The impact of social media on STM* publishers and their online advertising income

May 2008

Joep Hutschemakers

“Scholarly publishers need to aggressively add online to counter flat or

declining print dollars and not be fooled into complacency by continued

small growth from a large base.” (Outsell March „07)

*Science, Technology & Medical

1

Accelerating Growth – Build Large Audiences Through Social Media

Key Drivers Online Advertising

Introduction

1) Clear & reliable Measurement & Campaign mgt

2) Wide Spectrum of Online Product Solutions

5) Knowledgeable sales reps

4) Large Target Audiences

3) Targeted – Highly Profiled AudiencesFulfill Main Client Needs

These slides are part of a larger presentation on drivers of online advertising sales.

It illustrates the impact of social media on STM publishers who want to grow their online advertising

income by growing their target audiences

2

Orga-

nizing

URL Description BlogsPod-

castVideo

Social

network

Virtual

networkWikis

Open

SourceForum Rating Review Tags RSS Widgets

NATUREDiscuss science news& events,

interact global& locallyX X X X X X X X X X X X

Postgenomic(By Nature) Share&rank science

knowledge across WebX X X X X X X

SciencehackSearch science videos, screened

by scientistsX X X X

WorldPharmaNews Share & rate pharma news X X X X X

cr4.GlobalSpecNews & discussion on PS&E,

subdomain of GlobalSpec.comX X X X X X

Accelerating

consumptionAds?

Creating content Connecting CollaboratingReacting to each

other

Applying Social Media tactics successfully strengthens online advertising competitive position

Attract Large Audiences by Applying Social Media Principles

Social Media Principle & Technologies

Examples of Best

Practices

Larger audiences More usage More impressions

More quality & profiled users Targeted audiences

More sponsorship opportunities

All Addressing Main Client Needs

Client Needs

Attract Large Audiences By Applying Social Media Principles & Technologies

3

Social Media Content Outgrows Traditional Content

On

line

Con

ten

t

2000 2012

Social Media User

Generated

Commercially

Produced

User generated content via Social Media

outgrows traditional content fast

• Ph.D. students & postdoctoral fellows more and more

familiar with social networking

• On a topic like microbiology alone there are already 205

groups on Facebook

• 130 laboratories up and running on OpenWetWare (wiki

on which researchers can share expertise)

• Nature Network: Every month 1000 of researchers sign up

• Nature Precedings: >750 entries listed to get feedback

from community on preliminary findings

Besides reading full text articles, spending time

on social media will grow as % of researchers

workflow activities

Monetization via ads purely around full text

articles is limited. Ad rev. growth to be achieved

by expanding activities into social media

Strategically: Capturing the intent by opening up

to collective user value in audiences already

served

Tactically: Apply on sites where demand for

impressions exceeds supply created around full

text article use

1

2

Client Needs

A growing % of researchers time

is shifting to Social Media sites

4

Stem cell

Cell metabolism

Immunology

Serve the Long Tail of

Scientific Social Networks

Start with one segment and

build blueprint to roll out to

other segments/societies

Connect Content AND Conversations

EventsContent/

protocols

Products Jobs

Capitalize on conversations that take place on the Web:

• Make destination site a network hub

• Attract users from many different sites and retain some of them for a while

• Route people to relevant material elsewhere

Bio-chemistry

Organic chemistry

Renewable energy

Etc, etc

Client Needs

Build sites "into user click stream/ workflow“, make it a network hub that connects content & conversations

Orga-

nizing

BlogsPod-

castVideo

Social

network

Virtual

networkWikis

Open

SourceForum Rating Review Tags RSS Widgets

CollaboratingCreating content ConnectingAccelerating

consumption

Reacting to each

other

5

100

Time

50

0

Ma

rket sh

are

(%

) in

term

s o

f u

sa

ge

Winner

Loser

Battle zone

- Implementing best practices of Social Media

principles & technology fast

- At global AND local level

- (THE) destination site for Scientists (in addition to

Content also Events, Jobs and Products)

- (THE) networking site for Scientists

- Leading in online enhancement & innovation, few

examples:

- NatureJobs.com (2000)

- Connotea.com (2003)

- one central domain to build scale

- 3 virtual islands in Second Life

- Partnered with BioCompare: foremost online

buyers guide for Scientists

- Webby Award: Best Science Website „08

Network theory shows the winner takes all (Shapiro in Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network)

Practice proofs right so far… (Source: Compete May 2008)

2008 2012

Nature: Leading Social Media developments

in Science

Client NeedsA Case Study: Nature PublishingBuilding THE destination & networking site for life scientists

competition

6

Stay Ahead With Critical Mass & First Mover Advantage Client Needs

• Social Media is more than a

blog, regional differences need

to be taken into account: E.g.

participation highly popular in

Asia while Europe needs to get

traction

• Start experimenting in different

regions, spreading the

workload while learning e.g.

blogs in Asia, video/ podcasts

in US

Now is time to act in order to establish competitive advantage

1. Build critical mass value of Social Media initiatives increases exponentially with # of users

2. First mover advantage: users limited set favorite sites likely sites that reach critical mass first

Driver Web 2.0 User Participation USA UK FR DE JP KR

Read blogs 25% 10% 21% 10% 52% 31%

Comment on blogs 14% 4% 10% 4% 20% 21%

Write blog 11% 3% 7% 2% 12% 18%

Watch user generated video 29% 17% 15% 16% 20% 5%

Upload user generated video 8% 4% 2% 2% 3% 4%

Listen to podcasts 11% 7% 6% 7% 4% 0%

Connecting Visit social networking sites 25% 21% 3% 10% 20% 35%

Read wikis 22% NA NA NA NA NA

Contribute to wikis 6%

Participate discussion forums 18% 12% 11% 15% 22% 7%

Read ratings & reviews 25% 20% 12% 28% 38% 16%

Post ratings & reviews 11% 5% 3% 8% 11% 11%

Organizing Use tags 7% 2% 9% 10% 6% 14%

Accelerating Use RSS 8% 3% 5% 4% 0% 1%

Numbers shown are % of all online adults and include consumers who participate at least monthly

Source: Technographics surveys, 2007 LegendaHIGH LOW user Participation

Creating

content

Reacting

Collaborating

7

A Social Media Vision For STM Publishers

Social Media Benefits to STM publishers

STM Social Media Vision

6) Grow commercial sales & conference revenues

7) Increase society contract value

1) Increase satisfaction of editors, authors, reviewers, societies

5) Learn about needs first hand and test ideas

3) Strengthen STM journal brands

Social Media

4) Broadens and deepens customer understanding

2) Help our users make better research driven decisions

8) Increase research workflow solution sales

Client Needs

Serve and build the largest online social network around every scientific segment targeted and

become the network & destination site in each user (topic) segment

8

Questions?

Email: Hutschemakers@gmail.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joephutschemakers

Twitter: JoepHutsch