Business Goes Virtual – Chapter 2: The New Face(book) of Organizations

The second post of my Business Goes Virtual blog series continues with “Chapter 2: The New Face(book) of Organizations” and how businesses are using social technology to interact with their customers, but also how users are also being empowered by it.

Groundswell

The power behind the groundswell concept is that suddenly everyday people have unparalleled power, especially people that gather together and create communities (see http://www.forrester.com/groundswell). But what has changed to empower these communities with such power? Surely groups of passionate people have long yearned for the opportunity to influence or perhaps even hijack issues. Of course, there have been many times in history when large groups congregated to spark change. However, the logistics with massing large groups can be very cumbersome, expensive, and difficult to communicate.

Enter Web 2.0— a World Wide Web based on collaboration rather than content— and suddenly all these obstacles evaporate, at least for virtual groups. In their book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, authors Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams describe how a low- cost collaborative infrastructure is empowering the many— they term these “the weapons of mass collaboration.” Tapscott and Williams warn that these weapons support a new level of collaboration that will turn the economy upside down and may well facilitate the destruction of organizations who fail to adjust.

(Pg 23)

The 2011 Egyptian revolution was facilitated by the use of social media websites Twitter and Facebook to co-ordinate and to organize the protests, thus increasing local and global awareness. Because of this “Twitter Revolution”, the now ousted Hosni Mubarak at the time believed that shutting off the internet would stifle the rebellion. (Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/28/whats-going-on-in-egypt_n_815734.html)

Events like these (including the protests in Libya), are a prime examples of how powerful Web 2.0 can be. Social media has given the power back to the public and stripped organizations and even political parties of theirs. How has social media empowered you as a person, consumer, etc.?

Buy a physical or electronic copy of Business Goes Virtual: http://www.businessexpertpress.com/books/business-goes-virtual-realizing-value-collaboration-social-and-virtual-strategies

The content includes:
PART I - THE CONVERGENCE

Chapter 1 - Virtual Business: Real or Imaginary?

Chapter 2 - The New Face(book) of Organizations

Chapter 3 - Real Leadership in the Virtual World

Chapter 4 - The Power of Sharing

Chapter 5 - Making Sense of Virtual Worlds

PART II THE STRATEGIES

Chapter 6 - Any Place, Any Time

Chapter 7 - The People Know Best

Chapter 8 - Everyone Has a Stake

Chapter 9 - Real in the Virtual World

PART III THE WAY AHEAD

Chapter 10 - What Every Leader Needs to Know

Facebook - Your Stories can be real time ads now!

Facebook has just launched its new initiative allowing you to become the star of the marketing your friends see on their profiles.

I have to try this as I am likely the Starbuck's queen at Brookdale /Yonge in Toronto.

Sponsored stories will allow advertisers to copy certain pieces of information from a Facebook user's news feeds and pin those posting tot he profiles of their friends. It's a new way for marketers to increase the visability of certain stories that show in their new feeds.

Word of mouth, recommendations, and endorsements are a major value to marketers.

Now when a Facebook user presses a like button for a certain product or service, or checks in at a location using Facebook Places, and downloads an application, marketers can now take that information and use it as a sponsored story.

Users can prevent what they share appearing by adjusting their privacy settings of their news feed.

Stores to sell products or services are effective, and entertaining. These types of approaches extend the reach of marketing professionals as they have more content to leverage, and voices to leverage to echo their brands.

Facebook Edges Ahead of MySpace

Lots happening in the continued dynamics of the War of the Web 2.0 Giants.

Recent developments reported that MySpace have just cut 30% of their staff to reduce operating costs, as the intensity increases in the face of popular competition like Facebook.

These recent actions will leave MySpace with about 1000 employees and over 400 will lose their jobs. This is the biggest restructuring since the company was acquired by Fox. This was one of the first major moves of MySpace's new CEO, Owen Van Natta as he replaced Chris DeWolfe, one of the co-founders.

MySpace is now facing increasing competition from social network Facebook. Facebook and Twitter are growign rapidly.

Facebook has now edged for the first time ahead of MySpace with over 70,278,000 unique visitors to its site in May 2009 vs My Space's 70,237,000. Worldwide, Facebook has had more than 307 million unique visitors in April, according to ComScore, and MySpace has more than 123 million.

With the recent news, NewsCorp (MySpace) shares fell US4cents of 4.2% yesterday to $9.41 on the Nasdaq stock market.

Facebook and Social Mediated Advertising

Facebook is taking a second swing at online classified ads, teaming up with Oodle to launch a classified section that combines selling with the more social aspects that Facebook's users have grown accustomed to. How Facebook will make money from them is still to be determined, however.

Facebook has revamped its online classifieds page. Its new look and feel is -- reminiscent of a Web 2.0-style community, with features that allow for more conversation and networking.

Facebook previously had a classifieds page, Facebook Marketplace, which it launched about 18 months ago, but the site decided to pull it and start again, Oodle CEO Craig Donato told the E-Commerce Times. It selected Oodle, whose online classified software platform supports communities on AOL and MySpace , to relaunch the page, which will carry the same name.

"Online classifieds in social networking communities, as it turns out, is a harder nut to crack than many people would expect," Donato said.

Facebook is rolling out its new classifieds page over a 60-day period.

The site's goal was to keep the buy and sales interactions as lightweight and conversational as possible, Donato said. "The ads just become part of the general conversation -- 'Bob' is writing about remodeling his home and selling furniture that he doesn't need and here is an ad for a sofa."

Charity Participation

The fundamentals of the site work just as an online classified would, with sellers registered the items they are putting up for sale and buyers browsing the listings. They contact sellers through Facebook and then the pre-sale negotiations and exchange of money takes place offline.

Oodle added a few twists, though. Facebook members can also go to the Marketplace, post and listing and then select "Sell for a Cause" Once posted, the listing is distributed to friends through news feeds -- essentially allowing the seller to turn its friends network into a fundraising channel.

Facebook Marketplace relaunched with more than a million registered nonprofits to which Facebook members can choose to donate. Oodle has teamed up with Network for Good to collect payments and distribute the collected money to charities.

Revenue Model?

It would be interesting to track how much is raised through this channel. More to the point, the online classifieds and the revenues that it can raise could also provide a valuation proof point for Facebook, Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, told the E-Commerce Times. "Facebook really needs a revenue model that can support valuation."

However, it is unclear whether or how Facebook would capture a percentage of any of this revenue stream. More than likely it will be leveraging the content to fine-tune its ad strategy, he said. "Facebook knows a lot about its constituency and should be able to route ads appropriately." It also has a captive audience, he noted. "For all these reasons, this should turn into an interesting and probably very successful experiment."

War Over Classifieds

Indeed, online classifieds have proven to be one of the more bullet-proof content generators for Web 2.0, once a particular site has gained traction. One only has to trot out the iconic Craigslist to understand the appeal. When it launched some 10 years ago, Craigslist cut the legs out from under newspaper classifieds -- one of the reasons why the industry is in such turmoil today.

Now as sites such as Facebook, AOL and MySpace gear up with their offerings, they are looking to do something similar to Craigslist. At the end of last month, AOL launched AOL Classifieds -- also powered by Oodle -- where consumers can search through local classifieds listings by ZIP Code.

AOL Classifieds also links consumers to classifieds listings on other properties within the AOL network, such as AOL Autos, AOL Jobs, AOL Personals, and AOL Real Estate.

Source:
Facebook Takes Another Poke at Classified Ads
Erika Morphy, E-Commerce Times

Facebook Evolves Network Connections

Social Networking Sites - Faced with Revenue Generating Challenges

Facebook and Other social networking sites like MySpace face a continual reality of the need to generate revenue. As they continue to open up their communities to advertizing, they risk alienating their loyal customer bases. People visit the sites to socialize with friends, vs being offered a coupon from Pizza Pizza.

The user base is a major asset of Facebook, and the markets have valued this intellectual capital asset. However, tapping into this reservoir for revenue and shareholder value returns remains illusive. In 2008 Facebook had an estimated $210 million in ad revenue, compared with MySpace's $585 Million (according to eMarketer).

Ad spending on social networking sites totaled an estimated $1.2B in 2008, less than the $1.4B that online research eMarketer had preciously predicted. The shortfall is due to the current financial dip in the economy.With over 160 million users on Facebook, perhaps Facebook with their recent announcement of Facebook Connect have sorted out how.

Value of Facebook Connect

"Facebook Connect is a feature that lets people take their friends with them as they surf the web. But there is an added benefit to marketrs. By allowing users to log in to other websites with their Facebook ID and then funnel back what they do on those sites., Connect provides an opportunity for marketers to interact wiht the Facebook community in a casual way. Higher value user generated content

With a one-click login to Facebook Connect, websites have access to an unprecedented amount of user data. Using this data, sites now have the ability to redefine the way they display user generated content. Gone are the days where all you will see is content from random avatars. Now sites can surface UGC from actual friends. If your friends haven’t made any actions on the site, then we can surface UGC from people like you – maybe fellow alumni or co-workers. Say I’m shopping for a TV on Amazon, the 400+ reviews from people I don’t know have limited value to me compared to a review from my friend or even someone I don’t know who is similar to me.

Get brand content in Facebook without advertising

The strategy of fishing where the fish are is timeless. When time spent online was dominated by the big portals, our media dollars went to buying up ads and unique sponsorships on Yahoo and the like. Although Facebook Connect isn’t an advertising buy, it can accomplish the same goals as one (and in an unintrusive manner). Brands can get their content into Facebook’s viral channels by letting visitors post news feed stories, status messages, photos, events, and more without leaving the website.

Smart brands and agencies will learn that the key to getting content into Facebook is about providing a meaningful value exchange for each Facebook Connect interaction, not prompting their user to post to Facebook at every turn. If a site is successful at giving users a good reason to post content to Facebook, it can make a world of difference to reach and visibility. The strong impact is only partly due to Facebook’s traffic. When brands appear in Facebook via Connect, the impressions interpreted as an individual’s endorsement of a particular product and are not subject to ad tune-out, making the impression far more valuable." (Source: Mashable).

If you are a PowerPoint freak, here is a slideshow created by social media marketing agency bigMETHOD, laying down the FBC basics.

All Facebook has a good listing of the diverse Facebook connect sites.

NOTE:

When Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook back in October 2007, it paid $240 million dollars for the preferred stock, which meant that the company was valued at roughly 15 billion dollars. A big discussion broke out over whether Facebook was really worth that much, or $15 billion was an unrealistic number.

It turns out that it was, since Facebook values itself at somewhere around $3.7 billion dollars. Facebook’s own assessment of its worth: $8.88 per share, which gives the company a market value of around $3.7 billion - this is clearly well below the $15B unrealistic valuation put on Facebook in October 2007.

Facebook Perspectives.

Toronto has over a million Facebook users and is one of the largest social networking communities globally. With over 120 million active users globally, Facebook is the 4th most trafficked website in teh world, and the most trafficked social media site in the worls (ComScore). Over 55,000 users, work related, college and high school networks use Facebook. However, more than 50% of the users are college graduates.

Some Key Facts

It holds some amazing photo reach as well as it is also the No. 1 photo sharing application on the Web (comScore)

* More than 10 billion photos uploaded to the site
* More than 30 million photos uploaded daily
* More than 6 million active user groups on the site

International Growth

In a little over five months, Fcaebook has released the site in more than 20languages, including Spanish, French, German, Russian and Korean.

Platform

* More than 400,000 developers and entrepreneurs
* Over 24,000 applications have been built on Facebook Platform
* 140 new applications added per day
* More than 95% of Facebook members have used at least one application built on Facebook Platform
* 25m users, growing 3% per week, which is 100,000 new users per day (up from 7.5m users in July 2007), projected to reach 50m by end of 2007

Other Interesting Facts:

* 1% of all time spent on the internet is Facebook
* 50% of registered users come back to the site every day.
* 60 billion page views per month, 50 pages per user every day
* 6th most trafficked site in the U.S
* 1 bn photos hosted on the site, 6m uploaded each deay, 70k photos served per second, making facebook the biggest photo sharing site on the web
* 1-2m people are on facebook simultaneously at any one time
* $100m per year advertising deal with Microsoft
* Internal valuation of $8bn, based on projected revenues of $1bn p.a. by 2015

How are companies using Facebook?

TD Canada is using Faceboook as a recruiting tool for Gen X and Y Talent, as well as to offer linkages to retail banking services for student loans - all with the long term view of hooking this next generation of talent's wallets and sales growth for upselling long term mortgages, wealth management services etc - in the preparation for this generation to inherit millions from the Baby Boomers - creating the richest generation in history. JP Morgan is also using Facebook actively for external recruiting as well.

Many companies have chosen not to deploy Facebook behind the firewall - especially in highly regulated insutries. However, there are now new solutions that solve these concerns and are being pioneered at JP Morgan and Bank of America. Helix is currently helping global banks deploy security safe Facebook solutions and build applications to meet client needs.

For more information, please contact cindy@helixcommerce.com.

Networking Pays off on Income Levels

Networks Have Economic Value

In economics and business, a network effect (also called network externality) is the effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other users.The classic example is the telephone. The more people own telephones, the more valuable the telephone is to each owner. This creates a positive externality because a user may purchase their phone without intending to create value for other users, but does so in any case.

The expression "network effect" is applied most commonly to positive network externalities as in the case of the telephone. Negative network externalities can also occur, where more users make a product less valuable, but are more commonly referred to as "congestion" (as in traffic congestion or network congestion).

Over time, positive network effects can create a bandwagon effect as the network becomes more valuable and more people join, in a positive feedback loop. (Source WikiEnclopedia).

Social Media Network Linked In Proves Value

Research findings by Anderson Analytics confirms what everyone already
suspects:

* Nearly 60% of users have incomes of $93,000 or more.
*Executives with an average income of $104,000 make up 28% of the 2,000 random users polled for the study. Another 30% are self-identified “consultants” with an average income of $93,000.
*People with lots of connections tend to make more money, according to the study - those with incomes between $200-$350k were seven times more likely to have at least 150 connections than lower income users.

The study segmented users into four categories: executives (28%),
networkers/consultants (30%), late adopters (22%) (not sure what this is) and “exploring options (20%.

Does this mean we need to stop wasting time on Facebook and MySpace. If one adds a couple of hundred connections, does this mean they will be earning $350K plus.

When people join the network, they are given more options than simply connecting; the network is worth the sum of associations and actions that are allowed in the network. We must instead think of network value in terms of a network effect multiplier, as the actual value a network adds to an application is under the direct control of the application designers.

flickr Value

Flickr is a socially-enabled application built around photographs. Stripped of flickr's social tools, the service would provide a core value to its users - it would be a very high quality image host and archive. This core value is the "real" economic value of the product; this theory is consistent because flickr users have proven willing to pay for their services.

Flickr is also a socially-enabled tool, allowing users to connect around photographs. The social actions that can be taken in flickr are fairly limited; comments, page views, connections, groups and pools - these are fairly "commodity" social tools (in a sense, all of the social actions are native to the users as they have been previously pioneered). This is lightweight social networking, with very low barriers of entry; the network effect is light as well. To understand the final value of flickr, we multiply the core value by the network effect value (the network effect multiplier).

Facebook Value

As a contrast, consider Facebook. Facebook's core value is quite low. When you log onto Facebook you get a profile, a message box that doesn't interoperate with the rest of the world, some limited image hosting, etc., some downloadable widgets, a fun wall, etc. However, the network effects of Facebook are tremendous. The size of the network and myriad uses of the network create a network effect multiplier that is much greater than flickr's.

Summary

As social networking becomes commoditized, as more and more sites make social a part of their experience, the value-add of embracing social will need to be quantified. The key to understanding this is knowing that the value provided by the network is variable, and the outcome value of the service is contingent on the core value and the network effect multiplier.

Twitter Twitter Twitter - What's all the Fuss?

What exactly is Twitter?

Why is Twitter's exploding popularity so intriguing? How do we balance the realities of Facebook, Google, NING, Linked In, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, and even Yelp now to stay connected. When do we have quality time to simply focus and stay unconnected to think deeply on tough subjects? or .. Are we simply evolving as humans to be connected 24x7 in social mediated communities and our new DNA is collaboration on steroids.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, as well as a United Kingdom number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email.Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, as well as a United Kingdom number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email.

As of July 2008, over 2,200,000 accounts were registered.

Origin

Twitter's Update PageTwitter began as a research and development project inside San Francisco start-up company Obvious in March 2006. It was initially used internally by the company's employees, and officially launched in October 2006.

The service rapidly gained popularity: In March 2007, it won the 2007 South by Southwest Web Award in the blog category. Jack Dorsey, widely acknowledged as the man behind the concept of Twitter, gave the following playful acceptance speech at SXSW: "We'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"

In April 2007, Obvious spun off the service as a separate entity under the name Twitter, Inc.,with Jack Dorsey as its CEO.

So what is the True Value of Twitter?

The company has raised $22M but has not revenue as their main strategy currently is to amass eyeballs and traffic, much like Facebook, and YouTube have done (both both have yet to generate profits).

From what I can see Twitter is a micro-blogging site and as a free service let's you send the briefest of messages to everyone on your network. It marries both blogging and text messaging, and now with its integration into Facebook -- these updates or "tweets" allow you to send short messages. So, what do you tweet about - like a stream of consiousness as people say: I am hungry, gone to the washroom, having a nap, going to bed, Boss in office now, Dark Knight rocks, Hillary falls big time, etc.

According to ComScore, Twitter has tripled this year in membership since last November with members fast approaching 4 million. We have companies like CNN send out newsalerts now on twitter, and even JetBlue sends its customer service updates via twitter. Even Cisco's CTO, Padmasreer Warrior twitters all day long. She recently twittered, "an aargh moment right now, forgot to pack my laptop power chord."

Some Venture capitalists see Twitter as an excellent example of the real-time web - we saw in blogs the beginning of longer communication - now we have shorter bursts of information via twitter tweets.

Despite its' infancy, Twitter is creating an ecosystem of communication dynamics that tweet about Macs, micro-reviews of Books, movies, restaurants - so for consumers mining this intelligence is where the value will come from.

Recently Twitter acquired Summize for an undisclosed amount which is a search engine entirely used for Twitter, as well Twitter can now display relevant ads much in the way that Google does so advertising revenue will soon come on stream.

Helix Web 3.0 Perspective

One thing for sure is that there is a new generation of vocabulary - blogs, podcasting, web 2.0, web 3.0, social mediated technologies, twitters and tweets, so if senior executives in companies are not keeping abreast of these new ways of collaborating and communicating - this creates a create deal of communication complexity in knowledge diffusion as the web is evolving in continued warp speed.

The only often to understand how these solutions can be applied in concrete business ways is to experience them first hand. I will be setting up Twitter integration on my blog site and my Facebook site, with the help of my 20 year old daughter. I am an active Facebook user, and been blogging now for awhile - here's to learning how to twitter and see what new conversations come my way.

One thing you can count on - if you are not part of the conversation - you simply won't know what is possible.

As business models continue to win based on higher levels of emotional IQ, I do believe we are well underway now in Social Mediated IQ and competitive advantage will intensify in these areas, as the Gen X and Gen Y's grow up even more. Let alone when the Generation V (Generation Virtual) come on stream graduating from the world of WebKinz, Club Penguin, There.com - we will soon have the first generation totally socialized with avatars.

This is the topic of my blog next. Sorry for being offline recently - been on vacation - and simply reading great books. I highly recommend Dealing with Darwin by Geoffrey Moore.

Social Networking : Good for Business or Not?

There is no question that right now, Social Networking and Social Mediated Business Models are Hot Hot Hot topics.

At Helix, we don't see any end in sight for creating new business models as companies go inreasingly digitally native. There is a long list of social networking solutions, from: Bebo, Facebook, Friendster, Linked In, MySpace, Neighborhood, Ning, Perfspot, Orkut, etc.

Masses of users are signing up to social network services at an astonishing rate; MySpace alone currently has over 300 million accounts. But even as social networking makes it easier than ever to communicate online in real time, democratizing the Web and deluging cyberspace with information and opinions posted by millions of people eager for ”virtual” conversation, poses many challenges for the business world.

Results of an exclusive MessageLabs survey conducted in September 2007, reveal that approximately 75% of companies said the number of visits their employees were making to social networking sites had increased over the previous six months.

About 60% thought this had damaged productivity; while over 75% believed corporate reputation could be seriously threatened if staff posted negative comments about their organization online.No wonder over 70% of respondents said they were thinking of restricting employee access to social networking sites.

There’s a lot of anxiety around at the moment in companies and many are struggling to get to grips with the full implications of social networking and what it all might mean for their business.

For many organizations, this free flowing, unregulated environment seems a truly intimidating place, the Internet’s answer to a lawless Wild West. With concerns over identities stolen or corporate networks infected with unwanted malware as cyber-criminals hijack social networking for their own malevolent purposes.

Hence, it is not surprising that a number of big-hitting organizations, such as Lloyds TSB and Credit Suisse, are reported to have outright banned employees’ use of social networking sites. The Ontario Government has banned the use of Facebook for its employees, and in recent discussions with their CTO they are planning to reverse this decision, given the enterprise application value of Facebook and recruiting linkages that Facebook is now providing to the marketplace.

But not every business has followed suit. Some see the craze as a gilt-edged opportunity to expand networks of contacts, accelerate business processes, engage with (and listen to) customers more closely, and even identify and recruit high-caliber staff more cost-effectively than previously possible.

Others are adopting a “wait and see” policy or looking to follow an intermediary path between unfettered access and blanket ban.

Recent research by Emedia revealed that over 10% of social networkers visit social networking sites for business reasons. This growing trend is reflected in the appearance of an increasing number of business-oriented sites, such as: LinkedIn, Viadeo, Huddle and BT Tradespace, designed to help companies initiate and strengthen relationships with colleagues, clients, suppliers and partners, wherever they are in the world. Moreover, this is a medium that not only promotes exchange of knowledge, ideas and information, but can also make it an unusually energizing and rewarding experience.

Social networking also plays a major role in collaboration and increasing staff communication,improving morale, motivation and job satisfaction. Big brands are also getting inon the act as they recognize the benefits of building a presence in the social networking environment.

Research by Microsoft has shown that almost three-quarters of UK social networkers have already visited profiles set up by companies specifically to promote particular brands.

On the other side, these solutions also can be addictive. In a recent poll by silicon.com, 8% of workers owned up tospending between one and five hours a week and 2% admitted to spending between five and 10 hours a week – on social networking sites while in the office.

Facebook users spend on average over 20 minutes a day for example.

Risks that need to be understood are: bandwidth implications, the risk of indiscreetly broadcasting confidential commercial information and valuable intellectual property or inappropriate comments on the company that can have major impacts on brand reputation etc. Other real threats include: spammers, virus-writers and their partners in crime who set up false profiles, trawl through social networking sites and piece together job titles, phone numbers, email addresses and so on –just the sort of information they need to launch sophisticated, highly targeted attacks on corporate networks.

Results of an exclusive MessageLabs survey conducted in September 2007, reveals that approximately 75% of companies said the number of visits their employees were making to social networking sites had increased over the previous six months.

Leadership Actions

We recommend the following actions to our clients to take advantage of Social Mediated Solutions:

1.) Ensure you have a corporate policy defined clearly so employees understand expectations and limitations;
2.) Set up a governance counsel in the early stages for Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 to ensure the organization collectively learns on how to use these tools vs having one-off experiences;
3.) Ensure an overall architectural strategy for the Web 2.0 social mediated technology toolkits vs having a series of toolkits that are not easily integrated or provide the business intelligence on usage across different solution sets for: wikis, blogs, podcasting, IM, social networking tools (facebook) etc.,
4.) Fund pilots that help the organization learn from and then share these experiences to support the organization's learning

At this stage in the Canadian landscape there are some leaders in developing innovative Web 2.0 approaches in companies like: Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust, and early days for Bank of Nova Scotia and CIBC as well.

Concluding Comments:

This is a new way of working and designing business processes. Community networks are critical for organizational evolution. No organization can hide from these new needs or block its evolution. The market is about conversational value and a new performance metric in time will impact an organization's valuation. Community Reach is powerful and as new accounting standards evolve based on Social Capital fundamentals, this will heighten organization's awareness for the need to change.

The biggest reality is to attract Gen X and Y talent and now generation V (Virtual) -organizations need a focused Web 2.0 and Social Mediated Business Strategy to take advantage and learn from the increasingly connected world.

Facebook - A Disruptive Innovation

Introduction

In the last couple of years, Facebook has gone from a college photo-sharing site to a burgeoning business- networking platform for self-promotion, advertising and multimedia interaction. With new apps and add-ons, Facebook users can send each other a virtual drink, create and host events, advertise their businesses through social ads, and more.

There are now over 66 million “active” users, with an average of 250,000 new registrations per day. Facebook claims over 65 billion pages views per month, and that people spend an average of 20 minutes on the site every day.Recently, Facebook began working on translating the site into different languages in order to make the site available internationally. This will increase its reach to more global audiences, and make it even more valuable target for marketing campaigns.

According to Hitwise, over 72% of all U.S. social network traffic in 2007 went to MySpace. Although, Facebook’s traffic increased 50% last year and MySpace traffic decreased 8%, these numbers remind us of there is still tremendous value in MySpace and its eyeball reach.One of the questions we are often asked in supporting our clients develop stronger business innovation strategies leveraging social mediated technologies is how do we make sense of how these new toolkits can be applied to reach our customers, employees and suppliers differently.

Facebook is one of literally thousands of social networking toolkits, Linked IN, Google’s opensocial, Twitter, Spock etc…all are examples of potential social networking solutions. It is important to have an overall strategy and architecture vision to ensure you are using

Below is an excerpt from the Facebook 100 tools and Tips to Tap the Facebook Customer that we thought was exceptionally, good published on January 23, 2008 by the Editors of CRM.Why Facebook?Why has Facebook become the go-to networking site for marketers? Check out these articles to read up on the rise of this networking giant.
1. Inside Facebook: This blog is devoted to “tracking Facebook and the Facebook Platform.” You’ll find useful stats, marketing tips and more.
2. Facebook’s Ads Page: This page explains how Facebook provides business owners with self-service solutions, market-research solutions and integrated solutions when it comes to advertising.
3. Should You Advertise on Facebook?: This article helps U.K.-based businesses decide whether or not they should advertise on Facebook.
4. The Value of Facebook: Even in its earlier days, Facebook was considered a hot commodity in the industry. This post uncovers why there’s good reason for all the hype.
5. What’s the Big Deal About Facebook’s Social Ads?: This article discusses why Facebook’s social ads are such a hit.
6. $240 Million! Think of All the Beer We Can Buy!: When Microsoft shows a $240 million interest in your company, you know you’ve made it. Advertisers will also want to take note.
7.Why Is Facebook Suddenly So Popular Among We Geezers?: A CNET blogger wonders how Facebook’s popularity has stretched from its original base of the under-25 crowd.
8. Ten Reasons Why Facebook Is So Popular: This tongue-in-cheek article explains exactly why Facebook is such a popular site.
9. How Did Facebook Become So Popular?: This blogger tracks Facebook’s rise to social-networking stardom and its technique of “utilizing one of the most powerful viral marketing strategies ever conceived.”
10. Facebook: More Popular Than Porn: Time magazine’s Web site discovers that Facebook is more popular than porn sites among college students.
11.Fifteen Reasons Facebook May Be Worth $15 Billion: Back when Microsoft decided to invest $240 million in Facebook, it also declared the social-networking site to be worth around $15 billion total. The reasons for the site’s popularity still hold true in 2008.
12. The Impact of Facebook’s Platform: This article from ReadWriteWeb compares Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to a young Steve Jobs and applauds Facebook for opening up its company to developers and advertisers.AdvertisingLearn about current and future advertising opportunities on Facebook by reading these posts.
13. Sponsored Groups: Sponsor your own group on Facebook by purchasing a link that hosts ad content, message boards and more.
14. Mini-Feed: When it first came out, members weren’t sure if they wanted to be updated each time a friend added new photos, changed their status or even wrote on someone else’s Wall. As an advertiser, though, you can track your Mini-Feed to find out what your friends have been up to and more closely study your target audience.
15.AceBucks: Facebook users earn AceBucks by playing games and taking surveys, then cashing them in for real-life prizes like Wii systems and iPods. Create your own survey or game to promote your business, then invite others to play.
16.Five Moneymaking Opportunities on Facebook: Mashable! lists several moneymaking strategies available on Facebook, advertising and otherwise.
17.Facebook’s Secret Rate Card: This article explores which Facebook advertising methods are worth your money and effort, and which aren’t.
18. Could Facebook Change Web Advertising?: Listen to this NPR (National Public Radio) report to uncover the newest trends in Web advertising.
19.How to Effectively Advertise on Facebook: Trendcatching’s post explores some of the more lucrative strategies advertisers have used to tap into the Facebook market.
20.How Does Facebook Figure into Your Online Advertising Campaign?: This article is a must-read for business owners who are thinking about incorporating Facebook marketing into their own advertising campaigns.
21.Social Networks Find Ways to Monetize User Data: Learn how to make money off of your Facebook friends (it’s not as sleazy as it sounds) with the tips and analyses provided here.
22.Digging into Facebook’s Ad Future: CNET News.com believes that Facebook has the capabilities to become an “advertiser’s paradise,” despite some social-networking sites’ inability to make serious profits.
23.Promote Your Cause on Facebook in Six Easy Steps: TechSoup shows nonprofits how to use Facebook for self-promotion.
24.Facebook Ads: Facebook’s official advertising page strives to prove how social ads, profile pages and paid ads can increase a company’s business.
25. Free Marketing OpportunitiesThe beauty of using Facebook as a marketing tool comes from the endless ways in which you can advertise your business for free. Once you’ve set up a free account, use your creativity to maximize these features.
26.Profile Page: All Facebook members get their own profile page when they sign up. Use this as your canvas to upload pictures, logos and other information about your company.
27.Groups: Use the site’s Groups feature to network with your target audience. You can join existing groups or create one just for your business to amp up the buzz about its services.
28.Facebook Marketplace: College kids use the site’s Marketplace to scout out used couches and find roommates, but a savvy business owner can advertise services and product sales, as well as search for new employees.
29.Networks: Ignoring the Networks question when you create your company’s profile could lose it a lot of business. List your business’s city, industry, neighborhood and any other relevant information to let potential customers and business partners know where they can find you.
30.Facebook Badge: Facebook describes its Badge feature as “a customizable way to share your Facebook information on other Web sites.” Creating your own Badge will link Facebook friends to your company’s Web site.
31.Events: Instead of printing out flyers and mailers the next time you want to advertise an event, use the free Facebook Events app to get the word out.
32.FunWall: Mass emails are so yesteryear. If you want to keep in close contact with your Facebook friends, use the FunWall to create a message or send a greeting to everyone at once.
33.Top Friends Network: Reward your top friends by sending them a virtual drink or writing on their FunWalls. As a marketing tool, the Top Friends network serves as another way to group your contacts, keep an eye on your target demographic, and quickly and effectively reach out to your company’s best customers.
34.Inbox: Send secure, private messages to your clients on Facebook with the Inbox app. You can still send out mass messages, but only to the contacts you select.Notes: Mashable! calls Facebook’s Notes application a blogging feature because of the way users post links, messages, photos and other information that they want to share with friends. Even if you maintain a blog elsewhere, give your Facebook friends an exclusive peek into your company’s news and behind-the-scenes schedule by posting here.
35.Contact Importer: The contact importer helps you “find your friends on Facebook.” If you want to find out if your clients or other work-related contacts use Facebook but think it’s a little lame to come right out and ask, upload your contacts from AIM, Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail and more to find out if they’re online.
36.Share Partners: When you publish updates to your company blog or Web site, add the link or a link and a photo to your Facebook profile using the Share Partners app.
37.Tools and ApplicationsFacebook add-ons allow you to customize your profile page and build up virtual relationships with clients and customers. Check out these tools and applications that will give your marketing plan a boost.
38.Facebook Social Ads: Pinpoint your company’s Facebook friends and friend wannabes by creating a social ad that reveals itself to visitors of your profile and friends of friends of friends … you get the idea.
39.Facebook Pages: A more business-savvy name for Profile, the Facebook Page now includes all kinds of add-ons so that you can post videos, logos, pictures and other marketing info.
40.Facebook Polls: Businesses can effectively find out what their target audiences are thinking by utilizing this polling service on Facebook.
41.Facebook Beacon: Connect your company’s Web site to your customers’ Facebook profiles with the Beacon action alerts. By integrating just three lines of code, your customers can choose to let their friends see what they viewed and bought on your company’s Web site and more.
42.Facebook Insights: Through charts and mapping devices, companies can accurately track their “presence and promotion on Facebook.”
43.Facebook Platform: If you want stand out from the thousands of other Facebook advertisers, create your own tools and applications with Platform. This system helps Facebook users design interactive apps so that visitors and friends can easily explore what your company has to offer.
44.FeedBurner: Advertise your company’s blog or podcast with the FeedBurner app for Facebook. A feed will appear on your profile, so visitors to your page are instantly updated with new postings, videos and more.
45.Gydget: Small companies, bands, nonprofit groups and other organizations should try out Gydget, “a stand-alone viral-promotions tool” that you can add to your Facebook page and also encourage others to integrate with their own pages Update fans and clients with details about upcoming events, networking opportunities, sales and product launches.
46.Ether: Charge by the phone call when you list your Ether number on Facebook with this ingenious app. By adding the button to your Facebook page, you can advertise your expertise and invite friends to call you for advice.
47.Jobster: Attract new talent from the Facebook pool by integrating a Jobster button with your profile. Your company can build its own job network, submit a listing in the Jobster network and more.
48.QOOP: QOOP helps you create promotional items like T-shirts and mugs from digital photos. Facebook users can use the QOOP app to share the items by letting friends view and purchase your marketing creations.
49.Oodle Classifieds: Organize your company’s advertisements, job postings and classifieds on Facebook with the Oodle app.
50. Targeting the Right DemographicBefore you decide to tackle the entire Facebook market, try narrowing down your strategy by researching each of Facebook’s demographics.
51Big Brands and Facebook: Demographics, Case Studies and Best Practices: This slideshow from Forrester breaks down Facebook’s primary demographics by age, country and other dividers to give advertisers insight into effective marketing campaigns.
52.Facebook Polls Launches Tonight: Marketing Research Paradise: This article details the ways in which Facebook’s Polls app can help your company get in touch with its target demographic.
53.Could Facebook Become the New MySpace: Many have speculated over the relationship between Facebook and MySpace.com, and this article explores the specific demographics of each.
54.Facebook by the Numbers: This article is from May 2007, but readers can still use the post as a guide to study Facebook’s age demographics.
55.Facebook Users Up 89 Percent Over Last Year; Demographic Shift: Find out how Facebook’s overall demographic has changed from its inception to today.
56.Facebook’s Most Popular Apps So Far: Want to know where to slip in ads and find your company’s audience? Find out which apps people are using the most on Facebook.
57.Facebook Goes Beyond College, High School Markets: Even if your company’s target audience isn’t made up of college students, Facebook is still a viable marketing platform. This article explains why.
58.Facebook Market Research Secrets: Discover the sneaky way to perform market research by using Facebook’s tools.
59.Facebook: The Future of Market Research?: This market research analysis holds that “sites [like Facebook] are providing useful business solutions not only to advertisers, but also to market research companies and marketing services companies.” Read the whole article to find out why.
60.Facebook Provides Fascinating Glimpse Into Society, Media Demographics: This analysis of Facebook’s advertisers also gives tips on how to look for marketing clues from your target audience.
61.Social-Networking Demographics: This article tracks the general demographic stats of social networking sites like Facebook.
62.Exercise for the Reader: Facebook Member Stats: The author of this post decided “to pull together some stats on relative numbers of members from each country.” Find out the results by reading the entire article.
63.How-to GuidesFollow these how-to guides to navigate the limitless marketing possibilities and tailor your own Facebook marketing strategy.
64.Six Ways to Market on Facebook: This article should help those business owners who are still relatively new to the Facebook world. Simple tips include “host an event and post it” and “post news articles.”
65.Inside//Out: Facebook: This blogger gives great tips on how to effectively market your company on Facebook without disrupting the advertiser-customer relationship.
66.Tips to Marketing on Facebook: Writer Janet Meiners considers some of the basic but effective marketing tools that Facebook has to offer.
67.Facebook Marketing. It Can Be a Good Thing: BusinessWeek’s article about Facebook marketing considers the pros and cons of placing ads on the networking site.
68.Eight Marketing Ideas from Facebook Groups: The Influential Marketing Blog dissects seven different Facebook groups and general event groups to find out what works and what doesn’t when promoting your event or business.
69.Ten Killer Facebook Marketing Tips: From sending virtual gifts to adding friends, this article explains why certain Facebook actions are great self-promoters.
70.Facebook Usage and Marketing: Check out this guide for tips on how to make Facebook’s apps work for you and your business.
71.How to Create a Successful Facebook Group: If your business wants to create a group on Facebook to reach a bigger audience, use these tips to gain a large following of fans.
72.Target Niche Audiences With Facebook Advertising: AllBusiness.com publishes this post to help advertisers understand the pros and cons of using Facebook as a marketing platform.
73.How Marketers Use Facebook: This upbeat article has some useful tips to introduce marketers into the world of Facebook.
74.Facebook Marketing: Social Networking at its Best: You don’t have to go all out with social ads and beacons to use Facebook as a marketing tool. This article explains the benefits of setting up your profile page and networking with new friends.
75.How to Use Facebook Status for Marketing Purposes: Instead of letting friends know that you’re “sleeping” or “at work,” use the Status feature to clue customers in on what big business idea you’re working on.
76.Small Business StrategiesEven if you don’t have the budget to promote a presidential election with ABC, your small business can benefit from Facebook’s marketing strategies. Find out how with this list of tools and tips.
77.Networking: Use Facebook as a Marketing Tool: This article focuses on how entrepreneurs can use Facebook as a self-promotion tool and turn social networking into professional networking.
78.Top Five Viral Facebook Techniques: Learn how to make the most of referrals, giveaways and other simple apps with the tips in this article.
79.Web 3.0 Marketing with Facebook: Find out why Facebook is great for small businesses wanting to tap into a large, global market.
80.Facebook as a B2B Marketing Tool: This article chronicles how ordinary Facebook users have begun to use the social networking community as a place to self-promote and improve business.
81.Top Ten Ways to Use Facebook to Promote Your Business for Free: If your company doesn’t have a huge marketing budget, don’t worry. This article gives tips on using Facebook’s free features to reach consumers.
82.Entrepreneurs Need Both Facebook and LinkedIn: This article from the Small Business Trends website details why entrepreneurs should take advantage of the many self-promotion and networking opportunities that Facebook offers its members.
83.Time for Facebook?: This author tries to figure out why Facebook, not just e-mail, is a useful tool for keeping contacts. Readers will also find tips on how to become more savvy at online networking.
84.Make Money with Facebook Applications: Web designers and developers are encouraged to create their own Facebook applications as an on-the-side moneymaking project.
85.Using Facebook for Business: A Real Life Example: The analysis of a real-life Facebook marketing strategy will help other small-business owners determine if a similar technique is right for their company.
86.Facebook Platform: This page includes “everything you need to get started building a Facebook Application.” Ready, set, design!
87.Facebook, a Marketer’s Friend: This article from The Wall Street Journal tracks a small-business owner and her lucrative, profitable adventures with Facebook marketing.
88.Five Ways Small Business Can Benefit from Social Media/Networking Sites: Small-business owners will find ways to use Facebook to meet their unique marketing needs.The Danger of FacebookBefore you invest all of your company’s hard-earned marketing budget into Facebook advertising, check out these guides that discuss some of the negative challenges you might encounter.
89.Why Facebook Is Not a Viable Marketing Platform: Blogger Muhammad Saleem considers the reasons why Facebook marketing isn’t always a good idea. From lack of focus to lack of visibility, he argues that there are several reasons to avoid this strategy.
90.Facebook Grooming Us for Intrusive Marketing?: A blog at CNET News.com suggests that Facebook’s cozy relationship with advertisers treads on the dangerous concept of intrusive marketing.
91.Facebook Marketing Stunt Backfires: This article reveals how careless marketing tactics can lead to controversial, shady ad campaigns and bad public relations.
92.Five Things That Could Kill Facebook: From inbox contamination to application noise, learn how not to overdo your Facebook activity.
93.A Failed Facebook Marketing Campaign: Discover why Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Facebook marketing campaign wasn’t a success, and what your company can learn from its mistakes.
94.Facebook’s New Ads: If You’re a Good Person, Why Should You Want Privacy?: Can advertising on Facebook backfire? This article thinks that it can, if members are annoyed that big businesses prey on social- networking sites just to spy on their consumers.
95.Facebook Beacon: A Cautionary Tale About New-Media Monopolies: This article condemns certain Facebook marketing opportunities like Beacon by calling the technique “a classic case of overreaching.” Read this post before setting up a Facebook-oriented marketing strategy.
96.Madison Avenue Stampedes Onto Facebook: This video/article combination warns Facebook users against huge corporations that are “using Facebook … to exploit the site’s functions for their own business-networking pursuits, personal expression and just plain goofy fun.” Make sure you steer clear of these sketchy techniques if you want to attract new customers via Facebook.
97.Ten Reasons Why Social-Media Marketing Sucks: From undefined goals to all-around randomness, see why this blogger thinks social-media marketing sucks.Miscellaneous ResourcesThese resources provide even more insight into the many ways that advertisers can capitalize on Facebook’s popularity.
98.Social-Media Marketing in a Nutshell: Dosh Dosh introduces the concept of using social-media sites as venues for cutting-edge marketing techniques.
99.Facebook is the Marketing Story of ‘07: According to Influxinsights, “Facebook emerged from college dorms late in 2006 and then exploded onto the cultural scene in the U.S., U.K. and Canada in 2007.” Read the rest of the article to learn why 2007 was Facebook’s year.
100.Facebook Lets Advertisers Reach Members Via Free Apps: To reach customers on a “deeper level,” get tips on utilizing Facebook’s many applications.
101.Employers Reach Out to Recruits with Facebook: Besides marketing your business to consumers, why not market it to fresh recruits? This article shows you how.
102.Inside Facebook: The Facebook Book: This blog provides analyses and excerpts from the book “Inside Facebook” to help businesses understand what the social-networking trend can do for them.
103.Facebook Members Sell Their Own Ads: Though it’s currently against the rules, “more than 1,500 Facebook users have started placing advertisements on their own profile pages.” Find out how selling ads on your profile eventually backfires.
104.Why Your Company Needs to Be on Facebook: Harvard Business School’s Conversation Starter site publishes this article from Forrester’s Charlene Li.

Check out the many reasons above why all companies should consider joining Facebook or some form of social media stimulation technique to reach customers and employees in new ways. In the increasing war for talent a perfect storm is brewing. Getting your organization ready for the shift will be important to your organization's success.

If your organization is interested in investigating Facebook as a marketing channel further, the following resources may also be helpful:·

The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24·
The Updated Unofficial and Smartass Guide to Using Facebook·
CIO: Facebook CEO Appearance on 60 Minutes Leaves Many Underwhelmed
Facebook as a B2B Marketing Tool
How to Market Yourself & Your Company on Facebook
Facebook Marketing: Articles and Resources
Wikipedia: Facebook
Mahalo: Facebook

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Summary

Facebook is a solution that will continue to evolve and have impact on your future business models. Is your organization prepared to take advantage of these new forms of social media tools?
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