BMG593

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BMG593 E-Services Marketing The Social
Networking Revolution New Technologies and
Services
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The Traditional Socialising Process

• Central concepts in the traditional socialisation
  process of individuals include
• Communication
• Association
• Identification
• Acculturation
• Differentiation

3
The Relationships Between Socialisation Process
and Environmental Factors
4
Community Criteria
What is community?
A set of interwoven relationships built upon
shared interests that satisfies individual needs
that would otherwise be unattainable
What are the criteria for defining community?
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Impact of Online Social Networking on People

• Knowledge
• Attitudes
• Values
• Behaviors in work or study
• Family functioning
• Social activities
• Civic participation

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Social implications - Online versus offline?A
few questions for you...

• On average, how long do you use the Internet for
  reading news per week?
• On average, how long do you use the Internet for
  e-mails per week?
• On average, how long do you use the Internet for
  attending chat room or a forum per week?
• On average, how long do you use the Internet for
  searching information per week?
• On average, how long do you use the Internet for
  playing games per week?
• Does your online activities impact positively or
  negatively on your set of social skills?

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Online versus offline social behaviours_Some
more questions?

• Family Functioning
• (namely family interactions in Lee Zhus
  (2002) study.)
• Direct interactions with family members
• On average, how many times do you watch TV
  together with your family members per week?
• On average, how many times do you dine together
  with your family members at home per week?
• On average, how many times do you play games
  together with your family members per week?
• On average, how many times do you go shopping
  together with your family members per week?
• Sociability
• Directly face-to-face contacts with other people
  in a private and a social context.
• In the past month, how many times do you attend
  other peoples parties or dinners?
• In the past month, how many times do you attend
  the activities organized by community
  organizations

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Open vs. Closed Online Social Network Communities
Communities can be described as either open or
closed in regard to their membership policies,
and it can be useful to know the distinction
between the two
Open Communities
Closed Communities

• Membership policy
• Open to all regardless of individual profile
• Used typically for
• Communities based on a more general and highly
  accessible topic of interest
• Examples
• Yahoo.com
• Talk.com
• Launchcast.com

• Membership policy
• Outsiders generally not allowed inside community
• Members must fit specific qualifications
• Used typically for
• Extranets or intranets between well-known parties
  and sources, dealing with highly specific and /
  or sensitive data exchange
• Examples
• Corporate intranets or extranets (e.g., Ford
  Motor Company and its suppliers)
• Physicians Online

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Online tools for communication

• Communication and Interaction Software
• The two types of instruments generate distinctive
  kinds of primary experience in the individual who
  uses them
• Communication involves the conversational
  context, the discourse or the writing it
  creates access to the text
• Interaction mediates the interest people exhibit
  towards one another it accounts for the
  expressivity, the performance and the virtual
  presence of the user
• Communication applications include those software
  programs that allow capturing, storing, and
  presenting the information, usually in written
  form, but adding pictures, audio and video clips
  as the applications are developing.
• Communicating applications are usually
  asynchronous (not instantaneous)
• Interactive applications deal with interactions
  mediated between individuals or groups and differ
  from the category of communicating instruments by
  their goal to establish and maintain ties between
  individuals, facilitating the conversational
  mechanisms.
• Interactive applications are synchronous
  (Instantaneous e.g. phone, video-chat) or
  almost synchronous (instant messaging, text-based
  chat)

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Some Examples?

• Instant messaging (an application which allows
  an individual to communicate with another
  individual through the network in conditions of
  relative intimacy)
• e.g. Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger and AOL
  Instant Messenger
• Internet Chat Relay (users can communicate both
  in private windows with another person and in
  public windows with more than one person chat
  rooms)
• Forums (that allow people to launch online
  different topics to be reviewed by others by
  posting comments in linear form)
• Weblogs or blogs (personal type of forum,
  similar to online journals, where people can
  also post comments),
• Social network services (which help people get
  together virtually around common interests or
  goals, like romantic dating, business and
  recreational hobbies sites).
• Wikis (knowledge sites, freely open to anyone to
  edit online in real time),
• Social guides (sites of recommendation for real
  world attractions restaurants, clubs),
• Social e-shopping (reviews and recommendations
  of products by people for people)
• Virtual presence, Virtual worlds (e.g.
  Secondlife.com), and Online games (to which
  numerous users can participate).

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Purpose of Online Social Networking?

• In both professional and personal life, people
  form groups based on affinities and expertise. We
  gravitate to others with whom we share interests.
  
• Deceptively simple, online social networks
  contain great power. They change the online space
  from one of static web pages and stale marketing
  messages to a live, vibrant network of connected
  individuals who share their abilities, expertise
  and interests.
• Online social networks take many forms, and are
  created for many reasons. Two broad
  characteristics are
• Profiles Each member in a network has an online
  profile that serves as the individuals identity
  in the network.
• Connections Online social networks typically
  enable individuals to make connections with
  others in the network.

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Personal vs. Corporate Social networks

• Personal Social Networks
• Aimed at building a community of individuals
  sharing a common interest (pets, music, business,
  cooking, )
• Public web site
• Corporate Social Networks
• Aimed at supporting a business initiative or
  process
• Access controlled and managed by the company

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Personal Social Networking Websites

• Easily 100 social network sites. Top US sites by
  Hitwise
• MySpace. 200 million members. Sixth most popular
  English-language website
• Facebook. 40 million members. Once student-only,
  now any age.
• Youtube.
• Bebo. 57 million members.
• Classmates. 40 million members.
• Overlaps/differences with pure social media
  sites (e.g., Youtube, Windows Livespaces).

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Personal Networks for Business

• Leading Professional Sites
• LinkedIn (North America)
• Xing (Europe Canada)
• Viadeo (Europe China through recent
  acquisition)
• Orkut (now part of Google India North
  America)
• Hi5 (Latin America)

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Social Network Types

• Personal
• Alumni
• Retiree
• Women
• Minorities
• New Hires
• Business Partners
• Customers

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Collaboration

• No. 1 Priority for most companies as it relates
  to social networks
• Information sharing
• Connect to the employee who knows
• Remote and global teams
• Communities of practice
• Corporate Social Networks
• Project-based networks

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Corporate social networking examples

• McDonald's began using social networking after an
  internal study showed that employees were often
  looking for colleagues with expertise. McDonald's
  employees and some partners will soon be able to
  create their own profiles on the company's
  Awareness social media platform, from which they
  can blog and participate in communities
• Wachovia, the nation's fourth largest bank -
  rolling out a social networking service for
  110,000 employees to provide workers with a
  sophisticated knowledge-management platform

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Corporate social networking examples cont.

• Aerotek Staffing Agency, uses Facebook's
  messaging system to keep in touch with new hires
  because it's "less formal" than work e-mail
• Procter Gamble employees use Facebook to keep
  interns in touch and share information with
  co-workers attending company events
• Dow Chemical building social networks to stay
  connected with retirees.

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Mechanisms

• Explaining the Mechanisms of Social Networks
• 6-degree separation theory
• the theory that anyone on the planet can be
  connected to any other person on the planet
  through a chain of acquaintances that has no more
  than five intermediaries (eg friends on Bebo)
• Malcom Gladwells Tipping Point
• Making sense of epidemics?
• Social Network Metrics
• Closeness, Cohesion, Centralization, (measures
  of common interests that create and build social
  ties (networks))

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Social Networks Enable New Relationships

• Social Networkers Say
• 46 Social networks keep them on top of
  trends and whats new
• 40 They discover brands and products they
  really like through social networking
• Reasons For Having Brands As Friends
• 29 Notice of events, sales, or exclusive offers
• 28 Recommended by a friend of mine
• 23 Want to associate myself with them
• 23 Discounts, coupons, free samples
• 11 Want to support them

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Momentum Effect in ActionSmart Media Brand
Community Momentum
MySpace Campaign EA Burnout Band Slam 2
Results Tracking The Momentum Effect
25,000,000
20,000,000
15,000,000
User Views
22,000,000
22,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
890,000
0
Visit Brand Community Based On Ads
View Brandthrough Pass Along

• EA launched an international band competition to
  promote a video game release
• Winning bands music is featured in Burn Out Game
  plus a Virgin Record Label
• The brand community encouraged viral pass-along
  by allowing users to forward content to friends
• Standard media was also utilized to drive contest
  awareness and traffic to community

Source 1NEF study, April 2007, commissioned by
MySpace, Isobar and Carat Research by Marketing
Evolution
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Momentum Effect in ActionSmart Media Brand
Community Momentum
MySpace Campaign EA Burnout Band Slam 2
Results Tracking The Momentum Effect
"Definitely Will Purchase"
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
People Impacted Per 100,000 Spent
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
Online Advertising
MySpace Advertising

• EA (Electronic Arts) launched an international
  band competition to promote a video game release
• Winning bands music is featured in Burn Out Game
  plus a Virgin Record Label
• The brand community encouraged viral pass-along
  by allowing users to forward content to friends
• Standard media was also utilized to drive contest
  awareness and traffic to community

Source 1NEF study, April 2007, commissioned by
MySpace, Isobar and Carat Research by Marketing
Evolution
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Technology

• Technology has been the final enabler for the
  current social networks frenzy
• Always-connected world
• The web
• Mobile technologies

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Visitor Traffic to Two Major Social Networking
Sites
US Unique Visitors to MySpace and Facebook
September 2006-February 2008 (thousands)
68 million
32 million
Source comScore Media Metrix
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Although 40 of Visitors are Ages 35
US MySpace Unique Visitors, by Age, February 2008
US Facebook Unique Visitors, by Age, February 2008
Source comScore Media Metrix
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Facebook

• Mark Zuckerberg, developed the social networking
  site while at Harvard.
• Initially restricted to Harvard, then rolled out
  to universities across the United States, Canada,
  Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, New
  Zealand, Ireland, etc
• Sept. 2006 - open to anyone with an email
  address.
• May 2007 - launched the Facebook Platform, a
  framework for developers to create applications
  that interact with core Facebook features.
• Recent growth of 100,000 users a day.
• 60 over age 25.

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FacebookPrivacy Model

• Now open to anyone, FB retains parts of original
  privacy model. An email for the school, e.g.,
  TJefferson_at_virginia.edu was the admission ticket
  to join a school network. Some groups/networks
  still require an email with the right domain.
• Add friends sends friend request for approval.
• Can create and join groups most open. Some
  professional but lots of junk (12 separate
  groups for people who hate crocs).
• Users control whether they want to make their
  profile, pictures, videos, applications available
  to only friends, selected friends, or everyone.
  No granularity yet in controlling resume-type
  profile information.

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Facebook Applications

• FB applications Photos, groups, posted items
• Users install widgets on their page simply by
  selecting, clicking.
• User installation of an application usually
  involves something of a trade
• Users share some data with the application and
  usually share the application with friends.
• In return, users get functionality and a new way
  to interact with friends or connect to services.

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LinkedIn

• Profitable since March 2006.
• Free and premium fee-based services.
• Avg. fee-based subscriber pays 200-300 per year.
  As low as 60. As high as 2,000.
• Fee-based job postings similar to a job board,
  but sent to your network.
• Compared to FB, LinkedIn currently has closed,
  for-fee services, but ones that are
  well-integrated, reliable, and business-oriented.

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LinkedIn

• Users can see a 1st connections list of contacts
  and the public profiles of those contacts (if
  they permit).
• Each user controls what they disclose from their
  profile basics, current position, full history,
  etc.
• Invitation to connect to add contacts you know.
  Intermediated introduction requests to those
  you dont. Premium inMail service allows direct
  contact with 2nd and 3rd tier connections.
• Questions/Answers feature to ask network for
  advice.
• Enhanced groups feature allows creation of
  networking groups requests are reviewed (no
  hate crocs groups.
• Just business. No photo, video sharing, or
  pokes.

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A major corporate issue Productivity

• Social networks can sap employee productivity or,
  worse, be a source of governance violations or
  breaches of company protocol.
• Forrester Research recently found that 14 of
  companies have disciplined employees and 5 fired
  them for offenses related to social networking.
• As a result half of companies, according to
  Financial News, restrict access to Facebook.
• The city of Toronto blocked access to social
  networking sites in 2007 "There's potential for
  staff to spend an inordinate amount of time on
  sites like this," explains a spokesman for the
  city.

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Generations Raised On Social Networks?

• The Generation Gaps Some people dont get it!!!!
  
• NY Times Technology Editor, David Pogue (born
  March 9, 1963) (among others) doesnt understand
  (Aug. 28, 2007 blog post)could somebody tell
  me the point of LinkedIn?
• Im getting about three invitations to
  join it per day. Sometimes I know the person,
  most times I dont.
• What I dont understand is If somebody
  knows me well enough to e-mail me with an
  invitation to join, why doesnt he just e-mail me
  directly or call me with whatever his problem or
  offer is?
• Gen Jones/Boomers II 1955 1965 Gen X 1966
  1976 (More traditional forms of communication
  the norm)
• Gen Y 1977 1994 Gen Z 1995- 2012 (More
  Virtual Forms of communication the norm)

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Concluding thoughts...

• The usefulness of social networks will vary
• Generation gap
• Personal use
• hobbies interests friends consumption
• Business Use (Internal (employee) relations)
• E.g. New employees retired employees alumni
• Business Use (External relationships) (marketing
  branding selling)
• Customer to customer
• Business to consumer
• Business to business
• The Google of social networking sites still to
  be discovered!!