Social Networking: October 2007 Archives

Now that we have you thinking more about social networking ... Do you think that Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace are "it" for social networking? Think again. Things are never quite that simple in the internet world - if you have an interest, you have a network - check out Social Networking GOD: 350+ Social Networking sites and you'll get the idea.

Here is one that might be of interest to the small home-based business, the ApSense Social Networking For Home Business. Here is what work-at-home business blog says about Apsense:

Please remember that when you join  Apsense you're joining a community of business people. They don't all want to buy from you right now. They're trying to make money.  So use your connections there to share ideas and sometime in the future you might get your top MLM distributor or a great business partner there. But unless you're selling services businesses can use to sell more, they may not be hot CUSTOMERS right away.

In the post - How To Make Social Networking Work For You  Judy Mottl interviews the president of The Living Textbook (a solutions provider that works with school districts, state education departments and educational service agencies to develop educational materials) and this is what he has to say about social networking -

The president of The Living Textbook, , believes it's one of the best tools a business has at its fingertips today... "I see social networking really as an evolution of communication and a desire to share and dialog around subject matters in a deeper person-to-person way. It also enables a forum of people to come together in a way in which they feel more connected to a marketplace," he says.

The social networking weblog recommends a white paper called Social Networking for Business.
 According to their review -

The main things you're going to learn by reading this document are how to build business relationships using social networking, why social medial is becoming more important than the traditional way of doing things, how to make the new social networking service for your business become a success.

It is  always good to check out your industry's social networking landscape before forging ahead, with the right tools and network you will be able to leverage this semi-new dynamic relationship building tool to your advantage.

Much has been said about social networks, their quick growth and gradual integration into a dynamic new form of  relationship building and marketing. But what does the future hold for social networking? This is a question that holds weight not only in the US, but globally. According to ZD NetAsia's article Analyst: Social networking faces uncertain future:

Growth in the membership of social-networking sites varies dramatically by region, according to the analyst, which predicts Asia Pacific will account for 35 percent of global social networking users by the end of this year, followed by EMEA (28 percent), North America (25 percent), and the Caribbean and Latin America (12 percent).

What this means for the small business is that global reach of your company's services or message is possible through the use of social networking sites (barring language issues). But much like any other technology, some tapering is expected to happen within the next 5 years. According to pcworld's  "Social Networking to Taper Off in Five Years"

According to market tracker Datamonitor, global active memberships in social networking sites will reach 230 million at the end of 2007. The firm expects revenues from social networking services to reach US$965 million this year, growing to $2.4 billion by 2012...But the firm cautions social networking companies and investors not to get giddy with the growth and popularity of the services. Although players would like to be in on the next Google or Yahoo, exuberance must be tempered with memories of the Internet bubble bursting at the beginning of this decade.

For the meantime, companies are still finding benefits with engaging in online social networking - the Guardian Unlimited's Social networking 'a boost to PR'  says:

 
The popularity of sites such as Facebook and MySpace is driving growth in public relations as companies tap into the power of recommendation, according to WPP advertising boss Sir Martin Sorrell."It is unusual for it to be so strong at this stage in the cycle and the reasoning behind it is to do with social networking and the web," said Sir Martin. "Social networking seems to underline the importance of editorial publicity. Social networking is really recommendation between people about the things that they are interested in and they like... this has stimulated people's attention."

So who is the biggest and best site so far? Seeking Alpha's "Social Networking Sites: Blogger is Biggest, Facebook Growing Fastest" analyzes the latest comScore results:

According to internet research firm comScore, Blogger had the largest number of unique visitors of all social-networking sites in September, but Facebook grew the fastest. Yahoo's Geocities and Yahoo! Groups are struggling, but its Flickr.com service grew almost 100% year-over-year. Blogger is gaining market share from Typepad (Six Apart) in the blog space, and Wordpress.com is now significantly larger than Typepad

Check out Google's Zeitgeist 2007's Social Networking Panel Discussion which includes the CEO of LinkedIn . The panel talks about the art of the social start specifically for the start-up entrepreneur and the social network marketer. 

The numbers are hard to ignore. Comscore, an internet information provider, has this to say about social networking giants MySpace and facebook in their article on Measuring Social Networking Sites.

Social networking behemoth MySpace.com attracted more than 114 million global visitors age 15 and older in June 2007, representing a 72-percent increase versus year ago.  Facebook.com experienced even stronger growth during that same time frame, jumping 270 percent to 52.2 million visitors.  Bebo.com (up 172 percent to 18.2 million visitors) and Tagged.com (up 774 percent to 13.2 million visitors) also increased by orders of magnitude.

And then this from Comscore's "More than Half of MySpace Visitors are Now Age 35 or Older, as the Site's Demographic Composition Continues to Shift"
 
Visitors to MySpace.com and Friendster.com generally skew older, with people age 25 and older comprising 68 and 71 percent of their user bases, respectively.  Meanwhile, Xanga.com has a younger user profile, with 20 percent of its users in the 12-17 age range, about twice as high as that age segment's representation within the total Internet audience.  Not surprisingly, Facebook.com, which began as a social networking site for college students, also draws a younger audience.  More than one-third (34 percent) of visitors to Facebook.com are 18-24 years old, approximately three times the representation of that age segment in the general Internet population.

Here is a good example of how social networking sites serve as a business generating tool for a specific industry--in this case- apparel retail, as seen in cnn.com's article "Social Networking Sites Represent an Attractive Venue for Advertising Apparel Products"
 

More than 95 percent of heavy social networkers visited retail sites in August, compared to 80 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience. These heavy social networkers exhibited a particularly high tendency to visit the more leisure-oriented retail categories, including those featuring entertainment (music, tickets, books and movies), fashion (apparel, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories), and retail technology (consumer electronics, computer software and hardware).

What this means to small business owners is that social networking sites are no longer simply the realm of companies targeting students or teens. Growth in all the major social networking sites reflects an increased usage among an expanding and diverse market demographic.

 
Where should you start? Like anything else, after doing your homework. In some cases it might simply mean setting up a page, and start tapping into your immediate network found in that particular site. Unlike a full blown website, a social networking site is a way for people to actually connect and learn more about you while keeping it "intimate"  by restricting you to the people you "know" or people who know people you know ... like a massive six degrees to Kevin Bacon game but with you being Kevin Bacon. On the other hand these sites also open the door for you to create a whole network based on an interest or a hobby- one MySpace page is dedicated to the green ipod nano http://www.myspace.com/greennano. Although this page was not created by Apple, it does still receive its share of "friends".

Here is what you should be asking yourself before you venture forth.

1. Where are your customers/vendors/competitors? You want to be where the largest number of your constituency or target market are.
   
2. Do you have the time to manage and update your page/network?
   
3. If you are using the site as a way to increase business (rather than a personal networking tool) you should make sure that your "image" remains professional - i.e. no killing zombies or poking fun at people on facebook. It is unfortunate but for now there is not a way for you to separate your "persona's" in such a way that people would see a different you if they were a different categorized contact (i.e. business vs. old classmate).
   
   

Additionaly, Cristopher Allen's Review of LinkedIn, tribe.net, and friendster is hard to beat with its level of detail and depth.
http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2003/12/evaluating_soci.html

It's not news. What started as an "underground" fad mostly used by students or teens has (as usual) now gone mainstream - the online social network. Here's how Wikipedia defines "social network." 

A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes.

But in the virtual world, social network services such as MySpace, Facebook, Multiply, and Bebo (to name a few), are not only blazing trails in the mainstream world, but the business world as well. Businesses are realizing the gains of establishing and maintaining an intimate networking relationship with customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Not just the realm of politicians (check out Obama's or Giuliani's) or celebrities anymore either, companies such as Starbucks  and Weight Watchers  have extensive myspace pages, and even Pfizer is joining the bandwagon by creating their own version of facebook for doctors called Sermo. ( read more in the Financial Times article called Pfizer Takes a Leaf out of Facebook) More and more small business startups are beginning to see the opportunities that come with social networking according to the Houston Chronicle's article "Internet Startups going Social"
 

Whether it's leaving comments at the bottom of news stories, posting vacation pictures on a photo-sharing site or creating MySpace pages, the Web has gone social. Gone are the days of Web users passively surfing, reading and consuming.
The astronomic success of social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, whose 23-year-old founder recently turned down a $1 billion bid to sell the company to Yahoo, has prompted others with dollar signs in their eyes to chase the trend -- with a twist. Instead of aiming for massive networking sites aimed at pretty much everyone, the latest wave is trying to reach specific audiences.

There is a down side - going overboard with social networks Max Kalehoff  talks about "Socialnetworkitis." in his post about the perils of being involved in too many social networks.  Love them or hate them, this "fad" is not going away, according to the Wisconsin Technology Networks' The Expanding World of Social Networking: 

College students aren't the only ones that think Facebook is "really hot," with Microsoft reportedly in discussions with the company to take a 5 percent minority for an investment of $300 to $500 million, an interest valuing the total company at close to $10 billion , according to MSNBC. Beyond Microsoft, entrepreneurial software developers have jumped on the Facebook phenomenon - 70,000 developers have already signed up with the company to develop site applications , according to The Wall Street Journal.
Another accelerating trend, according to Business Week, is the growth of in-house social networks. Large multi-national corporations are seeking to capture the "wisdom of crowds" and to encourage employees, alumni, retirees, and other stakeholders to interact with one another. Among the companies that are creating these networks are Ning, Visible Path, Mentor Scout, Web Crossing, and Select Minds. SelectMinds is reported to have created "networks for 60 companies, including Lockheed Martin and JPMorgan Chase."

Bottom line is, social networking is here to stay. It pays to look deeper into the different networks and what might work best for you. The next post in this series will be an analysis on the different social networking sites and how to decide what will work best for you and your business.