Social Media uses web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue.

Types of social media...

1) collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia),

2) blogs and microblogs (e.g. Twitter),

3) content communities (e.g. Youtube),

4) social networking sites (e.g. Facebook),

5) virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft),

6) virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life).

Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few.

Social bookmarking...

AddThis

Short History...

Web1.0 - Past - static

Web2.0 - Current -Sharing

Web3.0 - Future - semantic web (able to actually interpret the web)

Social media presents an enormous challenge for firms, as many established management methods are ill-suited to deal with customers who no longer want to be talked at but who want firms to listen, appropriately engage, and respond.

Social Authority

One of the key components in successful social media marketing implementation is building "social authority".

Social authority is developed when an individual or organisation establishes themselves as an "expert" in their given field or area, thereby becoming an influencer in that field or area.

It is through this process of "building social authority" that social media becomes effective. That is why one of the foundational concepts in social media has become that you cannot completely control your message through social media but rather you can simply begin to participate in the "conversation" expecting that you can achieve a significant influence in that conversation.

However, this conversation participation must be cleverly executed because while people are resistant to marketing in general, they are even more resistant to direct or overt marketing through social media platforms. This may seem counter-intuitive but is the main reason building social authority with credibility is so important.

A marketer can generally not expect people to be receptive to a marketing message in and of itself.

Stats

• Social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent online in the US.
• A total of 234 million people aged 13 and older in the U.S. used mobile devices in December 2009
• Twitter processed more than one billion tweets in December 2009 and averages almost 40 million tweets per day
• Over 25% of U.S. internet page views occurred at one of the top social networking sites in December 2009, up from 13.8% a year before
• Australia has some of the highest social media usage in the world.
• In usage of Facebook Australia ranks highest, with over 9 million users spending almost 9 hours per month on the site.
• The number of social media users age 65 and older grew 100 percent throughout 2010, so that one in four people in that age group are now part of a social networking site.

Facebook leads the way...

• As of June 2011 Facebook has 750 Million users

• Total minutes spent on social networking sites has increased 83 percent year to year.
• Facebook is ranked as the number one social networking site.
• Approximately 100 million users access this site through their mobile phone.  
• 93% of businesses use facebook for marketing and;
• if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest.

In an effort to supplant Facebook's dominance, Google launched Google+ in the summer of 2011.

“Unfriendly” Social Media

The good the bad and the ugly

Social media is about developing relationships with individuals and having “conversations” with your friends/customers and they are going to express their opinion and conduct their own conversations.

If a company does not engage with its customers, a competitor will.

Toyota - got is Wrong

Toyota tried creating a clever snappy advertisement for its Yaris model through an online competition. The winning entry, an ad called “Clean Getaway”, was selected by popular choice. It was then endorsed by Toyota and its advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and  released to the public. Unfortunately for Toyota the general public did not view it as clever or snappy, in fact they deemed the ad as being incestuous, downgrading and sexist. Toyota quickly reversed and pulled the ad. This was Toyota's first major foray into social media and the outcome was not by any means the desired one.

Mini - Got it Right

Mini, by listening to its customers through social media, discovered that the real reason Mini owners loved their cars was because they saw themselves as a group of people who belonged together; they identified themselves as Mini owners. To them, Mini meant cool, but it also meant community.

And Mini owners were the best promoters of the brand to potential buyers. Following each owners' convention the online buzz went up in forums, photos on Flickr, and videos on YouTube.

An increase in the online buzz meant owners were promoting the brand more rigorously. By tracking online promoter activity Mini was able to note a rise in sales in the following months. "The indisputable fact is that if you get it right and spend time to really understand and appreciate the online audiences out there, there are tangible opportunities,"

So what do the big players do with “unfriendly” reports.  They don’t delete them, they respond and take note of what is being said.

What makes a successful website...

Dynamic not static, make your website interactive by...

• Adding share buttons to your website pages
• Allow comments
• Keep content current
• Use key words and key phrases you think customers might use to find you throughout your website but always include a homepage intro of 200 to 400 words!
• Search engines don’t like “flash websites”

Social Media Management

• Check daily
• Post new content as often as you can
• Don’t delete bad posts, try and respond
• Respond to all new posts (as required) within 24hrs

Privacy

The final word must be about privacy. Remember all the information you put online about yourself is now mined by criminals and there is even a crime squad specifically set up to try and tackle this growing problem so the best thing you can do is limit the personal information you put out there to the very minimum.