AOM2013 - Misiek Piskorski - Competing with Social Networks

1. Competing with Social Networks:
Linking Sociology with Strategy
#AOM2013
@mpiskorski

2. 2© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Background:
What do people do on the internet?

3. 3© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Background:
How much time do they spend on social platforms every month?

4. 4© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+
Millionsofusers
Male Female
Background:
And who are they?
This is where P&G starts to care…

5. 5© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Key questions
WHY?and what should do P&G do?

6. 6© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Framework
Social
Failures
• People do not always have the interactions they want
Social
Solutions
• Social platforms can step in and help facilitate these
interactions
Social
Strategy
• Existing firms can also facilitate these interactions if people
undertake corporate tasks, e.g. advertising, for free

7. 7© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Framework illustration
• She is too far and I am
too busy to ask
• It is awkward to ask
about personal matters
• Much faster to find out
what people are up to
• I can “stalk” her and she
won’t even know
10x higher
click through
rate

8. 8© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Course outline with cases
Social Strategy
• Zynga
• Yelp
• Wikipedia
• Social Strategy at Amex
• Social Strategy at Nike
• Social Strategy at HBR
• Social Strategy at Cisco
• Social Strategy for Obama
Social Solutions
Meet
• eHarmony
• MeetUp
• Twitter
Friend
• mixi
• Facebook
Meet / Friend
• LinkedIn
• Friendster
Social Failures
Your Social Network Over Time

9. 9© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

10. 10© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

11. 11© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

12. 12© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

13. 13© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Solutions: These are often not intuitive
Potential new employer Employed
Manager
Current employer
or subordinate
No, I’m not on the
market, I am networking
with my friends
Are you on the
market looking
for a job?

14. 14© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Solutions: Some are little difficult to illustrate in classroom
 How to get people to contribute content for free?
– People will contribute more and resolve conflicts if they like each other
– Examples abound: Yelp Elite program, Wikipedia Esperanza
– How do you illustrate this in a classroom full of students who do not contribute?
 Take a case and split it up into 20 parts and let students choose only 4 of them
– They have to cooperate to get the full picture
Correct version Incorrect version
 Some of them have wrong information which leads to conflict
– To resolve the conflict students realize that they actually have to like each other 

15. 15© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Solutions: These are often not intuitive
Potential new employer Employed
Manager
Current employer
or subordinate
No, I’m not on the
market, I am networking
with my friends
Are you on the
market looking
for a job?

16. 16© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Strategy
Use Facebook Platform
• To get friendship data
• To write to people’s profiles
To connect people to
each other in ways
• They can’t connect on FB
• Or in the off-line world
And get them to do
tasks for you
• Such as advertising or
providing inputs for free
as they connect to others

17. 17© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Social Strategy at American Epress

18. 18© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
Competing with Social Networks:
Framework
Social
Failures
• People do not always have the interactions they want
Social
Solutions
• Social platforms can step in and help facilitate these
interactions
Social
Strategy
• Existing firms can also facilitate these interactions if people
undertake corporate tasks, e.g. advertising, for free