VIA Recap: Facebook and Google+: Is the Reach Worth the Risk?

Rachael Monroe

On May 9 & 10, the SIIA Content Division hosted Content VIA Platforms – a conference dedicated to educating media, publishing and information professionals about the technology and business issues related to distributing content via mobile, social and other platforms. Guest blogger, Rich Kreisman, gives his write up on the session Facebook and Google+:  Is the Reach Worth the Risk? 

 

This session, moderated by Rachael Monroe, Vice President, Client Services, BBN Networks, brought two experts on social media, Jim Brady, Editor-in-Chief, Digital First Media, and Christopher Carfi, Vice President – Social Business Strategy, Ant’s Eye View, before the VIA attendees to share war stories of the learning years in social media  (since Facebook’s launch in 2004)– and the future, which both Brady and Carfi see as bright for publishers who innovate and experiment with social media.  Publishers are still finding their own formula to leverage social media platforms – for traffic, customer acquisition or to create new hybrid products combining their own content and user insights, both Brady and Carfi acknowledge.

Jim Brady

Carfi, whose consulting firm advises large companies like Cisco and Starbucks on social business strategies, says most companies (including publishers) view social media platforms as a broadcasting megaphone. “Social media is not just another ‘channel’.” Companies who look at it as a one-way communication tool are not succeeding, he says.  “Rather, my clients who really learn how to listen and engage in the conversations are getting the most benefits.”  Listening involves active monitor of all social media channels and engaging in two-way conversations with users – even if the news is  negative. Talking about his experiences at WashingtonPost.com and at Digital First Media (a venture of Journal Register Publishing and MediaNews Group), Brady notes, “Social media has to be in the DNA of everyone in the organization to make it work…and, in most newspaper newsrooms, it is not.”  To coach editors and writers through their initial forays into social media, Digital First Media offers training and support sessions.  

Christopher Carfi

But unless writers see a direct benefit for their reporting, they are unlikely to take the risk associated with the two-way conversations of social media.  “I always tell people to be patient,” Brady says. “It takes a while to build the conversation up.”   Brady finds when social media does take root in a newsroom, it becomes an important arrow in a publisher’s quiver and can deliver unique insights to readers.  Both men definitely seem to believe the reach of the large social media players is worth the risk.  However, they advise the audience that an 18-24 month learning curve should be expected for the average publisher. Experimentation and learning are key, says Carfi, as well as finding the champions of social media throughout the organization to prove its value to others.

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 Post written by Rich Kreisman, Principal Partner, Kreisman Information Consulting

Rich Kreisman is Principal Partner of Kreisman Information Consulting, LLC, a San Francisco-based consultancy advising publishers, content creators, websites and mobile providers on content licensing, syndication and distribution partnerships to meet their strategic business needs.  Rich can be reached at rkreisman@kreismaninfoconsult.com



SIIA Survey: Marketing Executives Believe Social Media is an Effective Tool; Not Yet Investing Significant Resources

SIIA’s Software Division today released “Marketing in Today’s Economy”— the first SIIA publication to gather business-to-business sales and marketing tactics from leading industry executives. As part of the guide, SIIA joined with Lopez Research to conduct a comprehensive survey of more than 100 marketing executives in North America. The survey focused on their companies’ use of email, mobile marketing and social media to build their brands, gain leads, and improve customer support.

One of the most eye-opening findings from the study is that a gap exists between attitudes towards social media and investment in social media. About 90 percent of marketing executives surveyed use social media marketing, and three quarters believe it has a positive impact on their business. At the same time slightly more than half (54.5 percent) of respondents said their company’s marketing team spends less than 10 hours per week investing in social media. And further, 35 percent said they spend only between one and five hours per week on social media marketing.

Social media has clearly become a widely used tool among B2B marketers and few doubt that it is helping their business. But the survey also shows that marketers may not be dedicating the resources necessary to get the results they want from social media marketing. It is remarkable to see that, despite their strong belief in the power of social media, over one-third of marketers are engaged in it for only five hours or fewer every week.

The survey suggests that marketers do recognize the need to dedicate more resources to their social media efforts going forward. About 65 percent of respondents cited social media as an area in which they would like to invest more spending, and over 70 percent indicated they expect to increase their use of both Twitter and Linkedin in the year ahead. And importantly, marketers are beginning to apply the same ROI metrics to social media that they do for other marketing efforts, both offline and online. For example, 59 percent of businesses are using social media use web traffic as an indicator of social media ROI, while 53 percent are using qualified leads as a key ROI metric.

Social media is still a relatively new method for growing a business, but marketers clearly believe it is has value and will require greater investment. And with more marketers now applying traditional ROI metrics—such as qualified leads—to their social media efforts, they are more likely to get a clear sense of what level of investment makes sense. The maturation process of social media is clearly underway, and we can expect to see significant advancements in the coming years.

The survey looked at wide range of issues, and found a number of other results that are important for marketers—including:

75 percent of respondents do not outsource any social media efforts.
• Nearly 60 percent of respondents said that less than 5 percent of their deals began through social network interactions.
• Privacy is the top ethical concern in today’s marketing world.
• Most marketers predict that the biggest trend in 2012 will be greater communication and quantification of value to customers.

The Software Division conducted the survey in conjunction with Lopez Research during the fourth quarter of 2011. The survey interviewed 106 marketing executives, of which 88 percent were business-to-business marketers.

In addition to the survey, Marketing in Today’s Economy features commentary from 16 leading marketing experts whose companies provide technology solutions or services across a spectrum of industries. The authors offer expertise on a wide range of B2B marketing trends and best practices—from social media to search engine optimization and cloud marketing.


Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA.

 

Interview with new SIIA member Socialize

I was delighted to recently welcome Socialize to the SIIA membership. I had a chance to catch up with Daniel Odio the CEO and Co-founder to learn more about the drop-in social platform. Read my interview with Daniel below.

Rhianna: Welcome to SIIA! Tell me a little about Socialize and the benefits for making apps social.

Daniel: Making apps social boosts app discovery (downloads) and user engagement (impressions). It creates a viral loop where users share content with each other and their social networks, which leads to more downloads, which leads to more users, which leads to more social actions all over again.

Rhianna: This week you made an announcement about notifications. Why is this feature significant?

Daniel: SmartAlert notifications “Bring users back” to the app. For example, when a user makes a comment on a piece of content in an app, and subscribes to that thread, and then another user comments on the first user’s comment, the first user gets a SmartAlert notification inviting them back into the app to see what the second user wrote.

Rhianna: You recently moved your company to San Francisco. Obviously, the Bay Area is the home of many great technology companies. How important is it for technology start-ups to be local to the Bay Area? Or does it matter?

Daniel: It’s critical. There’s a great article on my move west at http://go.DanielOdio.com/west. The environment in the San Francisco bay area is world class and results in the ability to make connections, make key hires, and iterate on the business at a speed that is unmatched anywhere else in the world. As I like to say, San Francisco is “Mecca for Geeks.”

Rhianna: You recently participated in a panel led by the Department of Homeland Security at CES. What are some of the privacy and security issues you face versus the traditional software/hardware vendors? How do you address and ease these fears?

Daniel: Often times the least secure part of a device is the human using it. And that’s where we focus – in this realm security concerns are mixed with privacy concerns. Oftentimes, users don’t know the implications of their actions by design – we work hard to abstract a level of complexity into an easy-to-use service. This means we bear a responsibility to ensure the user doesn’t compromise themselves in ways they don’t even realize. A big chunk of the value we add with our social infrastructure offering is to give the user ways to navigate privacy issues in easy to understand and friendly ways.

Rhianna: Finally, look ahead for me 18 months, what will be the biggest trends in social?

Daniel: Two big trends are converging and we’ll see them in full force in the next 18 months: The explosion of interest-based social, and the power of the Open Graph. Interest-based social isn’t the same thing as the social graph we all know from Facebook. It’s way bigger and more powerful. It’s the connections we all share based on interests, regardless of ‘friend’ status. For example, interest-based groups include people of the same ethnicity, people who love zinfandel wine, co-workers, people who love to sail, and the list goes on. We are all comprised of a series of interests, and for the first time, technology (and mobile in particular) is enabling us to map all those interests and connections, and begin to monetize them.

The Open Graph is an initiative by Facebook to get everyone to share all of their actions – what songs they are listening to, what they are reading, etc. This confluence of mapping interests to people and sharing of all actions will mean the power and reach of social will be exploding in the next 18 months. More about this topic at http://go.danielodio.com/interestgraph and a screencast on why mobile is way bigger than most people realize is at http://go.DanielOdio.com/waybigger


Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA.

 

Announcing CEO Interview Publication: SIIA’s Vision From The Top

SIIA is launching a new publication at this year’s All About the Cloud conference, “SIIA’s Vision From The Top”!

The publication brings together thought leadership from over 45 of SIIA Member companies. Their CEO’s were asked to address the past, present and future changes in the software industry.

Announcing New Video Series: SIIA Members Rally at DreamForce 2010!

SIIA is delighted to announce a new video series, filmed at DreamForce 2010! With about 30,000 attendees, DreamForce has seen spectacular growth. This was SIIA’s first time exhibiting at DreamForce and we look forward to seeing everyone next year and in May at SIIA’s own executive cloud computing conference, All About the Cloud.

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SIIA CEO Interview with Umberto Milletti, InsideView

What will the software industry look like in 3, 5, even 10 years from now?

Cloud computing and social media are the two very significant trends that will shape the future of the software industry for years to come. Core cloud applications (email, CRM, ERP, etc.) will become an “operating system” that nearly all companies will have in place. These business applications focus on workflow automation – bringing in process efficiencies – and are sufficient to run a manufacturing or process business. However, businesses are increasingly delivering services, where employee knowledge and intelligence are the keys to success. This is where social media, business intelligence and collaboration technology becomes relevant, and crucial. It is designed to make employees smarter and more effective, not just to automate their jobs.

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Panel discussion with application vendors at SIIA All About Mobile conference

By Ryan Nichols, VP Product Management, Appirio

I had the privilege of being asked to join a fantastic panel at SIIA’s “All About Mobile” conference yesterday with some leading application developers making the switch to mobile. I was joined by David Fulton of Right Now, Jason Prater of Plex Systems, and Dan Miller of INgage Networks to discuss “Transitioning Existing Solutions to Mobile Devices.”

We were moderated by Anshu Agrawal, VP Marketing at Keynote Systems, who asked us a set of questions that are top of mind for any application developer thinking about mobile apps:

  • Why mobile is important to your business?
  • What is the cornerstone of your mobile strategy?
  • What do you feel were the pain points in implementing your strategy?
  • What were the biggest surprises for you in moving your customers to mobile?
  • What would you recommend to SIIA members looking to transition to mobile?

Here’s a summary of our conversation:

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