360DigitalInfluence

Last week was chock full of announcements that changed the landscape in the ever-evolving partnership between brands, social networks, and game developers.
A few of the more intriguing story lines were:

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Mashable this week posted about the low numbers of teens on Twitter.  The post invited readers to weigh in on why they thought this was (e.g. they’re too private, they prefer texting, etc) – once the comment count spilled into the hundreds, Mashable wrote a follow up post further analyzing the issue.

At the risk of throwing my hat into an already crowded ring, here’s why I think Twitter sees low adoption among teens:  Teenagers, for the most part, do not yet posses weak social ties – the very connections that fuel nearly all of twitter’s growth. continue reading

Updated with slight correction from Chris Pan at Facebook.

More from The Word of Mouth Marketing Association University (WOMMA-U, Twitter #WOMMA).

Day 2 kicks off with a panel that is very much top-of-mind for many social media marketers … MySpace vs. Facebook (or both).  Empowered by a healthy dose of morning caffeine I will attempt to live-blog the panel (as such, please pardon my grammar).

The panelists are Heidi Browning, SVP, Insight & Planning, MySpace and Chris Pan, Head of Brand Solutions, Faceboook.  The panel is moderated by David Berkowitz, 360i.

Audiences:

• MySpace: 18-34 is sweet-spot.  125 million worldwide users
• Facebook: 60 million active users in US; 200 million (thanks, Chris Pan of Facebook for the correction) 100 active globally (active = have logged in the past 3 days)

Best practices for working with MySpace and Facebook:

• Know your audience.  Bring your challenge to MySpace and Facebook and they will help you understand your audience’s behavior on the network and how to reach them.
• Brands should strive to be entertaining, engaging or offer some kind of utility.
• Convenience is key.  Users are busy -  make it easy for them to find, consume and share your content.
• Make your profile picture interesting and captivating (see Aflac or Cheetos for good examples).
• Beta mentality … your page doesn’t have to be perfect at launch.  It’s a continuous process, not a one-time event.
• Use their resources:  MySpace created their ad platform to give musicians and small businesses a self-promotion tool.  It’s simple to use, but MySpace also has service representatives to help monitor a brand’s presence on MySpace if the brand doesn’t have the bandwidth.  Facebook also has a sales team that can help brands plus-up their presence with different products and consultation on best practices.
• Yes, marketers should look at social networks as a continuum, but shouldn’t get too caught up in the semantics of campaign vs. conversation.  Use the community tools to create dialogue in between key announcements and product releases.

Measurement

• MySpace looks at the momentum effect …  the value of WOM.  Using a combination of behavioral and survey technology to measure the effect.
• Facebook provides a lot of tools to track engagement - comments on posts, page ratings, etc.

Mistakes marketers make working with Social networks

• Thinking of a your page/presence as something static
• Too consumed with making it perfect right off the bat - be in perpetual beta
• Using canned ads in social networks when these communities offer such rich user targeting data

Other panel notes:

• Vitamin Water distributed 24 million bottles of water with caps that drove to MySpace for access to music and other musical content.  This promotion is being supported by above-the-line tactics.  Music is a big driver of MySpace activity.
• Chris showed Vitamin Water’s presence on Facebook.  The brand used a Kobe vs. Lebron theme, which Chris says was very well received.  Currently 334,000 fans (Facebook estimates that about half those fans would be on Facebook on any given day).
• Chris pointed out that when social data is added to ad content on Facebook (e.g. Your friend Bob likes this video) it’s more well received.
• Chris compared a microsite to a “farm” (a place you visit occasionally); a Facebook page as a “convenience store;” and Facebooks ads as the “delivery service.”
• Jack Bauer has more Facebook fans than “24.” “Gossip Girl” more than the CW.
• Social networks can be used for B2B marketing.  You can target by industry, geography, function, etc.
• Marketers can go here and here to see what other marketers are doing on these networks
• Both MySpace and Facebook will collaborate with brands to maximize their presence.