Major Reason For The Success of Social Media

In recent times, we have seen the emergence of ‘new’ media sites – aka social or citizen media. Based on the principles of a democratic Web, these sites have witnessed through-the-roof growth. Flickr, YouTube, Digg, etc. are prime examples of such sites that have gained tremendous popularity.

So, what did these companies do that made people flock around these sites? Is the opportunity to express oneself without editorial controls – ‘citizen journalism’ – the reason? Or, is it the ability to showcase one’s talents – exhibitionism – an adequate reason that explains the popularity of these sites. Is there some common denominator amongst the top sites that satisfactorily explains the meteoric growth of social media?

To examine these issues one has to understand how traffic gets generated on the Internet.

Generating Web Traffic
Web visitors arrive at a webpage (thus generating Web traffic) in one of three primary ways:

1. Typing the webpage address directly onto a Web browser. This results in “Direct Traffic.” Generation of a lot of direct traffic is contingent upon a lot of people knowing about the webpage and remembering its address correctly. Further, the webpage may be required to satisfy an existing need that compels the “surfing public” to return to the page repeatedly. Information about the webpage address and its contents has to be disseminated widely amongst Internet users either through promotion (by traditional means or otherwise) or through viral means (word-of-mouth, e-mail, etc.).



2. Clicking the hyperlink (to the webpage) provided on another webpage the Internet user has visited. Such traffic is termed “Referring Sites Traffic.” If the content on the webpage is useful, it is possible that Internet users may refer and even hyperlink the webpage (called ‘inward link’) in their own Web content. Thus, visitors looking up other Web content may follow links provided and arrive at the webpage. Such inward links also bump up the importance of the webpage (i.e., its “Page Rank”) and lead to higher rank in the listing of results for relevant searches.



3. Clicking the result (i.e., the hyperlink corresponding to the webpage) of a search on a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. This traffic is called “Search Engine Traffic.” As explained earlier, the more inward links to the webpage, the higher our webpage will rank in search results. And the higher a webpage ranks in search results, the more likely the user is to click the link and arrive at the page.

Now, the above explanation holds good for a website, which has multiple pages. So, the traffic of the website is the sum of the traffic generated by each of its individual web pages.

Generating Traffic for Social Media
Social media sites are typically content-intensive sites. Apart from lacking “stickiness”, social media sites with very little content are unlikely to generate any appreciable amount of traffic (particularly, referring site and search engine traffic). Besides, most users of these sites initially will be just content consumers (and NOT content contributors).

Further, old media has often provided the seed material (often copyright-protected print and multimedia content) for social media site owners during the initial stages. This has often provided the impetus for Internet surfers to flock these sites. Consequently, it is customary for social media site owners to seed their sites with content (relevant to the site’s theme / concept) initially. Seeding content has proven to be the best bet for attracting initial traffic.

Once the social media site gets seeded, its traffic's is likely to increase over a period of time, particularly if the site is actively promoted. Promotion typically means getting inward links into various pages of the site and attracting users through conventional advertising. Aggressively promoted sites thus get more eyeballs, which makes the sites attractive for online advertising. The social media site owners then capitalize on the opportunity to sell or earmark space on web pages for advertising.

However, it is simply not economically viable for social media sites to sustain traffic growth by seeding content on their sites. Eventually, they must rely on user-contributed content for traffic growth. But, what is the motivation for the vast majority of content consumers to go that extra mile for taking the time and effort to create and contribute content on social media sites? In the answer to that question lies the secret of the success of many social media sites.

Opportunity for Generating Traffic from Social Media Sites
The Internet as we all know is being used for a wide range of business-related activities (including, but not restricted to, online advertising). Clearly, a for-profit website needs to enhance its traffic – the more traffic a site generates, more the potential for revenue generation. Thus, owners of business-oriented websites will devote substantial effort to get eyeballs to their sites.

Individuals seeking to promote themselves (e.g., a speech or presentation; an amateur music composition) have also tended to use social media extensively. Often self-promoters (typically website owners) use “old media” content and copyrighted material to promote themselves (e.g., using a MTV video clip with their website address captioned on it). For owners of for-profit websites, social media offers a no- or low-cost means for site promotion. The absence of editorial control provides an opportunity for creating inward links into their web pages and for generating eyeballs.

Clearly, vested interests drive both ‘self- & site-promoters’ to use social media. Looked at differently, social media sites have proved to be a breeding ground for a new-genre of “spamming”. And, being non-disruptive, it also has a certain degree of legitimacy (without the ill-will) that conventional (e-mail) spamming never did.

Therefore, it is little wonder that much of the content on social media sites is promotional in nature!

Does Community Trump Content?

The Online Publisher Association announced in January 2008 that it added “Community” as a category to its Internet Activity Index (IAI). Since 2003, the IAI has provided monthly reports of time spent with Content, Communications, Commerce and Search, and in January 2008, a Community category was added.

This is somewhat reflective of the prevalent feeling that “content” is passé and that “community” represents the future of the Web. This thinking may be driven by the astronomical valuations of community sites like Facebook, which have dwarfed the previous valuations (by no means insignificant) of content-centric social media sites.

Pure Community Site
To really examine this issue of “content vs. community”, let us first imagine a website catering to a community brought together by a common interest:

1. Without ANY content. Assume this hypothetical site is a doorway to a hidden, presumably vibrant private community. In other words, it does not have any content – effectively Web pages - exposed to the external world.
2. With registered members who can post information regarding their common interest (by, shall we say, filling out a form). Other registered users get periodic emails related to their common interest – in a way similar to a private e-group (such as Yahoo groups!). In other words, the subscribers to this site do not get to see any content either.

Such a site is unlikely to get indexed very effectively by some search engines because of the lack of publicly visible content. Other search engines might index it highly if the marketing efforts were to focus on the creation of inward links.

Due to aggressive promotion, the Website can derive its traffic organically through searches or through referrals driven by inward links. Traffic can also arrive directly with the Web address of the site. Regardless of the origin, the incoming traffic to the Website is likely to be volatile – pretty much “Get In / Get Out” (GIGO) traffic. The primarily reason for this volatility is the lack of content – consequently, retention of traffic is low as there is neither stickiness nor a compelling reason for the visitor to continue browsing. Thus heavy promotion of the site will be ineffective – visits might go up significantly, but not page views.

The lack of clarity about what the site is about (since there is no content exposed to users) will also result in low new user registrations. Even the few who do get converted will in all probability soon think the site generates excessive spam and terminate their subscription.

Fundamental Building Block
Thus content is the fundamental building block for any site. It drives stickiness and leads to successful community formation (by compelling users to return). In other words, content is a prerequisite for community besides being a component of community. After all, as others have pointed out communities are combinations of content, commerce, communications and search. Others have even declared that “When It Comes to Time Spent Online, Content Trumps Community.”

Is Content Still King?

Dee in her post “Is Content Being Dethroned By Social Media?” said:

“…A well-known Internet marketing slogan is “Content is king.” But is content being dethroned by social media?

Social media sites like Digg, Reddit, Netscape, Del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon are changing the online business game. These sites drive huge amounts of traffic. And all you need is good content and a lot of friends. Notice I did not say great content.

… This brings us to the key to social media marketing. Friends, the more, the merrier…”

Her point was that with popularity of social media (including bookmarking) sites it was relatively easier for online marketers to fetch eyeballs to their websites. Even relatively pedestrian content can be used to generate a ton of “eyeballs”. Obviously she mentioned this in the context of using social media as a marketing channel.

Guest Eyeballs
I agree. You can indeed get a lot of visitors to your site with interesting, or as Dee puts it good, content and a little help from social media sites – Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, etc. Your traffic sees a growth spike for a few days, maybe weeks. You will love all the attention your site (or more specifically, content - good, bad or ugly) gets.

And, then the audience begins to erode - as swiftly as it arrived. Your content looses its novelty and, more importantly, gets buried under new content (or links) at those social media sites. Thus, the marketing challenge does not end with attracting this “drive-by traffic”, or as I like to call it “guest eyeballs.”

Resident Eyeballs
You are left with the task of getting more eyeballs. The marketing task then truly boils down to not just fetching eyeballs, but also retaining eyeballs. That is, converting your “guest eyeballs” to “resident eyeballs.”

This can only happen if your site offers fresh content (presumably good) that compels your first-time visitors to return. The only way to accomplish this is by having a constant supply of interesting and compelling content to retain your “(guest) eyeball stream”. And, obviously, the rate at which you refresh content becomes crucial. If the rate of refresh is too slow, your site and its content become stale.

Consumption Keystrokes
Besides refreshing, engaging content, marketers use “registration” as another technique for retention. Registration – which entails the use of “keystrokes” – is commonly used as a pre-requisite for receiving additional value. This value can be in the form of additional valuable content delivered one-time (e.g., a white paper), or on a continuous basis (e.g., a newsletter subscription, or RSS). The value offer can even take the form of additional rights accorded to registered users (e.g., right to rate or comment).

The marketing goal here is to generate return traffic – repeatedly and frequently, or in other words, increase devotion to your site. The value for the user is “information consumption.” I refer to return traffic generated through registration (in its many forms) as “consumption keystrokes.” The prime motivation here again is “content” or, better still, “addiction to your site’s content.”

Contribution Keystrokes
The discussions above are predicated on the site supplying content to attract and retain traffic. This means, eventually the supply of quality content will become a bottleneck. So, website owners will progressively find it more difficult to maintain traffic growth.

So, the ultimate marketer’s challenge is to have a self-scaling and self-sustaining model for traffic growth. Is such a scenario possible? Yes, it is possible if your (existing) traffic – that is, user base – generates content that attracts more traffic. This indeed is the secret sauce behind the successful social media sites!

Sites like YouTube, Digg, MySpace, etc. have thrived as a result of user-generated content – or “contribution keystrokes”. User contributions can be in the form of a rating or review of content; or the creation (e.g., uploading a video) of content. That to me is the quintessence of ‘community’ in the online realm – or the ‘democratic web.’ Once again, ‘content’ is the driving force.

Commercial Keystrokes
The end goal of any website is obviously is to generate revenue. Advertising and online commerce remain as the primary revenues models. In either case this will happen only through keystrokes – “commercial keystrokes”.

From a marketing perspective how well you transition eyeballs to keystrokes will determine your success. The more traffic your site generates, the more successful you are likely to be in generating revenues.

And, of course, that hinges upon your site’s ability to scale and sustain the offer of great, engaging, refreshing and compelling content over time. Thus, as you can see, content is not just the king, but the “emperor” of the online world.

KEEPING SOCIAL MEDIA SITES CLEAN

Recently social media sharing and publishing platforms have become ubiquitous. People use these sites to create and contribute content; or to critique and comment on content; or just to collect and consume content. Regardless of the use, people of all ages flock to sites that are in this realm (like YouTube, Digg, Flickr, etc.)

So, how do you keep these user-generated-content-sites clean for all ages and free of objectionable content? Do you remove all mature content? Do you display a warning before showing mature content? Or, do you filter content display depending on the age of the user? And, what processes do you provide for the community to flag mature content? These are some of the policy challenges that social media sites address regardless of media silos (of text, audio or video content).

Browser Preferences
As is well known mature material on the Internet is not just pornographic content. It also includes adult / obscene language, and violent or hateful material. Such content can be posted on social media sites as text, audio or video content.

Users do have ways and means of filtering such content on the Web using settings on their browsers. For instance, on Internet Explorer you can use The Recreational Software Advisory Council rating service (based on the work of Dr. Donald F. Roberts of Stanford University) to filter mature content. Some search engines also provide Safe Search preferences, which can be set to filter adult material.

These techniques basically place the onus on the user for setting viewing preferences. Suspect sites and / or offending content get entirely blocked.

Selective blocking
Social media sites feature content users generate. They do not provide editorial filters for approving content and hence have no control over the material that gets published.

So, while they would like to attract users belonging to all demographics, some controls are necessary to insure users do not accidentally view objectionable content on the site. Besides, they do have social responsibilities and moral obligations.

Best Practices
Social media sites need to have well-defined policies for flagging mature content. Getting users to declare mature content while publishing it is the first step. The media site needs to prominently flag all such mature content. A ‘mature icon’ may be displayed to warn users about the nature of the content and to prevent accidental viewing. Next, sites may have to incorporate date-of-birth based controls to prevent underage users viewing mature content.

A means for users (viewers of content) to report inappropriate content should also be provided. The media site should allocate resources and define processes for reviewing complaints and then taking appropriate steps including, but not limited to, expeditiously take down of the inappropriate content. Termination of the violating user’s account is also a step that can be pursued as an option.

Finally, social media site owners need to be vigilant about their site being used for publishing child pornographic material. Federal and state laws make it a crime to produce, possess, distribute, or sell pornographic materials that exploit or portray a minor. It has to be remembered that social media sites as service providers must report child pornography incidents to law enforcement authorities.

How Many More Accounts & Passwords?

The blogosphere is replete with frustration over "centralized social networking sites" (e.g., Krishnan, jEN...). The reason is pretty simple and straightforward. The way the ‘social’ aspect of the Internet exists today, you have no choice but to open and manage accounts over several sites to network around "social media."

So when will this multi-account networking end? What will it take for us to network with people over the Web regardless of where they have their "virtual media homes" set up?

Personality Fragmentation
I believe "the social realm" in the virtual world has to eventually mirror in many ways the physical realm. In the physical world, when someone looks at me they see one persona. During interactions over a period of time, they may get to see different emotions, expressions and the ilk. But, all that behavior manifests eventually in one personality. So, over a period of time with continued interactions, they get to know my likes (& dislikes), interests, passions, friends, family, and so on. Those who get invited home even get insights into what I own, value and cherish – books, music, videos, etc. In other words, they get to build a 360-degree view of me over time.

In the virtual world, outside of the words that I use to talk about myself (profile) or about something and the few photos or videos (faked?) that I share about myself, there is no personality. Further, my profile & personality is split across sites depending on the use I am putting the site to. Thus people publish content (regardless of media), participate in threaded conversations, manage schedules, etc., on myriad sites.

Further, the lack of physical interactions is a big impediment in virtual communities. There is no sense of bonding, belonging or togetherness unless it is an essentially physical group with presence online to facilitate remote communication (e.g., Yahoogroups).

Unification
So, for a (truly) virtual community to become socially connected, and to congregate (albeit virtually), there is a need to provide each member with an opportunity to know as much about the other members in the community. In other words, it becomes important to consistently expose common profiles about members across social networks irrespective of the platform or site where the network congregates.

By the very nature of today’s fragmented social applications, this is impossible. For instance, it is not possible for me today to expose my Flickr photos and Wordpress posts to members of a YouTube amateur movie club that I am part of.

So, what next?
Thus, the need is to seamlessly network with social and professional circles without endlessly opening accounts, maintaining passwords, entering profile information, checking threaded conversations, viewing published content, etc. on various social platforms. Open identification seems to be a step in the right direction.

Maybe Digital Lifestyle Aggregation (DLA) is the way to get there. However, I kind of felt many of Marc Canter’s concepts of DLA have been around for some time. One question that pops up in my mind is: What if a service does not expose itself with an API?

So, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Blogger et al. are you listening?

Non-mainstream Social Publishing

The last few years have seen a plethora of social applications mushroom all over the Internet. Besides featuring the customary "social networking" elements, many of these applications are centered around Web content sharing and publishing. But, almost all these applications are focused on "mainstream media types".

So, what is "mainstream media type"?
Most social networks revolve around multimedia content publishing such as images (e.g., Flickr), videos (e.g., Youtube), music (e.g., mp3.com), etc. Weblogs (e.g., Blogger) and bookmarks (e.g, Digg), while not necessarily being "multimedia" type, are extremely popular in the "social networking / publishing" realm. So, by virtue of being most popular amongst Web2.0 sites, these media types (images, videos, music, blogs, bookmarks, etc.) can be classified as "mainstream media types".

Then, what would be "non-mainstream media type"?
Besides the "mainstream media types," a lot of content on Web fall into unique use types. An example of such content is DYI (Do-it-yourself) or how-to, which might be composed with multiple media types (say rich text with a video and multiple pictures). Such "hybrid media" content can be classified as "non-mainstream media type."

Another class of Web content that might be considered "non-mainstream" is tabular content. For example, a comparison of X-Box and PS3 can obviously be presented in text format. However, if the same comparison is presented in tabular format, it is easier for the reader to comprehend the information. It is easy to author such a comparison on a Webpage (or Web log) with software particularly with enterprise content management applications. there are no Web applications that provide tools for publishing content in tabular format in a social context. Other examples of content that are better rendered in tabular format are "Oscar picks," "playoff predictions," and so on.

Is there a need for "social non-mainstream media"?
It is arguable whether there is a need for social (non-mainstream) media sharing & publishing. However, it has to be remembered that communities are engaging in such conversation (typically via e-mail) through groupware, forums and bulletin-boards today. So, "non-mainstream-oriented" Web2.0 provides an opportunity for communities to engage in that conversation in more meaningful and efficient ways.

Enabling "social networking" centered around non-mainstream media is also about according users the freedom to "express" and "congregate" over the Web in ways not possible earlier.

Disclosure: I am a co-founder of Cylive - a platform that attempts to empower users with the ability to "share and publish" any content in a collaborative context.

How is Cylive Useful?

Since the time we launched Cylive Beta a few days ago people have asked me what the site is all about. On hearing details of the application, most have tried pigeon-holing the application into an existing Web2.0 space. And, they have had difficulty doing so because the application is very unique and different from what exists out there!

So, here is a little 1-on-1 about what Cylive is about.

"One Roof" Concept
In the physical world, most of my belongings - books, CDs, DVDs, albums, magazines, files, etc. - are all at home under one roof. All items are pretty much stored, shared, displayed and showcased from the same location. The same principle pretty much applies to digital content on my personal computer.

So, why is it that in the virtual realm of the Internet, I have to upload my pictures into Flickr, videos into YouTube, bookmarks into Digg, blogs onto Blogger and so on, with each site requiring a separate ID / password? And, if I have to share my "digital assets" with friends and family, I have to either form groups on these sites, or resort to some good-old link-forwarding via e-mail. Not at all elegant!

We developed Cylive to function as a single destination on the Web for storing, sharing, publishing and distributing any digital stuff.

Publishing Freedom
Imagine watching "Planet Earth" on the Discovery Channel without getting an insight into the effort and the technology behind each clip. Wouldn't such a "commoditized" clip lack some of its appeal? Unfortunately, social media publishing sites - Picasa, YouTube, and the like - all adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. This means I am forced to publish, for instance, each of my photos with just a title, a brief description and some tags. A picture may be worth a 1000 words; regardless, a 1000 words may still be required to describe it.

And, what if I wish to share an album of my best photos along with a audio clip attached to each photo? Or, publish a recipe in my blog with a photo to go with each step? Isn't technology supposed to enable such "out-of-the-box" creativity?

So, we designed Cylive to support personalized media publishing. In other words, Cylive permits users to remix media-types - thus enabling "media mashups."

Content Diversity
Last year I tried publishing a table (of Web2.0 memetic attributes) in this blog. I realized there was no easy way of dong it. In fact, I discovered that "social applications" are all geared towards mainstream media types, i.e., audio, video, photos, etc. So, if I have to pubish and share my Oscar picks with my buddies I had to get my hands dirty in cumbersome HTML code. In other words, I had to become a HTML geek. Why?

Therefore, we architected Cylive in a way that makes it real easy for a layman like me to publish any information in a structured manner.

Shades of "Sharing" Gray
Just to make sure I had exposed the richness of Cylive in this blog entry, I wanted my colleague (and fellow Cylive co-founder) to preview it. So, I forwarded a copy of this text (via e-mail) for his critical review. Evidently, the "social" element of Blogger applies only to the 'sharing' of published content.

Most "social media applications" are deemed 'social' because they permit a two-way dialog between the producer and the consumer. But, what about collaborative content creation, i.e., simply co-creation? And, I am not just talking about blogging wikis (or blikis), but also rich media here.

Thus, we created Cylive to serve as a collaborative platform. Content owners can control "who gets to do what and when with content." For instance, all the invitees in my New Year Eve party can upload snaps (captured in their respective cameras) directly into a common photo album on Cylive.

Conclusion
In marketing and Web2.0 parlance Cylive is a "social publishing and content-management" platform. Forgetting the geek-speak, it really is the "site of the free" - it gives you the FREEDOM to express yourself in any way you deem fit. Come, take a test drive and find out how easy it is to become a "multimedia" Web publisher on Cylive!

Cylive Launch

I am very excited about our recent launch of Cylive (http://www.cylive.com/ - pronounced ‘sy-liv’) - a "social publishing and content management" platform. Cylive gives you “one roof” for ALL your digital stuff – photos, music, videos, bookmarks, articles, reviews, and MUCH MORE. You are now able to keep ALL your digital items in ONE place. You are always in control of what you do with your stuff and how & when you do it.

On Cylive – the “home of your digital stuff” – you can safely store ALL your private and confidential information. You can share ANY of your digital items with friends and family. You can also publish ANY stuff online and showcase it on the Internet for everyone to view...all with the click of a few buttons!

With your “digital home” at Cylive, you can work with your friends and family to jointly produce and publish digital material. And, you have the POWER to create material in your own new and unique way. For instance, you can create a photo album with a voice clip attached to each photo in the album about how and when you took the snap.

You can also control who can do what and when with your stuff. For instance, you can assign ‘add photos’ privilege to everyone in your family, but only give ‘view photos’ right to your friends. These privileges can be specified individually for your contacts on Cylive.

Summary:
So what can Cylive do for you? It is the easiest way for you to:

• Create, organize and share ANY digital stuff;
• Share and co-create content with your family, friends, or groups;
• Plan, organize and coordinate your personal & group activities;
• Publish your or view, rate & comment on other users’ thoughts and opinions;
• Express your ratings and recommendations on any topic – books, movies, etc.;
• Seek answers to your questions from other Cylive users;
• Discover user reviews of various things and places, such as restaurants, vacation destinations, etc.;
• Identify and connect with people who share your interests and hobbies;
• Store safely and access your private and confidential information online.