matt knell

Matthew KnellAOL Social Media DirectorFebruary 7, 2012for SocialFresh East

Fragmentation: The Future of Social Media Platforms

#socialfresh

@matthewknell#socialfresh

Hi! My name is Matthew Knell!

Social Media Director at AOL

Pace University Tech Mentor in Residence (http://csis.pace.edu)

Adjunct Instructor at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies

Obnoxiously huge Muppets fan

SocialFresh rookie

@matthewknellmatthew@ygm.comhttp://about.me/matthewknell

#socialfreshFollow along at http://bit.ly/sofreshfrag

@matthewknell#socialfresh

HOW MANY OF YOU THINK FACEBOOK HAS REACHED ITS PEAK? WHY OR WHY NOT?

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- Facebook in their S-1 filing

“TO THE EXTENT OUR ACTIVE USER GROWTH RATE SLOWS, OUR BUSINESS PERFORMANCE WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY DEPENDENT ON OUR ABILITY TO INCREASE LEVELS OF USER ENGAGEMENT IN CURRENT AND NEW MARKETS. IF PEOPLE DO NOT PERCEIVE OUR PRODUCTS TO BE USEFUL, RELIABLE, AND TRUSTWORTHY, WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ATTRACT OR RETAIN USERS OR OTHERWISE MAINTAIN OR INCREASE THE FREQUENCY AND DURATION OF THEIR ENGAGEMENT. “

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Interest based networks are booming• Tumblr jumped 130% in unique visitors from Nov 2010 to Nov

2011• Pinterest jumped 1125% in UVs from May 2011 to Nov 2011• Foursquare’s user base grew more than 1000% from August

2009 to July 2009 and 1000% again from August 2010 to July 2011

• Instagram took only 9 months to reach 150 million photos, and just one year to reach 10 million members

• Facebook grew only 9% from Nov 2010 to Nov 2011

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Sources: Comscore via eMarketer (US Unique Visitors to Select Social Networks, Nov 2010-Nov 2011), Search Engine Watch (Foursquare Hits 10 Million Users, Yeah, That’s 1000% Annual Growth), Instagram Blog (The Instagram Community – Ten Million and Counting)

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Real-time Poll• How many of you like every single thing your friends like?• Are you willing to trade your personal relationships to get to

content that you want?

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The interest graph movement• The “shopping mall” is slowly being replaced by the “boutique”

store.• The next wave of social media sites facilitate content creation

and curation content based on interests.• Users, not people are the vehicle; content is the engine.

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All encourage collections of related sets of things

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All facilitate serendipitous discovery

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Easy to create, curate and consume targeted content

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SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU AS A MARKETER?

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@matthewknell#socialfresh

A “problem” – Facebook marketing is “easy” • Facebook Pages• Facebook Places• Applications• Facebook Sponsored Stories• Engagement Ads• Premium Ads• Social plugins (like button, share button, recommendations)• Open Graph 2.0 (new style actions, frictionless sharing)• Facebook Insights

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@matthewknell#socialfresh

Interest based networks have limited paid marketing options

• Foursquare – Badges ($20k-$30k per month)• Tumblr – “highlighted posts”• Instagram, Pinterest - ???

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@matthewknell#socialfresh

You need to be interesting… more so• On these platforms, content strategy and brand affinity matters

more than ever • Even if users care about your brand, it is difficult to keep re-

engaging with them.• Assumptions on your user base based on your Twitter and

Facebook demos can be risky.

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HOW CAN YOU BE INTERESTING?

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Do a content auditConsider:• Is there a logical business need for using this platform?• Your brand and where it fits in the world• Types of content you have to share • Curation and copyright concerns• How do you want to tell your story? • What you’re already doing on other social platforms?• What device do you want your users to find you on? • Who on your team will manage these accounts?• How can this fit within your existing content calendar?

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@matthewknell#socialfresh

Test and target• These platforms depersonalize human personas• Instead of focusing on user demographics, focus on content

personals• Your testing groups should be organized by affinities

• People who like behind the scenes pictures

• People who like celebrity photos

• People who like pictures of cats

• People who think this is the best SocialFresh preso of the conference.

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@matthewknell#socialfresh

Go fishing• “Build a content museum” – curate or create one thing at time • Use each channel of content to meet a slightly different user

interest.• Use “snackable” assets strong enough to stand on their own

that are closely aligned with the theme.• Drive your content towards a business goal when possible (a

page view, a purchase, a signup, a visitor to your store)• Use success to refine your content personas.

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@matthewknell#socialfresh

Pinterest and Tumblr are ideal for curation

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But both work well for original content

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Tumblr is great for sharing your archives

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• 30% of marketers are planning to increase usage of Tumblr in 2012

Source: eMarketer (Plans to Increase Usage of Other Social Media Marketing Platforms* in 2012 According to US Marketers (% of respondents)

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Instagram as a branded movie reel

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• 14.5% of users spent more time on Instagram in 2011

Source: eMarketer (Social Media Sites that US Social Media Users Spent More Time on in 2011 (% of respondents))

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Use Foursquare branded pages with tips and lists

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• 68% of Inc 500 had “success” with Foursquare in 2011

Source: eMarketer (Social Media Tools with Which Inc. 500 Companies Have Had Success, 2009-2011 (% of respondents)

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What to use when?• Tumblr – tell stories in simple posts with an emphasis on

content but want to take advantage of the built in community• Foursquare – when you are a business / brand trying to

translate offline actions in to online actions• Instagram – when you want to capture moments in time in

photographs• Pinterest – when you want to claim your share of the interest

graph and you have a creative / fashionable audience

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@matthewknell#socialfresh

Questions?Lots of social type links – http://about.me/matthewknellFollow me on Twitter - @matthewknellRead my ramblings – http://www.tagsmith.org

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