Facebook Comes of Age?

Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing

A Market Matures

o From gimmicks to game changers

o From technological hype to organisational & cultural change

Gartner H

ype Cycle

46% of UK Facebook users have thought about leaving network & user numbers dropped by 100,000 May-Jun (Marketing, Jun 11)

A Few Statistics

61% of UK adults use social media (Lansons Jun 11)

30% of Facebook users are 55+ (YouGov Jul 11)

62% of people consult online communities before buying

60% of Facebook users access site more than once a day (YouGov Jul 11)

(Havas Media (Mar 2011)

Growing Specialisation

“as social networks mature the individual platforms are beginning to demonstrate their core strengths & UK consumers are increasingly differentiating them” YouGov (Jul 11)

Strength or Weakness?

The Real Social Media Effect

o Driving new behaviours & expectations

“Amplifying Volume of Moaning”

The Real Social Media Effect

o Driving new behaviours & expectations

“Customer service expectations are not set by what your competitors are doing but by anyone” General Manager, Customer Services, O2

The Real Social Media Effect

o Driving new behaviours & expectations Dramatizing institutions’ structural, operational

& cultural weaknesses

Connected Consumer meets Disconnected CorporationConnected Consumer meets Disconnected Corporation

“Digital communications is a destabilizing force in a bureaucratic environment. And I am sitting right in the middle of a bureaucratic environment.’”Senior corporate communications director

“We’re not set up for this shit”UK CEO

Thriving by Loosening Up

o Operational & cultural traits of successful organisations

TrustingOpenAgileInformal Collaborative

Tight Thinkers Need Not Apply

o Organisations & people that struggle with this new worldHierarchicalBureaucraticProcess orientedDistrustful

1. Trusting

o Bedrock of strong internal cultureo Allows shared responsibility & real time

decision making

The best company rulebook ever written?

Nordstrom Revisited

“Prescriptive rules have the effect of infantilising staff & make it harder for them to adapt to different situations. This goes as much for digital communications as for selling socks … Like the Nordstrom handbook we’re trusting staff to follow the spirit, not just the letter, of our guidelines”Meg Pickard, writing about The Guardian’s new social media guidelines, November 2010

How to Build an Empire

“Presumed Competence”

2. Open

o Transparency & honesty non negotiable

Capable of transforming reputations

Openness is …

o Being transparento Engaging critics & embracing criticism o Encouraging real conversations with people

inside & outside the organisation

3. Agile

o Ability to improvise & operate in close to real time & to act on real time information

4. Informal

o Being willing to show a human face & a personality

Authenticity More Important Than Production Values

5. Collaborative

o Tapping into spirit of collective self expression

o Leveraging people’s willingness to shape service & product offers

Numbers are Compelling

o 70% 70% of companies regularly create value through use of web-based communities

o Using customer communities to solve customer problems costs 10% 10% of traditional call centres

* McKinsey 2010

Communities already exist

... think about how you can help that

community do what it wants to do.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder

& CEO of Facebook

Engaging a Community

The Power of Communities

Create Content

Solve Problems

Collaborate

Contribute Ideas

Thriving by Loosening Up

TrustingOpenAgileInformal Collaborative

@crowdsurfing

Get your organisation & culture right … &

Facebook will look after itself