Infographic: Most Content Sharing Occurs on Facebook

Mashable posted this cool infographic this morning based on research from the sharing widget AddThis. In 2010 Facebook grew as the number one destination on the web for sharing content, outpacing all other sites and sharing vehicles. Still, there’s lots of sharing going on, with a variety of tools used.

 

Infographic Showing How/Where Content is Being Shared

 

 

 

Social Media: Past, Present and Future

Been meaning to post this for a couple weeks but the holidays just seem like such an appropriate time to blog about the ghost of social media past, present and future, don’t they. I thought this was a pretty compelling presentation by entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Mark Suster, presented at the Caltech MIT Enterprise Forum in October.

His presentation is a pithy take on where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re headed with the social web. His main takeaway, at least from my read, is that the rise of massive social networks such as Facebook and Twitter inevitably means that fragmentation is on it’s way. The social web is already starting to splinter into more vertically aligned interest groups (i.e. the Birds of a Feather” effect).

This fragmentation of the social web, he finally points out, is why Mark Zuckerberg remains paranoid (after all, where is AOL or even Yahoo! two titans of the early internet today?) and why right now is one of the greatest times since the last wave of digital innovation to work hard and innovate. Great, inspiring stuff.

SocialPastPresentFuture

10 Trends in Mobile Technology

Mobile Gaming

From the Wall Street Journal the top trends in mobile for the coming year. Here they are:

1. Tablets will take over the world
2. Android will take over the world
3. Apps will take over the world
4. 4G will take over the world…eventually
5. Parts for mobile handsets and networks will be in short supply
6. The attorneys will have a field day protecting turf via patent warfare
7. Security and privacy will be insecure and not so private
8. China will screw everyone
9. Your phone replaces your wallet/purse
10. Location, location, location…as in using your phone to broadcast yours to everyone and allowing marketers can know your location so they can bombard you with coupons, offers and other Minority Report-like advertising assaults.

Mobile Virtual Goods Generate 4X More Revenue Than Ads

There’s gold in them ‘thar hills of virtual stuff. According to data from analytics firm Flurry, mobile virtual goods are hot. So hot, in fact, they’re far surpassing the revenue generated from mobile advertising.

The study, conducted using data collected from leading iOS social networking and social gaming apps, shows that in September of ’09, out of close to every $2 of mobile revenue… either advertising or virtual goods…over 2/3rds went to advertising. Just one year later, not only has the amount of revenue grown significantly, the amount going to virtual goods…swords, gold coins, respect points or plum trees for farm plots…has shifted dramatically to where virtual goods now account for $8 of every $9 in revenue. And, because Google’s Android Market does not yet support in-app purchases or micro-transactions, the data doesn’t include users from this rapidly expanding platform.

Virtual goods sales were already going gang busters on social sites like Facebook. Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan Securities video game analyst, reports that social gaming revenue has grown from approximately $600 million in 2008 to $1 billion in 2009. Further, he forecasts that social gaming will generate nearly $1.6 billion this year, and grow to more than $4 billion by 2013. That’s a lot of quarters for plum trees on your Farmville farm.

The convergence of social and games will continue to expand their reach into our lives. In fact, social gaming is reaching a tipping point and with Wal-Mart and Verizon now selling iPads, the size of social gaming’s audience will quickly surpass prime time television viewership.

For marketers, this sweeping technology, entertainment and behavioral change represents tremendous opportunity to create highly engaging content built around the core premise of your brand, then invite consumers into a branded experience that extends far beyond your physical product or service. In fact, maybe it’s time to start thinking beyond the five “P’s” when it comes to marketing. Maybe it’s time to add a “V”. Seems plausible doesn’t it…the brand manager of the new realities has to think about Product, Price, Place, Promotion and Virtual. Can you imagine what a virtual version of your brand or brand experience would be, could be? If not, you should start dreaming. There’s money to be made for the imaginative mind.

Top 5 Emerging Brand Trends on Facebook

This was an excellent and comprehensive Mashable overview of the five major trends brands are using to connect, transact and serve customers on Facebook. There’s some very impressive innovation going on in the space, lead by some very big brands like Ford and Nike. What have you seen brands doing on Facebook that impresses you?

How the Old Spice Videos Are Being Made

Excellent post from ReadWriteWeb on How the Old Spice videos were made. I love this campaign. Everyone does. The videos have been a huge hit on YouTube and other social media sites. There’s some disappointing news this morning that Old Spice sales aren’t benefiting from the campaign….yet. I think the jury’s still out. After all, body wash isn’t something you pantry load…unless you’re me and your teenage sons take yours out of the shower all the time.

I’ve got some ideas regarding what Old Spice could have done to insure better sales success. What about you?

Social Influence Markering Trends

Excellent presentation on Social Influence Marketing by former RazorFish digital strategist and author of Social Media Marketing for Dummies, Shiv Singh. What’s social influence marketing, you ask? It’s the reason you get your company into social media in the first place…to have influence.

Top 9 Brands on Facebook and Twitter

Another superb post from Brian Solis on comScores Q1 U.S. E-Commerce Spending Report. Brian’s post is filled with a ton of great information and insight and he includes this graphic, showing the top 9 brands by “like” on Facebook and followers on Twitter.

What I find fascinating is the mixture of brands in this list…a classic CPG titan like Coca-Cola, up-and-comer Red Bull, retailers Victoria’s Secret and ZARA, digital brand YouTube…even Converse. Some achieve their ranking based on their Facebook presence alone. And although Twitter hasn’t had as much time as Facebook to build as a service, it’s having an powerful impact as a source of news and information, even for brands.

This mixed bag of participants just goes to prove that success in the social space doesn’t depend so much on category but on actual participation. Having a presence in social media is one thing. Using it as yet another channel for old and tired “push” marketing and advertising is another. Brands that insist on this latter approach, and there are a lot, just prove to everyone they don’t get it.

What matters? Listening, engaging in the conversation naturally, offering value first before you try to “pitch”…these are the currencies of brand participation in social media. Gee, sounds a lot like what one person does to have a mutually beneficial relationship with another. Maybe if brands acted more like people and treated their customers like people instead of objects (“targets”) they’d experience better results all around. Something to think about.

Does Social Media Engagement Translate to Brand Sales? Yes!

Excellent post by social media thought leader Brian Solis on how social media engagement on sites like Facebook and Twitter is translating into sales for brands. New research reveals that over 60% of Facebook users and a whopping 79% of Twitter users are more likely to recommend a brand since becoming a fan/follower on these social networks.

Solis goes on to point out that actively and thoughtfully engaging consumers in social networks is fast becoming a base expectation. But, brands beware! Reread the first part of the lead sentence in this paragraph again…the part about actively and THOUGHTFULLY engaging.

It never fails to amaze me when I find big brands using social media channels as yet another avenue for interruption or push messaging. You see this all the time. Some brands think it’s still all about them. This is the quickest path to irrelevance and having consumers dismiss you as hopelessly out of touch. This channel is NOT about what you have to say. It’s about LISTENING and joining in the CONVERSATION and one of the best ways to do this is with relevant content.

Brands have a tremendous opportunity to use social media as a platform to develop and employ a new set of relationship skills and a distribution vehicle to serve up content that seeks to first provide a value to their audiences. This skill set doesn’t come naturally to brand marketers who have spent years of their careers and millions of dollars perfecting their ability to TALK AT people through ads, direct mail, press releases and the like, delivered via traditional media channels. This is a comfortable and easy-to-manage process, for sure. Unfortunately, it’s a marketing method sharply in decline and no wonder: There’s very little consumer value delivered in this legacy advertising/pr, interruption-based approach.

The mantra of the internet in the first part of this decade was: if you’re not on Google, you don’t exist.

The mantra going forward is: if you’re not on Facebook or Twitter, you don’t exist.

This isn’t just the opinion of young people, according to the research Solis references.

“It shows they are not really with it or in tune with the new ways to communicate with customers.” Female 18-24.

“If they’re not on Facebook or Twitter, then they aren’t in touch with the…people.” Female 55-59

I know this to be the case from my own experience. I own two Lexus cars. I love them. But, there’s one problem…their keys suck! They have some kind of manufacturing defect in the plastic of the key fob and they become very brittle and break over the course of normal use. Now, aside from the fact that a cheap, crappy key is a big disconnect with a luxury brand experience, there are two other major irritations that go with this problem:

1) When the key fobs break, the transponder often falls out. Without the transponder, you can’t open the doors remotely and in certain cases may not even be able to start the car.

2) Replacement keys cost a ridiculous $200 a piece.

Least you think I’m petty and needlessly using the blog to harp on a personal matter…this has happened to three of our four main keys. Do you think Lexus covers this under warranty? Ah, no.

The last straw came a couple weeks ago when the third key broke as my wife was engaging in the extremely abusive behavior of removing it from her purse. I decided to see if Lexus was even listening on social media so I tweeted about the issue and got no response. So, I then posted it on Facebook…where I also got no response. In a Twitter search, I found lots of posts from Lexus about their new sexy new sports car…along with my tweet gripping about the key. In a Google search, I also found lots of links to people complaining about Lexus key fobs breaking. Either Lexus is not listening or they don’t care. And, you know what…I’m not so sure I care that much about $50,000 cars with cheap, crappy keys. After all, a $50,000 that won’t start because of it’s crappy key is the definition of useless. And infuriating.

This is obviously a customer service issue and social media is a great, real time lab for listening to customer complaints and issues and fixing them. Just look at what Comcast has done using Twitter to improve it’s customer service experience. If nothing else, responding to complaints on social networks gives brands the opportunity to not only solve problems but let everyone know they’re doing so. In the process, they can turn the complaints into compliments. This clearly reflects positively on the brand and everyone can know about it…something that doesn’t happen in a call center interaction.

But, to be relevant on Facebook and Twitter, brands need to go beyond using it to resolve customers service issue. A brand needs more than a social media presence. Brands should be surprising and delighting potential customers and customers with content that seeks to answer their questions and need for information first…and you can gently and organically integrate your brand into this content when and where it’s credible and makes sense. By taking this approach, a brand earns the right to be heard.

We call this approach Branded Conversations…listening first, then providing relevant content that answers customers questions and need for information. We think it’s a new marketing practice whose time has come.

Could Apple Actually Beat Google in Mobile Advertising?

It will be interesting to watch these details play out. The announcement tomorrow of iPhone 4.0 is slated) pun intended) to reveal what Apple has up it’s sleeve in terms of a mobile advertising platform. I’ve been saying for some time, the mobile marketing wars will boil down to these two platforms for the most part. And, remember in web 2.5b (or whatever the mobile internet ends up being called) the ascendancy� of the new guy cannot be overestimated. Microsoft had a huge share of worldwide browser use until search came along. One player, Google, dominates search. It’s not inconceivable that one player, Apple, could do the same in mobile.

Could Apple Actually Beat Google in Mobile Advertising?.