Photo credit: C4Chaos

Some relevant concerns among the blogosphere: A Facebook email might seem too unprofessional.  Many might hesitate to attach the address to a resume or when communicating with others outside of their social network.  Another interesting point is the fact that Facebook is blocked in many offices and schools.  Would this affect accessing your inbox in these places, or would Facebook somehow be able to solve for this?  Additionally, Gmail accounts can be linked to many different services: Reader, Docs, Chat, Wave etc.  Could Facebook’s webmail really trump all of these features and become a users’ primary email account?

With Google hot on the trail of Facebook’s enhancements, adding more social features to Gmail- it will be interesting to see who comes out ahead in the webmail wars.  Will Titan really be the Gmail killer?

Image Source: Dunechaser

The first step is to determine your objectives.  What are you looking to accomplish?  In my experience, most social media objectives roughly fall into these standard categories:

• Reach- using these channels as an outreach tool to create brand awareness
• Influence- brand building and increasing positive conversation sentiment
• Engagement- communicating with customers directly, building a sense of community
• Conversion- increasing sales, registrations etc.

The next step is to focus on the appropriate metrics that directly speak to these objectives.  There are endless social analytics tools available that will provide many (unnecessary) points of data and really pretty charts…. I recommend staying away from compound metrics and tools that don’t provide a thorough explanation of their algorithms.  Using Twitter as an example, the metrics I would focus on for measuring reach are:

• Followers (Twitter)
• Velocity (Twitalyzer)
• Unique Retweets (Klout)
• Legit Followers (GraphEdge)
• 2^nd Level Network (GraphEdge)

It is also important to remember that you shouldn’t look at social analytics data in a silo.  It is impossible to quantify the value of a social user with social data alone.  By comparing timelines of social data with web data and transactional data, and then tracking against execution activity (types of communication, content posted etc.) it will allow you to identify patterns.  Isolating these patterns will show what types of activity are affecting social media activity and, ultimately, allow you to quantify these deltas.

Facebook is in the process of developing a conversion tracking tool that will provide brands with the ability to determine the exact dollar worth of a Fan.  With the increased need to demonstrate social media ROI, I’m sure we will see more social platforms working to provide this service as well.  However, in the meantime, marketers need to be prepared to provide a holistic, channel agnostic assessment of social media measurement as it relates to all aspects of a brands’ bottom line.

Suicide Machine launched on December 19^th and, according to the website, has assisted in over 1,700 deaths- resulting in the termination of nearly 117,000 Facebook friends and the removal of 267,000 tweets.

Evidently, users love the service because of its simplicity.  No questions asked.  Facebook, however, is not so happy.  Apparently they’ve demanded that Suicide Machine “cease this activity immediately,” and have blocked them from accessing their site.  But the suicides continue nonetheless.  (The remaining networks have not yet responded.)

Watch the video here:

Suicide Machine

You can view my results here.

The initial emphasis has been on communities and brand-specific social networks.  The majority of the fashion industry thought that this was tacky and might negate the aspirational lifestyle they like to portray.  But brands like American Apparel, TopShop and other younger, independent designers were early adopters and have been able to prove the benefits.

While Twitter and Facebook are great for mass messaging, many of the luxury lines have developed their own social networks, creating a more exclusive feel that extends the brand’s real-life persona.  Many of these niche communities have resulted in significant ROI, as these spaces generate brand loyalty.

The activation of fashion bloggers has also become a widely used, acceptable tactic.  Dolce and Gabbana have dominated this space with the best overall online buzz- a large amount of conversation with highly positive sentiment.  Zeta Interactive attributes this to the brand’s proactive pursuit of bloggers, flying them to their runway shows in Milan.  Not a bad way to get a few glowing blog posts from highly influential fashion bloggers.

User-generated content is an essential part of a successful social media and fashion relationship, driving the conversation between brand and consumer across all of the social platforms.  Some efforts that I think are noteworthy:

• G-Star Raw is currently running a contest as a means of recruiting fashion reporters for New York Fashion Week in February 2010.  They ask: “Can you blog, Twitter, Flickr or Facebook better than mere mortals?”  Applicants can prove their skills (and clout) via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.  This is an effective way of getting online influencers to come to them, creating buzz in the process.  Users also have the ability to vote on the reporters they would like to see win.
• Kate Spade has created a “tweetwriter”- a combination of “Twitter” and a “typewriter.”  The Tweetwriter is actually an antique typewriter that they have set up in their Fifth Avenue store where they encourage shoppers to type messages that are then posted on the Kate Spade Twitter account.  The goal is to convey their customers’ collective point of view.  I think this is a really compelling mash-up of real-life and online engagement.
• Burberry’s Art of the Trench site is simple.  Users are able to upload pictures of themselves wearing Burberry’s signature piece, the trench coat.  This concept allows Burberry to breathe some new life into a product that was becoming antiquated.

As the fashion industry moves into 2010, more brands will adopt a social media strategy as part of their marketing efforts.  Real-time will be a huge factor, as the amount of content that marketing and PR agencies can put out will be an increasingly small portion of what is being said.  The development of mobile apps will also increase when these brands look to location-based networks to target their shoppers locally.

Initially, I was hooked.  The app looks great on my phone and it was exciting to collect items through their virtual scavenger hunt and get stamps in my passport.  Unfortunately, the excitement was short-lived.  There are very few users in Kansas City and it appears as though the majority of the spots have been created by the same person.  A Gowalla employee, no doubt.  (You know who you are “Zanzibar Zanzibar.”)  It’s kind of like playing tag by yourself.  I see how this could be really fun if all of my friends were participating- but they’re not.  And it’s just not compelling enough to continue playing on my own.

Everyone knows the ultimate goal of location-based mobile games- to monetize the application and provide players with real-life benefits for online participation.  And the opportunities for marketers are very exciting.  But I feel like social networks are shark-like in nature.  They must keep moving forward or they’ll sink.  After a month of playing Gowalla I have nothing to show for it.  Sure, I have some stamps in my virtual passport, but nothing that provides a real sense of accomplishment (like Mafia Wars!) or a reason to keep playing.  Maybe I’ll start back up once they begin implementing more real-life value, like reviews of restaurants near me or a discount at the store across the street… but until then, I’m over it.

I heard this interesting story on NPR the other day:

Speck Mellencamp, the 14 year-old son of the famous musician John Mellencamp, has turned to Facebook to get his father to quit smoking.  Speck made a deal with his father that if he can get 1 million people to join the Facebook group that he started, then his father will stop smoking.  At the time of the interview, the group was over 200,000 strong!  Evidentially, his father has tried to quit several times, but hasn’t been able to stick with it.  Speck’s theory is that if a million people join the group, then peer pressure becomes a major factor.  “If somebody sees him (smoking), he’ll seem like the bad guy,” Speck says.  “So he kinda has to (quit).”

What’s interesting is what this page has become to others- both smokers and those affected by family and friends who smoke.  The wall is full of comments from people sharing their stories: how they’ve quit, who they’ve lost etc.  Speck says his favorite comments are from people who also pledge to quit if the group gets to a million.  Apparently, John is looking at the page everyday to check in on its progress.  It will be interesting to track the growth and see how quickly a call to action of this nature gains traction.  You can view the Facebook page here.  And make sure to join, as this is a great example of how we can use social media in our everyday lives- networking with other individuals who share common interests and goals.