Will Social Media & Smart Phones Drive Localization of the Web?

The Web is often thought of as a place of “national” or “global” news, opinions and ideas. Search Engines continue to struggle with delivering “localized” content that is relevant to the user. Google users will find that when they enter search terms they’ll get delivered results that are mostly national in scope with a smattering of local content. This is similar to other Tier 1 engines like Yahoo! and MSN, since the advertisers are usually looking to do business with closer prospects. Yet “localization” continues to be an issue.

Social Media through Social Network channels like Facebook and MySpace however, offer a much more “local” opportunity to marketers. Local content continues to be driven by local newspapers with websites. Major cities are seeing better local content sites popping up, but they are still relatively few. In the UK, the site Potholes.co.uk endeavors to get people to lost major potholes and get their local Council to fix them. Then MyStreet.com is trying to get very local. Despite the lack of community oriented content, people are having highly local discussions, mostly through Social Networking sites.

Through our research, we think part of the solution to increased local content will come from Smart Phones in alignment with localized Web content services beyond just Social Networking sites. With Smart Phones today, GPS and applications like Twitter Mobile enable faster, instant access to Social Media with instant publishing. They are easy to use and data pricing packages are falling (albeit slower in Canada) thus opening opportunities to make content relevant.

This benefits the consumer who can quickly and easily rate or comment on local services such as a plumber or roofer. Restaurants get faster reviews…more power is in the hands of the consumer. This also represents significant challenges for local businesses who don’t have the resources to hire a PR agency or counsel if things go sour with an agitated customer.

Do you think Smart Phones and the localization of Web media and Social Media will drive increased content? Have any highly localized sites to share? What are the implications?

The New Jobs & Titles of Social Media

Social Media has definitively hit business and is slowly working its way into the ranks of  government departments at varying levels. So where are Social Media professionals coming from and what will the requirements be for Social Media professionals?

A brief search of Workopolis and Monster and a couple of other smaller and regionalized online job sites brought up several varying titles such as; Online Communities Coordinator, Manager of Web Communities, Social Media Marketing Manager, Online Communications Officer, Director of Social Media, Social Media Development Manager, Social Media Coordinator and a few others.

Quite a wide variety. I decided to look at the types of companies hiring for these jobs and salary ranges where available. What I found was of 120 jobs offered (USA and Canada) that fit into “Social Media” related, over 80% were in marketing/advertising agencies, the others were a mix of technology and Web companies and only 3 non-technology companies focused on consumer products. No business-to-business and no government. All were looking for some degree of marketing experience or public relations background. One even wanted 8-10 years of Social Media experience (I wish them luck there.) In terms of wages, they were remarkably low. From the low 20′s to mid 30′s for someone who’s going to be speaking on behalf of the company and its brand? All reported to a director or VP, and there were no senior management jobs available in Social Media (that I could find anyway.)

While this is all very anecdotal and by no means proper in-depth research, it would seem to indicate some interesting trends taking place. While businesses recognize the need for engaging in Social Media, the responsibility is being left to people with relatively minimal experience in the professional world. It would seem that senior management feels Social Media is just a “channel” and mostly for marketing (which in many cases is correct.) It would also seem the remuneration is fairly low in some cases where an individual has an incredible amount of responsibility communicating a company brand.

So we’ve seen Social Media start to ease into the corporate world through low-level functional jobs. Titles remain somewhat vague as do overall responsibilties. It would seem that Social Media is gaining traction, but in what way? In challenging financial times when many companies are laying off people, we’re seeing a whole new element of jobs opening up. New positions with previously undefined responsibilities means finding budget and defining purpose to organizational objectives – no small task at the best of times.

What role do you think Social Media will play in terms of jobs in the future? Is there a place for Social Media professionals beyond just marketing and public relations? How about with Human Resources? Will Social Media ever gain a seat at the Executive Table? Should it? A lot of questions remain.

Will Smart Phones Propel Social Media?

Smart Phones, lead by the latest iPhone 3G launch, have moved beyond the bane of just business and government users now. The iPhone and BlackBerry Curve have made massive strides into the consumer markets. Looking through the available apps for the iPhone, this becomes crystal clear. Most notable are all the Social Media apps for the iPhone.

Key to market adoption and use of any technology are the underlying applications. The applications must provide a clear value proposition and deliver a benefit that is either qualitative or quantitative. BlackBerry has proven this with it’s email capability (still far better than the iPhone.) Now it’s iPhone’s turn with Social Media and Web browsing far superior to BlackBerry or even a Windows Mobile Device.

From your iPhone or Touch you can access all the major Social Networks, post entries to your blog and micro-blog and share photos or websites. People are using them, and this is just the beginning. If those in the Social Media business were evangelizing the need for business and government to join in the conversation taking place, then this may be the most compelling reason so far. As a peer of mine, Carmen Pirie has said “the conversation is going on with or without you…so you might as well help shape it.” Astute words.

The Key Point of Difference – Access & Availability
Prior to Smart Phones, a person had to fire up their laptop in a connected location or sit at their PC at home or work. This creates a barrier to usage patterns since the individual must take a pre-planned path before being able to share their thoughts or opinions; access and availability were a primary issue. Not anymore.

Our estimation is that this will lead to;

- More but shorter conversations on isses or “micro-conversations”
- Rapid changes in a story or conversation thread, making it harder to “shape”
- Increased speed of public opinion in Social Media on major issues
- Significant challenges for PR agencies and firms in crisis situations
- Increased viral spread of both positive and negative issues
- A change in societal behaviour and communication patterns
- Potentially new opportunities for Traditional Media (if they move fast)

Likely, these are just the surface of the changes that will occur. The adoption of the devices is clear, Social Media continues to grow in consumer use. What other changes do you think might occur? Could this impact government as well as business? How about localization of Social Media?

Is There Enough Social Media Mass to Matter?

All other issues around metrics, guidelines and methods aside, perhaps a key underlying question around Social Media might be; is there enough people participating in a way that matters to corporations and governments? Part two of that question might be; and is it local enough?

Social Media is part of our business, so of course our objective is to say “yes” to both posed questions. Saying “no” would be shooting ourselves in the foot. Our position is “yes” because we’ve done the research to validate our business case (we’ve identified some niches the competition hasn’t, but we can’t say anything yet on that front.) So why do we pose that there is enough mass? And what do others in Social and Traditional Media think?

Obtaining precise numbers on blogs and microblog usage is challenging at the very least. We can say there’s roughly 50 million blogs and upwards of 200 Million+ people active on Social Networks, blogs and microblogs on a regular basis. Then there’s mobile social networking, where research firm eMarketer estimates roughly 2.7% of Americans use mobile Social Network apps, and our research indicates about 1% of Canadians (Canada has the worlds highest mobile data fees, reducing uptake significantly) use mobile Social Network apps. All of these areas are growing in usage. There are also 40+ companies that are active in the Social Media monitoring market, indicating a growing market segment. of those 40, roughly 95% are less than two years old. Suggesting an early-stage market.

Quickly and anecdotaly then, we can conclude that the mass is there. People are using Social Media and everything points to an increasing use. Patterns are still developing, acquisitions starting to occur and battles are raging over “measurement” and “monetizing” of Social Media. But that’s another topic.

So then, are people participating in a way that matters to businesses or governments? Given the CNN/YouTube Debates in the U.S., the forcing of Rogers to lower it’s iPhone pricing in Canada in less than a week through Social Media pressure, the CEO of JetBlue losing his job due to Social Media reaction – all point to evidence that yes, there is enough mass. Governments and businesses, along with other institutions are justified in their growing concern.

Is it “local” enough to matter to smaller businesses and municipal governments? Soon we think. As “local search” improves and newspapers move more services on line, locally Social Media will begin to matter more and more. There may be other reasons local social media matters as well and we welcome views on this. So yes, the evidential actions and supporting usage statistics would say – Social Media matters. The tipping point has been reached.

Accepting The Negative in Social Media

For decades, businesses have been able to excerpt a fair amount of “control” over a message, and in some markets they still can and do. Yet this is changing. With the prevelance of Social Media and the Web as a whole, people can share audio, text and video very quickly. This has broad implications to a PR team or agency managing negative coverage over a story. So how do you deal with that inevitability? Not bother with a Social Media strategy?

I often ask a client “do you stop going to networking events and parties because someone may have an opposing view on an issue?” The answer is no. As people, we have skills we’ve developed professionally to handle situations that become contentious in social settings. A company is an entity as well, through it’s brand. It just has more moving parts and many brains. Negative commentary is inevitable with Social Media today.

Having to deal with negative coverage in Social Media is an issue we’ve seen a lot lately. It seems to be the largest roadblock to developing a Social Media strategy in many cases. In large part, we have found this is due to the fact that a company focuses on “marketing” as it’s primary conversation with the public, and most marketing is a very one-way effort; “telling” versus “conversing”, which is two-way. This isn’t the fault of business. It’s because the mediums most of us are familiar with are one-way; TV, radio, print. Social Media and the ability of anyone to begin a conversation is a new frontier for many businesses.

The fact is, a company doesn’t sell products and make profit from negative issues. Bad publicity leads to senior management firings, board changes, stock price drops, shareholder anger and lost sales and profits. In an increasingly transparent world, Social Media can have broad implications.

But the fact is, negative commentary will happen. Whether a company has a Social Media strategy or not. It’s just inevitable. It’s more than likely that most negative commentary will be minimal, localized and can be simply monitored. But it can also rapidly become an issue that spills over into Traditional Media (i.e. Rogers and the iPhone in Canada and AT&T in the U.S.) and Rogers had no Social Media strategy to deal with an online petition that hit Traditional Media and forced the company to lower its pricing.

Our view is that all businesses should have some plan for Social Media, whether it’s simply monitoring on a regular basis or deciding to actively engage in developing a conversation with its stakeholders. Accept that some negative issues may come up, but find a way to turn them into a positive. There are plenty of case studies. What are your views on the inevitability of negative coverage and what should a company do?