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Can the success of Facebook applications provide any help for brands seeking deeper relationships with consumers?

Shelly Farham has done some interesting research into the applications to determine what works and why.

"In reviewing the dominant types of applications, it is clear that most of the applications are helping users achieve social goals such as improved communication, learning about the self relative to others, finding similar others, improving self-presentation, engaging in social play, and engaging in social exchanges via gifts and media. Despite its shifting demographics, Facebook is still very much a social arena in the private, personal domain, not the professional domain.

There are some clear signposts here for brands if they want to play in this domain and beyond.

Net/Net- How can they provide tools that allow for social exchange, social learning and communication?


Posted by Ed Cotton Facebook is the ultimate social network and there's no doubting it. There are 59 million users to date, and it adds two million to its ranks weekly. Its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has been featured on 60 Minutes and is said to be worth $3 billion for founding it.

While there's no questioning its success, there's also no real point to denying that it's just a procrastination tool. Even when we're sitting at home online, we get to pretend we're not. Just check the millions of status reports uploaded by people who are "hanging out with friends" and "spending time with family".

For these and other reasons, there's recent evidence suggesting its downfall and lots of conversation has been going on about it. Some say they are leaving because of the proliferation of applications and advertising. Some have realized that it actually separates rather than connects friends because they are quite simply on it all the time. (The addictive nature of the site is mostly due to the controversial introduction of the News Feed in September 2006.)

Still others have more deeply rooted concerns, like the recent accusations involving political agenda and privacy invasion.

And let's also not forget the millions who chose not to join in the first place. The Wall Street Journal talked to some of them and the consensus is that they're already in touch with friends and don't see the need to talk with those they've de-friended in real life.

Everything has its rise and fall, and the recent activity shows the online world is not exempt from this well-known human truth. But what will happen if a mass Facebook exodus ensues? Will those who delete their account in favor of analog life turn out to be the real socialites?

Or maybe they are on the lookout for a brand-free, non-addictive way to keep in touch with multiple people. After all, the one thing that won't get old is the internet and the desire to connect with others through it. This is perhaps most clearly evidenced by the many who ironically feel the need to announce their departure, somehow and somewhere.

They may no longer be hooked on the News Feed, but they're not exactly ready to give up on the concept altogether. 

Posted by katie facada I am not going to try and match JWT’s list of 80 things, but here are 8 things that I believe will be preoccupying our minds in 08.

1.Slowdown?

The terrible “R” word is everywhere, with Wall Street looking nervously at every seemingly contradictory figure. It’s clear there are massive issues with housing and personal debt doesn’t look so great. The impact on communication spend is obvious and it looks like its time for people to dust off all those famous papers and books about the importance of brands spending during a downturn.

2.Attention Spikes

It’s now clear that agencies are competing on something of a level playing field in the war for attention. They don’t have the luxury of just hoping to be best ad in the pod or best in the break; it’s now about the most viral idea of the moment on any medium. It's now clear that television isn't the only way to do this. This year, Fallon’s Gorilla for Cadbury and Crispin’s Whopper Freakout showed us how.

Interestingly, although the campaigns had similar goals to spike attention, they approached it in very different ways. Fallon went all out for entertainment based on the strategic premise of joy and Crispin integrated the product into the heart of the idea.

Look for more of this type of thinking in 08; more media neutral ideas, more shock, and more entertainment from brands looking for attention.

3.Brands and The Social Network

The role of brands is the big question hanging over Facebook and all its competitors. It’s clear that advertising can and will continue to exist on these platforms in the form of links and banners, but the networks are promising brands an opportunity to be a part of the conversation. Certainly, there will be opportunities for the right brand, if the product is interesting and relevant enough.

There are two viable routes currently open:

a.To build or buy an application that adds tremendous value to the community and is discretely branded
b.To create a brand page that offers content to fans that is unavailable anywhere else on the Internet.

Brands will be trying feverishly to crack the code on both these areas in 08.

4.Collaboration

Collaboration will be the word of 08, with more layers of complexity being added to communication plans everyday, collaboration has become an essential component of success. It’s no longer possible for a duo of authors to crack the code on everything. Success will come to those who turn collaboration into an art, seamlessly blending media, creative thinking, digital outside partners and clients into the mix. This is all about culture and the willingness to learn and experiment.

Black Swan thinking is required.

5.The Digital Holy Grail

With content being unleashed and re-distributed across the internet, banners seemingly becoming less effective and all the questions about pre-roll, it’s unclear exactly what options brands have on the web. The build your own big website and expect people to visit theory isn’t necessarily a winner, unless you can do something interesting with it. It’s clear that those brands that are “Attention Spiking” should have a digital component to their efforts and then there’s the whole idea of Brand Utility.

How can a brand build something that helps people out in a way that they aren’t being helped already? 

This is the Holy Grail and something that requires an incredible force of thinking.

6.Environmentalism is Dead

It’s clear the issue of the environment is now mainstream, but the big question is what happens next? It’s likely that the biggest problem is going to come from separating the fact from the fiction. The more consumers and industry learn, the more complex the questions become and it’s not always clear what solutions are best or better.

The uncertainty will have a damaging impact on the issue with consumers and brands feeling paralyzed over choices.

The next phase of the environmental movement will revolve around the establishment of standards and practices that gain widespread acceptance.

We’ve already seen some of the impact things like LEED standards for buildings can have and we are starting to see carbon audits developing to a point where they can become standardized. 2008 will be a tricky year for those looking to push green credentials for all the reasons listed above.

The smartest brands will be looking to do two things this coming year:

a.    Take real action-do things that are measurable and have an impact
b.    Look at the issue as one of social responsibility and not just the environment

7.What the Hell Are We Measuring- ROI?

Media measurement has always been a questionable issue ever since the day it was invented. Methodologies and samples have been picked over and analyzed. This is not going away, but as more layers of media get added to the mix, you start to multiply the complexity. This issue is far from being solved and the conversation keeps changing, often to the benefit of the media owner. Surely, brands spending billions of dollars a year on communication should understand what’s working on a cross media basis? Again, this is an area where new standards and new tools are urgently needed and we are likely to see the emergence of some in 2008.

Interestingly, many of these will be proprietary, as global agencies and clients use their muscle to build their own, instead of waiting for industry bodies and research houses to get up to speed.

8. A Year for Mobile

The success of the iPhone in 07 showed everyone a new vision for the mobile device. Elegant, simple and designed with the user in mind, it gave everyone the chance to see a future where television, video, The Internet and location specific information could be used on a mobile device. 2008 will see Apple build upon this with a 3G version of the phone that offers high-speed access and GPS functionality. The race is now on to develop mobile applications for brands that benefit the user. The issue isn’t too different from the Social Network, privacy and personal space are of critical importance in the mobile environment and brands will abuse that at their peril.

Clearly, there’s massive appeal for location-specific applications that link brands to users and perhaps their social network as well. It’s likely we will see some interesting first moves in this space in 2008 from the fast food chains and the big retail brands. The iTunes, iPhone and Starbucks initiatve in 2007, is a taste of things to come.

Posted by Ed Cotton Facebook emerged from college dorms late in 2006 and then exploded onto the cultural scene in the US, UK and Canada in 2007.

With close to 60 million members and an audience that's doubling every 6 months, Facebook is the brand phenom of the year.

Consider that over 50% of its audience use the site daily and that over 20% of Canadians have an account.

The brand faces significant challenges in 08, with the core question being how it makes money?

The Beacon debacle hasn't helped and there's got to be more to it than banner ad inventory. The brand is going to need to work closely with agencies and its community to ensure useful media tools are created for brands.

The problem with the Social Graph is that it's still not clear if users want conversation and friendship with brands or if they want brands getting in the way of their conversation. Apple Students, Nike and Victoria's Secret are currently the only three mass brands who can talk of any real success on Facebook.

Clealry, there's going to need to be a considerable level of creative thought applied to the development of relevant brand communication platforms.

Facebook would be wise to call upon the best minds in the creative industries to help them. An all expenses paid three-day creative summit in Cannes or Necker Island could be in order.

If Facebook follows the wishes of its investors looking for a quick return, in 12 months time we might soon be talking about it as if it were Friendster, get it right and we could well be looking at the next Google.

Today, its power and hold over its users is unquestionable, so strong, it's even spawned a thriving t-shirt business.

Sadly, there are only 5,000 of these suckers available.



Posted by Ed Cotton Alexis Madrigal has written for Influx a few times and should pending favorable conditions be working in the Planning Department of a large San Francisco agency, sadly the ad world’s loss is Wired magazine’s gain.

Alexis writes about science and space for the renowned tech lifestyle pub, but he is also taking the concept of journalism into the 2.0 world.

If you are interested, you can follow Alexis’s research process on his Twitter account, you can see his inspiration sources from his Google reader account and join his Facebook group.

It’s interesting to see that content doesn’t have to be one-dimensional, it can be seen in many forms; pre creation, during creation all in addition to the finished piece.

There’s a lesson here for all media, all storytellers and planners; there’s gold in everything you do.


 

Posted by Ed Cotton The rise of social networks and the promise of monetization is driven by the belief that recommendations hold significant value.

There are numerous studies that show "Word of Mouth" as the leading source of influence on a person's purchase decision. However, WOM has become something of a general term to describe general conversations that people pick up from a wide variety of sources. Social networks like My Space and Facebook are hoping to make money based on the recommendations of "friends" to "friends".

Interestingly, a paper published in 2006 by Andrew Gershoff and Gita Johar at Columbia, suggests that we tend to over-estimate the knowledge and understanding our close friends have about us, when in reality, their recommedations are no better than others who aren't as close.

However, the sharing of ideas and recommendations, even if their recommendations aren't great, the process plays a crucial role in strengthening the bond between friends. We still want to recommend and be recommended things, because that's one of the ways we become closer to others.

Here's the opening paragraph of conclusions from Gershoff and Johar's paper.
 


However, Facebook, Amazon and MySpace know far more about us than our friends ever will.

Perhaps the "secret sauce" and the "tricky territory" will be for these players to help our friends to know us better and therefore increase the likelehood of succesfull recommendation, leading to a win-win situation.

Toolsets and applications that help friends better understand the taste of their friends could play a significant role in helping to monetize these social networks.

Although this is the role of many of the current applications on Facebook that determine taste and interest, there are too many of them and there's no way to aggregate the information and build interesting friend profiles, perhaps that will come.


Posted by Ed Cotton