So it’s interesting to see the first real signs of a similar shift with social media, a medium long associated with young people. Pew’s new survey suggests that older adults are now the largest growing demographic for use of social media: social networking use among internet users aged 50 and older soared from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010. More specifically, the number aged 50-64 using social networking sites grew 88%, and doubled for the over 64s.

Email is still the main form of communication for older users, the report notes, but there is a definite shift towards social media as a way of keeping in touch.

Could this affect the way that younger people use social media? They might not be so uninhibited about revealing their innermost thoughts and doings if Mum and Gran start joining in.  Possibly, but this is a fast developing medium anyway, and who knows how it will look in two or three years time. In the meantime, the growing presence of the older generation in social media can only make it more attractive to businesses as a way to maintain dialogue.

Read tmore details here.

Related posts:

1. UK social media stats – new survey
2. Email? It’s, like, so last year
3. The end of email?

Payvment has recently announced a new export tool, allowing Etsy sellers to upload all their products up onto their chosen fanpage. The process should be a popular one considering the number of Etsy and Folksy sellers now embracing social media as a promotional tool. It’s not a bad move for Etsy too, giving them a wider customer base and an edge over similar handmade marketplaces.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are still nervous about buying online due to recent security scares, but giving customers various purchasing options will hopefully increase sales and product awareness.

While these new processes will make it even easier for you to integrate social media into your business, it could also have a damaging effect on the traffic going directly to your business or blog: if customers buy straight from the Facebook page, they’re less likely to be clicking through to your homepage.

So, does giving visitors the chance to make a quick purchase diminish the chances of them browsing further? Does it stop customers developing a more long-term relationship with your brand? Or does it solidify those relationships and help you to develop new ones?

If you’re worried about selling directly from Facebook, there’s always the option of using sites like Wishpot. This displays a gallery of your chosen products, which visitors can share with their friends on Twitter and Facebook – and buy directly from your shop.

So, will you be using Facebook’s shop front facilities? Or simply continuing to use the social media site as a portal to your own retail site

Related posts:

1. Which works best for marketers – Twitter or Facebook?
2. Like, what’s not to like?
3. Capital One prospers on Facebook

Unfortunately, not all your fans will become the kind of “super-fan” who can help promote your brand organically. Turning an average fan — who rarely visits or interacts with your page — into a passionate advocate for your products and services isn’t easy. However, there are certain steps you can take to help them transform.

How to gain “super-fans”

• Interact. The more you interact with your followers (which includes regularly updating, replying to comments and helping fans feel part of a community) the more they’ll revisit your page and keep an eye out for your links. Fans love to give their opinion, so ask for it! Also provide some little insights to your company, whether it be featured employees, a new product, or images from HQ.

• SEO. SEO isn’t just for blog posts. Your Facebook and Twitter statuses need to be clear, intriguing and must contain suitable keywords. Good SEO ensures you’ll maintain a high level of external and internal traffic and encourage more click-throughs.
• Create a network. Regularly (without spamming) let your fans know of other places they can find your brand. That way they can promote you over a variety of media outlets to all their different networks.

Overall, you want to create a buzz among your fans, and then retain them with good-quality content. Brands that do this well include restaurant chain @giraffetweet, which regularly retweet reviews of Giraffe restaurants, offers Twitter-only deals and chast to tweeters outside the usual 9-5 workday.

Got any tips to add? Let us know how you create Superfans.

Related posts:

1. The proper use of social media by businesses
2. Waking up to Facebook’s potential!
3. Foods and Drinks companies using social media video competitions

But social media can have a multitude of other benefits for a company, helping improve their reputation and providing a solid standing for further improvements.

Intrigued? Check out three of the benefits below.

1.Understanding your customers

Many businesses, in particular SMEs, believe they know exactly what the customer wants. Yet, often it’s not until they hear directly from their community on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In that they discover what their customers need and want. This extended knowledge can help with future product and service developments, promotional activities and even targeted advertising.

2.Discovering new opportunities

Following on from a deeper understanding of your customers, being more aware of your profiles in social media and building a community enable you to pick up on new trends and growing needs before your competitors.

3.Dealing with customer complaints/comments quickly

Social media is a bit of a double-edged sword now for complaining customers. Thanks to the advent of Twitter and the like, if someone wishes to complain they’re able to do so to a much larger (and more influential) audience. On the other hand, it also allows a business to respond quickly in real-time, reducing the damage and possibly flipping the situation in their favour.

It’s also a great way to pick up on positive comments and use them as promotional tools.

So there’s a few alternative benefits of social media and building your community. Let us know if you have any more suggestions.

Related posts:

1. Innocent benefits from social media conversations
2. The Social Media Feedback Loop
3. The Independent on business and social media

There’s no question that Facebook has become a useful source of information for employers, double-checking up on job candidates to see if their online personality matches the person they met at the interview.  A survey last year showed that nearly half of businesses do this, and a third of them admitted rejecting candidates after discovering they had lied about their qualifications or were accustomed to dissing their former employers.

Well, why not? If you’re talking to the world you shouldn’t be surprised if the world suddenly sits up and pays attention. But Germany is always a special case where privacy is concerned, its citizens having endured first the Gestapo and then the East German Stasi constantly snooping on them. Apparently this comes naturally to some German employers as well – there has been a spate of scandals in recent years about businesses spying and eavesdropping on staff members, even putting cameras in toilets and changing rooms.

Obviously the ban won’t apply to LinkedIn and the like, nor will firms be banned from using the Internet to gather general hiring information relating to job candidates. But where Facebook and other similar sites are concerned, in Germany it’s as though a big PRIVATE sign is being slapped on the door.

Interesting to see what politicians elsewhere will make of it. Could it catch on?

Related posts:

1. Privacy no longer a social norm?
2. Corporate snoops
3. Recruiting the social media way – cutting out the middleman

The PR company was accused of writing positive reviews in Apple’s iTunes store without revealing it was being paid to do so. The PR company is alleged to have posted reviews about their clients’ video games ‘using account names that gave readers the impression the review were written by disinterested consumers’.

The FTC said that advertisers should not pass themselves off as ordinary consumers touting a product, and endorsers should make it clear when they have financial connections to sellers.

This is yet another example of a PR company failing to understand the culture of social media. You have to be transparent – otherwise you are going to get burned. Without transparency there is no trust. Other established PR agencies have fallen into the same trap, with damaging repercussions for the companies they represent.

Leading organisations need to be very careful about taking on mass media, established PR agencies. ‘Astro turfing’ (ie faking grass roots support online) as it is called – will get more exposure as the social web spreads; and companies caught doing it will lose the trust of their key stakeholders and could face the ridicule and outrage of bloggers and users of Twitter and Facebook.

It is in the interests of companies to be transparent and honest as spinning can be exposed so easily online. Traditional media spinning does not work in the networks of the social web. Openness is the best PR you can have. And that is not something that PR agencies have traditionally been good at.

You can catch up on the story here.

Related posts:

1. The new ethics of being transparent
2. Staff wear online pizza reviews on their T-shirts
3. Research shows social Media is the key to building trust in brands

At present the relationship is more symbiotic than competitive. The firm’s survey of 4000 adults underlines in particular how social media is helping to amplify the reach of television and finds the effect is particularly strong among 18-24 year olds, who comment on social networking sites at least occasionally on programmes they have watched. Obviously, online recommendation can be make or break for some programmes and commercials.

But the study also suggests that the relationship between the two could become more adversarial, as social networks continue to expand their reach and value, and start to attract more advertising revenue than TV. With precise targeting and real-time measurability, social media enjoys advantages which TV just can’t match, it argues.

The report has been given to attendees at the Edinburgh International TV festival, and can be requested here.

Related posts:

1. The growing appeal of Media Blogs
2. Predictions for 2010
3. YouTube gains on traditional TV

The company’s Facebook page invited applications to join a test drive campaign and post uncensored comments recorded by a hidden camera. These are also featured on the TV spots and YouTube.

More details here.

Related posts:

1. Campaign magazine/Twitter/ItsOpen
2. More online election fever
3. Brandwatch: Ford

Here is a list of a few of the risks if you do nothing with social media:

1) You will not see or hear what your customers are saying about your brand and product and services

2) You will not be where your stakeholders are

3) Disaffected customers could coalesce around you in seconds and you will not be prepared

4) Your brand/organisation will lose relevance

5) Your recruitment will suffer because new talent will not have time for an organisation that does not use the latest social media tools for business communications

6) Your competitors will move into this space and gain advantages over you

7) Customer complaints will fester and go unanswered

8.) Your recruitment costs will continue to rise whereas social media can slash the cost of recruitment

9) You will squander the opportunity to set the news agenda by using tools like Twitter to publish your results

10) NGOs will capitalise on your dinosaur-like attitudes by moving swiftly and setting up groups on Facebook and building online coalitions

11) Investors will read forums for insights into your business which you will not know about

12) You will not reach stakeholders who do not read newspapers or who do not watch much television

13) You will fail to see how journalists are using social media for research for their stories

14) You will be vulnerable to a Twitter story leading search engine queries about your firm

15) Opportunities for coverage of your stories will shrink as traditional media shrinks

16) Contact books based on established media will lose their influence as bloggers become more influential

17) If a crisis breaks, you could be advised by a PR agency whose mindset -led by an old board – has been deeply defined by the rules of established media. Which means the advice you receive could be suspect as it is not attuned to the new fast-evolving culture – even though they might say it is!

18) Younger members of your organisation who are more open to social media will feel disenfranchised and morale and productivity will drop

19) You will miss out on opportunities to leverage these new tools to boost your communications messages

20) Your company will be seen as faceless and not accountable or open

21) Your communications will be based on a broadcast model at a time when users of social media are not impressed by adverts shouting at them to buy products and services

22) Your press releases will not gain coverage

23) Your content will not be easily found

24) Your messages will become inaccessible

25) People will not visit your website in significant numbers or for any lengthy period of time

26) You will fail to capitalise on the marketing opportunities presented by these new disruptive social technologies

27) You will fail to see the value in treating your customers as partners and jointly developing new products with them

28) There will be no opportunities for you to have direct one-to-one conversations with your customers

29) You will be left behind, be playing catch up and fail to use social media to expand your customer base

30) People will not know the true story about your business

31) If you are slow to engage with social media you will be slower to learn and you will lose competitive advantages.

I could go on. Essentially the status quo is no longer a strategy, as probably most of you know. You have to be where your stakeholders are, whether you like it or not.

Feel free to add any other points. It would be great to have your thoughts too!

Related posts:

1. Jet Blue jets away with Twitter
2. Control and Social Media
3. Social media conference for recruiters

The fact is that none of these agencies can do everything – whatever they might say. No one can be in the best in everything and one size does not fit all within this market.

I had a conversation with an experienced observer of the digital scene who said he knew of well-known agencies who often dropped the ball in certain areas where they claimed to be highly competent in a very glossy way.

ItsOpen (www.itsopen.co.uk) has been in social media for more than two years and some of our team have been involved in social media longer: I was writing about social media for The Guardian in 2005 and have the article to prove it!!

In the early days, it was extremely hard in some situations to get the attention of some companies who simply thought social media was a fad which could not be taken seriously. Some still hold that view, despite the mounting numbers and hard evidence to the contrary.

Many agencies are now simply adding on social media because they feel they should. Not because they actually specialise in the area.

Social Media is all we do at ItsOpen (www.itsopen.co.uk). We are not good at everything and we aim to concentrate on what we do best, based on the feedback we get from our clients and stakeholders.

PR agencies may claim to specialise in social media but many of them don’t. In fact, the boards of these companies – who set the culture – are often immersed in an established media mindset. I know examples of chairmen of famous PR companies, listed on the stock market, who simply see social media as another channel. It is hard for them to think
otherwise as their rise can be attributed to their brilliant understanding of established media and the contacts they built through established media. They spend their private time with representatives of the same mindset who simply reinforce the culture.

Wise clients know who is simply chasing a slice of the social media pie and those that are genuinely committed to social media, have something different and valuable to offer, and are naturally interested in all the latest thinking, and were before the change driven by these highly disruptive technologies began breaking into the mainstream.

Many leading companies have learnt – often to their cost – that their established media PR agencies with their established media credentials, are not always best equipped to help them successfully navigate the fast moving and unique culture of social media.

Related posts:

1. The new crisis management models
2. Lessons of Reverb PR agency ruling
3. Social media requires long term strategies