Channel Overview Benefits Considerations Sample Metrics

Facebook

•  Social network for sharing text posts, images, videos

•  >1 billion users (>600 million active users)

•  Instagram integration grew user base, image sharing

•  Increasing B2B applications and lead generation

•  Brand pages provide stronger customer/partner experience

•  Ad platform increasingly effective for B2B lead gen

•  High user engagement and content sharing activity

•  Interactions are relationship-driven, needing regular engagement

•  Limited control over content sharing or commentary

•  Likes (Posts/Pages) •  Comments •  Shares •  URL Clicks •  Referral Traffic

LinkedIn

•  Professional social network with >200 million users

•  60% of members live outside the U.S. in >200 countries

•  Users can interact with other professionals, companies and topic-specific groups

•  Generates more B2B leads than Facebook or Twitter

•  Effective for branding and recruitment

•  Employee interaction can aid reputation and recruitment

•  Referral traffic limited, but targeted with potential customers or recruits

•  Employee interaction requires clear guidelines for behavior

•  Trend toward more engaging design for brand pages

•  Job Applications •  Brand Page Followers •  Group Members •  Comments •  Shares

Twitter

•  Microblogging platform with 140-character text-post limit

•  Share (tweet) text updates, links, images and videos

•  >200 million active users •  Vine service shares six-

second video clips

•  Can allow for quick customer/partner communications

•  Strong use among journalists and investors

•  Highly trafficked: 6 million monthly uniques

•  Increasingly indexed in Google search results

•  Short form content can provide challenges for key message communications

•  Requires consistent content syndication and monitoring

•  Followers •  Retweets •  Mentions •  URL Clicks •  Referral Traffic

YouTube

•  Video sharing site with >800 million monthly uniques

•  #2 search engine in the world (behind Google)

•  70% of traffic comes from outside the US

•  Localized in 53 countries

•  Strong for product and service education, featuring partners/customers

•  Integrated into other social media channel experiences (esp. Facebook, Twitter)

•  Videos highly integrated into search results

•  Video creation can be expensive – find a balance of value, exposure and cost

•  Allows for comments to be turned off to limit negative exposure

•  Video Views •  Average Drop-off •  Shares •  Subscribers

Channel Overview Benefits Considerations Sample Metrics

Google+

•  Social network sharing status updates, images, videos, etc.

•  >235 million active users •  Lower overall engagement

than Facebook •  Users “+1” content/pages they

like

•  Highly integrated in Google search results

•  Connect with partners and customers using Circles, Communities or Hangouts

•  Can be integrated into other Google applications

•  More limited adoption/active users than Facebook

•  Administration can be difficult •  Audience skews male •  Limited ability to control

content sharing or commentary

•  Followers •  +1s (Posts/Pages) •  Comments •  Shares •  URL Clicks •  Referral Traffic

SlideShare

•  Presentation sharing site for uploading slide decks

•  >60 million monthly visitors •  >130 million monthly

pageviews •  Strong sales force use

•  Branded channels host multiple elements (slides, videos, documents, etc.)

•  Embed audio tracks for a more engaging experience

•  Presentations can be embedded on other sites

•  Limited referral traffic or SEO benefit

•  Free accounts limit uploads, tracking and display settings

•  Paid accounts provide more uploads, analytics and lead capture

•  Followers •  Presentation Views •  Shares •  Comments

StumbleUpon

•  Social bookmarking site and browser application

•  >25 million users •  Paid Discovery (ad platform)

pushes brand content to users in an organic format

•  Strong platform for syndicating web pages across various consumer interests

•  Paid Discovery can drive significant, cost-effective traffic

•  Audience targeting is accurate to interest categories

•  B2B community adoption has been limited

•  Brand presence emerging, with positive effect on search

•  Visual content (images, video, experiential demos) perform best

•  Followers •  Referral Traffic •  Paid Stumbles •  Organic Stumbles •  Cost Per View •  Effective Cost Per View

Flickr

•  Image sharing site creating social networks around visual content

•  Upload images/videos, create galleries/groups

•  Recently added video sharing capabilities

•  >50 million members •  >80 million monthly uniques

•  Heavily indexed by search engines, with image search assisting brand exposure

•  Helps organize and syndicate images from events, product launches, etc.

•  This channel does not require significant time or resource commitment

•  Integrated with Yahoo (owner)

•  Provides little referral traffic •  Image licensing options can

be selected, though Legal department may require monitoring to assure appropriate third-party usage

•  In-depth metrics available only through paid accounts

•  Views •  Group Members •  Top Images (paid) •  Visitor Behavior (paid)

Channel Overview Benefits Considerations Sample Metrics

Pinterest

•  Community site for sharing (“pinning”) web content, primarily in image collections

•  >48 million users •  >25 million monthly uniques

•  Has shown ability to provide noticeable referral traffic

•  Business pages create a unique, image-based brand experience

•  Business accounts have access to a free analytics tool

•  Does not facilitate direct consumer engagement

•  Users skew heavily female •  Emerging B2B business

presence and content •  Copyright holders can request

content be removed •  Sites can opt-out of ability for

images to be shared

•  Followers •  Clicks/Most Clicked •  Repins/Most Repinned •  Reach •  Visitors

Reddit

•  Bulletin board-style social news and entertainment site

•  Users submit links and text for community commentary

•  >43 million users •  >33 million monthly uniques

•  Perhaps the most active user-driven community online today

•  If content resonates, referral traffic can be extremely high

•  Interesting subject-matter experts with captivating images can gain strong exposure

•  Other reputable sites pick up “front page” content

•  Content perceived as “spam” will receive strong negative attention

•  Content must be seen as non-promotional

•  Community can ban users pushing branded content

•  Users skew heavily male and interested in technology

•  Comments •  Points •  Up Votes •  Down Votes •  Karma

Quora

•  User-generated Q&A site •  Login required to see all

answers •  Tags categorize questions •  Top answers (as voted by

other users) appear at the top •  >1.5 million monthly uniques

•  Q&A format follows search behavior, providing strong position in search results

•  Q&A threads can provide valuable insights for messaging and content creation

•  Direct brand communications (answering questions) is difficult, but not unheard-of

•  Approved employees would have the best engagement opportunities

•  Referral traffic is limited, with little SEO benefit

•  People Viewing Questions

•  People Following Questions

•  Relevant Questions •  Relevant Answers

Instagram

•  Photo sharing and manipulation site

•  Strong mobile usage •  Integrated into Facebook •  >100 million users

•  Strong user base and Facebook integration for highlighting images of products and/or services

•  API allows images to be displayed on websites

•  Little precedent for B2B usage

•  Among the more progressive content syndication and audience engagement tactics

•  Little SEO benefit

•  Followers •  Likes •  Comments

Channel Overview Benefits Considerations Sample Metrics

Delicious

•  Social bookmarking site •  Users interact with each other

around similar content and interests

•  >5 million users •  >180 million bookmarks

•  Stacks feature allow users to follow brands or subjects they like

•  Highly bookmarked links will appear on the site’s front page for added visibility

•  There is no direct communication between brands and customers

•  Site experience is geared toward individuals, not overall brands

•  Traffic (and referrals) has trended downward recently

•  Bookmarks •  Referral Traffic

Digg

•  Social news/bookmarking site •  Users up vote (digg) or down

vote (bury) posted content •  Content can be categorized

into Reading Lists for easier consumption

•  >3.5 million monthly uniques

•  Community of users can still generate strong referral traffic

•  Image

•  Traffic to Digg (and from Digg to other sites) is on a decline

•  No brand presence, but new ad platform allows for content to be pushed to users

•  Little control over user interaction with content

•  Diggs •  Referral Traffic

Foursquare

•  Location-based social network •  Users check-in to locations,

share images and text posts •  Foursquare Explore (search

engine) provides localized results

•  >25 million users

•  Work spaces and events can be leveraged for greater employee/customer interaction

•  Branded check-ins syndicate socially for greater reach (especially Facebook, Twitter)

•  Does not allow comments on stories (yet)

•  Greater consumer-product and entertainment usage

•  Special offers and badges haven’t made a relevant transition into B2B

•  Check-ins •  Favorites •  Brand Mentions