A lot of us marketers are trying to better understand Social Network Services (SNS) such as Myspace, Facebook and Linkedin. Anderson Analytics has done some initial work surveying youth about this in our GenX2Z surveys and have noted some interesting trends. I don’t claim to definitively know yet exactly how SNS can best be leveraged for marketing. However I do believe that data mining (specifically text mining) and link analysis may be the keys in helping us answer this question.
SNS is definitely more than a passing trend. The implications of computers being able to map out and make explicit for anyone to see and use, what since the beginning of time has only been theoretical/tacit knowledge, is both exciting and scary.
While Myspace, Linkedin, and Facebook have all received a lot of press, and everyone is networking and talking about networking, there are surprisingly few articles out there about how SNS may really change our world forever (for better or worse). The possibilities, from credit/financing to law enforcement, are really endless.
Much of the learning from previous studies done on the six degrees of separation concept are now beginning to be called into question. This may all be moot soon though, as companies like Linkedin should be able to answer many of these questions definitively.
Yesterday in my search to understand SNS better I spoke with a few developers of successful applications for SNS such as those on Facebook. As of yet, the main source of income here seems to be ad serving and also to some extent market research sample.
I also looked into a fun group on Facebook called “Six Degrees Of Separation - The Experiment”. This group has nearly five million members!!! It’s quite a fascinating story of being at the right place at the right time (just when Facebook was starting to get wider media exposure among a larger demographic than just high school and college students). You can read more about it here: www.steve-jackson.net
Just look at this growth, first million members by day 13!
And here is the daily growth. Just imagine if these were sales of your product, or even just eyeballs on your ad, LOL. Notice the ‘long tail’, even after the exponential growth is over, people still continue to join today as new people join Facebook.
For fun (and to learn a few things) I just started a similar group on Linkedin. As of today the group already had 250 members. However, I would be very surprised if it grew as quickly or as large as Steve’s group. Linkedin and Facebook are a bit different in their culture as well as in the applications such as how people join groups. Timing things right are also important. Of course anything is possible with SNS and exponential growth, so I’ll keep you informed about how fast it grows and what we learn. For those on Linkedin wishing to join the group you can do so here: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/48936/30B8505048EB
I’d be curious to hear others thoughts on how SNS may affect not just marketing, but even our world as we know it?
-Tom
2 responses so far ↓
1 Yura // Mar 24, 2008 at 5:36 am
Everything’s pretty simple, really. Social sites move the thing that people love doing - talking and learning and sharing interesting stuff- online.
That’s how the world is changing, though that’s pretty simple, really. You can, of course, continue with moving everything online, but I hope there’s a limit to that. Otherwise, we end up in a self-made matrix.
2 6 – Six Degrees of Separation on Linkedin Update (Now 832 Group Members) // Apr 27, 2008 at 10:53 am
[…] month I posted an entry about a group on Facebook called “Six degrees of separation - The Experiment” (it’s the largest group on Facebook). The group is an interesting case of how SNS […]
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