Social Networks - Session 1: The Emergence of Social Networking Services

David Lowey, Senior Partner and Vice-President, Fleishman-Hillard
Developer of strategic planning for online programs and interactivity.

The Emergence of Social Networking Services

How does social networking impact your business?
Even though the Internet has been around for 10 years, people are still excited and interested in the technology involved in social networking.

Why now?
Changing Social Behaviors
o Voyeurism (Internet makes it easy to watch what other people do)
o Exhibitionism (Everyone has the right to be on the Internet and share their information)
o Erosion of formality and civility (Due to the Internet and e-mail, we talk to each other
in short-hand, creating a sense of informality in day-to-day business and personal
conversations)
Changing expectations
o Growing expectation of a direct relationships with organizations,
government and politics
o Growing expectation of personal voice in the public forum
o Everyone on a personal level, due in part, to social networking
Youth
o Young people, between the ages of 13 to 25, now consume more content online
than print, radio and television combined
o Instant messages via online and cell phones a large
Broadband Penetration
o Fast Internet Connections
o Computer becoming more like TV (video accessibility)
o 10 million people per week are now downloadable online
o People are more comfortable using the Internet
All Ages
Personal and Professional
- 105M US Households with access (63%)
- 12M of 30M without access at work (12%)
- 117M total households (75%)
o Average user spends 120 minutes online each day
New TV experience
o DVR sapped compulsion to watch live
o Programming is homogeneous
o Internet is more immediate and unscheduled
o Internet allows more interactivity
Search engines
o Most Internet searches start with a search page
o Search engine optimization has become pervasive
- 213 M search online (93M on Google)
Money
o Dilution of spend and perceived decrease in effectiveness of traditional advertising has
lead to an influx of money to the Internet
o Internet advertising dollars
- Combination of hype but reality
- Symbiotic relationship between Internet and traditional media (Traditional Media
writes about the Internet trend and has Internet sites)
- Momentum with agency world
Proliferation of Inexpensive Publishing Tools
o Publishing and broadcasting applications are widely available
- Some are free, supported by ad revenue
- Others are fee based, but inexpensive
- Typepad, Community Server, Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, Yahoo! Groups, MSN
Groups, Friendster, YouTube, LiveJournal, Technorati
Standardization
o RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
o Technorati Tages
o XML
Growth of Social Media
o Many new sites allow blog or bulletin board style comments
o Digg, Engadget, Gizmodo, Daily Kos, Gaping Void, Gawker, Yahoo! Groups, MSN Groups,
YouTube, Friendster, Radio Shows, TV Shows

What is Online Social Networking?
- IP enabled networking
- Web 2.0 allow people to collaborate in new ways
- Blogs, Wikis, SecondLife, IM, Social Sites (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube), Multiplayer
Online Gaming, Email, Bulletin Boards, User Forums all connected and not independent.
o i.e. Send e-mail with a link to your blog in default signature
o i.e. Top 50 blogs are intertwined by links

Blogging
o 8% of Internet Users (12M American adults keep blog)
o Blogs and traditional media feed off each other
o Some area blogs have replaced trade publications as the primary outlet
o Bloggers have joined journalists and others as legitimate intermediaries…targets for media
efforts
o Anatomy of a Blog (author, advertising, posts, feeds
o Kryptonite Blogstorm
- Blogger posted that a Bic pen can open a Kryptonite lock
- Company assures public that its locks are effective
- New York Times and AP report that story
- Kryptonite announces massive recall

Vlog
o Video podcast poplularized by Apple i-Pod and i-Tines
o 22M people own Mp3 player

Wikipedia
o Wikiality-Something is true if enough people agree with it
o 8th largest site on the Internet (as of June 2006)
o Number of visitors double every four months; 14,000 hits per second
o Acts as filter for vast amounts of information online
o Why on Google
- Word density-how often the word is used in the entry
- Link density and relevance, how often page link to related content
o Perception of neutrality and balance, accuracy
o Often used as issue primer and alternative to search, not dominated by advertising
o Who uses Wikipedia
- Eggheads – people very close to a subject
- Advocates – people passionate about a subject (intense cluster of very specific
point of view)
- Evangelits – Wiki purist with a dedication to the social concept behind Wikipedia
- Pranksters – people who play practical jokes, undertake encyclograffiti
o Debate on whether or not companies can alter their page (correct information vs. skewing
information)
o Detractors
o Media: Turf issues about the role of professional media vs. consumers-generated
media
o Educators: Won’t accept Wikipedia as a source for a paper
o What do companies think:
o Don’t care: a silly website for people who watch Cartoon Network
o Frustration: How dare people claim ownership of my content, my image?
o Confusion
o Off-radar
User Forums/ Listservs
o Forums based upon threaded discussions
- Not real time
- Searchable
o Uses run the gamut
- Sports fans
- Company consumers
- Business tool to fix issues through other consumers
- Cingular Trend Force
· A small interactive community for market research for Cingular (teens)
Second Life
o Virtual reality built and owned by residents (avatars)
o Opened in 2003, now inhabited by 1,029,969
o Business have flocked to Second Life; launching campaigns and stunts to increase coverage
for their efforts
o BBC built island, held concert
MySpace
o Advertisng mix of professional recording artist, comedians, television, personal ads,
personal videos
o i.e. Hillary Clinton 2008
o Must give up a little control in the social networking environment
o Causes second personalities and celebrities through bloggers
o Opens up for people to negatively respond and debate you
YouTube
o Offers video clips for viewing
o Business issues are reported through videos

Email
o Remains a dominant form of communications
o Subscription email still plays a large role, especially as most American have no idea what an RSS feed is

Best ways to utilize social networking
Make yourself a relevant ingredient
Monitor links
Content must be tagged to provide relevant information for consumers and researchers
Density and relevancy impact search engine results, resulting in good customer service