Grounded In Reality

Four weeks ago, Facebook, with 25 million users, launched a new strategy to be a technology platform where anyone can build applications for social computing–with one clever caveat, that all third-party applications, if approved, will be routed through Facebook’s servers. This, together with the carte blanche rights to monetize these applications through ad dollars, are good causes for businesses to revisit their social networking strategy.

Marc Andreessen has a brilliant analysis of the Facebook Platform. Here are my three cents concerning the business implications of Facebook applications:

1. Ease of use: It’s amazingly easy to add applications with a single click, and like widgets, applications serve a single, non-ambiguous purpose. Q: What campaign initiatives might be communicated in such a compact, eye-candy fashion?
2. Applications are intelligent: Because they have to be pre-approved by Facebook, my applications are linked to and have access (with my permission) to the information that I have previously shared. Q: How to build on this consumer behavioral data and design a targeted, personalized campaign?
3. Naturally viral: I am cued to new applications that my friends have added thanks to updates from the News Feed. (Think of News Feed as a wire service for what my friends are up to.) In other words, applications come recommended by “word of mouth” as friends observe each other. Q: What’s a meaningful, mention-worthy application that makes the user look good (think ‘Live Strong’ bracelet) among friends?

Additionally, having likely learned from MySpace, Facebook has provided easy-to-use privacy settings for all applications.

Recently, a Danish Ph.D. student, Malene Charlotte Larsen, made a list of perspectives on youngster’s online social networking. The list is extensive and contains 35 perspectives all in all. The perspectives differ a lot from the materialistic perspective to the democratic perspective.

Below I have listed a few of them:

1. The Consumer Perspective
Social networking sites are money-making machines creating a need for added value among young people causing them to spend all their pocket money on extra features such as VIP profiles, widgets, gifts for friends and so on.

10. The Branding Perspective
Social networking sites are places where young people learn the mechanism of branding and learn to sell and brand themselves in a positive manner.

11. The Network Perspective
Social networking sites are places where young people learn the crucial importance of being able to network which they can benefit from in their future professional life.

I like the idea of a list like this. I like (and dislike) a lot of the perspectives. Some of them are real and some are simply opinion. But I’m wondering - are they specifically Danish perspectives? Some of the perspectives are generic, but how about no. 21 The Time Consuming Perspectives or no. 22 The Anti-social Perspective? Are they culturally bound? Does an American and South African teenager or teenage parent share these perspectives?

I must admit that I don’t know the answer to this. But from a communication and marketing point-of-view, it would be valuable knowledge when determining target audience outreach.  With this knowledge viral campaigns and other forms of online communication could be optimized to fit the (global) market they are aiming for.

And I’m sure that with so many social networking sites – there MUST be a lot more perspectives than only 35. When I know them, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, feel free to help.

Kristian Levring Madsen
GCI Mannov, Copenhagen

A shout out to Skype for a full day to make free global computer-to-landline calls on Mother’s Day, May 12.  If you’re in the U.S. or Canada, call your Mom for free between 5 a.m. EST on May 13 to 4:49 a.m. EST on May 14 for up to 200 minutes per computer.

The promotion is well covered by MacWorld, Gizmodo, Engadget, and The Boy Genius Report (a popular mobile blog).  But why only 6 diggs and no Techmeme mention (yet)?

It is true that no promotion can be made viral (people get to decide what is viral) but one can certainly make it easier to be viral: mention it on the Skype blog; offer a “e-mail this” button on the promotional page; conduct proactive outreach to international student networks on Facebook, travel blogs, foreign language sites and forums (based in the U.S. or Canada); and shoot a brief video touting the offer–if done “right,” users will share it.

The first two are low cost and shouldn’t break the bank.  Plus such a great Mother’s Day promotion ought to sell itself in terms of justifying marketing spend to promote the brands.  (Intel is a co-sponsor.)

Bonus factoid: Mother’s Day is not, as known in popular lore, invented by Hallmark.  Mother’s Day was a call by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War to unite women against war.