Above Photo (Click to view notes): The combined Forrester and Jupiter Social Marketing and Social Computing Research teams (missing: Christine Overby, Nate Elliott, Tom Grant, Laura Ramos, Peter Burris, Steven Noble, Rebecca Jennings, Lisa Bradner, and Tom Cummings.

The last time I participated in an acquisition I was part of the company that was getting bought, it was exciting –yet very scary.

The last two days, I’ve been relatively quiet online (despite my trying to start some rumors on twitter) as Jupiter and Forrester research teams met for the first time at Cambridge HQ. We had folks travel from Amsterdam, Paris, NY, Silicon Valley, as well as teleconferenced in from London and dial in from Silicon Valley.

Although this is just the start of a long road, this is significant in a few ways: 1) This is perhaps one of the largest research teams assembled at an analyst firm that’s primarily focused on the impacts of social computing to marketers. Although there are 16 analyst that we’ve identified as covering some aspect of the social space, not all focus on it full time as I do. 2) This was the first group of many within Forrester to integrate and ‘mashup’. It only seems fitting that a group focuses on ’social’ would be the first to try. 3) The combined brain power yielded some interesting insights to where this market is currently and where it’s headed, while size doesn’t always indicate quality, with this larger team we can dig deeper into very specific areas of social media.

Many of us are going to blog our perspectives (I’ll link to them below) from both Forrester and Jupiter sides, so I’m just going to speak for myself. The key takeaway for is that we’re more alike than apart. While the Jupiter analysts would often approach the problem at a different angle than we were used to thinking about, almost always we would end in ‘head noding’ when it came to insights, findings, and recommendations. It was good to get to know Emily Riley, Michael Greene, David Card, Barry Parr, (Nate Elliott wasn’t able to join us) as well as some fellow Forrester colleagues I don’t get to see that often. I was particularly glad to meet Emily Riley, who’s research on communities, influence, and marketing were both impressive –yet strangely familiar in insights (and confirmation) as our own findings.

Aside from the fact that we got to know each other and were able to share a common bond for analyzing the same area, we were able to focus in on future research topics, take inventory of our areas of coverage, and socialize the POST process, Technographics, and learn about each research culture.

Now back to my story about getting acquired, it was at the tail of the dot bomb in Santa Clara, right in the heart of Silicon Valley, I was a junior web professional, working on the UI for the enterprise intranet at Exodus Communications, the company was falling at a rapid pace after a meteoric climb. We were snatched up by British Cable and Wireless, and spent the next few months integrating and filtering people, tying together systems, and eventually becoming one entity that is now still in existence. I remember so many questions being unanswered, uncertainty and my boss John Perera constantly telling me to ‘embrace change, embrace change’.

Recently, I’ve spoken with a few clients who’d expressed concern about a few of our very smart analysts moving on, and I asked them what could I do to reassure them that we’re still heavily focused on giving them the same insights as before, and we agreed that we should transparently blog about the two new teams coming together, so I’m making it a point to do just that.

To be clear, this is just the start, and we’re all going to ‘embrace change’, as we’ve identified many areas that we’ll have to work on as a team, there is some overlap of coverage, we all have individual approaches to the same problems, and the mixing of any two cultures will take time to settle. The key that we were able to come together, stand on common ground, and agree to move forward to deliver quality research that will help our clients make the right decisions. Personally, I’m reinvigorated and looking forward to what comes next.

Updates: I’ll be linking to my colleagues perspectives as they appear.

Below are some picture from the last two days which include some rare pictures of the research team at 400 Technology Square.

Many of these pics were taken by Zach Hofer-Shall, who uploaded to our internal wiki, which I then snagged and put on Flickr with attribution.

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I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Web Strategy Summary
Facebook launches Engagement Ads, which signal how widgets and advertisements start to look alike. Third party developers such as Widgetbox are now available on Hi5, and the OpenSocial protocol continues to gain traction, despite a setback with developer relations at Ning.

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Engagement Ads –Early Trials, and Caution
I shared my thoughts with Cnet about Facebook’s Engagement ads, and the impact it has on brands and users. While highly innovative, Facebook’s experiments could put some brands at risk, let’s hope they develop some best practices that meets the needs of brands –and users. Read my additional analysis.

Stats: OpenSocial reaches 350 Million Users
This protocol, first lead by Google is gaining adoption by developers who are using it to encourage their applications to be write once, run anywhere is seeing adoption and growth.

Usage: Facebook hits 100million users
As Facebook approaches a very large user base of 100million registered users, they have an increase of adoption of users opting in to the new redesign.

Verticals: Social Network for Chefs
Yet another segment of social networks that are launched, cooks can now connected at CookEatShare, link via Arturo Pelayo.

Analyst: Gartner pushes social networks for retailers
These findings and recommendations encourage retailers to approach social networks as they are attracting too much attention too ignore.

Mobile: Linkedin launches mobile version for iPhone
Allowing members to access their social network while mobile is a nod towards the future, this simple app appears to display one’s newsfeed.

Media: Bebo hosts modeling show
This 12 episode show “Model.live” reveals reality style how models live and work to achieve their modeling dreams, this ties in well with Bebo’s heavy media and lifestyle network. A good example of TV and social networks starting to merge.

Developers: Ning boots Widgetlaboratory
Ning removes Widetlabs from developer network, citing violation of terms of use, Widgetlabs fights back launches opensource widgets and hints at legal action. Followed by a response from Gina.

Applications: Widgetbox Gallery Available for Hi5
Hi5 a fast growing social network has now tapped into Widgetbox’s existing OpenSocial widgets gallery to be available for their community. Despite the challenges that Ning and developer Widgetlaborartory had this week, this is another example of how containers are embracing third party applications.

Features: Lithium extends blogging features
Although they’ve had blogging features previously, Lithium signals to the market they’ve more robust blogging features for enterprise clients.

Privacy: SoNets increase connectivity but not privacy
This interesting article from Scientific America (thanks Brian for the link) gives examples of how some have been impacted by the connected world, for better of for worse.

Culture: Women review bad dates
Read about this in the Scientific America article above, where women rate, review, some pretty bad men. This site scores well for google search results where no other is present. Now, when folks meet each other in real life, they may start to do Google searches, a sign of the times.

PR professionals that have clients in this space, should subscribe to this blog, and ensure their clients are put on this digest by sending me an email, or better yet, leave a comment. If you work for a white label community platform, keep me updated, I want to know of your wins.

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I’m currently doing an intensive 3 month research project on the topic of Community Platforms, and it’s become very clear that by talking to many of the 27 brands, 9 vendors, and leaning on forecast data where many decisions are currently being made to purchase these enterprise software solutions. To start with, many solutions (define as a set of software, services, support) are being purchased by marketers who want to bring a social aspect to their corporate website.

These marketing folks, who may have worked with IT in the past to load CMS programs are bound by corporate red tape, de-prioritized by IT project management, or want to evade the rigors of legal and security and free to purchase community platforms using Software as a Service model (SaaS). Why is this beneficial? As they’ve only to rely on IT for single sign on (SSO) they often can handle the rest within the web marketing team, or lean on the services of the community vendor.

Yet, they aren’t the only buyers, HR departments are starting to become sponsors for enterprise social network platforms to improve internal knowledge transfers, collaboration, and developing specific programs for alumni, new hires, interns, and even women using pre-packaged use case features provided by these vendors.

You can see where this is headed right? IT departments realize that fragmented communtiy software is going to lead to a disparate mess to clean up, and many are starting to make recommendations for enterprise platforms that will span the usage of the whole company. Why? To reduce overall resources, ensure security, centralize data, and ensure, well that they are responsible and safe when it comes to their information.

I’ve only heard of a few instances from the marketers that I’ve interviewed where IT has thought of community platforms as an enterprise solution rather than a one-off by marketing.

Talking with many of these folks in this research project, I could make the case that in 12-24 months we’ll start to see CIOs start to initiate projects to deliver enterprise social networking mandates, take ownership over these disparate projects, and wake up and realize the importance of these tools beyond marketing and HR.

This yields all kinds of questions regarding: security, what does enterprise-class entail, how will Microsoft/SAP/IBM respond, will Saas or on-premise software be required, governance, flexibility, allowance of third-party widgets, and costs. More to come on this as I dive further into this research project.

It’s amazing it’s taken so many years for this to come around, I first started writing about this back in 2005 with Dennis McDonald.

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One of the ways I tell companies how they can best serve their market is to be transparent on how they build products. By doing so, it helps folks not only understand, but appreciate the level of effort that goes into creating a service or product. While analysts offer guidance and advisory sessions, we’re most known for the reports that we create, in fact, these are key products that help decision makers be successful.

Demand for community platforms, yet too many vendors
I’m asked a few times a week on which community vendor to choose, with a list of 80-120 vendors on my blog and a more refined catalog on the Forrester site, it’s very confusing for brands to determine who’s best. If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know I’ve been watching the community platform (aka white label social network space) with great interest, even before I joined Forrester. A few weeks ago I announced my intention to start a Forrester Wave report, which will segment out nine vendors that will meet the needs of Interactive Marketers at Enterprise Class companies (companies with more than 1,000 employees).

The Forrester Wave Methdology
Using the refined Forrester Wave methodology that has been completed by many analysts before me, we’re nearly half way done with this 3 month research project to understand, and segment the community platform market. For this particular report, it doesn’t make sense to utilize crowd sourcing methods (although I’ve used crowd sourcing for other reports), the Wave method is already refined from the many analysts before me.

To date, we’ve created a detailed scorecard that involved a feedback loop with major brands who have recently deployed community software. This particular scorecard contains over 54 criteria that was assembled through client discussions, a panel of a trusted folks who have deployed communities, discussions with fellow analysts, and feedback from the vendors. Next, we collect data from the 9 vendors, each completing the scorecard for a total of 496 cells, then I create my own sheet of cells verifying what we found for a total of 992 cells of data collection.

Also, we’ve started interviewing and recording feedback from 27 brands that have deployed community software from these vendors, in order to find out what went right –and what could be improved from each of these nine vendors. Again, more spreadsheets and data collection.

Starting this week, we start a series of day-long labs with each of the vendors, where will be looking under the covers at the actual software, discuss their business strategy, and understand how their community offerings can best help marketers. We’re looking at the market from a variety of angles, to ensure that an accurate report is created.

Collaborative environment
At Forrester, an analyst never works in a vacuum, it’s collaborative and I’ve a lot of minds to lean on. It’s not just me alone, I’m getting help from analyst and my editor Shar Vanboskirk, analyst Oliver Young who knows the enterprise side of this space, analyst Suresh Vittal who’s completed many waves, analyst Laura Ramos, and constant support from research associate Sarah Glass (my guiding light, and detailed taskmaster) and research associate Zach Reiss-Davis. I’m under the guidance of my research director Christine Overby, and am in constant contact with our seasoned Josh Bernoff. Despite suggestions that some analyst firms do not have knowledge management strategies isn’t quite true. In fact, we retain the knowledge of our colleagues through tools like internal wikis, constant team communication, and most importantly knowledge and insights generated by reports will live on for colleagues and clients on the website.

Focusing in
That’s just the half way point: next I have to analyze, score, conduct follow ups to ensure all the data is correct, and begin the scoring process. You’re going to notice a decrease in my posting over the next few weeks, and my online activity start to wean off as I work hard to deliver a quality report later this fall that will help interactive marketers make the right decision.

Read more about this Wave Research project:

Part 1: Starting the Wave
Part 2: Data Collection Process
Part 3: The Analysis Process (coming soon)
Part 4: Announcing the Wave (coming soon)

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Update: Only a few brands will trial these new ads, after testing, will then be broadly released later in the year.

A few days ago, I had a private briefing before the press with Tim Kendall, Director of Monetization at Facebook, below are the findings, with specific recommendations for brands. As I get more information, such as results and data, I’ll update this post.

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Web Strategy Summary (90 Words)
Facebook launched a new product called ‘Engagement Advertisements’ that encourages members to interact with the ads by leaving comments, sharing virtual gifts, or becoming fans. To combat dismal click through rates of traditional advertisements, these features emulate widgets and encourage users to increase member adoption, viral growth, and brand interaction. Brands will only succeed with these “WidgetAds” if they create content that puts community first, lean on new interactions, integrate with other tools, plan for the long haul, and change how they measure success –traditional internet advertising tactics won’t apply.

[Facebook’s ‘Engagement Advertisements’ emulates natural activities of members –in hopes to increase interaction, network spread, and brand preference]

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Facebook, a Fast Growing Global Social Network
Facebook, noted as the largest social network, is on a growth rate to increase it’s active users to 90million active users today in August, 2008 up from 54 million aprox at the start of the year. While presumed to be of a younger college educated demographic, it’s not the domain of the young alone as the largest growth rates are educated white collar workers, over age 25. Facebook has global growth in markets such as 66% growth rate in EMEA, and 35% and 33% growth rates in Europe and Latin America, respectively.

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Engagement Advertisements Integrate with Natural User Behaviors
Facebook’s innovative way of monetizing is unique, they were the first to launch a developer platform (F8) as well as the ill-fated Facebook Beacon, and are now launching with a new interactive marketing and advertising product.

[Facebook’s ‘Engagement Advertisements’ more akin to interactive marketing with a social twist: “WidgetAds”]

Unlike Beacon or Facebook Connect, both products intended to aggregate the actions on third-party sites (like Blockbuster.com) this new product called “Engagement Advertisements” is intended to nicely integrate with Facebook’s newly redesign profile and news pages. Early brands to trial this include: Paramount Pictures whose video commenting for Tropic Thunder ran two weeks ago –I’ve asked for campaign results. Future early adopters also include General Mills’ Betty Crocker which will have image commenting and the ability to ‘fan’, and video commenting for Addias, both to trial late August.

Engagement Ads provide three unique experiences
Rather than clicking on the ad and being whisked away to a branded microsite, these ads allow members to stay within the contained walls of Facebook and their social community. Engagement ads come in three major flavors:

1) Comment Style Ad: Members can now leave comments on these advertisements, much like wall posts. Brands that are focused on entertainment, new product rollouts, autos and apparel are well suited. The ad can show up to 4 comments per object, and the activity spreads to the users newsfeed.

2) Virtual Gifts Style Ad: Brands can now create virtual items that users can share, spread to each other. This wildly popular behavior within applications and Facebook is suitable for consumer products, entertainment, and some media.

3) Fan Style Ad: A play off the Facebook pages, users with a persona affinity for a product (like Apple) can become a fan, triggering a notification to their network, and could then tie on social ads. Will work great for established brands, like guitar hero, passion products, luxury products, or any brand with a rabid customer base.

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Forrester Data: Social Networks foster communication, self-expression
With horrible click through rates (I’ve heard cases of .04 percent CTR) of ads on social networks, some brands prefer to focus resources elsewhere. Why the low rates? Our research indicates that youth primarily exhibit behaviors of communication and self-expression –not searching for products, looking at ads, or hunting for information.

Common Behaviors of Youth on Social Networks
See what my friends are up to: 86%
Sent a message to someone: 79%
Posted/updated my profile: 70%
Looked at profiles of people I didn’t know: 65%
Sources: North American Technographics Retail And Marketing Online Youth Survey, Q4 2007, Forrester Research

This youth data supports that social network behavior is in fact, ’social’ and these respondents are not seeking to find out about product information, nor learn about the latest products at a media site, product review, or a search engine like Google.

[Brands will only succeed with ‘Engagement Advertising’ if they lean on user behaviors like communication, self-expression, and social exploration –traditional internet advertising need not apply]

Knowing that the use case between social networks and product-focused sites is key for marketers to deploy successful marketing. For success, marketers and advertisers need to focus in on the key social behaviors, and integrate the marketing activities within the community.

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Demystifying Facebook’s Marketing Tool Chest
Facebook’s marketing toolset is confusing, and many brands frequently ask me what is the current set, and how do they use it, here’s the current toolset as of today. Remember that when it comes to groups and brand engagement, the most powerful activity is for employees to actually participate in the community with their customers –not stand by the idle wayside. With that said, here are some of the other tools available to marketers to engage the Facebook community.

Engagement Ads: (new, and detailed above) allow community members to interact with the ads in the profile and newsfeeds –without leaving the Facebook site, increasing interaction, social spread, and brand engagement. Currently unproven, brands may not be ready for these types of new ads, until they change how they measure success.

Standard Advertisements: These Text and image ads can appear on homepage or profile pages, neatly integrate with the new redesign.

Social ads: Are helpful for brands to increase the velocity or acceleration by marketers, allowing them to buy ads that echo the behaviors “what did my friends do” of opt-in users. These primarily appear on the newsfeed, which will encourage spread to an individuals network. Some brands have been under fire from users who felt this was invasive.

Traditional IAB graphic ads: Advertising laden brands may still purchase the standard IAB skyscraper and banner ads from Microsoft both an investor and partner. With low CTRs, some brands have better places to spend their money for return on investment.

Facebook pages: Launched last year, brands can (at no charge) create their own pages, embed applications, encourage discussions, and start to garner “Fans” of it’s products. Most brands are incorrectly using these, based upon the findings from my recent report on the best and worst of social network marketing for 2008 -Forrester Research.

Event Feature: based pages allow marketers to promote events through viral invites, rsvp tools, and event rollups from media and community interaction. While a useful utility, for most brands that market on the web, this is often a side-effort, not the primary push.

Facebook Connect: Perhaps the biggest untold story is the day when Facebook (and other social networks) will connect with corporate websites, I’ve outline future scenarios in this post What ‘Facebook Connect’ Means for Corporate Websites.

Applications: Facebook was afirst mover to allow third-party developers to create an entire eco-system of applications that are growing their own applications. Most brands are harassing successful apps through sponsorships, cross branding, and a few are building their own apps, see how Dell was able to let the community create –and spread– ads on their behalf. Also read my posts on Widget strategies to learn more, or my overview of Facebook’s F8 Developers Community.

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Key Takeaways
Monetization of social networks continues to be a challenge, and Facebook continues to innovate, however for this announcement, brands and Facebook should:

To Succeed, Brands Must Learn Social Marketing
While costly, risky, and foreign to brands, the biggest missed opportunity for brands in social networks is to become part of the community, interact and build real relationships. Although we should expect interaction rates and viral spread to increase with engagement ads, brands should wait and see how these ads CTR perform. For those brands that are ready to forgo the risk, and pursue ‘Engagement Ads’ they should:

Be community themed: Ads created by the brand will succeed if the content is first focused on the needs of the community.

Rely on new interaction activities: The rules of the game have changed, the goal is to increase interaction within the community –not pull them offsite.

Approach with an Integrated Mix: Facebook offers many tools, ‘Engagement Ads’ shouldn’t go it alone, instead increase chances of success by involving other tools.

Change how they measure success: Brands must also change they way the measure success with these interactive ads, rather than weigh success solely on page views or referral traffic.

Marriage of Widgets and Advertisements offshoot: “WidgetAds”
Looking forward, this announcement helps to set in place how online marketing will start to evolve. Widgets have already become advertising units, and now these advertisements are starting to become widgets. Expect Engagement ads, and Widgets created by third parties to start to exhibit these behaviors outside of Facebook. Facebook Connect, Google Connect, and OpenID will bridge social graphs with interactive ads –springing forth a new generation of widgetads.

Although innovative, Facebook must focus on marketers
Although pushing interactive marketing, Facebook must hand-hold many brands with their frequently changing marketing offerings. Facebook must develop a client solution that will help optimize these tools with professional services based on data, results, and demographic information. Marketers can’t afford to experiment with their brand without the help of a trained and experienced group of social marketers provided by the platform.

The only caveat being that the experience of users, always, always comes first, I’ll point to others that cover this aspect.

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Related Resources

This is cross-posted on Forrester’s Interactive Marketing blog

See all posts tagged Social Networks, Widgets, Facebook, or my weekly digest

Forrester Report: The Best and Worst of Social Network Marketing for 2008

Forrester Report: Online Community Best Practices

Forrester Report: Online Communities: Build Or Join?

Forrester Report: Google’s OpenSocial: Good News For Marketing Widgets But No Silver Bullet

Forrester Report: Get With It With Widgets

As usual, the conversation spirals off into Friendfeed.

Update: Forrester clients can access a short brief with additional recommendations for interactive marketers.

54 comments

This is a busy week, I’ve received more submissions than ever before, if this pace continues, I’ll have to figure out a new way to let folks self-submit. Be sure to include a link to your announcement, if it doesn’t exist on the web, it’s hard to verify, and it’s really what we’ve come to expect in this space. Lastly, while social media is certainly easy for folks to offer, I’m seeking examples of folks who really are offering this as their core expertise –not a side offering. As a result, I’ll be filtering to those that are truly living and breathing in this world.

I’m starting this post series (see archives) to recognize and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks:

David Griner joins Brand Agency Luckie & Co. as Social Media Strategist, starting with recently launched social media blog, the socialpath.

Erin Kotecki Vest “The Queen of Spain” has now joined BlogHer full time as the Producer of Special Projects, which will include social media projects, her area of expertise.

George Dearing has recently joined Telligent Systems (Community platform vendor) as Corporate Evangelist.

Dan Ziman join Lithium Technologies (community platform) as Director, Marketing Programs, congrats, I’m sure we’ll be speaking frequently.

Michael Francesconi is Fanscape’s (agency) newest Social Media Manager, who comes from the Huffington Post where he was a community manager, and now runs a department specializing in digital word of mouth strategies and viral marketing. Update, learn more from this CEO blog post.

Kirby Winfield joins WidgetBucks as the Chief Revenue Officer. In this role, he’ll be overseeing their advertising sales relationships.

Nat Wilson joins the Society for Human Resource Management as their Manager of Online Communities which he will be leading their social networking projects

Frank LaRosa is promoted at Network Insights to Vice President of Development, previously a senior developer.

Sarah Worsham leaves Online Business Development Manager job to launch Sazbean Consulting (online and soical media) with her husband.

Josh Wolf a video blogger who was jailed for not handing over evidence in SF has now joined a Palo Alto news agency as a traditional journalist. While not a ’social media’ move, we’re glad to see Josh take a step forward.

Speaking of Jobs, Forrester is hiring a Senior Analyst for Social Computing as a peer to me in SF area or Cambridge (email me), as is other firms, apparently, this is a growing area across industries.

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How to connect with others (or get a job):
Several people have been hired because of this blog post series, here’s how:

Submit an announcement
If you know folks that are moving up in the social media industry, leave a comment below, or if you’re feeling shy (it’s cool to self-nominate) send me an email. Please include a link to your announcement, and ensure you’re really living and breathing in the social media world –this is not a small aspect of your role.

Seeking Social Media Professionals?
If you’re seeking to connect with community advocates and community managers there are few resources

List of Enterprise Social Media Professionals
This list, which started with just 8 names continues to grow as folks submit to it. List of Social Computing Strategists and Community Managers for Enterprise Corporations 2008 –Social Media Professionals.

See Web Strategy Jobs powered by Job o Matic (Post a job there and be seen by these blog readers, fees pay for my hosting)

Connect with others in the community manager group in Facebook

Check out Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs

See Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs

SimplyHired aggregates job listings, as does Indeed

ForumOne Jobs for Social Media and Community

Teresa has a few jobs, some around community

New Media hire has an extensive job database

Social Media Headhunter

Social media jobs

Jobs in social media

Hiring? Leave a comment
If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, or I’ll delete it)

I’m seeking folks that are related to full time hands on social media strategy and community managers, to be on this list, so let me know if you see these folks, and please submit them. Also, I probably will not include executive management changes on this list at social media companies, as the list would go on and on, but you can feel free to express yourself in the comments!

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I’m getting more feedback that this digest is a success, I know have confirmation that leaders at the largest social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Google) and community platform read this digest, submissions are piling in, as savvy PR folks continue to submit –thank you. Always try to submit links in addition to press releases.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Web Strategy Summary
This has been one action packed week, there are two acquisitions from Hi5 and AOL, MySpace extends it’s reach to third party sites, and Facebook crowned largest social network. There’s been several deployments by brands of branded communities, as well feature releases from LinkedIn and Six Apart. Most importantly, advertisers project increase of spending into this space –furthering growth in this industry.

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Trends: Location Aware Social Networks
This is an important one to watch, as social networks (in real life) extend beyond the browser, so why shouldn’t that experience cater to our mobile devices? Ulocate and Where partner for GPS device Garmin, and Yelp syncs with Loopt and iPhone.

Stats: Facebook Global Social Network
Facebook has expanded it’s world conquest by allowing users to translate the site to their local languages, this lead to Facebook now being crowned as the largest global social network says BusinessWeek.

Money Projections: Advertisers increase spending on social networks
eMarketer publishes data that projects that US based advertisers will spend $40 million this year alone, then will increase spending to $210 Million in 2012, a growth rate of 300% in four years.

Acquisition: Hi5 acquires Interactive Technology PixVerse
This rapidly growing social network Hi5 has acquired technology that encourages in browser interaction, PixVerse. Expect the site’s experience to emulate desktop like behaviors, further engaging users.

Acquisition: AOL ready to lifestream and buys Social Thing
The latest trend in social software seems to involve aggregation or site-decoupling. AOL picks up on this and snags Social Thing, a competitor to Friendfeed, Facebook newspage, Six Apart’s Activity Streams and Google Reader.

Announcement: MySpace makes Data Available
Similar to Facebook connect (read my review) MySpace now let’s developers extend the experience of the community to third party websites with MySpace Data Availability (MDA). This increasing trend means that social networks are pervasive and eventually even on static websites that don’t want to participate.

Features: Six Apart adds social features in Movable Type
I was briefed yesterday by the 6A team, who have increased the social features of their robust blogging tool, Movable Type. Given their strong footprint in the enterprise sector, 6A should compete for dollars with other community platforms. Expect their suite of activity streams, and focus on content to be a differentiator.

Feature: Linkedin’s company pages get sorting feature
LinkedIn recently announced it’s new company pages –a trend moving the intranet outside of the firewall, and now adds more features that allow users to sort via industry, company size, and location.

Applications: RockYou tries monetizing with car ads
Seemingly an odd fit, RockYou will integrate ads for autos within it’s large network of widgets, should we expect the next BMW to appear in our superwall? Yet more examples of developers throwing rigatoni, spaghetti, and even pizza at the wall to see if it’ll stick.

Lawsuit: Facebook under fire from Beacon
This class action lawsuit aimed at Facebook and partners from users is intended to recoup damages from the ill-fated Beacon launch last year. Mark has admitted in public they’ve since learned from this.

Status: Cadence’s Community Manager shares 1st month Results
In a bold and forth coming way, Tom Diederich, Cadence’s community manager shares his experience after his first month of launching a branded community: over 6000 registrations and 1000 posts in 30 days.

People: Facebook Exec Ben Ling Boomerangs back to Google
This speculative post gives some insight to why Benjamin Ling, a former executive at Facebook has moved back to Google, with tie ins to the new COO, loyalty, and personalities.

Deployment: Heineken to launch community in Thailand
Popular “Skunky” beer Heineken to reach Asia community by investing in community software and launching their own platform to support it’s “Greenspace” campaign.

Partnership: Pluck extends partnerships
With Avenue A selecting just selecting Pluck as a strategic partner, now Swift Communications announces intent to use Pluck platform for client efforts. Expect to see other white label social network vendors to cozy up with interactive firms and digital agencies.

Deployment: Fox news joins Facebook –not MySpace
Although MySpace and Fox are both owned by behemoth Newscorp, they have to follow their audience and have deployed on Facebook, a smart move.

Deployment: MySpace hosts Presidential Debates
Myspace streamed the Rick Warren Civil Forum between McCain and Obama on the venue’s site Saddleback church for this first time meeting between candidates.

Deployment: Scottrade launches community with Small World Labs
This branch supported investment firm announces their own social networking site to allow customers to self support with each other. Small World labs is selected as technology partner, visit community.scottrade.com to see the site in action.

Culture: Students and Teachers awkwardly interact online
It’s important to note how these tools are used, and in this case, some teachers and students are unsure how to act online as personal and professional relationships merge. The benefit? teachers can now extend the classroom online.

PR professionals that have clients in this space, should subscribe to this blog, and ensure their clients are put on this digest by sending me an email, or better yet, leave a comment.

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The rapture of social media paralyzes some brands
Recently, I’ve spoken to a few large brands that have been getting the sermon from a few social media consultants about damnation to hell if they don’t convert. These type of scare tactics include suggesting radical change need to occur for brands to join the conversation, as well as handing over all control to the marketplace, should everyone in marketing can pack up and go home early?

Most brands aren’t firing their marketing group
In reality, this is rarely the case, (well cept for Dell, and a few others who had trial by fire) most brands slowly adopt these tools and the communication changes that happens, and I’ve never seen a brand completely turn over messaging control to the marketplace completely, have you? While there certainly are changes afoot, as technology impacts progress, there are course corrections happening at many companies, but I’ve yet to meet one CMO who’s fired the MarCom and Communications team in lieu of a team of external bloggers.

For conservative brands, take a pragmatic approach
Instead, perhaps the best way for conservative brands to move forward is to focus on three things:

1) Understand if their marketplace is using these tools, and how. First see if your prospects, decision makers or influencers are using these tools, do a study first, take inventory.
2) Next, have a goal, or an objective, rather than jumping in rather than being pushed in because someone else lit you on fire. Don’t allow fear to be the sole driver of your decisions, instead, focus on what success will look like.
3) Experiment internally with these tools where it’s safer, where mistakes can happen without the ridicule of the public looking on.

Focus on clear business strategy rather than allowing someone to light you on fire
While there are certainly changes happening in communication and marketing, this doesn’t mean you throw out the playbook, and react. Instead, for conservative or risk averse cultures, focus on understanding the changes in your market build a plan and experiment where it’s safe. When you look at moments of great change, see how history remembers the difference between radicals sand revolutionaries.

Let’s be objective, there’s a lot of challenges (and opportunities) with the social media industry, I’m cataloging them and tagging them ‘challenges‘.

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Last week, I listed out 9 reasons Why Brands Are Unsuccessful In Twitter, and other microblogging technologies. Companies are caught between the minutia of the discussions and their willingness to be human or add value to the conversations. Although a one-sided view of what’s going wrong, now let’s focus on what’s going right.

I’m watching –and talking– to many brands that are choosing to engage with this seemingly endless stream of personal thoughts, updates, and conversations within Twitter.

Web Strategy: The Evolution of Brands on Twitter

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Babysteps:

First, identifying if this is the right marketplace
Brands need to first evaluate if the community members within Twitter are the audience they’re trying to reach. Although we’ve yet to see any formal survey produced from Obvious corporation, most could identify these members are technology early adopters, media fiends, social media practitioners, and those interested in future communications.

Next: Listening to glean insight
Some brands are using the somewhat accurate search tools formerly known as Summize, or even Twitscoop to track graphing of potential terms, or to find influencers. Companies like Visible Technologies are mapping out the discussion in Twitter for tech giants like Dell –they’re likely going to provide a list of influencers and detractors in order to determine who’s the best way to approach them. In the case of the New York Times, Twitter is yet another opportunity to source stories, and potentially find out about breaking news or emergencies. Not only is this key for determining what’s being said by customers, prospects, and competitors, but to ensure rogue employees aren’t speaking on your behalf and potentially causing brand damage.

Registering the namesake
Once a company has figured out the conversation in their marketplace (assuming this is one for them) they should next secure the key domains related to their brand. There has been some impromptu indexes that show that many companies don’t have ownership over their individual brand on Twitter. Since registration is limited to one account per real email address, and companies will never be able to register every potential variant, the process is still limiting.

Walking:

Decide on persona: corporate and/or individual
Brands will next need to decide on their online personas, and how they want to be perceived to the world. There are only a few variations and among them include: 1) A branded approach, void of personal interactions. In many cases, brands are unsure how to approach this conversation and most speak on behalf of the company, void of a personal reference of the publisher. Companies like Popeye’s chicken don’t readily indicate who’s behind the account, although they are very engaging conversing with others. 2) Some brands indicate who the user is, and go so far as to encourage individuals to represent the brand, RichardatDell takes this on with ease, as he both engages in personal interests as well as evangelizes and defends the Dell brand. See the NYT’s Communication department as they list out the personal contacts right on their twitter page. It’s assumed that brands that have engaged in option 2, also have corporate accounts listed in type 1.

Decide on method of engagement
Next comes the interesting part, how brands will actually publish, interact and communicate with others. There are three major options that brands can use: 1) Publish content in a ‘push’ style. Marketers, corp comm, PR folks and media companies can choose to use Twitter as a publishing system, as those who opt-in to follow can now receive updates from the latest story, press release or update. 2) Dialog: Some employees engage in relationship building with community members by responding, answering, and asking questions of those around them, see this large list of Oracle employees who are using these tools. or the ‘classic’ case example of Comcast Cares and Zappos shoes interacting and supporting customers 3) As we’ve indicate above, some may use these tools to glean insight –mainly listening rather than talking.

Examine the digital communications policy
Often known as ethics policies, blogging policies, or communications policies, the world of online publications continues to grow and brands must be prepared for these changes. Brands that have employees using social media (that would be just about all) must ratify their communications policy to: 1) Define what’s an official representation or have acceptance in the gray area of online communications 2) Define what the difference is between someone who is a company spokesperson and someone who’s acting and represents the company. Last week, at a client meeting, some employees at a enterprise IT networking company expressed concerns of employees who were on Twitter would talk about their personal beliefs around politics, culture, or preferences. Potentially some of these expressions would negatively impact other partners or customers in other regions or cultures, and didn’t know where the definitive line was between work and personal was.

Running:

Integration with other tools
Seeminly rare, most brands don’t integrate these tools with their other social media or even traditional website. With the recent case of brands being brandjacked by twitter domain registrars a new need came up of brands wanting to validate their twitter accounts. In fact, some have sent me emails from their corporate account asking me to confirm they are ‘real’ accounts. Of course, the most effective way to overcome validation from third parties and to enhance other tools is to cross link from various web properties, which Tyson foods has recently done. Take for example Dell, which has listed out many of their twitter accounts on their corporate website, now segmented out by verticals, products and regions. Brands should cross link their twitter account from their corporate blogs, traditionally websites, and vice versa.

Aggregation and joining conversations
The next step in this evolution is to watch how the conversations will fragment, spread, and be aggregated on different websites. The conversation isn’t going to be limited to Twitter, it’s search clients, but will start to aggregate on other websites. Take for example Get Satisifaction a ‘universal’ support site that is aggregating twitter conversations on their page, in this instance, Comcast. The conversation about the brand has now spread off the site, and will sputter off new threads of discussions on other websites. Brands like Dell will aggregate those same conversations right on their mainstream site –bringing the engaged audience closer to their site.

What’s next
Although we’re still far from seeing this implement, I expect to see a tie with location aware devices that will integrate twitter with marketing, communication, and support. For example, as one approaches a product, or store where that product is, alerts, the ability to ask questions or receive special offers could automatically trigger to a customers account (most will be opt in, savvy marketers will figure around it). Expect savvy companies to further monitor discussions and respond to support or help questions using these micromedia tools.

While there are many variations and some companies skip from step to step, these are the major evolutionary phases of how I see companies adopting micromedia tools like Twitter. I’d love to hear your feedback on what you’re seeing, and where it’s all headed.

Update: Dawn Foster has a great actionable plan for brands on Twitter, as does Tara Hunt, read, and bookmark both.

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I’ve been a supporter of the Company Customer Pact, which is a set of guidelines put forth by Get Satisfaction and friends on how both individual customers as well as brands should behave in this ’social contract’. Since it’s launch (I believe Feb 08) there’s only been 250 people that have signed and put their name on the wiki. Given the sheer number of bloggers out there, or companies, either awareness has been low, or there are some reasons why individuals don’t want to participate. For example, not everyone thinks it’s a good idea, as for one, Peter Dawson explains:

From Peter Dawson:

“The Customer Company pact, is a BAD IDEA, The problems is that Companies will not adopt it as part of a strategy. Individuals will, just like the Clue Train Manifesto. How many of the f500’s are really on the clue train and adopted these principles ? The same will hold true to the CC PACT. If a bunch of Bloggers ‘like’ an Idea ( aka CC pact) and endorse it (yes the more the merrier), it does not imply (a) that they will always follow it and (b) the company that they work for will adopt them as standards.

The most crucial aspect is in Corporate /Company Ethical and Governance Missions statements. These polices must be aligned to laws and statutes. Therefore a PACT between a Customer and a Company should and ALWAYS be put under the jurisdiction of the law. Yet how many bloggers (Customers) like being under the hammer ?? The Value prop is great in Theory , but near impossible to implement.”

Peter’s right, it’s not a legal document, nor should it ever be, but instead a ’social contract’ that would encourage best-behaviors from customers and brands. What’s in it for individual bloggers? Sure every blogger has the right to rant and complain, but doing it in way that would be condusive for companies to respond to –and actually make a difference to change their product is helpful. Now, for a blogger that simply wants to vent their frustrations out on the web (without caring if they get resolution from the brand) then Peter is right, none of this will matter.

So in summary, the Customer Company pact is a best practice “Social Contract” or perhaps even a “Guideline” that would encourage communications to improve customer and company relations for better products and services. For those that don’t want to see products or services improved via online communications –this pact won’t serve your needs.

I for one, am for it, and have it taped up on my desk at work, I keep this in mind as I talk to both the brands, as well as bloggers, and how I choose to engage with companies when I want changes fixed for product and services.

Love to hear from you, do social contracts like the Customer Company Pact have a place in the world? Or should it be more of a laissez-faire approach and let them market sort it out?

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Yesterday morning, I sent over an email to Todd Defren and Brian Solis, champions of the Social Media Press Release (which I’ve critiqued in the past) offering some suggestions.

Recently, I’ve been receiving some press releases where the real important news isn’t in the leading paragraph. I had to hunt and read through the rest of the content (maybe that was their strategy) to find out what was really important. I sent an email back to the PR firm, suggesting that they get their writing funnel’ tightened up, I don’t have a lot of time, and most press releases get a quick scan –few get a deep read.

If a PR firms is representing a company in the social media space, then they really need to make sure content is formatted to the medium where information is spreading fastest –for today, that would be Twitter. Twitter limits messages to just a short sentence, 140 characters to be exact, and encourages people to be on point and succinct. Go over to Todd’s blog to read more of his thoughts on the topic.

Takeaway: If your market is in the social media space, press releases should have content summarized for 122 characters, and leave enough space for is.gd (a “tiny url” that’s composed of exactly 18 characters)

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Well not really.

My new friend Avi Bhatnagar showed me this clever viral video that combines personalization, as well as a social marketing impact. You can add your friends in the ’spread this’ page to spread it among your friends and family, you can create your own here. Quite honestly, the video effects (while are obvious upon a close inspection) are a pretty good, all things considered. I noticed in my recent research report on Social Network Marketing campaigns, that DiGiornio had a simliar type of personalized social campaign that let you prank calls on your friends with the “Ditcher” –expect to see personalized marketing, interactive marketing, to meld with social marketing.

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I’m starting this post series (see archives) to recognize and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks:

Ben Ling, former Googler joined Facebook as Platform Evangelist, and now leaves Facebook going back to Google with a focus on YouTube monetization.

Zachariah N. Hofer-Shall (and I thought my name was a mouthful) joins Forrester as a Researcher in the same team as I am. I was really impressed with Zach during our interviews, and signaled an immediate thumbs up to management.

Mark Wallace becomes Vice President of Social Media, where he will oversee the continued expansion of Environmental Data Resources online community.

Growing social network Hi5 Makes some considerable changes to it’s leadership team: Jeff Stephens joined hi5 as chief financial officer, David Kim has joined as vice president, Business Development & Strategy, Ram Gudavalli, was promoted to the role of vice president, Engineering, Michael Trigg joins hi5 as vice president, Marketing, see the executive roster. When you see a group of changes like this occur, you can tell their getting ready for changes, more on that soon.

The list of full time social media professionals at large companies continues to grow, I add a handful of new folks every week

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How to connect with others (or get a job):
Several people have been hired because of this blog post series, here’s how:

Submit an announcement
If you know folks that are moving up in the social media industry, leave a comment below, or if you’re feeling shy (it’s cool to self-nominate) send me an email.

Seeking Social Media Professionals?
If you’re seeking to connect with community advocates and community managers there are few resources

See Web Strategy Jobs powered by Job o Matic (Post a job there and be seen by these blog readers, fees pay for my hosting)

Connect with others in the community manager group in Facebook

Check out Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs

See Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs

SimplyHired aggregates job listings, as does Indeed

ForumOne Jobs for Social Media and Community

Teresa has a few jobs, some around community

New Media hire has an extensive job database

Social Media Headhunter

Social media jobs

Jobs in social media

Hiring? Leave a comment
If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, or I’ll delete it.

I’m seeking folks that are related to full time hands on social media strategy and community managers, to be on this list, so let me know if you see these folks, and please submit them. Also, I probably will not include executive management changes on this list at social media companies, as the list would go on and on, but you can feel free to express yourself in the comments!

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Video Above: Musician Ronald Jenkees messin with an e-piano sound. (If you’re using a feedreader or email access this post to see videos) Update: he’s now added this song as a higher quality MP3, available on his blog.

I’m taking a break from my normal corporate web strategy posts for today, instead want to introduce you to Ronald, who despite his mild mannered appearance really uses his passion and socila media tools to share it with the world. Frankly, I was inspired, and even more so that he responded to my email –and let me do an interview with him.

Ronald Jenkees (his blog) (see his YouTube Channel), who I found on my ‘recommended’ list on YouTube on an iPod Touch woke me up. He combined hip hop, jazz keyboard jams, synth and beats and a lot of heart into his music –a lot of it available to peruse on YouTube. I’m a former musician (played since 4) and am always inspired to see people follow their passions. Now with platforms like YouTube, the middleperson has been removed from discovering talent –the masses can self sort it out. He shares behind the scenes videos of the work in progress (this one splicing to genres), or this Guitar Riff with (2MM views).

I contacted Ronald, (who mentioned several times in his videos that he reads all comments) and knew I could get a few questions answered from him.

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(start interview)

Jeremiah: Why music? What got you into it, why are you passionate about it?

Ronald: First of all, thanks a ton for the interview and good questions.

I got a toy keyboard for Christmas one year and actually played the heck out of it. Simple stuff, but I had fun writing little melodies. Later, in the 6th or 7th grade, I was given a Yamaha keyboard for Christmas (PSR-500). I bought it because it had lots of cool-looking buttons, but I discovered I could sequence beats and layer stuff with it. That same $500 keyboard lasted me until I was out of college when I could afford my Triton Le. My passion comes from the fun moments in music - when it feels right to hit certain notes.. When it’s groovin. That’s the stuff I like to share on YouTube.

Jeremiah: You combine your personal thoughts, as well as greet the YouTube audience, and give them encouragement and tips, many musicians just go ‘right to the jams’ why the extra personal sharing?

Ronald: It’s fun to connect with people rather than to just jam out. Plus, I’m very thankful for those that watch my videos, comment, email, and etc., so anything I can do to inspire people to have their own some simple fun with music, I’m all for it. It doesn’t take very many notes or technical skill to create something moving. Of course, practice and becoming a better musician in general helps to get those ideas out in the air, but all of that starts with very simple fun that anyone can take part in. I also think it’s really good for the brain and your mood.

Jeremiah: Did you have a music career before YouTube? Why did you post videos there? What has it done for you, did it spur on your first and second album?

Ronald: I used to make beats and silly raps and share them with friends on my website, but that was the extent of my music career. I actually studied tech in college and always did music for the fun of it (still do!). I started posting videos on YouTube just to entertain people - mainly my old college friends. Eventually I started posting vids of myself playing music. I guess it mixed well with my goofiness on camera, but mainly that combination of being entertaining and letting loose helped me to not feel like such a show-off. The YouTube audience is the only reason I came out with a whole album and am now working on a second.

Jeremiah: What has YouTube provided you that a record company, distributor, and marketers can’t? What advantages and disadvantages has this brought?

Ronald: YouTube is awesome for marketing. Whenever I upload a new video, 40,000 subscribers get an email notification. So that acts as my mailing list whenever I’m ready to share a new jam or some news.

As far as distribution goes, I use a company called CD Baby to get my stuff on iTunes and other digital marketplaces. I also use a store built by my friend and musician Brad (of BradSucks.net) to sell downloads and CD’s directly on my website (www.ronaldjenkees.com) using PayPal. It takes a lot of work doing shipping and customer service, but it’s AWESOME to be able take good care of your own fans and eliminate The Man in the process. The whole process of creation and delivery is very rewarding.

Jeremiah: What’s the next steps for you? Is this a full time job now? When are you going to tour? I’ll sign up for your San Francisco show!

Ronald: My main goal right now is to just continue writing new music and get done with a second album. I’d love to eventually do some music for some established artists (independently), and possibly do some soundtrack-type work. I don’t have a huge desire to hit the road doing shows at the moment. I feel like my time is best spent writing new music rather than traveling and performing, but that could change. I’m certainly not ruling anything out.

Jeremiah’s Bonus Question (added a few hours later, via email) I just had one followu p question. Is this your day job? Have you made a full paying career out of being a musician (and primarily using YouTube for Marketing?

Ronald: Awesome!! Yes, this has turned into my day job in the last year. Doing everything independently keeps you busy. Writing new music, working on old music, helping people get your music, signing and packaging CD’s, shipping, replying to emails/comments and etc.. I can easily work 16 hour days if I’m not careful, because it’s mostly fun stuff. I’m sure you can relate since you have a cool thing going right now.

(end interview)

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Thanks Ronald, I just bought your first album on iTunes, enjoyed it while going on my walk, great energy, spurred on new ideas. I’m a fan, thanks for staying so open, transparent, and following your passion. I’m sure you’ll get a gig with established artists, your raw talent will take you far. It’s fantastic to see someone do what they love, and make it a paying gig.

Here’s an outro piece, an take on a distorted guitar, with improve

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Rodney Rumford bluntly points out in this latest post about 33 Brands That Suck on Twitter (be sure to read the comments for more color). Most of them have been “Hijacked” (their corporate name scooped by an individual) and many remain dormant. Having a successful brand in Twitter is few and far in between, and here’s why.

Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter:

Brands are slow to the party
Who knew that Twitter would become a phenomenon –esp among the social media circles and media? Most brands are too late to come and squat on their names, some savvy individual had the foresight to get the name (either deviously, or out of brand passion) brands like @disney, @marlboro are already reserved by individuals.

Corporate domain: “out for lunch”
As Rodney points out, some of the brands have registered their domains, but choose not to participate, they’ve just quietly reserved it, unsure about how to wield this slippery conversational tool.

Not personal enough
If a brand is lucky enough to have parked their domain, they’re now ready for the next challenge: producing relevant content that resonates with the audience. What should they tweet about? Obviously there ’s a business driver, so announcements, re-echoing blog posts, and responding to direct (but safe) questions make the best bet. In many cases, there is no individual tied to the account (listed or picture) and no one knows if they’re talking to an intern, or the CMO.

Too personal for you
Yet brands have another challenge? Do they get into the minutia of the daily life as many Twitter users do: “updating my brand guidelines to include twitter rules of engagement”, or “attending marcom meeting about next week’s big acquisition”? Brands are at risk to either alienating followers –or just looking well, fake.

Campy persona wears thin
Some brands may take their brand too far, acting out the brand persona with pro-brand content that after awhile sounds like a trite recording of “want to feel better @jowyang, buy our product for relief” -soap style messages.

Big brother is watching
Some brands have started to ‘follow’ other members, hopefully to increase the rate of them following back. While complete normal protocol in Twitterville, many users get ‘freaked out’ when a brand follows them.

Hybrid brands of personal and corporate won’t last
In the case of both Oracle and Dell (and others I’m sure) many of their employees straddle both their personal sharing, as well as representing their brand (rather well actually). They choose names like @OracleJulio or @RichardatDELL, and really add to the conversation, both being personal, and promoting the attributes of the company. Unfortuantly for @OracleJulio’s situation, he moved on to greener pastures, and had to somehow get a name change, he’s now @socialjulio.

ROI unclear
What’s the ROI from Twitter? A very difficult question to answer, yet you’ll find the solution if you can also measure: “Whats the ROI of a conversation in real life”. Since many brands have an objective (return profit to shareholders or owners) ensuring this is a high priority task will be difficult for many corporations. (read more on broadstuff)

No one gives a care
Some brands, regardless of how they use twitter, their profile pictures, or what they talk about, no one will care. Either their product isn’t known, or not releavnt, or the brand hasn’t done due diligence to first find out if their market is even in Twitter, as a result, tweets go unheard in the forest, yet no one minds. (Update: I’ve added this one a few hours later)

Despite these many challenges, there are a few brands that are doing it right, take a look at ComcastCares, one who’s received press attention for responding to angry twitter community members. Of course, the real challenge is if they can make real long term changes to company’s products –or are they just a mouthpiece to dampen the social media amplifiers.

Got other reasons why it’s a challenge? Or have solutions? Leave a comment…

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I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an Industry Analyst –a good way to get in my head.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

Web Strategy Summary
Security issues are starting to appear in Facebook, both from malicious software and clever phishers, expect more case studies of identity theft to occur as well as Facebook clamping down on the experience. The second bullet, we see actual numbers from Comscore, then the third piece, social networks interests around the globe gives a high level view of which social networks have the most interest, well at least by intent.

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Security: Facebook showing security flaws
Widgets and Applications have fueled growth for Facebook’s community, but it also has some vulnerabilities that leave it exposed, for one, password phishing has been problematic, and now Facebook asks that users be careful with disclosure. You can see more issues on security, as well as elaborate worms spreading, and being close to enemies.

Stats: June Global Social Networks Visitors
Comscore releases this month’s numbers and shows a slow down in North American adoption (but still at 9%) and growth in many other regions. Read the full report from Comscore.

Report: Social Network “interest” around the Globe
This interesting research piece from the Sweedish Royal Pingdom guys have triangulated how social networks are in demand using data from Google. While this doesn’t show actual social network usage, it does demonstrate ownership over mindshare and intent. A creative report thanks guys.

Brands: Tampax Marketing on Stardolls
Tampax, known for it’s creative social networks such as beinggirl, now reaches out to the stardoll community, with a creative marketing effort.

Accolades: SelectMinds, wins Always On award
SelectMinds, a vendor who provides corporate social networking solutions, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the AO Global 250 Winners.

Features: Moveable Type Adds Social Network Features
Not a surprise, (cept for the fact how quiet this announcement was) Moveable Type now has social features, given their current footprint, they could become a contender for white label social network plays.

Analysis: Social Networks Growth and Money
Datamonitor analysts report that “that growth in the number of people signing up to be a part of the cultural phenomenon, which has put the likes of Facebook on the map, will peak by 2009 and plateau by 2012.” also, “revenues from social-networking services will hit $965 million this year, swelling to $2.4 billion by 2012″.

Partnership: Avenue A and Pluck
This recent announcement (I’m waiting to see some examples) indicate the start of a trend of interactive marketing firms aligning with technology vendors to provide solution offerings to brands.

Deployment: New York Times to launch community Q4
Media companies like Fast Company have already launched online communities for their website, now media giant New York times plans to launch social networking community for readers.

Features: Gigya launches themes
While not a major update, these themes (aimed at their developer network) will improve the developer experience, perhaps more interesting is the social media press release, which announced it.

Gossip: MySpace CEO dating Paris Hilton?
Well, if it had to happen to anyone, at least it happens to one of us geeks, unconfirmed rumor has it CEO Chris DeWolfe has been dating 27 year old Paris Hilton.

PR professionals that have clients in this space, should subscribe to this blog, and ensure their clients are put on this digest by sending me an email, or better yet, leave a comment.

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If you work at an online media company, or are a stakeholder for content on a corporate website, forward this to the decision makers and engage in an email or in person dialog.

How Media and Marketers are Missing an Opportunity
A few days ago, I embedded a slideshow of fantastic images from Beijing’s opening Olympic ceremony. An embed is code that I can easily paste into my blog post, and it will show media (such as a youtube video).

[The community will ’scrape’ content that is valuable to them, often withou