The Social Path

Happy National Rebound Week! (Per Facebook, at least.)

Ah spring... love is in the air!

Oh wait, what's that? The bitter stench of rejection, heartbreak, beer and sunburns? It must be Spring Break!

The above chart isn't necessarily new, but it's relevant as Spring Break-bound college students all over the country prepare to party, and according to David McCandless, prepare to be single. 

According to their research of 10,000 Facebook status updates over a year, more breakups occur in the weeks leading up to and during Spring Break than any other time of the year. 

So cheer up, downheartened ladies and gents. If you got dumped before spring break you're definitely not alone. Maybe raise your glass a little less and your standards a lot more.

Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.

Hat tip to Sharpton for providing the graph.

Why teens aren't blogging.

This week, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results of its fall 2009 survey focusing on the internet habits of teenagers (defined as 12 to 17) and Millennials (18 to 29).

While it's not necessarily news that teens haven't jumped on the Twitter train yet, what is interesting is the drop in teen activity on blogs. The study found that 14% of online teens were blogging, compared to 28% just in 2006. Additionally the number of teens commenting on blogs has dropped from 76% to 52% since 2006.

But this report isn't about changes in teen attitudes over the past few years. What it's highlighting is the result of drastic changes in the social media landscape.

In 2006, college-oriented Facebook was just two years old when it changed the social media game by opening up to high school students. Soon after, the city and regional networks would open it up to the entire world (and their cats).

Until then, blogging had been the best option for teens who wanted to express themselves and share with their friends. The problem is that blogging is a largely open form of communication and teens are a notoriously private bunch. Teenagers blogged because it was one of the only social channels available to them, not because it was necessarily the best fit.

Outside of LiveJournal, few blogging sites provided the level of privacy and security that teenagers want.  So it’s not surprising that, as soon as they had the option, teenagers retreated from the blogosphere and embraced Facebook, with its privacy settings, networks, friend requests, pictures, status updates, and so many groups, pages, and apps your head could explode with opportunities for self-expression.

Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.

Photo Credit: CakeFace Originals on Flickr

How fast is social media growing? This fast.

Here's a pretty incredible gadget by media innovator Gary Hayes:

Pretty hypnotic, isn't it?

If you're reading this post from e-mail or RSS feed and can't see the graphic, be sure to click through the headline to the original post.

Hat tip to Aaron Velthoven on Twitter.

5% of fans expect customer service, but 100% deserve it.

If you're a social media junkie, you might have already heard some of the great info from this year's FEED report by Razorfish on "digital brand experience." But there's one number that hasn't gotten the attention it probably should.

Check out this list of survey responses, specifically what came in dead last:

What is the primary reason you "friend" a brand online?

1. Exclusive deals or offers: 36.9%
2. I am a current customer: 32.9%
3. They offer interesting or entertaining content: 18.2%
4. Other people I know are fans: 6.2%
5. Service, support, or product news: 5%

That's right, customer service takes a back seat to almost everything, including peripheral connections with friends.

Ready for real head-scratcher? Check out these responses from a new study by Cone:

How would you like companies to interact with you online?

1. Solve my problems/provide product or service information: 61%
2. Offer me incentives (free products or services, coupons or discounts): 58%
3. Solicit my feedback on products and services: 49%
4. Develop new ways for me to interact with brands (widgets, apps, games, etc): 49%
5. Entertain me: 43%
6. Market to me: 43%

On first blush, these surveys seem pretty contradictory, but they actually can be combined to make a pretty powerful statement:

People don't expect customer service from brands online, but it's the No. 1 thing they'd like to see.

Sure, everyone loves freebies, and you've probably heard a lot of surveys like the one up top where people cite special deals and giveaways as a top motivation for following brands online.

But if a desire for free swag were truly the top motivator, you'd have millions of disappointed consumers out there. When brands do giveaways, it's rare that they're handing out more than a handful of goodies, often with hundreds of thousands of fans scrambling to win.

So why don't fans walk away when they don't get free stuff, or when the "special deals" don't turn out to be so special? Are they just compulsive gamblers? I doubt it. I think these people are earnestly interested in your company and are happy to be part of the conversation, even if the perks run light.

Is social media a great place to do giveaways? Absolutely. And you're sure to see great results, as Orbitz did when it recently garnered thousands of new Twitter followers just by offering a few free tickets. 

Here's another great set of answers from the FEED report:

Contests and sweepstakes:

• 96% of participants say it made them more aware of the brand
• 96% are more likely to consider purchasing that brand
• 92% are more likely to recommend that brand to others

But your social media presence can't depend on giveaways and coupons long-term. Nor can it be a blatant bait-and-switch in which you lure people with freebies, then spam them with marketing.

A real social media strategy requires a smart mix of conversation-starters, reactive PR, exclusive updates, and more.

Customer service absolutely must be part of the mix. Otherwise, your focus on giving people what they want might prevent you from giving them what they need.