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Tag Archive: Facebook

Google+, The Business Social Network

Written on November 18, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

Facebook is the friends and family network, it’s as personal as you can get online. Twitter is the information network, where all kinds of subjects, ideas, thoughts and opinions are continually shared and discussed. LinkedIn is the professionals network, encompassing your professional experience, skills and work history. And then you have Google+, the newest addition to a increasingly cluttered social network realm. But where does it fit in exactly?

Now in it’s infancy, it most certainly is not comparable to any other platform other than Facebook. Often it is dubbed the “Facebook Killer” which has been fuelled by speculation and popular opinion thanks to statistical comparisons, such as it’s acclaim to have gained 40 million users in a relatively short period time (a matter of months). And with the recent lunch of Google+ Pages, brands have flocked quickly to the new player in town. Out of the top 100 brands 61% have created a Google+ Page versus 93% on Facebook (something that took years on Facebook, again has taken months on Google+). And although Facebook is twenty times greater in size and virtually out-gains Google+ in every area, there’s one significant problem here: Google+ is not Facebook.

For whatever reason, we as individuals always have had the need to compare something new to something that already exists. It seems that the only way we can confirm a matter is by validating our biases with these comparisons and relate them how we choose. But, how can we compare something to other aspects of the social media realm when it doesn’t really exist yet. Google has often said that Google+ is not a social network. By our traditional presumptions and definitions of social networking, they might be right.

In the traditional social network sense, Google+ is not a network or platform that emphasizes the individual. It’s not about sharing things with your friends and family. Facebook has championed that and there will be no mass exodus from it. It’s not about micro-blogging, sharing quick pieces of information and following individuals such as the world Twitter has created. And it most certainly is not about creating a professional styled LinkedIn network. Google+ is about one thing, it’s about business. It’s the business social network.

Once you look beyond simple aspects that pertain to social networks, such as profiles, sharing and connecting, you begin to realize that much of Google+ is built around a business and marketing framework. It is one based on two aspects: receiving +1’s, Google+’s method of sharing, and getting others to put you into their circles, Google+’s method of connecting. All which is further built into other areas of Google such its dominance in online search and Adwords. Oblivious to us in our daily use of search, YouTube and online ad exposure, Google is a well-oiled business machine.

It’s been well noted that Google+’s method of sharing will have very positive effects on how you appear in search. And although Google and Bing have previously noted that aspects of social influence that are built and gained through Twitter and Facebook have effects on search results and SEO, +1’s have a direct correlation and significance to your SEO and appearance, ranking and relevance in search. The more +1’s your website, blog or posts receives the merrier. Let’s be honest here, this is an aspect that only business, brands and those with personal brands would ultimately be concerned with. Something that is not important to the majority of social media users out there.

It also differentiates in the manner in which we connect to each other. Facebook was built on a two-way relationship methodology, and only recently could you subscribe to profiles, a one-way relationship (believed to be added in response to Google+’s introduction). Twitter is involved with a following and/or follower methodology meaning you can quite frankly follow anyone you like. Google+ itself relies completely on the manner in which someone has set-up their circles, either two-way or one-way relationships, which is further segmented into how you share an update. Whether that update be to everyone, a particular circle, a set of circles and/or extended circles based on your privacy settings (though Facebook has a Lists setting, it does require you to “list” a connection whereas Google+ requires you to “circle” a connection should you choose to want follow that individual). A confusing, interesting and sophisticated series of circumstances.

What we begin to see here is a very early social customer relationship management platform. The characteristic of circles allows you to segment and sub-segment your connections, which is more interesting when we realize that Google+ requires that you use your real name. Surprisingly, the many of us do. Further, this method of segmentation allows for directed and specific messages, content, conversations and relationships with a particular set of individuals. Something that can even be further amplified with the Hangouts live chat feature.

Now, if Google+ is the business social network, what reason do individuals have to be a part of something like this? What reason would cause them to interact with businesses and brands? Aside from the early adopting, bandwagoning and aspects of cool, if there’s one thing we’ve learned in social media, we, all of us, willingly participate if there is a perceived trade-off or sense of value in our interactions and reasons to interact. Where all other social networks thrived and grew on the individual and business being secondary, Google+’s very early introduction of Google+ Pages and the flocking to and quick adoption by business and brands clearly exemplifies the importance of business being a primary and significant aspect to it.

Like anything else, we as customers, users, individuals will always engage with business, whether that be to purchase something we want or need, sign up for something to get an immediate discount, enter a contest, use a coupon, or join a free service like Google+ to circle or +1 a brand or a trade-off. This where Google+ fits into the equation. This is why Google+, Facebook and other social networks will not cannibalize one another other just yet and will remain relatively distinct. Facebook has it’s friends, Twitter has it’s information, LinkedIn has it’s professionals, and Google+ has it’s business. Is it too early to tell? Of course it is. But for now, Google+ is the business social network.

Photo source: Google+

The “We” Economy

Written on November 16, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Over 100 years ago, one of the most significant societal, economic and culture changes forever changed life around us. It created industry, populated urban areas, created the employee, introduced the theory of selling your time for monetary value and for better or worst, it, the Industrial Revolution, manifested and proliferated a ‘Me’ Economy. And until recently, that has remained relatively the same.

Over the past decade, a drastic shift has been occurring. Whether you dub it the Digital, Internet or most recently Social Media Revolution, this significant force is moving us into a completely new direction. One that moves us towards a group mentality. It gathers the crowd. It “benefits” us if we all choose to be a part of it. It creates a system of trade-offs that not only causes you to sell your time for some sort of value but one that asks you to sell your personal behaviour, privacy and information as well. This is the ‘We’ Economy.

The very foundations of Facebook, GroupOn, Twitter, Klout, LinkedIn, YouTube and everything that is social involves one, and the most important and underlying aspect, which is that we all choose to participate. This also extends into the current world of apps, smart phones and tablets. The reality is that it doesn’t take too much for us to participate. Who doesn’t want to see and follow their friends? Want a deal? Have a professional profile? Want to watch videos of all makes and kinds? Leverage their social activity of bragging rights, recognition or some sort of perk? Have a cool mobile product and useful apps? The We Economy needs us all to participate. And we are, willingly, participating.

Our participation validates this new business model and it validates the ideas behind it. It’s business and it’s personal. Your personal self is of significant value of which becomes quite lucrative and valuable when you and I and millions of others decide to opt-in. We are the fuel and sole purpose that moves a new world that is stepped in service. A service that is engulfed at satisfies our needs of self-gratification. Right now, we’re all consumed by this. And naturally so. From the effects of cool, new and exciting to peer and group mentalities, it’s in our human nature to pursue these endeavours. Regardless of them being deemed good or bad.

But if everything is based on business and selling a product or service, how true can our experiences really be? As Sam Fiorella points out in his blog post, I’m Taking Back My Influence; Opting Out of Klout, building your perceived online influence is ultimately a business venture based on tracking your social media information. It requires that we participate for both the sake of validity, it’s existence and business. Further, Google’s introduction of their new social network Google+ is suppose to have a direct correlation to your Google+ and search results. Not to mention it’s frequent algorithm changes, most recently, for “fresher” results. And then there is Apple’s Siri, who will ultimately change and decide things for us. Flipping many aspects like online search on it’s head.

The current mentality and one that propagates the We Economy is that we either choose to be a part of it or lose out. It is shaped by the information we provide and not the information that it is unaware of. It produces statistics, data, behaviours and algorithms that are suppose to be deemed real, relevant and accurate. It is one that unknowingly shapes us more than we know or acknowledge. It tells us and forces us to believe what we see is what we want. We do not care about or acknowledge the unknown. So we become biased to everything we see online, in our profiles, in searches, in conversations, et cetera. All encompassed by ‘we’.

To say this is good or bad will be truly unknown. Where one would argue that by participating in this social world we are entering an age of many issues that will inherently effect us, such as our misconception of free social media and apps (free = exposure to advertisements + our willingness to be monitored, participating and providing information). However, another would argue that based on everything we provide it will eventually lead to optimal experiences, and services, and products we truly want. And ones we didn’t know we wanted, yet.

Our human nature and intuition has become very much a participatory one, and the further intervention of business into our daily lives has created a series of circumstances that is both unfounded and unprecedented. Like anything else, the good comes with the bad and the opinions follow it. Though, what we know for certain is this, we are amidst a new-era in human history. A new way of behaving, living and thinking. One that is full of mobile devices, social networks, online activities and our ongoing participation by all of us in it. This is the We Economy.

Photo source: razorray15

Leveraging the Millennialness of Millennials

Written on May 16, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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In an increasingly competitive world, the slightest edge, the smallest advantage could have profound effects. Understanding the possible impacts behind any and all characteristics has become a very notable trend. No percentage point is too insignificant. No behaviour goes unnoticed. No industry model is left unused. Every marketer, leader and manager should be leveraging everything they can get within their grasp. But, are they leveraging what is right in front of them?

The Millennials are an incredibly interesting and unique set of individuals. At a time of extreme change and transformation, they have been able to adopt, excel and adapt to a rapidly moving fluid environment. And it seems they just about lead every category in one manner or another. Whether those be technological, behavioural or demographic statistics. Driven by dreams, fuelled by connectivity and maintaining an optimistically unprecedented thought process, the millennialness of the Millennials is often left untouched and misunderstood.

Fascinatingly, this group of individuals exhibit something powerful, different and fresh but at the risk of damaging their perceptions, very few have made any significant attempt to leverage their innate abilities. Something of which almost seems ludicrous when everyone is trying to get ahead and these young, highly intelligent and savvy individuals are being left behind and not used to their fullest potential. Something that should be noted as traditional and conventional societal structures are now being tackled by untraditional and unconventional societal shifts.

Understanding these master multi-taskers wouldn’t be easy by any measure. It’s not merely a notion about taking on multiple tasks at once. Rather, it’s about understanding the multi-dimensional thinking and thought process that actually occurs. It’s about uncovering and bringing to the forefront the different behavioural patterns that are becoming commonplace. This can be accredited to everything the Millennials have been exposed to and the multitude of these aspects that they have incorporated into their daily lives.

It has created a very fluid process and ability to transition between Facebook, their smart phones, maintaining a series of conversations and just about anything else without significant interruption or setback to the tasks at hand. They have embraced the tools of their environment. They have evolved the environment itself. And they have created a social paradigm that has drastically changed the world from the pre-Facebook and pre-smart phone one no one can remember to what it has become today.

The resulting impact has manifested an extraordinary set of circumstances for the Millennials surroundings. They have become significantly influential to everything and everyone around them. Who’s opinions are heavily weighed and considered. Always pushing certain ideas to the forefront while deterring others. From dictating the purchasing decisions of their parents to the inclinations of social influence and the ability to sway groups of peers with the justifications of their decisions.

The constant flow of information and increasing growth of communication channels has created, allowed and dictated extensive swings every which way possible. And that applies to acceptances of technologies, web based activities and purchasing decisions. This is an age of very savvy adopters. They have the uncanny ability to spread both the good and the bad. Depending on who you are that could be used to your advantage or determent. They are the savants of our advancing society.

This is not about the Millennials having all the answers to all the situations that exist. But seemingly, they carry a set of circumstances that everyone wants though few have chosen to approach or risk in it these supposed murky waters. Since many argue that they’re just like the youth of old, right? Anyone would be wise to leverage these natural attributes. Much of everything that is happening today highly exemplifies the millennialness of the Millennials. After all, leveraging master multitasking thinking abilities with the high influence and savvy adoption of these individuals would hardly be worth the effort. Or, would it be?

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Born Into Digital

Written on March 31, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Much has been said about the Net Generation. Not only are they considered to be the Digital Natives, they, the Millennials, are without a question the most technologically and web savvy generation the world has seen. They have grown with and are perpetuating the digital revolution with a lifestyle contextualized by mobile, online, social media, advancing tech and app based characteristics.

As their behaviours change the environment in front of them, they leave a path not traveled by any others. Though the Millennials grew up digital, they were not born into the digital ecosystem they currently enforce. One that is significantly more digitally advanced than that of a few years ago. A digital environment itself that is proliferating and expanding at an unprecedented rate.

Although the Millennials are very much the digital natives, they have not been truly subjected to the digital upbringing many newborns experience today. The fundamental difference being that it is one thing to grow up and grow with an evolutionary process but it is something else to be born into that evolution and be a product of it.

For as long as anyone can remember, parents have been recording the upbringing up their children through home videos, family picture albums and the cute little doodles. And that very much continues today. But something very profound has started to occur. A completely fascinating and emerging trend is taking place and we’re all witnesses to it or even active parts of it. What I speak of is the manifestation of newborn human life directly heading into the digital space. Any socially inclined Millennial mother with a newborn and a Facebook account is true testament to this. Something that is further enticed and instigated by Millennial womens heightened Facebook activity.

If any of you have been paying attention, you have undoubtedly seen the development of newborns and photos of them increasingly dominating your news feed. From the very instances of birth, right down to that cute pose they did today. And how could you not be swayed by their adorable, innocent and funny nature. It’s easy to understand why baby videos quickly go viral. And why baby pictures uploaded to Facebook receive incredible amounts of activity each and every time. It almost seems something would be wrong if they didn’t. Right.

This goes beyond the sharing, the concern and any other natural feeling we currently have about the web, information, privacy and social media. The essence of the social profile is changing. No longer does it simply represent you and who you are. But it begins to represent and becomes represented by your child. Though the outcomes of this are unpredictable and hardly obvious, it would be very foolish to think there will not be any psychological, societal and behavioural implications to this.

Admittedly, the positive and negative consequences to these actions are unforeseen and won’t be apparent for some time. So, let’s assume that we take the Millennials and their digital upbringing and apply those elements to these newborns, who literally start life on Facebook. You begin to have a mysterious, intriguing and unknown foreshadowing of the world that waits for them and us. Is it wrong to make your children an aspect of your social world at such a young age? Who’s to say.

But it should be known we are entering into an environment that has never been traveled. The Millennials grew up digital and they single-handedly change the world. And for better or worse, through their current passive and imposed social state, those trailing them and born into this digital world are already having an everlasting impact. One that is currently not visible to the naked eye. And one that is more powerful than we truly understand.

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4 Strategies To Consider When Marketing to the Millennials

Written on March 11, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Trying to market in today’s environment has become quite an interesting task to say the least. With opportunities constantly opening up and new possibilities appearing everyday, figuring out what to do, what you need and what it would take to implement a successful marketing strategy has become increasingly complex and challenging.

Traditional marketing is still an aspect of the game. New-age methods and mediums are firmly gaining territory, while becoming obligatory and commonplace. Then you have the hybrid between the two. Traditional advertising combined with social media. Amplified social media activity during televised events. And the list goes on.

All this and more only makes the lucrative 18-34 year-old demographic trickier to reach. The digital natives, the Millennials, are everywhere but nowhere. Their environment, though unmistakably similar to those before them, functions in a vastly different manner thanks to the internet, social media, mobile technology and so on. As a result, we shouldn’t be applying the same standards, mindsets or thoughts to today’s youth. Here are 4 strategies to consider when marketing to the Millennials.

1. Content is not always king

“Content is king” is undoubtedly one of the most overused and clichéd phrases in the marketing and advertising industries. Don’t get me wrong, content is absolutely imperative when you’re dealing with visual, auditory and literary aspects. However, content is by no means the deal-marker when Millennials make a purchasing decision.

In fact, the phrase itself undermines many fundamentals Millennials undertake towards the products and brands they’re drawn to purchase. From the strategic values they hold towards brands, to the affordability and quality of the product, content is not always king by any means. The “Old Spice Guy” campaign is considered to be one of the best content campaigns in recent memory. Other than some minor growth, tens of millions of views have led to a few funny moments while leaving many, including the Millennials, unconvinced. Oh, and the purpose of the campaign was to rebrand Old Spice to something more youthful. How many Millennial men do you know that were convinced by this and switch to Old Spice?

2. “Join us on Facebook and Twitter.” Now what?

It’s evident that social media is everywhere. And if you’re a Millennial, this has been evident for the last 5 years. It’s a very natural place for us. So natural in fact that intrusion by marketing and advertising forces has only taken some significant shape recently, through events such as the brandification of your social presence.

Absolutely everyone wants your attention. And many have gone as far as bribing you with some incentive to get you there. But, then what? Nothing! The majority are just happy with the numbers game often resulting in the vast majority of actions starting and ending with the “like” and/or “follow”. When’s the last time you followed up on your own actions? Me – hardly ever. We gave you our attention. Do something creative, innovative and useful with it. Why bother asking us to join you then?

3. We’re savvy but we don’t like all technology, web or social media aspects

Millennials are easily the savviest individuals when it comes to technology, the web and social media. Leading a significant majority of the categories that make up these groupings, it’s incredibly rare to find a Millennial not in this dynamic. The stats speak for themselves. We LOVE our tech, web, socially savvy lifestyle and are not afraid to live it online.

But with all that being said, marketers and advertisers are constantly trying to find the next cool thing and miss the mark with Millennials. And the reason they miss the mark is due to the reason that we embrace our savviness on a level of simplicity, resulting in small minority of Millennials living this savvy lifestyle on an advanced level. QR codes are a very cool and interesting idea but even our love for our smart phones has hardly enticed many Millennials one bit.

4. Cultivating the relationship beyond the purchase

Without question, this is the age of the consumer. With growing competition and an increasing amount of options opening up courtesy of the easily accessible online world, one would think they would be vying for our dollars. Keeping us as their own. The current reality is that this is hardly the case to anything beyond some mediocre loyalty programs. But there never has been a time where you could keep such essential relationships with your customer base.

There is no denying that maintaining these relationships is easier said than actually being able to do it. But isn’t that the aspect of every relationship? To put some work into it to make it great? Well, Millennials, they want to have these relationships with you. Why not grow and cultivate something remarkable that would be beneficial for both sides? After all, we’re young and hardly set in our ways. Wouldn’t you rather have a lifetime relationship with us rather than a few random bump-ins?

These 4 strategies are hardly the only ones. Nor would they ring true in absolutely every circumstance. However, they do provide a mindset and outline to what it would take to give you an advantage when marketing to Millennials.

What are your thoughts? What would you add or change in these strategies?

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The Facebook Democracy

Written on March 7, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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The unprecedented emergence of Facebook in the pre-global downturn era has changed the rules of, well, everything. And if something is yet untouched, Facebook will reshape those dynamics. Facebook has changed the world and our lives, for better or worst, forever. And there’s no going back. Ever.

But we’re not here to discuss the impacts and impressions Facebook has left in the wake of it’s inception. Nor are we here to discuss, characterize and differentiate between whether it’s social media, or social networking, or a peer-to-peer network, tool, platform, a place for business, marketing, youthful indulgences or a narcissistic epicentre. Or, all of the above. And it’s almost impossible not to view it as a revolutionary aspect within our history, especially after the role it had played in the events that have and continue to take place across North Africa, the Middle East and beyond.

However, let’s be straightforward and clear here, the events that propelled one of the most profound ideological shifts the Arab world, and the entire world itself, has ever seen and continues to see was not simply fuelled by the so-called “Facebook Revolution” that many of us believe. However, that’s not to suggest that Facebook did not play a significant and integral role in the many events that have come to fruition.

The reality of the situation is that the culminations of these massive transformations that have been occurring are a result of a many number of different effects and characteristics. First and foremost, the forces of Facebook nature did not appear over night but rather have been building up over years. Of which, the user base and social graph of North Africa and the Middle East is heavily skewed towards the young Millennial generation and males. Any Facebook stats website will tell you this.

The thoughts, perspectives and viewpoints of these digital natives themselves is hardly a random occurrence either but one that has been brewing over time. They are a generation of dreamers. They are dream creators, believers, makers and doers. They create an influence that is powerfully contagious. They allow the social media laws of numbers and emotion to thrive exponentially. And they’ve created a story so overwhelming that they’ve moved the forces of society, shifted the paradigms we believe and enticed the mob to shatter the very foundations of governments that have been in place for decades.

Although these events have taken place in extraordinary fashion, they hardly came to being overnight. As beautiful as a story as that would seem, Facebook, Twitter, social media and mobile technology were but one of many pillars used to build a new and emerging global democracy. A democracy, as big or as little as we choose to believe, that needed that one final push. To borrow from Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant insight, it was the tipping point that moved a newfound sense of freedom, control and sense of being from a dream to a reality. As we all democratize Facebook through our on-going use, Facebook democratizes us and the existence of our being in return.

It truly is a want for a government by the people. The democracy that has manifested within Facebook is utterly profound. And anyone that still chooses to believe that it’s still merely an allotment of narcissistic time or loosely tied connections would be wise to go beyond that thought-process and see what is actually occurring around us. As Facebook amplifies the dynamics of all the characteristics of the environments surrounding who we are, it continually democratizes the very essence of who we are and who we are coming to be.

We can hardly say if all of this is good or bad. Or if anything should genuinely come out of this that will make an everlasting impact. However, no one can deny that the slightest change in the winds, the slightest act of democratization could forever change the world. The Facebook democracy is alive and well. It will contextualize and refine our quintessential understandings of what democracy is and will come to be. It’s not about Facebook. It’s about Facebook providing us, each and every one, with the ability to govern and control our lives at our choosing. Facebook is about the millions and millions of users. The Facebook democracy is the representation and encompassment of who those millions and millions of users are.

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The Power and the Significance of Your Name

Written on February 27, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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The one defining characteristic we all share, the one unique and profound element of each and everyone of us is the name we are given. From the reason to why we were given such a name to the historical lineage and significance of what a name has come to represent, our name, beyond it’s objective purpose, encompasses what and who each of us is. It’s essence is at the very heart of our existence.

It signified what tribe you came from. It represented the language and dialect you spoke. It made others aware of the region you came from. And grew into characterizing the nationality you came from. It effectively describes us in a manner more than we truly understand or choose to realize. It was the mark you put down when coming to the New World, the signature that made your home and the last thing that is ever read in a letter by the one you love. Your name is utterly more powerful and significant than simply the characters that represent it.

It represents every transaction you make. From bank notes to ownership, business relations to pay checks, marriage, authorship and beyond. And in a growing world based in text, online search and social profiles, the purpose of your name has expanded and become more imperative than it ever has before. It simply doesn’t represent who you are. It is who you are.

With the unprecedented growth of social networks, social media and mobile technology, the context of the name has evolved into something that is truly beyond the physical individual. It is the title in your friend’s BlackBerry contacts. It is the quintessential component which makes the social world possible. Our name is the underlying signifier of everything that is the composition of our social profiles and everything that lives in an interconnected world.

The implications here are fascinating. Our names are the titles of our virtual self and they are becoming the key-indicators to our real self. Our social media behaviour attributes our name to the ambassadoring of the smart phones we use, the Facebook “likes”, the brands, causes and marketing we support, the tweet links we share and the statements we make. It glorifies, humanizes and broadens human tendencies into the unnatural ultimately culminating the unnatural to become natural everyday components and necessities of life.

Rather than focusing on the negatives and many supposed downturns the impact of our name has had in instances of the online world, we should embrace and represent who we are. We’re all utterly enthralled and mystified by the negative simplicities that our name attributes to us in a growing world of online search and social profiles. The negatives clearly exist as we participate in the emerging dynamics of our new world but the positives are undeniable beneficial and life-altering.

Our name, both in the physical and virtual worlds, is immortal and will outlast each and every one of us. It’s up to us to decide how you will make the greatest impact through one of the most significant and powerful characteristics we all have. Will you rise above yourself for the happiness of others? Will you influence the world with positive actions? Will you empower yourself to somehow change the world? Even on the smallest of scales. Your name is and will always be the everlasting testament of who you are.

Do Millennial Brand Wants Equal Facebook “Likes”?

Written on February 21, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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Millennials are incredibly brand-centric. For them, brands have become a lifestyle. They represent more than simple names and products. They represent the essence and expressions and attitudes of this generation. It is a growing paradigm that is further catalyzing and characterizing the very human nature that brands are taking on as they humanize themselves.

Social media, and especially Facebook, is propelling the brand into a dynamic that is truly unprecedented. From their own Facebook pages, along with the vastly emerging page abilities, and on-going attempt at the brandification of your social presence, Facebook has brought the brand to the epicentre of our lives. Something of which has been realized and taken on by many brands from the earliest days of Facebook.

Facebook itself from its earliest days has been a Millennial thing. Even now it’s something that is still dominated by the youth segment of society with 61% of U.S. and 67% of Canadian users falling under the age of 34. Now, once you step back and take a look at the overall picture, you have Millennial demographic, in the midst of taking over the lucrative 18-34 year-olds market segment, combined with the concoction of brands on Facebook and you have yourself something that appears to be awe-inspiring. Or so it seems.

A recent report conducted by L2, know as the “Gen-Y Affluents: Media Survey”, further emphasized the increasing importance the digital and social media worlds will have on your brand and further brand success. And though I won’t dive into the complete vastness of the report itself, I want to look at something quite specific. Particularly, the brand wants Millennials have and how they equate and reciprocate to Facebook “likes”, which have become an element of rising significance.

The graph above and below clearly represent a series of “last prestige brand purchased” and “prestige brands aspired to own” by Millennials. They will represent the brands. Further, we’ll make a series of assumptive points for this context. Based on the numbers above, we’ll say that those 1-34 year-olds represent 60% of the Facebook user-base, something which is particularly low in any context. And lastly, the L2 report represents the U.S. Millennial, something we’ll simply come to represent Millennials themselves.

After you begin to look at the brands provided and start to search for the number of brands “likes” you begin to realize a few things. Firstly, Apple is clearly a favorite in all aspects of each graph and their iTunes page is the only one to break into over 10 million mark of all the brands presented. However, fascinatingly, there is no actual Apple Facebook page. Secondly, other than the iTunes page that makes it into the Top 100 Facebook pages, the rest of the brands don’t appear until a few hundred pages later in the rankings and only appear at page “likes” under 5 million with some of these prestige brands only have a few hundred thousand likes.

Now, any of these numbers would be more than flattering for anyone. Who wouldn’t want a few hundred thousands likes in the brand world? But with the Facebook savvy and brand-centric Millennials, who dominate one segment and will dominate the next, one has to wonder if Facebook “likes” at all represent the wants of customers, consumers and Millennials alike.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m clearly taking a very assumptive approach, as I stated above. Equally, we’re only dealing with “prestige” brands here, 0f which many Millennials believe they will actually have. But, it’s something that discounts the “every day” brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks who continue to exhibit great social success. Though, even then, the correlation between the brand and Facebook is lukewarm at best. And to answer the purpose of this article, it seems that in fact Millennial brand wants do not equate to Facebook likes. At least for the time being.

Much of this can be attributed to a variety of reasons. Most immediately, the fact that a vast majority of brand-relationships begin and end with the action of the “like”. Furthermore, there is no overall benefit to liking anything even if does let your friends know something about you as each “like” gets lost in a growing sea of likes. Equally, Facebook’s minimal platform has often resulted in the same haphazard minimal brand approach. And though pages are being liked they do not represent anything near in scale to the power of Facebook and the Millennials that base their life around it.

By no means is any of this easy to comprehend. Nor simple to implement. But it should provide some clarification into the world of the Millennials and their branded experience. However, if Millennial brands don’t equal Facebook “likes”, maybe the “likes” themselves are a view into Millennial wants. In any case, it’s a brand and social paradigm that will need and get more attention as time goes on. Most of which will ultimately refine itself through the evolution of our social graphs.

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The Majority of the Few and the Minority of the Many

Written on February 18, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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From the very beginnings of mass media and even prior to that, strength, significance and importance was placed into the notion of reaching everyone. The reason behind this has often resided in the fact only the few had this ability. The same few who often harnessed the power and capability to control and achieve this. Our societal beliefs, structures and economies have been undoubtedly built on these foundations of “mass”, “majority” and “everyone” modes of thought.

Much of this was based on the virtues of the time. There was few print media but it reached everyone in that locality. Radio allowed us to evolve and participate in the same media as everyone else on a grander scale. And everything ultimately culminated with the introduction of TV. The whole country tuned in to some of the highest rated TV series we haven’t seen in decades since the 60s and 70s.

The golden years of advertising were premised and built on this. Let’s be realistic. It’s easy to sell something when you have literally everyone watching, reading or listening to you. And for the last century, this has been the prevailing mode of thought. More = better = success. This is common sense, isn’t it? A world based in economies of scale. We are looking for that one thing to be sold a million times. But what about selling a million things once?

Without a doubt, it’s an odd thought to have. However, to do one is just as difficult to accomplish as the other. Seemingly, it’s nearly impossible to sell “more” of anything today. Just about every field, industry and area of society has seen an increasingly levelling of the playing field in many respects. All of which can be attributed to the many advances we’ve experienced. Everything from the many tech gadgets available to the internet and social media, growing competition, along with the psychological and sociological elements of our needs, wants and personal discovery.

Although we still see many examples of the best-sellers, they are decreasing on a rapid scale. We are in the midst of extensive niche, sub-segment, fringe and speciality growth. We are entering a time where the minority of the many is just as lucrative a space as any one best-seller. We can customize, “build-your-own” and “do-it-yourself” more now than ever. It’s not that these notions hadn’t existed before. Simply, the opportunity and ability to do it wasn’t there. We had no choice but to conform. Conformation was involved in much of anything we could do.

The world is open to a ever-growing number of possibilities. The reason iTunes is so successful is not due to the fact that it simply sells a few items in massive numbers. Rather, it is due to the fact that it sells everything else. Those million different things that it sells only once. Our tastes, options and choices are expanding. At no other time in history has the opportunity to reach everyone been more possible and impossible at the same time. An issue that clearly lies in our ongoing belief to chasing the majority of the few versus chasing the minority of the many.

One would assume that with the unprecedented growth and usage of social media, the ability to reach mass audiences with a mass message would be just as simple as it always was. The reality of the situation could not be further from the truth. Although we as individuals have shared and similar commonalities of life with each other, something that has always existed, social media and the internet drives and compels us to be more different and apart from each other. After all, how many people do you know on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn that have a significant level of similar profile characteristics other than the layout itself. I would venture to say not many.

Traditional marketing and advertising efforts are becoming undeniably futile. TV, print media and radio are not losing their audiences due to lack of great content but due to the dilution of that content through other means and wants. Everything is thinning out thanks to the internet. And social media is hardly here to save the day in this situation, especially not with a one-mass-message approach. If you examine it closely, social media is actually a catalyst to greater fragmentation on all levels. This is a profound new age. Welcome to the majority of the few. This is the time that favours the minority of the many.

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Warning: Schedule Your Tweets At Your Own Risk

Written on February 13, 2011 by Josip Petrusa

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As the vastness of the Twitterverse increases and it’s importance gains increasing traction, our wants for the optimization, and even monetization, further expand into Twitter’s API (application programming interface) 3^rd party world. Whether that be dashboard applications based in easier usage such as Tweetdeck or Hootsutie to a variety of programs that do anything from strategic following, quick unfollows, the delivering hated auto direct-messages and scheduled tweeting, the growing number of these applications and tools is endless.

Any piece of analytical information is and will be used to ones advantage. And depending on what you primarily use Twitter for, much of this can mean everything and nothing to you. But seemingly regardless of which bucket you fall into or what kind of user you classify yourself as there is unquestionably a set of social media characteristics that drive and intrigue everyone. And in the case of this blog post, it is the timeliness to the way you tweet and share social media updates.

Make no mistake, your status updates are some of the most strategically timed and placed actions we all take part in. Whether you’re willing to admit it or not. From our own beliefs of how we perceive the perception of someone else’s perception to how we are perceived, our scheduling – or lack there of – of our social media activities is undeniably meant to benefit us how we personally see fit.

Thus, scheduled and routine activity amongst the various social networks carries its own series of valuable meanings for each and everyone of us. Once you combine this with the ongoing social media osmosis that is occurring into all aspects of life, our ability to be active 24/7 is, well, impossible. Work, family, commitments and sleep all require necessary and significant attention over tweeting and facebooking and linkeding. And rightfully so. But the emergence of these obstacles, for the lack of a better word, are taking many of us to a more optimized scheduling future.

After all, Twitter and social media is not based in turn-media rhetoric. Say like TV or email or daily newspapers. With hundreds of millions of users, there is no universal schedule. This is the reason why many try to garner the attention of those through scheduling while you in fact are not there actively tweeting but the program you command is. Of course, we all have our own reasons for scheduling. However, attempting to schedule your big or small or personal social media campaign can be hazardous.

The recent public launch of a social media tool called Timely brought me to thinking about this. Especially since Timely’s sole purpose is to “help you schedule tweets for maximum impact.” To keep it short and succinct, Timely analyzes that your last 199 tweets and categorizes them into a series of metrics that revolve largely around retweets and the timing of those retweets. Ultimately, providing you with the best possible times for you to tweet in hopes of “maximum impact.”

Now, let’s not get confused here. I’m in no way pointing out Timely is a bad product. Nor am I suggesting it is the best possible solution for your scheduling needs. Rather I aim to tackle the notion that tweet and social media scheduling is detrimental to your overall campaigns for a variety of reasons.

Until this generation passes and a true generation of digital natives arrives, social media is truly an unnatural aspect of life to most of today’s users. However, in that same moment, many of us our rapidly humanizing it and it’s existence through our continual usage. Should you ask any of today’s youth, they would say it’s completely real and contextual to their current real life.

On the backing of that argument, the unnaturalness of social media has seemingly become natural. Equally, it’s natural element is not one based in social scheduling. Our social media activities and actions and sharing and connecting are now natural and everyday occurrences. They represent the emotional, mental, uncertain, random, human aspects of who we are. To attempt to optimize that is to return social media back to a state of unnaturalness. Scheduling has no place in human interaction nor can it exist in an openly following phenomena that we know as social media. Simply due to the fact that usage is not scheduled or structured like the 6 o’clock news or your kids soccer practice or your work schedule.

Scheduling will have it’s place, use and effect. But the very essence of social media can not exist in optimizing your efforts based on the supposed schedules of others. It ultimately takes away from our ability to rise and connect on a new level and returns us back to what very much appears to be based in traditional advertising and marketing metrics. Thus, not even making it a new idea at all. So, schedule if you must. Optimize if you dare. But taking the human essence of social media away from itself is questionable. A warning to not being yourself.

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