Axel Schultze, founder of the Social Media Academy, recently challenged Xeesm.com users to review their social
visit graph generated by Xeesm.com, and compare with others by posting on the Xeesm Facebook page. I was surprised at what the visual said about the trends in where people go and which ones have grown or shifted over time.
Social business relationship management
Xeesm is one of the tools I work with to manage my social business relationships. It is many things besides a social address book. In an effort to help build social relationships and use one link on my business card and emails, I direct contacts to my Xeesm profile. This allows my connections to find the place they wish to socialize with me by listing the sites, groups, blogs and methods they can use. In working on my social ecosystem over the past year, I have researched new tools, added several social sites and communities, stepped away from others and increased my activity in core sites of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Xeesm and Slideshare.
Social ecosystem development
While today I am active on many social sites, I started using social media communities over 7 years ago as a business tool. At that time, LinkedIn was my focus to build a network of past colleagues and clients in the B2B markets where I have worked. In the past 2-3 years, I have found more sites that helped me achieve my business goals with a strategy of thought leadership and knowledge sharing, reputation management, and social business relationship development with business to business organizations.
At the time, I didn’t think FaceBook would be a large driver. In fact, like many who are joining in the 35-55 age group, my twenty something children thought I was stalking them. Well, maybe there was some slight truth to that. Using Slideshare was also a big part of my focus, since I post many presentations on the site as part of my NCP Model of contribution.
I did however want to maintain both a social and business persona on all my sites just as I do on my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. Additional sites that fit my strategy include Scribd, Quora, Youtube, Blogger, Flickr and Google.
What does the trend show?
Xeesm.com/wendysoucie Site Visit Report 2009
What can be seen in the graph from 2009, 2010 and even early in 2011 on my own Xeesm, is that there are generally equal spreads of visits on the top tier and the secondary tier of sites. Things I noted:
- People seem to visit many of the sites posted, but from curiosity or real need its hard to tell.
- I had fewer sites in 2009 than in 2010 posted on my Xeesm address page.
- Twitter and Facebook were much stronger drivers than I expected.
Blogging the business driver
Surprising at first was that Twitter is one of the top three for me along with my blog and website which are part of my strategy. I am not a daily Tweeter, and don’t often tweet from my phone (HTC windows based
Xeesm.com/wendysoucie Site visit report 2010
smart phone – what can I say, I need US Cellular service).
The rest of the sites are very equal in visits at least from Xeesm to the sites.
It is true that Twitter is an easier place to engage and follow. You don’t need to have much info to follow and get to know them. LinkedIn, perhaps has more protocol and where connection request can look more suspicious depending on the profile you have shared. There, in order to connect, you need to have an email, an introduction, Inmail, or group connection to interact. On Twitter you can just click on the “follow” button.
In my social graphs, those that have the fewest connection points are either the newest accounts or the ones I am on least. It does make the case to reduce a few that I show in the public Xeesm profile.
Looking into 2011
Xeesm.com/WendySoucie site visit report for 2011
If I look at the progression since 2009 into 2011 we can see a slight shifting, as Xeesm added more selections, and my social ecosystem and footprint increased. For 2009, the category of “others” was 35% while Twitter held 11%, LinkedIn 8%, and Facebook 8%. In the print of 2010, “others” represented 47%, Twitter, 12%, LinkedIn 4%, and Facebook 5%. As I began broadening my exposure and spreading out, the activity dropped initially on FB and LinkedIn.
I can see that Twitter has held consistent – given it is the easiest to view and connect. Overall the the charts vary but the pie sections remain general constant even if they have increased.
After looking at several other highly connected individuals, the general dispersement among the wedges takes on a general similarity. The point is that with the increase in networks, it has not settled down to just the big 3 or 4.
What does your social ecosystem look like?
