So I was interested in a new study – Understanding Users of Social Networking by Mikolaj Jan Piskorski who is an associate professor and a Marvin Bower Fellow in the Strategy unit at Harvard Business School. (Photo from Harvard Site)

Some intriguing insights were

• “People just love to look at pictures,” says Piskorski. “That’s the killer app of all online social networks. Seventy percent of all actions are related to viewing pictures or viewing other people’s profiles.”
• Another draw of photos (and of SN sites in general) is that they enable a form of voyeurism. In real life there is a strong norm against prying into other people’s lives. But online enables “a very delicate way for me to pry into your life without really prying
• “Only the people who are willing to put themselves out there publicly in words to people who they may not know will use Twitter. Some people will find this incredibly appealing, others will find this too scary.”
• There are more women on Twitter than men, women tweet about the same rate as men, but men’s tweets are followed by both sexes much more than expected by chance.
• Piskorski points out that MySpace has 70 million U.S. users who log on every month, only somewhat fewer than Facebook’s 90 million and still more than Twitter’s 20 million in the U.S. Its user base is not really growing, but 70 million users is nothing to sneeze at.
• MySpace hotspots: “Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Florida.”
• “To be successful, you need to shift your mindset from social media to social strategy,” he continues. A good social strategy essentially uses the same principles that made online social networks attractive in the first place—by solving social failures in the offline world. Firms should begin to do the same and help people fulfill their social needs online.”

I think it is interesting to think about social networks as filling a gap in our social lives rather than replacing our socialising. Then we can think about what are the social gaps and attempt to provide solutions….

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Why People Use Social Networks?

The Engaging Brand podcast is in two parts. The first one The Sociology of Community can be heard here and the second part can be heard here. I would strongly suggest you listen to both as only together do you get the full context of the social networking discussion.

On this second part we talk about

• Are we losing the ability to create communities?
• Do human beings need to belong to a community?
• At what point is a community a social network?
• Is a virtual world a community?
• Is social networking a good thing for society?
• What social skills do we need to evolve for the future?
• Has community become the ultimate in personalisation – My community ?

Would love to hear your thoughts on the show and the reasoning behind the growth in social networking….

Post from: EveryJoe

The Sociology of Community

I had the chance to speak to a sociology lecturer, Dr Vince Miller about this area and the result was a fantastic podcast about the whole area. The Engaging Brand podcast is in two parts.

In this first part we talk about

• What is social networking about? Self promotion or connection?
• What is a community?
• How the need to connect may be driven by capitalism
• How social life reflects our work life insecurities.

To listen to the podcast click here for The Sociology of Community.  I will post a link to the second part once it is edited…enjoy!

Post from: EveryJoe

What is Community, What is a Network?

Well I interviewed Pettrina Keogh of Gurgle.com on The Engaging Brand Podcast which you can find here,  to find out

• Why use social networking to build a brand
• Is the site to connect readers to readers or brand to readers?
• How the site is seen as a hub of information rather than a website
• How you attract people to the community
• Why is social networking so important in brand engagement
• Are there different strategies for different social media tools?
• How to protect yourself legally on giving advice on a social networking site
• The importance of measurement and tips on how to measure the success of social networking
• How to choose keywords to attract consumers
• How consumers are becoming more “intelligent” about social media
• How they provide tools for their consumers to share between themselves

Pettrina was very open about how she went about building such a popular site. Think you will enjoy!

Link to The Engaging Brand

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Case Study on Social Networking

Well research from eMarketer on Social Network marketing would say yes…

They quote examples such as

• Brand pages and applications can be vehicles to deliver coupons and offers to consumers to drive trials, store traffic and response. A July 2009 Starbucks promotion, for example, distributed coupons for a free pastry via Facebook and other social outlets. The chain was soon one of the top trending topics on Twitter and the top brand on Facebook, with more than 3.7 million fans.

• Few retailers are currently selling products directly through social networks. But the pending launch of Facebook’s virtual currency will make it far more appealing for this purpose. Meanwhile, e-tailers can take advantage of services such as Facebook Connect to allow users to share information about their browsing and purchasing activity on an e-commerce site with their social network friends.

• “Social networks are a constantly changing database of consumer sentiment, attitudes and information, and marketers today have only the earliest glimpse of the potential,” said Ms. Williamson. “Companies that want to maximize their presence on the social Web must take advantage of social networks in all stages of the purchase funnel, from awareness to learning to buying to loyalty.”

Social marketing is in reality ‘going where the consumers are’….in the old days that may have been markets, then high streets, then out of town complexes…now it is the web. The idea of social marketing is not new…it is what brands have always tried to do, for instance TV adverts where an attempt to connect with your problem or lifestyle.

The technology may be new and mean that the message and converasations about your brand are global, but the idea of connecting with your potential consumers lives…well, isn’t that what every brand wants and needs to do.

So do people want to connect with brands, do they talk about them ? Look at these results

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Brands and Social Networking

“Brazen Careerist is a career management tool for next-generation professionals. In a career space where experienced professionals win, we’ve created a community that levels the playing field.

Create a profile on Brazen Careerist that showcases more than just your resume, because your ideas matter too. Then, follow real-time updates from your favorite members and begin to build a network through conversations: the way networking is supposed to happen.“

Networking is now a huge part of building a career. Networking to meet people, networking to improve your skills and knowledge and networking to promote your personal brand.

This site looks a great networking tool. It lets you share your resume, your ideas, your blog, join a group or even find a new job. Investing in your career is so important these days and this site is well worth the time invested to improve your career path.

Post from: EveryJoe

Networking for your Career

Emarketer points us to some latest research “The Power of Social Networking For Women Research Study” from female-oriented social networking site ShesConnected.

Initially I was surprised how many were logging on multiple times a day – 59%. A further 14 % log on daily. This shows how the social networking sites are very much part of a daily routine for the female demographic.

So what is the main reason

It clearly shows how women value connections, value that human interaction during their day. It also shows the level of interest in advice and research – social networking is clearly a hub for making their life simpler and easier. It is the source of so much of the thinking and decision making in their lives. So if you are a business – why wouldn’t you want to be part of this community I wonder??

I like this quote though which acts as a reminder to all businesses

“Advertisers should strive for engaging and useful communications on the site so that it is viewed as an enhancement to the community rather than a painful requirement,”

This is based on the privacy findings of this report

If ever there was data that flashes…..customers are people, business is run by people, people interact with people…not advertising I think this is it!

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Women and Social Networking

• Can see a news feed of your friends
• Reply to friends feeds
• Add items of interest to your profile
• Easily follow and find new friends.

It is another example of how web sites are understanding the social aspect to sharing and in many ways Scribd has “copied” aspects from Twitter and Friendfeed. Whether these additions will help Scribd which has struggled over the last few months I am unsure, and whether it adds anything extra to other sites…again I am not sure. However, I do find Scribd is a great place for document sharing and another way of connecting with people of similar interests.

Post from: EveryJoe

Adding Social Element to Document Sharing

The interview was so “engaging” that I have had to split it into two parts with the first podcast looking at

• How the internet has changed the way we think about connections
• Has the internet changed the way we connect or how we connect?
• Is the internet a new society?
• The different connection profiles (based on Iggy’s research)
• Does everyone NEED to be a super connector?
• How to be an effective connector

For a Buzz Networker this interview and the second part is really worth checking out as it gets inside Iggy’s mind, Iggy being one of the “super-connectors” on the web.

Post from: EveryJoe

Connections and their role in society

“Facebook now dominates sharing, with 24 percent of shares from the widget consisting of users posting items to the social network. That handily beats out email (11.1 percent) and Twitter () (10.8 percent), making the world’s most popular social network also the most popular service for sharing content.”

It makes sense that Facebook is the key social networking for sharing, though I suspect that Twitter will continue to gather a pace over the next few months. My personal way of sharing is much more Twitter based or texting than Facebook.

Below is the graph showing the full research

Post from: EveryJoe

How people share information on internet