Web Strategy Blog

The Social Web, Taking it Personally

As we rapidly approach 2010, it's hard not to consider the implications of social media's banner year: 2009. Brands continue to adopt social media marketing practices just as fast as populations join social networks and utilizes social media sites. It has become fairly clear that the rapid adoption of this technology over the last year will certainly give rise to a number of trends in the coming years.  Recently, David Armano wrote a very interesting blog post on the Harvard Business Blog outlining six social media trends for 2010. Here is a quick snapshot of the trends:

1.  Social media begins to looks less social

2.  Corporations look to scale

3.  Social business becomes serious play 

4.  Your company will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced

5.  Mobile becomes a social media lifeline

6.  Sharing no longer means e-mail

Already we can see many of these trends taking shape from the number of sites incorporating sharing tools into their web pages to the rise of mobile applications. One trend, which I hope will result in more discussion, is the idea of social media becoming less social.  David argues that with the advent of Twitter lists, the rise of niche social networks, and the clutter of web communication, people will begin to block out a majority of the social communication on the web.  While in some ways this may be true, I believe that the social web will in fact be more personal (and therefore more relevant) rather than less social.   For example, Twitter lists function on the same social principle as the platform yet they allow users to break groups of people into lists with a focus on relevant and valuable information.   Niche social networks function on the same principle: a strong focus on relevant information for a certain type of contacts. Individuals are now taking on personal branding, and as every digital marketer knows - your customers are now their own publishers, and they have their own personal networks - and they are syndicated. 

The important thing to focus on is the personalized nature of each of these components of the social web. People continue to find value in the web as a social communication platform, but users continually looking for a much more personalized experience. The implication of this trend is huge for marketers.  In the past traditional marketing methods have generally been based around the one-to-many principle. Marketers worked hard to create a message that would have universal appeal to a mass target audience. This type of marketing worked well when the media was in fact one-to-many i.e. television, outdoor, print etc.  Today, individuals use the web as an information source to research and maybe even connect with relevant products and services.   Therefore, marketers must keep in mind that the browser is also a very one-to-one medium, capable of delivering a highly personalized experience for the user. Online audiences are already seeking out personalization with customized home-pages, Twitter lists, bookmarked and tagged websites, RSS readers etc. to filter out the clutter of the web.   The social web will continue it's trend to becoming a more open communication platform,  but tandem communications will need to become more personalized so that users will continue to see value in leveraging it.  I predict in 2010 we will see more groundbreaking approaches with organizations utilizing social media to establish a valuable personalized relationship with the individual - on a mass scale. 

Creating Community: Organic vs. Engineered Growth

The rapid adoption of the social web, especially around social networks, has given marketers a unique opportunity to build vibrant online communities around a product, service, brand, or organization.   The process of turning that community into a self-sustaining and growing business asset remains the key challenge.  To meet this challenge, marketers must learn to strike a balance between so-called 'Engineered' vs. 'Organic' community development.   It is essential that a community have a clearly defined purpose and a number of goals to set the tone for the overall content strategy and member discussion.  Community managers must also work to enforce rules within the community to ensure that user generated content, discussions, and posts all meet an agreed upon terms of use.  The delicate balance exists when a community manager or marketing strategist begins to see the community take on a life of its own.  If all goes accordingly, the 'engineered' strategy may lead members of the community to interact and contribute as planned, but may only lead to slow and steady adoption. Community managers must then question whether there is a enough 'organic' growth within the community to really achieve critical mass. Creating a community that lacks a defined structure and purpose can lead to rapid adoption and growth. This type of community platform has a lot potential (Twitter for example), but if an organization were to try and brand this sort of community, they would surely lose control. 

Organizations and brands considering creating an online community need to understand how to orient the tools, content, and purpose of a community to establish both 'engineered' and 'organic' growth.  Most organizations choose to establish communities on easy-to-manage social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace etc.   Using these tools, organizations can achieve solid organic growth with already existing user bases, a number of unique features/functionalities, and limited financial commitment. So how does one implement some sort of 'engineered' growth mechanism into these already established networks?  One way would be to integrate Open ID technology within a branded URL.  This allows a brand or an organization to utilize the existing user base of social networks, such as Facebook, while also allowing the business to form the community around a centralized purpose.  

As an example I will use an interesting travel site, whereivebeen.com. This is an excellent social travel site giving users the ability to pin-point places they've traveled on a map, share those experiences with friends, read reviews of destinations, and much more.  The site is completely integrated with Facebook Connect allowing users to share via the existing social network.   As the site continues to gain momentum, something interesting has occurred within the community.  Much of the user generated content on whereivebeen.com generally serves as a travel log or diary for individuals, citing interesting things that happened to them in a location or with people they met along the way.  The site organizes these thoughts as travel reviews, but most of the time the comments do not actually review the location.  So why does this disconnect exist between their 'engineered' community strategy and the 'organic' growth its sustaining?

 

Users generally consider Facebook as a personal network of friends providing information on personal experiences.  Clearly this association and integration with Facebook has caused the user base to utilize whereivebeen.com as a part of their very personal social network experience.  This is a good example of a community which has really taken on a life of its own. It also serves as an important lesson for marketers considering building a community.  Marketers need to consider how people use networks such as Facebook or Twitter in their every day lives. They must also consider the existing user base of networks like Linkedin, MySpace, and Facebook. Building communities that embrace their intended use and audience, will most likely lead to rapid adoption.  The 'If you build it, they will come' mentality is quickly fading as more online communities continue to take shape and users begin to expect certain features/functionalities.  It will be those businesses who understand how to successfully engineer and organically grow their online communities that will be able to deliver on the true value of online community.