Visa Card creates a Facebook Community for Small Business clients via a dedicated application. They have created a 'one-stop' business service online community.

Check out their page and their introduction video. Interesting to see Facebook themselves appear on the video to explain how businesses can use Facebook to create 'fans', advertise and promote business.

Great example of the power of YouTube to help disseminate information to a global audience through word-of-mouth and viral marketing.

Johnny Lee is a researcher in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. In this TedTalk he shows his work at applying innovative ideas using low cost objects.

What is equally impressive is how fast news of his work has spread globally, the level of interest and the speed of a commercial application of one of his inventions.

Research has just been published into the cascade or 'echo chamber' effect having an action orientated impact within a social media community (Source: Washington Post via WOMMA).

The researchers were looking at group behaviours relating to people stopping smoking. It seems that group behaviour spreads within the group very quickly causing many in the group to stop smoking. As they say:

'...the influence of a single person quitting nevertheless appeared to cascade through three degrees of separation, boosting the chance of quitting by nearly a third for people two degrees removed from one another.

"It could be your co-worker's spouse's friend or your brother's spouse's co-worker or a friend of a friend of a friend. The point is, your behavior depends on people you don't even know.....Your actions are partially affected by the actions of people who are beyond your social horizon but in the broader network...'

What does this mean for corporates?

Imagine creating a group or community around your products or services and communicating to them. Influence some of the group and as a result they recommend or comment positively about you to their friends. In turn those people tell their friends. In effect your message has reached three levels. Not everyone will contact all their friends. Nor will their friends mention it to their friends too. But as this research shows a lot will. Enough to cascade down the community.

Let's take a practical example and do the maths. Poundland has a blog where it posts details of its special offers and product availability. They have over 200 Facebook friends and blog subscribers. From research it is known that the average number of 'friends' these people have is 100 each. that gives an 'Opportunity to Influence' (OTI) of 20,000 (200 friends with an average of 100 friends each). If we extend the OTI one level more we end up with 2 million (20,000 x 100). The actual numbers will vary depending on the nature and popularity of the recommendation. But even with a lowish number it is easy to see how a viral campaign take off or why social networking campaigns should be of interest to companies.

Business Week article on how IBM is using Social Networking tools to improve employee internal communication and knowledge sharing.

Many companies are banning employees use of social networking software such as Facebook. When you look at what companies such as IBM and others are doing you can see the longer term strategic advantage they will have.

An interesting article about the Barack Obama campaign and its use of social networking tools to engage with and motivate a community to action. In this case it is supporting and helping to fund his campaign. Whilst UK political parties could take note it also has lessons for business in terms of an outreach programme for both employees and customers.

News here of two charities using social media platforms to create 'communities of interest'. Two interesting points. The use by charities of social networking platforms and mutual co-operation.

Charities know that people who give to one charity are likely to continue to support them. Equally other charities focussed on similar good causes are lilkely to be supported by those same people. By linking two complimentary charities there will operational efficiencies and an ability to target donors with a propensity to support both. The item of focus is sometimes called the social object. The product or service that people can identify with.

For commercial organisations it is sometimes not easy to visualise 'communities of interest' or what the social object will be. Fanatics, fans, followers and friends exist for almost everything. Name it and a group is likely to exist. As a company the challenge is finding those groups and plugging into them by listening and joining in the ongoing conversation.

It is not 'in-your-face' interrupt marketing and PR but participating and releasing information the community requests, in a format they find useful. It is building a rapport with them and finding out what you can help them with. For many organisations that will sound a lot like 1to1 marketing and CRM and in many ways it is, but without the expensive software. But it is still a cultural shift for many organisations. Remember 30 years ago the adverts for the Midland Bank - the listening bank? That is what organisations need to become. Many have outsourced many of the customer facing functions. Customer service and customer support is now often outsourced and if not they are not usually integrated into marketing. These are not usually 'barriers' the customers want or enjoy using. They want to engage with the company direct. 

You will find members of your communities are only too eager to help you by making useful suggestions (not always what you want to hear!) on what you can do to improve your customer service or product By monioring the internet buzz you will find out just what people think about you. By engaging with your online community you will be able to get a 365/24 feedback on how you are doing.

Further to my earlier post here is Will McInnes take on the meeting giving much more detail in his blog post about the aims and work-in-progress of the group and how others can participate.

If you are at all interested in social media its use, value and measurement/ROI do check out the measurementcamp wiki and make a date to come to the Coach and Horses in London on June 4th 2008. We will be in a room on the 1st floor above the pub. If the pub doors are closed just knock and go through the bar and up the stairs to find us. Coffee and good conversation will be found...

I was talking to someone the other day about Twitter and trying to find a simple explanation of what I personally got out of using it.

Not sure why but the London coffee house phenomena of the 17^th to 19^th Centuries sprung to mind. In those days this is where people ‘hung out’ to chat, pontificate, argue and in the words of some academics debate and start movements that were to change the world. It was also the place where news and information was exchanged in the days before newspapers existed.

Lloyds of London started as a coffee house business. John Cadbury supplied teas and coffees to London and other provincial city coffee houses before deciding to expand into chocolate. The rest is history and now seems to include a gorilla and Phil Collins!

Sheridan and other famous authors sketched out their ideas for plays and books. Pamphleteers and even scientists held court to present and refine their ideas. It became a social, intellectual and informational melting pot.

Back to Twitter. What do I use it for? I get to hang out with some really interesting people. I listen to their conversations and add my own opinion. I can even start a conversation and see who joins in. I get to mingle with 'cyberpals' and also people I know in 1^st life. We exchange information, social chit-chat and I can ask questions of the Twitter community – and get quick responses. I find out about news and information sources. Things I may have missed through my other sources. Every few hours the ‘coffee crowd’ changes as the globe turns and different people wake up and take in their ‘coffee’. The constant threads of thoughts and conversation moving and changing during the day is amazing and great to be part of.

Just like a real coffee house I can drop back in at certain times of the day for another quick refreshing shot. I can quickly and simply pick up of the conversation threads as they are short and sweet. I also do not follow thousands of people as I want to listen and participate and maybe have a ‘one-on-one’ conversation with someone on a subject or other. Or arrange to meet up somewhere in 1st life. The conversation can be serious. It can can be humorous. You can get boring monologues from some people and others almost everything they say is emotional or intellectually stimulating. Sometimes both.

In other words if you haven’t realised by now…. a shot of Twitter has become part of my daily routine…  

Here is what others are using Twitter for.  

If you want to find out more about the London coffee house phenomena check out this resource. I did not know the Muslim origins of coffee until I read this.

Thanks to Scott Monty for this link to what Scott Mitchell, a fan of Disney is doing to engage with and consolidate user generated content. This is a great exampled of fan-power using the digital world to achieve a massive outreach.

Having been to Disney theme parks many times over the years as my kids were growing up I can think of loads of valuable information that could be shared and would have made my families enjoyment even greater. We used to spend time trying to find characters so my kids could get their autographs. What about a twitter alert telling us where they were? Queues - where are they forming and how long? Where is a ride with a shorter wait? With two excited sub 10 year olds it can make a heck of a difference to have some insider knowledge. Where is the best place to stay - on site or off site? Are the character breakfasts worth the waiting list and money? (yes and yes)  

So what should other companies do? First realise the potential. What is amazing is that this is customer generated. People are in effect members of of your sales and marketing department. Treat them as such. They do not want paying. They just want to be acknowledged and given access to people and information from the company that will help them do a better job for their 'readers'. Ask them what you can do to help them.

It does not matter what sort of product or service you have - it will have a potential fan base.

AdAge reports that US TV shows are still struggling to regain momentum after the recent writers strike. Coming on top of reports of increased consumption of online video it does make you wonder if this is now longterm.

For companies wanting to reach mass audiences online delivery is now a viable alternative. With forums and bloggers now creating communities of interest it is possible for organisations to create content targeted at specific groups of consumers. Social networking means that unlike TV people can pass on content or links to content freely. Whilst the total numbers watching a programme on TV maybe higher it is the relevance and targeting of online content that is of interest to advertisers. Equally of interest is the engagement and interactivity with the community that an online social networking campaign brings that TV cannot. TV despite attempts at iTV and the 'red button' still is a passive medium. You watch. That is the only option. With online you can comment. You can re-author or mash-up if you want. You can forward to friends. If companies are smart they will even respond.

Great post by Shel Israel as part of the SAP research series on social media and its impact in other cultures and markets. In this case it’s women in Saudi Arabia. It shows even in a culture with what many would consider restrictions and taboos -  social engagement will find a way. In this case using technology….

The big debate is who is best placed to advise and support companies with social media? Could it be PR companies because of the conversational aspects? Could it be ad agencies as they understand branding? Could it even be digital/web agencies as they understand SEO and analytics?

PRWeek (US) examines how PR agencies are slower on engaging with social media than advertising agencies.

The recent Ofcom report found that 49% of 8 - 17 year olds had one or more personal pages on social media sites like Bebo, MySpace and Facebook.

Shel Israel has a great post which includes a video interview with the Disney people responsible for Club Pengiun and their games world strategies.

One really interesting statistic mentioned was that ClubPenguin new has 100 million members.

While thinking about crowd behaviour and the reach of influencers through social media I stumbled upon (thanks Google) Marc Dingman, and his blog. Marc is a neuroscientist looking at human behaviour. From him I found out about Mirror neurons and the research by Rizzolatti and his team in Italy. Whilst one of my modules in my Psychology degree looked at human behaviour and development as well as language and learning I was not aware of this branch of research.

In essence the research suggests a group of neurons is activated when we do certain tasks or see (and hear) others doing it. To quote from research being done in humans....

'.... when a person observes another person's action, their motor cortex becomes more excitable. This excitability can be measured by recording the size of a motor evoked potential (MEP) .... The changes in MEP size are taken as a measure of mirror neuron system activity, because MEPs come from primary motor cortex which is closely connected to the mirror neuron regions of the brain....'

In other words by observing actions in others our neurons are stimulated to copy (mirror) them. This has implications in human behaviour studies where 'free will' seems to be reduced and 'automatic behaviour' results. I don't know about you but when I watch rugby I can become very excitable and physically engaged as the rucking and mauling gets closer to the try line. When with a group of friends that effect seems to be magnified.

To further quote.....

'...Eye tracking provides another indirect measure that may reflect mirror neuron processing. As a person moves their hand, their eyes move ahead of the hand to look at the object the person will grasp. Similarly, when watching someone else's action, your eyes are likely to anticipate what the other person will do....'

In other words we start to anticipate action.

Further research has looked at audio stimuli. It suggests that 'mirroring' can occur even through sound. We do not just need to see an action being done - just hear it. As humans we are very well attuned to peoples moods and can 'feel' it when talking to people. Next time you speak to someone on the phone just check out what you think their mood is. Happy, sad, excited, bored?

From a social networking standpoint this could impact how people are able to influence others. Without the internet we would normally only be able to influence others who are physically close. With the internet WOM marketing and 'crowd influencing' shifts up to another level.

Wondering what others (Disney, Reebok, Pepsi etc) are doing with social communities and networks? Check this out (Source: WOMMA)

Great case study from Todd Defren over at Shift Communications in the USA showing how really targeting the message pays off. Many PR companies make the mistake of 'broadcasting' just like you would with a press release. Throw if far and wide and something will stick...

As Todd explains being selective and building a relationship with key influencial bloggers is key. The challenge is there is no media list to simply look up and build a mass e-mailing list. It takes desk based research to find out bloggers who have good 'circles of influence'. As Todd shows that sort of research pays back dividends.

The growth of flickr has been amazing. From initial concept and uploading of 7,400 odd photos in Febuary 2004 to an estimated 2.3 billion today.

Pictures are now being uploaded worldwide at a rate of 150,000 per hour. With the availabilty of lower cost digital cameras and mobile phones with built in still and video image capability this can only increase especially when the 'trickle down' effect of consumer purchasing of such devices hits China and India. 

As the article says many are of cats and dogs (Disclosure: I have even uploaded a picture or two of a mouse in my time - there was a good reason...honest) but some are really masterpieces (not mine) worthy of (and maybe by) a professional.

So what is my experience....

I have a Flickr account and have 181 photos in my public album. The photos have been viewed a total of 1210 times. A few have had zero or only 1 or two views and the most popular 153. Two people have added one of my photos as a 'favorite' and one person has left a comment. My photos are usually a visual record of the studio and location work for audio and video podcast projects I have been involved in. I tend to avoid 'cats and dogs' and 'Aunts and Uncles' in the public albums and usually keep them on a hard drive.

Through Flickr, Facebook and other social media software I have discovered some really great work by people and have added them as a 'contact' so I get updates on what they are doing. I have also met two people who share common interests with me. To me that is the real power of social networking. The opportunity to build networks of online friends and for some move that relationship the 'real' world.

Quark has launched a social networking site for designers to post and discuss their work. It is a good example of the use of Web 2.0 to enhance customer relationships.

They will recruit to it via e-mail to their customer base and through a Facebook page. Having looked it seems the Facebook page is a closed group. You need a Quark e-mail address to join. A closed group seems to miss an opportunity to showcase designers work to a wider audience.  

What is interesting is that there are lots of groups on Facebook unhappy at certain design features in Quark. Although lots of negative comments have been posted Quark does not seem to have responded to them. Shame they have not engaged in that conversation and have restricted access to their own user group. A missed opportunity?

Now here is one for corporates who ban social networking to ponder over....and Doctors who prescribe anti-depressants that research seems to show may not be so effective as once thought...

Scientists in Australia have found social networkers seem to be less stressed and more social connected. Scientists say that people 

'....reported feeling less anxious, depressed and stressed after two months of online social networking....'

They also say that blogging...

'...can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face....'

Maybe companies that risk legal action or absenteeism for stressed employees should allow them to social network for an hour a day.

A happy workforce is a productive workforce!

From AdAge - Kimberley Clark has reduced ad spending by almost 50% in the last 3 years. Digital online and social marketing spending is increasing.

Most large advertisers are serving notice that the 'blast all channels media plan' is in decline. Higher production values and lower numbers of spots mean a re-adjustment of agency fee income. Making commission on media placements will have to be replaced by production and project management fees. This is why forward thinking ad agencies are investing in specialist digital marketing agencies and 'community or social network marketing' agencies.

The Unicom conference on 'Web 2.0 and Beyond: Applying Social and Collaberative Tools to Business' is happening next week in London on 5th and 6th March.

Over 2 days a number of speakers will talk about their experiences of using social media. I will be presenting a case study on Poundland (a UK retailer with 164 stores) on behalf of their PR agency, BOTTLE, and the ongoing project using blogs, social networking and Forums to help retail sales volumes.

The speakers are:

• Lee Bryant - Headshift
• John Davis - BT
• Will Wynne - Arena Flowers
• Ed Michell - iShed
• Claire Reddington - iShed
• Crispin O'Brien - KPMG
• Ian Hughes - IBM
• Joyce Lewis - Southampton University
• Tom Ilube - Garlik
• Ian McNairn - IBM

The conference is chaired by Dave Gurteen of Gurteen and Associates.

All the speakers have given interviews on what their presentations on Web 2.0 and/or social media will cover.

All presentations at the conferences will be recorded and made available shortly after it ends.

To listen to last years conference visit this page

Focus Business Communications have recorded all the pre-interviews and will also record all the conference presentations as they did last year.

(Disclosure: I work for BOTTLE PR and Focus)

Jeremiha Owyang at Forrester Research has just blogged about a research report he has completed into Online Community Best Practices.

Here is the extract from the Executive Summary:

Online Community Best Practices
Communities Are A Powerful Tool, As Long As You Put Members’ Needs First

“An online community is an interactive group of people joined together by a common interest. It’s also one of the most powerful tools a marketer can deploy for customer retention, word of mouth, and customer insight. To host a successful community, think of it as you would product development: Start by focusing on objectives, chart a road map, assemble the right team, and plan to be flexible. Then build your success by launching the community with the backing of your most enthusiastic customers and staying engaged as the community grows. Above all, remember that control is in the hands of the members, so put their needs first, build trust, and become an active part of the community.”

Jeremiha was previously Community Marketing Manager at Hitachi and Social Media Consultant at PodTech before starting his role at Forrester. As such he has experience both from the corporate and research side. His report has drawn lots of comments - all worth reading. Check out his blog to see his summary and the comments of other consultants and practioners both from marketing agencies and companies.

Lloyd Davis has a new blog for the Tuttle Club. Check out the blog and video podcast if you want to learn about social networking in action. See also my earlier post of the Social Media Cafe meeting in London on 15th February.

CBS has announced it will be making its large library of TV programmes available for free (using ad revenues to support it) via the internet.

Full length programmes initially available will be Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Macgyver, Hawaii Five-O and Melrose Place with more being added in the coming months. The offerings are being made under the banner of 'Classics' so suggesting the target is an older generation.

It will make them available via the 300+ CBS Audience Network. The network is made up of CBS's own web sites plus companies like AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Netvibes, Sling and Veoh as well as social application partners like Automattic, Brightcove, Clearspring, DAVE Networks, Goowy Media, meebo, MeeVee, Musestorm, Ning, Slide and VideoEgg.

The availability of high quality content can only help speed up the adoption of online video. Without doubt free iTV (internet based TV) is a real challenge to satelite TV.

What is particularly interesting is the emergence of iPod and other portable video players with connections to TV's and data projectors. This allows people to consume content both when mobile and when connected to a base station.

For marketing people looking to target specific communities the use of contextual based ads opens up new possibilities for sophisticated media planning. 

NOTE: When working for 3M in the 1970's video recording machines and video tape was so expensive that not every TV programme could be recorded. Many of the early Z-Cars programmes and other series went out live never to be seen again. In fact some programmes that were recorded were 'lost' by over-recording other shows because the tape was so valuable.

VentureBeat have analysed what is happening in the USA with the top 10 social networking sites.

Facebook is growing faster than MySpace but MySpace is still 4 times larger in terms of share of visitors. These top 2 have 88% of the total numbers of visitors between them. the next 8 are not even half of Facebook visitor total.

The picture in Europe will not be exactly the same but companies planning a social networking campaign can rest assured by focussing on Facebook and MySapce they will have covered a large segment of the market.

AdWeek is reporting CondeNet (part of Conde Nast) is 'repositioning' its social networking site Flip into a series of applications on 'main-stream' social networking sites like Facebook.

When it first launched Flip it thought that it could create an online community based upon the readership of its popular teen targeted magazines. It's miscalculation was how much time teenagers would have to invest in multiple social networks. Most people tend to gravitate to where other people are hanging out.