Alltop’s topics. You can see all the topics or you can search by categories, keywords, and topic name. With over 750 topics, you will find ones that interest them. For example:

   • News
   • Moms
   • Shopping
   • NFL Football
   • Shoes
   • Social Media
   • Bags
   • Fashion
   • Celebrities
   • Twitter
   • Photography
   • Yoga
   • Fitness

4. Add feeds to their MyAlltop page. Go to a topic and pick a handful of feeds that will appeal to them by clicking on the +. This is the most challenging step because you may not know much about the topic. But, as a rule of thumb, the most popular feeds are on the top part of an Alltop page.

5. Bask in the glory. Surprise them on Christmas morning with their customized page. You should bookmark it or set it as their home page if you can.

As I said, this process will take approximately thirty minutes. I built this MyAlltop page for my wife as an example in much less than that. I hope you give this idea a shot and show that you care enough to aggregate the very best. Happy holidays!

If you’re new to Twitter, you might be wondering about the basics types of people on the services. I explained the six types over at the American Express Open Forum.

Over at the American Express Open Forum, I provided a list of my favorite applications. Check out the list if you want to see what makes me tick.

According to the LinkedIn site, its users are rich, young, educated, and powerful. If you’re looking for a medium to reach such people, check out this comparison to publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and BusinessWeek.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter explains how innovation can involve short bursts and baby steps to success. Most people believe only “breakthroughs” count. Really, innovation is a process, not a big event.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, strikes back at Rupert Murdoch in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. Check out what went down today.