Social Networking in Today's Business Environment

MIS 304 Dr. Fang

4/27/09 

James OlasJordan PepperPatrick FaheyLance JohnsonClarke Ledger

Overview

• Basics• How they work• Business Value

 

MySpace• FaceBook rate of

growth is higher 

• Goal is profitability not greatest number of users.

• Focusing on music and advertising

MySpace Music

• Vehicle for Amazon

• Merchandise and Ticket sales

• MySpace Music Player

Advertisements• Google• Time spent on

MySpace vs. FaceBook

• “Hyper-Targeted” ads

• Sponsored Pages

Outlook• Road to profitability will

be tricky

• Executives heads on the chopping block

• Will MySpace be able to standout among the rest?

• About Friendster• How it works• Business Value• Where they're going

The Creator of Social Networking

• Privately owned• First Social Network site.• Founded in 2002 by Jonathan Abrams.• 90 million registered users + 62 million unique

users.• Focus – Help people meet new friends and to stay

in touch with old ones. Share online content and mediao Dating, New Events, Bands, Hobbies, videos, messaging,

and more

What is Friendster?

• Program founded to create a safer more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing and connecting to friends, and friends of friends.o Allows members to expand their network at a much higher

pace than that of face-to-face.o System Offerings

Fan Profiles Mobile and text alerts Diverse language selection Friendster Developer Program Patents

How Friendster Works

• User can navigate through the site to:o Post Bulletins- (4000 characters max)o Upload photoso Post Shout outs- (250 characters max)o Become a fano Use provided APPS.o Talk to other friends

Why is it Friendster different?

• Friendster is rated as the # 1 Social Network for “user engagement” among the top 5 global Social Networks.o Fastest growing SN in Asian countries.o Average user spends 200+ minutes per visitor per month.o Launched all language support on a single domain.o First global online SN to support Asian and other languages

on a single domain so users around the world can talk to each other.

Friendster for Business

• Post Products (E-business)o Advertise through APPS (Rock You)

• Blog• Business Forum’s

o Financeo Real Estateo Economyo General

Growth in Asia• 23% of an average users friends are located in different

countries.• Friendster is seen as an entertainment site by China’s

government officials• Huge growth in Asian countries• Leads competitors by at least a 2:1 margin• Market is still growing

“Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and

connected.”

Founded

• Social networking site• Started in February 2004 by three Harvard

students• Strictly for networking around Harvard• Expanded to other Ivy League Schools two

months later

What can you do?

• Share personal and professional interests with people

• Create a profile o Biographyo Pictureso Videoso Messages

• Look at friends profiles

More…..

• Interactive Chat• Bumper stickers• Applications

o Mind Jolt o Record a videoo 1000s of others

Breakdown

Advertising

• Apple• Movie Companies• Many others

 

Where Relationships Matter

About LinkedIn   

• 39 Million Users• Launched In 2003• Made up of business contacts • "Professionals"

What Makes LinkedIn Different

• For networking with personal & business contacts• The site is used for job hunting• Businesses can use the site for data gathering• Many executives use the site for business purposes

Business Uses of LinkedIn

• Human Resourceso Hiringo Referencing

• Advertisingo To professionalso To job hunterso As a small business

• Getting business questions answered by current professionalso LinkedIn Answers

• Polling current professionals in a certain areao 60% of LinkedIn users

respond to surveys

Twitter

• Different kind of social networking• Social networking, news, business use • Similar to blog• Instant updates • Rapid growth o2008: users < 1Mo2009: users > 6M

How it Works

• Updates = Tweets• Max characters in a tweet = 140 

o Designed to read posts on cell phones • Followers - get updates from people being followed• Search Function - find people or tweets

Example of a Tweet (45 characters)

Business Uses

• MarketingoCreate presence on TwitteroPost news about company (PR)oAdvertise productsoPost special dealso Interact

Creating a Presence (link to web site)

Post News + Interaction = good PR

Posting Deals

Link from Twitter

Strategies

• Tweets are short, so make posts meaningful• Post links to website• Consider which words to use

oKeywords searchable by search engines including Twitter Search

• Include pictures using TwitPic• For video include a link to YouTube• Hire Social Networking San Diego

o Justin French

Social Networking San Diego

More Strategies

• Use correct spelling and grammar    • Be transparent, don't be fake• Don't focus solely on advertising• Follow others and interact (Starbucks example)

Uses• Twitter may have ads on site• Twitter may sell data on users to businesses• "- I have connected to a lot of people that I either never met or never would

have met if it wasn't for Twitter.- I have engaged directly with people that I otherwise would not have had a chance to speak to. Forget 6 degrees of separation, Twitter creates a universe of 1 degree of separation or less.- Because of one of my Twitter contacts I am now the owner of a horse (with another one to follow). yes, that's right, a real life, non-virtual benefit!...- Twitter has made me aware of breaking news long before the traditional media has caught on.- Twitter DM's [direct messages] have taken over from email as my preferred method of contacting (or pinging) a contact. Replies are much faster.- And off course I have taken part or followed lots & lots of excellent discussions or exchanges of opinion on Twitter. " (http://wimaxxed.blogspot.com/ 2009)

Conclusion

• Web 2.0 = marketing use of social networking sites

• New way to market• Business model is continually changing• Six degrees of separation