Part 7 of The Business Value Behind Social Media focuses on future opportunities in social media marketing and public relations (e.g., what's the next big thing). Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) discuss future trends such as:
* Opporutunity #1: Responding to Customers and Influencing Business in Real-Time
* Opportunity #2: Giving and Gaining Our Permissions to Use Social Data
* Opportunity #3: Exploring Email Marketing and Online Communities
* Conclusion: The Implications of Gaining Permissions to Our Social Data is Why Google Fears Facebook
The panel's discussion takes place from 58:24 to 1:01:45 of the embedded video:
Opportunity #1: Responding to Customers and Influencing Business in Real-Time
The Real-Time Transformation of Traditional Marketing and PR (58:24 – 59:07). Real-time applications in marketing and PR fascinate David. He notes how social media is transforming the traditional, long-term planning / campaign process by contracting time. Long term campaigns are not going away. However, the future opportunity will be in engaging customers instantly.
Opportunity #2: Giving and Gaining Our Permissions to Use Social Data
Privacy Is Not the Main Issue Because Our Social Norms on Privacy Continue Changing (59:09 – 1:00:09). Our social media activities generate significant amounts of data. What advertisers and marketers can potentially do with this data is what fascinates Charlene. Gaining consumer permissions for what our data will be used for is the hidden opportunitity.
Charlene's Caller ID Analogy and Its Application to Our Social Data. When phone companies first introduced Caller ID, consumers complained the service invaded personal privacy. Now, consumers will only answer the phone if they know who's making the call. Charlene emphasizes our norms for what is private and how our data will be used changes daily. A prime example: Facebook frequently changing its privacy policies.
What Will Be The Accepted Norms for Granting Permissions. The opportunity is working out the accepted norms for granting permissions to our privacy data in social media (analogous to what credit card companies do with our purchasing data). If marketers and advertisers gain our permissions to use our social data, consumers will demand a transparent understanding of how this data will be used.
Opportunity #3: Exploring Email Marketing and Online Communities
Two Technologies Which Can Offer Much More (1:00:11 – 1:00:21). Chris is working on applications of email marketing with online communities. These are two, early 1990's online technologies that haven't gained a lot of traction. Therefore, he thinks these technologies have a significant upside.
Conclusion — Gaining Consumer Permissions to Social Data is Why Google Fears Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg's Power to Grant Advertisers The Permissions to Facebook's Social Data Scares Google. In my opinion, this is why advertisers are clamoring to gain permissions for Facebook's social data. I also contend this underlying phenomenon is what's driving Facebook's current $50+ billion valuation.
Why Advertisers Covet Facebook's Social Data. The data or "friend updates" we disclose in Facebook is information we opt-in to share with Select Consumers: Our Friends and Family. Our relationships and influence with these select consumers may be the more efficient and effective way for advertisers to influence consumer behaviors.
Therefore, Facebook's social data is extremely attractive to advertisers. And, this social data may be more valuable to advertisers than the search behavior data that's the foundation of the Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model.
Google AdWords drives roughly 90%+ of Google's revenues. As a result, Facebook legitimately threatens Google's core business.
Here are resources I've researched and studied to support and understand why Google fears Facebook:
* CNN Technology: How Facebook Eclipsed Google in 2010
* Google's Facebook-Killer Slowed by Political Infighting
* Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet — And Keep Google Out
* Singel-Minded: How Facebook Could Beat Google to Win The Net
* Ken Auletta's Googled Interview with Charlie Rose (links to Charlie Rose's Website)
* Fast Company Article: "Underdog Bing Talks Facebook Partnership, Google Rivalry
* My Blog Post Detailing the Ken Auletta-Charlie Rose Interview
Facebook is Gaining Traction as the Doorway to Consumer Intent (not a Google Search). Facebook Connect allows consumers to login to almost any social networking related application. For the past decade, a consumer's stated online intent almost exclusively began with a search engine (e.g., a Google Search).
Now, Facebook is gaining prominence as the preferred front door for stating consumer online intent (not Google). The fact that Facebook eclipsed Google for the first time as the most-visited U.S. website in 2010 is evidence of this trend.
In my opinion, Facebook's strategic approach is the same but noticeably different: "To organize our personal information and make it selectively accessible and useful." At least for now …
The past 48 hours describing the power shake-up at Google provides the read-between-the-lines-evidence why gaining consumer permissions to social data impacts Google:
* The New Yorker Article by Ken Auletta: Why is Eric Schmidt Stepping Down at Google?
* Wall Street Journal: Chief Seeks More Agile Google
* Wall Street Journal: Power Shifts Atop Google
* New York Times: Google Shake-Up is Effort to Revive Start-Up Spark
* Mashable Op-Ed: Why Google Needs Its Own Steve Jobs
The future of consumer permissions will be a driving force in online marketing's near and distant future. Larry Page's (Google's new CEO) ability to contend with this driving force and the accompanying Facebook competitive challenge is the type of adversity Ken Auletta said that Google's founders had yet to confront.
Stay tuned. Now, it's getting interesting.
Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist. He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.