Social Media: Time Suck or Time Well Spent?

New research by Ohio State reports a link between time spend on Facebook and academic performance. ("Facebook Use Linked to Less Textbook Time", USA Today). Students who said they used Facebook reported grade-point averages between 3.0 and 3.5; those who don't use it said they average 3.5 to 4.0. Also, Facebook users said they studied one to five hours a week, vs. non-users' 11 hours or more. Students who spend their time accumulating friends, chatting and “poking” others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work.

There's no question that effective use of social media requires an enormous amount of time. 65% of the students in the Ohio State study who use Facebook reported using using it at least once every day, and many were accessing it multiple times. A new study of marketers who are using social media says nearly two-thirds (64%) of are using social media for five hours or more each week, with 39% using it 10 or more hours weekly. 10% are spending more than 20 hours each week with social media. In my own work, I find that 'social media creep' has set in. I now devote several hours a day to two blogs and Tweetdeck. I've been blogging for about a year now, and I devote more time to it every month. According to this study, I am pretty typical:

The survey found that there is a direct relationship between how long marketers have been using social media and their weekly time commitment. For people just beginning with social media, the median weekly time commitment is two hours per week. However, for those who have been at it for months, the median jumps to 10 hours per week. For those who report social media marketing use for years, the median is 20+ hours each week.

So what is the ROI on all that precious time that's being invested? Is it 'worth it'? I suppose it depends on what kind of reward you are looking for.

At the most basic level, social media is entertainment, that's why it's called 'media'. Does entertainment need an 'ROI'? If it replaces other entertainment like TV, sports or and video games, I would say 'no'. However, if it eats into study or work time, the answer is 'yes'.

There are more productive ways to develop social skills (see the Dentyne campaign for examples). According to my Millennial daughter, "there are plenty of people completely lacking social skills on Facebook, that's why they're on facebook rather than interacting and using said social skills." The skills students are developing in 'personal branding' also should be considered a poor tradeoff when thousands of dollars are being spent on education. But for marketers, boomers, and other professionals, the answer may depend on how social media 'rewards' are measured.

Accenture surveyed 3000 adults of all ages on their adoption of various technologies. The findings show there has been a very rapid adoption of blogging, podcasts and other social media among older consumers over the past year -- and a leveling off among Millennials. In fact, Accenture's research found "boomers increased their uptake of popular consumer technology applications at an average of 50 percent last year, nearly 20 times faster than Generation Y."

* Boomers increased their rate of reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67 percent year-over-year. That's nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1 percent).

* Boomers posted a 59 percent increase in use of social networking sites, more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent).

* Boomers increased watching/posting videos on the Internet by 35 percent,while Gen Y usage decreased slightly (-2 percent).

Marketers appear to be happy with the rewards of their social media activities. 81% say their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. At least two in three participants found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours a week invested in social media marketing, while those who have been doing this for years reported better results. The study also found more than half of participants reported a rise in search engine rankings. Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who’ve been using social media for years, with nearly 80% reporting a rise. Though about one in two found social media generated qualified leads, only about one in three said social media marketing helped close business, and this number goes up as high as 61% for those using SM longer. Finally, most strongly agree that marketing costs dropped when social media marketing was implemented.

For non-marketing types, the rewards also appear to be worth the time. According to Accenture, "they are likely adding life-enriching experiences that they see the younger generation adopting, and striving to remain intellectually and technologically literate, versatile and job-skill competitive." Not bad for something that is also entertaining. No wonder newspapers and TV are having a hard time competing in the attention game!

In the end, how you measure 'worth it' may depend on what activity is being displaced. In my case, it is sleep. I think most Millennials would agree that is a reasonable tradeoff.

Young Adults Will Embrace Local News on Social Networks

This article appeared in TVNEWSDAY, Friday, Mar 27 2009. Another version also appeared in MediaPost 3.27.09. It was written based on research I conducted in earlier this month on how Millennials are using social media.

If television stations want to talk to young adults (ages 18-30), the welcome mat is out - on social media networks.

New research conducted by market research and consultation firm CJ&N Inc. in partnership with Brand Amplitude shows there is room for — and interest in — news and information where young adults spend much of their time: on Facebook, Twitter and similar social networks. More than a third of online adults are social networkers, and this research shows they have a need for local news and information.

"It may surprise you that this group is very amenable to — even encouraging of — a local news organization being part of the social media mix," said CJ&N's Vice President of Research Mary Beth Marks.

In a series of online focus groups, young adults across the country indicated a strong interest in local information and said they would welcome the availability of that information on their turf — social networking sites. Further, they said that a local television station would make an impression with them if it had a presence on those sites.

"They may not be loyal local television news viewers today, but they are certainly local information seekers," said John Altenbern, CJ&N president.

According to the study, how stations interact on social networks will determine how well they're accepted. In fact, if stations aren't careful, they may inflict damage to their brand among this group.

"It's very important for stations to do their homework and know what young adults want or they risk looking out of place," said Marks. "Respondents said that when organizations get on Facebook a lot of times it's like when your parents are trying to act cool, but they're not."

Yet even if stations execute a flawless social networking strategy, it may not necessarily increase television news viewing among this group — at least not right away. Young adults say they are not likely to turn to a newscast anytime soon. The one exception is breaking news. They may first hear about a story on social networks, but will then turn to television as a trusted source to see coverage of breaking news.

"Right now, the benefit for local television stations is using these platforms to talk with an audience they may not otherwise be able to reach. It's an opportunity to build their brand by filling a need in a way this group is willing to accept," Altenbern says.

Findings are based on a series of online focus groups with adults ages 18-30 across the United States. Respondents included a mix of men and women, college students, those in the workforce and those with a young family. The groups were conducted earlier this month.

For more information on this research and other findings, contact Carol Phillips.

Why Brands Make Poor 'Friends'

Millennials use social media -- broadly defined as Facebook, text messages, Twitter, and blogs -- to connect with other people. Each is characterized by a different degree of intimacy, with texting the most personal and Twitter the least. But they are all about people interacting with other people.

Brands and social media are not natural partners. It's not that brands are unwelcome, they just don't seem to belong. That makes them easy to ignore, like a guest who has stumbled into the wrong wedding reception. Here's how young adults described their feelings about friending brands on Twitter and Facebook in two online focus groups March 5:

"Brands that show up on facebook often look like your parents when they (unsuccessfully) try to act cool."

"Seeing a brand on facebook makes me just think is spam mail or a scam.” - Bree

“Yeah I don't really pay attention to the ads on the side of facebook. A lot of them aren’t even accurate.” – Kelsey L

“I've never clicked on the ads on the side on fbook or gmail - not out of principle, but they've just never grabbed me.” – Chris S

“I mean, I think people use it as a user-to-user network. I mean, you call your connections "friends." I don't think I've ever joined a brand's FB group -- unless you count maybe a sports teams, though those are usually fan generated …There's something really offputting about a big brand sending you a facebook group invite. I'd never accept it.” – Mike G

“I think there is a sniff test people give brands when they use such tactics. And I'm not sure what the formula is for passing it” – Courtney S

“I really enjoy being able to "friend" indie rock bands for their music, but I don't really friend any product company, or brand. I always feel like most brands are scamming you in some way when they want to be your friend.”—Andrew A

Brands are working hard to find a place on social networks. And social networks drive a lot of traffic to branded sites. According to Forrester, (Ad Age, 3.17.09) PerezHilton.com and Dlisted get more traffic from social media than from Google. But this traffic has little to do with paid marketing campaigns, and everything to do with the personalities behind them. In contrast, brands seem to have little of value to give back. Millennials are keenly aware of the motivation behind brand communication is to 'sell shit', which is an automatic turnoff.

"If it looks like you’re getting an ad, it’s a turn-off."

"I don’t need incentives … I see that as a front … I want to see that they are run by humans and I can relate to them."

I don’t think I’d friend one unless there was some explicit benefit to being its friend.

“I would want added value from a brand if they are going to connect with me. It has to be worth it. If they added value that they normally didn't because they were on social media then it would make sense.”

There is evidence that Millennials do want to connect with brands as long as the connections are genuine and of value. One study even suggested Millennials would welcome a separate channel for 'friending' brands. Research by Pace University indicates 51% of Gen Y respondents saying they’d "join a separate social network dedicated to managing brand interactions." Until such a channel comes along, marketers will continue to try to find ways to connect with Millennials and Facebook and Twitter. Here is our advice:

1. Act and Sound like a Real Person

"They need to surprise me with their content or genuine nature or candor."

"I think a possibility for twitter posts and facebook pages for companies would be to have actual people doing them – to have entertaining personalities or something."

"If you get the stars of the shows doing it it would work."

2. Interact.

"One cool use of Twitter is with starbucks where they have a person at corporate who will communicate back to you."

"Yeah Comcast has their customer service reps on twitter actually helping people."

3. Make it worth my while.

"Make me feel special."

"Yeah exclusive deals are always good, makes you feel special, get you more engaged."

"Good deals catch my attention too, especially for stories I like!"

"Two for one tickets to events always grab my attention, but again, that’s more locally oriented.

"Yea if products and brands to be my friend I want something like … 89 percent off everything."

"Make me feel smart for buying your shit."

Word of Mouth: Millennials Talk About Social Media

Over past few weeks the buzz about social media, and especially Twitter, has outbuzzed the loudest of buzz campaigns. Much of the noise seems to originate from marketers. According to Pete Blackshaw (Ad Age, 3.11.09), “nearly 30,000 Twitter users self-identify as marketers. Nearly 8,500 use the term "PR," and another 8,000 use the term "social media."

With so many marketers talking about marketing to other marketers, we wondered, ‘is anyone else really listening?’ To get beyond the marketing hype, we conducted two online focus groups to see what Millennials think of social media. We confirmed that they are not as gaga for Twitter as marketers -- just half use Twitter despite our efforts to include tweeters in the groups. And those that do were still figuring it out, although we had one enthusiast.

“I have yet to get a twitter, but I'm on the fence with it”.—Andrew A

“Twitter for news and deals, facebook for friends, I read digg to laugh at what people think is an important news article. Though I don't tweet enough.” – Dustin H

“I haven't gotten into twitter yet. I'm afraid of it. I am afraid it will consume me.” – Justin D

“I have not ventured into the land of twitter yet.” – Courtney S

“I'm a little frightened to use Twitter... it's like, should everyone know exactly what I'm doing all the time?” – Mike G

Millennials define social media very broadly as anyting where you interact with other people. That includes message boards, text messaging, Skype, and blogs in addition to Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. It even includes Amazon Reviews and video games.

“Social media is that media that connects you socially with friends mainly and some family. it makes it social because a large percentage of your friends relative and colleagues use it too.” – Courtney S

“facebook - friends, twitter - interesting people/networking, linkedin - ponzi scheme (I don't think real networking happens this way)… I agree with Chris--amazon reviews are def social media and have big pull on influencing my purchase decisions – Dan S

“Facebook, it's learning about culture and stuff through visiting the personal profiles of people in your area, or who you know.” – Kelsey L

“When I think of social media I think of points of view… social media is media that illicits me to talk, not just take in info.” – Ben T

Instant messaging seems to have fallen into disuse, a victim of text messaging.

“I used to use AIM all the time, but I don't know very many people who use it anymore.” – Holly H

“I can't believe Yahoo! is even up there. Does anyone even use Yahoo! anymore?" – Justin D

In fact text messaging appears to be the preferred way to connect personally, relegating Facebook to the place to maintain less immediate or personal ties with distant or long ago friends.

“I also text, but only my close friends....my casual friends I message facebook.” – Bree

“Well facebook keeps me updated on their lives, but it doesn't feel very personal. I'm more of a texting person when it comes to that - Kelsey L

“Yeah, I’m with Kelsey. The internet is a tool I'm likely to use to reach old friends or casual acquaintances. People that I don't see on the day-to-day.”- Mike G “I'm also much more connected now with old friends than I ever was before e-mail and now with facebook (which seems to have replaced e-mail as the stay-in-touch-with-friends application.” – Chris S

“If I want to be more connected I call or text.” – Natalie B

While it’s theoretically possible to be ‘too’ closely connected online with friends, in practice Millennials feel they have it under control. Most Millennials say they are as connected online as they want to be -- about a 6 on a 10 point scale. Control appears to underly some of the appeal of Facebook.

“prob a 6, which is where I want to be--we have the choice to be less connected if we want--every once in a while I check out for a week or two and go on a subconscious Facebook fast and read a book or two.” – Dan S

“A 5 - not too connected, except with some who have bad facebook habits but I can turn their exposure down if I want.” - Chris S

“Yeah, I think online can keep you disconnected sometimes. It lets you keep a "safe distance" that's not there if you have to pick up the phone. – Mike G

“It's fine because I can set the terms.”- Scott K

Social Media: Why Twitter Matters to Marketers

One of my Twitter buddies, Stuart Robertson (aka 'designmeme'), tweeted me this bit of wisdom yesterday:

@carol_phillips Facebook is the backyard BBQ, Twitter is the Convention, MySpace is the NightClub, LinkedIN is the Job Finding Club. :)

I promptly 'retweeted' his idea to my 179 'followers'. That ended an exchange that started like this yesterday morning:

designmeme: How To Turn Twitter Followers Into Friends http://tr.im/gQmg

carol_phillips: @designmeme Not sure I want followers as 'friends'. That's what I have Facebook for. Twitter brings me acquaintances with common interests.

This exchange illustrates what I have discovered to be Twitter's primary attraction, which is to have "conversations" with people you would otherwise never meet. designmeme is on the faculty and web manager for University of Guelph-Humber. We are unlikely to have met anywhere other than cyberspace. We don't care about what each of us had for lunch or even want to know any details of each other's lives. I didn't even know or care what his real name was until I started writing this post. But I like what Stuart has to say, and I must have said something that caught his attention, as well. And this is precisely the reason I think Twitter will be more important than Facebook: Twitter is not about friends, it's about strangers.

The first lesson I learned about Twitter is to refrain from answering the prompt,what you are doing? No one, outside of those who love you, cares two tweets about what you are doing. But acquaintances and your larger network just might care about what you are reading, thinking and talking about. And that's where Twitter comes in. Twitter is about ideas; you don't need to be 'friends' to want to share ideas. In that sense, designmeme is right, Twitter is a convention, a virtual watercooler where interesting conversations are happening day and night. The conversations are easy to find and make little demands. You can just listen, or you can chime in.

In contrast, Facebook is the backyard BBQ. You can't stand silent on Facebook you have to participate; Facebook is where you connect with people you know and like, aka, your friends. The in-house sociologist at Facebook, Cameron Marlow, revealed that most users actually communicate with a relatively small circle of friends. While many people have hundreds friends on Facebook, they still only actively communicate with a few.

The average male Facebook user with 120 friends: Leaves comments on 7 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 4 friends

The average female Facebook user with 120 friends: Leaves comments on 10 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 6 friends

The average male Facebook user with 500 friends: Leaves comments on 17 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 10 friends

The average female Facebook user with 500 friends: Leaves comments on 26 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall Messages or chats with 16 friends

I prefer Twitter to Facebook because I have other ways to connect with friends.

Most Millennials I know have yet to use Twitter. They prefer to talk to their friends online and Facebook is perfectly designed to do just that.It therefore comes as no surprise that the average Twitter user (Twitterer?) is older than the average Facebook user.

Which brings me to my point (yes, I have one): While they are lumped together as 'social media', LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are fundamentally different in ways that will be increasingly important for marketers to understand.

Because Facebook is intimate, it is inherently unfriendly to commercialization and marketers will continue to struggle to find a way to leverage it effectively. (The exception will be 'events, such as Starbucks 'Red' event in December. Advertising a specific event (party) on a specific day makes perfect sense.) Because Twitter is about anonymity and connecting with people you don't know very well, it is inherently much more friendly to breaking news, self-promotional messages, causes and ideas. I predict Twitter will surpass Facebook fairly quickly as a marketing medium.

Marketers: Start your tweeters.

Big News! Millennials Disproportionately Influential

Okay, so it's not big news. The Obama win shows how influential young voters are in politics. Research from Rubicon Consulting group shows how influential they are in marketing. Rubicon's report, "Online Communities and their Impact on Business: Ignore at Your Peril" provides these statistics on just how important they are:

About 80% of the user-generated content on the web, including comments and questions, is created by less than 10% of web users, a group we refer to as the most frequent contributors (MFCs). The rest of the web community sits back and watches the interactions as a mostly-passive audience that only occasionally injects a few comments"

Half of all MFCs are under the age of 22.

MFC's look a lot like Millennials: They're more ethnically diverse; more technically skilled; more likely to be single; more likely to work in technology, entertainment, or communication companies; and more likely to be Democrats.

The Rubicon report emphasizes that far from being a problem to be solved, the fact that most web communities are dominated by a few active voices and a lot more 'voyeurs' is something marketers can leverage by targeting MFC's. There really are influencers - a lot of people are reading the opinions of MFC's and using them in their purchasing decisions across a variety of product categories, especially electronics, vacations, movies, restaurants and jobs. The chart below shows that this is especially true for Millennials. For nearly every category, the influence of online word of mouth is strongest for those 18-22.

Trouble in River City (Hint: It Rhymes with 'T')

And all week long your River City Youth'll be frittern' away, I say your young men'll be frittern'! Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!

-- Professor Harold Hill, aka, The Music Man

Substitute "Twittern'" for "frittern'" and you'll see "either you're closing your eyes to a situation you do now wish to acknowledge or you are not aware" of the impact of the 24/7 media world Millennials inhabit. Ever wonder why Millennials always seem so tired? It's because they are nocturnal, surrounded by what the New York Times last week described as 'ambient social awareness'("Brave New World of Social Intimacy" 9.5.08). Facebook, MySpace, YouTube are ways to extend the social conversation beyond the hours when most face-to-face social conversations take place. The party continues -- online.

I admit I have dabbled in this world. I have strangers following me on Twitter and I am following strangers. I use LinkedIn and Facebook. But I feel like a stranger in a strange land; it is not my natural habitat and I see them as time stealers, not productivity enhancers. That is one of the main differences between my generation and Millennials. Millennials, and those who share the digital mindset, find the blurring of online and offline realities completely natural--and productive.

Marketers are starting to catch on. Last week, I noted several hefty articles on ways to leverage Twitter as a business building tool. My favorite is by Steve Mulder, ("Five Marketing Tips for Attacking Twitter", Mediapost, 9.1.08). He explains why this is important:

Numbers are hard to come by, but TechCrunch reports that Twitter has more than 1 million users (200,000 of which are active every week), and about 3 million messages are posted every day. These are still relatively small numbers, but the activity comes from an early-adopter segment that can be hard to reach using traditional marketing channels.

Mulder points out that brands that use Twitter as a way to extend a brand's personality have an edge over those who are just pushing information. He points to Zappos as a good example.

Will I ever get it? I am not sure. But I plan to try. Now it's time to get some sleep!

Social Media: Not Just Facebook and MySpace

On the occasion of my 50th post about Millennials (wow, can hardly believe it myself), I did some digging on the social media phenomenon. While many believe it is values that define Millennials. Millennials themselves believe it is their use of the Internet, nothing defines Millennials on the Internet more than their use of social media. In March 08, McCann released Wave 3 of its Social Media Tracking Report based on a survey of 17,000 Internet users in 29 countries. Here are a few findings worth noting:

1. Social media is much broader than social networking. McCann defines social media as “Online applications, platforms and media which aim to facilitate interaction, collaboration and the sharing of content”. That includes blogs, photo and video sharing, podcasts, microblogs (Twitter), widgets, chat rooms and message boards, and more.

2. Social media's reach is surprisingly high.. 83% of active Internet users watch videos, 73% read blogs. 39% have started their own blog (I am sure the number is even higher for Millennials, especially young women who are more into blogging than similarly aged guys, who favor gaming. In fact, McCann believes blogging rivals traditional media with a 70% weekly reach. 33% have a favorite blog they read regularly. "As a collective, the blogosphere rivals any mass media in terms of reach, time spent and wider cultural, social and political impact."

3. Social Networks have evolved into platforms to organise users’ internet experience. 74% use them to message friends. Social networks are becoming a 'one stop shop' for all internet needs: messaging friends, posting photos and videos, and unique applications. Consequently, they are becoming one of the most powerful ways to disseminate information.

The blurring of media and creators is nearly complete, as the popularity of Engadget with trendsetting Millennials makes clear. The 'citizen' journalist has become a reality and bloggers are becoming mainstream personalities. Need evidence? The NYT and Entertainment Weekly had this to say about www.pinkisthenewblog.com/home/:

“Pink is the new Blog: Must Star Hazer — Why This: Trent Vanegas may run the uproarious gossip roundup from his home outside Detroit, but he doesn’t need proximity to make riotous observations about celebs — often typed directly onto scary paparazzi photos.” — Entertainment Weekly “Anyone looking for a case study in the convergence of homespun blog culture and market-driven mainstream media need look no further than pinkisthenewblog.com and its creator, Trent Vanegas … It’s Not Just a Blog, It’s a Brand”. — The New York Times

Finally, we have prospect of 'Facebook: The Movie'. The New York Times reports today that West Wing creator, Aaron Sorkin, and Columbia Pictures producer Scott Rudin, are collaborating on a film about the creation of Facebook. They have set up a place on Facebook to participate. (Talk about media coming 'full circle'!) Where did I read about it first? A blog of course!