IT'S NOT 'HOW MANY YOU KNOW'. IT'S 'WHO YOU KNOW'. NEW QUALITY IN SOCIAL NETWORKING IS GOOD NEWS FOR BRANDS.

Soon after rumours surfaced of facebook reaching saturation at 500m members, the company introduced a new dimension to 'groups'.  

Now users can create very specific groups of friends within their total network.  

This is about driving QUALITY back into a social experience that up until now has been more about QUANTITY.

It makes perfect sense that within your network you would want sub-groups who are together for different reasons.  Family, workmates and old school friends are obvious choices, but take a closer look and you'll see something unsurprising and intriguing.

COMMON PASSIONS ARE A BIG PART OF HOW THESE GROUPS ARE BONDING.

They're the glue that draws and keeps a big percentage of sub-groups together.

Inevitably, groups will join with other groups and people will find themselves part of bigger networks of more likeminded others.  Just like in 'the real world' where groups of friends come together as one bigger group around a shared passion. 

This is Social Networking 'catching up' with what happens in the real world, by enabling a more natural experience (or in geek speak, more intuitive and elegant).

This rise of quality has 3 hugely valuable implications for brands looking to engage with consumers and customers through Social Media:

1. The more consumers are grouped by common bonds, the more easily and COST-EFFECTIVELY they can be engaged.  

2. This then has massive value for the QUALITY OF INSIGHT that can be drawn from these 'expert groups' and used to build comms platforms that really connect.

3. Ultimately, good branded content will be shared by members with a HIGHER QUALITY OF CONNECTION - exceptionally likeminded others who are more actively interested.

We're shifting from, 'HOW MANY I'VE GOT' to 'WHO I KNOW' as a better articulation of 'WHO I AM'.

Personality and Identity are being driven into Social Networking.  This opens up great space for brands to do what they do best: feed people's desire for ways to express who they are.

How long before all brands create their own version of Nike Run, 'the world's biggest running club'?  

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SPONSORSHIP GETS YOU CLOSER TO YOUR CONSUMER

We will shortly release the results of global research that explores:

- how we feed our passions online

- what kind of passion-driven content we share with others 

- how we as consumers feel about brands getting involved

Early data supports a recurring theme: that we are not only happy but eager for brands to help us 'get closer' to our passions.  By 'get closer', we mean more access, more involvement, more opportunity.  In there like swim wear, not just watching from the periphery.

The essence of this desire is not new: We always have and always will want to get as up-close-and-personal as we can to what we want.  

But now, technology has amplified this desire.  The more we engage with our passions and others who share our passions online, the more we want to feed those passions and nurture those new relationships in the 'real world'.  iTunes Genius opens us up to new bands we want to see live.  Ideo encourages us to contribute more to projects that excite us.  LinkedIn establishes new productive relationships that trickle off the screen and into conferences and coffee shops.  

It's human nature to want to get as close as possible to what you love, need, want.

All this reinforces 'the new value of help' (see earlier post) and the role of sponsorship platforms that give consumers what, without brands, they cannot have: exclusive access, privileged opportunities, priority placement.  

Consumer insight is therefore more important than ever.  Insight must be deep for content to be king.  And guess what?  Social communities built around passions are a great place to start.  Active groups of passionate people already discussing and debating what they would love more of...what they would love to happen next.

Look out for the full research report published in a few weeks.

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SPONSORSHIP AND SOCIAL MEDIA - PERFECT PARTNERS

Traditional sponsorship principles are straight forward enough.

Brands/ companies want to talk about and ultimately sell their brands, products and services to consumers. This gets done predominately through ADVERTISING in ADTIME – at best, when consumers expect it or are receptive to it.

Outside ADTIME, brands can talk to consumers in their LEISURE TIME. SPONSORSHIP sits in that LEISURE TIME, around peoples PASSIONS & INTERESTS.

Sponsorship can do AWARENESS, IMAGE/ VALUE EXCHANGE and offer CONTENT for brands to connect with consumers in that LEISURE TIME.

SPONSORSHIP CONTENT can be particularly powerful as it,

1. Has the endorsement or a credible 3^rd party and

2. Addresses an already receptive and hungry audience.

Social Media’s arrival in mainstream culture has created a huge new opportunity for brands and sponsorship, specifically.  Crucially, this not just about seeing Social Media as a channel to tell consumers about a sponsorship.

SOCIAL MEDIA and SPONSORSHIP share some dynamic and unique ground: They are both fueled and powered by people’s PASSIONS & INTERESTS.

However, when SOCIAL MEDIA is INTEGRATED with SPONSORSHIP, exciting new benefits for brands emerge:

1.     DEPTH, through a real dialogue

2.     REACH, way more cost effectively

3.     LONGEVITY, beyond a single event

4.     CRM, data to integrate into sales channels

5.     MEASURABILITY, like never before

SOCIAL MEDIA could have become the new lease of life that SPONSORSHIP needs.

A final thought - Social Media opens up a raft of new opportunities for brands.  Amongst them, Sponsorship online of social media/ blogs and the opportunity to access fans without the need for rights  – more on this to follow.

Ben Pincus

ben@robinsonpincus.com

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