mattyford.com

James Fowler, co-author of the book “Connected: The Surprising Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives” dropped by The Colbert Report recently to promote his new book.

While the interview contained the usual Colbert grilling (I like how he threatened to turn the interview into 400 requests to play Mafia Wars), it did raise some interesting points about Social Networks and their abilities to influence our family and friends.

James Fowler on Colbert Nation

With your standard friends on Facebook, you actually assert little or no influence on them for things like music tastes, movies or brand interactions (and vice versa). This all changes if the person has uploaded and tagged a photo with you - these friends now exert the same amount of influence as close friends and family in the real world.

So if you are a brand trying to influence Facebook users, remember that your targets may be much smaller than you think - while a person my have hundreds of friends, unless they appear in photos with the person, you may be wasting your time.

In the business world, and especially in the B2B environment, the benefits of Social Media are becoming increasingly apparent to the point that organisations who don’t embrace these technologies stand the chance of being wiped out by smaller and more savvy competitors.

This poses the challenge of convincing the Marketing Department and Upper Management of adopting new “Inbound Marketing” technologies that can essentially fly in the face of traditional practices, and push them outside their comfort zone. This may also be compounded by the very nature of the word they are being asked to adopt - Social Media.

Lets look at the first word:

Social = Fun, relaxed, with friends (time wasting) 
Social = Activities outside of work (not business) 

How many times have you said you don’t have time for social activities because you are too busy working? 

In addition, many organisations block a range of Social Media sites for this very reason - they view them as time wasting or not business activities. I have at least three friends who are not able to access Facebook in their offices. 

What I would suggest is adopting a new term to explain Social Media to CXO roles in order to present the benefits and eliminate the negatives associated with “social”. My own suggestion would be Business Networking Media. 

The analogy is this, think of a Business Networking Event you have attended recently. Now think of this same event not constrained by time, space or location - and with the benefits enhanced. That is the power delivered by Business Networking Media solutions, an effective tool to add to your marketing mix.