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The new-face-of-social
- 1. The new face of “social” April 15, 2011 © Copyright 2010 TokBox, Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential & Proprietary - Page
- 2. YouTube blog Social media community viral networking two-way communication forum people relationships group twitter facebook fans followers marketing
- 4. Source: Nielsen July 2010
- 5. Source: Nielsen April 2009 % trusted completely or somewhat
- 16. How OpenTok works OpenTok is a set of JavaScript or Action Script APIs that enable developers to create unique online experiences. They can: … Configure size, placement, movement of the video streams … Give each user a unique viewpoint onto the same conversation … Move between “watcher” and “participant” roles; scale to large gatherings … Stream the conversation across multiple pages and sites at once … All without a user download And it’s free © Copyright 2010 TokBox, Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential & Proprietary - Page
Editor's Notes
- What does social mean to you? By just asking a random handful of people you get a wide range of responses
- People come back with responses ranging from synonyms to social activities and then, inevitably, mention social networks and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Many of these responses you would not have got 2 years ago, let alone 5 years ago. The very meaning of social is changing in front of our eyes. So how has it changed, why is it changing and what does it mean and does it matter for marketers and product designers and developers?
- To understand how it has changed, we need to go back to the original meaning of social. Here are the two dictionary definitions. Clearly the original meaning centers around community interaction. The key is that it is within peers, or a community and that communication is fundamental.
- It’s already clear to see that the word social has become far more loaded with the advent of more and more “social” technologies and platforms. And that shouldn’t be a surprise. Social networking now takes up 22% of consumers time online according to Nielsen (there are reputedly over 250 social networks today) with other social activities like email and IM another 15%. In a marketer and product designers bid to get greater share of mind, more engagement and more time onsite they are inevitably going to look at trends in consumer behavior and capitalize on them where they can.
- Furthermore, both product designers and marketers know they value of tapping in to these social networks. Recommendations from friends remains the single most trusted source of information and a key driver in purchase decisions.
- But what these two facts mean is “social” has become the bandwagon that everyone has jumped on, very often without strategic direction or any regard for its real power when used correctly. As a result, the meaning of social has, to some extent got lost in translation. One of the clearest examples of how the meaning has got lost in translation is social media. Social media has become its own term meaning “using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques” according to wikipedia. Whereas the roots of social are interactive, amongst peers and personal, media is predominantly one way/broadcast and comes from an authority such as a news outlet or a brand. This is nowhere more obvious than when you look at some examples of brands leveraging social media and also some of the ways in which social tools/platforms get integrated in to web experiences.
- First of all, some examples of marketers use of social media. American Idol for example, has over 5m fans, but little community interaction. Either amongst fans or from the brand to the community base. Interestingly in the case of American Idol, their use of Twitter is more grassroots and social as they have individual contestants interacting with their fans. Similarly, taking a look at Vogue magazine and their use of Twitter. They have over 175k fans and have only tweeted 450 times. Ultimately, it appears that brands are building a following but not fostering a dialogue or a community
- Now for a look at social interactions integrated in to product experiences. All too often you simply it reduced to basic integrations with Facebook Connect as a means of authentication, and the like button as a means of “viral” marketing. You import your entire social graph, when perhaps you only want a subset. You click on the “Like” button and it goes no further – there is no feedback loop or interaction with the brand
- To summarize, real-world social interactions are a dialogue often live, amongst specific networks and always in the context of activities or content. Today, all too often, social interactions are more broadcast than two way, it goes out mass to your entire social network, they are asynchronous and almost always siloed from activities or content.
- So, I am not pretending that I have the silver bullet, but I do have some thought starters. “ Be authentic” – you need to be a peer within your community, not the authority figure. Communicate from an individual not a corporate/brand perspective. Think Frank at Comcast “ Create an ongoing dialogue” – It’s a 24/7 job. You can’t tweet and then disappear, you need to engage in the dialogue “ Let go” – as brand marketers we are often brand protectionists. In order to be genuine we need to let the conversation unfold naturally, as we would in any real world social situation “ Create meaningful connections” – enable people to select within their social graph “ Connect community and content” – incorporate the whole twitter conversation, not just the outbound tweets. Make your community discussion part of or integral to your content “ Make it happen real time” – conversations happen real time and quickly become irrelevant.
- One of the ways we believe you can achieve some of these goals is using OpenTok, TokBox’s video chat platform that lets product designers, marketers, developers weave live gorup video chat in to online experiences. Here are some real examples of OpenTok integrations: TubeIt (tubeit.opentok.com) – enables friends to share content (YouTube videos) and discuss them real time Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (www.meetmeunderthemistletoe.com) – “kiss” your friends under the mistletoe, capture the moment for posterity and share it TrendTok – Connects trending twitter topics and live video chat. Imagine if this had been possible when the unrest erupted in Egypt The Overload Show – a talkshow where the presenters and audience interact 5. Chat with the Band
- One of the ways we believe you can achieve some of these goals is using OpenTok, TokBox’s video chat platform that lets product designers, marketers, developers weave live gorup video chat in to online experiences. Here are some real examples of OpenTok integrations: TubeIt (tubeit.opentok.com) – enables friends to share content (YouTube videos) and discuss them real time Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (www.meetmeunderthemistletoe.com) – “kiss” your friends under the mistletoe, capture the moment for posterity and share it TrendTok – Connects trending twitter topics and live video chat. Imagine if this had been possible when the unrest erupted in Egypt The Overload Show – a talkshow where the presenters and audience interact 5. Chat with the Band
- Some ideas for leveraging social platforms and technologies to do it