HOW TO SUPPORT MULTIPLE SMALLER NETWORKS

 

HOW TO SUPPORT MULTIPLE SMALLER NETWORKS 

 We ’ re still at the stage in social media where businesses are getting a 

great deal of attention for building very large networks on Facebook and

for attracting 1 million-plus fans on Twitter. But there ’ s an exciting, and 

potentially even more powerful, possibility: building lots and lots of 

smaller networks. 

 Dunbar ’ s Number is a theoretical limit to the number of people with 

whom we can maintain stable, positive social relationships. It ’ s named 

after the British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who fi rst proposed it based 

on his studies of primate groups, primitive human tribes, and historical 

records of medieval villages. 

 These are groups in which everyone knows everyone else and has a gen-

eral sense of their communal identity. Such groups are stable and cohesive, 

with little need of formal rules or restrictions. While no precise number 

has been settled on, 150 is a commonly cited estimate, and one mentioned 

in Malcolm Gladwell ’ s best-selling book The Tipping Point , which brought 

Dunbar ’ s concept to millions. 

 So, for a group to function as a strong, cohesive community—in which all 

the members recognize one another and share a sense of group identity and 

solidarity—it needs to stay relatively small. Dunbar ’ s number was an obser-

vation of groups in the physical world, but I think it has meaningful implica-

tions in the online social-media world. Two factors are at work here: 

 One, in a very large social-media group, each member knows relatively 

few other members; while there are no upper limits to how many people 

can “like” Shakira on Facebook, there is a real limit to how many relation-

ships any member can maintain with his or her fellow Shakira fans. As 

Phil Terry said , these groups function more like mailing lists 

than true communities. 

 Two, with most social-media groups brought together by a company or 

organization, the bigger they get, the harder it is to “message” the mem-

bers with relevant content. In the Shakira group, sure, everybody loves 

Shakira, and messaging is always going to be easy. But for any organiza-

tion serving multiple markets and different demographics with several dif-

ferent products, it becomes harder. 

 Now let ’ s think about the power and cohesion of smaller social-media 

groups dedicated to very specifi c communities. 

 I spoke with a marketing director of a bicycle and walking-tour com-

pany who talked of an emerging practice in his industry: They create doz-

ens and dozens of Facebook groups a year, dedicated to each destination 

and its specifi c dates. So as soon as they ’ ve booked a tour, travelers are 

invited to a Facebook network created just for them—the June 12-19 Tus-

cany bicycle tour group, say, or the February 2-9 Machu Picchu Inca Trail 

trek. In the weeks or months prior to their departure, they get to know their

tour leaders and their fellow travelers-to-be. They ask questions about 

what to pack, or how to train, recommend travel books to read, talk about 

past vacations, and upload pictures of themselves. 

 By the time they assemble on their fi rst day in Tuscany or Peru, they 

already feel like old friends, hugging and having a grand time. Group 

dynamics can sometimes be awkward in the fi rst couple days of a tour, but 

now the Facebook effect seems to erase that tension. The marketing direc-

tor told me that customer satisfaction has been off the charts since they 

kicked off the social-media program. 

 Envision these same travelers after their trip, posting their fond memo-

ries and uploading their vacation photos, hearing from the tour leaders, 

staying in touch, and perhaps planning future trips together. I can imagine 

“graduating” the members of this Facebook group into a destination-spe-

cifi c “alumni” group—say all the company ’ s former Tuscany travelers, and 

messaging them about upcoming tours to that and other destinations. 

 Any cohesive and focused group on Facebook can also be mirrored by a 

specifi c Twitter feed, so for example you could develop dozens of Twitter 

feeds based on information germane to each specifi c bike tour. Perhaps it 

would be of interest to the friends and family back home to hear several 

daily tweets about the weather and riding conditions, the lunch at the vine-

yard, the cozy Tuscan villa—these feeds could spread the word across a 

small but tight network and would probably inspire some future customers. 

 Building out several mini-communities is a daunting task, but the payoff 

could be huge. It ’ s an especially attractive approach for camps, retreats, 

classes, and schools. My alma mater, Middlebury College, has built Face-

book pages for each and every graduating class. That ’ s a highly effective 

way to keep classmates connected and thinking fondly of their school, 

posting updates for the alumni magazine, being aware of alumni events 

and reunions—and, no doubt, responding to fund-raising appeals. 

CAUSES, CONTESTS, AND GOING VIRAL 

 The California Travel and Tourism Commission launched a trivia game, 

promoted on its social-media pages, whose winners receive free airfares 

on Southwest or even a California vacation package. To sweeten the pot, 

California Tourism gave players extra points if they e-mailed a link to their 

friends via Facebook Connect. 

 I ’ ve mentioned a number of times the importance of hitching your 

social-media wagon to a “big idea,” a larger cause or lifestyle interest that 

goes beyond merely hawking your wares.

With its Chase Community Giving program, Chase uses its Facebook 

page to collect votes for which 200 charities will receive grants ranging 

from $20,000 to $250,000. 

 These examples get at a simple fact of social-media marketing: Your 

reach multiplies exponentially when you tap the power of the crowd. Giv-

ing fans something to “like” generates strong growth. But giving fans 

something to win, something to vote for, explicitly rewarding them for 

spreading the word—that ’ s what generates viral growth. 

Text to Win on the Scoreboard . Fans attending Chicago Bears games at 

Soldier Field responded to scoreboard prompts to text to a short code to win 

six free wings at Chicago area Buffalo Wild Wings locations. The text mes-

sage included a mobile Web site with store locations and promotion info. Big 

venues are a fantastic place for launching scoreboard text-message promo-

tions to extend sponsorships. Add a third dimension to in-arena promotions 

using SMS and the mobile Web. If you have a billboard at any arena, it is a 

perfect place to reach a captive audience with a text promotion to drive post-

game or in-game retail traffi c. You also have the opportunity to deliver ongo-

ing product messaging to consumers who opt in for your offer. 

Sin to Win. Mobile users are now turning to their phones to confess 

their worst sins. Virgin Mobile in 2004 introduced Sin to Win, in which 

customers were invited to send in their sins in order to relieve themselves 

of a guilty secret for a chance to win prizes for the best confessions. More 

than 10,000 people sent in their SMS confessions! 

 Budweiser donates money to Keep America Beautiful every time some-

one texts “RECYCLE” to “BEERS” (23377) up to a total of $50,000. 

The effort, part of the company ’ s Budweiser ’ s Better World initiative, 

spreads socially and draws attention to Anheuser-Busch ’ s conservation 

efforts. Currently the company recycles 99 percent of its solid waste, mak-

ing it one of the world ’ s biggest recyclers of aluminum at 800 million 

pounds a year. While production has grown, its water use has declined—

and renewable fuels are powering more of the brewing process. The com-

pany also keeps alive its tradition begun by Adolphus Busch in the late 

1800s of recycling the brewer ’ s spent grains into cattle feed. 

 Bud ’ s environmental text-messaging campaign, managed on the MsgMe 

platform from Waterfall Mobile, is just one of many uses Anheuser-Busch 

has found for SMS messaging. For instance, Bud relied on text voting to 

pick 32 winners worldwide to be sent to watch the FIFA World Cup soccer 

matches in South Africa and live in Bud House, a deluxe Cape Town villa. 

After the voting, the campaign was integrated with an online reality show 

anchored on a custom YouTube channel, and each of the 32 “cast members.