Essay: Social Media Users Unpacked

 

There is an old joke:

 

Only two kinds of businesses call their customers users…Tech companies and drug dealers…

 

With that in mind, I was reading a rather interesting report about a survey that showed how people are using social media to make purchases, and a thought hit me, maybe that old joke needs to be expanded as we head into the era of the social media user.

 

 

Apparently, this tweet resonated because I got all kinds of responses, from feigned innocence, to helpful, to incredulous, to snarky, and more. But probably the best response was from Aaron Long and Ben Gillin on the blog they share called Twetches. Take a look at this poster child for this dug dealer turned social media user. Aaron would have to explain exactly what he had in mind, but I was struck by the creative use of Twitter to spur creativity, rather than how most people “use” it as a way to avoid creativity. Twitter is most often a shortcut, but that is another post…

 

I found an old, but evergreen and humorous, post about the social media user from 2007. It  reminded me of the supposed “old days” when we (meaning the online community) were just starting to use the term. Most of us jumped on the bandwagon because the term blog and blogger, derived from weblog, were so clearly created by tech geeks.

 

However, it seems we haven’t quite washed all the tech shampoo residue out of our hair. We still have a tendency to aim our efforts toward a nebulous audience of users, rather than a more targeted approach.

 

And perhaps that is just the nature of business, whose very survival depends on a wide adoption if its products and services. It is also human nature, which strives to categorize, classify and make sense of the incomprehensible.

 

This myopic focus on classification at the expense of connection concerns me, because human communication is so much more than the collection of tools that we call social media. No matter how powerful these tools might be, in the end the only way to motivate people to act on your behalf is to be compelling. I submit that relationships, honed over time, work best. It is the new customer loyalty.

 

That said, the fast-paced environment of Twitter, the threaded crowdsourcing and gaming in Facebook, the exclusivity of a Ning community, the viral potential of YouTube, the image-rich Flickr, the addictive play of Foursquare, and so on – all of these are addictive.

 

Add an iPhone, with all of its applications, on top of that and you might never look up to see who is having a conversation right in front of you. Its all-to-easy as a business (or individual) to end up with a collection of the most popular social media platforms and no strategy.

 

So, what is your social media drug of choice?

Facebook Covers Legal Risk for Giveaways; Maybe Opens a New Revenue Stream?

 

The day is fast approaching for the current social networking darlings, Twitter especially but also Facebook, to continue their transformation into media properties. The name of the game is making money while keeping their user base largely happy and mitigating risk that would put the business in jeopardy.

 

Here are some of the recent changes which you should know about:

 

FACEBOOK SWEEPSTAKES

 

Facebook, while never being particularly friendly about sweepstakes and giveways, is now downright hostile. Last week Facebook published a set of rules outlining how sweepstakes, contest, competition or other similar offerings. This is probably mostly to mitigate the risk by Facebook from a myriad of rules governing these types of promotions across the states and around the world.

 

You cannot require:

• Content: Make an entry in the competition contingent upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.
• Fan: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.
• Notification: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

You can use:

• Third-party applications: These can also require the entrant to upload content. For example, you may administer a photo contest where a user is asked to upload a photo through a third-party application to enter. But you can only do this with PRIOR WRITTEN APPROVAL from Facebook.
• Fan’s Only Tab: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.
• Collect an address or email: But only through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.

In addition, Facebook is requiring prior approval through an account representative (advertising sales) if you DO decide to run a promotion on a third-party application. I don’t think that they will require payment for this, but I suspect they hope upsell you on some ads? I am wondering if they see this as a future source of revenue?

 

While you can’t require people to sign up for a Facebook account to participate, you can send them to the third-party app, which effectively requires them to have a Facebook account. This is an interesting skirting around the law.

 

The rules also say that you do not need our prior written approval from Facebook if you are publicizing a promotion that is administered completely off of the site, like a blog, etc. You can read the new Facebook rules on giveaways, promotions, drawings and sweepstakes here and a great write-up about them on Inside Facebook, which also has a nice list of third-party vendors that can run promotions.

 

Lots of companies, individuals and brands have run these kinds of promotions in the past. Maybe the continuing restrictions from social networks will drive a revival of blogs and blogging? – how positively old fashioned.

 

What do you think? IS this a good move for Facebook? How do you think you will comply with the new rules and get the results that you need?