Social media: It’s not just for kids anymore

Many organizations turn their social-media strategies over to the younger generation, concluding the “digital natives” best speak the language of that world.

But changing demographics indicate those “natives” may not understand the culture of a large swath of social-media users.

Over the past few years, surveys have shown older adults are flooding Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. And that trend is continuing, according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

• In May 2010, 42 percent of adults 50 and older surveyed said they now use social-networking services. That’s up from 22 percent in April 2009.
• Twenty percent of those on such services use them at least once a day, up from 10 percent of older social-networking users in 2009.
• Sending or reading e-mail remains the top online activity for those 50 and older.

Pew researchers shows this age bracket is more likely to connect with people from the past using social networking. Others are using the sites to find support groups for chronic or terminal diseases.

The survey used random digit dialing of landline and cellular users to sample of 2,252 American adults ages 18 and older. The sampling error was +/- 2.4 percentage points. A PDF of the complete report and its methodology is available from Pew.

Socially Trending Apps Lead to Strategic Questions

A friend asked the other day why app trends are important to follow. My response was that following trends can be helpful in terms of recognizing what is interesting or useful to specific groups of people and, thereby, interesting to organizations or businesses looking to attract or provide services to said groups. Trending app information can depict how apps are being advertised or going viral…or at least lead us to ask such questions.

Although there are many apps being used across many social spaces, consider carefully what networking, communicative or gaming behavior you would like to key in on as a marketing or organizational researcher. Then, review sites that tend to collect such information for up-to-date trending information. Two sites I found very quickly this evening include topapps.com pictured above, and mobclix.com pictured here.

I like the addition of mobclix.com primarily because the site provides additional analysis on trends including typologies and functionality assessment. Additionally, while the first is focused on facebook apps, the second is interested in mobile apps. Across both groups of apps, it is clear that gaming retains its stranglehold on behavior. However, the rise of cafeworld and “in-app purchasing” means that commerce-driven social apps are on the rise…leading business to wonder how these kinds of apps can be replicated or acquired to help with the bottom line. For marketers, this knowledge helps to craft time line and direction for the deployment of apps or app-based campaigns.

And what about strategy? Well app-use behavior can provide a snapshot of users in terms of what behaviors are most popular in the social spaces where messages or dialogue may be deployed. Popular behavior in social spaces can, it seems, provide guideposts for campaign message creation as well as a clear indication of what might not be useful messaging content.

Remember, when it comes to social media strategy one should always posit spaces, behaviors and technology. When considering trending apps you will already be focused on the technology, now get to work on understanding the other two!

Going to Flip over Flipboard?

One of the hottest app launches this year, Flipboard for the ipad promises a great deal of fun and content for users. Part friend-sourced information & part company generated content, Flipboard takes the news, entertainment and webtrending material your social networks are attending to and makes them your own personal social magazine.

This past week the app launch caused a few problems for users and the Flipboard folks. Computer World states:

The app became available as Wednesday began on the U.S. east coast but the company’s servers appeared to quickly run over capacity.

‘Flipboard is currently over capacity. Please try adding your Twitter account later,’ read the error message displayed when users tried to connect.

The pre-programmed channels loaded without problem.

Clearly, the ipad community shares interest in Flipboard’s promise to make visual and textual overload (in social spaces) less messy and useful for each user. In fact, the labor of this app focuses friendcrowds’ work in a way that makes each individual’s work a little less time consuming. But Flipbook will remain dependent on the use of current social networks…given its focus. New releases will have to adapt to the evolution of social networking and behavioral growth in the social spaces. As FB and Twitter expand and/or contract, we should see Flipbook evolve. If it doesn’t, first run social networking behavior and apps will outpace and outstrip Flipbook’s capacity to capture and make sense of information being shared by your friends.

Congratulations to the 2010 SMC Class!

On June 20th, 2010 we graduated several new Social Media Certificate holders who demonstrated both poise and professionalism throughout our course. Plus, we had a great time!

Brandon Lawson is one of our new, outstanding SMC professionals. We look forward to seeing more of the work he’s already doing for a local academic institution in Southwest Missouri.

Good luck to Professor Ron Schie who will be doing yeoman’s work out in Oregon sampling and blogging about wine during the summer and fall of 2010!

We will post more pictures for our 2010 SMC class in the coming weeks. For the time being, keep up the great work in the space!

Social Media, Strategy & Skepticism

This spring we’ve discussed bold claims being leveraged by self-proclaimed experts in social media spaces. Consider this youtube video and ask yourself why we should believe that social media has “staying power?”

Additionally (and I’m drawing on myriad conversations regarding social media programs), who “counts” as an expert in social media? Who has actual social media authority? Who has influence and who has the capacity to recognize the influencers?

Finally, what instruments can actually measure social media influence in terms useful for ROI and KPI?

Social Media Methodology: ROIs & KPIs & Tigers, Oh My!

I remain perplexed at the level of comfort some of my colleagues and friends demonstrate toward measuring social media behavior. It’s just not that easy…or at least it’s not as easy as it might look.

A ubiquitous Paul Gillin appears to agree, at least in terms of SM influence:

For all the statistical analysis and academic studies that have been performed on the early stages of social media, there is no one metric, formula or service that can reliably measure influence. Nor do any of the experts I spoke to believe that there will be a reliable metric in the near future. The best strategy is to gather together as many tools as you can, so that you can make informed decisions about how to engage when the time comes.

Yes, you can attempt to make sense of SM interactions using traditional web analytics set over against new behaviors such as mentions and retweets. Yes, you can assess ratio of conversations to conversions. Yes, you can attempt to relate customer interactions to satisfaction. But rest assured, someone will certainly ask for hard proof of SM success at some point. What then, might we ask, will you do?

Well, the first thing you have to do is be honest. There is no perfect positive correlation between social media behavior (activity in myriad social spaces) and outcomes (the positive stuff you want to happen). You just cannot predict it perfectly. The best you can do is attempt to log previous SM campaign work (well planned and executed SM work to be sure) and then adjust SM work/buys/behavior in relation to correlated positive outcomes. The second thing you have to do is develop a methodology (the study of methods – plural) for engaging in this assessment so that you are making the best choices in relation to: A. Your Goals, B. Your Resources & C. Your Desired Outcomes.

Social Media Methodology: executing, assessing and retesting methods until you get the answers you need. After you get this skill set down, you are on your way to making better SM choices!

Check out IIG’s Social Media Metrics Super List for some excellent ideas regarding measurement. And don’t forget that in the land of Social Media ROI & KPI, honesty and methodology are the best measurements for success!