Social Media Aggregation 101

Social Media Aggregation 101 Keith Gerr AMA Oregon: Professional Development 10.09

What we’ll cover:

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Defining social media aggregation (SMA) Navigating the landscape Tools/Techniques Where is SMA headed?

Social Media Aggregation - consolidation of inbound/outbound web-based feeds into a dashboard view for the purpose of creating efficiencies in:

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Monitoring Dialoguing Sharing Collaborating

much more than simultaneously updating your “status”

Measuring To-be-determined purposes

Current State

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SMA market is rapidly growing and evolving with a mix of highly interoperable platforms - Mix of free and paid services allows for low-cost trial/error

Current State

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SMA market fractured by feature-set and platform support - Need to consider time/skill-sets to tie things together

Current State

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No single robust tool exists yet that provides a holistic feature set - Opportunity for enterprise datapplication providers (SCRM, BI) search engines and major social-nets to bring a full-featured solution to market

SMA segments we’ll dive into

Segment

Definition

Example

Macro

Micro

Supports large amount of social streams

Supports limited number of social streams

Messaging/dialogue focused

Messaging/dialogue focused

Specialized

Transformative

Strong business focus Focused on a specific function like monitoring or format delivery like video and url shortening

Includes listening platforms, SCRM, BI SM management tools and other enterprise application providers

Given the fast-evolving SMA space, it’s important to determine selection criteria:

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Purpose - business, personal, both?

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Scale - api, mobile, workflow, etc.?

Functionality - dialogue, monitor, syndicate, measurement etc. ? Interface - easy to use, customizable etc.?

Macro: FriendFeed

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Supports many social-feeds Individual/Group subscription and contribution Accessible from email, phone and IM API support

Macro: Netvibes

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Supports many social-feeds Extremely widget friendly “Follower” and “Friend” support No analytics yet (they suggest using Google Analytics)

Macro: Flock

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Social -browser (based on Mozilla Firefox architecture) Drag and drop functionality Supports many social feeds Blog editor and photo-upload tool built-in

Micro: TweetDeck

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Supports Twitter, Facebook and MySpace Dialogue-friendly/customizable interface Built-in video recording and watching (via 12seconds and Qik) Analytics can be accessed if use Bit.ly url shortening

Micro: LinkedIn

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Robust personal/group/company networking Widget integrations w/ Slideshare, Wordpress, Company Buzz etc. Poll syndication widget Premium subscription provides stats on visitors

Specialized: Socialmention

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Free keyword-based monitoring Can search by blogs, microblogs, comments, events, image, video etc. Real-time “buzz” widget Data export feature

Specialized: TubeMogul

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Multi-site video uploader Free and premium versions available Cross-platform analysis Multi-user and multi-campaign functionality

Specialized: bit.ly

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Url shortening service Allows for real-time link tracking Growing API integration includes Twitter, Google Reader and TypePad Browser bookmarklet and sidebar available

Specialized: Digg

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Crowd-sourced content curation and rating Facebook Connect integration Community comment threads Promote interests/follow others

Transformative: Radian6

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Listening and dialogue platform Provides workflow features Pulls from wide range of social data (blogs, forums, social-nets etc.) Growing API integration with enterprise systems like CRM and analtyic platforms

Transformative: Buddy Media Platform

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SM production/management system Facebook and Twitter client integrated Listening capabilities Real-time SM campaign analytics

Where is SMA headed?

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Increasing market demand for a “onestop”, hosted SMA solution will drive rapid innovation and consolidation - Likely to see horizontal and vertical product segmentation: personal productivity, SMB, enterprise, industry, trade

Where is SMA headed?

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Custom builds by agencies, social business consultancies other web integrators - Similar to custom CMS/email solutions, “productization” of social media management tools/dashboards will be looked at as a revenue growth area

Where is SMA headed?

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Consolidation among macro, micro and specialized players - Acquisition/mergers will increase as aggregators are forced to integrate growing social media properties/ platforms/features to retain/expand audience

Where is SMA headed?

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Transformative players will continue to load-on BI and contact-center capabilities - As SM listening/monitoring services become commoditized, transformative players will need advanced customer intelligence and engagement features to “grow” with paid client-base

Where is SMA headed?

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Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) - Existing and new CRM entrants are introducing cloud-based platforms that provide flexible integration with social media and other enterprise systems (SFA, CMS etc.) that leverages/enables peer:peer/ peer:pro dialogue

Where is SMA headed?

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Google/Facebook - Both have the audience scale and technical resources to become a defacto aggregation hub (i.e.Google Wave/Analytics/Social Search and Facebook Connect) - Over time will develop and/or acquire in-demand social media features

Continuing down the SMA path

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Prioritize current/future needs

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Don’t overlook aggregation/syndication features within existing social-nets

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Product reviews, social bookmarks, survey responses - they’re all part of the mix

Evaluate tools from a business and technical administration perspective

Thank You

[email protected]

503.957.0264

twitter.com/keithgerr