Kaplan & Haenlein - Users of the world, unite - the challenges and opportunities of social media

Users of the world, unite! The challenges andopportunities of Social Media

Andreas M. Kaplan *, Michael Haenlein

ESCP Europe, 79 Avenue de la Republique, F-75011 Paris, France

Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59—68

www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor

KEYWORDSSocial Media;User GeneratedContent;Web 2.0;Social networking sites;Virtual worlds

Abstract The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many businessexecutives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways inwhich firms can make profitable use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube,Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be verylimited understanding of what the term ‘‘Social Media’’ exactly means; this articleintends to provide some clarification. We begin by describing the concept of SocialMedia, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2.0 and UserGenerated Content. Based on this definition, we then provide a classification of SocialMedia which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term intomore specific categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, contentcommunities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds.Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize SocialMedia.# 2009 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.

1. The specter of Social Media

As of January 2009, the online social networkingapplication Facebook registered more than 175million active users. To put that number in perspec-tive, this is only slightly less than the population ofBrazil (190 million) and over twice the population ofGermany (80 million)! At the same time, everyminute, 10 hours of content were uploaded to thevideo sharing platform YouTube. And, the imagehosting site Flickr provided access to over 3 billionphotographs, making the world-famous Louvre

* Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.M. Kaplan),

[email protected] (M. Haenlein).

0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2009 Kelley School of Business, Idoi:10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003

Museum’s collection of 300,000 objects seem tinyin comparison.

According to Forrester Research, 75% of Internetsurfers used ‘‘Social Media’’ in the second quarter of2008 by joining social networks, reading blogs, orcontributing reviews to shopping sites; this repre-sents a significant rise from 56% in 2007. The growthis not limited to teenagers, either; members ofGeneration X, now 35—44 years old, increasinglypopulate the ranks of joiners, spectators, and crit-ics. It is therefore reasonable to say that SocialMedia represent a revolutionary new trend thatshould be of interest to companies operating inonline space–—or any space, for that matter.

Yet, not overly many firms seem to act comfort-ably in a world where consumers can speak so freely

ndiana University. All rights reserved.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003

60 A.M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein

with each other and businesses have increasinglyless control over the information available aboutthem in cyberspace. Today, if an Internet user typesthe name of any leading brand into the Googlesearch, what comes up among the top five resultstypically includes not only the corporate webpage,but also the corresponding entry in the onlineencyclopedia Wikipedia. Here, for example, cus-tomers can read that the 2007 model of Hasbro’sEasy-Bake Oven may lead to serious burns on chil-dren’s hands and fingers due to a poorly-designedoven door, and that the Firestone Tire and RubberCompany has been accused of using child labor in itsLiberian rubber factory. Historically, companieswere able to control the information available aboutthem through strategically placed press announce-ments and good public relations managers. Today,however, firms have been increasingly relegated tothe sidelines as mere observers, having neither theknowledge nor the chance–—or, sometimes, even theright–—to alter publicly posted comments providedby their customers. Wikipedia, for example, ex-pressly forbids the participation of firms in its onlinecommunity.

Such an evolution may not be surprising. After all,the Internet started out as nothing more than a giantBulletin Board System (BBS) that allowed users toexchange software, data, messages, and news witheach other. The late 1990s saw a popularity surge inhomepages, whereby the Average Joe could shareinformation about his private life; today’s equivalentwould be the weblog, or blog. The era of corporateweb pages and e-commerce started relatively re-cently with the launch of Amazon and eBay in1995, and got a right ticking-off only 6 years laterwhen the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. The currenttrend toward SocialMedia can thereforebe seenas anevolution back to the Internet’s roots, since it re-transforms the World Wide Web to what it wasinitially created for: a platform to facilitate informa-tion exchange between users. But does that meanthat Social Media is just old wine in new bottles?Probably not! As we will delve into further, thetechnical advances that have been made over thepast 20 years now enable a form of virtual contentsharing that is fundamentally different from, andmore powerful than, the BBS of the late 1970s.

This article discusses the challenges and opportu-nities that emerge from this evolution for firms, andprovides structure to better understand the rapidlyevolvingfield of SocialMedia.Webegin by providing adefinition andclassification of SocialMedia by lookingat their historical roots, technical specificities, anddifferences from other entities such as Web 2.0 andUser Generated Content. We then focus on sixtypes of Social Media–—collaborative projects, blogs,

content communities, social networking sites, virtualgame worlds, and virtual social worlds–—and presentways in which companies can efficiently make use ofthese applications. Based on this analysis, we thenderive a set of 10 recommendations companiesshould follow when thinking about developing theirown Social Media strategy, be it with respect to theseaforementioned types or other applications whichmight emerge in the future.

2. What is Social Media–—And what is itnot?

As highlighted, the idea behind Social Media is farfrom groundbreaking. Nevertheless, there seems tobe confusion among managers and academic re-searchers alike as to what exactly should be includ-ed under this term, and how Social Media differ fromthe seemingly-interchangeable related concepts ofWeb 2.0 and User Generated Content. It thereforemakes sense to take a step back and provide insightregarding where Social Media come from and whatthey include.

By 1979, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis from DukeUniversity had created the Usenet, a worldwidediscussion system that allowed Internet users topost public messages. Yet, the era of Social Mediaas we understand it today probably started about 20years earlier, when Bruce and Susan Abelsonfounded ‘‘Open Diary,’’ an early social networkingsite that brought together online diary writers intoone community. The term ‘‘weblog’’ was first usedat the same time, and truncated as ‘‘blog’’ a yearlater when one blogger jokingly transformed thenoun ‘‘weblog’’ into the sentence ‘‘we blog.’’ Thegrowing availability of high-speed Internet accessfurther added to the popularity of the concept,leading to the creation of social networking sitessuch as MySpace (in 2003) and Facebook (in 2004).This, in turn, coined the term ‘‘Social Media,’’ andcontributed to the prominence it has today. Themost recent addition to this glamorous groupinghas been so-called ‘‘virtual worlds’’: computer-based simulated environments inhabited by three-dimensional avatars. Perhaps the best known virtualworld is that of Linden Lab’s Second Life (Kaplan &Haenlein, 2009c).

Although the list of the aforementioned applica-tions may give some idea about what is meant bySocial Media, a formal definition of the term firstrequires drawing a line to two related concepts thatare frequently named in conjunction with it: Web2.0 and User Generated Content. Web 2.0 is a termthat was first used in 2004 to describe a new way inwhich software developers and end-users started to

Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media 61

utilize the World Wide Web; that is, as a platformwhereby content and applications are no longercreated and published by individuals, but insteadare continuously modified by all users in a partici-patory and collaborative fashion. While applicationssuch as personal web pages, Encyclopedia BritannicaOnline, and the idea of content publishing belong tothe era ofWeb 1.0, they are replaced by blogs, wikis,and collaborative projects in Web 2.0. Although Web2.0 does not refer to any specific technical update ofthe World Wide Web, there is a set of basic function-alities that are necessary for its functioning. Amongthem are Adobe Flash (a popular method for addinganimation, interactivity, and audio/video streams toweb pages), RSS (Really Simple Syndication, a familyof web feed formats used to publish frequentlyupdated content, such as blog entries or news head-lines, in a standardized format), and AJAX (Asynchro-nous Java Script, a technique to retrieve data fromweb servers asynchronously, allowing the update ofweb content without interfering with the display andbehavior of the whole page). For the purpose of ourarticle, we consider Web 2.0 as the platform for theevolution of Social Media.

When Web 2.0 represents the ideological andtechnological foundation, User Generated Content(UGC) can be seen as the sum of all ways in whichpeople make use of Social Media. The term, whichachieved broad popularity in 2005, is usually appliedto describe the various forms of media content thatare publicly available and created by end-users.According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2007), UGCneeds to fulfill three basic requirements in orderto be considered as such: first, it needs to bepublished either on a publicly accessible websiteor on a social networking site accessible to a select-ed group of people; second, it needs to show acertain amount of creative effort; and finally, itneeds to have been created outside of professionalroutines and practices. The first condition excludescontent exchanged in e-mails or instant messages;the second, mere replications of already existingcontent (e.g., posting a copy of an existing newspa-per article on a personal blog without any modifi-cations or commenting); and the third, all contentthat has been created with a commercial marketcontext in mind. While UGC has already beenavailable prior to Web 2.0, as discussed above,the combination of technological drivers (e.g.,increased broadband availability and hardwarecapacity), economic drivers (e.g., increased avail-ability of tools for the creation of UGC), andsocial drivers (e.g., rise of a generation of‘‘digital natives’’ and ‘‘screenagers’’: younger agegroups with substantial technical knowledge and

willingness to engage online) make UGC nowadaysfundamentally different from what was observed inthe early 1980s. Based on these clarifications of Web2.0 and UGC, it is now straightforward to give amoredetailed definition of what we mean by Social Me-dia. In our view–—and as used herein–—Social Media isa group of Internet-based applications that build onthe ideological and technological foundations ofWeb 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchangeof User Generated Content.

Within this general definition, there are varioustypes of Social Media that need to be distinguishedfurther. However, although most people would prob-ably agree that Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, andSecond Life are all part of this large group, there is nosystematic way in which different Social Media ap-plications can be categorized. Also, new sites appearin cyberspace every day, so it is important that anyclassification scheme takes into account applicationswhich may be forthcoming. To create such a classifi-cation scheme, and to do so in a systematic manner,we rely on a set of theories in the field of mediaresearch (social presence, media richness) and socialprocesses (self-presentation, self-disclosure), thetwo key elements of Social Media. Regarding themedia-related component of Social Media, socialpresence theory (Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976)states that media differ in the degree of ‘‘socialpresence’’–—definedas theacoustic, visual, andphys-ical contact that can be achieved–—they allow toemerge between two communication partners.Social presence is influenced by the intimacy (inter-personal vs.mediated)and immediacy (asynchronousvs. synchronous) of themedium, andcanbeexpectedto be lower for mediated (e.g., telephone conversa-tion) than interpersonal (e.g., face-to-face discus-sion) and for asynchronous (e.g., e-mail) thansynchronous (e.g., live chat) communications. Thehigher the social presence, the larger the socialinfluence that the communication partners have oneach other’s behavior. Closely related to the idea ofsocial presence is the concept of media richness.Media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986) is basedon the assumption that the goal of any communica-tion is the resolution of ambiguity and the reductionof uncertainty. It states that media differ in thedegree of richness they possess–—that is, the amountof information they allow to be transmitted in a giventime interval–—and that therefore some media aremore effective than others in resolving ambiguity anduncertainty. Applied to the context of Social Media,we assume that a first classification can be madebased on the richness of the medium and the degreeof social presence it allows.

With respect to the social dimension of SocialMedia, the concept of self-presentation states that


in any type of social interaction people have thedesire to control the impressions other people formof them (Goffman, 1959). On the one hand, this isdone with the objective of influencing others to gainrewards (e.g., make a positive impression on yourfuture in-laws); on the other hand, it is driven by awish to create an image that is consistent with one’spersonal identity (e.g., wearing a fashionable outfitin order to be perceived as young and trendy). Thekey reason why people decide to create a personalwebpage is, for example, the wish to present them-selves in cyberspace (Schau & Gilly, 2003). Usually,such a presentation is done through self-disclosure;that is, the conscious or unconscious revelation ofpersonal information (e.g., thoughts, feelings,likes, dislikes) that is consistent with the imageone would like to give. Self-disclosure is a criticalstep in the development of close relationships (e.g.,during dating) but can also occur between completestrangers; for example, when speaking about per-sonal problems with the person seated next to youon an airplane. Applied to the context of SocialMedia, we assume that a second classification canbe made based on the degree of self-disclosure itrequires and the type of self-presentation it allows.

Combining both dimensions leads to a classifica-tion of Social Media which we have visualized inTable 1. With respect to social presence and mediarichness, applications such as collaborative projects(e.g., Wikipedia) and blogs score lowest, as they areoften text-based and hence only allow for a rela-tively simple exchange. On the next level are con-tent communities (e.g., YouTube) and socialnetworking sites (e.g., Facebook) which, in additionto text-based communication, enable the sharing ofpictures, videos, and other forms of media. On thehighest level are virtual game and social worlds(e.g., World of Warcraft, Second Life), which tryto replicate all dimensions of face-to-face interac-tions in a virtual environment. Regarding self-pre-sentation and self-disclosure, blogs usually scorehigher than collaborative projects, as the lattertend to be focused on specific content domains.

Table 1. Classification of Social Media by social presence

In a similar spirit, social networking sites allowfor more self-disclosure than content communities.Finally, virtual social worlds require a higher level ofself-disclosure than virtual game worlds, as thelatter are ruled by strict guidelines that force usersto behave in a certain way (e.g., as warriors in animaginary fantasy land). We will now provide moredetail on each of these six different types of SocialMedia, and discuss the challenges and opportunitiesthey offer companies.

3. The challenges and opportunities ofSocial Media

3.1. Collaborative projects

Collaborative projects enable the joint and simul-taneous creation of content by many end-users andare, in this sense, probably the most democraticmanifestation of UGC. Within collaborative proj-ects, one differentiates between wikis–—that is,websites which allow users to add, remove, andchange text-based content–—and social bookmark-ing applications–—which enable the group-based col-lection and rating of Internet links ormedia content.Exemplary applications within this category includethe online encyclopedia Wikipedia, a wiki currentlyavailable in more than 230 different languages, andthe social bookmarking web service Delicious, whichallows the storage and sharing of web bookmarks.The main idea underlying collaborative projects isthat the joint effort of many actors leads to a betteroutcome than any actor could achieve individually;this is similar to the efficient-market hypothesis inbehavioral finance (Fama, 1970). From a corporateperspective, firms must be aware that collaborativeprojects are trending toward becoming the mainsource of information for many consumers. As such,although not everything written on Wikipedia mayactually be true, it is believed to be true by moreand more Internet users. This may be particularlycrucial as regards corporate crises. For example,

/media richness and self-presentation/self-disclosure


when online book retailer Amazon started to testthe idea of dynamic pricing, comments declaringsuch a practice as unfair showed up instantaneouslyunder the Wikipedia entry on ‘‘time-based pricing.’’Yet, collaborative projects also provide some uniqueopportunities for firms. Finnish handset manufac-turer Nokia, for instance, uses internal wikis toupdate employees on project status and to tradeideas, which are used by about 20% of its 68,000staff members. Likewise, American computer soft-ware company Adobe Systems maintains a list ofbookmarks to company-related websites and con-versations on Delicious.

3.2. Blogs

Blogs, which represent the earliest form of SocialMedia, are special types of websites that usuallydisplay date-stamped entries in reverse chronologi-cal order (OECD, 2007). They are the Social Mediaequivalent of personal web pages and can come in amultitude of different variations, from personaldiaries describing the author’s life to summariesof all relevant information in one specific contentarea. Blogs are usually managed by one person only,but provide the possibility of interaction with othersthrough the addition of comments. Due to theirhistorical roots, text-based blogs are still by farthe most common. Nevertheless, blogs have alsobegun to take different media formats. For exam-ple, San Francisco-based Justin.tv allows users tocreate personalized television channels via whichthey can broadcast images from their webcam inreal time to other users. Many companies are al-ready using blogs to update employees, customers,and shareholders on developments they consider tobe important. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Micro-systems, maintains a personal blog to improve thetransparency of his company; so does automotivegiant General Motors. Yet, as is the case with col-laborative projects, blogs do not come withoutrisks. These generally present in two fashions. First,customers who–—for one reason or another–—turnout to be dissatisfied with or disappointed by thecompany’s offerings may decide to engage in virtualcomplaints in the form of protest websites or blogs(Ward & Ostrom, 2006), which results in the avail-ability of potentially damaging information in onlinespace. Second, once firms encourage employees tobe active on blogs, they may need to live with theconsequences of staff members writing negativelyabout the firm. Microsoft’s former ‘‘technical evan-gelist’’ Robert Scoble, for example, had a tendencyto fiercely criticize the products of his employer–—before he decided to leave the Redmond-basedsoftware company in 2006.

3.3. Content communities

The main objective of content communities is thesharing of media content between users. Contentcommunities exist for a wide range of differentmedia types, including text (e.g., BookCrossing,via which 750,000+ people from over 130countries share books), photos (e.g., Flickr), videos(e.g., YouTube), and PowerPoint presentations(e.g., Slideshare). Users on content communitiesare not required to create a personal profile page;if they do, these pages usually only contain basicinformation, such as the date they joined the com-munity and the number of videos shared. From acorporate viewpoint, content communities carrythe risk of being used as platforms for the sharingof copyright-protected materials. While major con-tent communities have rules in place to ban andremove such illegal content, it is difficult to avoidpopular videos–—such as recent episodes of comedydramas–—being uploaded to YouTube only hours afterthey have been aired on television. On the positiveside, the high popularity of content communitiesmakes them a very attractive contact channel formany firms; this is easy to believe when one con-siders that YouTube serves over 100 million videosper day. In 2007, Procter & Gamble organized acontest for its over-the-counter drug Pepto-Bismol,whereby users were encouraged to upload to You-Tube 1-minute videos of themselves singing aboutthe ailments Pepto-Bismol counteracts, includingheartburn and nausea. In a similar spirit, kitchenappliances manufacturer Blendtec became popularfor its bevy of inexpensive ‘‘Will it blend?’’ videos,which have been watched by millions of people.Other firms, such as Cisco and Google, rely oncontent communities to share recruiting videos,as well as keynote speeches and press announce-ments, with their employees and investors.

3.4. Social networking sites

Social networking sites are applications that enableusers to connect by creating personal informationprofiles, inviting friends and colleagues to haveaccess to those profiles, and sending e-mails andinstant messages between each other. These per-sonal profiles can include any type of information,including photos, video, audio files, and blogs. Ac-cording to Wikipedia, the largest social networkingsites are U.S.-based Facebook (initially founded byMark Zuckerberg to stay in touch with his fellowstudents from Harvard University) and MySpace(with 1,500 employees and more than 250 millionregistered users). Social networking sites are of suchhigh popularity, specifically among younger Internet


users, that the term ‘‘Facebook addict’’ has beenincluded in the Urban Dictionary, a collaborativeproject focused on developing a slang dictionaryfor the English language. Several companies arealready using social networking sites to supportthe creation of brand communities (Muniz &O’Guinn, 2001) or for marketing research in thecontext of netnography (Kozinets, 2002). To pro-mote the movie ‘‘Fred Claus,’’ a 2007 Christmascomedy film, Warner Brothers created a Facebookprofile via which visitors could watch trailers, down-load graphics, and play games. Likewise, the Adidascustom soccer community on MySpace allows visi-tors to associate themselves with one of two brandsof elite soccer cleats produced by the German sportsapparel manufacturer, and to access product re-views and information on professional soccer play-ers who play using ‘‘their’’ shoes. Some firms even goone step further and use Facebook as a distributionchannel. Consider U.S.-based florist 1-800-Flower-s.com, which offers a widget on Facebook called‘‘Gimme Love’’ whereby users can send ‘‘virtualbouquets’’ to friends or, with a click of the mouse,be directly transferred to the company’s website tosend real flowers.

3.5. Virtual game worlds

Virtual worlds are platforms that replicate a three-dimensional environment in which users can appearin the form of personalized avatars and interact witheach other as they would in real life. In this sense,virtual worlds are probably the ultimate manifesta-tion of Social Media, as they provide the highestlevel of social presence and media richness of allapplications discussed thus far. Virtual worlds comein two forms. The first, virtual game worlds, requiretheir users to behave according to strict rules in thecontext of a massively multiplayer online role-play-ing game (MMORPG). These applications have gainedpopularity in recent years, as standard game con-soles–—such as Microsoft’s X-Box and Sony’s Play-Station–—now allow simultaneous play among amultitude of users around the globe. Examples ofvirtual game worlds include the cod-medieval‘‘World of Warcraft,’’ which counts around 8.5 mil-lion subscribers who explore the virtual planet ofAzeroth in the form of humans, dwarves, orcs, ornight elves, to fight monsters or to search for trea-sure; and Sony’s EverQuest, in which 16 differentraces of players (e.g., wizards, clerics) travel thefantasy world of Norrath. The rules of such gamesusually limit the degree of self-presentation andself-disclosure possible, although some users spendso much time with these applications that theircharacter–—be it a warrior, a wizard, or a dragon

hunter–—starts to more and more closely resembletheir real life personality. Besides their use for in-game advertising (similar in idea to productplacement in blockbuster movies), the high popu-larity of virtual game worlds can also be leveragedin more traditional communication campaigns.Japanese automotive giant Toyota, for example,used pictures and mechanics from the World ofWarcraft application in its latest Tundra commercialto reach the 2.5 million players in the U.S. alone.

3.6. Virtual social worlds

The second group of virtual worlds, often referred toas virtual social worlds, allows inhabitants to choosetheir behavior more freely and essentially live avirtual life similar to their real life. As in virtual gameworlds, virtual social world users appear in the formof avatars and interact in a three-dimensional virtualenvironment; however, in this realm, there are norules restricting the range of possible interactions,except for basic physical laws such as gravity. Thisallows for an unlimited range of self presentationstrategies, and it has been shown thatwith increasingusage intensity andconsumptionexperience, users ofvirtual social worlds–—or ‘‘residents,’’ as they preferto be called–—show behavior that more and moreclosely mirrors the one observed in real life settings(Haenlein& Kaplan, 2009; Kaplan&Haenlein, 2009a,2009b). Arguably, the most prominent example ofvirtual social worlds is the Second Life application,founded and managed by the San Francisco-basedcompany Linden Research Inc. Besides doing every-thing that is possible in real life (e.g., speaking toother avatars, taking a walk, enjoying the virtualsunshine), Second Life also allows users to createcontent (e.g., to design virtual clothing or furnitureitems) and to sell this content to others in exchangefor Linden Dollars, a virtual currency traded againstthe U.S. Dollar on the Second Life Exchange.Some residents are so successful in this task thatthe virtual money earned that way complementstheir real life income. Virtual social worlds offer amultitude of opportunities for companies in market-ing (advertising/communication, virtual productsales/v-Commerce,marketing research), and humanresource and internal process management; for amore detailed discussion, see Kaplan and Haenlein(2009c).

4. Ten pieces of advice for companiesdeciding to use Social Media

Social Media is a very active and fast-moving do-main. What may be up-to-date today could have


disappeared from the virtual landscape tomorrow.It is therefore crucial for firms to have a set ofguidelines that can be applied to any form of SocialMedia, whether they are part of the aforementionedlist or not. Next, we provide such a set of recom-mendations. Given that Social Media have both asocial- and a media-component, we split our adviceinto two sections: five points about using media andfive points about being social.

4.1. Five points about using media

4.1.1. Choose carefullyThere are dozens–—if not hundreds–—of Social Mediaapplications, and new ones are appearing on thehorizon every day. If you still need time to run yourcore business, you simply cannot participate in themall, especially since ‘‘being active’’ is one key re-quirement of success (see below). Choosing theright medium for any given purpose depends onthe target group to be reached and the messageto be communicated. On the one hand, each SocialMedia application usually attracts a certain group ofpeople and firms should be active wherever theircustomers are present. For example, if your maintarget audience is book lovers, a content communityvia which users share self-written novels or poems islikely better suited to your purpose than a virtualworld which centers on fighting dragons and findingtreasures. On the other hand, there may be situa-tions whereby certain features are necessary toensure effective communication, and these featuresare only offered by one specific application. Forexample, when the U.S. Army undertook an initia-tive in 2007 to reach the Hispanic community,it decided to utilize the social networking siteUnivision rather than the more popular Facebook.This choice was driven in part by the fact thatUnivision–—a Spanish-language television networkin the U.S. and Puerto Rico–—is the social networkingapplication with the largest Latin American audi-ence, due to an extensive range of telenovelas andMexican programs produced by Grupo Televisa.However, another reason Univision was chosen isbecause it offers a moderating service which checkscomments from users for appropriateness beforeposting them on the site. In contrast, other appli-cations, including Facebook, allow users to postmessages without supervision.

4.1.2. Pick the application, or make your ownOnce you know which game you’re playing, the nextdecision involves whether to make or buy. In somecases, it might just be best to join an existing SocialMedia application and benefit from its popularityand user base. After all, there is no need to reinvent

the wheel if somebody has already done it, espe-cially given that Social Media show positive networkexternalities in the sense that they get more attrac-tive to join the more participants they already have.But in some cases, the right application might justnot be available yet. Japan’s Fujifilm, for example,recently launched its own social network to build acommunity of photo enthusiasts. In a similar spirit,U.S.-based department store firm Sears collaborat-ed with MTV music television to create a socialnetwork around back-to-school shopping. Yet, what-ever the ultimate decision–—to buy, make, or both–—it is vital that there is an understanding of the basicidea behind Social Media. It’s all about participa-tion, sharing, and collaboration, rather thanstraightforward advertising and selling.

4.1.3. Ensure activity alignmentSometimes you may decide to rely on various SocialMedia, or a set of different applications within thesame group, in order to have the largest possiblereach. In this case, it is crucial to ensure that yourSocial Media activities are all aligned with eachother. A prime example in this context is computermanufacturer Dell and its ‘‘Digital Nomads’’ cam-paign. Dell uses a combination of social networkingsites (Facebook, LinkedIn), blogs, and content com-munities (YouTube videos) to show how its range oflaptop computers enable individuals to become anomadic mobile workforce. In a similar spirit, Chrys-ler’s Jeep brand connects with its customers bycombining photos shared on the content communityFlickr, with groups on social networking sites such asMySpace and Facebook. Using different contactchannels can be a worthwhile and profitable strate-gy. But remember: one goal of communication is theresolution of ambiguity and reduction of uncertain-ty, and nothing is more confusing than contradictingmessages across different channels.

4.1.4. Media plan integrationWhat is true for different types of Social Media alsoholds for the relationship between Social Media andtraditional media: Integration is key! While you mayconsider these two arenas to be completely differ-ent, in customers’ eyes they are both part of thesame: your corporate image. Consider the actions ofsoft drink giant Coca-Cola. In June 2006, a pair ofperformance artists shot a video featuring a series ofgeysers they created by dropping Mentos brandmints into 2-liter bottles of Coke; the clip becamea major hit on YouTube. Realizing customers’ enthu-siasm for this performance, Coca-Cola fostered thesensation by airing the video on late-night televisionand ensuring broad digital distribution across differ-ent content communities. Besides the advantage of


high impact/low cost media coverage, the campaignalso resulted in a measurable sales uplift.

4.1.5. Access for allAlthough this might sound elementary, once the firmhas decided to utilize Social Media applications, it isworth checking that all employees may actuallyaccess them. Commonly, firms block Facebook,YouTube, and Second Life on corporate PCs for fearthat staff might spend too much time networkinginstead of working. While this is certainly a consid-eration, it cannot imply that employees must havespecial permission to be able to access the companyblog. At the same time, there is a need to curtail thepossibility of the entire organization spending all itstime producing funny videos and uploading them toYouTube. One possible approach involves defininggroups of employees whose primary objective is themanagement of corporate Social Media; all otherstaff members are treated as occasional partici-pants. Under this scenario, the first group is givenadministrator rights–—which allows the opening ofnew discussion threads and deletion of inappropri-ate posts–—while the second group is not. Also, atsome point, it will be necessary to develop certainguidelines for Social Media usage; as done, forinstance, by ‘‘Big Blue’’ IBM, which has a corporatecharta for appropriate behavior within Second Life.For example, it is important to highlight that everyemployee needs to identify himself or herself assuch when posting a comment on the corporateblog. Otherwise, end-consumers could get theimpression that anonymous accounts are used toenable employees to post fake messages and over-ly-positive feedback, which could severely damagethe credibility of your whole Social Media campaign.

4.2. Five points about being social

4.2.1. Be activeIf you want to develop a relationship with someone,it is always advisable to take the lead and to beactive. Social Media are all about sharing and inter-action, so ensure that your content is always freshand that you engage in discussions with your cus-tomers. Consider the aforementioned blog kept bySun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Via thisoutlet, the figurehead discusses–—on an ongoingbasis–—his corporate strategy, new product develop-ment projects, and company values, and repliesdirectly to correspondence received. In consideringyour Social Media efforts, be aware that firm in-volvement must extend beyond responding to neg-ative comments and defending product offerings.Social Media is less about explaining why your bakingmix, detergent, or shampoo is better than anyone

else’s than it is about engaging others in open andactive conversation. Participants on Social Mediaapplications have the desire to actively engageand to become both producers and consumers ofinformation, so-called ‘‘prosumers’’ (Toffler, 1980).Be considerate of this need and act accordingly.

4.2.2. Be interestingLet’s face it: nobody is interested in speaking to aboring person. As such, if you would like your cus-tomers to engage with you, you need to give them areason for doing so–—one which extends beyondsaying you are the best airline in town, or manufac-ture the most robust kitchen blender. The first stepis to listen to your customers. Find out what theywould like to hear; what they would like to talkabout; what they might find interesting, enjoyable,and valuable. Then, develop and post content thatfits those expectations. Coffee powerhouse Star-bucks, for example, created the ‘‘My StarbucksIdea’’ platform, via which customers can submitnew ideas for the company. These ideas are subse-quently voted on by other users, with the winnersbeing considered for implementation by Starbuckstop management. As stated by Oscar Wilde in hisnovel, The Picture of Dorian Grey: The one sin forwhich there is no forgiveness is ennui.

4.2.3. Be humbleNever forget that Social Media existed before youdecided to engage in them; indeed, in many cases,even before you knew about their existence. In thislight, do not expect that you know better how to usethem than others who have spent countless hours onFacebook or Second Life, for example. Before youenter any application, first take some time to dis-cover it and to learn about its history and basicrules. Only once you have gained the necessaryunderstanding, start to participate. When aero-space and defense firm Boeing decided to launchits first corporate blog, the site was designed suchthat users were not allowed to comment on whatthey saw. Yet, interaction and feedback are criticalelements of all Social Media, blogs included. Hence,many readers perceived the Boeing blog as a fake,and simply corporate advertising in disguise. If thereis one certain path to failure, it involves thinkingthat Social Media is just about posting existing TVspots on YouTube or putting prefabricated pressannouncements on corporate blogs.

4.2.4. Be unprofessionalHave you ever noticed that in Hollywood blockbust-er films, it’s not usually the handsome guy who endsup with the girl, but rather the clumsy, charmingone? The same goes for Social Media, and firms


would be wise to avoid overly-professional contentofferings. There’s no need to spend $100,000 todesign the perfect MySpace presence, or hire aprofessional writer to manage your corporate blog.Instead, try to blend in with other users and don’t beafraid to make mistakes! Bill Marriott, Chairman andCEO of the Marriott International Hotel chain, useshis blog, for example, to post regular updates andstories from his travels to Marriott properties aroundthe world–—very much in the same way as would awork colleague when describing her last vacation.Social Media users are people like you, who under-stand that things do not always go smoothly. And, ifyou’re nice to them, they may even give you freeadvice on how to do it better the next time.

4.2.5. Be honestLast but not least, be honest and respect the rules ofthe game. Some Social Media–—such as Wikipedia–—may not allow companies to be involved, so do nottry to force your way in. Consider Anheuser-Busch,owner of SeaWorld marine mammal parks. Anheus-er-Busch tried to ‘‘rectify’’ misleading informationon Wikipedia through the use of PR firms, and failedmiserably at it. Never expect that other participantsmay not find out who stands behind some anonymoususer account; after all, you’re dealing with some ofthe most technologically sophisticated people onthe planet.

5. Nothing to lose but their chains

Today, everything is about Social Media. Some in-dustry gurus claim that if you do not participate inFacebook, YouTube, and Second Life, you are notpart of cyberspace anymore. Social Media allowfirms to engage in timely and direct end-consumercontact at relatively low cost and higher levels ofefficiency than can be achieved with more tradi-tional communication tools. This makes Social Medianot only relevant for large multinational firms, butalso for small and medium sized companies, andeven nonprofit and governmental agencies. UsingSocial Media is not an easy task and may require newways of thinking, but the potential gains are far frombeing negligible. Dell, for example, states that itsuse of Twitter–—a micro blogging application thatallows sending out short, text-based posts of 140characters or less–—has generated $1 million in in-cremental revenue due to sales alerts. Some firmsmay even be too successful for their own good, asillustrated by Burger King’s ‘‘Whopper Sacrifice’’campaign: In December 2008, the fast food giantdeveloped a Facebook application which gave usersa free Whopper sandwich for every 10 friends they

deleted from their Facebook network. The cam-paign was adopted by over 20,000 users, resultingin the sacrificing of 233,906 friends in exchange forfree burgers. Only one month later, in January 2009,Facebook shut down Whopper Sacrifice, citing pri-vacy concerns. Who would have thought that theprice of a friendship is less than $2 a dozen?

A new trend is on the horizon, though; Watch outforMobile SocialMedia!MobileWeb2.0 is very similarto Web 2.0, as discussed earlier. In contrast to itspredecessor Mobile Web 1.0, which relied on propri-etary protocols (e.g., WAP) and use-based pricing,Mobile Web 2.0 is characterized by open standards(e.g., a transition to the TCP/IP protocol, the tech-nical foundation of theWorldWideWeb) andflat-ratesystems. Even the manual entry of web addressesusing small and difficult-to-handle keyboards isbecoming history. Soon, all items around you willbe equipped with Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) tags that will be able to automatically connectto your mobile phone and send URLs to them, similarto today’s text messages. This technical evolution islaying the groundwork for moving Social Media ap-plications away from desktop PCs and laptops, to-ward mobile devices. Why log into Facebook if youcan easily update all your friends using Twitter? Whywait until you return home towatch the newYouTubevideo if you can do so conveniently on your iPhone?

According to Jupiter Research, the market forMobile Web 2.0 evolutions will grow from a mere$5.5 billion today to an impressive $22.4 billion by2013. Mobile Social Media applications are expectedto be the main driver of this evolution, soon ac-counting for over 50% of the market. In one way, thissurge toward Mobile Social Media can even be seenas another step toward Internet democratizationand closing the digital divide between developedand emerging countries. In India, for example, mo-bile phones outnumber PCs by 10 to 1. In Thailand,only 13% of the population owns a computer, versus82% who have access to a mobile phone. It is there-fore not surprising that the Pew Research Center–—aWashington-based think tank–—estimates that by2020, a mobile device will be the primary Internetconnection tool for most people in the world. MakingSocial Media applications mobile is likely to tap acurrently unexploited base of new users. Even if per-capita spending in these countries may still be low,vast population numbers make them relevant forvirtually any firm.

Obviously, Mobile Social Media does not comewithout a price. Some would argue that while itenables the detailed following of friends half-wayacross the world, it can foster a society wherewe don’t know the names of our own next-doorneighbors. Be that as it may, and independent of


whether or not one approves of such an evolution, itseems undisputable that (Mobile) Social Media willbe the locomotive via which the World Wide Webevolves. Businesses, take note–—and don’t miss thistrain!

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