February 2013 – Bart Kozdras' Blog

First Mover’s Advantage

When I first used Facebook Graph search I was disappointed by the limitations of the Beta version. Releasing a product that is not ready is a risk, as some users may not give it a second try (remember Apple maps?). Nonetheless, Facebook has a competitive advantage expressed in the quantity of users and volume of data it possesses which keeps competitors away.

Impact

Graph Search is a new way of finding information on Facebook, apart from Timeline and News feed. Unlike other functions, it does not provide ready mix of data but allows a meaningful search for information (first order change).

Second order effect is changing user’s focus from “socializing and communication” to “search for information”. This is a significant shift as it can improve company’s advertising revenues, by providing ads better suited to customer’s current focus; as a result, they are more likely to click on them and purchase advertised goods (boosting Facebook’s revenues).
The Graph search will also make the “likes” more meaningful for the companies that heavily invested in them.

Strategy

From a perspective of Porter’s 5 forces framework, Graph search addresses principally threat of new entrants and substitutes: it creates a new user experience that is not provided by anyone else. The competition is unlikely to develop similar product as it does not have a necessary input of data and thus may have more difficulty in attracting Facebook users (e.g. Google+).

Concerns

Privacy is a concern that comes to mind first. Graph search can access only information that is marked as public by the users; however, it seems that many users are not aware of how to manage their privacy settings.

Quality of data, especially “likes” is another issue that the company will have to address along the way. Do the likes really represent what we like?

I’m therefore looking forward to Facebooks’ next step, which hopefully will include rolling out a fully-baked product that will provide a tangible value for users.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/15/live-facebook-announces-graph-search/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21032506

The success of One Billion Rising campain: the recipe

On February 14th the first One Billion Rising event took place all over the word. The rising against the violence was a very successful and inspiring event, which was supported by a very professional marketing effort.

What are some reasons for such a broad engagement and success?

Storytelling: action’s value proposition was expressed by telling a story that can easily appeal to everybody. Storytelling helps educate people on the reasons for the action (1 in 3 women is victim of violence at some point in her life) and its goals.

Engaging value proposition: the action does not focus on value proposition for somebody, but rather a value proposition WITH victims and people that are for the cause. Anybody around the world can get involved.

Social media: the message of the action was viral on social media and organizations and individuals around the world decided to get involved by organizing their own, local events. The events were also streamed on-line.

Immersive experience: similar to immersive marketing, the events with high involvement created a brand/action awareness that is likely to endure for a long time.

All these elements greatly helped marketing success of the campaign that was the biggest and loudest of its kind, rising cause and overall brand awareness of the organization that organized it.