Social Media: Time to Grow Up

When it comes to social media in the corporate sector, there’s still a huge tendency to “play around” with the tools available, yet not fully commit to a formal strategy involving those annoying little things like ROI, according to a new study from Forrester Research.

There is a bit of good news in the survey**, in that three-quarters of corporations surveyed have spent $100k or less on such tools — in other words, at least they’ve spent something on social media. But here’s better news: More than half (53%) of the 145 interactive marketing professionals surveyed plan to increase their social media budgets, while just 5% expect to decrease those budgets, and 42% said their social media spending would remain the same. That’s encouraging, especially considering our current economic conditions.

What the “Social Networking/E-Mail” Story Means for You

I read with great interest the coverage on the report from Nielsen Online about social networking and e-mail that’s been making headlines in the past day. Simply put, I think all of this means that social media and networking is “ready for prime time” more than ever in the corporate, association and government arenas.

Essentially, here’s what the report says:

Now visited by over two-thirds (67 percent) of the global (Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the USA) online population, “Member Communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. It is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email), according to The Nielsen Company’s “Global Faces and Networked Places,” a comprehensive report published today revealing the new global footprint of social networking.

Yeah, that’s kind-of “wow” for me. Additionally, everyone’s focusing on the “social networks overtaking e-mail” factor, which is fine for the shock value. What’s as important to me, though, is that social networking is growing twice as fast as any of the other sectors mentioned above.

How to Twitter

I’m calling it. Twitter is now mainstream.

Read the rest of this blog post at Sibdu Blog, which is connected to our social network for commercial real estate.

Old School “Social-Media” Marketing

I published a post at our Sibdu Blog a few days back on what I call “old school social-media marketing.”

It’s a method that I think is starting to slide a bit in our newfangled days of social media. That’s too bad, because this form of marketing can not only be a separate promotional “channel,” it can feed into social media as well.

It’s called article marketing. And while (once again) it’s targeted at the commercial real-estate industry, there’s plenty to take away from this article for anyone who wants (or needs) to add another channel to their marketing initiatives.

Here’s the article. Enjoy!

Audio and Video – Your Friends, Part III

Today, we’re all about the ear — as in audio, and how it can help your social-media strategy.

I think it’s funny that audio podcasting is the granddaddy — relatively speaking — of Internet “broadcasting,” and yet it gets little respect in our era of YouTube, Viddler, Hulu and all of the other outlets we have for video. Outside of iTunes, the traditional audio podcast, whether it be news, interviews, discussions, etc., just doesn’t get the love it deserves.

It’s a shame, too, because audio is very simple in how it works — both on the back-end (for would-be producers like you) and on the front-end (for people downloading and listening to them).

I’m here to tell you that audio is not dead on the Internet. Not even close. What’s more, you can use it in your social-media efforts to bring more people into your network (or whatever it is you’re promoting). And it’s a heck of a lot easier than video.

Audio and Video – Your Friends, Part II

Have you ever heard of a “clip show?” If not, chances are you’ve seen one and did not know what was actually going on.

A clip show is an episode of a television show that largely shows clips from its own past shows. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them.

When it comes to TV shows, I think they’re a generally lazy way to tell a story. I’ve seen maybe one or two well-done ones where they actually advance the story line, while at the same time effectively going back in time to explain the advancement. I’d go into more, but you are here for social media, not television.

The reason why I bring this up is because this post is the blog world equivalent of a clip show — but done in a good way (I hope).

Social Media Myths

This article at BusinessWeek really does a great job at deconstructing the main social-media myths out there. I knew I’d like it when I saw the sub headline:

Using social media to market your business is a good idea. Just don’t plan on getting your whiz-kid nephew to do it for free.

Normally at this point I’d give my own spin on the article. But I liked it very much, and agreed with everything it said. So I don’t have anything else to really add here, except to say: Read it!

The Facebook “Situation” and Your Enterprise

You may not have heard, but it was publicly revealed over the weekend that Facebook had laid claim to any and all content uploaded to it, even when a user deletes his or her account. To say that a firestorm ensued would be an insult to the word “firestorm.” It’s been awhile since so many people were united against one company when it comes to … well … anything.

The last time was, well, maybe … New Coke? I don’t remember a time when so many people banded together and collectively said, “WTF?”

After a few days of firestorm, Facebook backed off of its latest assertion. Although it’s easy to see how they can bring all of this back if they really want. Then this morning, I logged into my Facebook account and saw this:

Wow, talk about a mea culpa! I didn’t think they’d back down.

I have to admit, it’s funny that a lot of the outrage and organization behind the eventual defeat of this ToS change came from the Facebook platform itself. At least, I’m assuming it did. I also saw a lot of talk about it on Twitter, too. Heck, I actually learned about it from the people I follow on Twitter.

What’s the take-away here for enterprises (businesses, government and non-profits/ associations)? Third-party providers aren’t looking out for you. They’re looking out for themselves. The only reason Facebook backed down is that they were scared of losing members. I have to admit that if I didn’t depend on Facebook for marketing, I would have probably canceled my membership over it (although they would have kept all of my stuff; wait, now they won’t … for now).

If you want a social network, create your own. Whether it’s with Portalfuze or one of the other providers, this is the only way you’ll retain control over your content, your users, etc. Upload it to Facebook, and you’ve lost control over it. This is especially key if you’re using Facebook as an “intranet” of sorts, or your own private network.

Like some older person in your family always said, “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.”

Besides, if you have a lot of people on Facebook, you can engage them into your own network via Facebook Connect. If you have a question on how to do that, please let me know.

Be On The Lookout …

… for two new white papers we’ll be publishing on social media. One will focus on government and social media, while the other will examine non-profits/associations and this space.

We’re in the final development of these projects, and we’ll have them out soon. I’ll announce them and even provide them directly through here. If you want them e-mailed directly to you, please let me know and I’ll put you on the list.

I’ve already offered the one on non-profits/associations via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and have gotten quite a few requests. Quantities are not limited, though. And of course, it’s no charge to get them. So stay tuned.

Ready for Download!

Here’s a white paper/background paper I finished late last week on social media and collaboration, and how it is being used in the enterprise. More important, it contains our view of how these technologies should be used in the enterprise.

It also contains more about Portalfuze, our platform and our services. This is a very good way to learn not only about social media/collaboration and the enterprise in general, but about our services in particular.

What’s more, we’ve made it easy for you to gain the information you want. So, if you only want to get general background on enterprise social media, just read the first section. If you only need to find out more about Portalfuze, read the second section.

Thank you Scribd, for hosting this for us. Read on!

View this document on Scribd