Social Networking in Spain and tendencies for Social Media Marketing

Good Morning from Valenica!

Its a beautiful sunny morning here in Valencia and it seems that summer has already begun!

(Photo: http://www.genbeta.com/web-20/tuenti-vs-facebook)

Upon waking up this morning, I am happy to find a great column in El Pais titled "Internet no nos cambia tanto" - Internet doesn't change us that much. It truely is a great column that talks about our behavior on the internet's most powerful social networks, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, and here in Spain, Tuenti.

Some of the mentions in this article include quotes from Harvard University authors in Taste, Ties, and Time, an important look at social network behavior. Here's what El Pais had to say:

... "the first data that they found was that 97.4% of college students have thier online profile in Facebook"...

..."if you put a picture of you smiling, you more likely to connect with other people that have a picture of them smiling"... and likely to connect with other people of the same race....

Those of us that have been apart of the Facebook boom in the early 2000 when it was still a college thing, know that all of your college friends are still connected by Facebook. And when I say all of your friends, I mean ALL of your friends! We have stayed in touch by posting pictures, wall posts, and sending messages. The Facebook early adopters know exactly how Facebookers interact just by looking at the way our hundreds or thousands of network friends interact. Those of us in social network marketing that have been apart of this boom should take our experiences into consideration when developing communication strategies to social network members. Remember that Facebook was made popular by friends wanting to connect and know more about other friends from college, where rumors, stories, and personal lives get mixed up online through facebook. Its personal territory, so be careful how you communicate.

(Photo: http://blog.stuvu.com/2009/02/facebook-etiquette-for-college-students/)

This could be true for the Spanish version of Facebook, Tuenti. Tuenti is made up of mostly young, female members in college or high-school and formatted in Spanish only. Members of Tuenti have an average friend base of 30 people compared to Facebook's 120 average friend base. These are important facts to have if you want to target communication to Tuenti. Keeping messages relevant and personal is essential for high conversion rates and ROI.

Social Marketers can also utilize Tuenti as a segmentation tool. We know that Facebook has more members and is growing membership at an astounding pace everyday. Tuenti, as a smaller community with more personal members, may provide a communication vehicle to communicate with a specific market. I think this is the true value of social networks in today's marketing world. Social networks provide marketers with the ability to analyze and segment the market without doing the research themselves.

(Photo: http://www.todolideres.com/2008/10/16/zaryn-dentel/zaryn-dentel-equipo-tuenti/)

Also, within the social networks, there are more smaller segments such as Facebook's groups, fans, and events. Tuenti has a similar function. Connecting with potential and existing customers has become really easy using social networks. According to El Pais, "In 26 countries, 10% of the population is on Facebook"...in Spain 9%. This is increasingly important but what is even more important is that if the marketing strategy/budget includes social network marketing, social marketers much remember to be human, part of the community, a Facebooker, a Tuenti user. Another words, if you aren't really a part of the social network, you will stand out like a sore thumb. Before communicating with potential and existing customers, make sure you know how, when, and why.

Thats it for today. Leave me comments!