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More than friends post-social media

Facebook nation
If Facebook was a country, it would be the third biggest in the world only eclipsed by China and India. Twitter would be sitting on the edge of 12th place; thats bigger than the UK, France or Germany. But numbers mean very little without resources.

0.9 %
#22
WORLD RANKING

19.41% 1.18%
#14
WORLD RANKING

#1

WORLD RANKING

0.95%
#21
WORLD RANKING

8.54% 17 .3%
#2
WORLD RANKING

#3

WORLD RANKING

Represents % of worldwide population

Sources: China - Official Chinese Population Estimate, India - Official Indian Population Clock, France - Official INSEE estimate, UK - Eurostat estimate, Germany - http://www.destatis.de, Facebook - DoubleClick Ad Planner data and the Institute for Fiscal Studies

SO WHAT RESOURCES ARE AT THE DISPOSAL OF A SOCIAL MEDIA NATION RELATIVE TO A NATIONAL COUNTERPART?
Avg. household income 0-14,999 15,000-19,999 20,000-24,999 25,000-29,999 30,000-49,000 50,000 > % UK Facebook users 18 10 8 7 35 22 % UK Citizens 31 29 16 11 18 5
The simple answer, more. According to these statistics (from DoubleClick Ad Planner data and the Institute for Fiscal Studies [2006]) more than half of Facebook users (57%) have a household income of more than 30,000 compared with just 23% in the same earning bracket in the UK as a whole. And in underdeveloped nations, this contrast is likely to be even more pronounced. Thats the result of several factors. Facebooks two largest demographics are 25-34 and 35-44, making up 60% of total users; these are two demographics with a lot of spending power. Secondly, the normal entry route to the social media population is through internet access and a PC or smartphone, things that cost a significant amount of money. So in general Facebooks population is large and comparatively wealthy.

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No matter how important and empowering that guise is, its also extremely limiting. It does very little to explore the true potential of the medium. Added value is not purely a matter of increased financial returns; call centres offer value that sales assistants cannot, but its an expenditure not an income stream. Ultimately the financial cost of Pepsis Refresh project can be considered a failure but in terms of pushing the medium, in approaching something in an original way; it was an overwhelming success, creating real brand engagement with a key demographic. And if Pepsi had the foresight to perceive the distinction between advertising and social media marketing, and catered to both as necessary, wed likely see a more profitable brand emerging this year.

How long can new be new?

Social media is now having an impact on our legal system. British solicitor Hilary Thorpe set precedent for the practice when she followed the lead of an Australian Supreme Court ruling to contact a hard to reach debtor through Facebook. In the States, a decision was overturned after a social media outcry when legal proceedings caused another social media site, PickupPal.com, to shutdown. With over 590,000,000 unique users on Facebook every month (according to Google) and the credibility to impact on legal proceedings in multiple countries; is it fair to call these individual platforms, or even the idea of social media, new? Generally speaking, when legal systems adopt the use of technology, not only is the technology no longer considered new; its antiquated. In the wake of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, social media took the guise of a fundraising platform, an emergency contact point and an international mourning centre. How appropriate the medium is for each of these functions is up for debate, but the emerging truth is that social media is now a diverse and capable platform for effecting social change. New can sometimes be used as an excuse, but what these situations prove is that while social media is a relatively young platform, in certain forms its also a mature one. With this maturity there comes power, and social media is a platform for some truly amazing activities in a modern society. Its part in overthrowing governments following demonstrations in North Africa and the Middle East is testament to the ability of the medium to impact serious real world situations. Social media is now much more than ROI.

Action, not words

Social media has been plagued by the tagline join the conversation for far too long. It would be a shame for its potential to be lost to a stagnant call to action. Projects like Pepsi Refresh show us that social media is a place to effect social change, to make things happen not just talk about them. With the intention of stimulating interaction, engagement and conversation it seems that social media is suffering from a similar affliction to that described by Abigail Adams, We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. Social media is now capable of accessing the resources of a vast, global audience to effect a fundamental change in the way we function as an increasingly connected society. And some new platforms are seeking to enable the utilisation of such diverse resources to enhance our day to day existence, underlining the importance of the medium in our society. Moodshare is a new creative tool that, at the time of publishing, is still in a public beta stage. It allows creatives to make collaborative, interactive moodboards, streamlining the creative process and multi-media searches simultaneously. Its a new form of social media, but it remains part of social media. Whats intriguing now is the movement towards social creation of media. Networks like Moodshare make it possible live out that collaborative mantra two heads are better than one. Theyre about pooling resources, and understand the real potential of social media not just a place to gather and publish thoughts; but a place to action thought. Ahhha Inc. is a new social ideation platform, seeking to connect innovators. Its based on the idea that innovation is easier with access to a large pool of ideas. Given a less committal copyrights policy, this tool could produce some revolutionary products as well as a few mail order shockers. But the point is this, social media is no longer exclusively about words, its about action. Communicating this change to brands is where social media marketers are currently falling short. With a huge, wealthy, engaged population, brands should be looking to leverage the medium to do amazing things. We need to recognise that social media is not just Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Its an idea. One that brings individuals together to form a resourceful and intelligent whole. What brands do next is just a matter of creativity, but one things clear; the time for conversation is over... the time for action is here.

Moving past profit

In March, one big talking point among marketers was the market share drop of Pepsi in 2010. Attributed by many cynics to the decision of the brand to shift a large portion of their advertising budget into the charitable social media based project, Pepsi Refresh. Their subsequent decrease in profitability is being portrayed by many as a failing of social media. Despite the credibility of those claims when comparing the effectiveness of advertising and social media side by side as a revenue generating platform; theres a quite pertinent omission from this method of judgement social media was never intended to replace advertising. There are fundamentally different functions between the two mediums. As shown by the above examples, social media is a multi-faceted medium with wider reaching potential than income generation. The problem it encounters is that many marketers consider it, or at least promote it, as a platform that is capable of providing a financial return on investment on a very limited number of dedicated channels e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc..

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