Talking is all good as long as it is purposeful

Photo by Pong

My friend Ash constantly talks about social media and human interaction which inspired me to write about the impact Twitter has on our lives (not just GEN-Y) and beyond the TV talk show's coverage on the technology...

I am not the most hardcore fan of the technology but I do acknowledge it is very much part of my life as it is Facebook and Myspace for totall different reasons. Social tools have become part of my way of connecting with different friends...

On Myspace I still find heaps of unknown bands which is hugely important to me.

Facebook is technically my secondary email, arguably my first.

Twitter has become my recreational newsfeed and a place for me to share my current interest to friends... and the beauty of it is, it won't let me write more than 140 characters!

First of all I would like to dispute the idea the more followers you have the better you are. This is simply misguided and not true. It is worthwhile to inspect how one uses their Twitter account. For me @jefske it is just an extension of me to my friends and people I have met thru work, and it is just a small update service on what I find interesting and to stay in touch with a subgroup of friends who have also embraced Twitter. I think people follow others for social curiosity at a very basic level of interest, for the more serious Twitters, it literally is a new source of information from people they find valuable to know.

A lot of people still don't see the value in Twitter and it is perfectly normal, because a lot of tweets are inspired bya lot of nothing really but some people/brands have used the technology to really engage their audience to become more loyal followers/customers. The food outlets are a good example, they can really use this as a killer App as this AdAge piece has suggested.

The ability to tweet has revolutionalised the way to distribute info and essentially sharing content. Like the video below, normally it might take a few scans on my RSS reader to find some new obscure music for kicks. Now I am just a tweet away thanks to my music loving friends.

One thing to take away from this brief shout on Twitter is.... don't discard it if you haven't tried it and if you have tried it but don't really get it, there are LOADS of info on Twitter and how brands and Joe blogger are using it... people never seem to be bored of writing about it (at least yet). There are also some really useful applications that integrate Twitter as a greater communication channel, you can usually find a load of them on Mashable. So don't be shy.... give it a go and see whether you still want to sit in front of TV for news stories...

- jeff 

Twaddle?

The Apple rumour mill was hot again this morning as word spread the ‘blogosphere’ and the ‘Twitterati’ that Apple had lodged a $700m bid to acquire Twitter.

Twitter, the media ‘darling’ of the digital world has rejected previous bids, most notably a $500m bid from Facebook last year, and another tickle from Google .

Few people are actually expecting a deal to go through however. Twitter is in a pretty strong position right now with traffic going through the roof globally, with thanks to Oprah and gang (although I recognize that it could peak), and the reasons for Apple to buy aren’t blindingly obvious (as opposed to say, a Facebook or a Google).

It might be that they want to beef up their web development expertise, in much the same way they have mobile but that’s not particularly convincing. Maybe they want to get even cooler? (is that possible?) Who knows.

The clearest reason why this won’t happen is that Apple are always involved in some of the most ridiculous buy out rumours. In the last few years Apple have been “at advanced stages” with no other than: Adobe, EA, Disney, Nintendo and now Twitter.

This one will pass like the rest of them I’m sure. Twaddle.

Nic

My, we love an Internet phenomenon

This is all rather old news now and it’s only 5 days old...

Anyway, if you’ve not been on the planet since Saturday, you won’t know that a 40 something single woman from deepest, darkest  Scotland called Susan Boyle appeared on UK show Britain’s got Talent’ at the weekend.

And much to the judges and audience surprise she pulled off the performance of a lifetime. Take a look at the video if you haven't already seen it, it's worth watching right to the end.

Her 15 minutes of fame beckon, and boy she deserves it after an emotional and performance for the true underdog, 'battler' to use the local parlance.

It’s the speed at which the Susan Boyle story has erupted that is interesting to us, and shows how news – good or bad can spread in an instant online. Susan has to date:

- 20m views on You Tube, traffic to the ITV website that broadcast the show has risen 300% since it aired.

- Had interviews with the BBC, ITV, Fox America, CNN, CBS. And an invite to appear on Oprah.

- Has a fan website at www.susan-boyle.com, which is already serving advertising. Oh and it had the small matter of 500,000 page views on Wednesday alone.

- T-shirts and badges being sold on eBay “I might be ugly, but I can sing like Susan Boyle”. Pleasant stuff.

- Demi Moore "oh it was so emotional"... and millions of other tweeters talking about her on Twitter. Her name is being mentioned in approximately 30 tweets a minute this morning, that’ll be 43,000 today alone. A Twitter account in her name is underway too, not that she'll be behind it.

In a marketing sense, it shows what we already know – that social and digital media, with the help of broadcast can bring tens of millions of eyeballs to rich content in an instant.

Cheers

Nic

Smartphones changing the game

If you didn't think Smartphones (led by the iPhone, but soon followed by Android and Blackberry) were changing business then think again. And it is applications that is the real game changer.

There are now over 30m iPhones in use across the world, and over 25,000 applications available to download, a mere 18 months since launch. Developers across the world are spying big income if they can get the product right... As an example, I have a free GPS store locater app for a Canadian coffee chain (Tim Hortons), and on that app the developer is advertising the same app for Starbucks (works across the world). He’s selling that for $1 so it won’t take him long to earn some big dollars there. 

The iPhone has seemingly has its sights firmly set on the handheld gaming market, with new gaming titles being introduced by the day. Over 60% of the top 100 applications are games, and this is bound to rise as software companies rush to create iphone versions from traditional gaming platforms. iPhone sales are far outweighing sales of handheld devices DS and PSP so it is inevitable that it has quickly become a major player. Nintendo and Sony have recently opened up their platform to game operators in a direct response to the iPhone threat... 

The long running battle about music, copyright and digital is old news but smartphone applications could change the game again. US band - The Presidents of the USA have created an app for $3 that has 4 of their albums on it (4 albums, $3!). Users can download the app and enjoy the albums and access new unheard content from the band. If you want to buy a song and add it to another MP3 player you can do so. Incidentally, they give Apple 30%, which is the same deal as selling through iTunes.

Pink has recently launched a free app with previews from her upcoming album, and Snow Patrol, Nine Inch Nails are reported to be doing the same thing. Users will then be directed back to the iTunes music store to buy – winner. 

The beauty of the app route is that the band can update users with new content so they have a totally captive audience for the next album/tour/promotion/whatever. The next stage of course, is for users pay top dollar for brand new music, photos and news – straight to their handheld. Interesting developments.

Thanks for reading.

Nic

Are you still talking and hanging?

This post is dedicated to my sentiment to this article which Nic had shared with me and a few work mates today aptly titled: OMG! Twitter is, like, so 2008.

A little over a few weeks ago, I had embarassedly admitted I was feeling idle on a Sunday night while ROVE came up interviewing Lily Allen. It was rather an awkward interview with little insights about Ms Allen, then to my horror ROVE had brought up the rise of Twitter.... like a huge majority of the poplulation who is not aware of the technology... This was a perfect sound bite for ROVE and the rise of curiosity has inevitable emerged across many mainstream media channels. It certainly seems like everyone is Tweeting but the question remain why bother at all?

In reference to the Twitter is so 2008 article “It wasn't too long ago that Facebook represented a semi-secret world that belonged largely to those in their teens and twenties. Today, however, the demographic has widened, and it is undeniably part of the mainstream. For better or worse, the space that was once the province of the young has been eagerly colonised by their parents and teachers, not to mention the marketing men with their slogans and special offers.”

I don’t know about the early adopter theory, I mean I am a little over Twitter now because it is largely irrelevant to me, but that's not to say it isn't relevant to millions of others. Also since when does cool or early adoption rule over functionality? Isn't that a bit misleading with the most popular social network.... it is fair to say if the network is decent in functionality and your friends are on it, you will probably not abandone it to join the next "it" thing.

As for my indifference.... I don’t use facebook status for the very reason I don’t want to let everyone suddenly become aware of what I had for lunch or what I am reading…. Will my friends really find it interesting/valuable to know my dietary habits or what I want to buy…? From a corporate point of view, sure it can be a form of PR channel or special DM Channel – perhaps even to organise flash mobs etc. Would be great to use twitter as an illegal party organiser – where profile is obviously set to private for legal reasons, and invitees are subscribed to get updates on the next party (value comes from exclusive info that you can actually use)

For the survival of social networks, as there are so many popping up now, it is probably a good time for networks to really think about what their offering can be of value to their community – like the spotify idea – with music sharing, that is pretty common and there are existing sites that offer similar functions… they should think about partnering with record labels and offer unreleased tracks to the most streamed users as an incentive to use the service more and additional usage means more consumer intelligence the site can offer to the labels. The ultimate problem comes down to revenue or the potential of future revenues....The music industry is constantly battling the online adoption of Music and even major sites such as Youtube and Warner can't get along anymore....

I guess we all just need to be a little patient and see how social media will actually impact our lives before leaving it for the next Twitter.

- jeff

Why do we still assume about the over 50's?

Picture a middle management type, 55 years old, worked in an office all his working life. Commutes to his office on George St Sydney from Ryde.

Uses email everyday, reads a couple of blogs relating to his industry and his Blackberry very rarely leaves his side. He's been using email and the web for 10 years, he's had a mobile phone for just as long. 

A quick profile of one of millions of over 40's and 50's working across Australia and the world.

So why do we assume that their not online? Why do we assume that the Internet is the domain of the under 30's? It is totally flawed.

In the UK in 2008 I conducted research with over 400 baby boomers, 85% of which were active online, and the level of frustration about their perceived digital understanding was incredible.

We've been running display and search campaigns for Travel brands targeting over 50's for the last 6 months, with incredible results - both in ROI and brand engagement terms. And as recently as this month drove 35,000 unique 50somethings to a travel website. Plenty of proof close to home...

Further afield, recent statistics from the US (Emarketer) show that 78% of over 50s are active online in some form, up from 68% in 2005. 

If we wanted any more evidence, Nigel's 84 year old Dad just bought an iphone, to back up the Ipod and Macbook he bought last year. Oh and my 63 year old Mum texted me yesterday "our wireless modem is broken so no Internet for 3 days. NIGHTMARE".

Tell us your views.

Nic

There's no such thing as a slow burn online

I was at the Acer Arena last night with 18,000 others for the Coldplay gig. I'm not a massive fan but it was a very polished performance all the same.

What struck me during the gig (and all others) was the volume of cameras and mobiles being used for pictures and videos throughout (all of which will be terribly dark photos, but people still persist - see example posted). In fact at one point Chris Martin asked everyone to get theirs out and wave them around - an impressive 5 minute mobile phone light show ensued.

Because of these images and videos this event will now not only be talked about, but it will be viewed, used and rated online by hundreds of thousands of people within the next 48 hours, which is very much a social media phenomenon. Same gig 10 years ago, you either heard it was good from a friend of a friend or you read the review in SMH weekend.

I've done a little back of fag packet (front of iPhone) to work out how quickly the events from last night will be seeded out.

18,000 people attended so 18,000 mobile phones
Let's say a further 4,000 digital cameras for good measure
Conservatively let's say 10,000 took pictures or captured video
An average of 5 photos per person should do it.
Let's then asssume that in the next 2 days 70% of these will post to a social networking site (or two)
And that 10% of the audience will tweet and/or write about it on a blog
Asssuming each uploader has 60 online friends (conservative given the bullseye coldplay age is 25-35), and the bloggers/tweeeters have 25.

That means that in 48 hours over 500,000 people will have seen or discussed something about last nights gig. That's not taking in to account all the non friend views on you tube, blogs etc...

What it displays in a totally unscientific way is the immediacy of todays media, and that digital doesn't really do slow burn. And as marketers we should look on that as an opportunity to generate immediate action and conversation. Now.

Nic