1. Fragmentation: The Future of
Social Media Platforms
Matthew Knell
AOL Social Media Director
February 7, 2012
for SocialFresh East
#socialfresh

2. Hi! My name is Matthew Knell!
Social Media Director at AOL
Pace University Tech Mentor in
Residence (http://csis.pace.edu)
Adjunct Instructor at NYU’s School
of Continuing and Professional
Studies
Obnoxiously huge Muppets fan
SocialFresh rookie
@matthewknell
matthew@ygm.com
http://about.me/matthewknell
Follow along at
#socialfresh @matthewknell
http://bit.ly/sofreshfrag #socialfresh

3. HOW MANY OF YOU THINK FACEBOOK
HAS REACHED ITS PEAK? WHY OR WHY
NOT?
#socialfresh @matthewknell

4. “TO THE EXTENT OUR ACTIVE USER GROWTH RATE SLOWS, OUR
BUSINESS PERFORMANCE WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY
DEPENDENT ON OUR ABILITY TO INCREASE LEVELS OF USER
ENGAGEMENT IN CURRENT AND NEW MARKETS. IF PEOPLE DO
NOT PERCEIVE OUR PRODUCTS TO BE USEFUL, RELIABLE, AND
TRUSTWORTHY, WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ATTRACT OR RETAIN
USERS OR OTHERWISE MAINTAIN OR INCREASE THE FREQUENCY
AND DURATION OF THEIR ENGAGEMENT. “
- Facebook in their S-1 filing
#socialfresh @matthewknell

5. Interest based networks are booming
• Tumblr jumped 130% in unique visitors from Nov 2010 to Nov
2011
• Pinterest jumped 1125% in UVs from May 2011 to Nov 2011
• Foursquare’s user base grew more than 1000% from August
2009 to July 2009 and 1000% again from August 2010 to July
2011
• Instagram took only 9 months to reach 150 million photos, and
just one year to reach 10 million members
• Facebook grew only 9% from Nov 2010 to Nov 2011
Sources: Comscore via eMarketer (US Unique Visitors to Select
Social Networks, Nov 2010-Nov 2011), Search Engine Watch
(Foursquare Hits 10 Million Users, Yeah, That’s 1000% Annual
Growth), Instagram Blog (The Instagram Community – Ten
Million and Counting)
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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6. Real-time Poll
• How many of you like every single thing your friends like?
• Are you willing to trade your personal relationships to get to
content that you want?
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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7. The interest graph movement
• The “shopping mall” is slowly being replaced by the “boutique”
store.
• The next wave of social media sites facilitate content creation
and curation content based on interests.
• Users, not people are the vehicle; content is the engine.
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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8. All encourage collections of related sets of things
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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9. All facilitate serendipitous discovery
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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10. Easy to create, curate and consume targeted content
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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11. SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU
AS A MARKETER?
#socialfresh @matthewknell

12. #socialfresh @matthewknell
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13. A “problem” – Facebook marketing is “easy”
• Facebook Pages
• Facebook Places
• Applications
• Facebook Sponsored Stories
• Engagement Ads
• Premium Ads
• Social plugins (like button, share button, recommendations)
• Open Graph 2.0 (new style actions, frictionless sharing)
• Facebook Insights
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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14. Interest based networks have limited paid marketing options
• Foursquare – Badges ($20k-$30k per month)
• Tumblr – “highlighted posts”
• Instagram, Pinterest - ???
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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15. You need to be interesting… more so
• On these platforms, content strategy and brand affinity
matters more than ever
• Even if users care about your brand, it is difficult to keep re-
engaging with them.
• Assumptions on your user base based on your Twitter and
Facebook demos can be risky.
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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16. HOW CAN YOU BE INTERESTING?
#socialfresh @matthewknell

17. Do a content audit
Consider:
• Is there a logical business need for using this platform?
• Your brand and where it fits in the world
• Types of content you have to share
• Curation and copyright concerns
• How do you want to tell your story?
• What you’re already doing on other social platforms?
• What device do you want your users to find you on?
• Who on your team will manage these accounts?
• How can this fit within your existing content calendar?
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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18. Test and target
• These platforms depersonalize human personas
• Instead of focusing on user demographics, focus on content
personals
• Your testing groups should be organized by affinities
• People who like behind the scenes pictures
• People who like celebrity photos
• People who like pictures of cats
• People who think this is the best SocialFresh preso of the conference.
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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19. Go fishing
• “Build a content museum” – curate or create one thing at time
• Use each channel of content to meet a slightly different user
interest.
• Use “snackable” assets strong enough to stand on their own
that are closely aligned with the theme.
• Drive your content towards a business goal when possible (a
page view, a purchase, a signup, a visitor to your store)
• Use success to refine your content personas.
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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20. Pinterest and Tumblr are ideal for curation
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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21. But both work well for original content
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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22. Tumblr is great for sharing your archives
• 30% of marketers
are planning to
increase usage of
Tumblr in 2012
Source: eMarketer (Plans to
Increase Usage of Other
Social Media Marketing
Platforms* in 2012 According
to US Marketers (% of
respondents)
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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23. Instagram as a branded movie reel
• 14.5% of users
spent more
time on
Instagram in
2011
Source: eMarketer (Social
Media Sites that US Social
Media Users Spent More
Time on in 2011 (% of
respondents))
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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24. Use Foursquare branded pages with tips and lists
• 68% of Inc 500
had “success”
with Foursquare
in 2011
Source: eMarketer (Social
Media Tools with Which Inc.
500 Companies Have Had
Success, 2009-2011 (% of
respondents)
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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25. What to use when?
• Tumblr – tell stories in simple posts with an emphasis on
content but want to take advantage of the built in community
• Foursquare – when you are a business / brand trying to
translate offline actions in to online actions
• Instagram – when you want to capture moments in time in
photographs
• Pinterest – when you want to claim your share of the interest
graph and you have a creative / fashionable audience
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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26. Questions?
Lots of social type links – http://about.me/matthewknell
Follow me on Twitter - @matthewknell
Read my ramblings – http://www.tagsmith.org
#socialfresh @matthewknell
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