The Challenge of Search in Social Media Channels

Facebook is a channel, not a website. It has vast amounts of data and a user may spend their entire time online in Facebook without ever leaving. And anyone who’s tried searching inside Facebook will likely agree – their search capability is wretched at best. There’s been much debate amongst the pundits of Facebook rivaling Google for search. Bing is the search engine Facebook has integrated for Web-based content outside their channel; Microsoft invested in Facebook after all.

The search engine component of our mediasphere360 tool connects to Facebook’s API to pull data for our research work. Even that data is worse than what we pull from other sources and requires extensive clean-up. And it’s not getting any better. Google has incorporated “live search” for social media, or user driven real-time content if you will. It’s not bad, but needs improvement. Here are some of the challenges inside Facebook and other social media channels for search that we see and have found;

Link Spam in Facebook: Just as we’ve seen the heavy use of free blogging platforms as link-spam vehicles we’ve seen about a 75% rise in link-spam in Facebook over the past 6 months. The issue presents some serious challenges. Manual review of these has become critical when validating content in Facebook. Twitter has suffered a similar fate but has been more responsive to dealing with it.

Connected Content Conundrum: Yes, that’s a mouthful and cheeky on our part. The problem here is that in  many cases, you can only find content (fan pages, company pages etc.) that is within your “network”. This means you must live within a city or region and someone in your social network must be connected to that content for it to show up in your search results. We call it a conundrum because we see it as an odd failing of Facebook taking “being networked” too far and limiting the value of finding content in Facebook.

Tagging: There isn’t really any in Facebook, Bebo, NetLog or other social networks for that matter. This makes search services harder.

Privacy Walls: We’re not complaining. At least Facebook and other services offer degrees of privacy settings and we think that’s a good thing. But sometimes it makes it harder to share ones content and can limit the effectiveness of a message and can be a challenge for any service connecting to Facebook’s API. It’s a nightmare in Bebo and NetLog.

There are other challenges that get more technical but the biggest problem we see facing Facebook, BigAdda, NetLog and other social networks is the increase in spam, malware and re-directs. This will create significant problems for monitoring tools like radian6, Sysomos, Trackur etc. For us as a research firm, we can develop better filters and spend time refining our tools with the value of human analysts and our tagging and quality control methods for machine learning. For the average consumer, this is just going to make their experience in those channels more annoying. For businesses using social media monitoring tools it is going to skew their metrics.

How Activists Use Social Media Against Corporations

In a recent blog post we showed how activist groups are taking the lead against corporations in social media channels and we observed that corporations need to catch up. Here’s why and here’s some of the ways activist groups are using social technologies to win their causes. A client just this week said to us “we’ve ignored this issue for too long, it’s going to cost our industry a fortune to catch up.” He is very much right.

The Objective of Activists Using Social Media

Companies and industry associations often think the activists are railing against them specifically. While the content of their attacks is, the real objective is to get directly to the target audience that will take action with the content. Part of what activists want is for users online to then re-shape the content, turning it into a meme that goes even more viral.

How Social Media Activism Translates to the Real World

The result activist groups want from their social media forays is multifaceted, but one easy way to understand what the result can be? Citizens who see a heart tugging video on YouTube either email or pick up the phone and call their Congressional Representative, Legislative member or Member of Parliament.

Forget About Being Rational. It’s About Emotion.

Corporations tend to rationalize. Issues are analyzed and researched to make viable business decisions. Activists are not concerned with being rational – they want to be emotional. A rational response doesn’t always work…that doesn’t mean coming out ranting. It means understanding how to use perception and emotion in the response to the activists message.

But It’s Just Kids Using This Stuff Isn’t It?

That assumption can prove a fatal error. Very quickly or as death by a thousand cuts. Youth segments are involved, but even if a teenager sees the message, they share, and often share with their parents. But when you also consider that the average age of a Twitter user is 35 to 44 and Facebook is edging higher, you can see it’s about a demographic that has voting power.

Activists Use A Complex Web of Tools

Pun aside, activist groups are very savvy with social technologies. They use multiple services to deliver content, understanding that different channels appeal to and are used by different demographics. A simple social media monitoring tool is often not enough to understand the complexity of a communications strategy; more in-depth research is often required. Such research online also provides context by the research firm that is not available through a social media monitoring tool or online reputation management service.

Organizational Impacts Can Be Multifaceted

It’s not just having a large mass of constituents calling their elected representatives that can cause damage. It may also take the form of a boycott, incrementally lower product sales over time, an investigation by federal authorities, a series of negative media stories. Senior management jobs may be the sacrificial lamb or serious issues with the board and governance. It may also be harder to attract top talent to your company. Sometimes suppliers can become collateral damage. Activists understand this well.

Steps to Be Prepared

Undertaking an in-depth review of your company or industry associations presence on the Web and in social media channels is a critical first step. You can then have a clear insight into the landscape of Cyburbia, identify any threats or existing issues and gain insight into how activists might be using these tools through a mapping exercise.

Understand That Activists Do Not Use Traditional Media Very Often

PETA creates ads that the Superbowl will not air. They place the ads on video sharing sites such as YouTube or Break.com and then everyone goes to see them. Activist groups do not always need to get the attention of mainstream media anymore and often don’t even bother. While you may monitor traditional channels, assuming the Web doesn’t matter, your sales are dropping and an organized lobby may be instrumenting a legislative change that will cut profits or restrict your business operations. And you won’t even realize until it is too late.

Conclusion

Social technologies such as Facebook, Twitter or Ning enable groups both formal and informal to very quickly come together, create and distribute content at essentially no cost. In 2010 Canadians, Americans and Brits spend more time online than watching television. Add in tablet devices like the iPad and smartphones and you have a heady mix of tools anyone can use at anytime. Does your organization have a process in place to understand the potential impacts or at least monitor Cyburbia?

Weak Signals & Social Media Monitoring

Weak Signals? These are essentially the little “tidbits” of information, words such as “tags” or keywords, that give an “indication” of something. Perhaps a potential “meme” shaping up, or a subject about to become hot. In some cases they point to a conversation. Most monitoring tools don’t and can’t pick them up. They aren’t always keywords one thinks of to enter. The greatest value to weak signals though is not as a single word or phrase/comment, but a set of commonalities within those weak signals.

String them together or plot them using a capable software, and you can begin to see bigger pictures, detect a trend or find somewhere else to start digging. All of which requires a skilled analyst and the use of the right kind of software. In the intelligence field, weak signals are always a key element to investigating an online issue for police, intelligence and similar professionals.

But they can also be a rich source information for marketing purposes. If you’re engaging a social media research firm or online monitoring tool, it can help to ask if they understand what weak signals are and the value they can bring. None of the automated tools in the commercial sector can deal with weak signals…no software is that good. Yet. Eventually, certainly. As most social media monitoring tools rely on API‘s (backdoor connections to access search results) into consumer search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo!, Bing) only, they rely heavily on the algorithms used by those engines. Those who understand and can work with weak signals will have their own methodology on how to use them, as we do at MediaBadger. We don’t make that public because that’s part of our value and well, we are a business.

The benefits of being able to understand, then find and work with weak signals are many on the marketing side. They can indicate a trend around a product, be it yours or a competitors, that can enable you to engage an audience before a crisis or while an opportunity is on the upswing. For public relations, you can become aware of a potentially breaking or critical story and get ahead of the curve. You might find an interesting new route into a discussion underway that provides key insights into your industry or market.

Weak signals are useful, but it’s about understanding what they are, how they can be useful and how to go about understanding them. Once you do, you might be amazed how they can be used.

(Author: G. Crouch)

Social Media Monitoring or Social Media Research?

It’s a question that comes up a lot with new or prospective clients – what is the difference and value of social media research in regards to social media monitoring. It’s a good question. The answer is “both” are critical. Here’s our take on why and the difference.

If you’re looking to develop a social media strategy, then you need to “listen” before you develop a strategy and listen before you actually engage. This is where the “social media research” aspect comes into play. By conducting the research into social media first, you’ll understand a) if there is any conversation about you taking place, b) what is being said, c) where it is taking place and c) who is talking about your company or organization. This initial research provides the key insights you’ll need to make effective business decisions.

In developing a social media strategy, the questions you need answered are those in the above paragraph. Once those questions are answered, you can then determine a) should I be engaged in social media and if so, to what degree? b) Which channels should I be focusing my resources on, c) what kind of resources do I need and what are the associated costs, d) what kind of content will my audience respond to (e.g. video, text, audio, images) and e) what do I then need to monitor, how often and what tools are best?

At MediaBadger, we come in at the first part- the social media research. From the results of our research, we can recommend the best tools to use for social media monitoring, how often and where to monitor in line with your budget and available resources. Hiring a social media research firm is a critical part to your overall online marketing strategy. Such research can identify keywords for search engine optimization, social media optimization, Web design issues (i.e. User Interface Design), nature and form of content and what business units may be most impacted by social media.

I’ll note that one constant complaint amongst our clients is that they hire a 20-something MBA or grad student to do the initial “listening” but the results are tepid at best. That’s because they are missing the point and the target audience. If you still think social media is not for kids, you’re completely missing your target audience – to the detriment of your bottom line. While MBA’s and PR degrees or diplomas are incredibly valuable, they do not make up for real-world or industry business experience. Such experience is critical to being able to understand the “data” to turn it into useful information that can be acted on to make a positive impact to a business overall or a business unit.

Monitoring comes afterward and is equally important and is often called online reputation management or ORM. We generally do not provide monitoring services. There are a number of tools and services that do that; at the top end is radian6 and the bottom end is WhosTalkin, a free service that offers links but no metrics or sexy graphs. In fact there are over 40 services. Keep in mind though that almost all of them only use a connection to Google, which means serious limitations on what might be found…all miss key hyper-localization services such as Yelp or FourSquare – that’s important if your a very local business. We often help clients find the best monitoring solution for their business, industry and budget. Conversely we offer monthly and quarterly updates – which may be preferred if your engagement level is low and audience participation not on the level of the likes of say Apple, Nike, Adidas or Sony.

So to sum it all up; the research part provides you with the road map of where to go and what to say while the monitoring makes sure your good with your audience for the online reputation management component. Here’s a blog post on SocialMedia Today talking about where monitoring tools fail as well. And here is a good list of monitoring services.

Who’s Analysing Who?

There are over 80 (at least) Social Media analysis tools on the market, perhaps closer to 150 worldwide. About 95% are focused on marketing and PR usage. So that’s agencies and companies monitoring  Social and Traditional Media for buzzwords, trends and reputation management. Such monitoring is becoming increasingly valued by businesses and governments – some call this Big Brother.

But even as participants we’re watching each other as well. Take Twitter Grader for example. People seeing where they “rank” in terms of popularity with Twitter. Plurk awards Karma Points based on your participation. Then there’s tools like MyBlogLog from Yahoo! Friendfeed gives you Stats and Posterous tells you quickly how many people have viewed your posts. You can put a widget on your blog for RSS feeds so others can see how many get your posts via RSS (whether they read them or not seems to be irrelevant.) I’m sure there are others I’ve left out.

So we’re all watching each other. We’re looking at each other to determine how popular a blogger or microblogger is. Blogger and social media researcher Dan Zaralla discussed this to some degree in a recent blog post calling it Social Proof – essentially proof of who you are and the “value” of your content. We call this Social Value with our clients.

So why all this analysing? Does it matter? The why is easy for businesses and government; to understand what’s being said to make better marketing, PR and HR decisions on their reputation and brand efforts. For consumers or individuals, as Dan points out, it’s Social Proof that others think you know what you’re talking about, that you’re relevant to the topics at hand. This is a form of social acceptance behaviour, validated through the number of tools that quantify participants. Essentially this two-way monitoring is akin to how we behave socially in school, at work or at parties and other social functions. I’m sure much more can be covered on this topic, but for business and participants in Social Media, it shows how the Social Web is evolving and developing peer recognition, and there are implications.

(Author: Giles Crouch, Managing Partner)