Let us just look at the statistics dealing with people and their activities on facebook and try to understand what it means for users and businesses right now and what it can be in the future.

More than 500 active million users

They have been adding a 100 million every 5 months since late 2008 and this shows no sign of slowing. With the internet growing rate of 400% but having only penetrated <27% of worlds population there is still a lot that can be done. Also 500 million active users is roughly 27% of the 1.8 billion internet users around the world. These numbers are massive and will just keep growing redefining the meaning and usage of facebook.

50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

That is phenomenal! Says a lot about the stickiness of facebook and how important it has become for the user in his or her life. That also means they are keeping tabs on whats happening everyday. It means if you are an active marketer you cant not ignore that you have a chance to grab eyeballs everyday. What would be really interesting to know is how many of these users actually spend more than hour a day!

Average user has 130 friends

That’s quite a lot! Seems like the Facebook fraternity is quite a social lot taking into considerations that it has rigid privacy settings and most people I know and have heard from in real life, online etc claim that they only add people they have (or going to have) a real life connection with.  That means the connections made are strong and tend to have a greater meaning and interaction.

With the presence of photos, videos and most importantly status updates with comments and likes every person is a community by himself. Every post in the broader sense is a thread and creates humongous opportunity for information exchange.

With the last privacy setting change (or debacle as most would like to call it) the default option for status update is global. If only Facebook could now work on properly indexing those updates and creating a usable search engine like that of twitter’s they will be creating the next Gold Rush.

People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Active user is defined here as someone who logs in atleast once a month. 500 million active users totally 700 billion minutes means 1400 minutes per person. That’s 40 minutes shy of a day. A whole day! That is more time we spend more time on Facebook than we spend on eating (considering an average meal lasts for 15 minutes)

So the signing in and presence is not just for trivial pursuits (Hey! Farmville is very important to many), people are quite serious about facebook and spending quality time on it. They are posting and sharing content, interacting with others and entertaining themselves for a considerable time every day. If somebody doesn’t have Facebook has an integral part of their brand promotion, they are forgetting to fill oil in their online marketing car. It will eventually break down.

Here are the statistics about the activity on facebook.

• There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
• Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
• More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.

With recent incorporation of community pages (a sort of automatically created Wikipedia on Facebook) and their integration with people’s interests and likes, Facebook has opened a treasure trove of information and connections. Groups, Events and Facebook pages have long been quite integral to a user’s Facebook experience. They are now slowly embracing community pages (though I doubt if it will be so immensely popular as the others). These all combined are objects as Facebook puts them and they are 900 million in number. This makes even Wikipedia green with envy. If and when people decide to populate these pages meaningfully it has the power to obliterate a bunch of other sites based on events (meetup, eventful), wikis(squidoo, wikia, wetpaint), groups (google and yahoo groups) and so on. This becomes all the more easy to do because people do not have to go to a new site in order to access, create or sign up for something.

When the average user creates 90 pieces of content (status updates, wall posts, photos, videos, etc) and there are 30 billion pieces of content shared every month Facebook is becoming a complete internet onto itself. If they can create a Google alternative (or integrate Bing as they most probably will) to index and display search results I might never have to leave Facebook for anything.

This is like creating the ultimate living room with the best entertainment and communication systems in it and the most comfortable lazyboys and well provided nourishments. Add some more features and I might not even have to go out of this space for a leak.

A brief intro of Vemana:

- Digital Media enthusiast and social media evangelist
- Regular organizer of Hyderabad Tweetups
- Previously co founder of Dot Now, a social media startup
- Loves to write, loves cinema and writes about cinema at Too Much Cinema and AGL
- Also works with Lamakaan

On a quick aside let me just add that he talks and argues a lot

Know more about him from his blog. We are very excited that the team is expanding and there is a going to be a lot more work and a lot more noise!

We are excited to meet this marketing genius, been following his work for the past 5 years.

You can follow the event through our tweets at #Sethhyd.

Event Update :

The event was great. After the event Seth was standing in the lobby and talking to all the people he could. It’s amazing to see a person like Seth be so down to earth and give time to his audience. Truly following what he advocates, creating tribes.

Check the pics from the event.

Seth Live- ISB

We are all talking about Passionate Foundation , a city based NGO. It is a platform for the young to raise his/ her voice. The volunteers at the NGO compiled a book. A list of 50 people living in Hyderabad and pursuing their passion. For all the noise that exists around pursing a passion and being different, why not make a list of those people. Many famous and not so famous people (by that I mean me!) made it to their list.

What they got right : They managed to create amazing event. The caliber of a few people on the list is such that the event could not be ignored by the media. Check the coverage here

What I thought : If you are releasing a book about people who have worked through odds and raised up, it would be apt to have those people share their story. For instance, I met a young girl at the event, who is the youngest author based out of hyderabad. Her story would have been inspiring and would have made an awesome conversation piece.

I am incredibly glad to be on the list. But for me it’s 84ideas that actually went up there. Everybody at 84ideas made on to that list. Our common passion for internet is what makes us 84ideas.

What is it exactly?

So, when you see the Trending Topics box on the sidebar, against one of the topics, there will be a small yellow highlight which says ‘Promoted.’ In the test phase, Disney/ Pixar was the first to buy a ‘trend.’ You can see Toy Story 3 flashing below all other Trending Topics.

According to Twitter, this topic is already available in tweets, but has not yet made it to the Trending Topics Section. Just like any other Trending Topic, once you click on it, you will reach the search results page to see what people are talking about the respective matter.

What we think?

First of all, I don’t know how exactly a Promoted Trend is going to ‘resonate’ with user tweets. With promoted tweets, the tweet required higher resonance with the users in order for it to stay on top. We don’t exactly know if the same applies to a Promoted Trend. My guess is that it will have to follow the resonance metric since at the end of the day, the users and the tweets make Twitter what it is. If a user does not resonate with a trend, the whole point behind ‘Trending Topics’ is lost.

Twitter specifies that once conversations around the topic increases, it will slowly move up the ‘Trending Topic’ ladder. (Currently it is visible as the last topic on the sidebar).

Currently, in the testing phase this has been introduced globally. But, as time progresses, we believe that Twitter will make Promoted Trends geography specific. So, once it is made area specific, small businesses will get a lot of leverage and visibility by buying a trend.

Also a Promoted Trend is not remotely intrusive, so it should not really matter much to the users. But the yellow highlight is very attractive and the moment I saw it, I HAD to click on it!

This feature displays a lot of potential, since all tweets about your brand can not only be combined, but is available on a single click at the home page! It cannot get any better than this.

If Twitter manages to tweak the ‘Trending Topics’ sufficiently enough to avoid spam, Promoted Trends could go a long way in helping marketers and small businesses.

We are also reading

Facebook comments get a like button!

So, a large gathering met at IIIT-H, Gachibowli with speakers from iGenero and Ohana Media planned to talk on various aspects of Social Media. Karthik from 84ideas opened the session with a presentation on ‘Social media Management – Getting Started.’Social Media Marketing- Getting Started : Presented at Startup Saturday, Hyderabad

If you want to get your brand started on the Social Media front, shoot any questions in the comments box and we will be glad to help you.

Basically, a three-step process can be employed to deal with event marketing – Pre-event, During the Event and Post- Event.

Pre-event (Start the buzz and build your brand)

(i)     Establish credibility

It is very important to build a brand surrounding your event. It is important to address how this event is different from the others and why people should be attending it. The event should give its attendees a sense of exclusivity. It requires a trademark element which will cause excitement to its audience.

How to use the website/ blog

The most important step to establish credibility is to create a blog/ landing page for all information regarding the event. This will be the one stop place for all information and developments.

• Make sure that you web page carries a good design. Our suggestion is to use Wordpress and pick any one of the free wordpress themes which are specific to events
• Every little bit of new information regarding the event should find a mention on the blog. Everywhere else a link to this page needs to be shared.
• Invite a wide range of content creators to participate. Everyone your show involves has the potential to write new material. So involve employees, exhibitors, sponsors, attendees, customers, speakers, and the press.
• If event is regularly occurring, illustrate and showcase previous occasions’ success stories

Use Event Tools

• Event Tools like bookmyshow, ayojak and meraevents are convenient places to list your event
• The advantage of using these tools is that you don’t have to worry about keeping track of the booking and this also ensures free promotions

(ii)   Create Community

The online world is all about community creation. Do not forget that there are way too many platforms out there which can be used to massively collect people.

Use the Bloggers’ community

• For starters identify star bloggers related to your event and create an outreach program.
• Get in touch with them and ask them to be involved with the event.
• Distribute Event Badges and it can be displayed on the respective blogs
• Reach out to people that are genuinely interested in your event and feature their posts/ videos. For e.g., when TEDx Hitech City was happening, we asked fans to take part in our TEDx Hitech City Fan videos. This enables you to understand who are interested in the event and how to bring them together as a group.

How to use Facebook

• First of all, create a Facebook page. (Earlier it was called a Fan page!)
• Make sure at least people immediately involved with the event – participants, employees, sponsors, speakers are invited
• Speakers and participants can use this page to promote themselves
• Create a Facebook event and link it to this page
• Include the fan page link in your mailers and other communication
• Keep the ‘likers’ engaged. Provide content that will make them come back to the page. Ask them questions/ opinions/ ideas.

How to use Twitter

• Ensure there are individuals in your organizations who have signed on and who agree to provide regular content-based tweets
• Establish a hashtag for your event and use it
• Use Twitter Search for keywords of titles, content, etc. keyed to your event and see who is talking about them – and follow them.
• Include your Twitter identity in all communications – emails, the Web, collateral.
• Most of all – Tweet. Consistent, quality tweets will build up quality followers.
• As you build followers, include event-specific information – both content and promotional – in the flow of Tweets.
• Ask questions – and solicit responses – from followers as a way to engage
• Organize contests to encourage re-tweets and use of hashtags. For eg, we organised a Twitter contest for TEDxHitechCity. We encouraged people to come up with more and more interesting tweets using the hashtag #TEDxHitechCity, and distributed free passes to winners. This encourages more people to recognize the hashtag and use it more regularly, so that a community gets formed around it and all tweets can be tracked.

During event

• Live blogging and live tweeting by your own team is a must
• Use posts, tweets and facebook updates to keep attendees informed about keynotes, networking opportunities – basically, add value to the attendees
• Ask attendees, during the registration process, for their Twitter IDs and encourage them to follow yours for updates, information, etc.
• Encourage participants to share their experience real time – especially on Twitter. Ask them to use @ and the hashtag to keep track of the communication. Use it as a feedback mechanism
• Make sure your “Follow us on Twitter” message is well publicized: signage, collateral, screens, agendas, and session slides.

Post-Event – Keep the engagement going.

• After the event, keep the community active and still together by posting pictures, news and videos from the event. The event has provided sufficient material which can be packaged into video clips, presentations and white papers which can be used as content on the blog and other social networking platforms
• Use the time after the event to get feedback. That way you will have a better understanding of how successful the event was.

What exactly is it?
Earlier, Twitter used to categorize something as a trending topic when the term was consistently popular. But, Twitter has now changed and ‘Trending Topics’ reflects keywords and categories that are currently ‘trending’ and not necessarily popular in the past. So this gives rise to any breaking news automatically becoming trending.

What is ‘Trending Topics’?
A Trending Topic is any keyword or groups of keywords which are very popular in terms of the number of tweets or re-tweets. So generally, small businesses introduce a hashtag for their respective activity and make sure all tweets carry the hashtag. This enables tweets related to your business to be consolidated and one click would ensure all tweets being listed. So, the main aim behind introducing a hashtag is to make it trending. If your hashtag gets listed on the Trending Topic sidebar, you a lot of visibility!
For example, a group of Tweeple had trouble with Café Coffee Day and introduced the hashtag #CCDsucks. The number of tweets with this hashtag increased massively and it became a featured Trending Topic. The visibility was so high that CCD had to sit up and take notice and combat the negative publicity.

What we think
It is quite interesting to note that with this change many of us have a chance of making a topic trending. You are not competing with past data, but just with the current tweets and topics. So, if you have a certain piece of news that you think is of grave importance to your customers and if your customers feel so too, then you stand a very good chance to become popular. Basically you can break right into the clutter and make your topic trendy

But, on the flip side, marketers now really need to work hard on maintaining their place on Twitter. Establishing a topic is not sufficient, now you need to re-work on your Twitter strategy. Until now, marketers have aimed at establishing a hashtag and making it trending. But this hashtag might not last long, so the entire campaign might have to be re-looked at. Probably the entire campaign can be broken down into several different interesting topics, each of which has the capacity to become popular.

Further Thoughts
Twitter also says that, “it’s compelling to know what the “most popular” topics are, and we will look to capture this in some way in the future.” Well if this is implemented as well, it will be a very interesting improvement and scope for marketing better on Twitter. It will give a greater flexibility to launch campaigns specific to Twitter.

What is it actually?

Until now if you had to quote a particular tweet, you had to take a screen shot or go by the regular copy-paste routine. So, Twitter has launched something called the ‘embeddable tweets.’ So, according to this, you can embed tweets into your website or blog conveniently without going by the tedious screen shot routine.

So, basically twitter will give you an HTML code and you just have to use it on your webpage and viola, you will have something like this on your site!

What do we think?

For starters, I think everyone is bored of the CCP and the print screen bit; it is high time something like this came up!

Apart from ease of use, I think it can act as a very good way of presenting an article. So, instead of a paragraph full of random quotations, we can have a group of tweets which is visually more appealing and the chance of a misquote goes down drastically.

Apart from this very obvious observation and advantage, this is another step towards social networks-dominated web space. Further to our previous post, we are not just restricted to a particular social media tool, but moving towards more personalization. Considering Read Write Web’s post about HP’s acquisition of Palm, most news articles hereafter could carry comments and opinions readily available on Twitter (unlike earlier where one had to get appointments and spend a while collecting quotations).

So, imagine a Nestle-isque debacle where all hate-tweets about a particular brand get listed together on different articles! Quite a disaster that could be! Because now not only do tweeple get to know of the problems with the brand, but the rest of the world has readily available information, since tweets are not just going to be listed on Twitter.

Further Thoughts

I think it is time we all deal with the fact that social media and social networking is here to stay. It will not just stay, but it will permeate into regular internet. We are looking at an interactive and social internet and it has already come.

Yes, people.. Buck up! Listen to what your customers are saying because they are no longer going to shut up, they know that their voice can be heard!

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