This post was inspired by a conversation that was raised on Twitter with @correlationist (aka Prince) when I was contemplating a new topic for my next post. I was also inspired by reading a post by Jeff Sayer entitled Flocking the Stream. The conversation was about the new streaming platforms emerging like mushrooms – Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and recently Google Buzz. Where does it end? Who wins the social media war? Who takes over the world?
I’m reminded of Pinky & The Brain (Emmy-winning animated television series) – starring two genetically enhanced laboratory mice who reside in a cage in the Acme Labs research facility. In each episode, Brain devises a new plan to take over the world, which ultimately ends in failure, usually due to Pinky’s idiocy or the impossibility of Brain’s plan. So who’s the “Brain” in the social media world?
In this worldwide war, who are your allies and who’s the enemy? Who should you side with to win the war of online domination? If you would like to see a matrix comparing these strategic platforms, I suggest you read the post written by Jeremiah Owyang. In my post however, I will relay my personal experience and try to shed some light on why to use some of the aforementioned platforms and why!
Before getting the gist of social media, I hopped onto Facebook and connected with my friends. I never really knew why, but everybody I knew was talking about it, so I didn’t want to feel left out. I uploaded my best picture and soon had albums posted and tags added … So Facebook was purely sharing the fun with my friends – the latter term is a key in our comparison. In Facebook, you add friends. People you already know, or met! After all, you don’t expect to invite just anyone to your private life. I declined a lot of invites to preserve my privacy!
Then I learned about Facebook fan pages and started understanding the business benefits of this platform. I remember having this conversation with one of my professors – she could never make the link between business and Facebook. I can name at least one!
Targeted Advertising
When you fill up your profile, you are asked all sorts of questions, age, gender, marital status, location, like and dislikes, hobbies, favorite books, education, religion … and the list goes on. Can you imagine how vital this info is to any marketer – I personally think it’s priceless. Facebook indirectly gives you access to this information to target your advertisement. With over 400 million users on Facebook, you are bound to reach your target audience!
What Facebook does not offer is the “free” opportunity of viral marketing. Unless you decide to opt for paid advertisement, all your announcements are limited to the circle of your friends (and maybe their friends). This is where the other platforms like Twitter and Google Buzz come in handy.
I joined twitter on November 14, 2009 (if you would like to find out when you did just click here). At first, I had trouble understanding what the hell was going on. I even thought of deactivating my account up until I learned the benefits of this gold mine. I blogged about my experience with Twitter in an earlier post, entitled Twitter & I – The Love Story.
Unlike Facebook, I have only met around 10 people in total out of my 444 followers and 457 people I’m following. So who are these people and why are they following me and more importantly, why am I following them. The answer is simple – we share common interests, regardless of their nature. Twitter allows you to connect with people like minded people that can enrich you and you in turn can enrich them. But how do you find these people, it’s only by “listening”.
There is an infinite number of tools out there that allow you to filter the conversation on Twitter. If you are interested in Personal Branding for example, just log onto Twitter Search and type away. You’ll find a stream of conversation about the subject. You can then select a couple of people who have posted interested tweets about the subject and look further into their profile and decide if you’d like to follow them. It’s that easy!
Furthermore, Twitter has also incorporated hash tags # that you can use to follow certain conversation about a particular topic. Just add it to the Twitter application that you’re using, be it Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or any other, et voila – you’re set to go!
What’s even more interesting is Twitter’s search capability. If you want to know what the world is talking about, all you need to do is look it up on Twitter. You want to know the latest news about Tiger Woods, don’t turn to Google; use Twitter. It’s streaming live! You want to know what people are saying about you or your brand, just tweet it up! So for those companies that are still afraid of getting on board the social media platforms, I have news for you – people are already talking about you, so you might as well join the conversation and reap the benefits.
Google Buzz
I have been using GMAIL since forever! Recently Google released its latest craze Google Buzz, after its flop with Google Wave. I’m not even sure it was an option whether or not I wanted to join; I just found it in below my inbox one day! The meter of buzzes compounded by the second with noise! Twitter and Buzz are very similar in their viral effect, however, the latter goes beyond the 140 character restriction by Twitter, and provides you with enough space to cover the whole screen with text, images, videos and more … so can you imagine the level of noise one can inflict on his follower! Let’s just say it’s unquantifiable.
Another drawback of Buzz is its ability to incorporate other platforms like Twitter, Google Reader, Picasa, etc … Ironically this was intended as a plus, but have you seen your sent messages on GMAIL. Every time I post a tweet, it actually goes through my sent mail. I actually found that out today. A client of mine claimed that I didn’t send him an email as promised two days ago, so I did the logical thing and looked at my sent history, and there it was … I had a full page of tweets that I had posted on Twitter – if I allowed profanity on my blog, I’d be cursing right now! The worst thing is, I don’t know how or where to turn it off! I think Buzz needs to work on its privacy a lot more if it plans to compete.
I guess we will never know which team is bound to win the war of online domination but personally, I still favor the combination of Twitter & Facebook as a traffic driver to my blog. You need to find your own mix. I believe that whatever social media platform you choose to join, make sure you know why you’re doing so and to what avail. Understand where your clients are and what they want before going on a social media frenzy. Think About It!
You make some very good points, John.
The platform that is the easiest to use (for consumers), and allows for real-time, mobile, and location intelligent connectivity, will thrive.
My bet is on Twitter, but the success of Farmville, a poll on Mashable, and some rumblings from P&G folks makes Facebook a formidable foe. Also, Google just got a license to sell Energy!! So, it will be impossible to rule them out.
Interesting times ahead 🙂
Cheers,
Prince
For me Facebook is people I know, I connect with family, friends, school buddies, close acquaintances, etc.
Twitter has become the most valuable for though. I have met many people online, like yourself John, that most likely would not have met otherwise. Twitter is easier to use, faster paced and the applications on the computer and phone make it a valuable resource. I have also built real relationships (personal and professional) from Twitter that I could not have done in Facebook.
I still don’t understand Google Buzz exactly. I have 100 followers and probably only know 20 of them through Twitter or Facebook. Its not the who you know of Facebook, or the who you want to know in Twitter, maybe the who wants to know you…? Buzz has potential but they are in 3rd place and need a lot of tweaking to become a real player. Buzz was a trending topic on Twitter for the first few days then disappeared.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Social media in general is a unique tool, It allow us to meet people that share us our interest, or keep up with people who knows us, and we know them.
Facebook: for people you have met in person.
Twitter: for people you want to meet, or want to meet you, that share your interest.
Buzz: where do I start, I saw my older brother eating, so I got hungry.
Google could not stand to see facebook and twitter become so successful in the social media world so they wanted to imitate them. It is a primitive tool to mix the best of both worlds, yes, I said primitive.
Business purposes, there is a lot potential in every social media tool to reach the masses. However, Social media is about building relationship and not shouting about your product.
Enough said, get on the computer and connect with us now. Find me at http://twitter.com/LuayRahil
Find Mouyyad at http://twitter.com/MouyyadA
Find John at http://twitter.com/JohnAntonios
I think that you concisely summed up the benefits that Facebook and Twitter provide and to what niche they fit in social media. I do think that the big companies (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) will continue to try and compete in this market, although by the very fact that the most popular social media sites are NOT owned by the big companies is probably what increases their appeal.
I agree with you about Google Buzz. It is nice and convenient that it is integrated with Gmail. However, it is not as straight forward to setup and not as user friendly as say Twitter.
Here are the drawbacks I see with Google Buzz:
1. It is not viral-friendly. You can not see who is following those who are following you, so you can not easily branch out to meet more people. A serious drawback for those in network marketing industry.
2. It doesn’t have the analogous feature of a Retweet (at least, I didn’t find any).
Lastly, I wanted to point out that while I agree with you about the importance of Facebook and Twitter, I think that Youtube should be considered as equally important. Although it isn’t considered an outright form of social media in the technical sense, it is very viral.
After all, Youtube.com is 3 in traffic rankings (right behind Facebook) according to Alexa and I think that video is the warmest form of social media. So, it makes sense to begin utilizing the social media aspect of Youtube for business.
Cheers
You are absolutely right Jason, Youtube completely slipped my mind. Actually, I am yet to develop my own video posts! I agree with you about videos being more personal – they help in creating a visual recognition of your personal brand. I think this is a key success attribute in support of the latter – just look at Gary Vaynerchuk and what video has done to his wine business – the growth was exponential, from $4m to $60m.
Thank you for your added value Jason.
Firstly as always a great post. I think you have just about covered every aspect here. I totally agree with everything you mentioned. I personally think Buzz is another passing fad and I also did not find it to be particularly useful either from a social or viral perspective. For me Twitter wins hands hands every time, it combines just the right balance between the social media point of view and the more serious issues without intruding on people’s privacy and freedom. Facebook is a great social interactive tool and wonderful for commumnicating but I still feel that there is a need for more engagement from all sources. You can be very skilled in any area of your profession but if you havent got the communication skills to engage then it is a complete waste of time in my personal opinion. Yes you have to invest the time but the outcome has to be beneficial. John your passion and natural ability shine through every time. Thank You for a great thought provoking honest approach to your blog.
John,
Your title is attractive and conveys well what we will be finding in your article…
I agree with you on all counts, whether it for Twitter, Facebook or Buzz. I don’t know what will convice me to jump on Buzz, in the meantime, have to look at the platform and test it out.
This is my take on who will win he social media war:
Customers, Us, will force companies to rethink their approach and tools will just be the medium. What will prevail is the relationship.
J’espere que ca te va!
Karima-Catherine