The mobile social network

Mobile data connectivity has been a slow road. Municipal Wifi did not catch on and the whitespace efforts have been jammed up by the NAB.  A report by Pew this year "shows that 62% of American adults have either accessed the internet wirelessly or used non-voice data applications, such as texting, emailing, taking a picture, or recording video, with a handheld. On the average day, 42% of those with cell phones or other wireless-enabled handhelds use the devices for at least one non-voice data application."

Emarketer predicted in April "that over 800 million users worldwide will access and participate in social networks via their mobile device in 2012, up from 82 million in 2007.

Although the total mobile social network user base in 2012 will be under 20% of the worldwide mobile user population, it is likely these users will have a disproportionate impact on marketing, media and mobile communications because creating and sharing digital content represents much of the social networking experience."

An ABI report out this month shows a strong correlation between mobile social activity and users of Facebook or MySpace. 

From the report:

“The social network is increasingly becoming a central hub for communication across online and mobile domains for many consumers,” said research director Michael Wolf. “To a degree, it allows them to centralize messaging, communication and even digital media consumption through a centralized property on various screens. We believe this centralization of a consumer’s digital lifestyle through social networks will only increase adoption of mobile social networking in coming years.”

As next generation wireless technology begins to fall into place the desire for mobile data applications is sure to increase. Samsung recently demonstrated a new WiMax system capable of 149Mbps down and 43Mbps up, which would certainly be a game changer when available.

With the consumer desire and technical capability starting to line up companies are begining to aprove more demanding mobile applications.  One such company is Next2Friends.

From the site: "Next2Friends, the mobile social media platform, was created to deliver content and connections that entertain, engage and enhance life. Bringing together the full capabilities of both mobile and PC-based internet technology, the comprehensive suite of applications and features provide rich media, commercial and communication services to today’s connected consumer."

Next2Friends community provides the ability to do two click photo uploads and location based social networking. 

Key features include:

• Live – true, real-time video streaming from mobile device to web.
• Ask – opinion gathering and decision making on the move.
• Snap Up – automatic streaming of images captured while out and about.
• Tag & Meet – intelligent matching of virtual profiles in the physical world.

Mobile social networks will greatly increase the range of lifecasting projects like Justin.tv and Kyte.tv.  As more wireless providers preinstall applications like Qik and Zannel, sharig video elements of your daily activites is going to become even more pervasive.

Understand the mindset, not just the media moment

According to ExactTarget's 2008 Channel Preference Survey,  younger consumers favor IM and text messaging for personal communication, but they prefer email for marketing communication. And 56% of those 18-24 had made a purchase because of a marketing message received vial email, down a little from 35-44 year olds, 66% of whom had purchased vial email.

The distinction is a clear indicator of the need to go beyond media usage alone as a targeting criteria, and to define the mindset associated with the use of a particular media form in order to understand the potential role of marketing for a particular user of a particular medium.

THINK's model of media usage clearly defines texting and IM usage among 18-24 year olds as an "interaction" mindset, and commercial email as a "transactional" mindset. Based on this model, brands would be wise to take very different approaches to each medium. This latest research bears out the distinction.

Still not on Facebook?

I'm surprised by how many people in our industry still haven't gotten their hands into social networking. Ok - maybe you can argue LinkedIn or Plaxo should count for something since they are in the largest growth market but that just isn't wide enough. While advertising on social sites is still being challenged by clients, the growth is undeniable and the changes in online behavior should be experienced first hand. You don't have to be a fan but you should understand the platforms and space for consumer-centric marketing strategies. Maybe the numbers will help push you to sign up, play around, and befriend the THINK team.

Facebook stats:

• Mean age: 32 (@plan, US 18+)
• More than 57 million active users
• An average of 250,000 new registrations per day

MySpace stats:

• Mean age: 38 (@plan, US 18+)
• More than 185 million registered users
• An average of 350,000 new registrations per day

LinkedIn stats:

• Mean age: 41 (@plan, US 18+)
• More than 16 million registered users
• An average of 65,000 new registrations per week

And don't forget there are so many other platforms worth playing around with, too.

MySpace not a popular shopping site: shocker!

The other day iProspect and Jupiter released the results of a new Social Networking User Behavior study. It seems that interviews with users of social media have found that users search social media sites to connect with friends, search reviews on Amazon when they want to buy stuff, and search YouTube when they are looking for entertainment. Oh, and social content on Amazon (reviews) are a lot more likely to influence purchase behavior than social content on MySpace or Facebook.

At the risk of sounding just a bit snarky, duh! Now that I have that out of my system -- this is why social networking and media consumption and sharing sites present marketers with opportunities to do things other than present product reviews and click to buy messaging -- for instance, branding. But even when you want to do that, just remember where your brand fits in the user's view of the media environment they have chosen to inhabit at that time. Market to the mindset, not just the medium.

Did we really need another survey to tell us this?

The hype is real: social networks

UMass Dartmouth's Center for Marketing Research released a report (PDF) recently that details the opinions of Inc. 500 companies on Social Media. The conclusion: "The hype is real."

The report is based on interviews with 121 Inc. 500 companies who were asked detailed questions about their usage and measurement of social media. 42% claimed to be "very familiar" with social networking.

33% of responders said that their company uses forums as a marketing tool while only 17% used wikis and 11% used podcasting.

Looking forward, 26% saw social networks as very important to their marketing strategy with 40% saying it was somewhat important.

The study concludes, "from familiarity to usage to importance, social media is far more prevalent in the Inc. 500 than previous research would predict."

Monetizing Social Networks

Robert Young has an interesting post on GigaOm about monetizing social networks. His main prediction is that "social networks will prove themselves to be the most effective brand communication platforms on the Internet."  Robert continues on making four observations about better positioning social networks to make money.

1. Social network sites are bad platforms for call to action ads.
2. Social networks are people powered so advertising needs to be done with people not at people.
3. Social networks are too cluttered with ads. To increase CMPs you need to create scarcity.
4. Scalability is key; therefore, automation is critical.

As new and old media companies rush to fill the demand for social experiences online, monetization will decide which projects are successful.  I look forward to Turner's Super Deluxe as an example of applying the learnings of '06.

Disruptive Technology: The Venice Project

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are surely the poster boys for disruptive technology.  The co-founders of KaZaA were basically on the run for most of the late 90's.  Then came Skype, which turned the telco world on its ear and was sold to eBay for "billions."

Not content to take a breather, the pair now plans to tackle television. In an interview with Om Malik, Janus Friis described The Venice Project: "What we have done is created a streaming P2P platform for television. This is a platform, which is good for content owners, for advertisers and of course the viewers. Since there are no borders on the Internet, this is a global platform."

In a bid to not be global criminals on the run, Janus says they will be respecting all copyrights. 

Bruno Giussani summarizes the offering:

• "streaming peer-to-peer television (near-TV quality)
• free to the user (just download the client software)
• ad-supported (with ad targeting)
• deals with content providers (revenue-share)
• time-shifted
• searchable
• with "social TV" features (tagging, recommendations, etc)"

In addition to the disruptive effect on the broadcast model, The Venice Project has major implications for marketers. Targeted ads with solid measurement could be the solution to the burning question of how to advertise on social networks.  Which could mean the timing of The Venice Project could not be better. 

Consider Bambi Fransisco's analysis of the percentage of advertising currently going to social networks: "Social networks are estimated to attract $280 million in ad dollars this year, according to eMarketer. Online video-sharing sites are estimated to attract about $385 million. EMarketer estimates that $15.9 billion will be spent in online advertisements in the U.S. this year. That means social networks and video-sharing sites only attract about 1.8% to 2.5% of total online ad spending."

Jakob Nielsen: Participation Inequality

Jakob Nielsen looks at the participation of users in communities and discusses strategies in increase contributions.

Thesis: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

Jakob reviews the research and gives and overview of the many problems caused by a lack of contributing users. Companies interested in feedback suffer from unrepresentative samples. Product and service reviews site have a similar problem; all the reviews are written by the same people, a "tiny minority" of the total site viewers.

Fixing the contribution problem: You can't.

But you can try and make it more a little more equal.

Jakob's areas of improvement:

• Make it easier to contribute
• Make participation a side effect
• Edit, don't create
• Reward - but don't over reward - participants
• Promote quality contributors

See also:
Drooping Tail and Log-Log Charts
Zipf Curves and Website Popularity