Dawn of the Smartphone

It is possible to draw a line between the growth of social networking and the dawn of the smartphone. Mobiles have become steadily more advanced over the years, but whereas in the past the focus was on ever-improving hardware, these days people are more concerned with the software and connectivity options offered by mobiles. Smartphones are no longer the preserve of the most affluent users, because even pay as you go models can go online and even connect via Wi-Fi networks using dedicated browser software.

The growth of social media on the mobile platform has been fuelled by the popularisation of applications, which in itself has only come to the attention of mainstream users thanks to the success of the Apple iPhone (and the enormous growth of Android) and its various iterations. Users of Facebook access the site in their hundreds of millions from dedicated apps or via mobile web browsers each and every month and it is regularly the most visited mobile site on the planet according to mobile browser developer Opera.

Multimedia on Mobiles

The multimedia features of mobiles are also taken into account by social networking functions, with most phones coming with built in cameras which can shoot video and stills that the user can then upload directly to their social networking profile or to video sharing sites like YouTube. This allows users to instantly transmit the latest information from their life in a visual manner, distributed to a potential audience of billions around the globe. Location-based social networking services like Foursquare, Google Latitude and Facebook places have also only become possible because of the GPS technology which is commonly integrated into even the low to mid range mobiles of the modern era.

Mobile phone manufacturers now choose to hardwire social media and social networking features into mobile phones, rather than forcing the user to rely on third party apps which must be accessed separately, disrupting the natural flow. The likes of Motorola`s MotoBLUR, HTC`s FriendStream and Sony Ericsson`s MediaScape are all examples of how the disparate threads of different social networking services are being drawn together so users can get all of their notifications and in a single place. It is also significant that the three examples of cross-platform mobile social media services given above are all built on mobiles running the Google Android operating system, which is fast becoming the go-to software for consumers who want a low cost way to stay in touch when they are out and about.

According to fonerbooks.com that implies that the book is selling just under 300 books per week on Amazon.com alone based on the graph (below) and multiplying a factor of three (as suggested by) Morris:

“Amazon announced in July of 2010 that Kindle sales are running 3X the rate of the first half of 2009, so you may want to triple the numbers on the sales/week axis below”

Thanks to everyone who has bought the book and thanks for the support! If you haven’t bought a copy, you can download a free first chapter of the book.

Microsoft Office suite

Google Docs

The question I am trying to ask myself is why would someone using Google Docs for say less than three years be interested in migrating to SkyDrive? There is a OneNote document feature, which is different but possible a glorified Google Document? I am probably judging Microsoft without giving them a fair chance.

I would love to know what are the next steps for Windows to improve their SkyDrive offering? How can brands and developers use their web apps? What would be it’s unique selling point (USP) in the next 3-5 years?

Yesterday Google released it’s new social media aggregator, Buzz. Bizarrely, looks very similar to FriendFeed, saw Techcrunch was reporting that as well. This is not Google’s first attempt to integrate their service in a FriendFeed style system. Google Wave was certainly on a similar track. Although Wave has a major disadvantage that it doesn’t allow user’s to integrate it with their existing email services. So users can only use it amongst Wave users and can’t receive emails.

Releasing Buzz is really interesting because:

1. Google has access to a massive audience who could use a service like FriendFeed, through Gmail.
2. Google has launched the service mainly with it’s own content (YouTube, Google Chat etc). Helps Google distribute and help users discover a new Google product.

Facebook (with their acquisition of FriendFeed) will be watching this very closely.

Hardware and electronics have seen the 47% cuts on other online advertising, biggest in percentage, although social media advertising has risen by 56%.  So harware stores like Halfords and B&Q prefer to advertise on Facebook and LinkedIn as oppose to ITV.com and  Guardian.co.uk. Below is an analysis of why we are seeing these changes and why social media advertising is becoming so

Pros of SMA:

1. Social Media advertisements are more engaging.

Have you seen Facebook advertising? It allows you to conduct polls and get users to like your advertisement. If the user likes the advert (and clicks on the thumbs up icon), it automatically tells their friends that someone they know has endorsed the ad. It’s great way for your friends to recommend products and brands to you.

Also, if the user doesn’t find the advertisements relevant, they can click on the close button and that will stop advertisements similar to the ones displayed earlier. Saving advertisers money by targeting relevant people and making users happy about the adverts they see.

2. More targeted.

Click to enlarge

Social Media advertisers on Facebook can target a niche, in the example I’m looking to target executve vice presidents and executive directors who live in the UK. What’s great is that it gives me an estimate on number of people in this category in real time. I can no loosen the criteria to get more people to see my campaign or vice versa.

You can target your audience by their location, age, sexuality, job roles, music genre preference, political views, books they read, authors they like, etc. That sort of pin point accuracy is very hard to achieve on other sites and even search engines.

3. Larger communities for large campaigns.

Social networks have a larger audience than most of the other sites. This is fantastic, if the mission of your advertisement is brand awareness. For example if you are looking to target corporate or business owners, it might strike you that LinkedIn has 5.4million active members versus other business publications with an online presence.For instance WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal) has 3million, Forbes.com 2.9million and BusinessWeek 1.3million. If you are looking to target a wider audience (niche or generic), sites like LinkedIn provide you with a huge opportunity.

4. Social media are the search engines of tomorrow.

As the search engine market is maturing, users are increasingly realising that most sites on the front two pages are highly optimised sites. Mainly owned by large publications, who pay a lot to get on the front two pages of major search engines. It doesn’t work for them when they are looking to get opinions on ‘How to get a graduate job’, ‘Which car to buy’ etc. They need forums  and real user feedback on questions they ask. Social Media allows users to achieve that as a conversation and not a broadcast as forums, groups, blogs etc.

5. Better User Experience.

Social Media’s success is based on good online technology coupled with intuitive usability, making lives simpler for the end user. We usually find social media easier to use than the average software or website. Less clutter and making sure the user is happy, this is the reason why you don’t require a manual to use social networking sites. Better user experience also means that punters are more informed, for instance they know the advertisement areas on the site and if they are interested, they would follow the adverts through. Some websites disguise the advertising areas and as a result users click on it, to realise that they have been redirected to another site.

Another aspect to it is connecting Facebook advertisements to your corporate Facebook Pages. Many users on clicking an advertisement want to stay on the same platform, typically on clicking on an advert, on search engine you go to a new website for which you might need to register or login. With Facebook you can develop a page and have a related advertisement on the site. It’s a great way to get user engagement and brand awareness.

Cons of Social Media Advertising

1. SMA is Interrupted Advertising.

Most social media sites like Myspace, YouTube, Bebo etc have advertisements which are placed around profiles, inbox, multimedia pages etc. As a busy user the chances are that you overlook the adverts are high. On the flip side sites like Myspace where advertisements include flashy banners, distracts users from their social networking experience, causing anger and frustration. Hence I often think of some social networking sites as experts in interrupted advertising, more often than not, users ignore them.

2. Timing of Advertisement.

Search engines are great for advertising because generally when you are looking for a product or a service you go on to a site like Google and type to find typical costs, suppliers, best practices etc. When it comes to social networks the chances are that advertisements are not relevant to you at the time, even though you are the right demographic.

Unfortunately social media sites won’t be able to put advertisements on their searches as Overture Inc. a paid search specialist pioneered the bid-for-placement mechanism. In July 2001, the US patent office issued Overture a patent for the mechanism.Patent 6,269,361; also known as the ’361 patent, essentially covered all AdWords like business models.

Conclusion

Looking at all the pros and cons of social network advertising, my conclusion is that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. Social networking is barely 8 years old and SMA even younger. There are new platforms like Spotify popping up who are revolutionising the way we advertise and engage with audience on social media. Facebook is certainly the leader in innovative social network advertising, I’m sure we’ll see much more from them in the coming years.

If you are wondering what’s Google Wave, check out this video:

If you are a member of the group, please contact me with your email address.

So what does it do?

The application is puts your conversation in a simple readable format. Let me explain: When you are sending a typical email. You might write multiple questions, the responder then quotes your response and replies. Its messy and fairly time consuming. Another scenario is where you are twittering a question and all your pals reply via @username. If you are smart enough you will be using a tools like Tweetdeck, if so you still need to sieve through each response to see if they are replying to your question or just making a comment.

Nurphy keeps all conversations in one place:

Just like Google Wave you can add someone at a later stage and read all the conversations you have had in the past, something you can’t do via email or twitter. You can also Fork a conversation i.e. branch your conversation which needs further discussion.

Nurphy also has good privacy features and best of all its simple, the founders have followed KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) to the letter.

5 Reasons why you should be supporting Nurphy

• Nurphy is a simple tool which can really help increase your business productivity.
• It allows you to have control over your conversations and make it easy to track them.
• Nurphy is founded by two entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping the build and have done a fantastic job at it.
• The app has been covered in New York Times and Read Write Web, shows the credibility of the app and founders.
• I think it’s a fine example of European ingenuity where it’s about being creative and thinking logically.

If you get your social media strategy correct there are ten things you can get out of it:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), listing your brand higher on search engines.
2. Connecting and engaging with customers on your website and other properties.
3. Increasing penetration by allowing customers to consume and engage with you on mobiles and social web.
4. Acquire, convert and retain your community.
5. Monetising not only your core product but your social media offering.
6. Tracking your social media success.
7. Review company’s current social media performance and map it against it’s vision and mission.
8. Constantly learning about customer behaviour and how they are interacting with your brand.
9. How social meda advertising is working and how it compares with Search Engine Advertising.
10. Impact of Social Media Optimisation and how that can transform your business.

Related articles

• Why do big brands slack on SEO? Insurance Analysis (seocowboy.co.za)
• How To Become A Social Media Master Without Going Broke (socialmediatoday.com)
• Social Media buzz phrases and what does it mean to your mum (rajanand.biz)
• RajAnand.biz Social Media Consultant

Reception

Team Space (Discussions and chill out)

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Workstation

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Foyer

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Canteen

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Conference Room

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Twitter offices from Techcrunch.com (link)