Image: Nerd Reactor

As the Facebook IPO Roadshow shifts into high gear, it seems relevant to consider exactly what value Facebook can offer your brand and business. While the addition of Instagram and Glancee has done much to sure up their mobile capacities (as yet only in perception), the core business opportunities cannot be underestimated.

The roster of sales and marketing services can be broken out into the following categories:

- F-Stores (E-commerce stores where customers buy real goods with real currency inside Facebook)

- Facebook Credits (Currency for games and in-app virtual goods)

- Facebook Social Plug Ins (‘Like,’ ‘Share,’ ‘Recommend’ services/products)

- Facebook Places & Location Tab (integrating online and in-store experience through rewards)

- Facebook Open Graph (shopping ‘verbs’ and ‘nouns’ being shared through Timeline, Ticker, and News Feeds)

- Facebook Mobile Platform (Social shopping through Notifications, Requests, Timeline and News Feed on app)

- Facebook Ads & Sponsored/Featured Stories (Drive awareness, engagement and purchases)

Seen together, it’s clear that Facebook is creating a self-contained F, E, and M-commerce ecosystem that will become increasingly important to brands because that’s where their customers are. More than that, the social network is demonstrating a wide return on investments specific to very different business goals. Here are some examples:

- Facebook is already a viable retail platform: The top 3 brands on Facebook (by fans) all sell directly on Facebook - Coca-Cola (41m), Starbucks (29m) and Disney (35m).

- Facebook customers spend money: 1.5x: Facebook users spend 1.5x more online that other Internet users.

- Facebook drives e-commerce: 6.5%: click-through rates on Facebook walls are 6.5%.

-Facebook is where you customers are: Nine in Ten: Proportion of US social network users who use Facebook.

- Facebook drives word of mouth sales: Media value generated by the average Facebook fan is $3.60/year.

- Facebook drives loyalty: 117%: the additional amount a fan will spend on a brand compared to a non-fan.

- F Commerce is accelerating: 76% of retailers plan to use Facebook for ‘social commerce’ initiatives.

- F-comerce is future-proof: 200+ million: Facebook users accessing the utility through their mobile devices.

The net result is that the platform commands an enviable leadership position over social commerce (and for even more ROI case studies, click here). So much so, that Mike Fauscette, an analyst at IDC Consulting stated, ‘In three to five years, 10 percent to 15 percent of total consumer spending in developed countries may go through sites such as Facebook”, while  Sumeet Jain, Principal at CMEA Capital states, “It’s a matter of time—within the next five or so years—before more business will be done on Facebook than Amazon.”

So whether or not Facebook cracks the $100 billion valuation on May 18^th, its value to your customers, brand, and business success is undeniable.

Source: CXO

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking in New Orleans at the First Data conference. It was a fantastic event and the other speaker was Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, who said something that struck me deeply. He put a sentence up on screen, which said, “Change is not the triumph of technology, but the triumph of humanity.” I completely agree, and while I have talked and written a lot about this through the We First lens, when it comes from someone like Biz who has shaped the social media world, it is that much more persuasive.

Too often, companies make the mistake of seeing social media as an end in itself, when in fact it is really just another channel through which to emotionally connect with your customer. As Biz explained, the Arab Spring revolutions and the Occupy Wall Street movement are driven by human nature and emotion, and the technology simply provides the connective tissue to give people with shared values a voice. The same is true of your company and brand, and the benefits can be enormous.

When you frame the role of social media in terms of humanity and the emotional connections that unite us, you can have a profound impact on your customers, employees and the world at large. With your customers, you can bring your corporate purpose to life in a way that makes your brand more meaningful to them, inspiring loyalty, goodwill and ultimately profits. You’ll also motivate them to become partners in telling the brand story, co-creating the products and services that will drive your bottom line success.

With employees there are just as many benefits when the role of social media is framed in terms of humanity rather than technology. When you bring your purpose to life inside a company, you’ll connect with your employees on an emotional level. This will give you the ability to attract top talent, to maximize employee retention and productivity, and to inspire your employees to use their own social media channels to be ambassadors for the brand.

Finally, by framing the role of social media in terms of humanity, you can impact the world at large. By taking actions to bring your company’s purpose to life and demonstrating your commitment to your core values by supporting causes such as the environment, education or healthcare, you can not only shape the future of your company, but the future of the world at large.

So this perspective on social media offers both professional and personal benefits. On a professional level, you will be able to build a community of brand ambassadors with your customers and employees and have a positive impact on the society and economy on which your company’s success depends. On a personal level, you will find deep satisfaction that will inform your relationships at home and at work, allowing you to enjoy a better quality of life.

Do you believe most brands do a good job of using social media to celebrate humanity, or do you think they still apply an old mindset that is only concerned with the bottom line?

The release of this video from Google gives us a glimpse of what life might look like through the lens of Google’s augmented reality glasses. It poses as many questions as it answers but as you watch the video, you quickly realize the powerful ways that your own reality can become a shared and social experience. Naturally, that has enormous impact on social media.

Perhaps the most compelling implication for brands is the potential to scale social shopping. Someone like yourself can walk into a store, “check in” to that location with their friends, receive a bonus or discount as a reward, show somebody else in real time what they’re considering buying, then share that purchase across all social channels. Voice activation makes this even simpler as you seamlessly might from audio to text among a social spectacle of your location, preferred brand, and ultimate purchase.

This combination of location based services, augmented reality and social networking transforms every urban, suburban or rural landscape into an almost infinite branding and lead-gen opportunity. Companies will find themselves rushing to provide engagement cues within their physical stores to motivate real time social shopping. What’s more, they can incentivize such sharing with real world, in store rewards.

Tools such as Googles glasses further transform the real and online worlds into effortless and borderless shopping territories. What’s more, all that information and everyone you know will be right there with you all the time making almost every facet of living a shared experience.

Do you think people will adopt such technologies and wear these glasses? Do you believe that such constant social engagement is a good thing?

I recently took a tour of Dell’s state-of-the-art Social Listening Center. You’ll see the various tools, filters and tracking that Dell does to stay on top of discussions about their brand and provide superior customer service. They have been leading this field on the corporate side for several years and it’s impressive how comprehensive and granular their social listening is.

Equally exciting is the American Red Cross Operations Center that the Dell system above inspired. Dell and the American Red Corss have hhas a long term relationship and he we see a powerful example of partnership and role modeling that has created this state of the art tool in Disaster response; the Digital Operations Center (nickname: Digi-DOC).

Powered by technology and a generous donation from Dell Computers, the center can track social media traffic by providing a “snapshot of cyberspace”. This allows Red Cross to see not only trending or emerging issues, but also use this information to better inform its response to disasters. The Red Cross is also using the center to engage citizens as Digital Volunteers, and distribute Red Cross information during times of need.

So together Dell and the Red Cross are using social listening to serve customers better and save lives. This demonstrates not only the importance of social listening to both for profit and non profit companies but also its capacity to change lives.

The first is a chart for Linked In Analytics that breaks out the growing and shrinking industries as defined by the volume of jobs added or lost. Of particular interest is the relative position of each industry. I would encourage you to examine the list and consider what place your brand occupies as defined by the specific mix of skills, services and technologies you offer.

Clearly it’s far better to find yourself in the upper right hand corner with a sizable circle indicating growth industries. If you find yourself in the lower right, it is worthwhile considering the prospects on your company in terms of larger macro-economic forces at work and the way technology is changing business. As any entrepreneur (billionaire or otherwise) will tell you, timing is everything in terms of what companies and industries explode and charts such as these give us a window into shifts that shape our success and futures.

The second chart from U.S. Net habits data illustrates in simple terms how the seconds that a web page takes to load impacts customer abandonment. A few facts jump out:

- 1 in 4 Americans abandon a page takes longer than 4 seconds to load.

- 4 in 10 Americans abandon a mobile shopping site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

- 5 in 10 mobile users abandon a web page if it doesn’t load in under 10 seconds.

As Fast Company notes, this means just one extra second in page load time could cost Amazon $1.6 billion in sales a year. Or for Google, by slowing search results by just 1/4 of a second they could lose the ad revenue on 8 million searches a day.

So no matter what your industry is, what your brand stands for, or how smart your marketing is, never lose site of the fact that capturing your customer’s attention is hard, but losing it can be even more costly.

Infographic by OnlineGraduatePrograms.com

Simon Mainwaring: On Engagement in the Social Marketplace from Let Go & Lead on Vimeo.

I recently had the privilege of being included in Gagen MacDonald’s fantastic ‘Let Go & Lead’ project and the interview just came out so I wanted to share it with you.

‘Let Go & Lead’ is a project to explore the ideas of leadership and transformation in the 21st Century. How can an idea take root in an organization and flourish so that all are focused on the same outcome? How can we inspire those around us to take up an idea and deliver it, bringing the full weight of their gifts to bear on the challenge?

Maril MacDonald engaged thought leaders from different walks of life—in fields as diverse as literature to education, engineering to social psychology— for conversations on what it means to “let go” and lead people to create meaningful, sustainable change.

In all there are twelve leaders who were interviewed including Howard Schultz and Dan Pink, among others. Here are all the interviews and I hope that together they help you steer you organization to greater success and positive impact through inspiring leadership.

Iceland's citizen assembly discussing the country's constitutional reform. Image credit: Everyaware

In a truly dramatic demonstration of the power of citizen activism, Iceland drew up its new constitution using crowdsourcing in late 2011. Following Iceland’s complete economic collapse and bankruptcy due to irresponsible banking practices, the nation was eager to use social media to get its citizens involved in writing their own future. The initiative began with a national forum in which 950 people were randomly selected to spend a day discussing a new constitution. A council then began working to draft a document, but not in secrecy behind closed doors. Instead, its meetings are open to the public and streamed live on its Facebook page. The council posts each new draft clause on its website where the public can comment. The council also has a Twitter account and a YouTube page where it exhibits video interviews with its members. The draft constitution was put up for a national referendum, with no changes allowed from the country’s parliament. It is truly a constitution written by the people for the people.

Reading about this process, I could not help but think about how the connectivity unlocked by social media is transforming our world. It is radically altering the major institutions and fundamental paradigms of society. Just a short while ago, it was perceived as a shallow medium through which people could share trivial information. Companies used it as just another one-dimensional vehicle to broadcast self-directed advertising. Then the more savvy corporations recognized the interactive power of social media to engage their customers, and we began to see two-way conversations built around asking the public for their ideas.

Social media proved equally, if not more, disruptive in the political arena. We saw how youthful activists achieved historic change in the Arab Spring revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt, relying on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread their message of protest, organize demonstrations, and communicate the reality on the ground with the outside world. Last summer’s rioters in the United Kingdom used smart phones and social media to ignite flash crowds of disenchanted youth and, sadly, opportunistic criminals, as well as to mount peaceful protests and clean up after the rioters. Finally, we see Iceland using social media and crowdsourcing in admirably organized and peaceful ways that radically redefine the meaning of citizen democracy.

It is now undeniable that social media—and the democratizing force it brings with it—will continue to reweave our social and political fabric. Functioning independently of traditional media and the hardened institutions of government and business, we will increasingly see social media bypassing the traditional channel of authority and hierarchy that formerly restricted citizens and customers. The tools of social media are creating new opportunities for social dialogue, and inspiring a reformation in the values of the past. They are also helping to break down the structures and processes of every institution, slowly distributing the powers of governance, justice, representation, innovation, and even production among connected people.

Where will this social media revolution take us? Anything is possible, subject only to the limitations of our imagination. We are currently seeing many interesting new applications of social media and crowdsourcing. For example, there is the growing model of social production that draws on networks of people connected by social media to create new products and services. There is the burgeoning movement of social entrepreneurship whereby people motivated by a common desire to solve a pressing social problem that the corporate world is yet to satisfactorily answer put out an open call for assistance. Anyone with knowledge of the problem and its solution can respond, and in return they receive no compensation other than the personal satisfaction that they helped build a better world.

In the coming years, I am certain we will see social media be used increasingly to redefine the corporate world such as by influencing Boards of Directors, annual shareholder meetings, and the transparency and accountability offered by companies for their products and services. It will likely change how people look for jobs and how they evaluate the companies and CEO’s that they wish to work for. It will, no doubt, infiltrate many more areas of government just as it has in Iceland, impacting how laws are written and voted on in local, state and federal government.

What’s important to keep in mind when we think about the future is that social media enables all parties to have a platform. Given this, we can use this technology poorly to launch a cacophony of voices creating a chaos of competing interests – or we can use it as a tool to unify our voices as thoughtful, compassionate beings seeking to build a better world for all humankind.

Do you believe social media will build a better world? Do you think it has already begun to do so?

Who Cares Wins explains in detail the drivers and best practices of this new dynamic. Jones does a masterful job of explaining in very clear terms, why business success in the future will be driven by the authenticity, transparency, and accountability of brands and their ability to react quickly and consistently with these three qualities. In fact, he makes a compelling case for why the successful brands of the future will be those that are most meaningful in the lives of their media-savvy and socially connected customers.

On the flipside, Jones explains why those brands that ignore the impact of social media and these new customer expectations do so at their peril.  In only the last few months we’ve seen the consumer push-back against Netflix and Qwikster, against the Bank of America Debit Card Fee, on Bank Transfer Day, against the Verizon Online 2$ payment charge, and most recently the backdown of Congress over SOPA in the face of online activism.

So what Jones is talking about in this book is not conjuncture, wishful thinking, or projection, but rather a business reality that is already here. As such, he rightly positions social responsibility as an invaluable opportunity for brands to build their bottom lines while also becoming a force for good in the world. In order for this shift to gain traction and pace, large brands and entrepreneurs need case studies and proof points to justify their shift in priorities and practices. Who Cares Wins provides this in spades, and rightly positions this shift in the marketplace as one of great opportunity, rather than cause for concern. No doubt this is an educated risk that every business leader must take, and that spirit is captured in the title “Who Cares (rather than ‘Dares’) Wins.” But the risk of not engaging with this shift in business practices is far greater. Who Cares Wins is your guidebook on how to negotiate the social business marketplace in a way that builds your business and a better world for all.

To order your copy of Who Cares Wins click here, and you can follow David Jones on Twitter at @davidjoneshavas.

Image: Absolut/Fader

I had the pleasure of speaking at the San Diego Ad Club last week after Dan Burrier, the Chief Innovation Officer at Ogilvy and my former boss on the Motorola account. Not only is Dan a friend and someone I greatly admire, but he said something that evening that struck me very deeply. He said that branding is now more about the “doing” than the “telling.”

I think Dan is absolutely right. For too long, branding as practiced by advertising agencies has been focused on the Big Idea that, well told, will connect emotionally with a customer and motivate them to buy a product or service. But in this new era of transparency, characterized by Wiki Leaks, the activities of Anonymous, and the revelations about corporate practices that have filled the newspapers over recent months, a brand can no longer afford to simply trade on an idea of what it stands for. Instead, in this era of radical transparency, a brand must be willing to tell the story of what it’s actually doing.

That’s why the purpose of a brand is so critical to its bottom line success in the social business marketplace. That purpose not only informs how leadership steers the company and the satisfaction of its employees, but it also defines what actions the brand takes to improve the lives of its customers. For if a company wants their customers to grow their business by buying its products and services, that company must be meaningful to its customers lives. Such meaningfulness is found in the concrete actions a brand is taking to better the lives of its customers and the world at large in alignment with its core values.

On the one hand this is a burden on companies, in that brands must work out what they stand for, communicating it with employees, and bring it to life through their actions. This is not a simple or quick process. Yet at the same time, once you’ve done it, storytelling becomes much easier. A brand simply needs to share the story of what it’s doing with its employees, products, services, and cause work to improve the well being of others. It will enable the brand to build a community of customers aligned around shared values and connected by social media that will be happy to amplify the brand’s message using their own social media channels.

So instead of fabricating the Big Idea, and living in fear of the rise of transparency, a brand can put its shoulder behind its purpose and simply tell the story of what it’s doing in the marketplace. It’s this connection between the “doing” and “telling” of a brand’s story that defines success in the new social media marketplace. So if brands want to capitalize on social media to build their bottom line, take Dan’s advice by focusing on what your brand is doing in alignment with its purpose and values and simply tell that story.

If you’re interested in your brand storytelling, I invite you to join us at the We First Social Branding Seminar on the 1st and 2nd of February in Los Angeles at the Marina Del Rey Marriott hotel. Every attendee will be walking through a Social Branding Blueprint that takes them from the definition of their brand purpose through to its social media expression, so you walk out with a Blueprint that offers real value to your business that you can act on. Plus, every attendee gets an extra ticket free to invite their favorite non-profit. This is the last week to register, so visit www.WeFirstSeminar.com now.

The idea behind the seminar is to make sure your brand (whether they’re a non-profit, a start up, a social entrepreneur, social enterprise, mid-size company or Fortune 500 brand) doesn’t get left behind in this fast changing marketplace by learning to use social media in a way that truly builds your business. Too often brands are rushing to social technology but overlooking the importance of storytelling. Or they have a solid understanding of their brand and its story, but they don’t deeply understand how to make social media work for them. Both alternatives are incredibly dangerous to your business and future.

Getting this balancing act between storytelling and social technology right is really hard to do. Most brands are so caught up in the day-to-day of running their business, and so overwhelmed by the pace of change in social technology, that they don’t get the luxury of time or resources to focus on it. So the seminar, and the Social Branding Blueprint created specifically for it, were designed to make this possible in a condensed time frame of two days with the support of three world-class experts.

So imagine an 70-page Blueprint that distills the learning of the speakers into actionable choices, that builds in the most effective strategic and tactical options based on the best practices of the smartest marketers in the world, that leads your through the eight critical steps that every brand must walk through to build and maintain a customer community that builds its business with them – that’s what the Social Branding Blueprint does so that you spend the two days working on creating a plan specific to your business rather than just taking notes you put on the shelf that don’t translate to real value to your business.

So the real value of the two-day seminar includes:

1. Two days focused on creating a specific plan for your business rather than a series of talks.

2. That plan is built around the best practices, cases studies and ROI of the smartest marketers in the world so it mitigates the risks you take for your business.

3. An intimate environment limited to 80 people so that we can work directly on your business.

4. World class support including myself, Robert Tercek, (former President of Digital Media at Oprah’s network OWN), and Carol Cone, (Global Practice Chair of Edelman Business + Social Purpose).

5. 1 on 1 time with the experts and additional mentors to ensure you get the personal attention your deserve.

6. Networking with the experts, sponsors (including UN Foundation, HP, Causecast, SocialVibe, Radian6, CSRWire, PRNewswire, Social Media Monthly and GOOD magazine), and fellow attendees from some of the biggest brands in the world, the smartest social enterprises and start-ups, and most progressive non-profits.

7. You get an extra ticket to invite a non profit for free. So you get to make an important contribution just by attending.

8. Taking action by investing time in yourself, your business and building a better world is the thing that will set you apart from your competitors and give your the greatest fulfillment.

We have around ten spots left and obviously registrations have to close this week as it only a week away. We’re super excited to work on your business together so register now.