Social Media Optimization for Social Media

Social Media Optimization isn’t really new in the industry, so why not use Social Media Marketing to boost your own Social Service? I have found some Social Media Marketing Tactics on the web like e.g. ‘Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing‘ and ’How to Leverage Web 2.0 & Social Media Sites to Market Your Brand & Control Your Message‘, but also with some hints what you shouldn’t do, like DO NOT go around adding random people as your friends. But why not? I can’t believe that it is unhealthy to surf around and add strangers to your friend list and then try to market your service to your ‘new’ friends. If you browse some of the big social networks you always find people saying that they want to meet new people and make friendships. So it shouldn’t be a big annoyance to say hello and ask if they want to be my friends :o)

To investigate to potential of making new friends with random strangers, I joined the following networks and measured how many friends I will collect within 24 hours. By random I ask exactly 100 people, if they want to be my buddies. But I have to admit that I used a fake female profile for my little experiment:

 
All in all it was quite easy to set up an (fake) account and to add new friends. But in some social networks like itsmy.com and flirtomatic.com you must verify your cell phone number before connecting to other people. And some of the social services seem to have a limitation for adding friends. For example at sonico.com I got the note “You have reached your daily limit of manual invitations” after adding 10 friends, but you still can add friends directly by sending them an invite email. And at facebook.com I got a warning that I am “engaging in behavior that may be considered annoying or abusive by other users”. So I had to slow down with my new friends, because in the worst case they would temporary block or even close down my test account. I hope they will forgive me my little scientifically study and will not banish my real me ;o)

The best way to promptly make strangers be your friends is to talk to users that are online, but not every social service offers this functionality like peperonity.com does. The resume for me is that it is fun, because you get a lot of respond, but you have to be careful not to get banish and it just takes time to set up an account and find your new friends. And there’s more to it than that, because afterwards you have to find the right way to generate exposure for your business and not every social network is allowing the promotion of foreign services. For example fotochatter.com deleted my note and link to my service.

Proactive Moderation is Key for Community Growth

Of course it’s hard work and a big issue for all community services, but spending some hours with moderating your community is also always a great possibility to stick around your user base. On the one hand you will see what’s going on and you will get a better feeling for the needs of your user. And on the other hand with the user interaction you can provide your community a healthy and welcoming framework and avoid degrading into a dump of spam and ill feeling. We have a team of moderators and regular moderation work every day, but sometimes the team mates from other departments get togeher and arrange a so-called ‘Rating Party’. So today we had an exhausting, but also a very informative and amusing day at the office.

It’s time for a small change

Today our web task force launched a new web site for peperonity.com. What do you think? But there is even more to come, so stay tuned!

Today we launched three new languages, so now we have peperonity.com in 10 languages; German (Deutsch) [2000.01.12], English [2000.01.12], French (Français) [2007.04.19], Italian (Italiano) [2007.06.29] Portuguese (Português) [2007.06.29], Polish (Polski) [2007.12.18], Russian (Русский) [2008.05.13], Spanish (Español) [2008.07.15], Romanian (Română) [2008.07.15] and Greek (Ελληνικά) [2008.07.15]. This time our team mates Ines, Panos and Codruta were making the various translations.

Some spanish publications: yahoo.es, hoytecnologia.com, actualidad.terra.es, laopinioncoruna.es, laprovincia.es and diariodemallorca.es. And a romanian publication: mediafax.ro

Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche

Two days ago I was asked by Mark Wächter, if I can fill in for facebook on the Mobile Media Summit at MedienForum.NRW in cologne. They didn’t ask me first, but why not :o) So I had the great opportunity to join the panel ‘Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche’ (English: Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 for the trouser pocket) and to discuss the developments in mobile social networks with Sarik Weber (Vice President – Marketing, cellity AG), Olaf Kroll (Director Business Development Europe, Fox Interactive Media / MySpace.com), Mark Wächter (chairman of Fachgruppe Mobile of Bundesverbandes der Digitalen Wirtschaft e.V.) and Ossi Urchs (F.F.T. Medienagentur).

Markus Nass made some pics with me in action, as carnival barker and in the panel. And here are my slides:

[slideshare id=465745&doc=20080611-peperonide-mk-mobile-summit-1213346077798560-8&w=425]

There were also other interesting lectures that day like the one by Dr. Rainer Deutschmann (Executive Vice President Mobile Internet, T-Mobile International AG), telling that they are changing more and more from a portal to a platform for third parties. And that it is important for them right now to explain to the user that they can now find the web brands like eBay – that they are familiar with on their personal computer at home – on the their mobile phone. And I just loved the statement of Michael Stenberg (Partner Director Mobile, Central & Eastern Europe, Yahoo! Deutschland GmbH): ‘the mobile internet is big’ :o)

Mobile Media Summit 2008 Agenda:

Mobile Internet – Kampf um die beste Startposition

• Keynote: Dr. Rainer Deutschmann
• Moderation: Ossi Urchs
• Panel participants: Mark Wächter, Dr. Rainer Deutschmann, Michael Stenberg, Matthias Büchs
• Presentations: Michael Stenberg, Matthias Büchs

Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche

• Keynote: Sarik Weber
• Moderation: Ossi Urchs
• Panel participants: Maciej A. Kuszpa, Mark Wächter, Olaf Kroll, Sarik Weber
• Presentations: Olaf Kroll, Maciej A. Kuszpa

Mobile Advertising – Werbung direkt beim Kunden

• Keynote: Burkhard Leimbrock
• Moderation: Ossi Urchs
• Panel participants: Dirk Kraus, Mark Wächter, Burkhard Leimbrock, Stefan Meyer-Spickenagel
• Presentations: Dirk Kraus, Stefan Meyer-Spickenagel

Maciej’s site on peperonity.com

Some days ago I updated my mobile site on peperonity.com. I have posted some comments on my team mates, our headquarters and my work and uploaded some pics. So have a look – more to come :o)

And here are some fan e-mails from around the world:

• The Vampire Princess wrote on February 7, 2009: great job!! :o)
   
• Katherine Kisebakalis wrote on February 6, 2009: Sir. I Have The Pleasure Of Being A Member Of The Community of Peperonity. MY compliments To You FOR your kind An Considerate Staff in the way they Have Addressed My Problems I Have Presented To Them. Iam Very Impressed By The Ease An Support Your Entire Staff extends to us.
   
• Sweet Dark (IN) wrote on December 7, 2008: Thank you for creating the greatest community in the history of wap and if u ask me, the internet itself!! No one will ever top peperonity! Truely! I’m an extremely grateful to you and your staff! O x
   
• Nakshatra (IN) wrote on August 14, 2008: Thank u so much for accept my friendship. Thank u for giving us such a beautiful mobile world, where each one can creat their own world.

Now we have peperonity.com in following languages; German (Deutsch) [12.01.2000], English [12.01.2000], French (Français) [19.04.2007], Italian (Italiano) [29.06.2007] Portuguese (Português) [29.06.2007] and Polish (Polski) [18.12.2007]. This time our teammates Mariola and Peter were pressing ahead with the polish translation. During the translation Mariola also build her first mobile site ever: http://mariola1.peperonity.com :o)

The Mobile Commerce Working Group of the University of Augsburg is making a survey about mobile viral Marketing. They also focus on mobile Communities and they pointed out peperonity.com as an example for a mobile Community :o)

Here is the German-speaking press release:

Universität Augsburg führt eine neue Verbraucherstudie zum mobilen viralen Marketing durch

Augsburg – Wann sind Kunden bereit, mobile Werbebotschaften an ihre Freunde und Bekannten weiterzusenden und welche Vorbehalte haben sie? Mit diesen und weiteren Fragen beschäftigt sich eine neue Studie der Universität Augsburg, die derzeit per Internet-Fragebogen (http://mm5.wi-mobile.de) durchgeführt wird. Wer mitmacht, kann attraktive Preise gewinnen.

Die Nutzung des Mobiltelefons für Werbezwecke wird unter dem Schlagwort “Mobile Marketing” intensiv von Marketingexperten diskutiert. Von der wissenschaftlichen Seite wird dieses Phänomen von der Arbeitsgruppe Mobile Commerce an der Universität Augsburg untersucht. Von besonderem Interesse ist dabei die Weitersendung der Werbebotschaften von Kunde zu Kunde, das sogenannte Mobile Viral Marketing. In einer vorangegangenen Studie hatten die Augsburger Forscher 44 Mobile-Marketing-Experten befragt, von denen fast 70 Prozent mobiles virales Marketing als wichtiges zukünftiges Marketinginstrument identifiziert haben. Welche Kunden bereit sind, sich an Mobile Viral Marketing Kampagnen zu beteiligen, soll derzeit eine Studie an der Universität Augsburg klären. “Uns interessiert, welche Inhalte sich am besten für Mobile Viral Marketing eignen, wer diese verbreitet und an wen sie versendet werden,” so Dietmar Wiedemann, Mobile-Marketing-Experte der Augsburger Arbeitsgruppe, “Das Phänomen Viral Marketing beginnt erst, auf das mobile Endgerät überzugreifen. Damit der Einstieg gelingt, müssen Werbetreibende bereits jetzt die Erfolgsfaktoren dieses innovativen Marketinginstruments identifizieren. Unsere Studie ist hierzu ein erster Schritt.”

Um diese Fragestellungen beantworten zu können, bitten die Augsburger Forscher um möglichst zahlreiche Teilnahme an ihrer Umfrage. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse werden wissenschaftlich veröffentlicht und auch die Teilnehmer selbst können auf Wunsch nach Abschluss der Studie eine Auswertung der Ergebnisse erhalten. Für die Beantwortung der Fragen ist kein Spezialwissen erforderlich, relevant ist nur die persönliche Einstellung und Einschätzung jedes einzelnen Kunden. Mitmachen kann also jeder, der ein Handy besitzt. Die Umfrage kann im Internet unter http://mm5.wi-mobile.de aufgerufen werden. Teilnehmen lohnt sich, denn wer mitmacht, kann einen von zwei GPS-Handhelds von Fujitsu Siemens Computers gewinnen – ein UMTS-Smartphone PocketLoox T830 und ein PDA PocketLoox N520. Unterstützung erfährt das Forschungsprojekt von der Mobile Entertainment Plattform sms.at und der Mobile Community peperonity.com.

Und mobiles virales Marketing funktioniert. Schon in der jüngsten Zielgruppe (6–13 Jahre) ergab eine britische Studie von Intuitive Media, dass 29 Prozent der Befragten bereits Musik über Bluetooth an ihre Freunde übertragen und weitere 45 Prozent sich vorstellen können, dies ebenfalls zu tun. Ähnliche Werte ermittelte das Marktforschungsinstitut OpinionWay für eine erwachsene Zielgruppe in Deutschland: Je nach analysierter Kampagne versendeten 19 bis 65 Prozent eine mobile Grußkarte mit Werbeinhalten einmal und 22 bis 41 Prozent sogar mehrmals. Dabei nahmen Empfänger, die die Grußkarte von Freunden bekamen, überproportional häufiger an der Aktion teil als Erstempfänger, die vom Unternehmen adressiert wurden.

Längst hat auch die Werbebranche erkannt, dass Werbung, die vom Kunden ausgeht, glaubwürdiger wirkt und Streuverluste minimiert. “Da Konsumenten – und nicht Unternehmen – die mobilen viralen Inhalte verbreiten, treten diese aufgrund ihrer sozialen Stellung im persönlichen Netzwerk als Garant für die Relevanz und Glaubwürdigkeit der Botschaft auf”, so Projektleiter Dietmar Wiedemann. Die Tatsache, dass mobile virale Inhalte typischerweise zwischen Personen mit denselben Interessen ausgetauscht werden, ermöglicht Unternehmen zudem gezielt und meist ohne zusätzliche Kosten spezielle Zielgruppen anzusprechen, die ansonsten über andere Werbemaßnahmen nur schwer und unter hohen Streuverlusten erreichbar wären.

Bei allen Chancen, die Mobile Marketing bietet, mahnen die Augsburger Forscher jedoch die Unternehmen auch zur Vorsicht: “Das Mobiltelefon als Werbemedium wird nur erfolgreich sein, wenn die Zielgruppenanalyse stimmt, das Medium richtig angewendet und eine Win-Win-Situation zwischen Unternehmen und Kunden geschaffen wird. Dem Kunden muss ein klarer Nutzen geboten werden”, so Dr. Key Pousttchi, Leiter der Arbeitsgruppe Mobile Commerce. “Denn ein Unternehmen, das hierbei das Gießkannenprinzip anwendet oder dem Kunden auf die Nerven geht, beschädigt seine Marke.”

Zugriff auf die Umfrage:
http://mm5.wi-mobile.de

Pressekontakt:
Dr. Key Pousttchi
Arbeitsgruppe Mobile Commerce
Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik und Systems Engineering
Universität Augsburg
86135 Augsburg

Informationen zur Online-Umfrage:
Dietmar Wiedemann
Arbeitsgruppe Mobile Commerce
Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik und Systems Engineering
Universität Augsburg
86135 Augsburg

Die Arbeitsgruppe Mobile Commerce im Web:
http://www.wi-mobile.de

Olivia Hilton on mobile chat in interview with inbabble.com

Hey! Today I saw an interesting interview on inbabble.com with Olivia Hilton (Jumbuck) on mobile chat and I just couldn’t resist to smile on this text passage:  

A fast thinker, Olivia Hilton isn’t afraid to make honest statements about her mobile dating competition, such as Mobiflirt (“Mobiflirt is a game”) and peperonity (“…the content is not validated – lots of naked women, gambling, etc.”)

Honest statements? For me it’s more like mocking – maybe because of fear of good competition :o)

Dear Olivia, it would be a pleasure for me to meet you and have a chance to explain to you that we are not really a mobile dating service. But I’m flattered to be competition in your eyes!

One of my personal interests and tasks at Peperoni is to track the development of our industry sector (Mobile UGC / Mobile Social Networks). Furthermore people (mostly investment bankers :o) ask me often how big and valuable our community is – but honestly, it’s not easy to answer this question satisfiable.

In our and other communities you have “creators” and “viewers”. We also have some ”new visitors”, “repeat visitors”, “heavy users”, “sleepers” and of course some “bouncers”. (There is a small survey about the typical Web 2.0 users from Forrester Research on ECIN – for German speakers.) In between that we also have our “unique visitors” and “registered members”, which I think could be the most informative key figures in this category.

Beside the already existing challenges on the net, it also seems not to be so easy to count the “unique visitors” on the mobile internet. So how to manage a proper measurement based on IP addresses, if e.g. the mobile network operator (MNO) use dynamic IP technology and their customers share the same IP addresses? Some MNO give you the information about MSISDN or a customer-ID, but in the off-deck world only very few of them are such generous. Furthermore you can use cookies, but many of the cell phones and MNO don’t support this technology. The bottom line is that you have to have some king of extrapolation on your figures, but like my old professor on statistics Prof. Dr. Walter Krämer used to say: don’t believe statistics that you didn’t make/fake :o)

You can also count the “registered members” which seems to be obvious, but in some cases it doesn’t span the whole community. For example you don’t have to register to join peperonity.com. Many of our “members” appreciate the anonymity, by still have the access to a broad range of functions in the community. Here some figures that I found (or not found) on the net today:

• tagtag.com has 269,960 sites
  you can count the sites in the tagtag.com catalog
  but there is no figure about the number of members and you can’t deduce it, because a member can have more than one site in a member account.
   
• itsmy.com has 2,104,214 sites
  you can see the figures on the itsmy.com homepage
  I suppose they have the same number of members, because you can only have one “nickpage” in a member account.
   
• mocospace.com has 104,914 members
  you can count the profiles in the mocospace directory
  I assume that they have the same number of sites, because you can only have one “profile” in a member account.
   
• peperonity.com has 394,586 members
  you can see the figures on the peperonity.com homepage
  and they have definitely more sites, because you can have more than one site in a member account.
   
• mobango.com has 1,500,164 members
  you can see the figures on the mobango.com homepage
  and I assume that they have the same number of sites, because you can only have one “profile” in a member account.
   
• mygamma.com has 44,213 sites
  you can count the sites in the mygamma.com catalog
  but on the other side they have “only” 20,044 members on the Gamma Life Ladder.
   
• pitch.tv has ??? sites/members
  I couldn’t find a way to count anything here :o(

The conclusion is that nobody knows if these figures are true, if they reflect the total of uniqe members, if they include nominal members/sites and if they can verify the “quality” of an community. So for me such manifestation is just a simple marketing instrument - we also use it :o) – and not really a significant benchmark. Another interesting question would be, how big the overlap on members all communities have together. I know some “heavy users” having several accounts in different mobile communities. I myself have three accounts on peperonity.com and one on each of the above communities. Some days ago we had a chat with Fred from AirG.com about our industry sector and it’s quite difficult to measure the size and growth of our market in terms of end user. Maybe some of my visitors have a hint for me on some studies on this …

Another way would be to count “page impressions” which seems to be easier. But even here a clear definition of a page impressions is needed, because sometime you risk to get total figures included page impression on error pages and other technical notes :o) And those figures only a provider can tell you. There are some statistic tools on the net like alexa.com, but in my point of view you should take these tools with a pinch of salt, even if you receive a first impression on the differences between services. For example you can compare peperonity.com with other services, but according to my current knowledge alexa.com only count the PC web traffic of people with an alexa-plugin. And for instance alexa.com says that most of our users come from Indonesia – I can’t confirm that. So it’s an interesting tool, but not the whole story.

And I love such figures like “ad views so far” [greetings to admob.com] or “total downloads so far” [greetings to itsmy.com]. I must ask my team mates how many millions of billions of trillions of page views we have served so far, but I promise not to get megalomaniac :o)