The Power of One

One may not seem like a powerful number... but it is. Like the well-known Pareto Principle (or 80/20 rule), there is another semi-universally accepted theorem about the ratio of content creators to commentors to lurkers. This is the 90/10/1 or 1% rule. Author and friend, Jackie Huba, has talked about this rule a number of times, mainly in the context of what companies and organizations can expect when it comes to expected contribution rates in social networking activities and online community.

What got me thinking about the power of one the other day was a graphic created by eMarketer that appeared in a post titled, Why should brands bother with twitter? This table says why. I've embedded the table below for ease of reference but one can pretty quickly see that when it comes to engaging in social activities, people that use Twitter over index off the chart.

Upon tweeting about the "Why should brands bother" post, my friend, Liz Phillips, chimed in...

Wow, could this be true? Obviously there is some self-selection because people who tend to be hyper-social also tend to be on Twitter. But looking at the chart, the difference in "social activities" between Twitter users and ordinary internet users is 100-400% greater. Jackie Huba (who I mentioned earlier as being a pro on this front) clarified that most of the research around the 90/10/1 ratio has been focused on online community which is important to keep in mind. But might this number be shifting?

In thinking about the numbers and what looks like a dramatic shift in the 90/10/1 rule (which is different for social media than online community), one explanation for this might be what I'll call "the Facebook" effect. With 50% of Facebook users (now over 500 million) logging on to the service at least once a day for at least an hour a day, the general internet population is getting more comfortable and familiar with the idea of posting updates, links, pictures and video while also commenting and "liking" friends and colleagues content.

Getting back to Twitter, one thing that has always bothered me, especially when it comes to discussions around following to follower ratio is how many of the people I'm connected with actually tweet. I follow over 12,000 people and you might be surprised to know that I receive no more than 10-20 direct messages (DM's) a day and those are mainly from close friends and contacts. I also suspect (although I have no direct evidence) that out of the 12,000 people I follow, somewhere south of 20% constitute 80% of the updates (there's that 80/20 rule again). With 14,000 plus people following me on Twitter, I've also wondered how many people are actively monitoring my tweet stream. My guess is maybe somewhere around 1% at any given time.

To validate this number, I took a very unscientific approach. Last night while sitting in traffic (yes Oprah, I was at a complete stop when I tweeted this), I put out this tweet...

And then I waited... for 12 hours in fact before putting out another tweet. At least 50% of my responses came back in the first hour with the remaining 50% trickling in over the next 11 hours. The number of respondents was 78 (two coming via DM). As a funny side note, many people followed the rules and gave me a straight "yes" but several people got creative and a few even included one of my favorite lines, "I see you" in their response. Doing a little back of the envelope math, 78 responses is a little more than .5% of the number of people that follow me. Taking some statistical liberties, I'm going to estimate that the number of people who responded to me represented 50% of those that saw my initial tweet (the other 50% thinking, "why should I waste my time responding to you Strout.") Guess what, if you double that .5% [drumroll please]... yup, you get 1%.

What does this mean? To be honest, I'm not sure. Except that there is a power in numbers. Whether it is 80/20 or 90/10/1, it shows that behavior can be predictable. What I'm more interested in seeing is whether my theory about the Facebook Effect really has legs. If anyone has any research on this front, I'd love to hear about it. In the meantime, if you have a different theory OR would like to dispel any of my VERY unscientific research, please feel free to do so in the comments below.

I would love to send a HUGE thank you to my friends who (at least some of the time) pay attention to what I have to say. Most of you are already in my "Trust Tree" column on Tweetdeck ensuring that I am more likely to see your tweets versus those in my general "friend" stream. For those of you that weren't, consider yourself added (see, it does pay to play along sometimes). The folks that participated are:


@savvyauntie @slowrolling @GenuineJack @leslie @schneidermike @cbarger @smashadv @mtlb @jimstorer @ektrondave @FrankEliason @minesm @blogboy @joeyTWOwheels @CBMeitzner @angelicadevere @trishrc @jblock @Movember @adamgarone @ProPaintersAmer @kpitkin @willsmom @jpitkin @cselland @rehor @nealrap @glennbanton @techguerilla @KevinMSpence @TheChrisWalters @sdigregorio @Genuine @nickhuhn @marksylvester @micheliente @ecc1977 @banane @jenhorton @nciske @asilkin @RussThornton @michaelpearsun @mikepratt @asquillace @marting @mpace101 @AnkushKarnik @csoandy @JacquelinesLife @bryanstratton @stepchange @SiobhanDullea @vascocv @Aronado @mikeneumann @JohnKinATL @DrncPno @mkknief @Irdone @shawn @BigMikeInAustin @TTaxChristine @JohnKinATL @DrewCarls @Ed @gingerw @dead_tree_media @jtdoherty @myerman @CountXero @BlackDogPromo @dmcordell @DarrinSearancke @LevelTen_Colin @carriejbond @JeanTerranova @m750

The Start of Something Bigger?

Last night, I caught wind of some exciting news which has me jazzed for two reasons. First, I believe is the start of a larger trend i.e. the beginning of consolidation in the world of social. This morning, Jake McKee and Sean O'Driscoll of Ants Eye View announced this morning that they have acquired talented authors, Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell of Wabash & Lake to expand their professional services portfolio. This announcement comes on the heels of Altimeter Group's organic additions of three heavy hitters and Dachis Groups' announcement of their acquisition of HeadShift.

Second, I happen to know Sean, Jake, Jackie and Ben and I can vouch for the fact that not only are they good people, they are smart and possess some serious social chops. To that end, it sounds like in addition to expanding the Ant’s Eye View professional services portfolio, McConnell and Huba’s initial focus will be the creation of programs and services that help companies improve the customer experience and create customer evangelists. McConnell and Huba will serve as public representatives of Ant’s Eye View in their work as business bloggers and keynote speakers, as well as consulting with the firm’s clients. To me, this is smart business.

In Sean's words (he's the CEO of Ant's Eye View), by “adding two of the world’s foremost experts in building word of mouth and customer loyalty programs, Ant’s Eye View has built the industry’s strongest lineup of proven social media and customer experience practitioners who have led customer-focused changes at large brands.”

Bottom line, seeing friends join forces to create something valuable is always exciting. Seeing an emerging trend of smart companies like Altimeter, Dachis Group and now Ant's Eye View grow and consolidate is equally exciting. To me, it means that the market is starting to demand a higher level of strategy and service from their partners.

The big question is who will be next?

Driving Purchase Consideration: Podcast with Jackie Huba & Rob Harles

As part of the latest "Back to School" podcast series I do for my company, Powered Inc., our goal is to focus on the intersection of business and social. The speakers are smart people who run the gamut of bloggers, authors, analysts, journalists and business practitioners. This months flavor focuses on tapping into social to drive purchase consideration. My guests were the smart (and fun) Jackie Huba and Rob Harles. Jackie is an author and business blogger while Rob is the VP of community for a company you may have heard of called Sears.



Right-mouse click to download.

During our conversation, we covered the following topics (hat tip to Doug Haslam of SHIFT for helping me craft these interview questions):

• Consideration may seem like the part of the buying cycle most helped by social media: agree or disagree?
• How do we let customers “Consider?” How much of it is an active engagement (for lack of a better word) with the customer, rather than a more passive approach of letting them consider?
• If passive is an approach, how hard is it for companies to let go and let customers do there thing, trusting they will stay in the cycle?
• How vital is content in the consideration cycle?
• Brand-produced vs user-produced?
• One over the other?
• A preferred mix ratio?
• Types of content that work best
• Might consideration be used as a tool to make existing customers more profitable (repeat buyers)?
• How do you measure Consideration?

Is your company using the social web to drive purchase consideration? If so, I'd love to hear more about it.

Thanks to Jim Storer for his expert editing skills. Additional thanks to Brett Petersel for lending me the kick butt "Back to School intro and outro music." Additional thanks go to Jennifer Leggio for lending me the pic of Rob Harles.