The Social Networking & Social Media Phenomenon

& What It Means to PR

Session 4

New Media and PR Process

The Social Site

Space

Social Networking

24 million British adults have signed on to social networking websites

500 million people,all over the world are hooked on to Facebook.

British businesses are loosing up to £6.5 billion in lost productivity.

One FTSE-listed company reported up to 30% of its internet capacity is clogged by its social-networking employees.

Now two-thirds of British companies are said to be banning or restricting access to such sites.

Source: Whose pressing your buttons on Facebook? Dated 3rd february 2008 by Kathy Brewis http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3277046.ece

Social Networking

26% of Europeans in the over-55 age bracket visit a social- networking site at least once a month.

The past year has seen a 12% jump in “silver surfers”.

H&M and Virgin are just a few of the brands that have set up groups

on Facebook, which are like clubs that (they hope) their target market will want to belong to.

Source: Whose pressing your buttons on Facebook? Dated 3rd february 2008 by Kathy Brewis http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3277046.ece

A few examples of using social media?

Examples of Social Network Activity

• Rock Bands – myspace• Volkswagen – ‘Helga’ on MySpace

» Likes / dislikes» Ringtones» Video / Audio

• Non Profits» Employee pages» Information related to cause they support» Charity, political etc etc

Tell me about ...

• More than 500 million active users• The fastest growing demographic is those 30

years old and older• More than 5 million videos uploaded each month• More than 24 million pieces of content (web

links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each month

• More than 20 million active user groups exist on the site

• More than 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Marketing on Facebook

• Friend to friend communication• Personal network

• Groups and Pages• Fan, interest, customer

• Applications• Over 50,000 apps• Syndicate, friend get friend invites• Experiment until successful

Optimise Social Networking For Your Organisation [trust and

social proof]• Target specific audience

– Create a page that reaches an important audience, think about a small niche

• Be A Thought Leader– Provide valuable and interesting information– Demonstrate expertise

• Be Authentic & Transparent– If your mother would say its wrong – don’t do it

• Create Lots of Links– Your own sites, blogs and industry

• Encourage people to contact you– Respond to your fan mail!

• Participate– Create groups and participate in online discussions– Become an online leader and organizer

• Be Discoverable– Tags and directories– Encourage others to bookmark you at social

bookmark sites

• Experiment– If it isnt working test and tweak or start again

Optimise Social Networking For Your Organisation [trust and

social proof]

Pros & Cons?

Social Networks

Pros Cons

Specialized Audience

A more willing audience

Messages can be presented uniquely

Direct monitored contact with the audience and easier to get feedback

Privacy can be an issue

Can turn against your organization, where groups are formed against the organization

People might not believe it is an authentic message

Soulja Boy

• he’s sold over 11,000,000 units of his products,

• he has over 5,000,000s views to his Youtube videos,

• he has over 100,000,000 views to his Myspace page with over 900,000 friends,

• he created his own social network that has 184,000+ members,

• he’s Grammy nominated, and he had a #1 on the billboards for 7 weeks

Soulja Boy

• In November 2005, he posted his songs on the website SoundClick (a music-based social community).

• Following positive reviews on the site, he then created profiles on YouTube and MySpace. In March 2007, he recorded “Crank That” and released his first independent album Unsigned & Still Major: Da Album Before da Album, followed by a low-budget video filmed demonstrating the “Soulja Boy” dance.

• By the end of May 2007, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” received its first airplay and Soulja Boy met with Collipark to sign a deal with Interscope Records.

Soulja Boy – How He Did It

Blogging• Instead of all text blog posts Soulja uses lots of

everyday pictures of what he’s doing or where he is at and then a little blurb about that picture. He also does a lot of video blog posts and then posts them to youtube.

• Some specific things I noticed him doing was giving out his email address and sometimes even his phone number in his blog posts. This is very smart as it lets his audience interact or feel like they are interacting with him.

• Call the number and see what happens…. 678-999-8212 • Every video is under or around 5-6 minutes long and it’s

very raw. He doesn’t use any fancy effects, it’s just him talking about what’s on his mind. If he’s in a down mood you hear it in his voice and same if he is excited.

Soulja Boy – How He Did It

Online Video• Keeps his videos short and to the point. He

also makes sure to tell you what he wants you to do in every video.

• If he needed you to vote for something he asked you to do it, if he needed you to buy a new ringtone he asked you to do it, on and on for anything he needs from you.

• In almost all of his videos he gives you a way to talk back to him which keeps it a 2 way communication instead of him just always talking at you.

Soulja Boy – How He Did It

Social Networks• All about being a 2 way street of communication. His myspace has his

phone number and so do all of his friends. • The networks I saw him using were those that most serviced his target

market. For example he got started on SoundClick.com which is a social network that lets musicians share their music.

• He’s using Twitter and Facebook just like almost everyone else. • Niche specific like Youtube, SoundClick, Bebo, and Myspace. • Soulja is also using Ning.com and has over 184,000 members. Ning is a

social network for people who want to build there own social networks and Ning lets you create your own social networks with all the most popular features.

• His social network is called SODMG which stands for S.O.D. Mafia Gamers. It’s a place for gamers to hang out and challenge each other. For $25 you can register to their internal contest network and join gaming tournaments where you can win cash prizes. 184,000+ members x $25 =$4,600,000

Soulja Boy – How He Did It

Soulja Boy Branding• In every picture, video, or anything, Soulja makes sure

to try and include his branding. • For example he started a trend of wearing sunglasses with his

name written on the lenses. • Now his animated character in his new animated music video

series has his name written on his sunglass lenses.

• He’s almost always wearing a necklace with a superman symbol or his S.O.D. symbol.

• He wears his hat a certain way, he shaves his eyebrows a certain way, everything about him is consistent so that you can always recognize him and his brand.

Soulja Boy – How He Did It

Building A ‘Tribe’• He has very specific reasons for what he does. Like when he

created a video teaching his audience how to do the unique dance he did in his music video.

• How powerful is it to have a bunch of people not only singing your songs but doing your dance!

• That’s not it though because he has his own clothing line where you can wear his brand on your body, I already told you about him having his own social network, and then he also has specific taglines or anthems that he gets his audience to sing.

• You could do these things in your niche by having a specific quote that your audience knows you by

• You can build your own social network where the members call themselves a part of your brand.

Soulja Boy – How He Did It

Case Studies

• Cervelo Cycles– www.cervelo.com

• Concrete Network– www.concretenetwork.com

• Global Action Foundation– http://www.goact.org/

• Mike Pedersen– www.golf-trainer.com