It’s All In the Way We Gather

Any of us working in the world of Social Media have heard many times from business clients “I just don’t get it.” Many of us have chimed in that Social Media isn’t just “marketing” it’s communications. What I often find that we forget is that Social Media is simply an extension of human behaviour in the real-world.

Social Media or the Social Web, is about people forming into groups, sometimes for a long time, other times simply for a brief conversation. We might form a community on Ning, such as many educators have done. Likely these are teachers of various types, but some of them may also belong to a local sports community on Ning, or even a knitting community. In real-life these people teach at a school, play on a local footsie team or knit for R&R. They form into groups to connect about what matters, to share ideas and knowledge…to grow. Sometimes groups form around a cause and create online petitions.

We’ve often found the most success with clients on Social Media strategies when we look at how groups form, why they form and what keeps them going. This may sound simple, but it’s not. Especially if you hope to rally a group around a product, this is very hard. It is an artful blend of the right value/promise, tools and how the “rules” of the group are developed and governed…then we can drill down into group tensions and frictions…and on.

But essentially, if you look at the groups you belong to in the physical world, translate that to how you can communicate on the Web – the knowledge component of footsie (as in rules discussions) or knitting (as in discussing techniques) and you’re on your way.

(Author: G. Crouch, Principal)

Age Groups and Social Media Habits

As we spend a lot of time monitoring social media and the tools used, we are constantly looking at the data for broader insights into the how’s and why’s of social media as a whole. One aspect that’s always intrigued me is how various demographics use different tools. Here’s some of the key insights we’ve learned lately.

Ages 12-25: Tend to use more mobile social media tools, such as SMS/txt and mobile oriented social media tools. This pattern we’ve seen in the USA, Canada and Western Europe (especially Europe, but no surprise there.) This bracket also spends more time on MySpace, followed by NetLog and Bebo in Europe. This segment loves video and anything text better be short and sweet.

Ages 25-45: This group crosses over in a mix between Web-based and mobile usage. The most popular social media tool for this group is email, although we note a trend towards more use of Social Networking tools for communication. This group prefers Facebook followed by NetLog. We note that NetLog is 2nd to Facebook in Europe. Mobile usage of social tools seems to be around Twitter, Blackberry messenger or iPhone apps. We find so many similarities in usage patterns across these groups that we decided to lump the 25-45 group together, when they are ordinarily split into two segments. This group also likes less text in blogs and on websites and enjoys video. Their content creation however, remains heavily text-oriented and very little use of video.

Ages 46-55: This group generally sticks to the Web (about 90% of the time) rarely using SMS/txt messaging. They’ll use a blog but rarely a microblog. This group is likely to print and read a document on paper rather than a monitor. They are more distrustful of social media and the content therein. Their approach to content creation is textual and rarely visual through video and images.

55 and over: From 56 to 65 we see fairly regular use of Social Media and this seems to be driven as the result of familial communications. New tools are not easily adopted and this age range is more politically conservative and traditional in their media consumption habits (radio, TV, print news.) Use of social tools seems to be on services like Facebook where they can work within a set framework.

Once we get over 65, use of social tools drops significantly as would be expected. Clearly there are generational preferences to the tools available. One issue we did notice is that the under 25 bracket have little to no loyalty to a specific service, whereas the 25-45 bracket are far more loyal to a social tool/service.

Social Networks and the Couch

The term “couch surfing” is not new and for most of us means sitting on the couch using your laptop to surf the Web. No doubt for most that’s mucking around on Facebook or Netlog catching up and emailing. But how about couch surfing for…a couch?

I’m often looking into how social media tools are impacting our daily lives. Looking for the changes, subtle and significant that are happening to our society. I was intrigued to see a change in vacation options/services that prior to Social Media tools would have been extremely hard to pull off. This is CouchSurfing.com and home swapping for vacations.

Couch Swapping: Not for the prince and princess. This service is free and you might end up on an air mattress, futon or lumpy old couch. But you do get a free place to stay.

Home Swapping: Just as it sounds. You swap your home with someone else in another country for a vacation period. There are a few of these, mostly with paid annual memberships such as Home Exchange and Home Exchange Vacation. Here you’ll have a better idea of what you’re getting into.

Prior to the Social Web and the tools therein, these services would be extremely hard to access. Newspaper and magazine ads would have to be taken out, letters exchanged and phone calls. Very clumsy and high in friction in terms of the transaction cost to operate.

It’s these little services that not only show the value of social media to our direct lives, but also shows that such tools enable us to better experience other cultures and communities. In these small ways not only do we get better vacation options, but we come closer together as a global community. I’ve had the privilege to travel on business and pleasure all over the world…it’s these social tools that keep me connected to friends in Europe, Africa and Asia….maybe I should send one of my freinds an new couch…

(Author: Giles Crouch, Principal)