Sometimes I feel like social media is like the following pie chart.
Where the majority of people are talking about it (blue), some are actually doing some pretty cool things in the space (red) and others wannabe in the space and think they are in the space (green) and very very few are actually experts (tan). What do you think? .
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Kim Kobza, the CEO of Neigborhood America. If you are not familiar with NA, they are one of the top players in the social media platform space. To say that it was interesting is putting it mildly. We kept taking the dry erase pen from each other constantly in the course of an hour to drive our points home on a white board about our thoughts on all things community and social media related.
My take away points were many but I kept thinking about one thing even 3 days later. That being-What drives the community? What is more important in the social media communities that we swim in? Is it the user experience or the user interface? Kim and I discussed what makes the community thrive and there are some interesting variables that determine this. Not the least being if we look at the 6 degrees of seperation theory, the sixth person is as important as the primary or focal person in the chain. Kim’s point that if you has a brand champion, this person is important yes, but the others on the peripheral are as well. In my head the best way I can wrap my arms around this is to perhaps think of worker bees being as important to the community as the queen is. They are integral to the survival of the colony.
My point to Kim, was that I could have this new and shiny social community ready to launch, and in my mind I totally got it, it made sense to me perfectly, and my thinking would be it would totally rock the social media space. My thinking and hope being that the buzz would bring in some fantastic members and thrive, quickly. But what if the technology was too slick? Could it have too many bells and whistles. Absolutely!
Which brings me to my point-Isn’t the user experience as important if not more than the platform? I don’t like to say dumb it down, but as technology people, we are exposed to cool tech stuff everyday and we get it. But put yourself in the shoes of the stay at home mom or the somewhat savvy electrician who has a familiarity with Myspace or Facebook for example. Will they get it? Maybe , maybe not? Do you want to take the chance that they “might” get it?
The user experience and the user interface are each predicated and determined by the other in my mind. If you have the technology but it’s broken and doesn’t perform, then you can forget it. If you have a community ready to go but they can’t understand how to use the technology, then they are gone. If you have a community that can grasp the technology quickly, and the technology is solid. Guess what? The user experience is elevated. With that being said, as managers and developers of communities, we need to walk that fine line between what works for the user and what the user can work with
I had such a good time with the visualization of what we all do, what we evangelize, what we learn and what we share on a day to day basis that it seemed like a good idea to show you a few more graphical representations of the space:
Here is Deborah Schultz’s version of the social media ecosytem
Then there is Fred Cavazza’s Social Media Landscape
Next is Deirdre Breakenridge I know its tough to see, but it was a huge file.
Or perhaps you can relate to this?
Although, I always like David Armano’s visuals.
Which ones make sense to you? What should be obvious is the interconnectivity of every diagram up there, with the exception of the web 2.0 diagram of all the social media apps currently out there. Where do you fit in? Where do you see yourself in any of these? Are you a watcher? A participator? Do you contribute?
We talk about how great social nets are and all of the great things it has to offer but here is the flip side to that coin, why do online social communities fail? Where is the disconnect? Here are some opinions on the matter from the blogosphere.
Here is a post in which Eric Zeman says that up to this point mobile social networking has been a big fat failure. I’ve blogged about this in the past and have basically said that the 2 issues that will slow this rush down will be lack of real estate on the hand held device and browser speed of course. What do you think? where do you fall?
Social networking 2008 Friend or Failure, did this guy get it right? To a degree he did. Of course we have this little ditty from the Wall Street Journal on why communities fail. which we did not really need to read to know why they fail. It’s the community people, its the people, people. It’s not the cash. People make communities work. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t call them communities.
John Furrier has an interesting take as well, in which he says that users want value not cheerleaders but that still doesn’t prevent him from saying that Social Media – Corporate Blogging – Most Failing? It has to be social.
Are you starting to see a trend here? As many supporters and champions of how great social nets are, there are still areas in which some if not many see shortcomings and potential for improvement in the model. Here are a few more. This one coming from the auto industry: Social Media Networks in the automotive industry are fledgling and the dynamics created inside of them is atypical of what you see in other niches.
Here’s a post from last summer, titled, Traditional marketing failing on social networks. Yes that still seems to be true though I am seeing some marketing gains in regards to companies putting the right people in place to handle new social media intiatives. But not at any acceptable levels.
What all of this is, is people looking at communities and saying they are failing, or they failed and then they start pointing fingers. Or they just count the reasons why they failed. Or maybe they are the ones, who have never participated? Bottom line should be, how do you prevent community failure in an online social network?
Here is a response from FreshNetworks in response to the Wall Street Journal article in which they are essentially saying, Branded online communities that are set up and managed correctly don’t fail. And I have to agree with them.
Here’s more on why online communities fail In a world saturated with solicitations where people have less and less attention available, most communities fail because they bypassed a few important questions, like “what are we offering users?”, “what is differentiating us from other communities?”,
And of course the online community numbers that don’t add up
Why do online communities fail? The biggest reason for failure is relying on technology – whether it’s websites, forums, Web 2.0, social media, social networks or any of the buzzwords. Too many businesses spend massive amounts of money on the technology rather than the plans and processes and people that are what make up a community. To a certain degree the technology might not fit but it’s technology that drives the process, so we have to rely on it.
The customer collective on why communities fail: The first reason is that many companies who embark on community initiatives are putting their company or product at the center of the effort. As many pointed out, that is obviously WRONG – you need to put the community member at the center and make sure that there is some passion around the initiative. Put the customer at the center, but the customer needs to know why they are there.
Three Reasons Branded Online Communities Fail Would you launch a new product or service line without an experienced person to develop and manage it? Not usually, no. The same goes for online communities.
Or perhaps, why online communities fail, Community is about community and community leaders, folks don’t be seduced by eye candy!
Why Does Corporate Social Networking Fail? Dave Allen weighs in at Social Media Today. And so does Jerry Bowles with Online Business Communities – Who’s Winning? Who’s Losing
In conclusion let’s remember the thing that people who have the cash to set these up seem to forget or overlook. It’s all about the community, the managers, the brand champions, the word of mouth people who love the site, the users who genuinely love to connect with people, it’s people who love the brand and the company, the people who would do anything for the company for the brand. Its the friendships made. Its about companies listening. Those are your community. NOT the marketers, and the tech people that built it. It’s the people that matter that contribute, and it’s the contributors that matter who matter most. What part of that do you not understand?
After reading your fair share, where do you think the burden of an online communities success should fall?
Next week, Thursday, the 26th, some of social media’s best and brightest come together to wax poetic about all things social in the form of a twebinar, which is essentially a webinar and Twitter mash-up. The conversations take place in real-time before, during and after the webinar, on Twitter.
To enter the Twebinar
Butch Cassidy: “I couldn’t do that. Could you do that? Why can they do it? Who are those guys?”
I promised that I would follow up the top 30 social media experts post I did with a few more people who’s work I admire, who’s thinking is forward, and who’s ideas of what culture and technology should be, are wide open. You have no idea how many bookmarks and sites I have saved that I try to read and digest and actually think about. No wonder my eyes are always bleeding on the way home from work? Easy..I’m kidding..
It’s these types of people that will provide the basis of how we will view our interactions in a technological environment as we go forward. If you are unfamiliar with some of these people, that’s ok. Pretty soon you won’t be. Of these 17, feel free to offer up your peers for review. We currently have a listing of 51 social media experts, luminaries and standouts! I’d love to add more and I know they’re out there. Beware though, if you email or tweet that you’re an expert, then you’re not.
I would suggest setting aside some time to really go through the list, as there is quite a bit to digest here, but it’s all good and so so very relevant today!
Sometimes when I’m stuck, I go back to see what I’ve bookmarked over the past few days and weeks. it’s an interesting compilation.
BuiltWith is a website analysis tool, providing technical analysis and SEO optimization information to further your website’s marketing, sales and navigation effectiveness. It seems pretty cool, though, if you want a really neat web tool check this one out website grader
Clay Shirky is a pretty interesting person who has a new book out that I have on my “got to get” list it’s called, Here comes everybody, I read an excerpt and it was really really good.
I have Mike Stopforth’s web site bookmarked, he’s is an entrepreneur, writer and speaker who heads up Cerebra, South Africa’s leading social media company, I thought it best to see what others across the world are doing with social media.
Check out Utterz when you get a chance. With Utterz, you can instantly share your news by creating a multi-media posting in voice, video, picture and text, right from your mobile phone, or online. It works with every phone, on every carrier, which is interesting.
I struck up a conversation with Paul Chaney a few weeks ago and this is his company Bizzuka, I added Paul to my 4 more social media experts post
Here is a great post on…alas.. Taking a class in social media.
I’m always on the lookout for a good solid analytics package other than Urchin, and this one was referred to me the other day, check out Mint.
And lastly, I’m talking with these people tomorrow Ecairn, I’m looking forward to giving it a test drive.
Jake McKee promised that this might be the most significant thing I see/read/watch this year. In a sense he’s right. I love when people make me think. Clay Shirky made me think. And what he says makes sense. You might have to watch it twice but what I take away from it and told Jake essentially the same thing, are three things. 1) traditional media is scared shitless about what is happening right now. Consumers with voices? And the ability to use them? 2) We all have a surplusof cognitive surplus and 3) The old, one voice marketing to many with traditional channels of one way communication are dying on the vine.
According to Aaron Barnes , In 2006 the total marketing spend on social media was $350 million, the forecast spend for 2011 is more than $2.5 billion. A couple of thoughts cross my mind. 1-who is spending the money now and is the spend worth it right now given the fact that a lot of marketers are still feeling their way around in the dark. 2– by 2011, How many social networks will there be? 3– How much of that projected budget will go towards social nets that exist today?
4-I had heard that there were currently 850 social networks and that within the next 2 years we might see upwards of 250,00! 5-Do you believe that?
With that being said check out some interesting stats from september according to emarketer
The most widely used social media strategy used by US businesses was Blogs for editorial staff at 78% of total respondents. Check out the following in order of use:
Discussion Boards 76%
RSS 57%
Ratings and Reviews of articles or site content 47%
Profiles of Social Networking 45%
Photo Albums 39%
Chat 35%
Personal blogs 33%
Video-user submitted 35%
Podcasts 33%
Social Bookmarking 29%
Video Blogs 29%
Widgets(deployed on FB, Myspace and Google) 22%
Mobile Video/image text submission 16%
Wikis 16%
Citizen Journalism 12%
Micro-blogging (twitter, Jaiku) 6%
Virtual Worlds 4%
Other 8%
Couple of questions: 6-What constitutes other at 8%? and since this was done in September, 7-How much and in what directions do you think those numbers have moved for each that is mentioned? I have some thoughts but am always curious as to what other think. BTW, 8-How many of you do use what is mentioned? 9-How many of the list do you still use daily?, and 10-How much is for business use as they, say and how much is for personal use?
This morning I decided to see how many cool Twitter applications were floating around. The key for me was how quick could I understand them and if that was the case, maybe the common person might be able to grasp them as well. There’s nothing worse than someone touting the next big thing, and it being so difficult to understand or implement that it ceases to be very cool.
Flotzam seemed to have a cool take on twitter. In this mash-up of Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Digg and blogs, you can use this simple application to configure what you want to watch and the speed in which you see it. To Quote,” Want to view what your Twitter friends are doing? Want to see the photos your friends have posted on Facebook? Or maybe their photos on Flickr, too? Download now and have all of your photos, Tweets, Diggs, Facebook invites & pokes and feeds come to you”
Madtwitter was kinda of a cool desktop/systray app. Once configured it will stay at the bottom of your desktop (in the systray) showing itself when you receive new “twits”. Clicking on its icon will show the main window where you can write your “twits”.
How about a couple of cool Twitter search engines? I like this one Twittertroll and this one Twittersearch Here is a nice directory I’ve used quite a bit as well TwitDir. Here is a Digg combo called Twitigg
PicoBuzz is fun because it picks up on the latest buzzwords that have been tweeted. The voyeur meets Twitter. This next one should be on everyones list. It’s a black list of Twitter spammers called the Twitter Blacklist
So you’re on the go and not sure when you need to be somewhere to receive the package that is being sent via UPS or Fedex, well now you can track them using Twitter and @Trackthis, This one might be my fave.
Sales people unite! Salestwit seems to have potential, though it did lock up on me initially but that might be because its behind an SSL? But hey anything that can arm the sales person out there with ammo to close the deal, right?
twi8r translates text message shorthand to English and vice versa and let’s you post immediately to Twitter. Moby Picture lets you add postings to your Twitter and Flickr account from your mobile phone, email or from the web, including pictures! All postings to this platform are automatically also placed in your Twitter account with a tinyurl, directing to the posting photo. For Flickr you can automatically add tags as well.
Similarly, Snaptweet allows you to send your Flickr photos to Twitter. Now Tweeetwhatyoueat is like having your peeps check out what your eating and it also helps you manage what you eat. It’s your daily food diary It answers the question – what did you have to eat today?
This next one is a total time killer but hey sometimes when your’re doing nothing, it might be just what you need! Straw Poll Now fills that void.
This twiiter app is hilarious. Some if it I can agree with but essentially its suck search app. IN other words, search for things that suck. Ifsuck
Wanna twitter like a pirate? Aye Matey then ye will be wanting to check out Post Like a Pirate
Twitthis has a definite niche so you’ll want to add it to the list. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the webpage and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their friends on Twitter.
Feed your Innertwitter here. Take notes when you are anywhere with Twitternotes
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