We Are Social Presents: Making Friends & Influencing People (2nd Edition)

we are social JANUARY 2013

MAKING FRIENDS AND INFLUENCING PEOPLE WE ARE SOCIALS GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

2

MAKING FRIENDS AND INFLUENCING PEOPLE SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINED

THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIADEBUNKING SOCIAL MEDIA MYTHS

HOW CAN MARKETERS HARNESS SOCIAL MEDIA?USES OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS

THE 10 COMMENDMENTS8 STEPS TO STRATEGIC SUCCESS

FINDING OUT MORE

3

WHAT EXACTLY ARE SOCIAL MEDIA?

4

?!

Social media are internet-powered platforms that make it easy for individuals,

groups of people, and organisations to converse and participate with one another

in a wide variety of social activities.

5

The concept of social media has been around for thousands of years even early cavemen wrote on each others walls.

However, the internet has scaled social media to a whole new level. Today, more than 1.7 billion people around the

world have signed up to a social network, and that number is still increasing by more than half a million every day.

SOURCES: BASED ON FIGURES REPORTED BY TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS AROUND THE WORLD 6

NORTH AMERICA

CENTRAL AMERICA

SOUTH AMERICA

AFRICA

MIDDLE EAST

WESTERN EUROPE

EASTERN EUROPE

ASIA

OCEANIA

CENTRAL ASIA

SOCIAL MEDIA PENETRATIONJAN2013

7 SOURCES: BASED ON THE LATEST FIGURES REPORTED BY TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS AROUND THE WORLD (AS AT JAN 2013), COMPARED TO DATA FROM THE US CENSUS BUREAU (JAN 2013)

54%

36%5%

19%

41%

48%

23%

35%

28%

8%

Its not just the total number of users thats impressive though. Facebook reports that more than half its users sign in every day, while ComScore data indicates that, worldwide, people spend a combined average of more than 10 hours each month using the

top social channels. Indeed, social media have become so popular that they are now responsible for more than 1 minute in every 6

spent on the internet more than any other kind of activity.

SOURCES: COMSCORE; FIGURES REPORTED BY TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS AROUND THE WORLD 8

SOURCE: COMSCORE, AS CITED IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. DATA REPRESENTS THE AVERAGE TIME SPENT ON EACH SITE WORLDWIDE, NOT INCLUDING MOBILE USAGE 9

AVERAGE TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

FACEBOOK: 405 MINS

TUMBLR: 89 MINS PINTEREST: 89 MINS

TWITTER: 21 MINS

LINKEDIN: 17 MINS

MYSPACE: 8 MINS

GOOGLE+: 3 MINS

Social media are a global phenomenon too: Facebook has users in more than 200 countries, with India, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico all in the top 5. Chinas QQ messaging platform alone

claims more than 710 million registered users. Whats more, with interest in social media driving internet adoption in many parts of the developing world, we can expect continued growth in the use

of social platforms over the coming months.

SOURCES: SITE-REPORTED FIGURES 10

SOCIAL NETWORKS BY REGISTERED USERS JAN2013

11 SOURCES: BASED ON FIGURES REPORTED BY TOP SOCIAL NETWORKS AROUND THE WORLD

1,000 M

500 M

FACEBOOK

VKONTAKTE

SINA WEIBO

GOOGLE+

712 M QZONE

196 M

PENGYOU

400 M

TWITTER

246 M

507 M TENCENT WEIBO

500 M

HABBO 230 M

DEBUNKING SOME SOCIAL MEDIA MYTHS

12

SOCIAL MEDIA WILL REPLACE ALL ADVERTISING MEDIA

This assertion continues to surface even in leading business literature, but its unlikely that social media will actually

replace anything. Rather, social media are simply one more albeit very powerful addition to the array of

communications channels at the marketers disposal.

13

SOCIAL MEDIA ARE FREE

This is another common misconception. The media space itself may be considerably cheaper than it would

be in newspapers or on TV, but the time involved in creating effective content and interacting with audiences means social channels still require financial investment.

14

$0

Marketers that try to shoe-horn interruptive advertising into social channels may believe this to be so, but brands that strive to add value to their

audiences world will often find that their activities are actually very welcome in social media.

15

MARKETING HAS NO PLACE IN SOCIAL MEDIA

SO HOW CAN BRANDSHARNESS SOCIAL MEDIA?

16

If marketers are to seize the opportunities offered by social media, they must first decide what they will use it for. Will it simply be

another advertising channel? Is there an opportunity to use social media to deliver real-time customer service? Could the brand

generate revenue directly through social media channels? Only once these questions have been answered should marketers

start to plan their specific social media activities. 17

COMMON BUSINESS USES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

18SOURCE: EMARKETER. SOCIAL MEDIA INCLUDE SOCIAL NETWORKS, BLOGS, CHAT, DISCUSSION BOARDS, MICROBLOGS, RATINGS, VIDEO SHARING SITES AND WIKIS.

57%MARKETING

39%INTERNAL COLLABORATION AND LEARNING

29%CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUPPORT

25%SALES

21%HUMAN RESOURCES

16% STRATEGY

14%R & D

31%OTHER

10 COMMENDMENTS

19

THE!

1: FOCUS ON PEOPLE, NOT TECHNOLOGY Social media marketing is not a digital discipline its a human discipline that is powered by digital channels. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have all achieved success by satisfying our desire to connect and interact with other people, but no matter how impressive it is, the technology is only ever a means to an end. So, in order for brands to ensure lasting relevance and engagement in social media, its critical that marketers build social media strategies around peoples motivations, not the platforms technology.

20

2: BUILD CONVERSATIONS, NOT CAMPAIGNSBroadcast advertising works much like a pick-up line: its a great way to make an introduction and capture peoples interest. However, its very difficult to build a long-term relationship with pick-up lines alone. Social media allow marketers to engage audiences beyond introductions and deliver more meaningful exchanges of value. These exchanges are often smaller and less spectacular than traditional advertising, but just like in a good marriage these smaller interactions add up over time to form the basis of a much deeper relationship.

21

Content is not king. If I sent you to a desert island and gave you the choice of taking your friends or

your movies, you'd choose your friends - if you chose the movies, we'd call you a sociopath. Conversation

is king. Content is just something to talk about. Cory Doctorow

22

3: CONTENT IS A MEANS, NOT AN END Social media content is less about creating a stand-alone spectacle, and more about inspiring and fueling on-going conversations. Because of this, content can take on different forms and roles: activities like asking questions, posting simple pictures, or even sharing links to third-party content can all help to engage an audience. However, its critical that this content all contributes towards a broader conversation agenda, and marketers need to give special attention to sequencing different activities to ensure conversations evolve as desired.

23

4: ADD VALUE TO THE AUDIENCES LIFE A brands social media activity has to compete with a wide variety of compelling content: updates from family and friends, entertainment, news, and activity from other brands. Because of this, the interruptive broadcast approach no longer works. Instead, brands must consistently deliver activities that engage the audience activities that people will actively seek out, and choose to share with others. Critically, brands need to add real value to the audiences life by going beyond statements about product attributes to understand the benefits that matter to the audience, and finding relevant ways to bring these benefits to life.

24

5: LISTENING IS THE NEW SHOUTING People use social networks to talk about the things that matter to them. In doing so, they share a wealth of information: their interests, their habits, their moods; even their brand preferences. This publicly available information is often worth just as much as and sometimes more than traditional market research. Critically, it can help marketers to understand which platforms their audiences use, and why. This understanding can then inform a powerful, multi-channel strategy that engages people in different ways at different times.

25

6: SPREAD THE WORD Its unlikely that people will accidentally stumble upon a brands social media presence, so raising awareness of social media activities is a key part of success. Advertising is a perfectly legitimate way of getting the word out to the intended audience, but its vital that it demonstrates how the brands social media activities will add value to the intended audiences life. Simply inviting people to Like a page is rarely enough; people need to understand what theyll get in return for their time and effort.

26

7: ALWAYS BE PREPARED Social media provide frequent reminders that you cant please all of the people all of the time. Most brands will need to deal with discontent at some point or other, so marketers should prepare for such situations in advance. Similarly, brands should allow for nice surprises too, and have plans in place to capitalise on social serendipity and unexpected opportun