For the second year in a row, we found that UK technology companies are missing out on the potential of social media by not being social and failing to use these new channels to engage with their audiences.

Only 31% of brands with a Facebook account used it to engage with users and, of those that used Twitter, only 14% of tweets were replies and retweets. When it came to the companies that had a blog, only 20% received comments and only one company took the trouble to reply to comments received.

In the study, we took the 2010 Deloitte Fast Tech 50 – a list of the UK’s 50 fastest growing technology companies and benchmarked their social media activity.

Facebook for B2B is on the rise

One of the most interesting findings this year was that the use of Facebook amongst B2B companies has skyrocketed in the last 12 months with 70% of B2B companies on the platform compared to just 40% previously. Linkedin was still the most popular network used overall (92%), followed by Twitter (80%). YouTube remained the least popular for the second year running (44%). Despite the increase in adoption, most companies were still only using these channels for ‘push’ marketing techniques with 65% of companies with a Facebook page using it for one way communications and 96% of blogs simply broadcasting article and news content without inviting responses.

B2B v B2C

As might be expected, B2C brands in the study were far more likely to engage with users than B2B companies. Of the B2C companies with a Facebook page, 63% used it to engage with consumers compared to just 22% of B2B companies. And, while the percentage of B2B tweets that were replies was only 7%, B2C rated much higher (35%).

Tech companies were also still failing to effectively integrate social media channels with their website. Only 58% of companies in the study had social media links on their homepage despite over 90% of companies having at least one social media site. Half of companies linked Twitter from their homepage, but only 14% linked to a YouTube page or blog.

It’s no longer whether you use it, it’s how you use it

This matches what we’ve found in the last year when speaking to tech companies about social media PR. Whereas a few years ago much of the conversation was about whether tech brands should be using social media. These days, most companies know that they have to get in on the social media act, but are still unsure how to go about it. I predict we’ll see further maturing over the next year, so when version three of the report comes along, maybe we’ll finally see companies using social to be social.

Download ‘How social are you?‘

Originally posted here.

Danny Whatmough

A central part of this last development is that anything you do on these services – I’ve installed Spotify and the Guardian so far – will be automatically shared on your Facebook profile and through the new Facebook Ticker. This means every track you listen to, every article you read will be shared. The service is opt-out, so most of what you do will be shared automatically.

Selective v. forced sharing

Selective sharing – where you decide what you want to share with others – is how it has always been on the web and there is a lot to commend about this approach. But for Zuckerberg, it is clearly not enough. And, while social media cheerleaders will happily be pumping every Spotify track and Yahoo News article they read in front of their poor friends/subscribers/fans, I suspect the vast majority of Facebook users will be less enthusiastic.

Forced – or what Zuckerberg calls ‘frictionless’ – sharing will bring about a stream of consciousness, pulling in everything you do on the web.

I think there are a number of key problems with this approach that might come back to bite Zuckerberg in the arse:

• Information overload – an obvious one here, but the increase in the amount of content will merely add to the sense of information overload. Will Facebook’s algorithms be able to effectively pick out the gems (in your eyes) from the tosh?
• Privacy – Privacy has often been an issue for Facebook and the reason for this seems to lie in the fact that Zuckerberg’s vision – where everything should be seen by everyone – is at odds with what most users want and also how the site was initially constructed. It’s not hard to see how these latest feature changes make privacy harder and harder to control…
• Lack of curation – but perhaps the most important issue I have with all this is the lack of curation, the lack of quality control. Some of the stuff I listen to on Spotify is awful. After a few seconds I regret listening to it and move onto something else. But my fans on Facebook won’t necessarily know that. Sharing works best for me when people I am linked up with identify something they think is great and actively make a decision to share it with others. This new forced sharing approach seems to overlook this fundamental process. And that is something that, for me, makes sharing less useful.

Danny Whatmough

And then today, anyone that visits the Google homepage will see a little blue arrow animation pointing them to the Google+ tab on the navigation bar. There is also a link under the search box encouraging searchers to join the network.

Ever since Google+ launched I’ve felt that, if the company put its full weight behind it, then social domination could be theirs.

Google is used for over 400 billion searches a day. Go figure.

This is the first step, I expect more to come….

Danny Whatmough

And, if you believe the reports out today, at the company’s F8 Developer conference on Thursday, we are set to see a barrage of new features and tweaks that will move the goalposts yet again.

On the one hand, it is great to see a company like Facebook innovating. I’ve often thought Facebook was slower than some of its competitors to roll out new features. But, much like London buses, this is clearly not the case anymore!

Facebook seriously risks confusing its users. Constant changes to the user interface will be met with mixed reactions (humans just don’t like change, fact), but changes to the fabric of the social network (e.g. subscribe buttons) could be far more serious.

Some of the most effective online businesses out there are the ones that are so simple to use that everything just seems to ‘make sense’. Facebook doesn’t fall into this camp and by adding complexity to complexity, it stands to alienate even its most loyal user base.

Forced to innovate?

Some will claim that Facebook’s ramped up efforts in recent weeks have been a direct response to the beta launch of Google+ (and future-proofing ahead of the Google’s public launch of the service, expected shortly) and a response to continued growth and development over at Twitter.

The changes at Facebook have been so wide ranging that I don’t think they can all be put down to a competitor response, but some developments have possibly been rolled out sooner than initially intended to start the fight back.

Users, users, users

With nearly a billion users, there is clearly no need to start sounding the warning bells yet. Facebook’s key strength still lies in the fact that it has by far the most users and the most active users of any social network out there.

The danger is that by constantly fiddling with the platform, users become confused about what the platform is for and how they should use it.

Too big to fail? Possibly. Too complicated to be useful? We’ll see…

picture credit

Danny Whatmough

So I guess it should come as no surprise to find that, today, Facebook has unveiled another landmark change that could alter the way we all use the social network.

Introducing the subscribe button

At a basic level, Facebook’s new ‘subscribe’ button let’s users follow the public updates of anyone on the network without actually being friends with them. As Facebook states in the blog post announcing the service, in the past, users “couldn’t hear directly from people [they're] interested in but don’t know personally—like journalists, artists and political figures.”

Sound familiar? Yes, that’s right, the subscribe button is essentially the equivalent of the follow button on Twitter; Facebook is moving to a more asynchronous model. And, as with Twitter, the number of people ‘subscribing’ to your feed will be displayed on your profile.

There is additional functionality too. When viewing a friend’s profile, the subscribe button will allow you to set certain preferences which will control the updates you get from that person in your news feed. Settings include ‘all updates’, ‘most updates’ and ‘important updates’.

You can enable the subscribe option here.

Public v. private

When Facebook announced the changes to posting updates last month (the addition of privacy settings and location features), it was clear that it was encouraging users to make more of their posts public. This latest move seems to confirm that.

So on the one hand, this could encourage more people to make more of their posts public, but it could also encourage users to think more carefully about their privacy on the network; an issue that Facebook has struggled with in the past.

What does this mean for brands?

Another important question is whether this will have any effect on the ‘Pages’ feature that Facebook has created for companies or businesses.

The simple answer is no, it won’t.

The subscribe feature won’t be available on Pages and is really designed for individuals such as celebrities, journalists or politicians – individuals that have driven a lot of the success Twitter has achieved in recent years.

Facebook has created a handy little table – see right – that lets you see which feature is most appropriate for what you need.

Overly complex?

However, handy tables aside, I can’t help but think we are being bombarded by new Facebook features at the moment. Only yesterday, Facebook rolled out smart lists (incidentally a really nice feature) and it seems that every time I log onto the service, something has changed.

Of course, the subscribe button is totally optional. Facebook will function in exactly the same way that it always has. And one of my concerns with subscribe and with some of the other features that Facebook has introduced recently is that they risk over complicating the network. One of the reasons I believe Twitter has been so successful is that it is so simple to use. Facebook could potentially do with bearing this in mind.

But if Facebook gets it right and if users start embracing these new features, then it could be a good strategic move for the network. Whatever happens, those of us involved in social media PR will be watching how these changes are used very closely. I wonder what tomorrow will bring…

Danny Whatmough

Twitter has finally unveiled an official analytics tool – Twitter Web Analytics.

As I have blogged about on many occasions, an official analytics product from Twitter makes so much sense and surely could/will be a key part of the long-promised corporate or paid for accounts the social network has hinted at on many occasions.

So what has Twitter actually revealed? According to the official blog post:

Today we’re announcing Twitter Web Analytics, a tool that helps website owners understand how much traffic they receive from Twitter and the effectiveness of Twitter integrations on their sites. Twitter Web Analytics was driven by the acquisition of BackType, which we announced in July.

Twitter reveals that the product – which will be rolled out to a select few this week – will incorporate the following features:

• See how Twitter content is being shared around the web
• Track the amount of traffic from Twitter to a company’s website – including clicks per tweets
• Measure the effectiveness of ‘official’ Twitter buttons
• An API allowing third party analytics tools to incorporate this data

Interestingly, the focus here isn’t on content you share through a Twitter account, it’s on how content on your website has been shared, whether or not you share it through your account. It also provides you with a stream of tweets that reference your content, allowing you to easily reply to or take action based on activity.

The blog post reveals that the rest of us should have access to this feature in the “next few weeks”.

Generally, this is a move that should be welcomed. As a tech PR, I have been hoping for some sort of analytics product for ages. Sure, there have been third party tools that claim to do this to differing levels or success and/or accuracy and there are also various different Google analytics hacks that can help provide certain insights. But an official product that can make the most of the entire Twitter firehose is very exciting.

The product was announced at Techcrunch’s Disrupt conference and the publisher has some interesting detail to add on how Twitter analytics will actually work:

When you log in to your designated account, you’ll see a number of metrics including how many Tweets (this includes Tweets of all kinds), across the network include links to your publisher site as well as the number of clicks. You’ll also be able to see the weekly, daily and monthly number of clicks from any Tweet sent from the site via a Tweet button.

…Twitter will also show you all the Tweets that were sent from the Tweet button on your site, as well as any Tweet that was sent with an inbound link to your site. From the analytics platform you can retweet these Tweets as well as respond to these users.Another extremely useful feature is the ability to see the top links by day, week and month by Tweets and clicks. Users can also add more than one website to a dashboard, and sub-domains as well. Additionally, Twitter will show users what the average number of clicks Tweets received within given time periods and well as the percent of Tweets that were generated using the Tweet button.

You can see the full video of the announcement below.

The social media battle is on?

We’re going through an interesting phase in the whole social media sphere at the moment. The launch of Google+ has put the cat amongst the pigeons with Facebook rolling out a series of ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ features over the last few weeks. And Twitter itself announced some impressive user figures this week too.

We are reaching a point at which these social media giants realise now is the time for them to push for supremacy and, while I believe there is plenty of space for co-habitation, that doesn’t stop these networks from competing for users and column inches.

The fact that Facebook has provided an insight/analytics product for some time is a case in point here. Again, as I have blogged about on several occasions, businesses remain the golden bullet for many social networks when it comes to monetisation. The rumours that Twitter was languishing in no-mans’s land for a time seems to hold some sway. But since Dick Costolo took over late last year, the company seems to have assumed greater commercial, marketing and product savvy.

So is this the start of a greater focus on providing the millions of businesses that use Twitter on a daily basis with greater tools to help them succeed on social media? As a tech PR, I hope so.

Originally posted at EML Wildfire Tech PR

Danny Whatmough

These are nothing new of course, with ‘tweet’ and ‘like’ buttons being included on most sites these days. Back in June, Google launched a +1 button, initially just on search ranking pages, but soon it opened this feature up so that brands and publishers could include +1 buttons on their websites too.

With the launch of Google+ I’d assumed that these +1 buttons would then automatically post +1ed content on your Google+ profile. And they did, but only in a separate ‘+1′ tab, not on your main content stream. Until yesterday that is when Google announced additional sharing functionality for +1 buttons:

“Clicking the +1 button is a great way to highlight content for others when they search on Google. But sometimes you want to start a conversation right away—at least with certain groups of friends. So beginning today, we’re making it easy for Google+ users to share webpages with their circles, directly from the +1 button.”

Google has also revealed that take-up of +1 buttons has been pretty enthusiastic with over a million sites including them and with 4 billion daily views.

The new functionality should work automatically if you’ve got +1 buttons already installed (try ours above!) on your site or blog. But it’s interesting to note that the buttons on search ranking pages don’t currently have the new sharing features; hopefully this will come in time…

Originally posted on the EML Wildfire Tech PR blog

Danny Whatmough

Places was the Foursquare-like product that allowed users to ‘check-in’ to locations and was launched with a great fanfare last year. It always had a slightly uncomfortable position on the site and, as with Foursquare, seemed to lack a clear raison d’etre.

Deals was launched in April on the back of Facebook Places to provide local businesses with an opportunity to tap into the Facebook network by offering location-based discounts and incentives. It was tipped as a ‘Groupon-killer’ by the mainstream tech media.

But it too has now been dissolved.

Not the end…

Many, far wiser than I, have suggested this is a sign Facebook is refocusing its efforts away from location. But I don’t think this is the case, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, location is still a key part of the new features that have arrived in the last week. In fact, location is now more prominent than ever and is (potentially) built into every update a user makes, much like on Twitter.

As mentioned above, the problem with Places was always getting users/giving them a reason to ‘check-in’. This move means it is not necessary for them to remember to do anything, it just happens automatically and that means…

Getting business on board

…that more users will be ‘checking in’ and therefore there will be more location data for businesses to use to push deals. Yes, that’s right, although Facebook Deals is closing, the idea behind it remains. Facebook says:

“We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals. We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.“

So ‘check-in’ deals will remain and I bet they’ll become a key part of the platform in time.

The opportunity argument

This is because, for me, location still remains the nirvana for social businesses like Facebook. You only need to look at the massive success of Groupon and the relative success of Foursquare (perhaps not in user numbers but when it comes to the commercial deals that have been set up using the platform, demonstrating a clear hunger for this type of functionality) to see there is something there.

And Facebook has a great opportunity to tap into this trend namely because it has the users to make it take-off and also to get businesses weak at the knees with anticipation. Let’s not forget that Facebook itself is still frantically searching for new money-making strands. This could be it.

So I don’t see these moves as a sign of Facebook ignoring location, more that Facebook is readjusting itself for a full on location-based onslaught.

Hold tight.

picture credit

Danny Whatmough

In my mind, the government would do well to focus its attention on looking into the very real and serious problems that caused the riots and, if it does want to look more into social media, should focus on ways the emergency services could use networks like Twitter and Facebook to better inform citizens.

So, following the earthquake in the US yesterday, I was intrigued to see this tweet from the US Department of Homeland Security:

It’s good to see that at least some in positions of power see the potential of social media…

[hat-tip]

Danny Whatmough

As I’ve alluded to before, the government’s attempt to place any sort of blame for the riots on ‘social media’ is absurd and these, in my opinion, are the main reasons why:

1. The freedom of speech argument – Would we be happy with attempts by the government to shut down other forms of communication, like phone networks or the postal service? Would we all be going along with this in the same way if one of the nation’s major newspapers was being censured? This country is built upon the fundamental rights of freedom of speech. We might not always like what is being said, but we all have a right to say what we believe. Now of course, if illegal activities are publicly broadcast as a result of this, then the perpetrators of these comments should be punished, but don’t blame the messenger or the communication channel used. Cameron is merely pandering here to, as Jeff Jarvis says, the demonisation of technology and the scaremongering of publications such as the Daily Mail. The Western world has been quick to judge dictators abroad that attempt to close down communication channels and, while the government is clearly not attempting to undertake anything like this, it is a precedent we just shouldn’t set. If the government really feels that social media is to blame for what happened on the streets of Tottenham, then we’re in all sorts of problems!
2. The futility argument – Wherever you sit on the freedom of speech argument, there is one act that remains, if you close down BBM or Twitter, users of those networks will just go elsewhere and find another means of communication. And, in many cases, this could make the job even harder for the security services. Tweets and Facebook messages are trackable and traceable, with the police using many of them to hunt down and convict offenders.
3. The more good than bad argument – I’ve lost count of the number of ‘good deeds’ that were carried out on or using social media both during and after the riots happened. The fact is, there are far more people using social media for good than bad. Do we want to let the bad actions of some ruin all the positive stuff?

Danny Whatmough