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Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media
Andreas M. Kaplan *, Michael Haenlein
publique, F-75011 Paris, France ESCP Europe, 79 Avenue de la Re
KEYWORDS
Social Media; User Generated Content; Web 2.0; Social networking sites; Virtual worlds
Abstract The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which rms can make protable use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term Social Media exactly means; this article intends to provide some clarication. We begin by describing the concept of Social Media, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2.0 and User Generated Content. Based on this denition, we then provide a classication of Social Media which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more specic categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize Social Media. # 2009 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.
Museums collection of 300,000 objects seem tiny in comparison. According to Forrester Research, 75% of Internet surfers used Social Media in the second quarter of 2008 by joining social networks, reading blogs, or contributing reviews to shopping sites; this represents a signicant rise from 56% in 2007. The growth is not limited to teenagers, either; members of Generation X, now 3544 years old, increasingly populate the ranks of joiners, spectators, and critics. It is therefore reasonable to say that Social Media represent a revolutionary new trend that should be of interest to companies operating in online spaceor any space, for that matter. Yet, not overly many rms seem to act comfortably in a world where consumers can speak so freely
0007-6813/$ see front matter # 2009 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003
willingness to engage online) make UGC nowadays fundamentally different from what was observed in the early 1980s. Based on these clarications of Web 2.0 and UGC, it is now straightforward to give a more detailed denition of what we mean by Social Media. In our viewand as used hereinSocial Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content. Within this general denition, there are various types of Social Media that need to be distinguished further. However, although most people would probably agree that Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and Second Life are all part of this large group, there is no systematic way in which different Social Media applications can be categorized. Also, new sites appear in cyberspace every day, so it is important that any classication scheme takes into account applications which may be forthcoming. To create such a classication scheme, and to do so in a systematic manner, we rely on a set of theories in the eld of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure), the two key elements of Social Media. Regarding the media-related component of Social Media, social presence theory (Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976) states that media differ in the degree of social presencedened as the acoustic, visual, and physical contact that can be achievedthey allow to emerge between two communication partners. Social presence is inuenced by the intimacy (interpersonal vs. mediated) and immediacy (asynchronous vs. synchronous) of the medium, and can be expected to be lower for mediated (e.g., telephone conversation) than interpersonal (e.g., face-to-face discussion) and for asynchronous (e.g., e-mail) than synchronous (e.g., live chat) communications. The higher the social presence, the larger the social inuence that the communication partners have on each others behavior. Closely related to the idea of social presence is the concept of media richness. Media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986) is based on the assumption that the goal of any communication is the resolution of ambiguity and the reduction of uncertainty. It states that media differ in the degree of richness they possessthat is, the amount of information they allow to be transmitted in a given time intervaland that therefore some media are more effective than others in resolving ambiguity and uncertainty. Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a rst classication can be made based on the richness of the medium and the degree of social presence it allows. With respect to the social dimension of Social Media, the concept of self-presentation states that
A.M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein In a similar spirit, social networking sites allow for more self-disclosure than content communities. Finally, virtual social worlds require a higher level of self-disclosure than virtual game worlds, as the latter are ruled by strict guidelines that force users to behave in a certain way (e.g., as warriors in an imaginary fantasy land). We will now provide more detail on each of these six different types of Social Media, and discuss the challenges and opportunities they offer companies.
3.2. Blogs
Blogs, which represent the earliest form of Social Media, are special types of websites that usually display date-stamped entries in reverse chronological order (OECD, 2007). They are the Social Media equivalent of personal web pages and can come in a multitude of different variations, from personal diaries describing the authors life to summaries of all relevant information in one specic content area. Blogs are usually managed by one person only, but provide the possibility of interaction with others through the addition of comments. Due to their historical roots, text-based blogs are still by far the most common. Nevertheless, blogs have also begun to take different media formats. For example, San Francisco-based Justin.tv allows users to create personalized television channels via which they can broadcast images from their webcam in real time to other users. Many companies are already using blogs to update employees, customers, and shareholders on developments they consider to be important. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, maintains a personal blog to improve the transparency of his company; so does automotive giant General Motors. Yet, as is the case with collaborative projects, blogs do not come without risks. These generally present in two fashions. First, customers whofor one reason or anotherturn out to be dissatised with or disappointed by the companys offerings may decide to engage in virtual complaints in the form of protest websites or blogs (Ward & Ostrom, 2006), which results in the availability of potentially damaging information in online space. Second, once rms encourage employees to be active on blogs, they may need to live with the consequences of staff members writing negatively about the rm. Microsofts former technical evangelist Robert Scoble, for example, had a tendency to ercely criticize the products of his employer before he decided to leave the Redmond-based software company in 2006.
the wheel if somebody has already done it, especially given that Social Media show positive network externalities in the sense that they get more attractive to join the more participants they already have. But in some cases, the right application might just not be available yet. Japans Fujilm, for example, recently launched its own social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts. In a similar spirit, U.S.-based department store rm Sears collaborated with MTV music television to create a social network around back-to-school shopping. Yet, whatever the ultimate decisionto buy, make, or both it is vital that there is an understanding of the basic idea behind Social Media. Its all about participation, sharing, and collaboration, rather than straightforward advertising and selling. 4.1.3. Ensure activity alignment Sometimes you may decide to rely on various Social Media, or a set of different applications within the same group, in order to have the largest possible reach. In this case, it is crucial to ensure that your Social Media activities are all aligned with each other. A prime example in this context is computer manufacturer Dell and its Digital Nomads campaign. Dell uses a combination of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn), blogs, and content communities (YouTube videos) to show how its range of laptop computers enable individuals to become a nomadic mobile workforce. In a similar spirit, Chryslers Jeep brand connects with its customers by combining photos shared on the content community Flickr, with groups on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Using different contact channels can be a worthwhile and protable strategy. But remember: one goal of communication is the resolution of ambiguity and reduction of uncertainty, and nothing is more confusing than contradicting messages across different channels. 4.1.4. Media plan integration What is true for different types of Social Media also holds for the relationship between Social Media and traditional media: Integration is key! While you may consider these two arenas to be completely different, in customers eyes they are both part of the same: your corporate image. Consider the actions of soft drink giant Coca-Cola. In June 2006, a pair of performance artists shot a video featuring a series of geysers they created by dropping Mentos brand mints into 2-liter bottles of Coke; the clip became a major hit on YouTube. Realizing customers enthusiasm for this performance, Coca-Cola fostered the sensation by airing the video on late-night television and ensuring broad digital distribution across different content communities. Besides the advantage of
deleted from their Facebook network. The campaign was adopted by over 20,000 users, resulting in the sacricing of 233,906 friends in exchange for free burgers. Only one month later, in January 2009, Facebook shut down Whopper Sacrice, citing privacy concerns. Who would have thought that the price of a friendship is less than $2 a dozen? A new trend is on the horizon, though; Watch out for Mobile Social Media! Mobile Web 2.0 is very similar to Web 2.0, as discussed earlier. In contrast to its predecessor Mobile Web 1.0, which relied on proprietary protocols (e.g., WAP) and use-based pricing, Mobile Web 2.0 is characterized by open standards (e.g., a transition to the TCP/IP protocol, the technical foundation of the World Wide Web) and at-rate systems. Even the manual entry of web addresses using small and difcult-to-handle keyboards is becoming history. Soon, all items around you will be equipped with Radio Frequency Identication (RFID) tags that will be able to automatically connect to your mobile phone and send URLs to them, similar to todays text messages. This technical evolution is laying the groundwork for moving Social Media applications away from desktop PCs and laptops, toward mobile devices. Why log into Facebook if you can easily update all your friends using Twitter? Why wait until you return home to watch the new YouTube video if you can do so conveniently on your iPhone? According to Jupiter Research, the market for Mobile Web 2.0 evolutions will grow from a mere $5.5 billion today to an impressive $22.4 billion by 2013. Mobile Social Media applications are expected to be the main driver of this evolution, soon accounting for over 50% of the market. In one way, this surge toward Mobile Social Media can even be seen as another step toward Internet democratization and closing the digital divide between developed and emerging countries. In India, for example, mobile phones outnumber PCs by 10 to 1. In Thailand, only 13% of the population owns a computer, versus 82% who have access to a mobile phone. It is therefore not surprising that the Pew Research Centera Washington-based think tankestimates that by 2020, a mobile device will be the primary Internet connection tool for most people in the world. Making Social Media applications mobile is likely to tap a currently unexploited base of new users. Even if percapita spending in these countries may still be low, vast population numbers make them relevant for virtually any rm. Obviously, Mobile Social Media does not come without a price. Some would argue that while it enables the detailed following of friends half-way across the world, it can foster a society where we dont know the names of our own next-door neighbors. Be that as it may, and independent of
References
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