Hi! I’m Nick.

Funny how from simple things, the best things begin. 
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January 8, 2009

Social Media Amidst A Recession

A recession is coming, and according to influential economists: it’s going to be a big, bad one. What you should know is that this coming recession is not like the recessions we are familiar with. It isn’t an oil demand, terrorist attack, nor tech bubble recession. This is a recession caused by hire purchase, and sub prime loans - housing, automobiles, credit cards, and personal loans.

While mainstream advertising will lose it’s effectiveness during this time, social media will be resilient. It won’t be unreasonable for corporations to increase spendings in this area. However, it will be really unreasonable if your corporation doesn’t even have an interactive plan, much less a social media plan.

In a recession, people like you and I, aren’t as willing to spend. Advertising is about generating awareness of the brand, social media is different. The ‘word of mouth’ is still the most effective way to sell a product/service. Even during a recession, you’d still be willing to part with your money if your best buds recommends something to you. A great video game, an awesome movie, a fantastic place to eat, etc.

Social media is cheap, and accurately quantifiable. You don’t have to deploy your own platform like Gua.com.my, you can leverage existing platforms. This doesn’t just save you big bucks, it also gives you the power to cause a ripple effect within it’s already established community. Understand this, because buying advertising ads on Facebook is not a social media plan. That is just buying ad space on a social networking site - horrendous conversion rates. You can have a shoestring budget and be immensely successful.

Social media is measurable. Not just tracking on a singular level, but several levels down. It’s like viral marketing. Social media can be (and has been proven to be) more powerful that a television campaign.

Are you familiar with giving virtual gifts on Facebook? Mars UK has taken the approach differently. They will be developing an application called “Celebration” which allows you to give real chocolate bars to your family & friends. Currently, you can only give these chocolate bars to only family & friends in the UK. Read this for more info.

Social Media requires your company to participate, not just entertain. If you are going to moderate and filter bad criticisms on your products/services - I urge you to get out of your rigid framework. Listen.

There are plenty of social media tools online. Do not focus all your budgets onto one tool. It takes alot more time, and manpower but you won’t suffer if one tool fails, also the more tools you use: the more reach you can achieve, and the better your metrics results will be.

In a crisis situation, social media is a shield that will save you. It’s a matter of whether your fans will protect you or not. A minor example:

Graham: You’ve gotta try Nick’s Cafe - the sandwich it’s totally excellent. *blah, blah, blah*
Kate: Wow! Really? I’ll give it a try.

*Kate goes to try*

Kate: I gave the sandwich a try, it was horrible! The vegetables were stale, etc. etc.

Now Graham will either go:

  1. “Oh it’s probably just that day, the supplier could have given them a faulty load. Try again another day”.
  2. Really? That bad? Man, I’ll never go there again.

Also read:

  1. New Straits Times: Social Media for Marketing
  2. Business Week: Social Media for your Business
  3. Web Strategist: Why your social media plan should have success metrics
  4. Web Strategist: The ROI of blogging? Intangible

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August 23, 2007

Facebook, Redefining Social Networking

Residing in Malaysia, there wasn’t any Facebook advertising to be exposed to. In fact, unlike Friendster: there wasn’t any peer pressure pushing my inner senses to register. Since the inception of Friendster: there has been many social networking sites sprouting on the web. I was sceptical of joining Facebook. So I scrutinized everything, and did my research – mainly forums and reviews.

None of my friends were using Facebook either. Friendster was all that they needed. In many parts of Asia, Friendster is the dominating social network community. Then after a couple of days, 6 months ago I became, an international member of Facebook.

I have loved it ever since. While Friendster connected me to many friends I have lost touched with, Friendster was only the “network” in “social network”. Facebook is the very definition of “social” in “social network”.

Whether you are an individual, organisation, developer, or corporation: I believe Facebook’s strategy & deployment will inherently benefit you. In this post, I’d like to show you Facebook, and at the end of the article: you can make an informed decision whether or not Facebook is right you. Maybe it will even help you use Facebook better.

QuantCast Reports 68% of Visits are Addicts

In early 2004, young Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook (previously thefacebook.com) with 2 of his mates. Initially starting at Harvard University, it went on to expand rapidly as other colleges & universities adopted the idea. Of course, one of the many things about higher education is the importance of networking. Undergraduates wanted to be ‘in’. And many students wanted to check out the hottest, coolest people around campus. So from pure social or peer pressure, Facebook spread like wildfire.

Last fall as I taught Internet Marketing at BYU we learned that a UCLA survey showed that 50% of college age females said Facebook was their #1 most important web site (even more than Google, Wikipedia, or anything else) and that 1/3 of college age males said it was their #1
- Paul Allen, in his post: Prediction: Facebook will be the largest social network in the world.

Today, Facebook is already profitable, a membership growing 3% daily (100,000 new members), 6th most popular site online, and stands to make around $100m this year. Yes, this 3 year old company is already profitable, and is worth Billions. And it has barely scratched the international market. The community is the prize of any commercial enterprise. The educated 20-35 year old consumers.

Just like Status Messages on your favourite IM Software

COMMUNICATIONS
With the wide variety of tools: Facebook is exceptional in keeping your family & friends updated. Before I briefly explain to you the many features, I have to explain the concept of the ‘mini-feed’. The mini-feed is an event log of everything you do on the Facebook network. If you reply to a post in the forum, change your status message, upload new pictures, or simply updating your favourite movie list – all this will be syndicated for all your friends to see.

The Mini-Feed collects your facebook activities, then this data filtered by your privacy settings before it’s aggregated out as information.

Also note that Facebook is also on the mobile platform at m.facebook.com.

Badges
On the right column of my blog, there is a Facebook badge that I display only my status message. You can make many badges in facebook, and choose what you want to display: Pictures, Recent Posts, Name, Contact Info, and more. I also use this badge in a forum where I am an active part of.

Recently my status was; “Nicholas is looking for a good book to read” – And I got a few great recommendations from friends. Neat!

Messages
Inbox messages is managed like a forum – it’s threaded. As your friends reply to your message, that reply wouldn’t be a new message, the reply will just be below your original message. This means less clutter in your inbox. So you can go on and on about a subject, and it’s all considered ‘one message’ within your inbox.

Discussion Boards
Being part of a network or group means you have the ability to network with other people. Within this, there is the discussion board. Here there are many topics of discussion, and is a great place to meet new people.

Groups
These are your interest groups. You can join as many of these groups as you want. Facebook has many groups started by the community, and if you want: Start your own. Some companies have setup official groups there already. If you’re a member, you can check the official Apple group. Maybe join the; “A Group For People With Really Hairy Legs”.

Networks
When you register with Facebook, you have the option of registering yourself with a network. You can only be in one regional network at a time – for me that’s Malaysia. I can of course change this. There are also, high school, college, and work networks. Being in a network means you’re part of the bigger picture, and your main friend list will only show friends of that region – no, this doesn’t mean that your international friends are deleted. They just aren’t prominently displayed.

Being in a network allows you to have discussions, meet people, maybe meet up for events, and allow you use of the network marketplace – classifieds feature. Being a part of a work network in a large international corporation also means you get to meet all your colleagues worldwide.

Timeline
The Social Timeline allows you to see who you know, how you met, for how long, and where you met.

Unless you don’t have a social life

Poking
Within there’s a feature called “poke” which essentially allows you to “poke” another person. The person you are poking will get information in their main Facebook page (not profile) that he or she was poked by you. Many use this (mundane) feature; just for fun, to say hello, and has been thought of as sexual advancement. *poke* *poke*

PRIVACY CONCERNS
With all these ways to communicate, it is highly essential to have a good privacy system in place. Identity theft is a serious problem, and you can protect yourself by arming yourself with some tips, and having a little patience in adjusting the settings on Facebook. Watch out your;

  • Date of Birth
  • Telephone, Mobile, Fax Numbers
  • Home address
  • Maybe your Instant Messaging account

It’s not that you shouldn’t show it. It’s about only allowing genuine friends to access these critical information about yourself. So do be careful, and don’t accept every random stranger as a friend.
Don’t worry, Facebook’s privacy system is very well done to protect your interests – not all your friends will see the same information. Some just more than others.

PLATFORM STRATEGY

Facebook is an intuitive site developed dynamically. This means members can, edit & save on the fly, drag-n-drop content around – including the left text navigation links.

However, the biggest achievement in Facebook is it’s platform. The platform allows developers to produce their own content for the Facebook website. This means 2 key things;

Regulations
Facebook is customizable. But without any guidelines Facebook will turn into MySpace Hell #2. MySpace is a good networking site, but the problem is too many people think their designers. In fact, many of these people love the ‘elements’ they have on the page, but doesn’t mean they actually love the design on their page.

Seen these on MySpace ?

  • Bright, patterned backgrounds, with transparent profile information ontop.
  • Blasting music, and a video running at the same time when you visit.
  • Links are replaced by icons that only the profile owner knows where it links to.
  • Huge oversized animating images. Your browser’s horizontal bar is now showing, and it’s long.
  • Bad coding. Your browser’s horizontal bar is now even longer. With the platform system Facebook has implemented, there is atleast a predefined grid to be used.

No one expresses these points like the WineKone…

Futureproofing
As more developers continue to explore the platform, and as Facebook continues to improve on it: The Facebook community will be happy to know there is always something new. Facebook’s unique platform strategy makes it a very powerful force to be reckoned with. As internet entrepreneur Paul Allen commented;

I sat on the third row and drank deeply of the kool-aid as Mark Zuckerberg, who turned 23 years old just 11 days ago, presented what may be the best business opportunity for internet entrepreneurs in the past ten years
- Paul Allen, in his post: Prediction: Facebook will be the largest social network in the world.

Both official Apps & 3rd Party Apps allows you to control your privacy

Facebook is designed very well, and it’s minimalistic, yet dynamic interface has won the hearts of many people. It has made social networking fun, and the many apps allows developers to profit, and gain recognition. Companies are already adopting this platform for many initiatives.

Just like corporate blogs, official groups in Facebook greatly enhances the brand and relationship companies have with the public. It is the right corporate philosophy.

Facebook has alot to live for.

*poke*

 

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