Social media ROI

The social media revolution is a fact. Not to participate is to miss the point entirely, especially as a business. According to Socialnomics, over 300.000 companies are present on Facebook. Those engaged in social media are said to pass their competitors in both revenues and profits. Investing in marketing through social media is a lot cheaper and above all, a lot more profitable. Dell sold $ 3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter. Ford invested 25% of marketing spending in social media and as a result, they were the only US car company that did not need a government loan. This Youtube video features more impressive numbers on the ROI of social media:

Our own social network site will hopefully be able to benefit from these numbers. A large part of our revenues should stem from advertisments. 71 % of companies plan to increase their investment in social media by an increase of 40 % because of the low cost marketing and the traction. If we can reach even a small number of these companies, DinnerDate should thrive.

Internet running for Nobel Peace Prize

The Internet is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, that is what you call a surprise! For the last time I checked, the Internet was still an abstract medium and not a human being. But ignoring the doubts about whether or not one can nominate something so impersonal, I can follow the stream of thought behind the nomination: Internet did bring more connections to life than Graham ‘telephone inventor’ Bell could ever imagine.

The Italian version of Wired Magazine started the Internet for Peace Campaign. They launched a website and tried spreading out a fancy video. Yet, I am not impressed. After three months of online streaming, the YouTube video has been watched 25 592 times (view count 5PM February 21, 2010) and the website counts 5 677 members. That is not what you call an immediate success in terms of viral campaigning. However, the Net did make it to the shortlist of nominees and will compete against a Russian Human Rights group and a Chinese dissident.

But let us ignore the losing score I mentioned and enjoy the pretty video. (Yes, I am impressed by the visuals.)



I wonder: what if the campaign slowly grows on people and the Net does win the Nobel Peace Prize? It simply proves to me that we are in the right sector, the profit garden of our generation. And there is more: DinnerDate uses the need of the Web 2.0 generation to connect online and take it to the next level. And that is exactly what the Internet for Peace Manifesto tries to promote:

Digital culture has laid the foundations for a new kind of society.
And this society is advancing dialogue, debate and consensus through communication.
Because democracy has always flourished where there is openness, acceptance, discussion and participation. And contact with others has always been the most effective antidote against hatred and conflict.

That is what I call ‘spreading the love’!

Sources:
http://www.internetforpeace.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrwQGBsuIh4
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/internet-for-peace-nobel
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2010/02/02/internet_among_nobel_peace_prize_nominees

Privacy Flaw in Google Buzz

The ninth of February, Google has launched Google Buzz, a product due to which the world’s number one search engine becomes an important player on the social media field. It provides a new way to communicate within Gmail and offers services similar to those of Twitter. The core philosophies behind Google Buzz are wanting to share experiences and wanting to share them in real time. Basically, it is a social status feature, with public and private settings for different posts. If you reply at somebody, a buzz is sent towards an individual’s inbox. To make sure that you do not miss any comment or post, there is a system to send you an e-mail whenever there are new updates. The e-mail shows the Buzz you have created and all comments and images that are associated with it. The system can also be used on various mobile phones.

Unfortunately, a huge privacy flaw has been discovered by Nicolas Carson of Silicon Valley Insider. When you first go into Google Buzz, you are automatically set up with followers and people to follow. The problem is that these people are made public to anyone who takes a look at your profile. In other words, who you email and chat with most, is exposed to the public. This can have serious consequences. One possible scenario is that a wife discovers that her husband communicates quite often with his ex. Yet, the good news is that the problem can be easily fixed by, for example, shutting off auto-following or making follower lists private by default as soon as possible.

Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-google-buzz-has-a-huge-privacy-flaw-2010-2

SNS for Business

Like any much-discussed phenomenon, social networking sites have to deal with their own set of prejudices. I would like to counter two of them: generally, one tends to think that SNS are mainly meant to entertain teenagers and twenty-somethings. Next to that, many people believe that social network sites are counterproductive when it comes to doing business. Employers are distracted from exercising their job, they get fired because of an unfortunate Facebook status, .... However, SNS can also stimulate enterprises. Today, there is a whole new range of websites that render endless business networking opportunities for professionals. They provide advice, offer various business tools and help entrepreneurs to find investors or new employees.

LinkedIn is probably the most popular and well-known social network site for businesses. It helps people to use mutual acquaintances to open doors that might otherwise be closed. Another example is Ryze, a SNS specifically for entrepreneurs. Very targeted forums are its strength. And have you ever heard from JumpUp? This is an entirely free website that offers resources such as a calculator that helps you predict the possible cash flow of your business. And last but not least, there is Go Big Network, a community of start ups that tries to match businesses with investors.

For more information, check out the following video from ABC News:

SNS: trend or revolution?

Media have discussed the future of social network sites abundantly in 2009. The word 'trend' pops up in almost every article and the end of SNS has also been reported multiple times. But are SNS really only a trend? Will they eventually dissolve and be replaced by a new fad? If this is the case, is it still useful to come up with a new type of SNS? Socialnomics believe it is. Impressive data about social media have been collected, which resulted into an interesting Youtube video worth watching:

The numbers mentioned leave no doubt that social media are not about to die. In fact, they can be seen as a revolution. Social media have changed the way we live and work and will continue to do so. This means that we at DinnerDate can sleep soundly. Creating a new SNS is definitely not a waste of our time. It could even turn out to be a great success. Fingers crossed!

Social Networking Sites over their peak?

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Netlog are very popular with marketeers and investors. Their importance is reflected in the way these sites are treated by other media, e.g. tweets of famous people are regarded as reliable sources with news value. Provocative Facebook groups can cause a real controversy.

Nevertheless, a few cracks are showing up. For example, the user numbers of Twitter are not rising anymore. Twitter has been a hype so far, but it could become a victim of its own success. The expectations may have been too high, which might lead to a huge disappointment.

MySpace, Xanga and Frienster are examples of how the success of a Social Networking Site can fade away. In theory, the same could happen to Facebook and Twitter. However, Twitter does not need to worry yet as the statistics are still in its favour: its users are nowadays more active than ever.

Sources:

http://www.newser.com/story/79312/twitter-may-have-peaked.html http://www.appscout.com/2010/01/twitter_a_victim_of_its_own_su.php

Social Network statistics of 2009

2009 has been a booming year for social network sites. Nielsen data show that SNS and blogs have become the 4th most popular online activity, ahead of email. The time spent on social network sites is growing 3 times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10 % of all internet time. TopTenReviews created a top ten of social network sites. Leader in this list is Facebook, followed by MySpace. Bebo completes the top three and is followed by Friendster, hi5, Orkut, Perfspot, Yahoo! 360, Zorpis and Netlog. The sites were compared on a couple of criteria, such as profiles, security, networking features and legitimate friend focus.

TechCrunch examined the social network sites in terms of users. Again we see that Facebook finishes first. According to TechCrunch however, this distribution does not take into account the real value of the social networks. Users in high-value online advertising markets are worth more than those in low-value advertising markets. Therefore TechCrunch measured the value of social network sites in terms of users and advertising. In 2008 MySpace exceeded Facebook, but this year we see Facebook fighting back. Today this popular SNS is worth $10 billion, while MySpace is only worth $6.5 billion. Bebo ($1.8 billion), Twitter ($1.7 billion) and LinkedIn ($0.8 billion) completed the top three. TechCrunch also calculated that Facebook accounts for 37% of all social networking value points. This means that if Facebook is worth $10 billion dollars, the value of the entire social network industry is $27.1 billion.

Since we are creating a social network site called DinnerDate, we can deduce some conclusions from these statistics. The criteria picked by TopTenReviews seem like a good starting point when choosing our priorities. Focus has to be on the profile, security and networking features. Furthermore, we also see that a lot of money can be made in the social network industry.

So, the goal for us at DinnerDate for 2010 is to take over a small piece of the social network pie by attracting a lot of users and advertisers.