Social Media (Facebook & Twitter) Replacing Email:
Due to this increased use of social platforms and the changing demographics Gartner predicts that by 2014 20% of business users will be using social networking services for communication instead of emails. The value to marketers is that when positive engagement happens over social media platforms it has a multiplier effect that email does not. Inversely this also applies to negative experiences and is something that marketers have to be prepared for.

Implication: Marketers are working to understand and engage with their customers through these platforms. This includes the role that it has as it relates to CRM and customer service activity.

Social Media Behavior Insights & Marketing:
Given the growth of social media use, specially Facebook with over 500 million global users, consumers are providing a wealth of data that can provide marketers with key insights for product development, marketing messaging optimization and advertising targeting. These opportunities go beyond the traditional demographic targeting of the past as consumers are now publicly sharing their interests, behaviors and social connections.

Implication: Marketers can actively listen to consumer online conversation for key insights; begin to engage users based on their expressed interests and leverage social network platforms and features (such as Facebook Social Plug-in) to scale branded online experiences to the users’ social network.

Mobile Web Becomes a Priority:
Given the current rate of adoption mobile web access is expected to overtake fixed internet access by 2014. This is driven by the mainstream adoption of smartphone devices (such as the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows), the introduction of “broadband” mobile access (wi fi, 3G+) and affordable mobile data rate plans.

Implication: Marketers need to priorities their mobile web experience with a focus on optimizing the creative, content and context for what they provide to end users.

Location Based Mobile Check In Services:
Given the advent of services such as Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla, marketers are able to begin to directly connect physical customer activity to digital experiences. Though these services customers are able to verify their specific location and share their experiences within their social network

Implication: Marketers can begin to offer incentives for location / retail specific activity, this includes driving initial customer engagements/trial and rewarding loyalty behavior. This activity also provides a platform for a force multiplier given the activity is shared within the network.

Online Video Consumption:
Online video consumption continues to grow with over 85% of the total U.S. Internet audience viewing online video in August of this year. Of this, video ads accounted for over 10% of all videos viewed. Sites such as YouTube and Hulu are offering improved content and advertising opportunities while subscription video services such iTunes, Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon are offering consumers a strong alternative to traditional network and cable networks.

Implication: Marketers are beginning to think about how they can create video content that is relevant in the context of the online experience. This goes beyond just leveraging traditional commercial assets to more effectively engage consumers on an ongoing basis.

Sources:

http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/02/facebook-twitter-email/

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1293114

http://gigaom.com/2010/04/12/mary-meeker-mobile-internet-will-soon-overtake-fixed-internet/

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comscore-releases-august-2010-us-online-video-rankings-104090133.html

• More than 400 million active users, 50% who login each day
• Average user hases 130 friends
• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
• Average user becomes a fan of 4 pages per month
• Average user “Likes”9 pieces of content per month

The most amazing use of multitouch I’ce seen to date.

As mentioned in my previous post I believe the future of marketing is being driven by the connection of the physical and the digital world.

One of the services driving this, and getting a lot of attention during this year’s SXSW (after launching during SXSW last year) is Foursquare.

Foursquare is a location based social network that includes a gaming element.

Offering native mobile applications, SMS (text to 50500) or a mobile browser experience, Foursquare works by letting you “check in” as to where you are and sharing with your friends. You can also publish your location updates to your Twitter status and on Facebook.

The game element allows users to earn points and badges as they check-in. The more users check-in the more Foursquare features they can unlock.

The success of the service is beginning to drive some critical mass in adoption.

• Number of users: 500k+
• Over 1.2 million check ins per week
• Growth Rate: 60 – 70% monthly
• Global Distribution: 60% US
• Demographics: 21 – 35 (mobile / social)
• Mobile platform distribution:
  • 67% iPhone
  • 13% Android
  • 11%. Blackberry
  • 7% Mobile Web
  • 1.5% Palm
  • 1% SMS

What does this mean for marketers and others looking to take advantage of this trend?  Currently there are two primary opportunities to leverage Foursquare:

API use: (see: http://foursquare.com/developers/)
The Foursquare API enables developers to build applications that interact with the Foursquare platform. You can use the API to create new ways to check-in to foursquare or visualize the data generated by the Foursquare community. The API is still a work in progress and they allow for feedback and suggestions.

Custom Badges:
Provide the ability to deliver custom, branded applications for users to earn.

Examples include:

• Foursquare and Starbucks Team Up to Offer Customer Rewards
  
• Twitter and Foursquare Become the New Loyalty Program at Tasti D-Lite

After talking about Twitter, Facebook, and all of the other buzz worthy services, we are often asked by our clients, “so what’s next?” While there are a lot of possible candidates as to the next big thing, the real answer is in talking about the larger trend.

For the first 15 years of the Internet we have mostly lived in a world divided between being online and offline. Those of us working in advertising know this all to well as we work to create “integrated” campaigns. Inevitably this is limited to delivering a consistent message and using similar visual elements across traditional and digital channels.

We are now seeing this invisible barrier starting to erode and make way for people to connect across channels in relevant and valuable ways. For clients asking what they should be focused on moving forward, the answer may be in how they lean into this trend and help connect to their customers between the physical and digital experiences.

Some areas to watch:

The Emergence of Mobile Computing:
With out a doubt the biggest factor in driving this evolution is in the fact that people can now connect to the larger digital world from their mobile device. No longer limited to being just a phone, we are seeing how people stay connected to each other and to information from anywhere and not just while in front of a computer.

Location Aware Social Networks:
While Foursquare is likely the most well known, there are a variety of location based social networks (see: BrightKite and Loopt) that allow users to share their location with friends in the digital space by “checking in” to physical locations. Assume that Facebook and others will either develop or purchase their way into this space soon.

Image Scanning:
Be it QR codes, bar codes, or images of everyday objects, we are starting to see a wide variety of services that allow users to scan a physical item with their mobile device’s camera and drive to a digital experience.

Augmented Reality:
Allowing the ability to begin to treat the physical world in ways that had previously only been reserved for digital. Two popular examples: subway map and baseball cards.

Interactive Displays:
While not exactly a new concept, there continues to be a lot of great examples (see: Microsoft’s Surface, IconNicholson’s Social Retailing, and Schematic’s Touchwall) Almost all of them are looking to meet the expectation set in the Minority Report.

Physical Platform Gaming:
From Nintendo’s Wii to Guitar Hero, we are seeing a shift in gaming from a solitary activity on the couch to a much more physical and engaging experience open to a broader audience. Microsoft is planning to push this to the next level with the launch of Xbox Natal.

The role of digital and PR agencies in supporting client social media activity has become a reoccurring theme. There is often question as to who is responsible for what. While this varies based on the specific client, client needs and agencies involved, in general we have come to the following position:

Public Relation efforts are focused on establishing third party credibility through focused outreach efforts and specific program development. This is where public relations agencies bring value to a client. Specifically this is represented in the development of programs and the outreach and introductions to pre determined influencers (such as editors, conferences, major bloggers, journalists and analysts) that there is an expectation and understanding that the PR agency provides a direct role.

Branded social media activity is focused on fostering direct, two-way (peer-to-peer) interactions. This is where digital agencies, such as VML, bring value to clients. While the expectation is that clients will leverage social media to connect directly to consumers, digital agencies should provide both the technical/creative development and strategic support to the client team tasked with these efforts.

While each of these paths has a unique focus they only work when executed in tandem in support of each other. With the PR effort focused on the key messaging and stories that resonate, and the social media efforts focused on providing a platform in which the client can connect and engage consumers around these messages.

Just building a Facebook fan page or Twitter profile is not a guarantee that you’re going to have thousands of fans or followers. There is a need to think through how you plan to activate your social media properties.

While there is a wide variety of methods, they almost all fall into the below spectrum.

Organic:
This is where most people start. This includes those users who find you without prompting and those users that you drive through integrated touch points, such as having a “Follow us on Twitter” call to action on your website.

The upside: These are likely to be your most loyal fans and to cost you the least to accomplish.

The downside: As a standalone approach this is more effective for brands that have an innate ability to drive consumer association; however, for most mass consumer brands this may not be enough.

Community:
Through connecting users (or distinct sub user groups) to each other, brands have the ability to leverage the community to drive the social media activity.

The upside: Once started, users may be able to lead the online activity within the branded community space.

The downside: This requires a true investment from the brand to help establish the community activity. It will likely only work when the users have a high level of interest in the topic, not just for casual consumers of your products and/or services.

Influencer:
Often times a brand already has a network of key opinion leaders and partners that have a strong presence online. By reaching out to these influencers and/or through identifying new influencers a brand can gain a halo effect of connecting to consumers through a relevant voice.

The upside: Allows the brand to gain access to consumers through a valuable third-party endorsement.

The downside: There is the risk of the endorsement coming across as disingenuous or that the opinion is not as favorable as one would hope. Either may turn consumers off.

Media:
This can include using more traditional media to drive to social media activity as well as paid media within social channels, such as Facebook Ads, to drive users already in the channel to your branded content.

The upside: Provides for a higher amount of guarantee as to the performance of the program and often allows for fairly specific user targeting.

The downside: Commonly represents a significant investment to get valuable reach and the ability to truly measure the effect.

Promotional:
Many brands create promotional activity as a means to engage users with their social media property. This can include sweepstakes, coupons, samples and/or an event.

The upside: Can be an entertaining and compelling means to drive awareness and engagement with users.

The downside: You may get users who are only involved for the promotional offer, but not the true brand fans you are looking for.

Summary:
The brands that are most successful are those that leverage and integrate each of these methods to activate their social media programs.