Article by Nils Maier published on March 17, 2008 and filed unter News, Online Trends, Social Media Monitoring, Social Networks.
The last part of the ethority Social Network Survey analyzes the communication channels which picks social networks out as a central theme. Especially noticeable regarding the results was the total distribution of the Buzz concerning the issue of web communities. The communities’ percentage of the Buzz was merely 10,9%, whereas the blogosphere was able to obtain almost 90% of the total conversation quantity within user generated media in regard to the issue of social networks.
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Consequently, social networks are a popular subject for bloggers. This is not surprising, given that social networks have been the major topic on the web during the last month. Especially the bloggers’ topical affinity to the virtual networks allows them to become experts in this field. A discussion about data security, marketing attempts or “Kifferzitate” (see recent discussion about an interview with StudiVZ boss Riecke) – the networks provide the opinion leaders in web 2.0 with more than enough issues to write about.
Which bloggers and weblogs, however, stand out against the masses with regard to their reports about social networks?
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By means of his blog basicthinking.de, Robert Basic, the German blogger number one, causes the highest Buzz (33.1%) concerning the issue of social networks. The ethority survey was able to verify Mike Schnorr, blogger and publicist at Sevenload, to be the second largest Buzz-generator (24.6%) with his blog sichelputzer.de. With 14.8%, the weblog Werkkanon.de from Düsseldorf achieves the third place in this ranking. The following ranks are taken by Fischmarkt, Don Alphonso, Bernd Röthlinghöfer and Spreeblick.
The survey demonstrated that topics such as marketing and data security are favoured issues for bloggers. Again, this is not surprising, because most of the bloggers are experts on these internet topics after all. This is the reason why network operators should be aware of bloggers as web experts and opinion leaders. Some companies, such as Holtzbrinck, could utilize this know-how in order to save them and their users further PR ordeals. The major issue in online communities are recommendations. Thus, for the network operators, word of mouth marketing is the most important tool for generating new users. Xing, StudiVZ, Facebook, etc. should therefore place more emphasis on improving their reputation among bloggers as well as among their non-blogging clientele.
Article by Nils Maier published on March 14, 2008 and filed unter Social Media Monitoring, Social Networks.
Here is a very interesting article by Chalene Li, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester:
The future of social networks: Social Networks will be like air
Article by Nils Maier published on March 14, 2008 and filed unter Uncategorized.
As you may have seen we are having problems with Wordpress after updating to Wordpress 2.3.3.
The problems will be solved by next week.
Article by Nils Maier published on March 14, 2008 and filed unter Uncategorized.
The third part of the ethority survey illustrates the topics discussed within the user generated media in the context of social networks. The basis for this survey was provided by 6000 user opinions in weblogs and online communities. Here, ethority GmbH & Co. KG evaluated comments concerning the issue of online communities in 900 blogs and 300 communities. After having concluded the analysis, the ethority survey was able to verify three main issues in the communication channels within the user generated media: The three issues which were mentioned most frequently in the context of social networks and which are falling in the category of marketing are advertising, recommendation and data security.
In evidence, these results demonstrate that online communities possess an immense recommendation potential in the social networks. Every other user opinion in online communities (52,21%) concerning social networks is either a negative or positive word of mouth recommendation for the respective communities. Such a high density of recommendations cannot be found within the blogosphere. Here, on the other hand, the major network issue is marketing. The continuous discussion about the marketing potential of the networks, the heated debate about Facebook’s Beacon or the Behaviour Targeting in connection with StudiVZ seem to highly attract the bloggers’ attention. Virtually every other blog entry (51,18%) which is concerned with social networks discusses the issue of marketing and advertising. The bloggers’ second main issue is the discussion about data security in the context of social networks. The results show that the blogosphere takes a strong interest in the discussion about social networks in respect of content. In particular, it participates in the discourse about data security and marketing of the social networks. Online communities, however, rather focus on the exchange of experiences made in the use of networks, for instance new applications on Facebook. Basically, online communities also take part in public opinion forming, though more likely from a point of view which concerns dealing practically with the respective networks.
Article by Nils Maier published on March 13, 2008 and filed unter Uncategorized.
The second part of the ethority survey about user insights concerning social networks focuses on the image of the various communities.
Discussions about the social network marketing are still omnipresent within the respective media. There was a storm of protest when Facebook, StudiVZ, etc. tried to merchandise the users’ profiles by measures which were questionable with regard to the protection of data privacy. Numerous calls for boycott and resignation stirred up the debates concerning the marketing strategies of the network operators even more and eventually caused the operators in question to concede. Facebook, for instance, was apparently quite considerate of their own online reputation when the controversial feature Beacon was no longer being offered. But which impact did these discussions have on the networks’ image from the German users’ point of view? The ethority survey was able to demonstrate that bloggers favoured the platform Netmoms, as over 53% approved of the network for mothers. The network Jappy.de also featured quite positive image results within the blogosphere. SchülerVZ, StudiVz’s little brother, was able to achieve the third place in this ranking. Less surprising were the image results of the portal StudiVZ.
These results show that recent discussions about StudiVZ have an apparent impact on the online reputation of the Holtzbrinck portal. Perhaps Holtzbrinck succeeds to escape the image crisis by means of their third network. Schüler.cc, however, does not share the bad reputation of its congener StudiVZ. At any rate, there are no negative comments on Schüler.cc within the online communities. Thus, this student network is the most popular community in German communities. It seems as if the networks’ recent marketing initiatives have put a damper on the users’ mood. In any case, StudiVZ should improve the marketing strategies for their user profiles. Here, Facebook sets the direction and the magic word is Widgets. These small applications on the user profiles are provided by companies such as tripadvisor or the Washington Post. No user of the Zuckerberg network complains about this way of marketing. The reason for this might be the additional benefit which the users obtain from these offers.
Method: The analysis exclusively refers to comments which have been written in user generated media, such as online communities, weblogs, newsgroups, commentaries and on press websites. The analysis of the surveyed main unit is carried out by a special hardware and finally evaluated by market research experts.
Article by Nils Maier published on March 10, 2008 and filed unter Uncategorized.
German users like to present themselves in online networks such as StudiVZ, Xing, etc. But what is their opinion of these networks? Which communities enjoy a good reputation with their clientele and which are rather disreputable? Which networks are frequently discussed within the web?
Particularly noticeable about these results was the fact that, in the context of networks, the blogosphere picked out Xing as a central theme exceptionally often. With 7,5% of the Blogbuzz, StudiVZ comes in second in the ethority ranking.
The positions seem to be closely linked to the latest discussions about the intended marketing measures of these two networks. A surprise within the ethority Buzz Ranking was the position of the community netmoms.de. In the blogger-ranking, the Net-Moms achieved the fifth place.
Within the community Buzz about networks, Lokalisten is the major issue. For them, it seems, the relaunch of their portal was highly profitable. The freshly renovated community unites 21% of the buzz within online communities. In this comparison, the network Kwick achieves the second place.
A surprise, however, was the position of StudiVZ in this ranking. The users seem to be much less interested in the issue StudiVZ than the coverage in the traditional media gives reason to believe. Bloggers are, of course, excluded from this assumption.
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„This Ranking illustrates that a large number of bloggers reflect and exert influence upon the general media coverage concerning XING and StudiVZ. In contrast to this, the exchange of opinions and recommendations of beneficial product values is rather associated with user and customer communities. At this, private experience communities are therefore the most discussed, linked and recommended. Recent studies were able to show that such user recommendations or word of mouth are the mainspring for the growth of social networks” affirms Sten Franke, managing director at ethority and head of the research group “customer satisfaction” at BITKOM.
In the course of this week, further results of this study will be presented here. It pays off to resume reading
Article by Nils Maier published on March 10, 2008 and filed unter Uncategorized.
Yesterday found on Guardian: The world’s 50 most powerful blogs
Article by Nils Maier published on March 7, 2008 and filed unter Uncategorized.
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