Social Networks: The Power of the Collective
According to Evans, understanding how network organization affects the flow of information is central to your successfully making the case for social media within your organization. That being said, Evans lists three laws which govern the use and value of social networks as well as the Social Web. They are as follows:
- Sarnoff’s Law- Named after the founder of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), David Sarnoff, this law holds that the value of the network increases in direct proportion to the number of listeners. So, for example, in a typical broadcast, a single voice is sent out to millions of listeners. Therefore, a network with 100 people is 10 times as valuable.
- Metcalfe’s Law- Named for Robert Metcalfe, one of the co-inventors of Ethernet and founder of the networking firm 3Com, this law states that the network value grows as the square of the number of users. For example, people can talk in both directions and with more than one conversation occurring simultaneously.
- Reed’s Law- Named for David P. Reed, this law is also known as the “Law of the Pack” and holds that the value of the network grows more powerfully than either Sarnoff or Metcalfe would suggest with the formation of groups and the interconnections between them. This law is most applicable to how we view social networks today.
Social Media Begins Here
Social media is about ordinary people trying to reach out to one another via groups and communities that are formed on the Web. This is why social networking is so effective. People are constantly sharing information with one another- more often than traditional forms of media (i.e. television and radio, etc.). Marketers are also beginning to recognize the value of social networking because as Evans stated:
These highly interconnected social networks are equally perceived as effective in vetting that information, and it is the combined impact that makes social networks along with user-generated content and social meedia so powerful from a consumer’s perspective. They are using these networks to evaluate everything you say.
Evans Wraps it Up With the Following
- Social media derives its value simultaneously from the collective and the individual, not the mass. This is a reversal of traditional marketing and creative models where a single message is crafted and pushed out to a mass audience.
- Network Value-that is, how efficiently it supports sharing and collaboration-is determined by the way in which members are connected. Networks that follow Reed’s Law- where members are free to form groups and connections between themselves and these groups- are the types of networks of most interest to social media marketers.
- The touchpoint map and social feedback cycle are central to the successful application of social media.
- RSS allows content to be scheduled for delivery. This is much better than having to go and check on it. RSS powers much of the Social Web.
- Social networks are part of, but not the same as, social media and the Social Web.
May 04 2009 | Reviews (non-paid) and Social Media | No Comments »
Word-of-mouth, from a consumer, is generally considered trustworthy. But what about when the source is a marketer? How can you use word-of-mouth in your own campaigns? There is a basic, healthy human skepticism present whenever someone is making the case for why you need what he or she is selling. -Dave Evans
The other night, I was in bed watching a television program. As soon as the program broke to commercials, I got up and went to get a snack before returning. When I saw that the program still hadn’t returned, I busied myself with other things. What I was doing was what Evans refers to as filtering. Filtering, or separating what we need to know from what we don’t care to know- is something that is ingrained in us as humans. So, are the commercials a waste of marketing dollars? No. Chances are that there is someone out there who LOVES to sit through commercials. However, if you think about it, the number of people who cannot stand to be interrupted with ads is numerous and growing each day. After all, that’s why the DVR was invented, right? You cannot discuss marketing, advertising or commercials without mentioning the “A” word: Avoidance. As human beings and consumers in a free market, we are growing less tolerant of what we deem to be an encroachment upon our personal lives at the hands of marketers, ad agencies and general salespeople.
Building Trust & Getting the “Word” Out
Remember that saying, “honesty is the best policy”? Well, it still holds true today- the thing is that many “marketing experts” fail to realize this. They think that if they tell consumers what they’re up to that the consumer won’t want to consume anything that they have to offer. Tsk Tsk! On the contrary, transparency is of the utmost importance because it helps you to build a valuable relationship with other people. And as we all know, you can’t build a solid relationship with anyone if you don’t trust them.
In marketing, one of the most powerful things you can do is establish trust with the consumer by disclosing exactly what you’re about. As Evans stated:
If I am willing to disclose my own self-interest, then there is good reason to consider ‘truthful’ the balance of what I might say.
Being Transparent
According to Evans, part of the main reason that there has been a backlash against traditional advertising (giving way to the rise of the Social Web) is because people are sick of the intrustions, falsehoods and the general lack of respect for the individual. The Social Web takes media and advertising in a whole new direction because the consumers control the conversations. For example, if you buy a vacuum cleaner from a certain store and then it breaks down, there’s a good chance that you’re going to head straight for the Internet to write a review about it. Similarly, when consumers are preparing to buy products, more of them are reading each others online reviews before making a decision.
As a marketer, being transparent is incredibly important. You can’t stop consumers from talking about you or your product (whether good or bad), so why not embrace it and make the most out of the situation? Evans suggests that it’s when the advertising and marketing is low-key or quiet that the “trust” factor is the highest. For example, according to Evans, a company might say:
Here, I made this. It’s for sale. Buy it and try it out. If you like it, great. If not, you can give it back and I will refund 100 percent of your money.
Some examples of companies who have done quite well with these types of word-of-mouth campaigns include the likes of: Starbucks, Red Bull, Hotmail and Amazon.
According to Evans:
- Marketers are facing a dilemma: Giving up control in order to gain a presence in the conversations that matter.
- It is the interruption that is driving the backlash that advertisers are feeling.
- The importance of disclosure as a means to establish trust cannot be overstated.
- Trust is essential to any form of conversation on the Social Web.
- Robust metrics and measurement are available that can be used to track and prove the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of social campaigns
April 20 2009 | Marketing and Reviews (non-paid) | 2 Comments »
I’ve just started reading a book entitled Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day by Dave Evans. And over the course of the next few weeks, as I finish a new chapter, I’m going to try to incorporate it into a blog post for discussion.
Chapter 1- The Backlash
Person-to-person connections have always been valued. In the first chapter of Evans’ book, he goes into detail about how social networks came about with the introduction of the Internet as well as the impact of advertising on consumers.
The Internet that many of us are familiar with today would probably not have come about if it wasn’t for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in conjunction with the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET). According to Evans, it was the NSF who championed the cause of an “open” Internet- in other words a network that any entity (whether it be a person or business) could use for any purpose. However, problems would later arise.
Pushing Too Hard
To the average consumer, people who work in advertising and those who work in marketing are one in the same: sales people. Any time you turn on the television and try to watch your favorite show, unless you have a DVR or have otherwise pre-recorded the program, you’ll more than likely end up sitting through commercials that wind up being as long as the program! The challenge in advertising on television is to target a particular message to the viewer. However, the ability to succesfully do so is infinitely limited. Looking back, when television was fairly new, commercials made up less than ten minutes of each one hour show. However, today commercials have doubled- perhaps tripled that. Don’t believe me? Take a look at all of the hoopla that is involved with Super Bowl ads!
If you ask any relatively sane person what their opinion is on commercials, they’ll tell you how much they can’t stand them. After all, that’s why the DVR was invented, right? Well, in the same way that commercials were beginning to intrude on people’s ability to enjoy television programs, a similar thread was happening with the Internet. The arrival of spam brought about many issues. Here was this network in which people could communicate and exchange ideas freely, targeting specific people in their niche, and now their conversations were being interrupted by pop up messages while their email inboxes were filling up with emails from people they didn’t even know who were trying to sell them something. Keeping this in mind, Evan states:
In their purest form, all conversations are participative and engaged in by choice. This simple premise goes a long way in explaining why interruption and deception on the Social Web are so violently rejected.
All of the aforementioned items have played (and continue to play) a vital role in how social media is evolving. Consumers are in control of what content gets shared; not the advertisers and marketers. Need evidence? DVRs were introduced so that consumers could skip over the annoying advertisements that were disrupting their programs. And let’s not forget about telephone marketing. If you’ll recall, in 2003 the telemarketing industry felt the backlash of consumer control as the Do Not Call Implementation Act passed. In summation, Evans highlights several points related to this media backlash below:
According to Evans:
- The emerging role of the individual as a source of information which is then used to influence purchase decisions is increasing as the role of the marketer and traditional media programmer in establishing the primary advertising is lessening.
- The “backlash” developed when the practice of pushing ads to consumers moved to the digital platform, which consumers have control over.
- Trust is essential if you want to succeed as a marketer.
April 15 2009 | Reviews (non-paid) and Social Media and Social Media News and Social Networking | 3 Comments »
