Social Media Madness – The Final Four
SEW EXPERTS: BRAND EQUITY By Erik Qualman, Search Engine Watch, Mar 23, 2009
Columns | Contact Erik | Biography
NCAA March Madness is in full swing, and so is Social Media Madness! We started our own Big Dance with 16, but now the Final Four is starting to come into focus, thanks to all of you who have voted for your favorite social media sites.
Based on the predictions for the winner of Social Media Madness in the bracket below, it looks like Facebook (profiled here), YouTube, Wikipedia (profiled here), and Twitter are all headed for the Final Four.
Who Will be the Social Media King?
click to enlarge
These predictions factor in results of those filling out the bracket at Facebook or tweeting me @equalman. Thanks to everyone who has voted -- for those who haven't, you have one more week.
Facebook may have an insurmountable lead at this point, but anything can happen. YouTube is second in wins. Hulu has upset Wikipedia on many occasions and still has a chance to make the Final Four. And despite this prediction, Twitter may not make the finals.
Now let's breakdown some of the social media players we haven't yet profiled.
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: Web form, text message, or instant message.
Key wins: Probably the most talked about company in the bracket the last month. Skittles using Twitter as their home page has given them great exposure, as have CNN and Shaquille O'Neal.
Key losses: Twitter still hasn't figured out a good way to make money. Server issues and downtimes have been greatly improved, but they're still an issue. Facebook's new design is very similar to Twitter and could chew into Twitter's market share. While moms are joining Facebook, Twitter is still primarily used by celebrities, companies, and the technorati.
Business Use: At a minimum, companies should use search.twitter.com to see what's being said about their product. Zappos, JetBlue, CNN, EF Tours, Skittles, and Comcast are good examples of companies that understand the business use.
Coach: CEO Evan Williams, who founded Blogger and later sold it to Google, is headquartered in San Francisco.
YouTube is the leader in online video, sharing original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips across the Internet through Web sites, mobile devices, blogs, and e-mail.
Key wins: The dominant online video destination. Purchased by Google in October 2006 for $1.65 billion only a year after launch.
Key losses: Hulu and others will prove to be stiff competition in the future as all television and entertainment content moves online. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has admitted that YouTube has struggled to monetize. Perception by Fortune 500 companies is that it's neither easy nor brand-friendly to advertise on YouTube. Have been sued by Viacom.
Business Use: Companies need to leverage their customer base enthusiasm for their product and showcase these videos on YouTube. Anything companies can do to encourage this type of behavior will help spread their brand awareness. Attempting to develop something viral is very difficult to do within internal marketing departments.
Coach: YouTube was founded in 2005 by CEO Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, and is now owned by Google. It's headquartered in San Bruno, California.
MySpace is a popular social networking site that lets friends share, message, and stay connected. It launched January 1, 2004.
Key wins: Started social network craze. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation acquired MySpace in June 2005. In August 2006, signed a $900 million dollar deal with Google to be the exclusive search provider. Profitable.
Key losses: A poor technology platform has limited advancement of the product and allowed competitors like Hi5 and Facebook to overtake them in various markets. Google deal expires next year.
Business Use: If you're a celebrity or band, MySpace is the place you want to be to promote yourself.
Coach: Cofounder and CEO Chris DeWolf steers the company from Los Angeles.
Livemocha is a hybrid between social network and a language learning Web site.
Key wins: Has the backing of Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz, which may be why the name is closely related to coffee. Limited competition; LiveMocha competes with italki, a China-based startup offering similar services.
Key losses: Not much brand awareness. Still in beta mode. Overwhelming number of Chinese attempting to learn English don't have enough English friends trying to learn Chinese.
Business Use: Most applicable for travel and offline language learning tools. Also, this is a great free way for employees trying to learn a language for business reasons.
Coach: CEO and Chief Roaster Shirish Nadkarni enjoys his coffee in Bellevue, Washington.
LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows members to create business contacts, search for jobs, and find potential clients.
Key wins: With more than 30 million users representing 150 industries, they have a virtual monopoly on the professional networking field.
Key losses: Users aren't active. The network isn't "sticky." They use the site for specific periodic needs.
Business Use: This will be the place in the future where almost all jobs are searched for and found. It's important for companies to establish a respectable and polished presence as well as begin to build out their network. This includes everyone from human resources to company leaders and executives.
Coach: Reid Hoffman is the CEO, based out of Mountain View, California.
Flickr is a video and photo-sharing site that has two main objectives: help people make their content available to the people who matter to them, and enable new ways of organizing photos and video.
Key wins: Yahoo purchased Flickr for $35 million in March 2005. Sites like Snapfish and Ofoto made it difficult for users to easily share photos, which has benefited Flickr. Flickr has expanded into video sharing.
Key losses: Facebook has quickly overtaken Flickr as the top photo-sharing destination. What's their long-term revenue model?
Business Use: Companies should set up accounts to host appropriate video and photos. This is a particularly helpful tool when running photo contests as its inherent sharing capabilities enable user-generated photos to be quickly distributed to your company site as well as other social media sites.
Coach: Owned by Yahoo, cofounded in 2004 by Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, who left Yahoo last summer. Now run by Kakul Srivastava, a part of the Flickr team since Yahoo acquired it four years ago.
» Print this article » E-mail a colleague » Post a comment
Biography
Erik Qualman is the Global Vice President of Online Marketing for EF Education, headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland. EF Education is the world's largest private educator (Student Tours, Language Schools, Smithsonian, Hult MBA School, Au Pair Exchange, Student Exchange, etc.). Qualman works out of the 850 person Cambridge, Massachusetts office.
Prior to joining EF Education, Qualman helped grow the marketing and eBusiness functions of Cadillac & Pontiac (1994-97), BellSouth (1998-2000), Yahoo (2000-03), EarthLink (2003-05) and Travelzoo (2005-08). Qualman holds a BA from Michigan State University and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.
Qualman is a frequently requested speaker within the Internet and marketing community. He's also an acclaimed fiction author -- more information is available at American Novel. A former basketball player at Michigan State University, Qualman still finds time to follow his beloved Spartans.
Article Archives by Erik Qualman:
» Social Media Madness – The Final Four - March 23, 2009
» Social Media Madness -- The Sweet 16, Part 2 - March 9, 2009
» Social Media Madness -- The Sweet 16 - February 23, 2009
» 4 Ways That Facebook Can Make Big Money - February 9, 2009
» 10 Ways Twitter Can Make Money - January 26, 2009
» 7 Social Media Predictions for 2009 - January 12, 2009
» More Articles by Erik Qualman
No comments:
Post a Comment