Social Networking Conference: John Ploumitsakos on Consumer Trends

Social Networking Conference: John Ploumitsakos on Consumer Trends explains Google Insights, and advanced information on trends and search for the social networking consumer.

John shared ten key points for succeeding in the age of social networks.

• From Google’s multidimensional perspective, the six degrees phenom is adopting strongly, in all demographics. Beware of assumptions! Visitors are not necessarily who you think they are.
• There are many social networks, one for everyone; and portals like MSN are becoming social.
• Social networking ? marketing: it means two-way dialog, and advertisements must “participate” in the conversation; Google helps its clients through this (as it’s very different since ads are one-way communication).
• U.S. advertising spend on social networks is growing by 200%/year; it will be $3 billion by 2011. MySpace is 54%, Facebook 20% and Windows Live Yahoo is 16% current spend.
• John mentioned several success stories: Crest White Strips on Facebook, Aquafina’s MySpace contest, the Beastie Boys video, Jack Box’s profile on Facebook (Jack in the Box), Del monte’s Pup-peroni and I Love My Dog site.
• Another key trend is Open Access; the way Google sees it, everyone wins.
• Data portability is also key; let people use data the way they want. That means letting data some to people when they subscribe. That also means that they can unsubscribe easily.
• Find your audience, and target specifically (think Long Tail); Google has tools that help companies to microsegment and target. YouTube serves specific ads to MySpace members, for example (BTW, another Open Access partner).
• Creative reigns: ads must adapt, and widgets are a great example of creative advertising and adaptiveness. They can enhance stickiness; Google considers widgets an ad format.
• Watch for metrics to change constantly and be redefined (this is by no means a stable/static environment). There will constantly be new attributes to consider. This will challenge marketers to learn to understand and measure value.
• On the horizon.. look for everything to become more global and portable. For example, in India, 69% of Internet users use social networks; in Korea 53%, in the UK 34%, in the U.S. 20%.
• Mobile social networking will become very important.. Google anticipates this and has launched Latitude in response. Google Enterprise is a key strategy that encourages global collaboration.

The Social Networking Conference took place June 24-26 in Beverly Hills. Between leading the pre-conference workshop on Enterprise Social Networking and leading the final panel, I scribbled these notes.

Enjoy and watch for the final report within a few days!