The average person doesn’t give a second thought to privacy. They just want their technology to be accessible, simple to use and convenient, paying little attention to what they are giving away in the process. However, this sentiment is starting to shift with highly publicized privacy issues swirling around the likes of Facebook and Google, causing the “average person” to stand up and take notice. It’s with this in mind that the National Cyber Security Alliance – along with companies like Intel, eBay, Microsoft, Facebook and Google – recently celebrated Data Privacy Day, which culminated on January 28.

Fourth Annual Data Privacy Day

By definition, Data Privacy Day is “an annual international celebration designed to promote awareness about privacy and education about best privacy practices.” Since its inception in 2009, the day has steadily been gaining momentum, demonstrating the increased importance of companies engaging consumers on privacy issues as a way to create trusted online experiences and trust in their brand. It’s currently observed by the United States, Canada and 27 European countries. Across the globe, privacy is quickly becoming a way for companies to differentiate themselves from competitors. It’s no longer something to be ignored.

With that said, let’s take a look at some of the activities from this week:

Microsoft* put its muscle behind helping people manage their online reputations, finding 56 percent of adults don’t actively think about the consequences of their online activities. In some cases, this has led to losing employment and health insurance, as well as being denied a mortgage. Microsoft has a variety of resources regarding privacy available here. You can also check out the below infographic, detailing survey results for Data Privacy Day.

Intel sponsored and participated in several events across the world from Washington, D.C. to Brussels, encouraging industry dialogue on leading privacy issues. The company also made privacy educational material available to a network of 15,000 teachers through Intel Engage. For a full recap of Intel’s involvement in Data Privacy Day, visit their blog here. You can also view a message from Intel CEO Paul Otellini below.

Events are also taking place across Europe in Belgium, Denmark, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany and Spain. There is a European Privacy Day booklet with a forward by international human rights expert, Paul De Hert, which you can browse online ordownload. For a full overview of European Privacy Day, visit their website here.

As parting words of wisdom, privacy is one of the hottest issues facing the online world. The momentum around Data Privacy Day reinforces the importance of engaging consumers, policymakers and regulators in a way that encourages trust and transparency. It’s essential for doing business today and maintaining brand integrity. So don’t be left behind; “Stop. Think. Connect.”

*Microsoft is an Edelman client.

For companies and organisations already reeling from a year in which Australian consumers embraced the social web in massive numbers and with greater levels of intensity, 2012 promises more of the same but with some potential break-out trends.

So how should marketers approach 2012?

What should the leadership teams of large organisations be looking for in terms of building and protecting their corporate reputation in a hyper-connected world?

Below is a snapshot from a detailed paper I’ve written about how I think 2012 will roll out in terms of PR, communications and the social web.

• BETTER USE (AND INTEGRATION) OF SOCIAL MEDIA – Brands that have experimented with the social web will go back to basics and start thinking more strategically how to leverage new media technologies for their business, including better integrating with other marketing and corporate communications.

• ADOPTION OF QUICKER RESPONSE TIMES – As more and more Australians become heavier and more frequent users of social media, so too their expectation brands will respond in a timely manner will grow. Thus companies will need to factor in quicker response times in line with today’s ‘real-time’ marketplace.

• LEADERS WILL ADOPT PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL BUSINESS – Forward-thinking organisations that put ‘social’ at the heart of their enterprise will become the new leaders in an era where everyone is connected and two-way collaborative communication trumps ‘top down’ broadcast of polished messages.

• INCREASED EMPHASIS ON CONTENT MARKETING – The notion of brands becoming media companies in their own right will hit home locally; expect more use of the term ‘content marketing’ not to mention a growing trend for companies tapping journalists, PR people and bloggers to create content on their behalf.

• THE RISE AND RISE OF THE POWER BLOGGER – Blogging in Australia will continue its impressive growth but the big shift will be in the rise of the power blogger – the ‘multi-dimensional storytellers’ who will continue to increase their sphere of influence on and offline as the popularity of their ‘personal brand’ grows.

• CONTINUED DEBATE AROUND ROI – The debate over social media ROI will continue to be a hot topic but more reasoned voices will come to the fore as decision-makers better understand and appreciate what can and cannot be achieved in today’s new media world.

• GROWTH IN CONTENT CURATION – Not everyone is a content creator; with so much information flying around the web, the public will increasingly rely on filters (people, tools or apps) to edit and package information for their consumption e.g. Flipboard, Zite, Storify etc. Expect to also see a rise in influence of people who develop a reputation for content curation.

• THE RISE IN STATUS OF THE COMMUNITY MANAGER – Once the domain of a digitally savvy but inexperienced ‘junior burger’, organisations will start paying more respect to social media by appointing more knowledgeable and senior people in the public-facing role of community manager; expect this person to take on increased importance as their connection with the community deepens.

• COMBATING FACEBOOK’S CLUTTER – Facebook will continue its dominance;brands will need to become more creative and look to provide unique user experiences if they are to stand out from the crowd.

• TWITTER’S GROWING INFLUENCE – Twitter will continue to break into the mainstream consciousness as even the laggards start to wonder what all the fuss is about and join up.

• TRACKING THE RISING STARS – Keep an eye out for Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Flipboard, Tout. How could your brand leverage these platforms?

• WHERE TO FOR SOCIAL INFLUENCE MEASUREMENT & SCORING SYSTEMS? – One of the more controversial talking points among marketing and PR folk this year has been the use (and validity) of online reputation and social influence measurement systems e.g. Klout, Kred, PeerIndex et al. Expect more of the same in 2012!

What do you think 2012 holds in store for Australian PR professionals and the brands they represent?

Image credit: gerlos

Advertisers trade in adjectives and adverbs. Campaigns and creative executions are filled with them. However, with all content increasingly filtered through social networks, it’s what people do with advertising rather than what they say about it that will make all the difference this year. Guaranteed.

The change started last September when Facebook revealed that the ubiquitous “like” and “share” features will soon be joined by all kinds of verbs. Two of these — “read” and “listen” — are already live. Others are coming soon with the debut of Facebook Actions. “Buy” and “watched” are likely to be two.

Facebook users who install certain news and music applications such as Spotify and The Washington Post social news reader can opt to share their actions. In other words, read news or listen to music on the social network and it gets broadcast to friends friction-free.

The arithmetic, therefore, is simple. The more marketers can evoke social actions, the more likely it is that their wonderfully crafted narrative will stick to people’s screens.

The empirical evidence is already there.

Increasing Traffic

Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow estimates that sites that simply add an optional Facebook share capability to common online applications, such as an online poll, can increase traffic 12.98%. (Yes, he’s done the math.)

Media early adopters have already seen strong results from their embrace of verbs. The Guardian has garnered 1 million additional monthly page views since it launched a revamped Facebook presence last fall. Yahoo is so pleased with its early results that it has expanded its relationship with Facebook to 26 more sites. The social network is already deeply embedded into Yahoo News.

It’s not just Facebook though. Technology companies have long understood that pointing and grunting are arguably the most innate human gestures. It’s something children do at a very early age. Cavemen basically invented both. So they’re building these natural interfaces at the core.

Siri on the iPhone and Kinect on Xbox* are two early implementations: users talk or point. But soon similar gesture-based media will show up everywhere. These will drive a lot more frictionless sharing. The social networks and search engines will gobble up the data and use these signals to shape the algorithms that already guide so much of what we pay attention to.

Here are three strategies to consider:

Build verb hooks everywhere

You wouldn’t think that people want to share that they completed an online poll or registered to enter a contest, but data prove the contrary. A small percentage will, and this generates a network effect that pays off big. Look for ways to attach social verbs to even basic online features.

Here’s why this matters to marketers: If they adopt the verb structure and API’s into their assets, they are more likely to surface through Facebook’s algorithms. For example, Ford should consider adopting the “watch” API for any video content on its site.

Consider the lens of friends

Content finds us though the lens of our friends. This means no two people see the same web. It’s all personalized. Execs need to think hard about their audiences and pay particular attention to psychographics. This can help guide decisions about the language and creative that will generate verbs, not just awareness.

Prioritize media that think in verbs

When making a media buy, look for partners that get the power of natural gestures and have started to build it into their armada. Insist that they add social functionality to even basic banner ads and rich-media executions.

Your mission this year is not just to be heard but to inspire action. Tapping into the network effects of verbs is a must in a social digital age.

Image credit: sAeroZar

*Microsoft is an Edelman client.

“Anything that impacts search results this strongly is something brands and organizations need to be paying attention to and experimenting with,” said Craig Kronenberger, Global Managing Director of Search at Edelman. “The opportunities and impact with ‘Search Plus Your World’ on search results are too great to wait and see what happens.”

How it Works

The new feature allows Google users to search across both the public web and the private web, meaning a logged-in user’s search query (when not opted out of the “Your World” feature) will return a mixture of 1) both traditional, public web pages, and 2) content that has either been shared with them on Google+ or a post that has been made public by a Google+ user. For example, when searching for “Edelman Digital” when logged-in, Google will return the public page www.EdelmanDigital.com as a result, but may also return any of your connections’ Google+ posts or photos that contained the phrase “Edelman Digital.”

The “personal results” generated by “Your World” will include posts, pictures, personal Google+ profiles and brand pages. These “personal results” will be marked with a blue humanoid icon as well as the name of who shared the content (pictured in the above image). While Google will prioritize the content and profiles of those you are connected to, it will also include in its results public profiles to which you are not connected. Additionally, search results will include profiles of experts on the topic you are searching around. Users can add these public/expert profiles to their circles directly from the search results page with the click of a button.

The “Your World” feature will be automatically turned on for logged-in users, but users can opt out by simply clicking a toggle button to show to non-personal results.

Google is also integrating “Your World” with its Instant or autocomplete function, which will help users quickly find the profiles of friends and family.

Thoughts and Things to Consider

This Impacts SEO, Making an Active Google+ Presence a Way to Greatly Increase Search Visibility

The integration of search and social is an area Google continues to experiment with in order to provide users with the most valuable search results. Google launched the +1 button last year, which was at first met with negative reviews, but has begun to show up more and more across the web and has shown to contribute to higher rankings in search results. “Your World” is another step in Google’s experimentation with the integration of search and social.

“Your World” could provide a way for brands and organizations to greatly increase their presence on the world’s largest search engine. By having a Google+ brand page, working to increase connections and optimizing Google+ posts and photos, brands can effectively increase their “shelf-space” in search results for branded terms.

“Your World” could also help a brand or organization be seen as an authority figure in a specific area of conversation. For example, if a brand had a Google+ page solely centered on a green initiative, then by actively posting about trending “green” topics, the brand’s page and posts could become visible in Google results to users searching around those topics, helping the brand become an authoritative voice in that arena. By optimizing profiles and posts around keywords, the brand’s profile would also be more likely to appear as a recommendation under “People and Pages”.

See below for Google’s explanation on how to appear as a recommended page:

Search Results Will Differ Depending On Your Logged-In Status

Users have to be logged-in to Google and using secure search (https://www.google.com) to see the new “personal results”. These “personal results” will, however, differ depending on if the logged-in user does or does not have a Google+ account. For those only logged-in to Google, “personal results” will be based off of information in your basic Google profile such as your location. For those with a Google+ account, results will be much richer and will present results based on Google+ pages and things shared across the network. Even if you aren’t an active Google+ user, your results will still be affected by what your existing contacts have shared.

Users who are not logged-in to Google won’t see any personalized results, but they may be presented with recommended “People and Pages” to follow on Google+ for certain search queries. Logged-out users will only be able to view these Google+ pages, and won’t be able to interact with them until they have created their own accounts. The social network currently has 60 million users and has been projected to reach 400 million by the end of 2012.

Edelman Digital’s Take

The battle continues with another punch from Google.  Remember, the intersection of social and search is a marriage that will only grow.  One can no longer live without the other and this clearly gives Google an advantage.

Expect Facebook to be forced with a tough decision on either partnering with Bing more closely or opening up so its content can be indexed by Google.  Sheer volume of searches alone on Google would presume Facebook would plan to open up more.  The ad dollars Google searches can drive to Facebook are too critical to both companies. Bing’s market share has been growing, but it will need a pretty deep partnership from Facebook to make any headway; seems difficult when you’re dealing with two big giants like Microsoft and Facebook. At the end of the day Google needs Facebook and Facebook needs Google with the ball in Google’s court.

This move will also increase adoption on Google+ and force more brands to play on the platform.

Don’t buy into the cries from Twitter.  Twitter has done a great job of playing both sides and may in fact prove to be a big winner in the move.  Expect Google to cool down the conversation by opening up more to Twitter, a plan Google most likely intended from the beginning.

Since launching, “Search Plus Your World” has received some backlash from the online community and questions around antitrust violations. Some are saying Google users do not care about what their friends have to say about what they are searching for, but this isn’t true. In many categories, such as travel and technology in particular, users highly value their friends’ opinions when it comes to things like what hotel to stay at or what smartphone to buy.

In many instances, when the names and photos of individuals who use a site are shown on the homepage, it can lead to high click-through and conversion rates. This is much like how in recipe results on Google, users are much more likely to click on a recipe with an average rating of 4 stars than one with no rating at all, because these ratings add social context and more value to the user.

The “Your World” feature is a significant change is Google’s user experience, but it’s a good change as it ultimately provides users with better results. We’ve seen Facebook change its layouts several times, and there is always backlash at first, but users adapt to and embrace the changes over time. The same will likely happen with Google search once users begin to realize the value “Your World” provides.

Brands should not wait to get involved and should take advantage of this opportunity by experimenting more with Google+, as it could go a long way in helping increase a brand’s presence in Google results.

For the search and social industry this is nothing but good news. Google has been lightly playing with the convergence of social and search. This move pushes us into the next era. Continued development in making personalization and relevancy a key factor in how people find information ultimately creates better user experiences, quicker access to information that matters, organized results based on trust and people who matter to you. The outcome is a richer search experience for consumers and higher conversions for those brands that have earned trust and loyalty from consumers.

Recommended Reading

Below are articles we recommend reading to learn more about “Google Plus Your World” and how the change will affect the search experience:

• Official Google Blog: Search, plus Your World
• Mashable: Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut
• Search Engine Land: Google’s Results Get More Personal with Search Plus Your World

It’s hard to believe we’re already ticking in another calendar year. So, as usual, I got to thinking about the shifts I think companies need to make in their social media activities in this year.

These aren’t necessarily trends that are already happening (although I’d like to say they are), but they’re certainly where my head is at and hopefully where others are, too.

Here are six shifts I hope to see in social media use by business in 2012.

Better objective-setting

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a slow maturation in the way companies develop their objectives for social media. My hope is that this will continue in 2012. That means fewer companies treating fan or follower growth or video views as goals, fewer made-up numbers and more focusing on business outcomes – sales, cost savings, customer/employee retention etc.

More effective measurement

As companies get better at setting objectives for social media, they’re going to need to get better at measuring against those new objectives. That means shifting focus away from anecdotal evidence and simple outputs, and looking at indicators of the behaviour you’re looking to drive. It also means taking a closer look at the reporting of that measurement. See my recent post on five ways to improve your social media measurement for more on this.

This will be accompanied by increased realism over social media results. I’m currently reading a book that points to a multi-national company having 27,000 Twitter followers as an indication of social media success. Let’s face it, that’s unlikely to move the needle for lots of companies. As companies focus-in on reporting business objectives, we’ll see a continued shift away from high-fives over anecdotes and minor wins and a more hard-nosed focus on what really matters.

Improved Integration

Key to measuring more effectively, but with far, far broader effects, integration (and the breaking down of silos) will become even more key in 2012. The smart organizations have already figured out that social media works best when supported, and supporting, other forms of communications; look for more companies to mandate a silo-busting approach over the next year.

Strategic content planning

As organizations increasingly adopt the role of media companies in their online communications, watch for content strategy to receive greater focus in 2012. That means shifting from a “we have to fill these content slots” approach to one that carefully considers the objectives of each piece of proactive content and why it deserves its place in the content calendar. Sometimes it might be to drive community engagement; other times it might be to drive business conversion, and so on.

Increased search focus

An increased (and improved) search focus sits alongside more strategic planning of content. It means broadening the scope of how you target content, from point-in-time to point-in-lifecycle – thinking about what people are looking for at their stage in whatever process you’re targeting, and helping them through that and on to the next stage. That could be a stage of the purchase cycle, it could be a stage of the support process, or any number of others that you choose to focus on (thinking back to objectives).

Focusing on the less-shiny object

This is a big bucket of all sorts of increases, but my hope is that as companies move away from shiny-object snydrome in 2012 they start to take a more sophisticated approach to the less-shiny objects – policies, processes, listening, crisis plans etc – or, more formally put, to social business.

For me, this is an exciting time. I’m jazzed to see more mature use of social media help it to evolve into a more powerful tool for organizations – “life after likes“, as David Armano puts it. This is the cool stuff – the stuff that will move the needle and add real value for companies.

That makes the non-shiny objects the shiny ones for me.

Image Credit: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com

For the last year, I have tried to engage with the small circle of social CRM influencers.  I have followed many of them on Twitter; retweeted their good content, linked to them from my blog posts and tried to engage with them on a variety of different levels.  Not to debate but to learn.  I am trying to figure out what it is they know that I don’t know. Is there some secret formula to social CRM that’s hidden in their brains that they only share with each other, like the Illuminati?

Perhaps I am not taken very serious. Is it that I am a marketing guy by trade? Could it be that work for a PR firm? Who knows.

Whatever the reason is, here is what I know about social CRM (and I am summarizing):

• Social Customers: The social customer is gaining influence (we all know that) and has been ever since Al Gore invented the internet. Companies that used to engage in one way dialogue realized that the social customer was important so they began to engage. Now many of them are trying to solve customer problems via Twitter, Facebook and other networks.
• Managing Relationships: I know that CRM is about managing customer relationships in an organized way; and can help improve operational effectiveness within the organization, easier access to customer data, and improved collaboration between cross functional teams, specifically sales.
• Social CRM as Business Strategy: I know that “social CRM”, a term often debated by industry pundits, is about putting the social customer front and center.  I have a tendency of over simplifying everything but this is how I see it. Social CRM is a business strategy that helps organizations evolve into a social business.  It is an initiative that considers technology, intelligence and process; so when organizations communicate with their customers they know what to say, how to say it, when to say it and who to say it to in order to provide a more relevant and meaningful customer interaction.
• Implementation: I also know that all this talk about social CRM is much easier to write/blog/tweet/debate and criticize others about than it is to actually implement. I have spent many years working in the enterprise, and while collaboration is improving, it’s still not where it should be. Try to get sales, marketing, support and engineering to all agree on a social CRM project. Good luck even getting them to attend the meeting.
• Social Business: Lastly, I know that social CRM will eventually be integrated into normal business operations (or marketing?) once organizations reign in the chaos, technology catches up and processes are established. Perhaps we won’t even call social CRM anymore, just social business.

Other than expanding on the points above, what else am I missing? What is the holy grail of social CRM that I am overlooking?  Is there a trigger, process or methodology that I have not yet read that sheds some light on this?

I don’t care who coined the phrase. I don’t want debate the definition. I don’t really care if you agree or disagree with my views. I know I am not a part of the inner-circle. I just want to learn. I want to understand.

This is why I feel new thought leadership is needed in this space.

I have spent many months researching this and the search is tiring. Everyone is saying the same thing. I even searched YouTube for “social CRM” and the content is old dating back to 2009. Is there no more innovation in the space?  Maybe the experts have moved on to bigger and better things; possibly trying to establish themselves as social business thought leaders.

My conclusion is that new thought leadership is needed in this space. No disrespect to the “old school” but if social CRM is about the customer, we need people who are on the front lines engaging with them every single day sharing their views and establishing a point of view.  Community managers, support professionals and others who are solving customer problems and building advocacy are the ones I want to hear from. There is a big difference between telling the world what “they should be doing” than telling the world what “they are doing.”

Certainly there is more to social CRM than just general community management and support. Enterprise collaboration, process improvement, technology, governance also play a substantial part in the CRM process. But guess what, many community managers and others are doing this today.

The landscape is changing so quickly that what works today may not necessarily work tomorrow.  And, while theory is certainly a good foundation, practical application is where the learning actually happens and thought leadership gives birth.

Anyone who predicted December to be a quieter month due to the winding down period before the holidays couldn’t have been more mistaken. After much anticipation and speculation, this month saw major changes rolled out across the four biggest social networking platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. Hopefully this end-of-year timing will give users and developers some time to adjust before all launching headfirst into continuing our exciting work in the New Year.

Twitter

This month Twitter launched a big change to their user interface called the ‘Let’s Fly’ design, now readily available for the web app, mobile (Android and iPhone) and launching for iPad apps soon. This new design helps users ‘Discover’ new content and interests, and offers a shiny new lay out for brands, which is a first for Twitter. A few great add-ons included in this new layout are the ‘jump to the top’ function (no more endless scrolling!) and ‘tweet details’. Tweet details allows users to tap a tweet and immediately find out more information such as the full page, shared multimedia, linked web pages and the number of retweets and favorites the particular tweet has received.

To find out more information on the new mobile design, follow @Twittermobile with offers tips and updates from the team. To see how the button layout has changed into the five new and easy to use functions (Me, Home, Connect, Discover and Tweet) watch this video brought by Twitter here.

December Updates:

• 8^th December: Twitter Launches Brand Pages; The ‘Fly’ Design
• 16^th December: Twitter Launches TweetDeck as Web App
• 21^st December: Twitter available in four new languages: Finnish, Danish, Norwegian and Polish

Facebook

The much anticipated Facebook Timeline was rolled out to users this month. This big change was first rolled out New Zealand and is now available for users across the globe. Currently, users must opt-in via the official Facebook link to swap their layout from the old version. The biggest addition is of course the cover photo which is the most eye-catching feature of the page and thus important for users to choose wisely – especially once it is rolled out to brands.

Posts made by you are now called Your Stories this is because the content you share on your page now comes in different formats. You might share what you are currently listening to on Spotify which groups together, the Places, Events’ and Pages you like/attend/visit will also be grouped together, making your profile easier to manage and control. One of the biggest changes I noticed is that there is a distinct lack of the ‘Wall’ which used to be the biggest feature for many users. Posts are dotted around the Timeline which make up a week based on time, rather than just one wall than you continuously scroll through. It’s kind of like a very personal RSS feed.

Once you have Timeline, you have seven days in which you are able to check it out, move things around and test your preferences before you click Publish. Once published,  your Timeline is live to all your friends and you cannot go back to the old version. You are able to delete, hide or add anything you wish to your Timeline. The Timeline homepage you can see how many of your friends have currently implemented Timeline, and check out their pages for inspiration!

December Updates:

• 6^th December – Timeline is rolled out in New Zealand
• 15^th December – Timeline rolled out Worldwide

Timeline rolled out for brand pages yet to be determined

Google+

It’s a month on from the launch of Google+ brand pages (November 7) and a lot has happened since then. Notable events include Britney Spears becoming the first Google+ page to top 1 million users and the release of the 2011 Google Zeitgeist list (of which the elusive iPhone 5 is listed). On December 19, Google+ added three new improvements to its platform to primarily aid the management of brand pages. The finer detail of publishing content has been improved dramatically in which page admins are able to ‘graphic-equalize’ the publisher stream. This means that you can manage your streams down to the minute detail (in order to create the most optimized stream for your brand and its audience). A slider tool allows you to choose how you wish to filter you posts into the main content stream to increase visibility/impressions.

The next update is the improvement made to page management. Along with Buddy Media who was been selected last month as official launch partner, it looks like Google+ pages are finally taking off in terms of content management. You can now have up to 50 admins on your brand page by ‘Adding a Manager’ via the page settings. This new feature also allows you to ‘Transfer Ownership’ which you can pass on admin rights from yourself to a new user. This is useful for when a community manager is stepping down from the page and needs to pass on all relevant information. The limitation of 50 admins per page also means more security control over the page. The other feature that makes the page management easier is the new notification flow that allows managers to communicate and keep abreast of all page activity at all times.

December Updates:

• 12^th December – Further integration between Gmail and Google+
• 14^th December – Google+ expands ‘on-air’ Hangouts
• 19^th December – Multi-admin control
• 19^th December – Adjustments for Volume Control to ‘Circle’s feature
• 21^st December – Google+ Pages showing as primary search result

YouTube

For a big part of this year the questions on many people’s lips has been what the heck is Cosmic Panda? This month, it appears that YouTube has now unveiled this radical new look this month for its more than 800 billion users worldwide. Shishir Mehotra, the VP of product development for YouTube, highlighted the reasons for these changes:

“We’re trying to take what we see as the best of TV and the best of online and bring it together”.  This makes sense considering the way in which users are now consuming videos online more than ever and the ever rising social integration with TV.”

The first thing I noticed when logging on is the stream in the middle of my homepage. I can now ‘subscribe’ to other channels which will feature in my feed as well as already getting updates from my Google+ circles. My YouTube and Gmail account are also even more closely aligned.

Channel pages have also changed and are now much slicker, with the addition of larger video screens, several new layout templates (creator, blogger, broadcaster, everything – screenshot below) and customization options. The ‘Video Manager’ allows you to edit your videos with text, audio, transitions, annotations and a cutting tool. You can also personalize your homepage with the video suggestions with the ‘Recommended For You’ lists. It seems that this updated focus on social integration might be YouTube’s aim to make the website a place users spend longer periods of time by networking rather than a short-lived hotspot for watching a five minute videos.

There are also new additions to the Analytics toolkit, where the reporting facility has been made easier for users. YouTube have now included a ‘data filter’ in which you can now categorize by content, location and time. The graph facility has also improved, the data granularity is more focused; you can now pin point data daily, weekly or monthly in a specific date range. You can also compare your data by charting Viewers directly next to Unique Viewers. For even more information on ‘What’s new’ in YouTube Analytics click here.

December Updates:

• December 1^st – YouTube takes web remake live

A Focus on Integration

In conclusion, it appears that these huge networks are looking for ways to improve user-friendliness and add integration options. Twitter’s focal points are on shareability (with newly embeddable Tweets), extending their focus to brands and also strengthening their ‘discover’ functionality, continuing to cement Twitter as the ‘news source’ in the social media landscape. Facebook is focusing more on the visual nature of pages, shareability, third-party integration and the bringing together of old and new data. Facebook is also concentrating on making the platform all-inclusive. Google and YouTube are further integrating their services and will continue, it appears, to incorporating the results in enhanced search functions more than anything else.

Image credit: Luxuryluke

“Smart” gift-giving applications work like a gift-idea version of Pandora.com, recommending specific gifts your friends might enjoy. With a plane home to catch and the holidays inching closer, I don’t have time to shop in stores or spend hours online picking something out. These gift-giving applications offer suggestions and recommendations for everyone on my list. It’s that easy.

Fifteen Is the Magic Number: 15Gifts.com

15gifts is a seven-step gift-giving site that allows you to plug in the “type” of person you are shopping for. You enter male, female or couple, the name and the age range of the person. Next up, you select from several options including their relationship to you, the occasion, and “what makes them happy”. Two optional questions are next: “What is the style of their home?” and “What does this person normally wear?” and lastly, you enter your price range. Simple!
The 15gifts site imports the information you submit and offers fifteen suggestions with a link to a point of purchase. The site collects gift ideas from what “types” of people want to purchase and provides shoppers with gift ideas to guide their purchasing decision quickly and creatively. As an added convenience,  you can save your friend’s name and preferences to pull up new gift ideas next time you need to shop!

Shop for Your Friends on : Shopycat

Shopycat is an automated gift-giving Facebook app created by WalmartLabs through Walmart’s* acquisition of Kosmix. Shopychat leverages Facebook’s social graph to find the perfect gift and enhance the social shopping experience. Facebook users can pull Likes, shares and interests from their Facebook friends to create gift recommendations. Like most of the apps discussed in this post, Shopycat personalizes gift. If your little brother lists “soccer” as an interest on Facebook, gifts like a sports trivia game or season tickets might be recommended. The app specifically chooses “giftable” items, rather than  just based on what your Facebook friends have listed as an interest.

Users aren’t just directed to Walmart products, but instead to retailers including Barnes and Noble, RedEnvelope and ThinkGeek. Note: Shopycat is only available on your desktop Facebook; not through your mobile device quite yet.

Good Things Come in Small Packages: Givvy.com

Month-old self-funded startup, Givvy is another social gift-giving application recently launched by two friends. Givvy combines aspects of Shopycat and 15gifts evaluation process. Rather than offer gift selections based on a specific Facebook friend (similar to Shopycat), the app provides recommendations based on “type” of person discovered through a series of questions, a process similar to the model used by 15gifts). In addition to these questions and formulas, Givvy adds an interactive element. The app operates like a Facebook sub-community that pinpoints specific users and influencers and gift-idea curators. These influencers create gift lists and ideas online. The Givvy team translates the ideas, turning Gifts.com URLs into product pages within the app.

According to a CNet article, “the foundation of Givvy is social commerce, which happens when online social networks mix with e-commerce transactions. The most popular examples of social commerce are shopping communities like Etsy, group buying models like Groupon, and retail storefronts on Facebook, known as F-Commerce.”

Finding Recommendations That Fit You: Hunch

Okay, let’s be honest: while doing holiday shopping, it’s important to get a little gift for yourself too! But what if you don’t even know what YOU want? Hunch is your solution. Hunch is a recommendation site that pulls your interests into Taste Graphs based on your Facebook and/or Twitter profiles, as well as your answers to a fun questionnaire. You can answer these questions based on yourself, or someone else you are shopping for. Hunch’s advantage is the use of algorithms to aid in decision-making. Sites like Gifts.com have partnered with the application and recently found that its conversion rate (the number of shoppers who turn into buyers) is as much as 60% higher than it was before they started using Hunch.
The company, recently acquired by eBay**, shares their taste graphs on a range of topics; from “what Ivy League School is Right for You?” to the average Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo or AOL user and everything in between. The tool provides allows you to rate their recommendations; which in turn strengthens their Taste Graph system.

“Bee” Generous this Holiday Season: Present Bee

Present Bee is a gift-giving application that allows YOU to suggest gifts that you think your friends would like. Currently in public beta, this smart app is the brainchild of seven Northwestern students. Present Bee users have “Buzzlists” where their friends discuss gifts for that person. Here’s the fun part: you can’t view your own Buzzlist! Your online friends are the ones who are recommending gifts for you in order to help other friends purchase gifts for you. Although in public beta; a Facebook login is all you need.

These are only five applications that use algorithms and your social media profiles to find and recommend gifts for you – there are many more, so find the one that works best for you! What’s better than being able to click and purchase items without having to fight holiday crowds or spend time brainstorming gift ideas? After all, the best part of the holidays is giving someone the perfect gift.

Would you connect your social media profile to one of these sites to receive gift recommendations? Why or why not? Happy Holidays!

Image credit: alancleaver_2000

*Walmart is an Edelman client.
**eBay is an Edelman client.

Each year at this time, I look forward and predict trends in social media for the coming year. But first, I look back at my predictions from last year. How’d I do? Not bad.

2011 Recap: Social Business, Google+ & Facebook Places

Social media continues to move forward toward business integration, a trend that I identified last year. In a joint study from Booz & Company and social platform developer Buddy Media, 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEO’s label social as a high priority.

I was also partially accurate in predicting that Google would “strike back” in 2011. They did, with Google Plus, a formidable initiative that acts as Google’s “social layer” to the Web. Part social network and part social search, Google Plus has industry observers scratching their heads, wondering if Facebook will be given a run for their money or if the service evolves into something complimentary in a highly social Web.

I had one big swing-and-miss on Facebook’s intrusion in the location-based services war. While Facebook still supports location tracking in a number of ways, it has not put Foursquare out of business. Foursquare still enjoys a niche audience of highly active participants who enjoy telling the world where they are and post pictures to prove it. It is however worth noting that Facebook recently acquired location based network Gowalla, so continue to watch this space.

2012 Predictions

So what can we expect in 2012 in a world that seems to grow ever connected by the hour? Here are six predictions to ponder, in no particular order:

Convergence Emergence

For a glimpse into how social will further integrate with “real life,” we can look at what Coca Cola experimented with all the way back in 2010. Coke created an amusement park where participants could “swipe” their RFID-equipped wristbands at kiosks, which posted to their Facebook account what they were doing and where. Also, as part of a marketing campaign, Domino’s Pizza posted feedback — unfiltered feedback — on a large billboard in Times Square, bringing together real opinions from real people pulled from a digital source and displayed in the real world. These types of “trans-media” experiences are likely to define “social” in the year to come.

The Cult of Influence

In much the same way that Google has defined a system that rewards those who produce findable content, there is a race on to develop a system that will reward those who wield the most social influence. One particular player has emerged, Klout, determined to establish their platform as the authority of digital influence. Klout’s attempt to convert digital influence into business value underscores a much bigger movement which we’ll continue to see play out in the next year. To some degree everyone now has some digital influence (not just celebrities, academics, policy makers or those who sway public opinion). But for the next year, the cult of influence becomes less about consumer plays like Klout and more about the tools and techniques professionals use to “score” digital influence and actually harness, scale and measure the results of it.

Gamification Nation

No we’re not taking about video games. Rather, game-like qualities are emerging within a number of social apps in your browser or mobile device. From levels, to leaderboards, to badges or points, rewards for participation abound. It’s likely that the trend will have to evolve given how competition for our time and attention this gaming creates. Primarily, gamification has been used in consumer settings, but look for it in other areas from HR, to government, healthcare and even business management. Perhaps negotiating your next raise will be tied to your position on the company’s digital leaderboard.

Social Sharing

Ideas, opinions, media, status updates are all part of what makes social media a powerful and often disruptive force. The media industry was one of the first to understand this, adding sharing options to content, which led to more page views and better status in search results. What comes next in social sharing is more closely aligned with e-commerce or web transactions. For example, Sears allows a user to share a product or review with their networks directly from the site. Sharing that vacation you just booked, or recommending a product, or service from any site to a social network is where sharing goes next. We probably don’t know what we are willing to share until we see the option to do it.

Social Television

For many of us, watching television is already a social act, whether it’s talking to the person next to you, or texting, tweeting, and calling friends about what you’re watching. But television is about to become a social experience in a bigger and broader sense. The X Factor now allows voting via Twitter and highlights other social promotions, which encourages viewers to tap social networks while they watch. Another way media consumption is becoming social comes from a network called Get Glue which acts as something of a Foursquare for media. Participants can “check-in” to their favorite shows (or other forms of media) and collect stickers to tell the world what programs they love. Watch for more of this this year as ratings rise for socially integrated shows.

The Micro Economy

Lastly as we roll into 2012, watch for a more social approach to solving business problems through a sort of micro-economy. Kickstarter gives anyone with a project, the opportunity to get that initiative funded by those who choose to (and patrons receive something in return). A crowdsourcing platform for would-be inventors called Quirky lets the best product ideas rise to the top and then helps them get produced and sold while the “inventor” takes a cut. Air BnB turns homes into hotels and travelers into guests, providing both parties with an opportunity to make and save money. These examples may point to a new future reality where economic value is directly negotiated and exchanged between individuals over institutions.

These are a few emerging trends which come to mind. As with anything, looking to the past often gives us clues for what may come in the future. Please weigh in with your thoughts: where do you see “social” going in 2012?

Image credit: Stockerre

The Wikipedia entry states the following: This article is about a business with a social objective. For organization designed around social tools, social media, and social networks, see Social media. The number one position (at least on my search) serves up a web page from IBM, which describes social business by saying, “People don’t do business with companies. People do business with people. Here is why―and how—to become a Social Business.”

While both are correct, the definition that IBM outlines reflects not just the idea, the theory of social business, but the practical application that we are seeing in the marketing place today.  What Yunus envisioned, IBM has put a structure and focus around and broadened to include doing business in a connected age. In light of this, here are a few considerations for how “social business” might break down for you and why it’s related to social media, but not the same.

1. Social Brand + Social Enterprise = Social Business

Remember this simple formula. A social brand is what your customer feels (perhaps being engaged on social platforms as part of the customer experience), while a social enterprise internalizes social as part of the way employees collaborate and how the business interacts with partners. The two, add up to doing business in a social and connected way. It means being plugged in from the start and incorporating feedback loops. In this regard, many businesses that run forums where they listen and engage with their most active customers already understand the foundation of social business.

2. Believe In Life After Likes

Social business is bigger than Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and (insert social network here) combined. It’s about applying a social layer across the entire organization—connecting a company to all of its stakeholders (customers, employees, business partners, shareholders, etc). What we’ve seen in the past few years was an explosion of social across mostly marketing and communications departments, but what’s coming in the next several years is social integration at the enterprise level. A great starting point to assess if your company is moving in the right direction is to count the heads of the people working on social integration initiatives full time. If you don’t get past counting to one, you’re in trouble.

3. Think Beyond Media

There are opportunities to leverage social media as a new way to spread a message, be heard, tell a story or get a story amplified. The media industry has, notably, been disrupted by social media as blogs and real-time communications have gained traction among audiences and eaten away at attention newspapers, radio and television news properties once exclusively served. In response, media companies were forced to integrate social media into their operations, empowering journalists early on to create their own blogs, and over time to become deeply integrated into social networking platforms.  This was not a mere media tactic, but a shift in how media companies functioned and conducted business.  Born out of necessity or not, the media industry showed how to become a more social business.



4. Get Social By Design

Social media projects are typically constructed of experiments, skunk works and unsanctioned projects, which launch and take shape before most people across a company even realize they are happening. Some of these experiments are successful; many are not—but organizations find out after the fact that there is something powerful happening within their audience. Social business benefits from a more thoughtful and disciplined approach.  Social business requires planning—taking stock of every social-digital embassy, property and initiative (both internal and external) and assessing what should stay, what needs formal investments and what goes to the chopping block. The entire business strategy for an organization must be considered through this lens of social business. This “design” process—an intentional and purposeful approach—allows for social media, and truly social thinking, to be integrated and scaled.

5. Learn To Become A Matchmaker

Nobody owns “social business” — – but everyone feels its influence.  Social business planning must be championed by leadership, built into the efforts to flatten management structures and bridge the gaps between organizational silos. The CMO and CIO must join forces, and invite the heads of HR, R&D and customer service to be a part of the same conversation. Social business change agents must also become matchmakers, because getting a video to go viral will seem easy in comparison to getting people in different departments to come together around social.

Remember that Google search result I mentioned a few paragraphs back?  The number three result for social business links to an article from Fast Company titled “Move Over Social Media, Here Comes Social Business”. Its prime search rank is proof that social extends beyond marketing and media.  When Microsoft decided to open their SDK (Software Developer Kit) for Kinect to developer communities, they made a calculated decision that value would flow back to the company as it simultaneously benefits developers. Even organizations such as NASA have reaped rewards from the decision to be a social business. This is a sign that in being a social or connected business—the end goal is value for multiple stakeholders, and for both business (and society) that’s a good thing.

*Microsoft is an Edelman client