Acquiring Market Intelligence through Social Media

Friday 5th October 2007, Portland Place.

Introduction

According to Wikipedia there are 103 major social networking websites worldwide focusing on practically every type of activity from the making of dolls to the connecting of people - business to business.

From a market perspective, this translates into hundreds of millions of people regularly using sites for communication and interaction – thus the considerable business interest. MySpace with 200 million current users was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2005 for $649 million. His rationale was that his empire had failed to engage properly with the digital world and risked losing its hard-won position in news provision. The purchase of Myspace was a start at putting that lack of engagement right.

Facebook, with 40 million users was started by the now 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg for colleges, then high schools, and now it includes everyone from newspaper editors to politicians. Viacom offered $750 million to acquire it. Yahoo then offered nearly $1billion. And according to the Wall Street Journal last week, Microsoft is interested in acquiring a minority stake - a potential investment of around $500 million for just 5% of the company. Google is also expressing interest in the same 5%.

As to which is the most popular social networking site, the latest audit announced a few days ago by Nielson/NetRatings puts Facebook ahead of MySpace.

From a business perspective, it’s clear that the social network is now one of the most effective ways of reaching people - new prospects, engaging with customers and finding out what’s going on in one’s market.

In the context of Microsoft’s marketing plans for its products and services, Steve Ballmer said to the New York Times recently “One pervasive change is the importance of community. It’s a big deal.”

Demonstrably, the social web is no “one off” phenomenon. The success of YouTube, Myspace, LinkedIn and Facebook is evidence of people wishing to take control of how they communicate, seek information, participate and interact. The marketing implications are very clear. Old style “push marketing” telemarketing or direct marketing is increasingly ineffective in today’s environment.

Web 2.0 enabled the development of the Social Network, which in turn has begun to change the role of the corporate marketeer from a broadcaster of messages to an aggregator of content and builder of online communities.

It means adapting marketing mindsets from companies only saying what they want to say to that of also hearing what their clients and prospects want to say. But what precisely is a social network and how does it work exactly? How scientifically can one acquire market intelligence from a social web?

To answer these questions, we were fortunate to have some great speakers: Michael Chin, Senior Vice President of the KickApps Corporation, and Ankur Shah, a director of Techlightenment.

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Briefing

There were well over thirty companies represented including IBM, BT, SonyBMG, BBC, O2, AOL and many more.

Michael Chin identified the business imperatives, business models and strategies needed to succeed in the new age of social media.

KickApps is used by thousands of large global media and entertainment brands and independent publishers, including Scripps Network Interactive, VIBE Magazine, HBO, Cinemax, BET Networks, Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble.

Michael's presentation: KIckApps Presentation

Ankur Shah discussed how communities and social interaction are inherently logical and can be analysed to enable the acquisition of market intelligence.

His company, Techlightenment is a new type of innovations agency. Its aim is to harness and embrace cutting-edge and disruptive technologies for the benefit of all market sectors. He believes that social interaction is an inherently rational act and can be understood and analysed.

To that end, Ankur demonstrated that mapping the influence individual nodes have on any given network, enables one to understand how individuals will respond to any given engagement.
Ankur’s presentations are here Socialistics and here Techlightenment