From Social Media to Social Strategy - Think Friending when you think Advertising

With the proliferation of online social networks, there has been a growing interest in understanding why people come and use this type of communication platform.

Social networking users are not monolithic. They comprise of people of all ages, people with different motivations and interests; and their level of emotional engagement and interaction style varies widely. The diversity of social networking users also explains the wide variation in their attitudes and usage patterns. The article titled “Understanding Users of a Social Network” by “Sean Silverthorne” is based on the years of research done by Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski. As mentioned in the article professor Piskorski has applied many of the insights to help companies develop strategies for leveraging these various online entities for profit.

The huge numbers involved in social networking, and the dominance of the traditionally hard-to-reach cohort of 18 - 24 year olds, raise companies’ interest in marketing to social networkers. The enormous amount of information that sites hold about their users enables marketers to target their message to specific demographics or interest groups in a much more precise way than is possible through traditional advertising channels. Having realized the impact of social media on customer life time value, one of the first steps towards developing a strategy is to understand the potential customers.

Professor Piskorski is attempting to answer three questions about the users of social networking sites:

• Why do people use social networking sites?

• What do people do when they visit these sites?

• What do the answers of above two questions tell businesses about how to market to these audiences?

In his view people use social networks to address network failures. "Online social networks are most useful when they address real failures in the operation of offline networks," says Piskorski. To prove his logic he gives an example – If I am looking to open a start up company and seeking help from someone regarding the same, one of the first things that I would do is to go to my friends and ask them if they know such a person. If they don’t I would ask them to inquire with their friends as a next step. Here lies the problem; the friends of friends don’t always have an incentive to help, so they won’t work on my behalf. So what do I do – here is where social networking sites such as LinkedIn come to my rescue. I could search through the network of my friends of friends and find the person I am looking for. In short, online social networks gained popularity by meeting those needs which could not be fulfilled by face-to-face networking. Moreover, Professor Piskorski also feels that people use social networks as a “covers”. He cites the example of people who say they are doing one thing online say - catching up with old friends but in reality they are doing something else – looking for a new job or looking for a mate.

In addition to the above people use social networking sites for a variety of other reasons – building and maintaining relationships, catching up with old friends, collaborating at work, quest for popularity, hiding from real life, brand building and advertising, common interest, entertainment, sharing online content and the list goes on.

The second question that Professor Piskorski tries to answer through his research findings is “What do people do when they visit these sites”? The research shows that photo applications are the most popular on these sites with more than seventy percent of all action on these sites related to viewing photos and profiles of others. Voyeurism is another thing that people engage in when they use social networking sites owing to the fact that social networks are places where voyeuristic behaviour is ok, within norms. Social networking sites give an easy way for people to pry into other peoples’ lives – it is something that most of us must have experienced; prior to coming to HHL and meeting face to face we knew something or the other about our future classmates thanks to these social networking sites.

The article also talks about the differences between the usage patterns of men and women on these sites. The attitudes and usage patterns of the users on these social networking sites are wide and varied so it makes sense for the companies to categorize the users into different segments while they are formulating a marketing strategy to target potential customers. One such research conducted by the Fox Interactive Media Inc. Categorizes the users of the social networking sites into six segments.

Segment	Who are they?	Brand opportunity
The Pros	The social networking world’s leading citizens	consider offering standing discounts, private shopping and/or product access, limited editions, and other exclusives
The See and Be Seens	The searchers, always on the lookout for new connections	Most influenced by brand advertising
The Connectors	The communication-positive human hubs of social networking	Receptive to recommendation from friends, rate discounts and free samples highly, like advertising, potential viral brand ambassadors
The Explorers	Users who are exploring the practical benefits of the medium but are not yet emotionally engaged	Keep the interaction simple, concise and benefits oriented specially at first.
The Rookies	New users who are still more connected to the traditional media	can reconnect with something fundamental they may have left behind: a favourite food, a life stage that’s passed, or a value that may have been left behind in childhood
The Spectators	Largely non-users, generally aware of but not yet engaged in social networking

Professor Piskorski says that marketers in the corporate world think of online social networks as social media and try to use it as just another channel to reach potential customers by getting them to click through to a site – and this in his opinion is not going to work. One piece of advice Piskorski tells his corporate clients: “To be successful, you need to shift your mindset from social media to social strategy.” Online social networks became popular by solving social failures in the offline world. Firms should begin to do the same and help people fulfill their social needs online.

Companies should change the products themselves to make them more social, and leverage group dynamics, using technologies such as Facebook Connect, Piskorski says. Using technology to help people build and leverage their own affinity networks is one interesting area for businesses to explore, he mentions.

The whole idea behind understanding the users is to be able to ‘befriend’ them. Companies should think ‘friending’ when they think ‘advertising’ and if they are able to do that it will create maximum value for them. Friends care about others’ needs and this is precisely what Professor Piskorski suggests companies to do – to befriend their customers and customize their products as per the needs of the customers. In a survey conducted when people were asked whether they would like to be advertising targets on such social networking sites – the respondents overwhelmingly replied ‘no’. On the other hand when they were asked whether they would like to enter into a two-way friend like relationship with the brands that they know, like and trust; the answer was a resounding ‘yes’. The reason - Friends treat you the way you want to be treated.

Reference article: Understanding Users of a Social Network

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6156.html

Author: Sean Silverthorne

About Professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski is an associate professor and a Marvin Bower Fellow in the Strategy unit at Harvard Business School.

About the author: Sean Silverthorne is the editor of HBS Working Knowledge, which provides a first look at the research and ideas of Harvard Business School faculty.