To get a better understanding of where we are today we often need to look to the past. In a recent MediaShift blog post Craig Silverman shares insight about what was happening (or more accurately what wasn’t) in Turino, Italy, during the 20th Winter Olympics in 2006.
Graeme Menzies (formerly worked for Microsoft), now director of online communications, publications and editorial services for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) noticed how much buzz YouTube was getting, yet it was not being utilized at the Turino games.
The social media landscape in 2006 wasn’t what it is today.
“The website is the mother ship,” Menzies said. 60 million site visitors over the period of the Games and somewhere near a 1.5 billion and 1.6 billion page views — and humbly admits they can’t possibly create it all and engagement with audience is a large focus.
Each medium has its place. The fans own the Facebook conversation. He Compares Twitter to a telegram and reminds us after a few minutes content may not be relevant. YouTube continues to be a huge draw.
They’ve also released a free mobile app, provides as much content as the Online Spectators Guide, Cultural Olympiad, news and up-to-date images from the web-site.
“We’re done at end of March, so our goal is to be in the moment…being ahead of the pack is just as bad as being behind. We don’t want to be on the bleeding edge or behind the times. We want to be in the moment.” Of course this will change by 2012 for the next round of Olympics…..
This is a great example (imho) of learning from the past, moving forward with a strategic media plan (which includes traditional mediums not discussed in depth here) and using current digital media tools to reach specific audiences and engaging with different demographics in campaign with a short time span.
Yes, the action is right in our backyard but the passion surrounding this Winter Olympics seems to be at crazed level this round, eh? How are you following the 2010 Winter Olympics events? What do you think we’ll see change as we move forward in 2012? Sadly, I know I just have a few more days “to be in the moment.”
To be honest, I’m more than a bit worried when it comes to kids and their communication skills. I’ll take it multiple steps further and say I’m concerned about the current trends around how we all get and share information.
While Idiocracy was an absolutely terrible movie, it did paint what many fear may just be the future of mankind. For those who have avoided wasting 84 minutes of your life on the film, allow me to summarize the concept briefly. In the movie, survival of the fittest has been replaced by survival of the dumbest as laziness and an obsession with mindlessness has rotted our species’ brains over time. We in turn are left with societies that can’t think for themselves and spend days on end watching trash TV, contributing nothing and rapidly devolving.
Results from a recent survey by the Pew Research Center underscore what may be construed as a similar, though far less exaggerated decline. The study, which was released on Wednesday, indicates that the percentage of teens and young adults who actively blog has dropped off by about 50 percent when comparing 2009 with 2006. As was predicted, the other main trend of the study revolved around the meteoric rise in the popularity of social networks.
As long(er) form methods of communication drop off in favor of status updates and wall posts, where will the future content creators of tomorrow hone their writing skills? Will uploading mobile photos and clicking “like” displace thoughtful discourse and ultimately lead to a dumbed-down society? Before LiveJournal there were journals but what comes after them both?
Image credit: Marind
Ever since I joined Facebook in 2004 (and MySpace at some forgettable moment likely before then), I’ve been interested to see how social networking impacts an individual’s social structure. When one of my more outgoing friends reached the 1,000-friends mark during Facebook’s first year, my interest in that question intensified. Would this friend truly be able to maintain meaningful relationships with such a large group of people?
The short, predictable answer is no, and countless numbers of people have been interested in this very question, including, most famously, Robin Dunbar, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University. Though the results of his study will be published later this year, the Times Online has the early scoop on Dunbar’s latest findings. Some key excerpts below.
Dunbar is now studying social networking websites to see if the “Facebook effect” has stretched the size of social groupings. Preliminary results suggest it has not.
“The interesting thing is that you can have 1,500 friends but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world,” said Dunbar.
“People obviously like the kudos of having hundreds of friends but the reality is that they’re unlikely to be bigger than anyone else’s.”
Having some scientific proof of this constraint, how will this affect how companies attempt to become a part of their customers’ online life?
Image by acordova
Matt Whiting, Senior Account Executive, WE Studio D
With the year rapidly winding down, now seems like just as good a time as any to spend more than 140 characters to make some more general observations about a major shift we will see in 2010. I’m not going to promise any sort of brilliance here, but instead, will simply offer some ideas on the present and future of social media and corporate communications. (For a detailed look back at 2009 digital marketing trends, check out Kevin’s post on that subject.)
Since I first began jotting down a few thoughts related to this post, the ubiquity of Facebook has not only surfaced in many conversations with friends and family over the holiday break, the social networking site has been putting up some gigantic numbers. The fact that Facebook now accounts for 5 percent of all time that people spend online is a staggering statistic. (For more on that comScore stat, check out this Mashable post.) Further, according to Hitwise, Facebook snagged the #1 spot for most visited site on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. (For more on that feat, check out this ReadWriteWeb post.) While it’s command of the social real estate has been expanding significantly virtually since its inception, it’s only just now that companies are paying serious attention to social media investments.
Pepsi’s much discussed decision to pull all money from Super Bowl TV spots to focus on other opportunities (notably web) served as a huge wake-up call to many that the era of one-way communications is (nearly) dead. (For more on this announcement, see the WSJ’s piece.) It’s interesting to see Pepsi’s decision especially as Coca-Cola has received much praise for its “new media” or internet presence (notably, the ATL purveyors of sugar water have been rated as the number one company that gets social media according to Big Money’s list of “companies that make social media work”). Innovative experiments on Facebook, such as Coke’s Facial Profiler has generated a lot of buzz as it is a unique concept that genuinely interests people. (For more on the facial recognition experiment, check out Mashable’s post.)
In 2010, we will see much more emphasis on engagement. Numbers and all we’ve been seeing show the audience is definitely now there on Facebook. The ball is in the courts of corporate communicators to figure out how to get people take notice of what they have to say and most importantly, give them a reason to care. With Facebook ads (such as those for Mafia Wars) as well as ever-present notifications (that your friend has just found a pig on Farmville) getting more annoying and thus causing people to further tune out the sidebar and meaningless updates, companies will reorganize their tactics appropriately.
Having a relationship with a brand online needs to be much more than just the process of becoming a “fan” on Facebook and then (in most cases) never hearing from the company again. Companies will need to actually give a reason for their customers to want to interact with them and ultimately advocate on their behalf. Companies will spend many resources trying to be a part of daily routines. Advertising will not be the answer (research shows people ignore ads), traditional PR will not be the answer (research shows people don’t wholly trust companies), instead, creating integrated, expansive experiences (like Coca-Cola’s facial profile, among others) will be key.
Image by InertiaCreeps
Erik Bergman, Senior Editor, WE Studio D
Today’s teens are outgrowing social media tools the way they outgrow jeans.
They are relentless in acquiring the tools they need and quick to abandon them when they no longer suit their purpose. I say that based on the activities of my younger daughter who just entered high school. She was thinking back and counting some other things besides middle school that she has graduated from recently. Her nostalgia shows the relentless march of digital communications. She could match up each grade with a different online tool:
“6th grade was e-mail,
7th grade was AIM,
8th grade was MySpace,
9th grade is Facebook.”
I would add that 6th grade was about bugging Mom and Dad for a cell phone, 7th grade was about bugging us for unlimited text messaging, 8th grade was about bugging us for a digital camera and 9th grade was about bugging us for a laptop — until she bought one last week with her babysitting money.
Her 15th birthday sleepover brought a deluge of digital images to her Facebook account. She has so many digital photos on our family PC that we need either A) a vast culling of the herd or B) an extra hard drive or C) both.
The unexpected bonus in her daily Facebook use is that it links her not just to her peers (as e-mail, texting and AIM did), but to friends and relatives of all ages and several countries. The community-building aspect of Facebook creates positive connections for her and brings into our house stories that parents and teens can share openly.
The newest trends aren’t the only in things among high schoolers. MTV, one of those old media outlets that I outgrew decades ago, is hot stuff for my teen. Not for music videos — that’s what YouTube is for — but for reality and game shows. To which I say ugh, thus creating a generation gap.
What will the 10th, 11th and 12th grades bring to the class of 2013 as technology marches on? I can see only about one year or one device into the future with any clarity. First on the wish list: a Web-connected Smartphone … with a Facebook app.
As long as it’s not body piercing and tattoos, bring it on.
Luigi Serio, Senior Editor, WE Studio D
As a simple guy who’s left my 20s, err, 30s, I find myself among those, some much older than me, for whom adopting certain new technologies or jumping head first into the social networking pool can be daunting, of little or no interest, or seemingly too time-consuming to understand and pursue.
And to hear myself say this is somewhat surprising, considering, for instance, that I was nearly the first in my college dorm to own a CD player (sometime around 1984, for those looking for a chuckle). Those days, I gave up a lot, considering how little I had, to have great-sounding music — the best that technology could offer and that I could afford. I was passionate about it and proud that I could show off such technology toys to my dorm mates, geeky and academically minded types who appreciated the pursuit of such things.
I know that if I’m going to be a member in good standing of WE Studio D, I need to get on the ball and recapture some of my past fervor. So here I go, building my digital savvy bit by bit, just as I did my audio gear — it might takes years, but that’s OK.
The path so far (and thanks to those who’ve pushed and motivated me – you know who you are):
During my recent parental leave, I become hooked on “1 vs 100” on Xbox LIVE, playing it sometimes for hours once the house fell quiet. Explore online gaming – check!
I started a blog featuring my daughter but didn’t take it anywhere near where it could go. That’s a charitable way of saying I made a couple entries and then let it wither on the vine. Reinvigorate my baby blog – on the to-do list! (Hey, nobody’s perfect.)
Because “1 vs 100” was in beta while I was playing it, it wasn’t flawless. One night I couldn’t log in, so I hopped over to Twitter to learn what was happening. Ah, instant information from lots of knowledgeable folks, including a Microsoft “1 vs. 100” representative! I tweeted my dismay over the game being down and went to bed. Start becoming a Twitter guy – check!
My wife beat me in the race to become a member of Facebook, but I am on finally and doing my best to find the time to contribute and better connect with friends I’ve lost touch with. Become part of the social networking world – check!
Image by Elsie esq.
Tammy McKnight, Account Executive, WE Studio D
As Facebook usage continues to spread rapidly, permeating all ages, all types of workers and even my own technologically inept household, I question whether this movement is opening the lines of communication for my family or narrowing our ability to communicate effectively. Now don’t get me wrong: I’m an addict. Most evenings, with children tucked into their beds and fast asleep, the three adults in my household can be found huddled around our respective computers. My husband, well-known in our circle as computer illiterate, sits beside me on the couch with our family laptop, interrupting me at frequent intervals to ask computer-related navigation questions and chuckling at the brilliance of his own musings. Meanwhile I’m on my work laptop, with fifteen applications running at once, Facebook in the background and the occasional pings of new messages; and you’ll find our roommate upstairs on his PC, mercilessly whacking people left and right as he rules his Mafia empire.
Everyone finds the fulfillment of their own particular needs on Facebook. My husband likes to use it to connect to his own capricious family without actually speaking to them, I use it to stay in touch with my friends while not sacrificing the little time I am able to spend at home, and our roommate uses it primarily to play Mafia Wars and plague his friends with the results of endless quizzes. In addition, we send instant messages to each other and have found that it makes an excellent intercom system, saving us precious minutes and calories otherwise expended walking up and down the stairs.
The current state of my household reminds me of a particular episode of the British sitcom The IT Crowd, in which the three colleagues – Jen, Ross and Roy – discover “Friendface” and sit around typing to each other while in the same room, with Jen exclaiming, “I love this. I feel so social.”
Similarly, I love to feel social without actually engaging in verbal communication. I know my predilections, and while the desire to lock myself in a dark room and have little to no face-to-face contact is a constant siren, I have yet to give in completely. My husband manages to self-limit his time on Facebook, and has yet to neglect his family. Our roommate is by nature a strange recluse, so I don’t see how the non-verbal communication revolution will cause irreparable damage to him. My children are, as of yet, too little to embrace social media, but I predict it won’t be long before they too are huddled over computers, and therein lies my fear: Will the 2- and 5-year-olds of today be tomorrow’s Jen, Ross and Roy?
Last week my colleague Michele Nachum wrote a piece on this blog titled “Social Networking in Jerusalem.” Her post helps dispel my fear of a Facebook-dependant society narrowing the lines of family communication. For example, she explains how (and why) her teenage stepdaughter “friended” her on Facebook, essentially providing Michele and her husband with an exclusive invitation to view her online life (a rarity for teenagers, I’m thinking). So perhaps Facebook is another step in technical evolution – similar to the television revolution of the 1940’s – that we must adapt to suit our own family dynamics and values.
The use of Facebook has not detrimentally affected my family responsibilities, my work ethic, or my social life (such as it is). As with any addiction, while I see the potential for neglect or abuse, by accepting and defying my own natural solitary tendencies, Facebook has allowed me – a working mom who juggles the stresses of maintaining a full-time job and raising children – to stay in touch with friends without too much effort. And perhaps by limiting this non-verbal form of communication to Facebook only, I can continue to be reclusive, if only via that one medium.
Jennifer Houston, Senior Vice President
It’s interesting to watch the chatter around Facebook’s decision to turn postings public (by default – you can actually change the settings if you don’t want your wild weekend be public). While I understand the passion around the decision, it has an element of the “duh” factor for me. Facebook is merely fast following a trend that has been building since we began to engage in message boards eons ago: in this post-digital era, we’re just on and YOU are a brand.
Me? A brand? I’m not talking Corn Flakes or Jaguar. I’m talking about the brand that is YOU. Every single piece of content we create (and, by the way, everything is content) – whether podcast, Flickr pic, tweet or (gasp) Facebook postings – all accrue to your brand. Come on, if you’re telling your friends what era of music or hostess you are, you have to be at least a little interested in sharing.
Things to live by for the brand that is you (taken liberally from what we have always practiced with public brands):
- We’re just on. Not sometimes. Not at work or away from work. Just on. Be a good steward of that brand as it follows you (digitally) everywhere.
- Invest in your brand. And be authentic, credible, transparent and honest. Or your brand will lose all credibility. See the above point.
- We’re human. If you do experience a brand stumble, own it. Engage with those you have offended. Be transparent.
- Be your brand in your own style. Don’t choose platforms that don’t authentically suit you. Create content about things you know. Posers lose credibility.
- Give before you get. Add value in your interactions. Give someone a reason to want to engage with you.
Check out our Influence Manifesto to see how we’re evolving our craft at Waggener Edstrom.
Shaan Khan, Writing Coordinator
I once was a basement-dwelling troglodyte but now I’m a social butterfly — the age of video game enlightenment is upon us.
It’s true — the enlightenment part anyway. Video games and the consoles on which they are played are no longer just providing fun to lonely white males living in their mother’s basements, but are creating an entirely new channel for communication and online social interaction for elite, sexy (sometimes), cultural trendsetters.
How so? To start with, Sony’s and Microsoft’s current generation systems both allow users to download games, watch movies and TV shows, view photos, listen to music, and Sony’s can even browse the web. But that’s only scratching the surface.
Sony is busy with a number of social interaction ideas including the start of a new game genre called Play, Create, Share, which I’ll discuss more in my next post. Their biggest (and riskiest) social initiative, however, is PlayStation Home. A free-to-use virtual world for the PlayStation 3, Home is a place where gamers can interact, buy virtual stuff and enter alternate worlds created by game developers. It’s also a huge marketing tool, offering a means for game and non-game businesses (Red Bull, for example) alike to add content that improves the gaming experience and exposes their brand to a highly focused demographic.
So far 4 million have tried it out, and the average user spends 55 minutes per session — a pretty impressive figure.
Microsoft is getting into it as well — no virtual worlds, but they recently announced at E3 that Facebook and Twitter are coming to Xbox Live. That means 20 million online Xbox gamers can suddenly pop out of a game to tweet how they just rammed their Warthog into a pair of enemy snipers before popping right back in again. (That might sound perverse, but it’s totally SFW, I promise.)
Less dramatic than Sony’s strategy, but possibly more important as it integrates two popular services with one very popular gaming platform, essentially bringing one sizeable and very clearly defined demographic into the realm of new media and PR communication. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter goes as far as to say “that Microsoft’s announcement was ‘far and away the most important one of [E3].’”(Joystiq)
Considering how much the industry has grown in just the past two years, isn’t it time we start looking at how gamers communicate, how consoles facilitate this communication, and maybe even how they may have opened a new can of communication worms for us to play around with? I’d say it’s worth checking out.
In future posts I plan to touch upon some of the trends in social gaming on consoles, so stay tuned.
Jennifer Houston, Senior Vice President
Cross-posted at PRWeek Insider
At last week’s D: All Things Digital conference, a big piece of news was a significant cash infusion from Digital Sky Technologies to Facebook. $200 million… Even in a down market, investors are flocking to Facebook.
But it makes sense; Facebook has over 200 million users, dominates its market, and sets today’s standard for social networking — people are hooked.
But, given that they haven’t even turned their first buck yet, why invest in Facebook? Because, most simply, it’s a powerful influence platform.
Facebook has created a convenient way to build and nurture personal connections, coupled with a measureable digital footprint. Because of this, we can now measure content resonance, engagement and reach — and these indicators “dimensionalize” the interconnectedness of content, audience and the distribution mechanism. These digital, social tools give us insight into how, where, what and with whom these nodes of influence connect and drive behavior. We can actually measure our Return on Influence.
Merriam-Webster defines influence as: the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command. Today, most influence channels are always on, direct, audience-centric, audience-driven platforms that touch many parts of most people’s lives.
Influence isn’t about having the best “thing;” it’s about reaching the right people, with an engagement that delivers value, offering your audience a meaningful connection to your brand. Having great content isn’t enough if you don’t have, don’t know or don’t understand the audience(s) you want to reach and how they want to engage with you.
True influence is the art of communications in action. It requires a deep understanding of nuance, building authentic relationships and commitment to trust. The great news is, we can take those skills and now measure that impact unlike ever before. That’s my kind of investment!