Digital Review

D i g i t a l R e v i e wSocial media impact Read a culture

Issue #1

Patrick Zinga/ George McCann/Anna Wasko/ Haiyi Tang

Introduction

c o n t e n t s

I s s u e 1 . J a n u a r y . 2 0 1 1

Dell Hell

Turning UGC’S to USP’S

Cover Stories

Dell Case study: The effects of UGC felt by

One ‘Blog’ Every Minute

No Space For MySpace

Face to Facebook

Report Summary

Reference

effects of UGC felt by PC giant Dell

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6 www.facebook.com/leftclick

Welcome to the wonderful world of social media

Digital Review

mediaIntroduction

Social Media and Usergenerated content –

Establishing the implications and effects on the

relationship between brands and consumers.

‘Society can only exist on the basis that there is some

amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what

he thinks.’ - Lin Yutang

Socializing through e-mail, chat rooms, blogs and social

network sites is the killer application in B2C Markets. Billions

of e-mails are sent everyday and sms messages are catching

up. Leveraging the strong desire to socialize should not be

underestimated. Where consumers are, brands follow.

There is a steady movement that shows a vast amount

of people using cash less and opting for online transactions.

Technology is improving and the world is all heading online

so naturally, brands have to follow.

Offline marketing is slowly getting defeated as more

and more people are getting access to the internet, we need

to ask the question – How can brands utilise user generated

content effectively.

This report will explore and bring to lightsome Issues

revolving the exploration of the internet market and

how people are using their time on the net. Also how can

brands manipulate consumer behaviour through this growing

medium in this new digital age?

• Is the wrath of an upset

consumer important enough

for us to fear it?

• What opportunities does user

generated content provide?

• How can brands use it

effectively?

• What is the future in online

consumer content?


• www.facebook.com/leftclickWxÄÄ [xÄÄ

The general view of the public is that customer service has

become worse but this isn’t the case customer service has

become harder. This is because of technology social media

has made customer service harder web 2.0 has given the

general public a platform to explode about their issues and

we are now sitting on a customer service time bomb. To

place the pervious statement in a business environment Dell

experienced the power of web 2.0 In July 2005.

Jeff Jarvis bought a Lemon off Dell he paid for a

premium four year warranty deal for the PC. Shortly after he

started to experience problems with his computer after

repeat request to fix the lemon and dell refusing to come to

his house Jarvis finally exploded and started to write a series

of blogs (the buzzmachine), this then sparked a war against

Dell. There were daily visits of more than 10,000 to the blog,

giving a platform for angered customers to complain and

create there own blog stories and the wave of User

Generated Content (UGC)

spread like wildfire.

These social media platforms are dangerous to business’s

and should not be underestimated from this one incident

WxÄÄ [xÄÄ g{x xyyxvà Éy háxÜ

ZxÇxÜtàxw VÉÇàxÇàTo tap into social online communities brands need to

plan for more open conversations with consumers,

listening and responding carefully emarketing

excellence (2009). This should be high on any media

planners list in understanding customers needs

listening responding, setting up your own social media

platform or putting your brand on a third party

independent community rather than setting up their

own critical mass site.

This is a great way to gather customer insight, manage

and respond to the comments in environment you have

some control over to help prevent damaging

consciences. Even though Dell have gone to major

lengths to tackle this problem, freedom of speech on

the web cannot be bottled and even with the right

management procedures in place you can only try to

prevent a similar situation. At the end of the day if your

brand slips, up social media will punish you, how you

handle that is up to you. Articles, blogs, online

discussions take place and can be damaging click the

link, see the bottom of this web page for an example of

Dell Hell sparking bad UGC:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/au

g2005/tc20050825_2021.htmand should not be underestimated from this one incident

Jarvis managed to hurt Dells stock prices making the

power of User Generated Content very real. To combat the

Fiasco, Dell invested $150 million dollars into their customer

service sector.

Dell realised that the power of social media and

decided to use this power to their advantage by creating

Studio Dell and Ideastorm – A social media platform were

people can

promote positivity and complain about their problems. This

meant that all aspects of the business can be addressed and

improved quickly so the problem doesn’t escalate.

Understanding key management challenges when

dealing with social media is the vital to prevent negative UGC

effecting sales growth on and offline. Dells chief blogger

Lionel Menchaca says “ I agree with what Jarivis has to say:

Instead of trying to control information that was made

public, we should have simply corrected anything that was

made inaccurate we didn’t do that and now were

paying for it. Slideshare (2010).

Preventing your customers from exploding you must fight

fire with fire utilising web 2.0 and social

media should be explored since customers have a desire to

participate in social involvement it’s the key to

understanding consumers.

g2005/tc20050825_2021.htm

Bill Gates (left) Bono (middle) Michael Dell (Right)

Turning UGC’s

to USP’sDigital Review


Are you loyal to a brand, why

what makes you loyal to that brand?

Ask yourself this question you may

begin to understand, a rhyme I made

up to get you thinking, sad but

effective none the less. You also

might be asking the question, what

relevance does this have to social

media? But this is a key element in

encouraging internet users to

produce good UGC for your business.

By building strong bonds and

relationships with consumers they will

become advocates for the brand, in

some sense brand disciples spreading

By giving them something to talk

about this in turn creates a knock on

affect leading people to advertise

your brand. This is done via praising

your brand online through comments

on social media platforms, review

sites and even to the extent of making

viral ads for your company

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

hKoB0MHVBvM)

This video currently boasts

13,036,278 views, so people have

consciously chosen to engage.

Engagement being the key word

there. Dell report that’s estimate

Although this is not initially

created by users they

do your work in moving the ad

across different platforms from

YouTube to Facebook, from

Facebook to a mobile phone, from

a mobile phone to a purchase

decision or at least creating

discussions about your brand.

Some of the most famous

campaigns to receive recognition,

are Tipex’s own You tube

interactive video which increased

Tipex sales by 30%, a goal that TV

ad’s rarely

Achieve. Please see hyperlinkssome sense brand disciples spreading

the good message across social media

platforms. The report so

far express’s and gives evidence

of the importance of social media

impact on business’s but the key

to utilising the effectiveness of

customer opinions is to create brand

advocates. This all boils down to

knowing your target market well

enough so your customers can form

relationships with your brand

(wanting people to become friends

with your brand).

To some people you might be

thinking the obvious is being stated,

but people wont shout about your

brand over social media unless you

turn your average customer from

liking your brand, into actually being

friends.

Because we all no the social need to

gossip about your friends to other

people, this works the same with

brands.

there. Dell report that’s estimate

that the average customer is worth

$210 (five year, net present value)

whereas a detractor costs the

company $57and a promoter

generates $328emarketing excellence

(2009). This shows the importance of

people forming strong relationships

with your brand in order to produce

profit. The key to them promoting

your brand is word of mouth, weather

this be done whilst having coffee with

a friend or by someone showcasing

admiration for your brand on The

Herald Blog. Word of mouth referrals

are a powerful tool and key to

creating a buzz around your business;

social media sites provide that service

with abundance.

At the cutting edge of creating buzz

for your brand is the viral campaign;

‘much of an advertiser’s work is done

for them when their prospective

customers forward it to their contacts

quickly building up an audience of

millions’, timesonline (2007).

Achieve. Please see hyperlinks

for further information:

http://www.buzzman.fr/casestudi

es.php and

(http://www.youtube.com/watch

?v=4ba1BqJ4S2M) .

This ad engages consumers in

interaction and quickly built up an

audience of millions at costs that

will surprise every marketing

budget planner.

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These types of innovative online

viral ads could potentially drive the

revenue out of traditional media as

we know it. To understand the

effectiveness of vials, you need

really to compare them with

traditional methods of advertising

for instance TV ads. Long gone are

the times when people trusted TV

advertising. In the eyes of the

consumer TV ads can seem biased,

pushy and unconvincing. This is the

great thing about vials, they aren’t

deemed as threat to customers,

letting customers choose when

they want to engage with the

brand; empowering them to

manage the relationship, building

trusts and emotion towards the

brand.

By giving the power to

consumer they choose when they

Internet users are active they enjoy

their power to speak their mind

online, unlike the couch potato

watching TV who is unimaginative.

TV can be looked at as a lazy form

of personal past time, internet

users want to engage and be

switched on.

The social media (UGC)

creates buzz and discussion, if you

see something on TV and have no

one to discuss with at the time it

can become irrelevant and a lost

cause, but online through social

media your thoughts can be heard

immediately creating talk about a

brand. Overall, social media (viral

ads) adds some sort of value to the

consumer, weather it is laughter,

shock or just creating something to

socialise with friends over

networking platforms. By adding

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Something that will be left open

to discussion is the future of

viral video’s. Will they become

annoying to consumers, lose

their magic that demands

consumers engagement or will

they continue to remain

relevant and spread across

different technologies like an

unstoppable virus’s? No one

can say at this point but one

thing is clear, they are effective

at present and

should be utilised by businesses

while the opportunity is

available.

consumer they choose when they

want to view the brand which gives

the brand their full engagement

which essentially the objective Ad

agencies are looking to achieve. In

fact, in some ways, the battle for

'share of time/attention' is even

more important than the battle for

share of purse, because ‘if

you don't win the first battle for

attention - or 'engagement' – your

chances of winning the second

battle, for money, are greatly

Reduced’, brand republic (2011).

networking platforms. By adding

value, this makes it appealing to

the consumer which therefore

builds a stronger relationship with

that brand, even encouraging

purchasing decisions, this is why

viral videos are so effective.

Digital Review

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14

One Blogevery minute


Chief Editor: Patrick Zinga

Chief Editor at Left Click Technology Solutions and esteemed author of One Blog Every Minute.

Blogs are vastly becoming the new

homepages of the 21st Century. They

are simple to produce and maintain,

free and easy. Defined as ‘an online

diary regularly updated by an individual

or group with topical news and views’,

Chaffey & Smith 2008 pg 485. They are

created so the people can communicate

The web 2.0 concept has increased the

prominence amongst website owners and

developers also encouraging the creation of

user generated content such as blogs Blog

creation, in the beginning required a

significant amount of technical know how,

but the base of those creating and reading

blogs, and the number of topics blogs cover,

One Born Every Minute Digital Review15

created so the people can communicate

with others that share the same

interests and problems based on either

personal experiences or knowledge.

Just another way the consumers can

communicate to each other online.

‘Brands need to think about the

different new ways that consumers

communicate’, Chaffey & Smith 2008

pg 114.

blogs, and the number of topics blogs cover,

has expanded as the technology has

become more accessible. ‘Blogs are gaining

popularity in all spheres where traditional

print media plays, including sports, politics

and entertainment’ Innoblog [2007].

Reports are said there to be over ‘14.2m

blogs based in the UK up from 7.8m in

March, (BBC News 2005), giving consumers

‘global voices’ and allowing for the instant

publication of ideas and interactive

conversations, through comments, with

friends or strangers. There is a vast range of

blogs, but this section of the report

specifically looks at how this form of

communication of online consumer blog

reviews can have effects on businesses and

brands. Looking closely at the correlation

between bad reviews and bad sales,

weather the blogger is a force to be

reckoned with or just another form of

manipulation that the brand can utilise to

feed information and promotions to attract

and maintain customers.

Why blog? Blogging gives the consumer ‘a global voice’, BBC News 2005, which in turn satisfies the need for self actualisation on Maslow’s hierarchy. It allows the consumer to promote their own power to reach a wider audience aside from friends and family duplicating the amount and effect of word of mouth, now seen as ‘word of web’, Forrester 1991. It seems that word of web is progressive as ‘55% of all new bloggers are still posting three months after they started’ but this also means that there are a big percentage of out of date blogs where people have started but feign

There is an obvious relationship with ‘digital’ countries with good web access and the third world countries that have a large population but not that much people with web access (India consists of only 100,000 bloggers which is relatively low in comparison with their population stats), Riley 2005.

Digital Review

date blogs where people have started but feign interest after a period, making their opinions and information out of date or dismissive.

There is an obvious relationship with ‘digital’ countries with good web access and the third world countries that have a large population but not that much people with web access (India consists of only 100,000 bloggers which is relatively low in comparison with their population stats), Riley 2005. The graph above shows how in the most technological advanced countries and the ones with higher population there is a high usage of bloggers. With this much people online, talking and passing information, the limits are endless, using this form of medium is sufficient enough to gather information based on facts and opinions from various sources. The problem with this is searching and finding the information that is relevant and specific to you, the person or business. Also there is a trust issue involved spoken of further in this report.

The graph above shows how in the most technological advanced countries and the ones with higher population there is a high usage of bloggers. With this much people online, talking and passing information, the limits are endless, using this form of medium is sufficient enough to gather information based on facts and opinions from various sources. The problem with this is searching and finding the information that is relevant and specific to you, the person or business. Also there is a trust issue involved spoken, of further in this report.

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“ You don’t write because

you want to say

something; you write

because you’ve got

something to say”- F.

Scott Fitzgerald

PEOPLE VS

BUSINESSESThere are major differences in

personal blog reviews compared to

those on a business site reviews.

Blogger and other similar site are

looked on as real people writing real

depictions of their personal

experiences so there is a certain level

of trust bestowed onto the bloggers,

giving them more power than a

review site. Review sites especially

on brand sites such as Dell can be

Once again the effect of the ‘global

voice’ has upsetting resolutions as

people can abuse this power how

they please. There are many

blogging sites but the question is do

people respect those seen as

‘professional’ bloggers or give more

authority to the thoughts and

opinions of random strangerson brand sites such as Dell can be

deleted, altered or the company can

make there on reviews to balance

out the negativity.

The problem with this is

authenticating where the review

actually came from, be it a

concerning consumer or a paid

advertiser trying to manipulate

peoples opinions. After all, anyone

that has access to the web can

create a blog be it a fan of a product

or a person that detests a brand.

These are the people brands have to

be aware of, the die hard bad

reviewers who believe they have

more power entrusted upon them by

the almighty blog.

opinions of random strangers

Please check out the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=N4ebLhBlQZs

This video demonstrates the

extent of the importance of

blogging and consistent updating. A

blog has to provide for continuity.

Just like a normal website if a blog

is not up to date then the hits of

the blog decline, popularity of

readership depends on the topics

and relevance, making blogs vastly

becoming mainstream media

entities.

The Blogger - TheConsumer - The Business

The Blogger

Forester, 1991 pg 29 actually

assed how the internet was soon going

to be a social standing as the

technology became cheaper and easier

available, ‘the preceding century gave

mankind the opportunity to bring about

a new and better social system’.

Forester continues to say that

commercialism over the web was

inevitable and by this the effects of

prompting good service ‘is essential to

extend good promotion online but

predominantly offline’, (pg 30)

reinforcing the fact that experience

offline has an effect on people’s

perception and what they go on to

write about online – if a service in a

store is appalling, it leads to the

As there is a sufficient

increase in the rise of people

actually using user generated

content such as blogging and

social sites to voice their

opinions, it is crucial that a

brand can adapt and assess

this new ‘social web’ trend.

‘The numbers, as shown

(appropriately) on any blog

show that growth is strong’,

Innoblog (2007).

Webs 2.0 has progressed and

this report goes on to

evaluate such technological

advances in social media sites,

The idea that we speak more to

friends and family over the internet is

becoming truer each day as even the

telephone is being overtaken by the

web (for an individual this is cheaper

than having broadband), ‘this paints

the picture of the web as a substitute

for a bar or club!’, Chaffey & Smith

2008 pg 115. This is due to the

advances in technology as the latest

phones have sufficient coverage

enough for the person to carry the

web with them.

Bt already has WIFI open zone areas

where it is free for consumers to get

onto the web and with the UK

government planning to make the UK

completely switch to digital, the

People vs Businesses 20

store is appalling, it leads to the

conclusion that the review will

showcase the faults.

This has become more important

for businesses to assess bad reviews

they get from these sites since they give

clear and precise reasons and opinions

on real peoples perception of the

brand. It can prove to be damaging

depending on the popularity of the blog

since the web has given consumer

experience the opportunity to reach

more than the just the friends and

families of the blogger.

In the argument presented in

Forester 1991 pg 131 ‘microworlds vs.

the real world’ the concept of

humankind living online is scrutinised. It

begs the question if we engage more to

our computer screens than people

themselves, then computer acts as the

middleman passing on the message.

advances in social media sites,

we see that there is only

room for improvement.

completely switch to digital, the

extent of Internet access availability

will be overwhelming and this once

again could be negative to a brand, if

a consumer is unhappy it will

probably take them only a few

minutes to write a damning report

and post in on their personal blog. ‘It

can help elect presidents and take

down attorney generals while

simultaneously celebrating the

minutiae of our everyday obsessions’,

Wiseman 2008.

The Consumer:

The main question about blogging is

‘is it really that important and does it

have a sufficient voice or authority to

change the attitudes of consumers?’,

Wiseman (2008). There are many

reasons why we blog and it

predominantly depends on the

individual weather or not they look

to provide information about

consumer experience offline, online


Access to the web is vastly growing and

a brand or organisation has to ‘exploit

the unique characteristics of digital

media’, Chaffey & Smith (2008) pg 3.

Technorati which is an online database

that lets brands look up what is being

blogged about them also allows

consumers to look at the same

information, making the searching of

relevant information easier. The current

trend shows expansion, but at the end

of the day it all revolves around the

consumer, so control of information

provided is inexistent for brands,

making life just that extra bit difficult.

Usability is also major in maintain a

consumers interest on a blog, ‘If

adequate functionality has been

chosen, reliability is ensured’, Forrester

(1991) pg 170. If the system is easy to

use, (not just to create but also to

navigate) which most blog sites are

then the traffic increases significantly,

making the site more popular.

.

‘Google and other similar

businesses tend to score blogs

quite highly, giving them added

authority as new content tends

to be regularly uploaded’

Donker (2010). This increases

the likelihood that the brand

will be placed more highly on

search results. As well as

proving popular in keyword

searches , blogs are also an

informal way of providing

information and entertainment

to potential customers.

There are easy ways to

evaluate what is going on in the

blogging world, with surveys

such and sites such as

Technorati, ‘a search engine

that keeps track of what is

happening in the blogosphere’,

BBC News 2005. A brand can

Blogs are consumer lead, ‘the

same marketing principles apply

weather online or offline’, Chaffey

& Smith (2005) pg 17:

•Get close to customers

•Involve them

•Serve them

•Add value

•Find the best ones

•Nurture them and replicate them

•Test measure and improve

The Business

Do blogs affect sales? It is

hard to determine a relationship

between seeing as this is still

relatively new. Is all publicity good

publicity? Google analytics can

only determine weather people

have your brand in their minds

and show popularity by analysis of

search words, which once again

comes up with the problem in

All factors in human goals, if correctly

implemented can boost trafficking on a

bloggers site, they are crucial to keep

users less frustrated when navigating

on any web page not just a blog. Blogs

are easy to use; this is one of the

reasons linked to its success. The real

task it to deter consumers off hate

blogs and make them come onto the

brand blogs which a brand has more

control of when it comes to content,

making the brand more influential.

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BBC News 2005. A brand can

utilise this tool to assess their

popularity on blogs.

Brand blogs can give you

an insight into consumer

engagement, just as well as e-

mail or subscriptions can,

valuable databases can also be

formed. It’s all about having

the correct employers and

strategy when it comes to

addressing and gathering the

information, separating the

importance of what is being

said and crisis management to

counteract the negative

reviews etc. These blogs can

also have rich internet

applications ‘interactive

applications which provide

such as product selectors or

games’, this can also help keep

people interested in creating

trafficking.

comes up with the problem in

advertising - measuring on an

opportunity level. Is the

information you receive from

these reports sufficient enough to

alter company objectives or

product and brand development?

Once again we also have to look at

its effect on SEO (search engine

optimisation) ‘a structured

approach used to increase the

relative ranking position of a

company or it’s products in search

engines’, Chaffey & Smith (2008).

‘It relies on people tagging - giving

keywords to - their blogs or blog

posts so that its search engine can

find them,’ BBC News (2005). With

the use of search bots, it is

established how much you are

sought out and the more you are

spoken about, through key

phrases, the better it is for

consumers to reach you, when

needed. This can also be used to

establish KPI (key performance

indicators).

www.technorati.com

SWOTANALYSISBRANDS AND BUSINESS BLOGS

Digital Review www.facebook.com/leftclick 22


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As to every online, consumption of the

information is the most important

factor, how the consumer gets there

information and how easily they can

access it. Of course it needs to be

constantly kept up to date, If not

updated it depreciates in value of

content.

Advertising online has increased

ad spend as brands now what to

measure engagement, ‘Digital

marketing has meant that ad spend

online is likely to increase to more than

40 Billion’ Shields, R (2010). Giving the

ideal platform on which to promote

offers and provide backlinks to the main

portal. These in links can be appear

personalised as they are directed to the

specific consumer and topic discussed

Brief SummaryThe capabilities of behavioural target on

blogs is extended as consumers can be

assessed judging on their response to

certain discussions, which leads on to

customer profiling. brands can connect

with their consumer and find out the

answers who buys their products and

why. This can be linked to social media

site pages. Experimental marketing can

also be utilised, items in production or

even development ideas can be put

forward in blog discussion and the

company can judge on consumer

response on how effective the item can

be if massed produced.


specific consumer and topic discussed

in the blog, (similar to affiliate

marketing) bringing the potential

customers to the products and services

on offer. In this case, blogs can be used

to provide a good, relevant internal

linking structure to many pages within a

brand website.

User generated content usually

interlinks; if one person is

blogging then they are probably

on Facebook or twitter or have a

YouTube account. To be

effective you have to establish

all of these and become good at

them. The blog page above

shows that every blog written by

an individual has links to other

user generated content, the

need of validation is essential for

consumers, so brands have to

utilise this effectively. The list

below shows obvious but

influential recommendations:

•Keep the blog up to date.

•Keep it easy to read easy to

take information from.

•Test products through affiliate

marketing and experimental

Blog Recommendations Digital Review25

marketing and experimental

marketing. Coupons and news

updates on the brand

•Make B2B strategy more

effective, link everything

together effectively.

Trends alter differently in this

sector of the internet market

and to market to your target

market more productively, a

brand needs to know what they

want the blog site or consumer

review site to show them. How

are they going to use the

information provided? What

impact will reviews have on the

brand image? And how can they

plan for any negative PR. If they

can answer these questions and

prepare for the worst, than they

will become more effective, but

more time need to be spent

online to become online

consumer behaviour gurus.

Brands should focus on obtaining more knowledge in this

market, which can be extremely beneficial and help generate

user brand blogs and brand advocates (people who advertise

your brand without even realising it or getting paid) increasing

customer loyalty. These are only a few things that make blogging

and business a perfect match. There are a million other reasons

as to why it is imperative to link blogs with business but ‘the best

way to find out more about them is by using them’, Maghirang

(2010).

Mobile technology is doing really well and smart phones such as

the Blackberry touch also allow you to blog, this opens so much

opportunity for marketing potential, most free apps have

advertising banners. It is easy to motivate and manipulate

consumers but brands should never underestimate the power of

the consumer blogger

‘’It's official acknowledgement on the part of MySpace that Facebook has indeed become top dog in the social networking space, and its better to be with them than against them at this point.“ Adam Ostrow

Digital Review 26

Background

After Friendster was released in 2002,

some eUniverse employees came

together and decided to copy the more

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The first users of MySpace were eUniverse

employees. The company started a

contest for the employees to see who

The history of Myspace began as a for-profit venture

by eUniverse in 2003, bolstered by generous start-up

money. MySpace was intended to compete with similar

services such as Friendster to help people network with

one another in an easy to use and enjoyable manner.

The domain name was once used for a virtual data

storage site, but it was re-purposed for what would

come to be a far more lucrative business.

together and decided to copy the more

popular features of the website. The

first version of MySpace was ready for

launch ten days after they decided to do

this. The MySpace start-up team had

everything under control when they first

launched. The MySpace project was

overseen by Brad Greenspan, who was

eUniverse’s founder and CEO. He

managed Chris De Wolfe, who was

MySpace’s managing CEO, Josh Berman,

Tom Anderson, who was president, and

a team of programmers provided by

eUniverse.

contest for the employees to see who

could sign up the most users. After

eUniverse had reached 20 million users on

MySpace, they used them to put life into

the network and make it number one.

Toan Nguyen was a key architect and

technology expert who helped MySpace to

become what it is today. MySpace.com

was a brand associate with YourZ.com. By

2004 MySpace.com made the transition

from a storage site to a social-networking

site. After the site had launched, Chris De

Wolfe wanted to start charging a fee for

the MySpace service. Brad Greenspan

disagreed; he believed that keeping the

site free was what would make it large and

successful.

EUniverse was purchased in July of 2005 for$580 million. Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorporation, who is the owner of FoxBroadcasting and other media enterprises, wasthe buyer. Of the $580 million, $327 milliondollars was added to the current value ofMySpace. One of MySpace’s goals is to releaseversions of the network for multiple countries.

They have already launched 28 internationalversions. Most of the users of the site are intheir teens and early 20s, making it a veryattractive market for advertisers. The natureof the site as a social networking butmarketers have an access to vast amounts ofdata about the people who visit it. Early on thesite's development, a decision was made to

It's become indispensable for established artists and new ones alike.

MySpace shares an office building with itsowner, Fox Interactive Media, in Beverly Hills,California. Fox Interactive Media is owned byNews Corporation whose headquarters are inNew York City. In 2006 MySpace was the mostpopular social networking website in the U.S.A.

MySpace was overtaken in 2008 by itscompetitor Facebook. The 100 millionthaccount on MySpace was created in August2006 .

28

site's development, a decision was made toensure that all of its features remain free touse. That has turned out to be a veryprofitable choice, as the rapid growth in theuser base of the site as provided substantialrevenue for the site.

One interesting aspect of Myspace'sdevelopment is the role that it has come to playfor the music industry. Many popular bands useMyspace to provide free samples of their music

and post news along with concert dates topromote themselves.

Digital Review

Usability

One of the reasons that Myspace has stood out from some of its competition is the ability for users to customize the HTML mark-up of their profile pages, making it far more customizable than that of their major competitor, Facebook.

This also has the negative side-effect of subjecting many hundreds of thousands of people to some of the worst web design imaginable. The site also offers free blogs to all users along with some in-depth profiles that they can fill out to their heart's content.

In 2008 the MySpace home page was designed into simpler layout that was more appealing to the eye. MySpace music was also recreated in the fall of 2008.content.

Throughout the course of 2007 and 2008, MySpace made many changes in the layout and function of the site. The user’s home page was the first function that was redesigned. They added new features such as applications, status updates, and subscriptions.

Facebook had many different and better functions then MySpace, so MySpace had to catch up

the fall of 2008.

•

“Myspace is a platform for people to be whatever they want, so we’ve decided to give them the space

to do it.” - Mike Macadaan

In October 2010, Myspace introduced new page layout to theaudience. According to the article in Guardian The MySpaceredesign: Voice of a generation - or dressed up to sell? They havedumped a lot of old features, including the logo and 'a place forfriends' strap line. The main focus of the new site is music, as youmight expect, and it's all about personalisation.

Right now it has everything you would expect in a music focusedsite, down to the rounded corners of the graphics. Their new lookis more retro, design is cleaned up, tabs moved to the page top,and also contains news feeds of activity; musicians have new toolsto design their pages; accounts can synchronise with Facebookand Twitter and there are loyalty badges for users.

Digital Review 30www.facebook.com/leftclick

Here are some of the features of a personal profile on

MySpace:

• Moods a person picks an icon to display which type of mood

they are in.

• Blurbs,

• Blogs - has standard fields for content, emotion, and media.

• Multimedia: There are two blurbs, “Who I’d like to meet”

and "About Me." In addition, profiles contain an "Interests"

section and "Details" section.

• "Status"

• Zodiac Sign"

• Photo gallery

• Chat window

• One of the images can be chosen to be the "default image”.

• Playlist

• Friends lists

• Comments

Digital Review www.facebook.com/leftclick 32

Control

The change is part of MySpace’s new public commitment to privacy. The once-dominant social network’s stated goal is to simplify privacy

settings, is to simplify settings and let users more clearly post updates publicly, to friends only, or publicly to anyone 18 or over.

Digital Review

updates publicly, to friends only, or publicly to anyone 18 or over.

MySpace’s privacy strategy appears to be the exact opposite ofFacebook’s current strategy, as late last year we saw the companydramatically alte privacy settings for members to encourage publicupdates. That move caught the company some flack, but controversyaround Facebook’s “Like” button and Instant Personalization featuresdominate headlines now. Perhaps it is the perfect time for MySpace tostrike. In a blog post on MySpace, Co-President Mike Jones doesn’tspecifically call out Facebook, but writes that, “We respect our users’desires to balance sharing and privacy, and never push our users toan uncomfortable privacy position.”

32www.facebook.com/leftclick

The true value of social networks is just becoming clear to marketers.

MySpace earned $820 million in ad revenue in 2008 the amount spent on advertising itself in the UK is tiny by comparison. This is more marked by the fact that social networks that have a greater

Advertising2

Source: Mintel

social networks that have a greater market share in the UK are in fact lower spenders than MySpace.

36Digital Review www.facebook.com/leftclick

On 11th of January, the media published an information that MySpace releases more than 550 employees , currently numbering about 1100 people of the international staff.

(...) One example of a social network directly advertising itself is MySpace, whichlaunched a banner campaign in May 2009 featuring stop-motion animated toys actingout scenarios of using the social network’s new products and services. This isn’tnecessarily money down the drain: Mintel’s research shows that the more advancedfunctions are still not well used within sites, such as playing games (used by 20% ofrespondents) and watching videos or listening to music (10%).

These are activities that social networks need to encourage because they are revenuegenerators. In the case of gaming, especially virtual worlds, networks have the chanceto profit from the sale of virtual goods (such as via game FarmVille which sells virtualfarm equipment to allow users to advance). Greater use of video could also attractmore advertisers to pay for in-video adverts as well as invest more into paid-forsearch.

37

about 1100 people of the international staff. The message appeared, among Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, and All Things D. The majority of employees in the service are U.S. citizens. Reductions also will include staff offices in China and Britain, which will be reduced to an absolute minimum.

Exemptions are not so unexpected. At the end of 2010 newspapers reported about this possibility, and even in 2009, MySpace greatly diminished its staff. The workforce reduction is a result of the difficult situation the service, which leads to loss of its owner, News Corp.

B2B

When all the dust settles does anyone think this “partnership” between Facebook and

MySpace will do anything to save MySpace?

Last summer MySpace found a way to getMySpace status updates into Facebook.And last November at a special pressevent that everyone was invited theyannounced more integrations.

Facebook Connect integration so that userscan associate their MySpace accounts withtheir Facebook accounts and then log in toMySpace via Connect. Part of that isalready live. MySpace will suck in as muchprofile information as possible and use itto help with advertising and the interestgraph (bands, musicians etc).

They have also announced that Facebookusers will now be able to push all theirFacebook status updates to MySpace. SoFacebook stream will appear on MySpaceprofile. Now all MySpace has to do isfigure out how to get at least some ofthose users to hang out at MySpaceoccasionally, not just at Facebook. In a few

10% of MySpace traffic left the socialnetwork to search on Google anyway, sothe formal relationship with Google makessense from a customer retention andrevenue generating standpoint.

MySpace has also partnerships withSpringWidgets Beta, People ChoiceAwards, Windows Live Messenger andHotmail, Ad.ly, an in-stream advertisingplatform and many more.

39

occasionally, not just at Facebook. In a fewmonths, everybody will know if it workedand if there is any long term business forMySpace.

Google

‘Myspace and Google, Inc. todayannounced a multi-year agreement torenew and expand their long-standingsearch and advertising relationship. Underthe terms of the new agreement, Googlewill continue to power Myspace searchand search advertising and will alsoprovide additional display advertisingservices to enhance the richentertainment content experienceinherent on Myspace. This agreementbrings together Google’s expertise insearch and advertising with Myspace’sstrength in social entertainment.’(MySpace.com)

Of course, it is a great deal for News Corpbecause they have collaborated with thenumber one search engine provider and acompany that has proven it can monetizetraffic. It's been estimated by HitWise that

Digital Reviewwww.facebook.com/leftclick

B2CB2CA music discovery tool

MySpace helps people expressthemselves and allows brands to tryto relate to those expressions.Influence of marketing is anessential part of online marketing.DJs are still around, but they arenot the only ones introducing peopleto new music. It’s about tapping intosocial capital and how people sharethe music they have discovered withother people. Myspace invites itsusers to be in that conversation andit depends on making people part ofthe experience.

Users of the site can create profiles and post the recorded tracks in relevant section. Everyone can also find their favourite kind of music, listen to the new, fresh tracks. For many artists, internet users are the first listeners. Others, though already have a debut behind them, still put new music to promote their new albums.

From the beginning MySpace was theforge of the young talents; it allows

41

the experience.

’MySpace is still around — and it's still one of the most popular sites for musicians and bands to promote

themselves.’

Almost every band has a MySpacepage, which is a free and easy wayto let people hear your music. Butit's not necessarily a way to getdiscovered — there are more than 5million artists registered onMySpace.

forge of the young talents; it allowscomposers to exist, and to deal withthe reaction of a virtual audience.

Artists like: Lily Allen, Katie Nash,One Republic, Arctic Monkeys orSean Kingston were discoveredthanks to Myspace.

Digital Reviewwww.facebook.com/leftclick

Conclusions

MySpace has become a niche service focusing mainly on musician, fans and bands. The announced changes may improve the current situation of the service, they also

sound really appealing, but may not be enough. More importantly Myspace doesn’t do a good job selling itself, it has a lot to do with spam, malware, hacks that

seemed to overrun the site. MySpace has to realize that it is unable to compete with MySpace has to realize that it is unable to compete with Facebook, which is consuming more markets (most recently defeated Zuckerberg site Orkut in India, a traditional bastion of Google's site.) The only way to

survive is to find a new idea for themselves - and to offer their users something new, and fresh. Something, what

they will not able to find on Facebook.

For now, MySpace had set a specific goal: to become profitable till the end of the financial year (June 2011) . If it fails, (like analysts predict) within two years, service will

be sold - for less than $ 300 million.

HistoryIn February 2004 Mr Zuckerberg

launched "The Facebook", as it was originally known; the name taken from the sheets of paper distributed to freshmen, profiling students and staff. 1,200 Harvard students had signed up Within 24 hours, and after one month, over half of the undergraduate population had a profile on Facebook.

It became Facebook.com in August 2005 after the address was purchased for $200,000. US high

The site's features have kept developing during 2007. Facebook users could post free classified advertisements, give gifts to friends and even develop their own applications.

As of Sep 2009, the company made that clear by announcing that they now have more that 300 million users, making it the largest social-networking site with an education focus.

Recently, Facebook is the largest

45

purchased for $200,000. US high schools could sign up from September 2005, and then it began to spread worldwide, reaching UK universities the following month. Until September 2006, the network was extensive beyond educational institutions to everyone with a registered email address.

The site continues free to join, and makes a profit through advertising revenue. Yahoo and Google are among companies which have indicated interest in a buy-out.

Recently, Facebook is the largest and fastest-growing online social networking site in the world. Besides its large audience, Facebook also has some of the most accomplished advertising tools. Advertisers can use this function attaches great importance to the consumer targeting movement and feed a specific audience segment in order to promote word of mouth marketing.


Many of early social networking sites were short-lived because a lot of users lost interest. Three early decisions and innovations helped Facebook keep fresh in market share: Trusted identity combined with clearly defined networks: Most freshmen arrive on campus, they don’ t know anyone, and so rapid networking is critical.

Confirming online identity, Facebook has become an obvious extension to the offline world. Everyone can join common interest groups in a Facebook network. In contrast, user s of many earlier social networking sites, the reason why they lost interest is when the quality of their networks became diluted with strangers. Without

servers online had the added benefit of creating certain reputation of exclusiveness.

Although Facebook is now open for anyone to join, its early positioning as an exclusive service helped make it seem more desirable and drive an essential mass of users. Early on, it was only possible to search, browse, and view profiles within one’s own network, which further helped to intensify the sense of trust on the site. In the meantime, Orkut and Myspace members were getting bombarded by message spam and connection requests from random strangers. Providing continual engagement: How to keep members engaged on a continual basis is one of the reasons why

friends, called New Feeds, when people log in, is shown on the Facebook home page, and a summary of activity updates specific to each Facebook user appears on that individual‘s profile page wall.

Paradoxically, the News Feed feature, which has proven so helpful to Facebook’s permanence, was initially a big source of argument. Feeds are now one of he top reasons why members keep returning to Facebook. Facebook has transformed from novel thrill to repeat destination, because of the continual sense of decency about the information. The concept of activity feeds has ever become a best practice copied by other Internet sites to sustain site traffic.

If all of your friends are on facebook to share everything, you will

Why Facebook? 46

diluted with strangers. Without trusted identity and a clear formula for when to accept or reject friend requests, friend networks degraded to strangers, spam, and junk.

Facebook’s decision to begin with limiting the number of schools on the service, and only gradually grow as it was able to get new

basis is one of the reasons why Facebook grew substantially. Facebook provides incentives for people to come back to the site –‘wall posts, photos, new friends connections, videos tagged of the individual, and event RSVP people canbroadcast updates about friends’ are just a few developed recent activities. A summary of updates across all of one’s

facebook to share everything, you will also want to join in, and be a part of them, and interact with your friend group. People are less likely to join or change a different social network where you know fewer people. Facebook has over 110 MILLION users from all interest and business groups, it will be easy to find lots of people in the place market. The fast-growing 25+ demographic to university students are building the social marketing promise-land. If people devote an hour a day to social marketing on Facebook, over time they can: Increase traffic numbers to website by the thousands• Get lots of relevant inbound links• Target the advertising• Advertise the business for free• Improve SEO with news feeds• Get the word out about yourself and

your products

SWOT

Strengths

• The clean layout and the simplifying of the profile page All your personal information is in one place and all your applications are on one tab now called boxes.

• Integration of Wall and Minifeed Makes Sharing Even Easier with one dedicated tab and a host of new features to play around with.

• New Features

• Facebook Notes can import their posts automatically and then tag

Weaknesses

• Initial Teething Problems

• Harder To Customise

• Harder To Judge by First impressions

• No shortcuts on the Profile page

• Viral Potential Restricted

• Application Developers

• Designed for Advertising

• The Money Spot

• Flash Distractions

47

Opportunities

• A Great Place To Network to promote yourself, your business, your product or any services you offer .

• Facebook Pages With the obvious refocus on advertising those who learn how to use facebook social adds will have a great opportunity to get very targeted advertising.

• Marketing Tools polls and surveys which a range of powerful marketing tools

• Integration With Other

• Services allows users to link all their social media activities together sites like Digg.

• Power structures will Change

Threats

• Facebook Is Now In Control what people see when they land on your page.

• Spamming Wall spam has now become a much bigger issue with the merging of the mini feed and wall.

• Allow More Choice to allow users to decide

• Self Expression to be able to pick exactly what page is displayed to new visitors uld also be a good option to add.

• Tagging directly into their profile page


People can increase traffic to website by taking

advantage of Facebook applications:

Social marketing with Facebook Notes:

If people want to set up a Facebook page that

will pull people back over and over, then

Notes great. Once install it people will see

it on the applications list found on profile.

If click on “mynotes” people will see a

spot where they can add the RSS feed

which will look something like

this:[http://blog.YourSite.com/index.xml].

Facebook tends to have a morning rush

hour — people come in to work and check

Facebook. So think of the network’s time

zone and try to have something new in the

feed by around 7:30 – 8:00 am.

Social marketing with My Box +: people

can add any HTML to Facebook page with

this great little app. So start with an opt-in

offer to email list. And take the opt-in

code from people’s website, install My

Box, and paste in the code. Then people

can collect email addresses right from

Facebook.

On social implications:

Reaching new audience Online social

networking encourage entrepreneurial

networks by offering casual interaction

modes and the ability to support a greater

48The Effects of Social

Marketing

Social marketing

with Flog Blog: Another great application

is Flog Blog which lets people add RSS

items to Facebook profile, displaying the

headline and lead sentence, lead

paragraph, or a set number of characters.

Posts displayed in Facebook profile can

either link to blog or to the Flog Blog

application’s “canvas page,” within

Facebook. It will net more friends as well.

In Facebook, people are watching what

their friends are looking at. On top of that,

people get to link back to their own

website.

modes and the ability to support a greater

number of weak ties. This is good news for

marketers. Entrepreneurial networks can

help brands build bridges from existing

audience to new one.

Social shopping and recommendations

The future of shopping will be social. Social

network members are already starting to

engage with specific products and services

through virtual gifts, friend

recommendations, and e-commerce.

Social network communities Online social

networking sites provide an ideal medium

for engaging with existing customers and

building loyalty. Social network

communities, such as Myspace group, Hi5

group,

On engagement:

Companies around the world are using Facebook to make the Weba more social place, and how to engage through social andpersonalized features.

Users are creating word-of-mouth for events. Word-of-mouth has always been one of the most powerful tools ofmarketing. According to a survey conducted online byNielsen in 2009 of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50countries, 90 percent of its consumers surveyed trustrecommendations from people they know.

The power of content sharing through mediums such asFacebook’s social plug-in can help leverage your brand andcreate word-of mouth. Your sites can become more socialand engaging and have the potential to reach a vast networkof users. It’s a service that’s worth trying and it’s easy toimplement.

Social plugins:

The Activity Feed plug-in

Displays the most interesting recent activity taking place onthe site. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the plug-incan display personalized content whether or not the userhas logged into the site. The activity feed displays storiesboth when users like content on the site and when usersshare content from the site back to Facebook. TheRecommendations plug-in shows personalizedrecommendations.

Like Box

The Like Box is a social plug-in that enables Facebook Pageowners to attract and gain Likes from their own website.

Login Button

The shows profile pictures of the user's friends who havealready signed up for your site in addition to a login button.

49

Like Button The Like button lets a user share your content withfriends on Facebook. When the user clicks the Like button onyour site, a story appears in the user's friends' News Feedwith a link back to your website.

T

already signed up for your site in addition to a login button.

Facepile

The Facepile plugin displays the Facebook profile pictures ofusers who have liked your page or have signed up for yoursite.

Live StreamThe Live Stream plug in lets users visiting your sitand comments

in real time.

Commentse or application share activity The Comments Box easily enables

users to comment on your site'scontent — whether it's for a web page, article, photo, or other piece of content. Then the user can share the comment on Facebook on their Wall and in their friends' streams.

23% of Twitter followers follow businesses to find special promotions or sales, 25% of Customers connect with brands on Facebook to receive discounts.

More than 50% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter users are more likely to make a purchase from the brands they follow. Facebook and Twitter visitors spend 1.5X more online that other Internet user. People can use Facebook

Credits to buy digital goods in more than 150 social games and applications on Facebook. Facebook already collects 30% on purchases of virtual goods. Now estimated to be worth $5bn annually. But now it’s possible for brands with fan pages to display and sell products via Facebook. There are a numbers of 3rd

50

pages to display and sell products via Facebook. There are a numbers of 3rd platforms arriving on the market which allow anyone to build a Facebook e-commerce storefront meaning that consumers can purchase products

without leaving the Facebook environment. Brands can sell through status updates and tab stores, ecommerce functionality stays with the post

wherever it goes.

Please access the video link below：

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jTZiNZVtQE

In the US Facebook credits are not only available to buy online, but can also be picked up in local supermarkets, and started selling the gift cards in the lead up to Christmas. Now people can also buy Facebook credits in UK


B2B

A number of celebrities and organizations on Facebook are already using this feature to publish the content on their Facebook Page to Twitter and reach a wider audience. Twitter was a natural next step to link with Facebook Pages because it is a powerful tool for broadcasting short messages widely.

Facebook will be releasing a feature that allows administrators of Facebook pages to publish their Facebook updates to their Twitter accounts automatically. This will only link Facebook Pages to Twitter, not the individual profile.

If people want to manage a Facebook Page, now will be able to decide whether to share updates with their Twitter followers, and also will be able to control what type of updates to share: status updates, links, photos, notes, events or all of them. If people have multiple Pages, they will have the option to link each of those Pages to different Twitter accounts. This new feature will be soon be available at

51

new feature will be soon be available at http://www.facebook.com/twitter.

Facebook & SEO

Microsoft and Facebook have announced a new partnership that brings “Like” data and profile search to Bing. The deal marks a big leap forward in social search and also represents a new advantage for Bing . Bing users now get an experience that’s customized using

Facebook Instant Personalization. Yahoo had already been trialling the approach, using Google IDs. Facebook and Google IDs will work across all Yahoo services, apart from Yahoo email and instant messenger.

The future of social businessThe online social graph allows relationships and business goals, rather

than technology limitations, to drive business strategies and decisions. In fact, in the best online social graph disappeared, fully

52

decisions. In fact, in the best online social graph disappeared, fully integrated into the online and offline tasks, transactions, and

interactions confirmed.


53


Victoria’s Secret, a well-know U.S. retailer of

sleepwear and lingerie, has a successful

facebook page for its PINK line targeting

high school and college students. Less than

a year after establishing its official

community on facebook, PINK has nearly on

million fans who have collectively posted

tens of thousands of wall posts, videos,

photos, and discussion forum message.

Any facebook member can become a fan of the

PINK page. Members can post photos,

access event, and participate in the

discussion forum and wall. PINK then

appears under the “page” section in the

Case studyVictoria’s Secret PINK & Facebook

Besides the officially sanctioned PINK page,

there are also over 500 usercreated

groups dedicated to Victoria’s Secret,

including over 300 dedicate to

the PINK line. There are group such as “

obsessed with PINK*by Victoria’s

Secret” “i’m addicted to Victoria’s Secret

PINK, but damit make some bigger

bra’s!” and “Victoria’s Secret PINK-at

USC!!” they groups range from having a

few members to tens of thousands of

members, and play an important role in

influencing how people engage with the

Victoria’s Secret brand on facebook.

In fact, a few dozen of these groups were

started in response to an official

54

appears under the “page” section in the

user’s profile, and as an ad(if had have been

purchased) or social story in the News Feed

when friends log in.

Victoria’s Secret advertisers PINK through

Myspace and Facebook, as well as

partnership with MTV and youth-oriented

blogs. According to those who follow the

industry, the PINK brand seems to be the

fastest-growing line launched in the history

of the company.But Victoria’s Secret brand

presence and influence doesn’t end there.

started in response to an official

contest announced on the PINK page

challenging college women to nominate

their school to be part of the PINK

collegiate collection, special-edition styles

branded with school colours and logos.

56The Future of

social media


Good marketers no the market upside down and

inside out the importance of knowing what’s

round the corner is vital to avoiding the dangers

that may lie ahead. Is the future of social media

Facebook that’s the question on everyone’s mind

when it comes to advertiser’s digital spending

budget.

Big brands are looking to move to add

ecommerce to their sites with more than 500

million active users logging on to Facebook any

given day its no wonder brands have taken upon

themselves to try and increase their sales

opportunities by using this vast social media

platform Easy Jet look to be the first to introduce

a fully functional e commerce page onto facebook

Katie Stitson, UK marketing manager for Easy Jet,

said, “The group holiday planner lets you co-

ordinate dates and availability and invite your

friends via Facebook and email. We’re looking to

develop this further by adding booking

functionality.” nma (2010). New media trends

states that: 64% of respondents in a global study

by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts said they use social

The Future of Social Media Digital Review57Seemingly on paper this seems to be an

excellent for Facebook and brands a like it

will increase brand awareness, Facebook will

become a more powerful tool being able to

analyse peoples spending habits in relation to

their profiles, it will encourage spending

helping the growth of Facebook and the

brands as it will become a powerful

purchasing tool. The likely hood of this being

a failing endeavour is up to debate as it

hasn’t been fully tested yet but the theory

behind the logic seems conclusive meaning

the implications to Facebook could make

Facebook one of the most powerful e

commerce tools on the net which only adds

to their already heavyweight champion

status.

Facebook’s current competitors are looking

for a route slip past the social media giants

but the door gets slammed shut every time.

Myspace once the Facebook of the web tried

to regain market share by, looking to return by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts said they use social

media to make their travel plans. This provides

added evidence that this could be a successful

tool for Easy jet to utilize but the question will

remain is Facebook appropriate for all types of

brands e commerce endeavours and how many

brands will take the same steps as Easy Jet

.

Another brand that has seemingly embraced this

idea is online retail fashion brand ASOS.

Asos’sFacebook app will have the same

functionality as the Asos website, including add-

to-basket, edit cart contents, check out and

order-tracking features. It will also have increased

social media capabilities including the ability to

"like" and share items and purchases with friends.

Items that are listed by users will also appear in

their friends' newsfeeds, with the capability to

click through to the Facebook store brandrepublic

(2011). In relation to the power of UGC discussed

in this report this is a great way to generate buzz

around the brand.

to regain market share by, looking to return

to growth and compete more effectively with

Facebook. The main issue here is that the

loyal Myspace followers are mainly using

Myspace as tool to share their passion of

music, chasing Facebook would seemingly be

a lost cause they now fall into niche category

of social networking and should focus on

what they do best music rather than trying to

get back their market share of being social

networking site for friends a clear brand

status needs to be put out so people

understand were exactly Myspace are

positioning themselves in the market or

Myspace could be looking at further looses.

Mintel (2009) states with the launch of new

tools, such as MySpace Music in December

2009 these strategies look to be the way

forward for Myspace in the current market.

?

Facebook does encounter some challenges mainly from

their biggest rivals on the internet Google. Google are

looking to launch Google me there has been speculation

that this is just rumours but with many indicators suggest

otherwise it’s hard to ignore this possibility. Whether or

not they will be able to challenge Facebook in the social

media game is yet to be convincing with clear examples

from Google's previous social networking endeavours,

Google Buzz and Orkut garnered lack-luster responses

and low consumer retention - especially when compared

to Facebook's 400 million active user base independent

(2010).

If they do manage to provide a successful social media

site it will be healthy for the market as it will challenge

Facebook to push themselves to excel at the moment

their in a comfortable position and new threats will make

the market work harder to develop Web 2.0 to fight

against new competition.

Facebook’s growth and rapid innovation means that Facebook’s growth and rapid innovation means that

Google now has its first credible competitor – but this is

partly because the search engine has been a victim of its

own success.

56

In order to advertise on Google, brands bid on key

search terms. However, as the search engine

became recognised as the one type of online

activity all brands had to get involved with, this had

an inflationary effect (making it more expensive).

This proved opportune for Facebook, which was

able to offer lower prices, as well as greater

marketing accountability (ie a wider range of tools

to target users and measure the results of

campaign mintel (2010).This could be the

inspiration for Google big push to compete with

Facebook in the social network market as they feel

their advertising revenue is being threatened.

To Smart For Your Own Good

Clear continuous growth in the mobile phone market as location

services grow in sophisticated smart phones become key to retail

strategies. Here brands will be able to differentiate themselves by

offering useful tools that blend location (such as the nearest pub)

with views of friends or others in the community (for example,

whether or not it serves good food) Mintel (2010). The broadening

of the app model will play a role, and marketers must find a way to

deliver ads across a variety of devices this will be a key challenge as

well as to create the kinds of content their targets want to consume

magnetic pull will be key with advertising through mobile social

media being welcome instead of annoying or interruptive. Social

networking on smartphones will continue to grow as well as

handsets designed to accommodate social networking will continue handsets designed to accommodate social networking will continue

to encourage wider usage on the move.

At the same time, marketing activity is also likely to be increasingly

focused on mobile social networking, which will be compelling.

Growing penetration of smartphones, as well as handsets to

accommodate social networking, will continue to encourage wider

usage on the move. This will be reinforced by increasing innovation

from social networks to produce more compelling mobile

applications that simplify that simplify and speed up the process of

connecting with friends on the smaller screen Mintel (2010). Mintel’s

research shows that social networks are the second most popular

internet mobile activity, accessed by 16% of internet users.

Future of

Social Media

The two tables above show the clear indication With Facebook continuing to grow rapidly leaving

60

The two tables above show the clear indication

of belief that advertisers in the US and the UK

have in online digital advertising and the

effectiveness of advertising on social media. UK

social network ad spending will reach an

estimated £275 million ($430 million) in 2012,

more than double the £130 million ($203

million) spent in 2010. 2010 was a

breakthrough year for social media in the UK

emarketer (2010). The growth in advertising

across social media is clear cut and shows a

sustainable growth to continue in years to

come with more people migrating to use digital

social media platforms in their everyday life.

emarketer estimates that 21.8 million people

used social networks—almost half of the

online population. By 2014, about 60% of all

UK web users will be social networkers. One

thing we can be sure on is that the growth in

social media will remain strong and how high

marketers value the effectiveness of

advertising through social media.

With Facebook continuing to grow rapidly leaving

rivals beneath their wings and with their CEO’s

only dreaming of success’s of Facebook not to

mention Facebook obviously got web giants

Google fearing their grip over the internet. It

seems to be there is continuing pressure for other

social media concepts to compete with the big

players sometimes if you can’t beat them your

only option is to join them something Twitter

seemed to realise yet some stubborn brands are

unable to recognise the business opportunities.

The main message is social media will play a

massive role in our futures so embrace it now or

be left in the past, just remember to be careful as

with technological advances as were always only

one step away from finding the next

breakthrough in today’s technology driven world.

Digital Review

61End Report SummaryMain Conclusion:

Moore’s law states that the power of the chip duplicates every two years so the technology

today will be far faster, better and easier to manage as years go on. User generated content is

just at the beginning stages, it is so broad and vast right now which makes its success harder to

determine. Despite this fact there are obvious signs that with technological advances, the drive

of consumer illustrated articles, reviews, blogs or social sites will just continue to be as

influential and essential as they are now. Recent trends show that this is a world of opinions

and the want for these opinions to be shared has increased. As more people get more

comfortable with the technology of web 2.0 and its advances, the need to ‘tell the world’ will

increase significantly. Brands just have to learn to ride the wave but be consistently on top or

otherwise risk drowning in bad publicity.

Main Recommendations:

Growth is foreseen and expansion of this market is unstoppable. The problem with this

particular market is that control of user generated content is simply unattainable. This does

not mean that control management should not be incorporated; instead it should be at the

forefront of any brand development strategies, by interlinking the main corporate strategies

with how they influence the consumer online, the brand produces less risk. Offline attitudes


with how they influence the consumer online, the brand produces less risk. Offline attitudes

affect how people behave online. There will always be an unhappy consumer somewhere out

there in the world, bad publicity is unavoidable no matter how good the brand is, to be

successful in maintain a good overall public image the brand has drown out the voices of

negativity and replace them with the positive, so much so that it easily counteracts the

negative PR.

Planning is the most important thing. Who knows where the road of consumer generated

content research may take us, the incorporation of good management and the structure of the

brand online is what will help drive sales. The market value of Facebook is extensive and has

continuous growth, brands have to utilise this effectively through e- commerce. Retail strategy

will be affected by broadband.

What Next:

E – Businesses will be most effective with user generated content, in the sense that evaluation

will be simplified. B2C selling could prove to be more important and take over B2B as brands

will be able to contact and reach customers directly. The world is soon becoming digital and

our curiosity of different cultures and attitudes will drive us online. We purchase more online,

we socialise more online, we are the new digital age and not only brands but also advertisers

will have to follow this movement to be more effective is B2C selling

Contact Page Digital Review62

Contact us:

Left Click Research Agency Site:

http://digitalmarketingnetwork.ni

ng.com/group/leftclick

Email:

[email protected]

http://www.facebook.com/leftclic

kk

http://www.twitter.com/leftclick.

Magazine Design Editor: George McCann

Articles: Pages 8-13, 56-60

Magazine Writer/Editor: Patrick Zinga

Articles: Pages 7, 14 – 25, 61

Magazine Writer/Editor: Anna Wasko

Articles: Pages 26-42

Magazine Writer: Haiya Tang

Articles: Pages 43-55

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