Chapter 10:Social Networks

Marykate Cabactulan, Caitlin Goerlich, Adma Ortega, Marco Recchia

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

•Define social networking

•Describe a brief history of social networks

•Explain the global perspective of social networking

•Identify the benefits of marketing with social networks

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Define a white label social networking

Explain the pros and cons of creating a white label social network

Describe how nonprofit organizations can benefit from a private social network

Summarize some predictions about the future of social networks.

After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

SOCIAL NETWORK SITEIs an online service on which members can establish relationships based on friendship,

kinship, shared interest, business advantage, or other reasons.

HISTORY❏ 1997: SixDegrees.com, one of the first Social Network sites launched

❏ 2001: Ryze.com

❏ 2003:Myspace Launched

❏ 2004: Facebook Launched

❏ 2006: 100 millionth Myspace account were created/ Twitter was created

❏ 2007 Myspace became the leading social network in the US

❏ Facebook overtook Myspace in traffic

2010: Instagram came out

❏ 2011: 750+ million active Facebook accounts

2012: 100 million active users on Instagram and Twitter

2014: 300 million users on Instagram

Popular Social Network Sites, as of December 2011

*Estimated unique monthly visitors according to eBiz|MBA Inc.**Google Page Rank uses the number and quality of links to a web page to determine its relative importance, using a scale of 0–10, with 10 indicating the highest rank and 0 the lowest.***Alexa Global Traffic Rank estimates a site’s popularity, with traffic data from Alexa Toolbar users and other diverse traffic sources, using an ascending scale where 1 represents the highest traffic rank.

Table 10.1

Benefits of Marketing with Social NetworksSocial networking is an easy way to make promoting companies more engaging and consumer friendly.

Companies will come up with contests (via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc), which usually calls for the consumer to endorse certain products on their social media outlets, which basically means free-advertising.

Social Media is basically an additional channel to feature a product, just as much as being endorsed in a catalog, commercial, or even billboards.

Other Advantages of Marketing with Social NetworksBuilding brand awareness (Starbucks cups with names)

Finding talent (Celebrities subconsciously endorsing products on Youtube, Instagram, etc)

Finding new customers (Gaining new customers by making products versatile and appealing for consumers who have never heard of a certain brand yet)

Helping conduct brand intelligence and marketing research (Surveying consumers via social media on their input on certain products)

How do companies market on Social Media?Many companies rely on the customers to help get their brand name

across. For example, consumers usually use “hashtags” as a way of marketing with social media (ex: #Forever21, #Starbucks, #Chipotle). The point of hashtagging is to organize the different brands into one. By clicking a hashtag, you are lead to other consumers’ media outlets endorsing the same product.

Company brands may also hold contests with their followers that has to do with showing of the brand name in a way, with a prize at the end (A gift card, tickets, vacations, etc) to make the contest more appealing and to bring the brand name across.

Who is the audience?When it comes to Social Media marketing, companies must know how to execute their objective to the consumers without being too much of a distraction. Media outlets must know what audiences their websites usually target.

Examples:

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: Business - Consumer audience

LinkedIn: Business - Business audience

Business to Consumer (Facebook)• To advertise a product you create a page.

– Allows fans to follow and become fans of the company• The page needs to updated daily with new content.

– *Never update more than 3 times a day.• To gain followers

– Links, email signatures, business cards, and outgoing communications.

– Post contest or create discounts.

Business to Consumer vs. Business to Business

Business to Consumer• Example: Facebook• Emphasis is to create

content.• Less serious post with more

funny and content worthy post.

Business to Business• Example: LinkedIn• Emphasis is to create

connections with other people.

• Serious with professional post that relevant, well-considered, and valuable thoughts

Business to Business (LinkedIn)• People do not connect with strangers or casual friends.• It is much more broader network than just friends.• To acquire more connections you can join groups.• You also interact personally and not for a company.

5 Mistakes with LinkedIn1. Poor Engagement2. The “Blah” Headline3. The Wrong Category4. The “Who Cares” Summary5. Ignoring Critical Profile Areas

White Label Social NetworkOnline service that shares many, if not most, of the

characteristics of a public social network like Facebook, with the key difference being the white label is privately

run by a corporation or nonprofit organization.

Pros and Cons of Creating a White Label Social NetworkPROS

Ability to customize features to suit the user base.

Provides much more detailed information to the administrators.

Employees or customers who already have a relationship with the company and people within are less likely to leave the platform or become inactive.

CONS

Time consuming and requires a significant capital investment.

Until a community becomes self-sustaining, company staff may have to do much of the work starting conversation and providing content.

Drawing new members can be difficult unless brand has a large public recognition.

How Nonprofit Organizations Can Benefit from a Private Social Network

Deeper engagement between members.

Revenue-gathering functions

Online collaboration

Increases in loyalty and member retention.

Social Media (Networks) for Nonprofits Organization

Future of Social NetworksGoogle joined the social network world in June 2011 with

Google+, which has an estimated 50 million members by October 2011.

Many social networks have survived and even thrived by gathering users from specific interests.

With its 750 million users, Facebook may not have serious competition but Google+ can give a run for its money.

5 Predictions of Social MediaBy: AJ Agrawal (Inc.com)

As of 2016, there will be 2 billion social network users.

1.Tools to look within. (example: Follow [Facebook], Lists [Twitter])

2.Greater focus on personality.

3.Incorporation of multimedia content. (examples: pictures and videos)

4.More fluidity of content.

5.Decision-making power from data. (“More users can only mean more opportunities for business to extract relevant data regarding their customers more quickly.”)

Discussion1) What is a social network site?

2) How many users are there on Facebook?

3) What are some benefits for a company to have social network?

4) What is an example of a Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business?

5) What is a white label social network?

6) As a social network user, where do you think social network is going?