3 Reasons Why Facebook Will Not Fail
Recently I read a blog post that said Facebook will fail because it is too general as a social network. As marketers we’ve constantly been taught about focusing in on our target market, the more specific the target the better--Facebook seems to go against that notion. Although niche social networks may seem like an obvious answer, they could actually hinder the productivity of your efforts while broad general networks could actually be just what you need to get it moving.
Here are 3 reasons why:
1. Most people are not associated with a niche network
In niche social networks, everyone in the network already knows they have a similar like, desire or need. But what about those who don’t know yet? What about John, the aspiring soccer player who isn’t in a league, or doesn’t have a favorite brand of gear yet? He won’t be associated with a specialized social network. Instead John will be talking on Facebook with his friends about soccer, he’ll post pictures, join groups, add soccer applications, and so on. If you have already eliminated Facebook as a source of marketing because it’s too general, you’ve just eliminated the chance of getting John and many others like him as customers. In essence, your niche market can limit your ability to attract new customers into your circle of influence…Which leads me to my next point...
2. General social networks like Facebook allow people to share across narrow areas of interest
One of the best aspects of Facebook is that it is not directed to anyone particular niche, it’s open to everyone. A person can share links, posts, etc. with his friends regardless of their interests. Sharing across unique areas of interest usually sparks someone else’s interest in that particular area as well. Many people become interested in a new hobby, sport or genre of music because their friends are already involved… Finally,
3. A General Technology Platform is Perfect
Jim Banister argued in a recent post that “‘General’ networks are rarely as good as ’specific’ networks in engaging an audience, given equal utility.” Facebook doesn’t have to be the best at engaging each individual areas of interest. In fact, they don’t have to actually engage any of them. By creating a general platform, users can adjust and expand their niche networks through applications, groups, etc. making Facebook the best for them and their unique interest in that moment of time. In fact, by using Facebook you get the best of both niche networks and general networks.
These are just 3 reasons, but there are probably hundreds of additional reasons why Facebook won’t fail. I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think? Do you think Facebook will fail or do you think the broad, all-encompassing social network will succeed?
Elizabeth Hunt
www.iangilyeat.com
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The telephone is moving front and center for major technology companies...
Other noteworthy statements by major technology players - all with an eye on the telephone as a delivery platform - include:
- IBM is pushing hard with their Lotus Sametime and social developments.
- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer declares at Cannes that advertising is not in a recession but has been reset to a lower level and that all content in the future will be consumed digitally.
- The Guardian, in the U.K. declares that the iPhone 3GS has increased mobile video uploads to YouTube by 400% since last Friday and up 1700% over the last 6 months.
- Google is readying their new phone service that unifies and simplifies communications for users among multiple phone numbers. As I've noted before this will be tied to their Android platform and their advertising engine.
Each of these moves represent a tacit acknowledgment that major advancements are coming to your small screen soon. When all of these announcements are seen in relation to each other, it is clear to me that the new hot platform for technology development is the telephone. Best Buy knows it and they've just told the rest of us the same thing.
www.iangilyeat.com
Telco, messaging platforms and Google
I can still hear the voice in my head from a conversation I had with a customer back in 1985 as he described his career in the telecom industry. In my head I was saying, "that's an industry I never want to be in..."
Well, now that I've been working with a telco client for the past 8 months or so I realized that the telco space is one of the most dynamic segments of the economy AND that it fits perfectly into messaging oriented architectures.
The third screen as it is was once called (Theater, TV, Telephone) is an impressive platform to which messaging technologies are rapidly evolving. The Internet as a backbone delivery service makes this all possible because the phone simply has to capture and replay what is streaming across the airwaves. Facebook, Twitter, SMS, voice, email and a myriad of new apps are radically changing the face of the simple telephone.
And if you thought Google has a leg up on the advertising world now, just wait until Android hits full stride. Assuming that it does, this will deliver a huge platform lever to Google for the benefit of advertisers to "the third screen". In a nutshell, if Madison Avenue and the big ad agencies have been worried about Google wielding too much clout, wait until the telephone becomes the primary method for delivering video to the YouTube generation. Especially if Android becomes a primary provider and it is tied into the ad serving engine that Google owns. In my mind, this could represent a monumental shift in the ad world for agencies and advertisers alike. TV land owns video advertising and Google has yet to dominate in any fashion like they have with text ads on the Internet. Any wonder why Microsoft wants this as badly as Google?
Lastly, I believe this is a long, long term trend. Dare I say a 100 year trend? Think about the following two points: 1) there is no space in which there is no law 2) light is the law that governs all space.
If these two points are correct, then the move that messaging platforms must make - one that has not yet occurred - it's in early stage development - but it has a long way to go - is light based communications. Yes, we have fiber cables, but they are point to point and very limiting. When we make the leap to using sun light as our primary communications network instead of cell phone towers; and when the phone uses light to power the device, the delivery network (i.e. the Internet) and the playback, then we will be fulfilling the promise that these new phones are intended to deliver.
It's a long road map but I am now plugged into the telco segment and believe that it aligns exceptionally well with messaging oriented architectures. Kind of fun if you ask me...
www.iangilyeat.com
What do you do with 1,000 email templates?
If you're a medium-to-large company, what do you do when you have 1,000 or more email templates? Mind you, I'm not talking about the number of emails that your company sends each day but the number of email templates that are actively used within your CRM system or marketing systems? These could be driven by collections, sales, marketing, operations, product marketing, legal, etc.
I'd like to suggest that the first thing to do is to audit what you have. Find out what is in place and build a map of how many email templates exist, how they are used and how they relate to each other. You should do the same for printed form letters and other standard or repeatable messaging processes. This will undoubtedly lead to some very interesting discussions about customer lifecycle management and who gets to decide how your company talks to your customers and how often it happens.
Oh and by the way, when building out this map of contacts and interactions with your customers, remember to plug in a spot on the map for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and any number of other social networks and social technologies.
This whole exercise will give new meaning to the customer lifecycle. In a nutshell, it suggests that the notion that some single marketer or panel of marketers within a company can control customer interactions and design how customers interact with companies is outdated and archaic. Focusing more on balance, reasonableness and awareness of how customers want to talk to and interact with your company is probably more productive.
In the mean time, if you work for a mid-sized to large company and need help getting your arms around the many messages and interactions that your customers experience with your company, consider hiring someone like us to do a messaging audit and help build a picture of what your customers experience in dealing with you.
www.iangilyeat.com
Publishers have just been disrupted...by Twitter and a Super Chirp...
Brittany Spears can now cut out the publishers. Think about it. 1.7 million people follow Brittany Spears on Twitter.
Can you believe it? 1.7 million. Now any publisher in the country would be happy to have a publication with 1.7 million subscribers. And now comes along something called Super Chirp. Super Chirp lets tweeters like Brittany sell subscriptions to their tweets. How does $1 a month sound? Not bad if you're really interested in what Brittany is doing in her life. Let's see that's $12 a year or a tidy $20.4 million per year. Not bad for simply tweeting your life away...and who needs a publisher anyway.
www.iangilyeat.com
Google loses their radio signal... or another failure in the behemoth
Failure is a tough pill to swallow - especially when it's done in the public eye. As a monster direct marketer, Google has failed in newspapers and radio to name a couple. Their failure in radio hit the Wall Street Journal as a front page story yesterday. As I read through the article it seems that they missed a single element that possibly could have created a different outcome for them.
Hey Google - what's your response mechanism?
It's a simple question. But as I read through the article and it's heavy orientation toward, engineering a technology solution, selling ads through their auction process and the culture of radio advertising sales - it seemed to me that Google lost their way and forgot about a single element that is at the core of their search success.
It is the response mechanism.
Let me explain. Direct response marketers, including Google, always have a hard mechanism for tracking results. Consider a few examples:
Direct mail uses mail in order forms and unique phone numbers, source coded or key coded back to each list segment or person.
Catalog marketers use unique phone numbers tied to audience segmentation, etc.
Catalog marketers might also use a unique product code, or promotion code
Retailers use coupons that are tied to loyalty membership numbers, specific store locations or newspapers.
Television uses unique phone numbers and text messaging so the viewer can reply.
So here's the short list for the tried and true response mechanisms: order forms, coupons, telephone numbers, text messaging, unique product codes.
Oh, and what does Google rely on? The click-through on each and every ad that is placed on their system. It's great that they have an impressive auction and pricing system. Their inventory management system is world class. Their distribution model reaches all corners of the globe. And yet, it relies on a single, response mechanism that ties human action to the advertisement. - the click through.
Where was this in their radio experiment? Apparently it was absent and hence a failure in their basic premise - auction demand will raise prices in the market for the radio station. Hmm... doesn't appear to have played out that way...
www.iangilyeat.com
Jigsaw's announcement leaves you wanting...
1) With just 2 million business identified in their file, they are missing over 80%+ of the business community. This is really tough to reconcile if your company has any size or market coverage to it. It's really hard to get excited about a solution that addresses just 20% of your available audience.
2) Jigsaw likes to talk about their community and the real-time updates. Yes, this is a true statement - but, it only applies to the record that is being updated - now. It does not mean that all 2M business or 10M+ contacts are updated constantly in real-time. So what portion of their file was updated today? Or even within the last 7 days? Ask them. See what they tell you. The old problems of aging of information remains. Even in a community driven site.
3) And while you're at it find out how many of the records are created by a hand full of contributors? Or how many are created on algorithmic additions that have not been submitted by community users? Ask them those two questions and you may be surprised at what you find.
Conceptually, I really like the application and what they have done, but it's usefulness for corporate clients is limited.
www.iangilyeat.com
Facebook opens its doors to developers...
"Facebook's latest steps to become less of a destination and more of a service...". Strategically this is absolutely right for Facebook. The core value that they deliver is relationship enrichment. Content is user provided to enrich the relationships of users with other parties. It is not provided to enable advertisers to send them more stuff. Herein lies the conundrum for Facebook and their users...
"It's unclear how many of its 200 million members would want to access the service through another site." Yep, they're right, but I don't think that's the question. The functionality of Facebook and the data streams can be leveraged in many ways to enhance and enrich relationships. This can be done through CRM platforms, entertainment systems, email marketing platforms and many other messaging systems that can take advantage of the Facebook connections and data streams (pending user approval of course) to make relationships richer, more involved and productive. The core point is, Facebook is not the only place where people interact with each other and extending the Facebook interactions into other systems can become an unencumbered user experience and benefit.
"...the company makes money by selling ads..." Yea, unfortunately they have missed the mark on this one. Their core value proposition is a mismatch with advertising. Their revenue stream is wrong and needs to be oriented and driven by relationships and the creation of value within those relationships. It can be segmented by business value and by personal value, but until Facebook puts a data strategy in place that delivers revenue they will not obtain the value that could be theirs.
Off the cuff - as Facebook continues to attract businesses that use Facebook for relationship development and enrichment purposes their (the corporations) ability to see the communications that will occur will become increasingly blurred, invisible and difficult to quantify. Corporate messaging strategies must evolve to incorporate social networks. They cannot be limited to email systems and other one-to-one messaging systems. Social networks are one-to-many and many-to-many. The folks in the corporate IT and Marketing centers better get their heads wrapped around this one or they will find themselves completely lost at sea within a few short years.
www.iangilyeat.com
Large scale adoption can become a huge burden...
You see when you have 175 million users, all of a sudden if they don't like what you're doing, new changes in feature sets, changes to how you want to manage data, changes to how they treat advertisers - all of it is at risk of being dictated by the very users that Facebook has courted to their network. Facebook may think its their network, but once they get so big that "everyone uses it" all of a sudden everyone wants to tell them what they can do. In essence Facebook becomes hostage to their own users.
If their users don't like what Facebook does, they complain to the FTC, the FCC, their congressman, each other and anyone else who will listen. Seems kind of unfair doesn't it...
www.iangilyeat.com
Wow! Streaming HD TV on the internet...
Their software rocks! It is impressive and works even on old 15" laptops that still carry the IBM Thinkpad logo. The resolution is clear. The sound is good and who needs a DVR when internet TV is here to stay. This is old news to the crowd that follows the latest and greatest in streaming video, but to the general masses - go download the Move Networks media player. You'll be thrilled with the quality.
Oh, and by the way, this just continues to reaffirm the evolution of the Internet to a highly personalized, rich-media experience....and when you put that together with the other foundational elements, you have what I believe is the future of marketing - personalized, integrated, transactional, and measurable customer experiences.
Move Networks takes us another step forward, in the right direction.
www.iangilyeat.com
