Social Networking and Brand Building: B2C Works Better than B2B

The top 10 brands on Facebook, according to number of fans suggests a couple of obvious "lessons" for marketers. All of the top-10 brands are in the consumer space, and all tend to have "enterprise" size marketing budgets. Facebook itself is in the top position, but ignoring that, the list looks like:

#2 Starbucks 7,266,488 Fans
#3 Coca-Cola 5,567,046 Fans
#4 YouTube 5,114,322 Fans
#5 Red Bull 3,727,372 Fans
#6 Disney 3,488,088 Fans
#7 Victoria’s Secret 3,470,724 Fans
#8 Converse 2,749,691 Fans
#9 McDonald’s 2,270,109 Fans
#10 H&M 2,062,377 Fans
#11 MTV 1,924,744 Fans"

In the business-to-business space, and especially for any firm that is small or mid-sized, Twitter probably is a better bet.

Is Social Media a New Way to Build a Brand? | Millennial Marketing:

CEOs, Managers Using Social Media for Work

You might be surprised to learn that social media is being actively used by business managers, including CEOs, to keep track of news and conduct research, in addition to keeping up with friends.

In a recent survey of 337 social media users in North America and Europe, about 84 percent of social media users indicated they use it to keep up to date on news, while 78 percent also indicated they use social media "to get ideas to help me in my job," says Nigel Fenwick, Forrester Research analyst.

2010: A Turning Point for Telecom?

Watch the Webinar

Some years in telecommunications are pivotal: 1934, 1982, 1996 and 2000, for example, set into motion huge changes that fundamentally shaped the entire industry in transformative ways. Will 2010 prove to be a pivotal year? It might be. One can easily foresee that regulatory frameworks such as "network neutrality" and the "national broadband plan," could affect business models for years to come.

But those are not the only changes. There are new 4G wireless networks coming on line that could, for the first time, drive mobile broadband substitution as smartphone penetration grows from 15% to 50%. Beyond that, questions linger on how consumer behavior was shaped by the "great recession" and if these changes in buying behavior are permanent.

This webinar takes a look at all those questions and discuss possible implications. When the regulatory environment, business models, fundamental technologies and end user demand curves all at change at once, transformative and historical changes are likely.

Social Networking is a Time Waster, Telecommuters Report

Mobile or remote access to email still tops the list of perceived productivity-enhancing tools telecommuters have access to, a survey by iPass finds.

About 85 percent said remote email access enhanced productivity, eclipsing even telephone access, at 75 percent. About 67 percent suggested text messaging and 66 percent reported that instant messaging boosted productivity.

Surprisingly, but maybe not for millions of people who routinely must attend lots of meetings, just 54 percent of mobile workers said meetings enhanced their productivity, while just 48 percent said travel was productivity enhancing. The former report suggests many meetings actually impede people getting their work done, while the latter finding probably only confirms that travel is a time-consuming activity that likewise prevents people from getting more work done.

And despite its popularity, 78 percent of mobile employees report that social media is a drain on their work productivity, as many suspect. Much social networking is a diversion from work, not an enabler of work.

Telecommuters Work Longer Hours, iPass Finds

Do you think you and your co-workers are the only people working much-longer hours than you used to? You are not alone. Though the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the average employee workday at 8.8 hours in 2008, iPass finds after analyzing its data that the average workday for mobile workers was one hour longer, closer to 10 hours a day.

About 34 percent of survey respondents say they work 55 hours or more a week, or at least 11 hours a day. Such workers also telecommute more frequently than the other segments. About eight percent report they are "always" working.

About 62 percent telecommuted at least one day a week, for example. Perhaps not surprisingly, 13 percent they did see a negative impact on their work-life balance.

About 47 percent of respondents say they work 45 to 55 hours a week; in line with modern workday averages.

About 18 percent of respondents report working 40 or fewer hours a week, are most likely to go into the office every day, and less likely to telecommute.

In fact, 19 percent did not telecommute at all.


The surveys suggest, contrary to what some employers seem to believe, that in-office workers spend less time working than workers who are allowed to telecommute, though it is likely the findings are skewed to the extent that telecommuting works best for employees whose jobs are "outcomes" related and are relatively easy to measure.

Skype Expects 1 billion Users by 2015

Skype Technologies expects it will reach one billion registered users, nearly double its current registered user base, by 2015, and half those customers were be business users, says David Gurle, Skype VP.

Business customers will bring in 20 percent to 30 percent more revenue on average than consumers, Gurle predicts.

Since 2009 revenue was $716 million with a bit more than half a billion accounts, if accounts nearly double to about a billion, then Skype income could hit the $1.5 billion level in 2015.

Those figures tell quite a story about the demise of the legacy voice business, which had been underpinned by high-margin international calling and widespread use of fixed lines for voice. In 2000, for example U.S. carriers alone billed $15 billion in international voice revenues. By 2007, U.S. carriers bill about $6.5 billion in international voice, according to Federal Communications Commission data.

Skype now represents 12 percent of international long distance traffic, and earns $716 million. It would be fair to suggest that, 10 years ago, 12 percent of itnernational long distance would have been worth as much as two orders of magnitude more gross revenue.

Skype expects 1 billion users by 2015 - The Boston Globe

Bandwidth Implications of Online Video

It remains to be seen whether more use of Internet delivery for today's video entertainment programming is a good thing for access providers, whatever it may mean for other contributors to the video ecosystem.

The reason is the sheer cost impact of supplying enough bandwidth to support even a part of today's viewing requirements.

Video, in fact, is the chief reason there is a growing gap between ISP revenue from providing access services and the revenue that can be earned by providing such access (click image for larger view).

To be sure, multiple approaches will be taken to better match demand and supply. Price increases, retail price plans better tailored to actual consumption, wireless offload to fixed networks, signal compression and other efforts are likely.