Facebook: the influential social networking book face

Social networking is a significant communications channel and, like the 'Hoover' brand name that evolved to collectively refer to all vacuum cleaners, it is the 'Facebook' brand name that is creeping into everyday vocabulary of the masses ("I Facebook; I'm Facebooking; I'll Facebook you; I Facebooked you"), and as a result, starting to collectively represent an understanding of what social networks are about.

In the UK, Facebook has the greatest market share of all the social networks (with MySpace and Bebo following behind), however, attached to this comes huge proactive responsibilities to ensure that the perception of social networking, as a channel, remains largely positive going forward. The EU agency for network and information security ENISA has already published a paper of security issues and recommendations for social networks (PDF 0.8MB) that Facebook needs to embrace given the responsibility of its leadership position.

Gartner research has reported that businesses have yet to realise the potential opportunities and benefits of social networking that would support corporate communications, both internal and external. Part of this tardiness is down to what Gartner research term 'throwing sheep' syndrome - the superficial (yet popular) 'Am I hot?' widgets typically found on Facebook.

The research found that 38% of PC and mobile phone users connect to sites like MySpace and Facebook via PCs. Single people and teenagers and more men than women came top in terms of usage. The survey revealed that in large part they went online for entertainment purposes or to keep up with friends and family - social activities, therefore, the challenge is harnessing this behavioural usage for a business benefit.

The success of Facebook is its widgets, the viral approach it takes in organically publicising these ensuring compatibility across channels, the member-get-member approach to pulling-in new users, and the sustained loyalty it receives from like-minded social groups with a common interest who return to the network in order to fulfill a need. If businesses embrace these behavioural traits, then the power of social networking as a corporate communication channel can be realised.

RELATED LINKS:
Download ENISA Position Paper: Security Issues and Recommendations for Online Social Networks (PDF 0.8MB)
Cx3 Blog entry: Generation Y communicate, unite and shout

iPhone: Driving growth in mobile internet usage behaviour

The latest report by Nielsen Mobile, Critical Mass - The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web, provides insight into today's mobile internet usage behaviour. Coming out of the report's statistical analysis, it states that "Mobile internet reached a critical mass this year, offering a large and diverse enough base of users to support large-scale mobile marketing efforts".

Globally, 16% of the US population browse the internet via a mobile handset, closely followed by the UK (13%) and Italy (12%). Nielsen found that 82% of iPhone owners access mobile internet, "making them five times as likely to do so as the average mobile consumer".

The report says that "PC internet users visit more than 100 domains per month, on average", however, 'mobile internet' users (in the UK) visited on average only 5.5 select websites per month...oh, to be on that precious '5.5' list.

The user profile of the iPhone owner has evolved over time. The first generation iPhone aligned itself with the lifestyle and psychological profile of early adopters:

- For 'Lifestyle seekers' it was new, shiny, latest 'to-be-seen-with' phone;
- 'Apple supporters' purchased the phone for its aesthetic appeal;
- 'Techies' purchased the phone to access the web and the widgets.

However, O2 then slashed the cost of the iPhone by £100 that opened up mass availability to wider audiences bringing the product into the mainstream.

The just released second generation iPhone comes with 3G, allowing faster access to the web. This can only support the growth of mobile internet usage that opens up opportunities for web marketing trends, whose target audience's contact point is the mobile phone. As the report says "Mobile internet users are 60% more likely to be open to mobile advertising than the average mobile data user".

RELATED LINKS:
Download full report: Critical Mass - The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web (PDF 1.5MB)
Cx3 blog entry: Mobile barcodes - the future of mobile channel communication?

Firefox Guinness World Record official

Firefox's attempt to break the record for the greatest number of downloads in a 24 hour time period has been successful, with 8,002,530 Firefox 3.0 downloads in 25 countries.

The ingenious Guinness World Record campaign boosted Firefox's market share to over 19% making it the second most popular browser after Internet Explorer and is expected to break 20% later this month.

RELATED LINKS:
Cx3 blog entry: Firefox 3.0 World Record: Acquisition, Retention and Ongoing Loyalty in one go

Generation Y communicate, unite and shout

The YouTube video above, uploaded by a 15 year old, is just one of many videos that have been posted remembering the life of Ben Kinsella, who was killed in a knife crime at the weekend.

Generation Y, moved by his death, leveraged their online social networks and called to unite and march against knife crime in Ben Kinsella's name. Dozen's of groups were set up on Facebook to remember Ben and recruited the call to march.

In a short space of time, social networking returned a 400-strong crowd to walk in the street and shout "What are we here for? Ben. Why are we here? No knives."

As a result, a united message was broadcast nationally on television and appeared in the printed press. This demonstrates how Generation Y achieve a motivated end goal by naturally harnessing the power of social networking and web 2.0.