1. 1
Folio 2009

2. 2
Using Social Networks to
Strengthen Your Market Position:
The User Perspective
p
Date: March 2009
Prepared for FOLIO: Growth Summit
Speakers:
Cia Romano, CEO and Founder, Interface Guru
Amanda MacArthur, Editor & Publisher, Mequoda Group
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

3. 3
About Cia Romano
and Interface Guru
Cia Romano
￭ Chief Executive Officer and Founder
￭ Developing Web sites since 1994
￭ Developed the widely disseminated Usable Times 5™
criteria for ranking computer screen effectiveness
￭ Veteran of hundreds of usability tests
￭ Frequent presenter at national conferences
Interface Guru
￭ Founded in 1999, specializes in usability testing and
analysis, digital media strategy, and user
experience design
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

4. 4
Thoughts from a social networking expert
How to socialize a brand
￭ Culture: A sense of place
￭ Integration: No community is an island
￭ Participation: You are what you have to say
￭ Trust (transparency/authenticity):
Give up the control you don’t have
￭ Leadership: Lead, empower, listen, follow
-Jay Bryant, Liveworld Inc.
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

5. 5
Social networks and the user perspective
Users bring existing expectations
to your social network
￭ Users process information in a sequence
￭ Usable Times 5™ is our proprietary metric, based on
hundreds f h
h d d of hours of usability lab testing
f bilit l b t ti
● Orientation (“Where am I?”)
● Permission (“Did I ask for that system response/popup/new
screen?”)
● I t
Interactivity (“Wh t can I d h
ti it (“What do here?”)
?”)
● Relevance (“Does this information matter to me?”)
● Speed (“How long will this take?”)
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

6. 6
Social networks and the user perspective:
Usable Times 5™
Orientation
￭ Disclose level of activity in community
￭ Offer limited preview of features (“What will it look like when I’m done?”)
Permission
￭ User-to-user controls (privacy, block / ignore user, mark as spam)
￭ Disclosure of terms of use (rights to material posted)
￭ Security and usage of personal data
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

7. 7
Social networks and the user perspective:
Usable Times 5™
Interactivity Once users log in, a
customized window
gives th user quick access
i the i k
￭ Ease of use (setup, self-evident controls, cancelling
to community features
account, mobile access)
￭ Interface with and push
content out to other
social networks
￭ Locating natural affiliations
(other social networks,
educational institutions
institutions,
interests)
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

8. 8
Social networks and the user perspective:
Usable Times 5™
Relevance
￭ Generational trends (your audience’s use of social
media)
● Not every social networking activity is appropriate for your brand or
audience
￭ Usefulness vs. promotion
(role of advertisers)
￭ Moderation / Self-policing to
ensure quality of content
● It is their content/discussion, but it is
your brand
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

9. 9
Social networks and the user perspective:
Usable Times 5™
Speed
￭ Quick access to most desired features/functions
￭ Optimal SEO for social networking (make it easy for
users to find
each other))
￭ Provide access to other social networks (ShareThis)
￭ Custom URL
(e.g. http://www.linkedin.com/in/ciaromano)
Above, ShareThis allows instant access to
,
the “social Web”
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

10. 10
Social networks and the user perspective:
Usable Times 5™
Speed
￭ Active communities need
at-a-glance comprehensibility
Right, Jezebel.com’s community allows
users to collapse comments, retaining
user interest while keeping the user
interface lightweight. Useful in cases
where many users respond
respond.
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

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Conclusions:
Respect your users
￭ Respect user expectations of social media
￭ Research your audience s social networking needs
audience’s
prior to development or purchase of social
networking products
(user testing, survey, generational preference)
￭ P
Provide interface to existing social networks
id i t f t i ti i l t k
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

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Conclusions:
Building vs buying
vs.
￭ Building
● Advantages: Support and development knowledge is in-house
in house,
seems cheaper
● Disadvantages: Higher overall cost, requires high degree of
technical skill
to develop/deploy/maintain
￭ Buying / Licensing
● Advantages: Less overall cost, more technical support,
standardized tools
● Disadvantages: Requires careful vendor selection, reliant on
g q ,
external tech support
￭ Our recommendation: Buy or license in order to
leverage an
existing network
● Take advantage of standards users already understand
￭ Make sure you have an exit strategy!
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
● What happens if you decide to change vendors? SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

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Conclusions:
Questions you need to answer
￭ Who are your users? What are their generational
behaviors?
● Define your user types
● Be aware of generational behaviors re: social media
￭ Who are your competitors?
● Will you social network compel users to add you to their lifestyle?
i l t k l t dd t th i lif t l ?
￭ What are your requirements?
● Conduct a competitive analysis
● Use your findings to create a must-have/must-not-have list
￭ Have you interviewed vendors and called references
● Don’t buy based on a pitch
￭ Avoid wishful thinking - Is this realistic?
● Be realistic about what you can maintain over time
Proprietary and confidential. All contents © 1999/2009
SymbolGroup, Inc.
Tucson, AZ | 520 744 6911

14. 14
Folio 2009

15. 15
About Amanda MacArthur
and Mequoda Group
Amanda MacArthur
• Editor & Publisher,
Mequoda.com
• Contributing Editor,
Mashable.com
Mequoda Group
• Founded in 2004, specializing in best practices and research for
online publishers, offering consulting and web site development.
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What s
What’s the ROI of being social?
• How much are you actually investing? (don’t
create new jobs)
• Think “customer service”, not marketing (social
media isn’t a get rich quick scheme)
isn t
• Track your traffic with client-side tools (server-
side can be deceiving)

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Who should be the voice of your brand
on social networks?
i l k
• Customer service,
marketing, editorial, sales
• Familiar with you brand
• Familiar with your products
• Already using social media

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The Universal Social Media Tool: Twitter
• B2B and B2C
• Content distribution
• Customer service
• Product Marketing
• Driving Traffic
• Personal

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How Mequoda benefits from Twitter
Personal product recommendations
Article pass‐along & email circ building
Article pass‐along & email circ building
Re tweets (doubling & triple exposure)
Re‐tweets (doubling & triple exposure)
Customer service
Networking

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Social Networks for Gardening Magazines
￭ Blotanical.com
(Syndication,
Links with Twitter)
)
￭ YouGrowGirl.com
(
(Forum)
)
￭ GardenWeb.com
(
(Network, Forums,
, ,
Syndication, Events,
Galleries)

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Social Networks for Photography Magazines
￭ Digital-Photography-School.com
(Syndication, Forum)
￭ Dpreview.com
(Forums)
￭ Photo.net
(Forums, Reviews,
Content Sharing)
g)

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Social Networks for Parenting Magazines
￭ CafeMom.com
(Network, Blogs,
Groups, Forums)
p , )
￭ Family.Go.Com
(
(Forums, Groups,
, p ,
Blogs)
￭ BabyCenter.com
y
(Groups, Blogs,
Forums, Content
Sharing)

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Social Networks for Travel Magazines
￭ WikiTravel.org
(Wiki)
￭ Wayn.com
(Network, Forum
Content Sharing)
g)
￭ VirtualTourist.com
(
(Forums, Content
,
Sharing)

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How to be successful on social networks
￭ Follow the 60/40 rule – Marketing vs. Conversation
● People who are collaborating understand that it’s a give-and-take relationship.
– Chris Brogan, Social Media Consultant, ChrisBrogan.com
￭ Engage like a consumer, not a marketer
￭ Direct traffic to pages that convert (free products: reports,
webinars, etc.)
￭ Test your campaigns with 3rd party tools (bit.ly, Google
Analytics, etc.)

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Tools to manage your online reputation
￭ SocialMention.com (everywhere you’re mentioned on the web)
￭ Trendrr.com (the “google trends” of your brand)
￭ HootSuite com (complete Twitter analytics package)
HootSuite.com
￭ BackType.com (monitors blog comments)
￭ Search.Twitter.com (monitors mentions of you on Twitter)