social marketing conference june 2010 final

TED VICKEY

Social networking byIrish Entrepreneurs to

Form, Develop and Maintain Business Networks

How powerful is social networking?

…it got this man elected

Global populations

Source: Wikipedia, May 5, 2010

1 China 1,337M

2 India 1,180M

3 USA 310M

4 Indonesia 231M

5 Brazil 193M

9 Russia 142M

14 Germany 82M

20 France 65M

22 UK 62M

23 Italy 60M

27 Spain 46M

119 Ireland 5M

Over 60M

Over 400M

Benefits of social networking

SME in National Economies

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllll l

93%Up to 10≤ € 2 M

5.9%11-49

≤ € 10 M

0.9%50-249

≤ € 50 M

0.2%250+

Micro Small Medium Large

Use of technology to manage social capital

LinkedIn Global Reach

LinkedIn data as of October 2008

Fastest Growing EU(by member sign-up, March, 2008)

1. United Kingdom

2. Netherlands

3. France

4. Belgium

5. Denmark

6. Germany

Ireland 243k+

106% increase in just one year!

What is social networking?

… “interpersonal communication is one of the most important reasons why people use the Internet”

(Olsen, 2008)

…”professional networking and social capital have become increasingly important to many businesses, especially to the growing number of Irish entrepreneurs”

(Nardi et al., 2002)

“…the ways in which our lives are made more productive by social ties”

(Anderson, 2002)

Literature Review

Online social networking services have:

• eliminated barriers,

• global access,

• real time,

• regardless of industry.

A social network is built on the same

principles as any other network.

Initial Results of Research

The Power of Growth

85,000 members2003

1.6M members2004

4.4M members2005

8.5M members2006

10M members2007

60M membersAs of Feb 2010

35M members2008

Email

LinkedIn

Facebook

Bebo

MySpace

Friendster

Twitter

Blog posts

Telephone calls

Postal mail

Uses of technology for social networking

Many times Once per day Weekly Monthly Yearly Never

per day

Importance of social capital

Myth of Individualism

New Venture Creation

Information Sharing

Future Business

Opportunity

Benefits of social networking(based on lit review):

Future Business Opportunity 1.5

Stay Connected 1.6

Partnership Opportunity 1.8

Research 1.9

Personal Networking 2.2

New Ventures 2.3

Expertise Requests 2.4

Sales Prospecting 2.6

Career Opportunity 3.7

Irish Perceived Benefits of social networking:

Likert Scale: 1=Strongly Agree, 5=Strongly Disagree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Irish 45 107 209 115 41 12 195 51

Non-Irish 37 101 51 1 11 0 12 75

25

75

125

175

225

275

Irish vs. Non-Irish LinkedIn Connections

Conn

ectio

ns

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Number of connections (Fall 2008) 230 76 92 180 189 77 39 11 114 162

Number of connections (Summer 2009) 269 82 150 208 260 116 52 12 207 126

25

75

125

175

225

275

230

76

92

180189

77

39

11

114

162

269

82

150

208

260

116

52

12

207

126

Change in number of connections (3 months)

Conn

ectio

ns

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

How long LI member (months) 19.8 18 48 12 30 24 6 8 6 10 36

3

8

13

18

23

28

33

38

43

48

19.8

Length of LinkedIn membership (in months)

Mon

ths

AV

ER

-A

GE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 110

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

45

50

10

80

50 50

10 10

30

70

90

What percentage of your success is based on your business network?

20%

80%

How would you identify yourself?

A loner

Have a few close friends

Friendly to those that know me

Always looking to make new connections

30%

60%

10%

What phrase do you most agree regarding your use of online social networking

I'd rather social network offlineI am not interested in online social networkingIt is a means to an endI would spend more time using online social networking if I couldI spend too much time using online social network-ing

70%

10%

20%

Which statement represents you regarding technology

I am usually one of the first to try out a new service

I usually jump into a new service after others have tried it first

I tend to wait until a majority of my friends are involved

I only become involved when I have to

“… little is known about the extent of business networks across the island”

(Lynch et al., 2009, p. 3)

More Work is Needed …