Social Media and Its Impact on
Consumer Behavior*
(*as of 7pm on 11.12.2007)
Ian Schafer
CEO & Founder, Deep Focus

1997: i-traffic

1999: Miramax Films

2002: Deffe FOCU
Creative. Media. Publicity & Public Relations.
Branded Entertainment. Social Media Strategies.

Web 1.0
Connecting people to information.

Web 2.0
Connecting people to
each other.

Web 3.0
Everything is connected.

Web 2.5
Where we’re at.

1955: Mass media influences travel through opinion leaders.
Individuals then spread, confirm or negate the messages of
advertisers through their own “social relationships”.
-- Elihu Katz & Paul Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence

1999: Markets are conversations. “A powerful global
conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are
discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant
knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are
getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most
companies.”
-- Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David
Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto

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Diffusion of Innovation (Information)

The Social Graph

The Social Graph

The Social Graph

Google’s OpenSocial
Opening the Social Graph via
the combination of interoperable open platforms.
Any social networking/media property can be a “container” that apps
can run within.

Facebook’s Pages, Beacon, & Social Ads
Maximizing the power of the Social Graph by
(partially) opening a closed platform/container. Apps can live on
Facebook only, but information flow happens via interactions with
other properties.

More information = better Leveraging of the social
experience. graph for advertising
gains.
Is your privacy an
illusion? How far is too far?

Will I continue to divulge
personal information,
even if it makes my
experience a better one?

How can we exploit all this information that
consumers are willing to divulge?

Why would I want to
become “a fan” of a
brand, even for a minute?

Why would a consumer want to become “a
lifelong fan” of our brand?

Why would I ever want to
endorse a brand to my
friends?

How can we get the most influential consumers
to endorse our brand to their friends?

What’s with all these “friend
requests”? I don’t even know
these people! Whatever.
[ACCEPT], [ACCEPT],
[ACCEPT], [ACCEPT].

Look how many friends these influencers have!
If we can just get them to love and champion
our brand, think about how popular we’d be!

The definition of “friendship” is getting more
complicated (and maybe diluted), especially when
brands are involved.
Managing our social lives is getting more complex.
Consumers have never been more generous in the
divulging of personal information.
Managing relationships with consumers has never
been more difficult for brands.

Consumers have an implied contract with social media
properties.
Advertisers have an implied contract with consumers.
Can the two co-exist, or will we have to re-draft
these contracts completely?

Website | www.deep-focus.net
Blog | www.IanSchafer.com
Email | ian@deep-focus.net