Is Branched Out really the new Linked In?

There's a heap of buzz around the launch of the new jobs site on Facebook called Branch Out. Primarily the buzz is because this is built within the Facebook platform. the potential to go viral via your friends is huge. You can import your LinkedIn profile as well so it's easy to set up.

It will be interesting to see just how this shapes up against LinkedIn. Facebook is primarily a personal site where you may well buy holidays, shoes and converse with your friends but do you really want your friends on Facebook to know you are looking for a job, especially if these include workmates? The seperation of your business profile on LinkedIn and your personal time in Facebook seemed clearcut to me. Does this blur the boundaries too far?

Social Media - It's important to do what applies to your business

Twitter, Facebook, Youtube - what should you use for business? 

Case Study - Yeo Valley

This is great case study. Organic product (so not mainstream), yoghurt (some people like, some don't), and a family business.

Checking out their Website 

See the full gallery on posterous

page there are clear signs to social media networks. Clicking on these networks reveals some not unsurprising results - followers on Facebook and Twitter are relatively low. Why would you follow I suppose? It is just a dairy product and in every supermarket so you don't have to work that hard at keeping up with where they are.

But as with all businesses, Yeo Valley have extreme competition from foreign imports, supermarket own brand labels etc. It's important to try and develop a brand personality that consumers will align themselves with. 10 years ago the only way of making this happen would be through an expensive TV campaign. Well, Yeo Valley have an expensive TV campaign, but importantly it's backed up by Social Media, and in the latest case an incredible viral video that Youtube has already served 1.5 million times!! If you then check the social channels it's clear to see what a 'chatter' that this escalates. Yeo's Facebook page is full of likes for the video and although people are not signing up to Twitter they are tweeting the video (40 tweets today and the video has been out a while) that all send users to the site and increase brand awareness.

The business case is that the customer is now in control. Marketing is undertaken by them and as a business you just have to learn to interact with them in any way the wish (not any way YOU would wish - note Yeo Valley responding directly on Facebook to customers). Interflora searches Twitter for people having bad days and then sends them some flowers (having tweeted them) - what a great way to communicate and everyone is a winner.

For all the doubting Thomas' out there, you can always just stay in the dark. You won't get the best deal, nor the early bird offers. You probably don't watch that much TV and certainly not the adverts, and without any social media interaction you would have missed the video below, which just makes you smile and feel a bit better for the day (and buy Yeo valley bext time rather than American brand Rachels Organic ( - as Sid says, Buy cos it's British)

Posted via email from steve rushton

Only Google Can afford Groupon (and win)

In truth it is only Google who can afford to buy Groupon at the valuations being bandied about. It has the infrastructure, Internet clout (local advertisers) and profits (only adwords makes money for Google). Google has a history of paying lots of money for big ideas and although they can't monetize them immediately that doesn't matter as they have so much cash swilling around it's just important that Facebook don't 'buy the competition'

So - is Groupon worth $6Bn? Certainly not in the short term, maybe in the long term with the right amount of Google Support, ensuring that it becomes the 'standard'. After all, there have been discount schemes around for a long time, why does Groupon work better? The key is in the repackaging of an old idea. Voucher schemes from businesses such as vouchercodes.com have been successful but don't command such wild valuation. They aren't very 'clean' sites, the consumer has to work hard to get the info. Groupon 'googelises' this voucher industry, making it simpler for consumers to understand what's on offer. It's Genius in it's simplicity.

Could Groupon shareholders make any more profit by not selling to Google now? Almost 100% not. Google are buying at a premium and valuation you would expect when it was a lot larger, which of course is difficult to achieve without Google, but easier with.

The gain for everyone is that Groupon has introduced a different form of advertising to adwords and adsense. That's good news for retailers but it's no wonder Google are buying the third largest advertising medium after the two it already owns. Keep up with news on Groupon at http://tiny.cc/fb3en

Posted via email from steve rushton