trend assessment - share widget

April 9, 2023The Share Widget 1

Trend Assessment:Emergence, Prevalence and

Relevance of Share Buttons on Social Media

By: David SteinMKTG 7546 – Professor Brey


Emergence

Prevalence

Relevance

Implications

Case Studies

Potential Application

Interview with Colin McCloskey

Agenda


Social Bookmarking◦ “the practice of saving bookmarks to a public Web

site and “tagging” them with keywords” (Educause) Del.icio.us, Reddit, Stumbleupon

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Emergence


Every 20 minutes over 1Million “likes” are uploaded to Facebook (SocialHype)

Users generate an average of 2.7 Billion “likes” and “comments” per day. (NY Daily News)

Prevalence


Ease of use Access to information Access to entertainment Shrinks the world

Relevance – For Individuals


Ease of Use Relevance of content Network effect Value Add Data Mining

Relevance – For Social Network


Ease of use Allows users to share your content AND

remain on your website Word of mouth/referential marketing Data Mining

Relevance – For Companies


Enhanced:◦ Accessibility◦ Relationships◦ Business/customer knowledge◦ Revenue streams◦ PURCHASES and SALES

Decreased◦ Privacy◦ Anonymity◦ Individuality

Implications


Statistics as of around March 2011◦ LinkedIn – 100 million registered users ◦ Facebook – 620 million registered users◦ Twitter – 175 million registered users

◦ LinkedIn – 1.5 click backs◦ Facebook – 1.7 click backs◦ Twitter – 1.1 click backs

LinkedIn success – Niche, Professional, Valuable

LinkedIn


Named one of 9 companies doing social media right by Social Media Examiner.

“I want, and our members want, recommendations from like-minded people and that's what the Like button gives them." He added, "Most people have friends who have similar interests, so when they see that their friend likes a particular product it has a real impact.” - CEO Randall Weidberg (InternetRetailer.com)

“Since adding the Like button [one particular type of “share button”], their average order has increased by 50%!” (Social Media Examiner)

Giantnerd


"Fewer than half the largest sites on the Web offer any kind of social link at all on their front page and these sites represent a massive slice of Internet traffic on any given day. We would expect to see a land grab effort this year as plug-ins vie for placement on this very valuable Web real estate.“ - Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge

Google Search Social Shopping Travel Sites

Potential Applications


Principal and Founder of Awexome Labs - a consultancy specializing in the design and development of social media engagement and marketing products on the web and inside the world's largest social networks.

Has managed and personally developed over 50 successful social media applications and campaigns, targeting a customer reach of over 10 Million.

Prior to founding Awexome Labs, Colin was an early-stage employee at San Francisco startups Context Optional and Involver. From 2008 to 2010, he worked with Fortune 500 businesses and large brands to develop social media campaigns, reaching over 8 Million fans and users. Notable customers included Microsoft, Electronic Arts, McDonald’s, DIRECTV, Facebook, NBC Universal, and Safeway.

Colin cut his teeth as a member of the CNET Networks Platform Infrastructure team, engineering tools used by engineers and producers throughout the company. Colin completed his B.S. in Computer Science at the University of Delaware in 2005, and has one year of graduate study in the field of Educational Technology under his belt.

http://awexomelabs.com/ http://mccolin.com

/

About Colin McCloskey

http://awexomelabs.com/

http://awexomelabs.com/

http://mccolin.com/

http://mccolin.com/

http://mccolin.com/


Impact:◦ “There's an obvious incentive for a user to share content on

Facebook, as their friends will then see what they find interesting. There is, too, an obvious incentive to a publisher to include the Like button throughout their site, as it provides friend-to-friend recommendations and lots of interesting traffic, which leads to additional sales, advertising dollars, and more.”

◦ “Proper implementation of share buttons is no longer a nice to have addition, but is now a pre-requisite for designing engaging online content, particularly any content with business objectives.”

◦ “Every piece of content we read online now seems to ask the question: will you share me?"

Interview with Colin McCloskey


Development:◦ A share widget's end-user experience may not change drastically,

but the usefulness of the information from a "like" or "share" will continue to increase. Innovation in this area will be driven, in part, by the growing competition between the three major social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

◦ “… a proliferation of more sharing opportunities, but also the debut of new and income-generating ways to use the preferences, likes, recommendations, and other information that has been collected from users since the launch of their share widget.”

◦ “On the company side, it will be important for companies to continue to make effective use of the like and share buttons across the social networks. They will also need to use the collected data for targeting and selling, and use the new sales avenues effectively.”

Interview Continued


Negatives:◦ “Sites that have poor share strategies often present

the user a barrage of share widgets on all sides of their content and at every turn. I believe, in time, we will see users become exhausted by this form of sharing proliferation, which presents itself as mostly "out to get the like," as opposed to offering a sharing feature beside compelling products and content.”

◦ “The most dangerous, but most business-compelling element of the share widget proliferation lies in the data collected about users by social networks and their partner sites.”

Interview Continued


“It's win-win, with a few caveats.” – Colin McCloskey, Founder and Principal of

Awexome Labs

Summed Up


Unknown. (2005, May). The 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking. Retrieved from Educause Learning Initiative: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

Unknown. (2011, September 13). Sites See Results from Social Sharing Buttons. Retrieved from EMarketer Digital Intelligence: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008586

O'Dell, J. (2011, January 12). Are We Too Obsessed with Facebook (Infographic). Retrieved from Mashable Social Media: http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/

Duerson, M. H. (2012, February 3). Facebook's $5 billion IPO is banked on your private data -- and you get nothing. Retrieved from NY Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/facebook-5-billion-ipo-banked-private-data-article-1.1016946

Porterfield, A. (2011, April 12). 9 Companies Doing Social Media Right and Why. Retrieved from Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-companies-doing-social-media-right-and-why/

Stambor, Z. (2011, May 1). The New Mass Medium. Retrieved from Internet Retailer: http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/05/01/new-mass-medium?p=2

BrightEdge. (2011, July 8). BrightEdge Social Share Analysis of Top 10,000 Sites. Retrieved from BrightEdge: http://www.brightedge.com/2011-07-08-brightedge-socialshare

Works Cited

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008586

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008586

http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/

http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/facebook-5-billion-ipo-banked-private-data-article-1.1016946



http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-companies-doing-social-media-right-and-why/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-companies-doing-social-media-right-and-why/

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/05/01/new-mass-medium?p=2

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/05/01/new-mass-medium?p=2

http://www.brightedge.com/2011-07-08-brightedge-socialshare

http://www.brightedge.com/2011-07-08-brightedge-socialshare