I see six (not four) pillars to the social influence dynamic that are worth being conscious of as you plan your social strategy:

Friends, family members and co-workers typically have the most immediate impact on our purchase decisions on a daily basis. Consumers are connected to many of their personal networks online  and the new movement in social commerce sees brands enabling individuals tap into the experiences and recommendations of friends in order to drive sales.

We also tend to rely on the recommendations of people with whom we share an interest (in social media, sport, music etc). Thanks again to social tools we can now easily connect with people that we have never met but with whom we enjoy interacting, because they are passionate about the same things that we are.

Since the web offers unprecedented choice, consumers regularly find themselves presented with choices that no one in their personal or social networks has the previous experience to help them with. The anonymous ratings and reviews left by other customers are increasingly valuable in this world of seemingly endless options.

Friends, people with shared interests and other customers may not always have the deep knowledge of a product or service that is adequate to help us make up our mind. Consumers tend to trust the views of independent experts especially on complex purchases or where a high degree of commitment is involved.

Let’s not forget about the impact of celebrities on consumer decision-making. Celebrities, in all walks of life, represent aspirations that have been fulfilled. We naturally like to identify with people who represent success in whatever spheres are important to us. Celebrities have never been so accessible and indeed many now see social media engagement as central in supporting their fan bases.

Finally, since individual employees of organisations often hold greater sway amongst consumers than the corporate advertising or communications activities of brands, they are a greatly untapped resource. Google recently demonstrated that this realisation when it announced that it has given a social media mandate to every single employee.

Influence is complex. Each purchase or engagement decision will rely on a different mix of social and other influencing factors. One thing is certain; as the fabric of society changes thanks to ever-evolving communications capabilities, sales and marketing people would be foolhardy to ignore the dynamics of social influence.

• Well-defined (easy to describe)
• Fresh (new / different)
• Accessible (easy to do or replicate)
• Immersive (engages multiple senses)
• Significant (is a big deal)
• Transformative (changes the way you think / feel)

Drori talks about how tired brands often use the medium of advertising to convey the compelling experiences that people have with their products and services. Take this recent EuroDisney TV ad, and see how the focus has been shifted from the facilities in the theme park (which everyone knows about) to the moment the kids actually hear their parents have booked the trip;

The moment when parents reveal a planned family trip to EuroDisney is always a compelling experience for everyone in the family, even more so because of the manner the parents undertake  the ‘reveal’ in the scenario depicted. EuroDisney is inviting parents to create their own compelling experiences for themselves and their kids around their product. Compelling experiences such as this have a high degree of memorability and talkability. These are the real fuel for your communications objectives.

Too often brands spend valuable communication budgets harping on about how great they are. Wouldn’t it be far more impactful to share the compelling experiences that customers are having thanks to your company’s product or service offering? Michael Schrage, who lectures about digital business over at MIT, writes today on HBR that when running a company event:

Customers — not your company’s products and service innovations — should be at the center of customer events. Make their engagement — not your messaging — the core of your event planning.

This applies equally to all engagements that you have with your customers.

When people ask me if Facebook or Twitter are here to stay or whether they are greatly over-hyped, I tend to advice that these social networks are just the tools that people are currently using to do what they like or want to do. Facebook, for example, is great because it makes it incredibly easy to keep in touch and to share photos and videos with friends. LinkedIn is great, because it helps busy professionals connect with peers in other companies and in related sectors. Twitter is handy for finding out what’s happening locally and around the world, in real-time.

The place to start for anyone getting started with social media is not with the tools themselves, but with what it is that you like or want to be able to do. I know lots of people who’ve signed up on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc etc and just as quickly cease using them. Why? Because these particular social networks don’t serve a purpose for them in their lives.

Many business leaders feel compelled to have a social media strategy, without really understanding why it could work for their business. This quote from Paul Adams, Global Brand Experience Manager at Facebook is worth reading several times:

It’s problematic that many businesses focus on existing and emerging technology, and not on social behavior. Thinking about platform integration first, like Twitter or Facebook, or technologies first, like what could be enabled by “mobile location” or “real-time updates,” is the wrong place to start. Often, businesses need to step back and consider what will motivate people to use what they are developing, above and beyond what exists today.

Something that I’ve been saying for a while is that human behavior changes slowly, much slower than technology. By focusing on human behavior, not only are you much more likely to create something that people value and use, but you’re more likely to protect yourself from sudden changes in technology.

Understand who your customers are. Understand what they are trying to achieve. Understand their motivations and behaviours. Understand their frustrations. Understand how they currently interact with technologies. Do all of this first, before you start to think about your social media strategy.

When you do that you will probably start to see a fundamental shift taking place throughout the developed world is that the Internet is helping us become more social. When I talk to friends about some of the work I do helping to build ‘community’ online; they tell me it sounds like organising a local parish event. Well it is a bit like that; the world has just got that small.

Building community is not the same as building a social network. Think of social networks as the mechanisms that enable people to connect remotely. Think of communities as people gathering together, sharing and conversing around common interests. Telecoms operators are concerned about becoming dumb pipes, where the real money is made on the content that is transmitted by others through their networks. Social networks are the dumb pipes of communities. Seriously, no one bar the techies really cares how Facebook or Twitter works. We care about the relationships that we have with others with whom we like to share things and chat about stuff that interests us both – which these networks facilitate of course. But the richness is in those communities, not in the technology.

Ask yourself if you really want to try to create the next big social network or whether you want to foster a community around something that lots of people are passionate about. If it is the latter, focus your energies on understanding human behaviour and then harnessing all of the social network technologies to support those human behaviours as you grow your amazing community.

A Nielsen report last year highlighted that 90% of consumers trust the opinions of people they know. 70% trust anonymous ratings and reviews posted online. Compare this with just 33% who trust online banner ads.  Social commerce is about leveraging word of mouth referrals to support the sales process; harnessing the power of social and participatory technologies to drive conversions.

Many brands have been shy about asking for the sale when engaging with social media. As Jay Dunn points out in his article on the topic of social selling; it is time to get over this. It’s not all about the conversation. Consumers follow brands on social media platforms in the expectation that they will be sold to.

There has been an etiquette on social media that says we shouldn’t do the hard sell. Sure, but let’s be honest about it; brands only engage in social media in anticipation that it will deliver on the bottom line… eventually. Here are some examples of brands using social applications in direct support of e-commerce activities;

1. Use Twitter for  Sales Promotion – Dell:

Dell makes millions through their ‘outlet store’ on Twitter where they inform customers about offers on refurbished computers and electronics.  They currently have 1.5 million followers. There are no follow backs or conversations here, just simple and effective sales promotion.

2. Embed Facebook within the Sales Funnel – TripAdvisor:

TripAdvisor has been doing social commerce forever with those ratings and reviews we all rely on. Given some of the trust issues with anonymous (and sometimes planted) contributions they have recently developed a deep integration with Facebook. You can now immediately see which of your friends have been to a particular location and ask them questions directly through TripAdvisor.

3. F-Commerce – Delta Airlines:

Earlier this year Delta Airlines embedded their booking engine into their Facebook page. For increasing numbers of their customers, Facebook is the effective gateway to the web. Why make them go somewhere else to book their flights, when they can do it here in the company of friends? Check out the 1800 Flowers and Old Spice f-commerce offerings also.

4. Facilitate Social Shopping – Mattel:

It’s not all about Facebook and Twitter of course. When Mattel, the giant US toy store relaunched its website in time for Christmas last year they were aware of the power of social shopping. They launched Shop Together which enabled people in different locations to see what each other see (co-browse) and to talk about different products using an onscreen chat window. They set out to make shopping social and fun. Getting the kids to tell grandpa and grandma what toys they wanted for Christmas also had a big impact on the bottom line.

5. Incentivise Social Referral – Dropbox:

Social commerce hinges on recognising the power of social referral and finding ways to incentivise that. Dropbox, an online file synchronisation service, has a clever way of driving social referrals through their currency – storage. When you join Dropbox you get 2GB of free storage. You can pay for extra storage OR can get it through a clever link entitled ‘Get Extra Space Free’. Click on this link and you are brought to a screen that encourages you to invite more people to join Dropbox. For each friend that joins you receive 250mb of free storage and your friend gets 250MB free. Everyone is a winner; you, your friend and Dropbox who gets a new user.

6. Group Purchasing – Groupon:

New business models are rapidly emerging. Groupon is a leader in the social commerce phenomenon known as group purchasing. They offer a deal a day which is a significant discount on a product or service. The deal only becomes active when enough people sign up – encouraging people who sign up early to share with friends. LivingSocial, another group purchasing platform, gives you your deal for free if you can get three friends to also purchase it. Twongo, yet another, continually reduces the prices when more people sign up for a particular deal. In Ireland check out BoardsDeals, GruUpy and CityDeal.ie (owned by Groupon). Groupon raised $200m in funding over the past 12 months, so watch out for many more group purchasing sites in 2011.

7. Trading with Friends – TradePal:

Tradepal is a  new service that is a bit like eBay, but instead of trading with merchants you don’t know, you can trade with people in your social network. Overcome any trust issues you may have by buying from people  you have a connection with. Weedle, which I was involved with earlier this year, is similar to TradePal but is focused on procuring services from people in your social or professional networks or based on recommendations from people you have a connection with. Afterall, we prefer to do business with people we know.

8. Peer-t0-Peer Financial Transactions – Zopa:

Zopa is a social site that facilitates peer-to-peer lending – get a better deposit rate than you would in the bank or get a better loan rate by dealing directly with other individuals. Zopa acts as the honest broker and takes a small commission.  Currency Fair is similar to Zopa but facilitates peer-to-peer currency exchange. If you have dollars you want exchange for euros, for example, and someone else is looking for those dollars, you can do a deal on an exchange rate with each other that will beat what the banks give either of you. Currency Fair was launched in April this year and is based here in Dublin.

9. Co-Create – Dell

Another opportunity available through social commerce is to encourage greater participation in product development. Brands like Dell and Starbucks are creating deeper levels of customer engagement with their products by encouraging and centralising feedback on product design and development. Through IDEASTORM they encourage users to outline improvements they would like to see. Others can then vote on the improvements. In 2007, Dell started selling three computer systems with Ubuntu 7.04 (a Linux operating system) pre-installed – after 100,000 customers requested it.

10. Create and Share – NikeID

Nike takes co-creation to the ultimate level by enabling you to create your own unique designs for your sports gear. You can even design your whole team’s kit. Create a design; share it with friends to see what they think. Buy and wear it to create massive OFFLINE talkability and social referral. Nike is empowering customers to create trends themselves. In addition, Nike can very quickly identify new emerging consumer-led trends. Unfortunately, yellow and purple trainers with “BRENDAN” emblazoned across them will probably not be next season’s big thing

11. Build a Virtual Community Around the Sales Funnel – B&Q:

B&Q, the third largest DIY store in the world, has recently launched a ‘Social Hub‘ which enables customers to add product ratings and reviews, ask and answer each others’ questions about products, share stories and experiences with the products and join an exclusive online community passionate about DIY. By building an online community B&Q intends to help “motivate and give confidence” to DIY enthusiasts, thus supporting their purchase decisions.

12. Facilitate Offline Communities – Meetup

New tools enable and encourage online communities to meet offline. Meetup is one such service that facilitates self-forming real world gatherings. Here in Dublin, Oddbins facilitate free wine tasting in their shops by using services such as Meetup. People on bulletin boards and discussion forums have been doing this for years. Now brands have a way to facilitate like-minded individuals or fans to gather at their outlets.

13. Driving Offline Sales – Starbucks

Not all products can be purchased online. Starbucks integrate with location-based social networks such as Foursquare to reward customers who ‘check-in’ or visit their coffee shops regularly. Any customer who achieves the social status of ‘Mayor’ of a Starbucks outlet is automatically entitled to discounts on products. Watch this space as new services emerge combining location technology with rewards and group discounts. Check out Irish company GeoDealio and keep an eye on Facebook who look set to launch a new service that will be a hybrid of Foursquare and Groupon.

14. Delivering a Return – EventBrite

Of course the big question everyone has is “Does social commerce deliver?”. Online event booking service, EventBrite recently released some data that showed the average value to them of each type of social share:

Facebook –  $2.52

Email (Share) = $2.34

LinkedIn = $0.90

Twitter = $0.43

Each time someone shares an event via Facebook, EventBrite earn an additional $2.52 in revenue. Email comes in a close second, with LinkedIn and Twitter delivering much smaller returns. Clearly there is a return and what’s more you can measure it.

GETTING STARTED

If none of the above has inspired you on how you can start doing social commerce, think about these three things:

1. What can I give people to share that they will want to share and someone else will want to receive? Is it useful, entertaining or of value?
2. What is my currency? What can I create on my website/platform that is unique to me which I can use to incentivise social referral? Is it social standing or something intimately embedded in my product?
3. Am I making it easy for my customers to share? Am I integrating properly with the appropriate applications so that it is very simple for customers to share?

Yesterday saw the launch of PricewaterhouseCoopers 11th annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2010-2014. This report addresses the current state of the entertainment and media industry globally and offers predictions for future growth/retraction.

Bartley O'Connor (PwC), Minister Eamon Ryan, Susan Kilty (PwC) launching the Entertainment & Media report.

Globally, 2009 saw a 3% dip in revenues generated by the entertainment and media industry. This was actually healthier than the -4% predicted as there was larger than expected growth in Internet access and advertising. Between now and 2014, the PwC report predicts that there will be growth but that the levels of growth will remain behind GDP. While growth in digital revenues will probably exceed GDP, the spend in digital is traditionally lower than non-digital spend.

The migration to digital is the big story in this report. Internet advertising will probably overtake newspaper ad revenue by 2012, the latter remaining flat till 2014. This year in Ireland we will see a 12.2% growth in Internet advertising, while radio advertising will be down 11%. Within the next three years, PwC predict that 1.4 billion people globally will be using smart phones. Mobile consumption of digital content and services represents a step-change in how we will be using the Internet.

For those businesses operating in the entertainment and media space this migration to digital and mobility represents an enormous challenge. Existing business models are simply not working any more. The majority of consumers are still unwilling to pay for entertainment services online. The widespread acceptance of piracy coupled with the tsunami of user-generated content is satiating our appetites for now.

Eamon Ryan TD, Ireland’s government minister with responsibility for this sector, attended the launch of this report in PwC’s Dublin office last night. He highlighted the court case between UPC and the various recording companies which attempted to find a resolution to the issue of piracy. He suggested that “legal approach results in us missing opportunities” which could be realised by gathering the music industry, ISP’s and other stakeholders together to think collaboratively about the impacts the Internet is having on their businesses.

In highlighting this case, Minister Ryan drew attention to the bigger question of how to tap into and benefit as a country from the global digital economic revolution? In order to address this bigger challenge he is proposing to establish a Digital Futures Forum this autumn which would be comprised of a mix of representatives from all the various sectors and ordinary citizens. The remit of such a forum would be help inform government policies around:

1. Improving digital skills
2. Improving networks
3. Protecting privacy and promoting security
4. Addressing public service issues around digital (RTÉ etc)
5. The need for a European market for digital content and services

While such a forum, if it could be prevented from spiraling into yet another government-backed talking shop, would have merit in fostering greater understanding  between industry players and government; those players will still be faced with the day-to-day challenges of a rapidly changing marketplace.

Those in the business of entertainment and media are rooted in a paradigm where originators of content are entitled to be paid. While this paradigm is not incorrect, there are now greater numbers of content originators (me for example writing on this blog) who have no expectation of receiving payment for content.

Therefore those in the paid-for sector now need to find differentiators that people will be prepared to pay for. Quality, trust, reliability and predictability are perhaps no longer enough. New monetisation opportunities do exist as more of us are consuming more media than ever before. Apple has pioneered a paid-for model for music. Sky has championed the premium TV subscription model. In Ireland last Saturday evening, Tv3′s website received over 120,000 visits per minute as people searched for premium telephone numbers to vote for xFactor contestants; thus highlighting a definite appetite to pay for engagement with traditional media.

The entertainment and media industry is facing a period of unprecedented change. In the shake-down that will happen, those existing businesses which can identify sustainable new revenue streams will survive. Meanwhile, such a period of change creates massive opportunities for new entrants with offerings and business models which are responsive to shifting consumer expectations and behaviours.

Ireland to become a Global Media Hub – Neil Leydon

The proposal sets out initially to create an Irish Content Industry Association which would then drive the development of a cultural and creative quarter, a Media Park to attract global content industries, and creating the necessary legislative and regulatory environment to make Ireland a leading global centre for the creation and distribution of digital content.

The Proposer, Neil Leyden, is a screen writer and a digital media consultant. Neil formed the Digital Media Forum in 2004, now a network of over 600 digital media companies, with the intention of seeing different sectors of the creative and technology industries collaborate for the economic betterment of Ireland.

The Data Island Strategy – Cianan Clancy & Colm MacFhlannachadha

Through the development of a Green Mega Data Centre Freezone and an International Innovation Area - The Data Island Strategy sets out to build a world beating entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem around Digital Services and to position Ireland at the forefront of its associated spin-off industries.

The Proposers Cianan Clancy & Colm MacFhlannachadha are both from Skerries, County Dublin. Cianan works for a Fortune 500 Consulting Firm and concentrates on helping businesses optimise their business processes and IT systems; Colm has over 25 years experience in sectors as diverse as energy, electronics, medical devices and food manufacturing.

While there have been questions asked about the mechanics of the campaign, if the campaign can bring these two particular ideas to pass then the potential is to transform Ireland into a global hub for digital content and data. That’s a big idea and one worth pursuing. This campaign will only have been worthwhile if we look back in five years time and see the seeds of change in what has happened over the past few months. Given that I do believe the intention behind the campaign is genuine, even if some organisations have sought to make capital on their involvement, I wish the organisers and the winners well and do hope that they can bring these ideas to fruition.

If you are unfamiliar with this campaign, it is an open competition initiated by the President’s husband, Dr. Martin McAleese, to find two direction-changing innovations for the island of Ireland. Each winning proposal will receive €100,000 in cash, but the proposal will then be taken out of the hands of the proposer and developed with governmental support into a national programme.

We are now down to the five finalists. One central plank of the campaign was to crowd-source ideas that could deliver tangible benefits for Ireland. Interestingly, only one of the proposals shortlisted was among the top fifty most supported on the YourCountryYourCall website. The proposal to ‘Make Ireland a Global Media Hub’ came in as the twentieth most supported, with support from 318 people and a discussion that amounted to 36 comments. The most popular proposal on the other hand received 1,947 expressions of support and 576 comments. The crowd clearly isn’t always right.

These are the final five. My own vote, for what it’s worth goes to transform Ireland into a Data Island – a ‘world-beating entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem around Digital Services.’ Winners to be announced on September 17th.

D3279 Creation of a “Superbrand” to market Irish Tourism & Food
The proposal is to create a new “Superbrand” to market Irish (all Island) Tourism and Food under the one banner – together with some practical and creative thinking in terms of implementation. The focus of the proposal is to build out job opportunities in both sectors.

The Proposer, Brody Sweeney, is from Sandymount in Dublin. He has been involved in retail chains like Prontaprint and O’Briens Sandwich Bars, as well as the business charity Connect Ethiopia. He is currently working with Diep at Home and Eat City, and is Board member of Paddy Power.

D6541 An opportunity for Ireland to become a Global Media Hub
The proposal sets out initially to create an Irish Content Industry Association which would then drive the development of a cultural and creative quarter, a Media Park to attract global content industries, and creating the necessary legislative and regulatory environment to make Ireland a leading global centre for the creation and distribution of digital content.

The Proposer, Neil Leyden, is a screen writer and a digital media consultant. Neil formed the Digital Media Forum in 2004, now a network of over 600 digital media companies, with the intention of seeing different sectors of the creative and technology industries collaborate for the economic betterment of Ireland.

D8134 Establishing an intellectual property (IP) based financial securities market in Ireland
The proposal deals with positioning Ireland centrally in the evolution of the Knowledge Economy by setting up an Intellectual Property Services Centre (IPSC) anchored around an IP-based exchange with significant potential to create long term employment opportunities and revenue streams.

The Proposer, Gordan Hyland, is originally from Belfast. Gordan has lived in many countries and his career has been focused primarily in the areas of microelectronics, consumer electronics, multimedia etc. He is qualified at masters level in technology, finance, law and management.

D9686 Installation of Solar PV Electricity Generation on existing windfarms
The proposal is to install large scale solar photovoltaic panels on existing windfarm sites, utilising the existing land, electrical infrastructure and grid connections.

Peter Enda Kavanagh is the Proposer. Originally from Gorey, County Wexford, Peter lives in Lusk, County Dublin. Peter is an Electrical Engineer and specialises in the grid connection and preconstruction of large scale windfarm projects.

D10140 The Data Island Strategy
Through the development of a Green Mega Data Centre Freezone and an International Innovation Area - The Data Island Strategy sets out to build a world beating entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem around Digital Services and to position Ireland at the forefront of its associated spin-off industries.

The Proposers Cianan Clancy & Colm MacFhlannachadha are both from Skerries, County Dublin. Cianan works for a Fortune 500 Consulting Firm and concentrates on helping businesses optimise their business processes and IT systems; Colm has over 25 years experience in sectors as diverse as energy, electronics, medical devices and food manufacturing.

Good luck to all the finalists and congrats on getting so far along the process.

The most popular Irish Facebook pages include musicians, alcohol brands and Ryanair

A visitor to this blog asked where she could find out which Irish corporates had the most popular Facebook pages. The answer wasn’t immediately clear to me and a after a little digging I discovered that this information isn’t readily available.

Here is my best stab at the most popular Irish brands on Facebook ranked by the number of people that “like” their page. I’ve only included the pages that are managed by Irish brands. The data has been pulled from a number of sources but principally from a search of Facebook’s pages directory.

1. U2
   http://www.facebook.com/u2
   3,364,402
2. Baileys
   http://www.facebook.com/Baileys
   850,305
3. Westlife
   http://www.facebook.com/Westlife
   410,063
4. Guinness GB
   http://www.facebook.com/Guinnessgb
   289,963
5. Guinness Ireland
   http://www.facebook.com/GuinnessIreland
   129,026
6. Oxegen
   http://www.facebook.com/oxegen
   102,714
7. Jameson Whiskey
   http://www.facebook.com/jamesonwhiskey
   90,171
8. Captain Morgan
   http://www.facebook.com/CaptainMorganIreland
   59,918
9. Ryanair
   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ryanair/24694184960
   46,454
10. The Saw Doctors
    http://www.facebook.com/sawdoctors
    47,321
11. Hostel World
    http://www.facebook.com/hostelworldcom
    42,937
12. Electric Picnic
    http://www.facebook.com/ElectricPicnic
    41,278
13. Munster Rugby
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Limerick-Ireland/Munster-rugby-club-fan-page/36613502000
    30,733
14. Smirnoff Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/SmirnoffIreland
    28,346
15. Pogues
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pogues/
    25,910
16. Spin 1038
    http://www.facebook.com/spin1038
    24,543
17. Guinness Rugby Supporters Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/GuinnessRugbyIreland
    24,118
18. Irish Cancer Society
    http://www.facebook.com/IrishCancerSociety
    23,812
19. Tourism Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/Ireland
    23,452
20. Leinster Rugby
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dublin-Ireland/Leinster-Rugby/25793755239
    21,533
21. Discover Ireland GB
    http://www.facebook.com/DiscoverIrelandGB
    19,409
22. Starbucks Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/starbucksireland
    19,232
23. Allhorse
    http://www.facebook.com/Allhorse
    18,735
24. Jagermeister Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jagermeister-Ireland/184728954003
    18,020
25. Ireland Deserves Sun
    http://www.facebook.com/IrelandDeservesSun
    17,967
26. Barry’s Tea
    http://www.facebook.com/BarrysTea
    17,220
27. Mr Tayto
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Tayto/6763632581
    15,690
28. Irish Blood Transfusion Service
    http://www.facebook.com/giveblood
    15,669
29. Special Olympics Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/SpecialOlympicsIreland
    15,181
30. IRISH RUGBY TEAM
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/IRISH-RUGBY-TEAM/50621768957
    14,907
31. Amnesty International Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/amnestyinternationalireland
    13,736
32. Meteor
    http://www.facebook.com/meteor
    13,557
33. Topflight Holidays
    http://www.facebook.com/topflight
    12,438
34. 98FM
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/98FM/70730467584
    12,433
35. Champion Sports
    http://www.facebook.com/championsportsireland
    11,736
36. Pigsback
    http://www.facebook.com/pigsback
    11,460
37. Ben & Jerry’s Ireland
    http://www.facebook.com/BenandJerrysIreland
    10,470

I’m bound to have missed plenty, so if you know of some that I’ve omitted please leave a comment below and I’ll update the list.

Even the little ones are getting excited about Weedle

Increasingly, social media tools are being used by everyone to connect skilled professionals with the people who need them. Business owners and managers are creating Facebook pages to seek to spread the word through the largest global social network. When informing our purchase decisions we increasingly tap into our online networks, such as Twitter, to ask our contacts there what products or services they recommend.

Currently there is no single large-scale way of harnessing the power of word of mouth referrals for people offering skilled services. This is one of the big ideas behind Weedle and one of the main the reasons I joined the company last February.

Weedle enables you to create a personal web page where  you can showcase any skill, expertise or talent that you have. You can add text and rich media such as images, video, presentations, documents and many other file formats. You can then promote your skill page to your family, friends and contacts. This means that in the first instance they will be more likely to use you in future. But it also means that they will be more likely to recommend you to their friends.

The next time someone searches for your skill on Weedle they will immediately see in how many ways they are connected with you; for example if you both grew up together, attended the same college or university, worked together or have a friend in common. We all prefer to do business with people we know. Furthermore, anyone who views your skill page will immediately see the recommendations for you from people whose knowledge and opinions they respect. We are more likely to trust what people we know say before the ratings or reviews of anonymous strangers.

This is the thinking behind Weedle and already people from over fifty countries around the world have started showcasing their skills, expertise and talents there.

One of the early benefits of creating a social platform such as Weedle, where skills are the focal point, is that Google returns Weedle web pages quite high in the rankings when someone searches for a skill that happens to be listed there. In the same way as other social platforms optimise for your name (search for your name on Google and there’s a good chance one of your social network profiles will appear on the first page) Weedle optimizes for your skill. People who know you by name will search that way, but people who don’t know you but who need your skill, will search for your skill title. This is Weedle’s initial SEO (search engine optimisation) benefit.

You can connect with me on Weedle on my personal page weedle.com/brendan.hughes – anyone who joins early can claim their personal web address before it is gone. I would love to hear your thoughts on the concept behind Weedle and on how we have implemented the platform to date. Join Weedle today to see how it works and please, please send us your feedback.

Trust in other people is established on the basis of promises kept. Either explicitly or implicitly we judge that a particular person is reliable, based on our own experiences or those of others. We don’t trust everyone we encounter of course, but a small number of those people we trust and who we happen to like will become friends; especially if the trust and attraction is reciprocated.

We have relationships with brands – companies, businesses, service providers and organisations. Today our concept of brand is very stretched, but we understand it to mean the reputation of an organisation (from Coca Cola to the local greengrocer) or person (from Barak Obama to the reliability of the local postman). We choose to use a select number of brands that we trust because they consistently deliver on their promises. I may even actively promote the brands I really like becoming a super-fan or brand-advocate.

Talking to my friends about the brands I like is the most powerful marketing tool that exists. We call this “word of mouth” (WOM) marketing when I tell the people who trust my judgement about the brands that I trust. This is the elixir of marketing and yet it is the one aspect of marketing that marketers have had least control over.

Social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Buzz and so on, have fundamentally shifted our definition of “friend”. In the past most of us could manage a small handful of people we call a friend. Today each of us had literally hundreds of people we call friend, thanks to social media.

For brands this means that the power of word of mouth marketing is exponentially greater. The sphere of influence of the average customer is now much larger than it ever was. When I tell my friends online about a brand, not only are my views visible to them, but very often the conversations are filtered through to their friends, and so on.

In this context however our notion of trust is much weaker. I cannot possibly form judgements on the trustworthiness of the hundreds of people I’m friends with online. How do I come to trust these people based purely on their often scant online personas? And yet, more and more I’m relying on them to influence my judgements on a wide range of things.

My trust in my online friends is further weakened as I find out that some of them are paid or rewarded for their positivity towards certain brands. As I realise that clever brand managers are increasingly manipulating the “independent” commentary I read online, I start to find it more difficult to trust what I read. In fact, I seek out the negative as the only thing that is trustworthy.

Now let’s add the social media organisations themselves into the mix. Let’s remind ourselves that these are for-profit businesses that are mediating human relationships. Their business depends on opening up our personal networks and gathering and revealing as much information about each of us as possible.

Do you trust them when they reveal more information to others than you remember giving them permission to do? Or when they are revealing information that you didn’t even realise that they had gathered about you? Do you find it just a bit intrusive when advertisers on their platforms serve you “relevant” and “targeted” ads based on your personal tastes, gender, ethnicity, orientation, date of birth or relationship status? Can you trust a site that allows brands to pay their way to the top of a search you expect to return the “best” results or to allow those brands to filter out the things they don’t want you to hear?

Social media is helping us grow our trusted networks beyond our close-knit circle of real-world friends. But how much is that trust worth?