Universal McCann‘s ‘Power to the People‘ survey is now in its 4th year, or better yet – Wave 4. Every year UM researchers go deep behind the hype of social media to reveal the dramatic changes in the way consumers are using the internet to create and share their thoughts, pictures and videos. Wave 4 was conducted between 11/2008 and 03/2009 covering some 22,000 users from 38 countries, in what is considered the largest global analysis of social media usage.

Highlights:

• total estimated number of global active internet audience (16-54) is 625 million
• mobile internet users has reached 125 million
• 71.1% have visited a friend’s social network page
• 33% of social networkers have uploaded a video to their profile
• 62.5% created a social network profile
• China has 111 million social network profiles, USA 57.8 million, Korea 11.9 million, Japan 10.2 million, UK 12.1 million

In short – the first (actually 4th) inside look into how social media and the internet have changed the way we behave. Must read, for marketer, consumer, business executive, anyone.

You can watch the results of that survey over at UM Wave 4 website – using a very cool visualization graph to see the changes in the past 4 years. Another option is to review the 40 pages PDF, available at Business Exchange.

Run into this survey at eMarketer.com in one of my Google Alerts the other day. With all the plethora of information sources, I find it more difficult to focus on topics and trends that interest me, as well as joining in on conversations, so it’s good to know GAlerts still has some benefits..

The survey in hand was conducted between some 1,800 social media marketers in the US, asking them about the effectiveness of their practices – meaning which tactics they used, how effective those tactics were and how accurately can they measure such tactics. The results are not that surprising, but I would like to focus on next steps – how can we make those practices more effective and measured more accurately.

The first issue we’re seeing is the negative correlation between a tactic’s effectiveness vs. our ability to measure it accurately (graph below). The 3 most effective tactics are User reviews or ratings (47%), Blogger or online journalist relations (46%) and Forums or discussion groups (42%). When looking at the ‘Very accurately measured’ column, those tactics are ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively. With the expansion of broadband and the coming of web 2.0, everyone is a publisher, and thus consumers are more suspicious and don’t believe everything they read online. In the US the FTC are targeting bloggers’ freebies (PDF guidelines), and in the meantime there are some un-official guidelines on how to disclose and authenticate a sponsored conversation. In Israel on the other hand, things are moving slower (article in Hebrew).

The second issue pertains to hooking financial success with social marketing (graph below). It’s pretty obvious that social marketing is most effective for Brand reputation (39%), Brand awareness (37%) and Search engine results (38%). I’d like to point your attention to the Sales aspects of social marketing, Generate leads and Increase online sales. The marketers who were surveyed said that social marketing is not effective at Generating leads (35%) and Increasing online sales (46%). For social marketing to become bigger and better, we have to add revenues to the game, and being able to measure it. Dell are already showing the added value of their social activity on twitter, a new study finds correlation between social media and financial success and George Colony urges CEO to understand that social marketing is here to stay.

If we want social marketing to rock, Sales indicators must be inherent to any social campaign. It’s OK to start small, but start somewhere. Move the conversation from brand (only) to revenues as well. And one last request – be honest to your readers.

Relax, not me personally, my blog got that boost.
With June (and 2Q) wrapping up last week, it’s an excellent time to gather some statistics around my blog, and I decided to make a comparison to the previous period, and maybe identify some trends. The period I looked at is 1H08 vs. 1H09.

Google Analytics is truly a powerful tool, and I was able to go very deep (drill-down) and round up some interesting figures. I wanted to verify 2 assumptions I made since Jan 2008:

• pushing my blog’s content in facebook and twitter actually generated more traffic
• increase my Israel oriented readers (in May 2009 I started writing at newsgeek.co.il)

The results supported both assumptions.
Traffic-wise, the first 6 months of 2009 generated 13,004 visits and 18,660 page views, almost twice than the 2008 period. The increase was expected, but the sources breakdown amazed me. I have a 3-step process for pushing my blog’s content: update my twitter, post to facebook and save to del.icio.us – between those 3 networks I cover almost 5,000 eyeballs (directly). It did the trick, big time!
Facebook generated 5 times more visits – 76 in 1H08 to 480 in 1H09, and twitter generated roughly the same growth – 82 in 1H08 to 490 in 1H09. Direct traffic from Google also increased, by 110%, from 2,800 in 1H08 to 6,030 in 1H09.

Location-wise, I got 3 times more visits from Israel, jumping from 930 in 1H08 to just under 3,000 in 1H09. The US remains my main source of readers, with 4,050 visits in 1H09 (comapred to 2,700 in 1H08). The EU were also loyal readers, with +50% increase in France, UK, Germany, Netherlands and Italy. Australia, India and Canada showed similar increases.

To be honest, I expected those results. With the explosion of new media, facebook, twitter, friendfeed and others, I would be surprised to see a lower figure from those 2 sources, especially when taking into account the amount of self-marketing I did these past 18 months.

Looking into the near future, I wonder what my 1H10 vs 1H09 will look like.. what source will show the most increase in visits? will blogs still rule the world or will we all lifestream our lives? What do you think?

Just got back from the first bloggers’ tour at a news company, as 15 of us visited the offices and broadcasting studios of Channel 2 News (web and web) in Neve Ilan. The tour was organized by Liran Dan, VP Interactive Services and Anat Ginio, who among other things is the ‘voice’ behind @channel2news – thanks guys! One fact I learned at the beginning is that according to Israeli Law, every news broadcast MUST be aired from Jerusalem and Channel 2 News got an approval to shoot at the Jerusalem area – Neve Ilan is midway between the capital and Tel Aviv. Weird law, but that’s for another discussion..

It’s always interesting to visit at a news network, being at the studio and all, but with the Iranian election in the background, and the change twitter is bringing into this medium as well, it’s even more interesting. The goal of the visit, at least for me, was to understand how social media, twitter in this case, can support the on-going efforts to bring the news, as they happen, to the viewers.

Channel2news joined twitter some 6 months ago, and in the past 2-3 months they are putting some 50-100 updates a day, mostly breaking stories, special reports, live coverage and Q&A. Their online strategy includes twitter of course, and they sport a youtube channel as well, but are always learning this medium, trying to figure out the best way to use it. Learning is also about listening and asking for feedback, which Liran was interested in getting. We suggested to open a second twitter account, for breaking news (much like CNN Breaking News), that would alert followers to new stories as they happen, and also raised the option of ‘pulling’ live conversation data from twitter (trending topics or twitterfall) to get the public’s reaction to the story. I’m guessing the adoption of the latter will not happen soon, but our first proposal might.

Still, there’s much to consider when mashing community conversations with journalism, and I for one think it’s wise that Liran is exploring this step-by-step. Only 4 weeks ago they first asked viewers to submit questions to the weekend show (Meet the Press), and even thou they could promote this initiative more, they’re going slowly, for now. Twitter (and other social services) are changing the way we consume (and produce) content, but once you started, it’s almost impossible to undo.

I do believe social services will change the way we view the news, and the recent events from the elections in Iran proves it, but the battle between traditional vs. new media will bring new challenges, that must be solved. Journalists have a tough job these days, as they see/read/hear stories as they happen, but cannot report them until they were authenticated, and thus losing the scoop. The next 12 months are going to be pivotal in the history of the social web and its effect on the way we consume the news, so stay around, we’ll be right back…

Links:
Channel 2 News on twitter
Channel 2 News on mako.co.il and reshet.ynet.co.il
My photos from the tour, Kfir Pravda‘s photos and Yarin‘s photos (on facebook)

If someone here needed another proof to the change twitter has made, Nielsen released its Social Media QuickTake for May 2009, showing an amazing 1,444% growth in Twitter.com visitors – from 1.2m in May 2008 to 18.2m in May 2009. Wow! Time spent on twitter.com per person (not factoring the twitter apps I imagine) has also risen – from 6min in May 2008 to 17min a year later (+175%). Both are amazing figures, showcasing the revolution twitter has made in 2008/9 – starting with The US Presidential Election, the Earthquakes in China and the Elections in Iran.

The question now is ‘what’s next’, for twitter, facebook and others, as they reach super-mass adoption, and would (obviously) prefer to avoid ‘the myspace phenomenon‘. Nielsen already noticed that the ‘month-over-month’ rate is very minor: +7% in # of users and -1% in time spent – which in social networking terms is bad. That halt in growth has to do in part to the business model, or lack of it.

Twitter is a lot of things, and I salute the guys for providing the platform and building an impressive ecosystem, but at some point in time someone at Twitter HQ will need to step up and present what they plan for twitter in 2010.

Kerry Capell has written an interesting post over at businessweek.com providing an excellent case study for the usage of social media services in companies’ marketing strategy. In her post, Building European Brands through Social Media, Kerry is giving examples of some European brands – Cadbury, Vodafone, Unilever, Nestle and Volkswagen – and their innovative ideas of connecting the customers to the product and making conversation.

The concept of leveraging social (or new) media to reinvent the way companies engage with their customers isn’t new, but it’s always refreshing reading the new ideas and then looking in-house, at your company, and exploring what’s possible. In tough economical times, getting ad money isn’t easy (not to mention budget cuts), and social media campaigns are much cheaper, more effective (at times) and make a lot of noise.

Clay Shirky said in his recent TED lecture that twitter is making history and that the internet is changing the way people communicate and collaborate – “When a new consumer joins the conversation, a new producer joins as well”. The examples Kerry brings forth are a strong testimony to the power of social media and I hope Israeli companies will soon follow in those foot steps. I for one, will definitely do my best to make it a reality, soon.

Links:
Building European brands through social media – BusinessWeek.com
Clay Shirky: How twitter can make history
DellOutlet hits the $2M mark – Mashable
Vodafone LiveGuy
Cadbury Operation Goo
Volkswagen Twitter Analyzer
Nestle uses live tweets in ad campaign
Unilever – the rising star is social media?
The T-Mobile Dance – Youtube

Unlike past telco inventions (print, tv and radio), the internet (and twitter) is the first communication tool that enables us to make conversation and create groups – at the same time.

Enough of me, just watch the lecture (17:03):

At noon Saturday I picked my new facebook vanity url and from now on I’m facebook.com/dvirreznik. Simple and precise. According to facebook, 15min into the action, some 500,000 people registered their urls, at a staggering rate of 550 per second!

The question you need to ask is ‘what facebook has in store for us next?’ Having your own vanity url has been around for couple of years now, with LinkedIn, Flickr, SlideShare, Gmail, Twitter, Qik and many more. Being a number is so 1984, and facebook realized that. In my opinion (and others) facebook are working on something bigger, that would increase the loyalty of its friends – something like an email service.

And why the heck not? According to recent data facebook has some 200,000,000 loyal users and growing, built-in chat services, strong eco-system of developers – the only thing missing is messaging. And when you pick your vanity url you basically decide your email address: dvirreznik@facebook.com.

If you have other suggestions I’d love to hear them – drop a comment below.

Since Ashton and CNN battled out over who’ll reach 1m followers first, Twitter has been gaining ground in Israel. And although the micro-blogging service is still no match to facebook in terms of # of users, the awareness is definitely growing, globally and locally alike.

According to twittercounter there are about 2324 Israeli twitter users, my guess is a bit higher, closer to 3,500-4,000, as opposed to over 600,000 facebook users – some even say 750,000. Twitter is still relatively un-known in Israel, and we’re waiting for it to make its leap, but already I’m seeing more and more businesses entering this space, opening accounts on twitter. The reason is simple: it’s easy to manage and update, and doesn’t require too much of your time. The question is what value (or ROI) you expect from such activities, and the answers here vary, a lot.

In an effort to make some order in all the cluter, I’ve created a list over at newsgeek, of Israeli companies on twitter: media and communication, government and retail, hi-tech and VCs, leasure and sport, food and beverages and others. The list is dynamic, and 3 hours after the initial posting I had some 15 comments (and 20-30 new followers) of new accounts that needed to be inserted into the list. My goal is to create a place where people can find the company and contact person, that would enable them to start a conversation faster, meeting the demand of the ever-changing-business-world (aka – Innovation). The only 2 rules are:
a) an updated account (less than 20 days since your last twit) and
b) full bio available for contact and details.

Although the entire post is in Hebrew, by hovering over the names you can get the feeling of ‘who’s who’ in the Israeli E2.0 arena. I’m sure the list will continue to grow (by at least 1 more) in the future.

Link:
The List: Israeli Companies on Twitter (Hebrew)

After 40 something days of job searching (and beaching.. I’ll be starting my new job coming Monday, June 15 2009, at Isracard as Head of Social Media, part of the Marketing Division. I’m very excited as this position is a new one at Isracard, and as I’ll be doing the things I love and understand, at a large consumer company, internally and externally.

Isracard is Israel’s leading credit card company with some 2.5m card holders and over 100,000 clearing businesses via 3 products: Visa International, Mastercard International and Isracard. The company was founded in 1975 and employs some 1,300 people, HQ in Tel Aviv.

As my role is a new one, I’ll post a more elaborate entry about my responsibilities in couple of weeks, but basically my daily routine (as I see it) relates to every aspect of the company operations, split into 3 major routes:

• Customers – almost every citizen in Israel (inclusing me) holds at least one Isracard card and with 2.5m customers, I’m guessing the online conversation will be interesting…
• Clearing businesses – major aspect of any company operation is its eco-system, and in Isracard’s case those are the +100,000 businesses accepting Isracard cards, across the country.
• Employees – the human capital is any company’s strength, and with 1,300 people (300-400 of them at various call-centers) – they are the best evangelists to Isracard’s work.

So, even before I officaily started I can see some challenges and opportunities. Not sure I’ll get Obama’s grace period, but nevertheless I intend to do my best, as always. If you have any suggestions/requests/tips for my first day at the job, leave a comment or drop me an email.
And finally, I want to thank those who helped me in those 40 something days – thank you!

This is a simple story of a car enthusiast (me) who just happens to be a social media evangelist and (some say) a prominent twitter user.

Some 10 days ago while walking Ramat Aviv Mall I saw the beautiful Alfa Romeo MiTo. The car, which was announced mid 2008, is a real principessa, and one can see the resemblance to her ‘parents’, the 8C Competizione.

Being true to my belief that social media is just as powerful as traditional media, I posted a twit (facebook too) saying I’m willing to do a lot for a test drive in the new MiTo. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect an answer, yet alone a test drive, but the good people over at Alfa Romeo Israel, led by Nir Ben-Shlomo, Alfa Romeo Brand Manager, proved me wrong. I picked up my MiTo this Tuesday afternoon for a 16 hour drive (!), the first ever test drive to be performed by an independent blogger.

Over the past months I’ve read several posts and articles dissing social media and its impact on consumers and businesses. This example here illustrates the power of this medium, and we’re only at a fraction of its full potential.

My full review of this magnificent machine will be posted here soon, as well as on newsgeek, my other blog, but I thought you guys deserve some sneak-pics – just for being my readers..
Oh, one last thing, for the local auto dealers: I’m available for future test drives – drop me a line here dvirreznik at gmail dot com or via twitter and we’ll work out the details.

Last night I was part of an unusual event, the first in Israel: Eat&Twitt at Forelin Restaurant. The event was organized by Liat Vardi-Bar, a known social marketer in Israel and Yosi Taguri and Eran Kampf, who coined the hashtag #fiddme, and even working on a little venture by that name..

25 twipple were invited to this event (broadcasted live at Ustream.tv), were we enjoyed a 3-course dinner, comprised of Foreline’s new summer menu, coupled with various wines, courtesy of Agur, Saslove and Tulip wineries, a short lecture on food photography by Guy Kaminsky (Boxee.tv) and a gift – a cooking book. Did I mention all of the above was free?

You might wonder why would a restaurant decide to organize a free dinner to 25 people, that the only thing they have in common is: a) they love food; b) they twit. But this exactly is where most companies are wrong, especially if we’re considering the power of social media. Those 25 people made such a ‘noise’ last night, that at some point people took some drastic measures, because they started drooling over the keyboard.. The web is filled today (and probably tomorrow as well) with posts, pictures, videos and links to Forelin and Eat&Twitt. When a friend or colleague will ask me which restaurant to I recommend for fish and seafood, the answer would be obvious.

Forelin Rastaurant came to understand what companies are only beginning to realize – you need to meet your audience at their turf, in order to start a conversation with them. No matter how sophisticated your website is, no one will visit it without you making the first step. Liat has been very-very-very active with Forelin in that space, but convincing Chef Amir and the owners to organize such an event is a testimonial of the power social media has these days.

Liat, Yosi, Eran and Forelin Restaurant: THANK YOU!

Links:
Pictures on Flickr (courtesy of Niv Calderon, including the ones in this post)
Pictures of the event on facebook
Post about Eat&Twitt on newsgeek.co.il (with more pics of food)
Twitter results for forelintlv (screened last night using twitterfall)
Forelin Restaurant
Follow ForelinTLV on twitter

My BFF Ezra Butler videotaped this video, and it’s a good thing I’m leaving IBM, or I’ll have to answer to my bosses… Ezra came to IBM Israel for the Innovation Forum held last Thursday, and we managed to sqeeze this short interview before the event started.

TheMarker Com.Vention was held yesterday at Avenue, attracting more than 1,500 people, all of them part of the local hi-tech and internet community. Twitter was definitely the most mentioned word during the event, with a hashtag that appeared on themarker.com (#themarker09) and a dedicated panel: micro-blogging, substance or hype. My tweetdeck was filled with #themarker09, which got me thinking – why not set a group photo, of all twitterers attending the event? And so it was.. Below you can see the first group photo of some of the Israeli twitterers, along with Arjan Radder, who was a speaker at the event yesterday.
The original pictures are available at Niv’s album or his flickr.

From left to right (some people were not tagged, yet):

Tomorrow will be my last lecture as an IBMer, at the 2009 Israel Chamber of Information System Analysts, at Ramat Gan. Similar to last week’s lecture, I’ll be speaking about social media ROI’s, why should a company consider deploying social media solutions, present some customer references and wrap up with IBM’s own deployment story – all in 30min.. )
The presentation (in Hebrew) is already available over at slideshare.
My slot is at 12:30 – see you at the event.

During the presentation I referred to Nielsen’s recent report (March 2009) Global Faces and Networked Places (PDF, 2.1MB), pointing out some of the facts about social media in 2008 and beyond. Definitely worth the read.