Competing with Social Networks:Linking Sociology with Strategy

#AOM2013@mpiskorski

2© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Background:What do people do on the internet?

3© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Background:How much time do they spend on social platforms every month?

4© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

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Male Female

Milli

ons

of u

sers

Background:And who are they?

This is where P&G starts to care…

5© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Key questions

WHY?and what should do P&G do?

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© 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 higherclick throughrate

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© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

10© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

11© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

12© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Social Failures: Your Social Network Over Time

13© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Social Solutions: These are often not intuitive

Potential new employer EmployedManager

Current employeror subordinate

No, I’m not on the market, I am networking with my friends

Are you on the market looking for a job?

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© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Social Solutions: These are often not intuitive

Potential new employer EmployedManager

Current employeror subordinate

No, I’m not on the market, I am networking with my friends

Are you on the market looking for a job?

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© 2013 Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Competing with Social Networks:Social Strategy at American Epress

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