Posts Tagged "Social Media"
Social Media Revolution… Reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution.
The Future of the Social Web is here today and we’re learning that engagement is not a matter of if or when, but to what extent, how and what value can we deliver and derive from it. The Social Web is much more than a window into information and interaction, it is a completely transformative medium that is changing how we forge relationships, interact with one another, and distribute and discover information. In many ways, the online social revolution is reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution.
Access to free and expansive media platforms and distribution channels has democratized influence and shifted the power of authority from those who previously controlled the media to those who disseminate it.
Attention has become a precious commodity as it becomes increasingly elusive and diverted. The competition for attention is only intensifying as those who benefit from your awareness venture to attract it when and where it is focused.
According to a 2007 story in the New York Times, market research firm Yankelovich estimated that a person living in an average city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today. The numbers vary depending on the source, with estimates soaring as high as 9,000 estimated impressions daily. I can only surmise that with the proliferation of socialized media, that we are also directly and indirectly exposed to messages and brands as a result of conversations transpiring within our social graph.
As consumers, we are starting to fathom that our attention is valuable. We are also experiencing a powerful form of validation and significance as we embrace social media to extend our networks of relevance and influence. There is a great sense of individual empowerment that exudes as a result of this realization.
The battle for attention begins where your attention is focused. For some, it’s the Facebook News Feed. For others, it’s Twitter or desktop social applications such as TweetDeck or Seesmic. These platforms are fueling an emerging category that symbolizes the Attention Dashboard, channels where information finds you, filtered and qualified by those in your social graph.
Forrester Research observed the substantial growth of social technologies in 2009, observing that four in five US online adults use social media and participate in social networks.
In a published report, The Broad Reach of Social Technologies, Sean Corcoran, Nate Elliott, Josh Bernoff, Cynthia Pflaum, and Emily Bowen documented that the most rapid growth of social adoption occurred among consumers 35 and older while young people continued to march toward a universal adoption of social applications.
The report includes an updated version of Forrester’s Social Technographics Ladder, which graphs the social technology adoption of consumers and how they specifically embrace social media.
Almost one-quarter of US online adults are Creators, people who write blogs, upload original audio or video, or post stories online. Easy-to-use blogging tools encouraged some less tech-savvy adults to create social content this year, but the majority of consumers are still consuming, not creating, content.
Half of online adults now belong to social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, a 46% growth rate year-over-year.
Nearly everyone’s a spectator: Three in four online Americans now consume social content.
Only 18% of US online adults don’t use social tools in 2009 — down from 25% in 2008.
Regardless of adoption, however, one of the primary hurdles now and in the future is that Social Media, as popular and empowering as it is, is still a largely compartmentalized experience. Social Networks and the relationships and interactivity fostered within each are silos. The true power of social media is the portability of not just content, but relationships.
Forrester concludes that now is the time to build social marketing applications and that Interactive marketers should influence social network chatter, master social communication, and develop social assets – even if their customers are older.
The social (r)evolution calls for distributed participation. But it requires strategic engagement that is directed and governed by listening and research. The conversations tied to keywords that are important to your industry define your participation level and focus. They also reveal opportunities for contribution and resolution.
Source: Shutterstock
Now is the time to pay attention. Now is the time to learn from the behavior and interaction that defines our markets. They develop and mature with or without our participation. We too, are empowered to engage and without it, we intentionally remove ourselves from the radar screens of our influencers and customers. As such, we are either part of or absent from the decision making process.
The state of socialized media is but only a chapter in an ongoing saga that will evolve and change over time. We are forever students of new media and as a result, our roles in this production are defined by our intentions and our actions. Before we are marketers, we are consumers. And, before we are consumers, we are personages of distinction. And when we align under a common goal, mission, or voice, we can change the course of behavior.
This article was originally written / contributed by Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks.
Read MoreEveryone’s a celebrity: 10 pop culture trends that defined the decade
Celebrity is no longer reserved for the select few that walk red carpet and get stalked by paparazzi. The era of social celebrity is here and continues to draw attention. A recent CBC News post by Greig Dymond highlighted 10 terrific examples of this trend — where, thanks to social media, anyone among us can reach celebrity status.
This was the decade when everyone became a celebrity. Well, almost everyone.
The past 10 years didn’t invent the concept of celebrity; they just broadened the definition of the term to a ridiculous extent. More people than ever have achieved some minor level of notoriety. As the film The Truman Show shrewdly predicted back in 1998, voyeurism and technology are the twin engines that propelled this shift.
Just ask Richard Heene, now-famous (and infamous) father of the “balloon boy.” His story — a twisted amalgam of reality TV, fame-whoring, all-news channel coverage and breathless tweets — couldn’t have happened in quite the same way 10 years ago. The lines between entertainment, personal narrative and news have become irrevocably blurred.
Here are what he lists as the 10 pop culture trends that shaped the decade.
1. Reality TV
2. YouTube and the art of the viral video
3. Celebrity gawking, 21st-century style
4. The iPod killed the CD star
5. Newspapers in jeopardy
6. Auto-Tune
7. Twitter, Facebook and the explosion of social media
8. The rise of U.S. cable dramas
9. Guitar Hero/Rock Band
10. The rise of “fake news”
Check our the complete descriptions of each trend by reading the full article. Some video clips for each trend can be found here:
Reality TV
YouTube and the art of the viral video
The iPod killed the CD star
Auto-Tune
Guitar Hero/Rock Band
Read MoreFacebook Adding Half a Million New Users Every Day!
In a recent Mashable article, Ben Parr writes about the staggering growth of Facebook. It makes you wonder about the future of the web as we know it — will people stop building websites and focus on building facebook pages? What does this mean for the future of the web and the way that brands interact and think about their communication strategies? The numbers are staggering — and very real. The reality that brands are faced with is a dramatic change in control — from a one way “broadcasting” strategy that they used to own, to a “listening” and “engagement” strategy that requires them to provide relevant and meaningful content in order to get consumers interested in what they have to say. Without this shift in strategy they will be left without visibility and without meaning in a socially dominated world that has turned the value chain on its head.
Read MoreIt’s no secret that Facebook is humongous: 300 million users humongous. Yet it still shocks us that it keeps on finding new users to fuel its ascent into the social media stratosphere.
A little over a year ago (August 2008), Facebook (Facebook) reached 100 million users. And now according to AllFacebook, that number is now a staggering 325+ million users.
So just how fast is Facebook’s userbase growing? We sat down and did the math. First, here are Facebook’s major growth milestones, starting from when it reached 100 million users:
– August 26th, 2008: 100 million users
– January 7th, 2009: 150 million users
– April 8th, 2009: 200 million users
– July 15th, 2009: 250 million users
– September 15th, 2009: 300 million users
– Friday, November 6th, 2009: 325 million usersHalf a Million New Users. Every Single Day.
So let’s do the math. From September 15th to November 6th, Facebook grew by 25 million users. That’s 53 days, if we include the start and end days. Divide that by 25 million and you get a daily growth rate of 471,698 users per day for Facebook. That’s a small city joining Facebook every single day.
Even more shocking is that the number used to be higher. Between July 15th and September 15th, 63 days, Facebook grew by 50 million users. If we do the math, Facebook was growing at a clip of 793,650 users per day. We’re barely able to come up with the words to describe this type of growth.
The Facebook train has to eventually slow down; there are only so many people on planet Earth with an Internet connection (yes, that’s how big their potential audience is), and it seems to be already slowing. However, if you consider half a million users per day “slowing,” then you know you’ve done something right.
This train’s going towards the sky for a good, long time.
CNBC Video: Pete Blackshaw on the Future of Advertising
Following Nielsen’s presence at ad:tech, Nielsen’s Pete Blackshaw discussed the power of social media as it relates to the future of advertising and marketing.
Pete is a co-founder of the 2004 Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), and presently sits on its board and co-chairs its ethics committee. He presently authors a bi-weekly column on digital marketingpetepic5 strategy targeted to Chief Marketing Officers for the ClickZ marketing network. He’s frequently quoted in major publications, and he authors several work and personal blogs, including Hybridbuzz and parenting centered blog Dosbebes. On Facebook, Pete manages the Consumer Generated Media , Digital Cincinnati ,and Web 2.0 Dads groups.
Read MorebeUNSTOPPABLE… Big Fuel connects Opti-Free with music fans via Social Media
To promote Alcon’s Opti-Free Replenish Contact Lens Solution, Big Fuel worked with about 20 emerging artist to create branded experiences for OFR. Each band or artist created a video blog in which they shared with their fans an experience where they needed OFR while they were on tour. Each video created original, authentic content for their fans and a natural integration point for the product. These videos and free music were placed numerous branded widgets on independent bands’ Myspace pages and syndicated on the web. All content in the widget is “brought to you by OFR” and is fully trackable and can be analyzied and optimized for ultimate performance.
Once within the widget, users are prompted to answer one simple question, “Do you wear contact lenses?”. After the question is answered, the widget than acts as a music and video player allowing users to interact with the content.
Upon downloading free music or video, users are prompted to provide their information. In this case, name, email, birthday, gender and zip code, but can ask them anything. In addition to the branded engagements delivered over the course of this campaign and downloaded branded songs that live on past the promotion on users’ computers, multiple banners are displayed within the widget promoting a digital coupon.
Read MoreAbout Me
Proud father, devoted husband, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Big Fuel, a full-service marketing and communications company based in New York that takes brands from Content To Commerce.
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