Social Networking Media
How the software authors should use it?
Adriana Iordan
Web Marketing Manager / Avangate
http://www.avangate.com
Social Network Media?
Social media involves
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technology
conversations
sharing of information
Social media:
Web 2.0 applications:
 Flash, Ajax, feeds,
 web services,
 RSS, mashups
 wiki, podcasts,
 blogging & microblogging
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Just to name a few
“just for fun” / “waste of time”,
“just noise”
Traditional & New Marketing
Traditional + New Media Marketing = Effective Marketing Mix
Traditional (examples):
• one way communication
• “corporate talk”; formal
• company created content
• newsletters / e-mails
• “doing communications”
• limited distribution channels
New Media Marketing (examples)
• multi directional communication
• authenticity & transparency; informal
• user created content (co-creation)
• blogs, social networks, SMM
•“building communities”
• Unlimited distribution channels
Gapingvoid.com
Why incorporate Social
Networks?
Consumer Internet Barometer
(2008) surveys:
• At least 1 out of 5 social network
users log on to blog or meet new
people.
• Among the 30 and over workingage population, 1 out of 8 uses
social networking sites to conduct
business.
• Currently, 1 out of every 4
people online visits social
networking sites
ComScore:
Facebook: 123.9 million
unique visitors / May 2008
MySpace's 114.6 million
unique visitors / May 2008
Why incorporate Social
Networks?
What are the benefits?
• Targeted increase of website traffic
• Creating positive brand association
• Growing brand awareness
• Conversions and sales
• Control of the search results
• Business development
• More loyal users
People prefer doing business with those they know!
Social media profiles in Google
Basic rules on
New Media Marketing
Basic rules of New Media Marketing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Transparency & authenticity
Learn to listen, have a personality
Develop relationships
Encourage the conversations
Try to add value to your industry and community
Connect with the influencers / help them find you
Create content and products worth talking about
“Build communities” instead of “doing communications”
Microblogging for
lifestreaming
Twitter – social networking tool + micro-blogging
Benefits (examples):
• Request instant feedback
• Build connections & reach prospects
• Increase brand awareness
• Customer support (respond to customer queries)
• Improve reputation
Social Voting Sites:
StumbleUpon
Social Bookmarking & Networking Website
Benefits (examples):
• More targeted traffic
• Search engine reputation
• Attracting “linkerati”
Professional
networks: Linkedin
Linkedin
Benefits (examples):
 Easy access to expert advice
 Expand contacts
 Get PR visibility
 Reinforce business brand
 Conduct market research
Social Network:
Facebook
Facebook:
Benefits (examples):
 Facebook fan pages, ads and secret groups
 Sharing content easily
 3rd party applications (widgets) quickly
replacing specialized websites
 Competitive advantage: conversational
marketing
 Demographic targeting: ads and flyers
Homepage sponsored stories (news feeds)
 Top 100 most influential bloggers are on Facebook
Marketing Mix
Launching a new product? A major update?
New marketing mix ideas:
1. Differentiate and innovate
2. Release and ask for feedback
3. Think mobile
4. Youtube, Flickr, Facebook, Linkedin
5. Pitch editors directly
6. Twitter account
7. Social bookmarking sites
8. Measure the effectiveness
gapingvoid.com
VMWARE Success Story

Social Networking is of such importance for the VMWARE
company that it has build a meeting place for all its communities:
www.vmworld.com
VMWARE BUZZ
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VMWARE managed to create buzz around itself in the real sense
of the word. It manages 18 blogs and has more than 10
specialized communities build on it’s own web platform.
It can be found on all major social media platforms
Firefox Success Story

With the help of it’s huge community, Firefox managed on June
18, 2008 to break the world record for most downloads in one
day: 8,002,530
Mozilla Social
Networking Strategy
Social Networking strategy:
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Firefox Community portal
Firefox fan page on Facebook
Firefox fan page on other social networking
Firefox Twitter page
Official Firefox YouTube channel
+ Traditional public relations
Firefox Buzz
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A real success community really starts when it grows by itself.
Conclusions
Immediate actions to take:
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Use an RSS Reader and subscribe to feeds
Start a free company / personal blog / start micro-blogging
Open a free page on Facebook
Create a free Linkedin account
Check your website content and start networking!
Connect with me!
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Adriana Iordan, Web Marketing Manager / Avangate
Email: adriana.iordan@avangate.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/adriana_iordan
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