@akaalex1586 I am on the East Coast this weekend:otherwise I'd definitely be there. Next week! I'll try and get my girlfriend to go though. in reply to akaalex15866 hrs ago
Do you remember CNN’s live stream of the inauguration, or when TNT did a live stream webcast of the NBA All-Star Game? If you did happen to catch both of those online events at the respective websites, you would have noticed that Facebook played a large part in those particular events.
Each of these events integrated the Facebook Connect-enabled live stream widget. And now Facebook is making this available to all websites and developers who can now incorporate this technology on their sites.
This event now allows brands to consider using this Live Stream ‘Chat’ Box on their websites or applications. However, it is not only built to function around live events, but could be used simply for any reason on a website – but that is the point of it. And another great aspect of this client comes right from Facebook who said “the Live Stream Box can handle a very substantial load, supporting millions of simultaneous users.”
The one downside of the Live Stream Box is that the content posted to it will not be archived or accessible for any APIs. This client is to be utilized as a one-use chat room that can be thrown away at a later point.
However, the true benefit of this is the ability to increase the engagement level, and keep a user’s interest on your website, and increase the amount of time a user might engage on it.
The process is quite simple in how this client functions – a user comes to your site, and if they are already signed in through Facebook, they will be able to start chatting right away (if they are not, they will be asked to sign-in before taking part in the chat client), and each ‘chat message’ a user submits is posted back to their Facebook profile with a link to the website they just came from (Your Website!!). This in turn shows up on their news’ feeds, and so on – the viral propagation has begun.
It’s difficult to understand sometimes why certain events take place. Why individuals might act in a certain manner and take action in ways another might think differently about. It’s relative in thought, but when that action is applied in a real-life situation, you awake for a moment, see something so unbelievable, it’s simply beyond comprehension.
In Iran, we are witnessing that very moment – a revolution unplugged. In streets swept by defiant protestors for the past seven days – post-election of the incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; scenes of chaos have been described to us through singing gunshots, angry helicopters, and graphic images of wounded men, women and children being severely beaten, injured, and then carried off into another hospital bed.
The origin of this revolution comes at the barking of Mir Hossein Moussavi, who believes last week’s Iranian election was fixed – where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received more than 24 million votes – nearly double the number Moussavi received. On Moussavi’s Facebook page, he asserts that through a massive manipulation of the vote, with Ahmadinejad receiving more than 11 million votes over Moussavi 13 million, the election must have been fixed. His supporters now dress in his signature “Green Revolution” colors that accompanied his campaign.
And as reality strikes us with each update, this particular revolution has strung a different chord in 2009, allowing social media to be the key component in allowing the world to see the unfettered truth, happening nearly every hour in Iran. The hash tag (#iranelection) has been in Twitter’s top 10 trending topic since the election ended last week. And every 15 seconds, there are more than 100 updates on the hash tag, many live from ground zero – showing violence from the streets through uncensored images and videos. Iranians have taken up cameras, mobile phones and computers to send Twitter updates, YouTube videos, and Flickr photos of the country’s riots.
The number of Twitter posts with the hash tag #iranelection has risen in monumental fashion on Twitter since the riots have become more intense. On Saturday, June 20, 2009, there were close to 82,000 tweets in just one hour.
The number of blog posts discussing Iran has been on the rise as well, there are nearly 86 million blog posts that discuss Iran in some manner, and on in the last 24 hours there has been over a million of newly published posts.
According to reports Saturday night on CNN, one woman said that riot police pushed her and about 300 people back with batons and water hoses as they were trying to reach Tehran’s Revolution Square late Saturday afternoon. Another eyewitness said that he saw an old man who had been shot in the head. Another protestor said she saw two helicopters hover above a group, and then police broke up the group with tear gas, and those who ran away were hit badly with batons. All of this being caught through images or video of some type.
The power of video has also been used to push an imaginable force of emotion on the public. A video was released of a woman named Neda (#Neda) who was injured during the riots and died in a matter of seconds, all caught on YouTube. I give you fair warning before clicking the following link to go watch that video – for that reason, I am not embedding it. The following video is extremely graphic and you should be prepared before watching it here. I am including this because we need to understand that social media is raw, and allows the public to see an uncensored version of the world or an event. And in the need of just simple understanding, the world must realize what is actually taking place in Iran.
Many other videos have also been released on YouTube that show protestors and police, militia and individuals who have had no part in these riots - being punished.
In one video, recorded June 19, 2009, a woman is filming from her rooftop and reciting a poem about the violence happening below her. And in those streets, you hear the shouting of hundreds of people, evoking such powerful emotion and thought about what is taking place in her country.
In another video recorded by the BBC, the Basij Militia open up fire into the protesting crowds:
Protests are also not only taking place in Iran, but all over the world, This video, very well-produced, comes from an election protest in Paris:
And in Tehran, recorded Saturday, June 20, 2009, just the amount of people you see in the streets is something to stop and think about.
And in some of the most graphic images to come out of the battle so far, a preganant woman was shot in the back earlier this week. Tehranian doctors removed the woman’s fetus and showed the graphic result of violence involved in these riots. The following image is extremely graphic - please be prepared before viewing the image here.
And similar to emergencies in the U.S., Twitter has been used to help tell people where to go if they have been injured, and phone numbers to dial in order to help find anyone who might be missing. Twitter also has been a component to help protestors gather and recruit others to help promote tactics to keep the Iranian government off-guard. Twitter-ers from all around the world are also taking part, and are requesting others to change their local Twitter time in their settings to the Iranian time zone to keep the government from trying to shutdown any local tweeters.
As of 10:16 pm EST on June 20, 2009, Tweeters were reporting that Iran’s oldest militia, the Basij, “were raiding people’s homes overnight and killing people in their homes.”
At 10:19 pm EST, Tweeters were offering guerrilla tactics if facing the Iranian government, “realitybias RT guerrilla tactic: If facing a tank, molotov cocktails drive people out of them. Aim for ventilation and entry port.#iranelection”
These are just two of the thousands of tweets I reviewed during just an hours time. See what others are saying as well:
Conclusion.
This display of escalating violence and mayhem unfortunately has only increased since this post was written. Iran is a nation caught in a web of chaos, and even though social media has allowed a colossal audience to see the destruction happening inside a country, it’s important to recognize what is taking place. And as we monitor this on a daily basis, and use social media as the favorable tool to do so, we must accept the reality described above, even as uncensored as it might be sometimes. But in return, the world is able to see what is happening inside Iran, and can react accordingly – keeping us informed and knowledgeable of the situation at hand.
Becoming a star on the Internet these days does not seem as far fetched as it once might have been. Social networks have become a ubiquitous tactic in helping connect individuals with family, friends, and strangers alike. And over the past several years, a number of those random individuals have become overnight sensations – all thanks to the Internet.
Do we all remember Tay Zonday? After his composition “Chocolate Rain” became an overnight Internet sensation in July 2007, garnering more than 40 million views to date, this Minneapolis grad student went from no one to someone, in mere seconds.
He has appeared on the Opie & Anthony Show, G4TV’s Attack of the Show!, VH1’s Best Week Ever, Lily Allen and Friends, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Maury where he performed Chocolate Rain on national television just three months after posting his video to YouTube. He made the front page of Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, the Toronto Sun, Chicago Tribune, Star Tribune, People magazine, and even has appeared on CNN for a televised interview. He’s made appearances on Fox News, and even made it on to an episode of South Park.
And that’s just the beginning of it! Singer John Mayer mimics Zonday’s keyboard riff with his guitar in concert regularly. Even Green Day drummer Tre Cool recorded a cover of Chocolate Rain, which he posted to YouTube. He’s even been mentioned in episodes of The Office, 30 Rock and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
And this is from a YouTube video, a YouTube video!? Think of it, one day a college student decided to sing some strange, yet catchy song, records it, and ends up becoming an overnight star. Comedy Central, Dr. Pepper, Intel, the rock band Weezer, NASA, Warner Brothers, and BBC have paid Zonday to appear in a variety of promotions.
Zonday is just one of many YouTube celebrities who happen to have corporate sponsors, and are paid for product placement in their videos online. Some have even quit their day jobs or changed careers to accommodate their YouTube filming schedules. And a handful of individuals are also official “YouTube Partners,” meaning YouTube cuts them a share of ad revenue.
Some might think of this notion as absolutely foolish, some might think of it as a form of humble genius – nonetheless, they are stars, overnight sensations that have proven their worth in numerous inescapable maneuvers.
Those mentioned above hold our deserved scrutiny, but they are from years past. Ergo, who shall we take notice of now in 2009? Who will be the next Tay Zonday to speak highly of? - Leaping on to the national stage and then slipping back into anonymity, this seamless performance seems to act as a contagious flu anyone might catch.
And in 2009, only can a deceased cat, a 48-year-old Scottish woman and Dominos pizza employees have so much in common. For just a brief second, we read, watched and spoke about these individuals at some point - all thanks to the Internet, and the instant-celebrity, be it a person, video or website might deliver us.
Drum Roll Please.
Here are just a few of those viral sensations that have struck 2009 in more than just simple terms: (some personal grading was also applied here based on impact)
Keyboard Cat
This sensation began with a video clip of a decade old cat appearing to play the keyboard. Add in a video-savvy 22-year-old to the mix, and marry that clip with another of a person falling down an escalator – you have stardom my friends.
This one video attracted the attention and interest of millions, including comedian Stephen Colbert. The AP reports Brad O’Farrell, syndication manager for MyDamnChannel.com in February 2009, put the keyboard cat into motion. Since that point in time, hundreds have taken the keyboard cat clip and combined it with a video clip of an embarrassing accident – the result is absolutely hysterical in some cases. The keyboard cat’s (aka Fasto, who’s said to be long dead) performance is meant to play the person “off the stage.”
This is a great example of how users can take a moment someone creates, and ‘recycle’ the content on their own to produce user-generated content that allows users to decide the hilarity behind who the keyboard cat will “play off” next. Rating: A+
Susan Boyle
If you have not heard of Susan Boyle, chances are you’ve lived in a cave for the past 6 months. Her melodramatic tale began as a 48-year-old reality show contestant for the U.K. reality TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.” When this very sweet, and very unassuming individual belted one of the finest versions of “I Dreamed a Dream” for what would eventually be the world, never did she see the stardom marching her way. Camera crews and interviews on several major news broadcasts, including the NBC Today Show – caught Boyle off-guard and soon she was thrown into a newly found fame courtesy of the Internet.
And even though this unemployed Scottish church volunteer did eventually lose the contest, the online video of her debut performance was downloaded more than 200 million times, and had the paparazzi camped outside her home, and had Oprah and Larry King begging for interviews.
Rating: B+ (Sorry, she lost…can’t give you points for that.)
25 Random Things About Me
This 2009 e-mail chain-like fad fascinated Facebook users and took them to another level. Chances are if you are on Facebook, at some point you saw this pass into your inbox. And you either loved or despised the forwarded message, reluctantly giving in or galloped to quickly toss into your trash bin. The overall point of the fad was to share 25 random things about yourself, and then forward it to 25 other Facebook users.
PC World Magazine estimated that more than 5 million motions of the chain letter forwards populated Facebook pages in just one week. The fad grew to such a massive following; a Facebook user spoofed it with a “25 Things I Hate About Facebook” video. Facebook quickly followed up with the user, Julian Smith, and worked with him on other videos.
This 2009 sensation had a prolonged spike in mainstream media, and did help Facebook further its popularity. Rating: A
Dominos Pizza Videos
In May, videos of Dominos pizza employees violated public health laws when they decided to have ‘fun’ with people’s food while preparing it and recording the entire segment on video inside the Dominos pizza kitchen.
Their antics, which eventually made it to YouTube, sparked a PR nightmare for Dominos pizza, where the company made a public apology from the CEO online via YouTube.
This drew the eyes of several million people, damaging the brand greatly overnight. But, like any other Internet sensation, these moments are short-lived, and what was once a wildfire, seems almost like it never happened.
In the end, an interesting study was done by MediaCurves.com, where they obtained American’s perceptions of the event’s apology, as it revealed that 65% of respondents who would previously visit or order Domino’s Pizza were less likely to do so after viewing a “prank” video. The results can be seen here
Rating: B-
Runners Up:
The Obama Puppy: The moment President Obama promised his daughter’s a puppy, the world had no choice but to care. Bo, the Portuguese water dog eventually made his way to the White House and the ‘online’ world went into a frenzy. Online polls, kennel associations, blogs, and users across all social platforms scratched and clawed to want to help the Obamas pick the breed. Rating: B
The AIG Bonuses: When the world found out that $165 million was paid out in bonuses by insurance giant AIG, the world fought back. Both the public and government officials were outraged by the event of a crumbling company to release bonuses of this size after receiving more than $170 billion in taxpayer funds to stay afloat. As in the case of the Dominos Pizza event, this saw a large spike, then quickly bottomed out and lost interest. Rating: B+
Conclusion.
There is one interesting point about viral sensations that strikes me, the time involved. People seem to obsess for a short period of time, and then poof…it’s off to the next ‘hot’ thing. In this tiny village we all live in, there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, nowhere anyone won’t find you. The Internet, in an exceptional way, has transformed our lives into ‘live’ events. We can record, we can tape, we can see what others are doing and transmit that event quicker than ever before, to a stage where the entire world can view. Some might argue this and describe our ‘personal space’ as being lost and violated – It’s hard to disagree. But, in reality, it has been, and apparently we are OK with that. There is a reason we share our lives on the Internet with both friends and strangers, why each of us try and climb the plateau and look over to see who might be looking up at us on occasions. When taking this into perspective, it’s all relative, whether your Joe the Plumber or a big brand like Microsoft – there is point to all of this madness. You want to see me, and I want to see you. We might be trying to play those subtleties off on occasion, but in the end – why fight it? Enjoy the self-absorption, swagger with the best of them and remember, narcissism will always get you somewhere in this world.
When it comes to social media marketing, what isn’t hot these days…Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace…the list keeps going. And when considering using these social branding channels, these aren’t just another set of marketing toys to play with, remember, these are your brand’s identity. And with hundreds of millions of people scouring these sites for information daily, your connection with a potential customer needs to be seamless.
One aspect of any social media campaign that should be approached is to connect the dots within your marketing channel. There are a number of brands that dive into social media with a lack of experience in launching within the space.
So, let’s put on a little scenario. Brand A has product X and creates a Facebook, Twitter and YouTube page. They take the time to pamper the process and create lasting value behind these pages, through effective videos, messaging, images, and interactive content that brings value to the brand. Excellent!
Now, next question: How are you sharing this content with your users?
Send out email blasts
Integrate the link within your email signatures
Run an online media campaign around it
Develop a PPC strategy for it
Link the channels to your blog
Integrate with direct mail, pamphlets, & brochures
But, what haven’t you done yet?
Connect the Dots.
When building a social media strategy, it is crucial to connect a brand website with external social media properties. There are simple and advanced ways to do this:
1. Place simple calls-to-action on the homepage
This allows users to have a stronger connection to any social properties. A user’s relationship with your product hinges on these particular moments. We are opening a door here by allowing users to quickly share and disseminate content across their own personal networks.
Allowing this opportunity for a user sets a clear goal for them. First, they are not confused by the ‘impostors’ that may be lurking on the web. These are the unofficial channels of a product, many of which exist. These channels have unclear and more than often, incorrect information listed - which hurts the brand’s reputation in the end.
2. Build an Online Community Channel Within a Channel
This is a bit more work, as it requires building a channel on your website that captures the true meaning of all your social networks. This could include a live twitter feed, a Flickr gallery, calls-to-action that connect your Facebook, MySpace, Blog, etc. This builds a user’s confidence about the brand, and removes any falsehoods that might exist in the social space otherwise.
By building in this access to the social properties for users, we build the relationship from a more personal connection. We’ve eliminated the falsehoods that might live within a user’s mind, and connect users with accurate and efficient channel sharing capabilities.
This stems from an idea called relationship management. Companies often think of how to effectively build awareness to their social channels, grow their fans, followers, friends, etc. This is often part of what is coined a Phase I build-out for any social media program. Included in a Phase I build-out is an integration strategy, and connecting the dots between social properties and a brand website, often done during this phase - is a must-do.
I’ve seen the mistake more than often where brands build-out social channels, but fail to harness the conversation where they already receive the most traffic - their very own website.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about social media or just online marketing general.
Facebook will soon be allowing you to promote your Business (Fan) Page by using text messaging to allow users to Fan your Facebook Page - all by asking people to text the name of your page (www.facebook.com/xxxxxxxxxxxx) to 32665 (which spells ‘FBOOK’ on your phone) to become fans.
At this time, the feature is still in a beta mode, and has not yet been enabled for every Page admin yet. And another hitch in the process for Fans to successfully ‘join’ your Page, is that users need to have setup their mobile phone to receive texts from Facebook, which can be done on the settings page in your account.
Mobile Fan-ing
Even though this is not public at the moment, and is still in a beta mode, the possibilities could be endless for brands to better connect to future fans. Imagine being at a rally, concert event, a boardroom, a ballpark, and you ask people to take their phones out and send a simple message through texting via a mobile device.
Exactly.
Take that scenario inside your marketing department for a moment, and you include a prompt in brochures, commercials, websites, print ads, etc. Opening up this ‘quick’ engagement possibility for users could create a massive influx in growing your Fan count on your Page.
Going one step further, once a user is engaged with a brand through the mobile platform, users will receive a brand’s status updates via text message to their phone. After receiving the update through the phone, you can then respond and comment directly through text messaging. This process is entirely conducted by phone, without touching a computer. As this feature’s publicity grows, you can imagine what level of engagement you are able to produce!
Even though this has not gone live for everyone just yet, it will have a huge impact on the Facebook community once it does. We’ll keep you up-to-date as information becomes readily available.
Facebook made a bit of noise last week when they introduced the new Business Pages layout. Then, several days later, made changes to the Home page of all user profiles, and integrated a ‘Twitter’ like wall stream - Facebook’s strategy in building out a more real-time conversation tool.
As usual, when Facebook decides to make changes, your entire office, your close friends and other random people you might see throughout the day - they all have something to say, and I am sure you’ve heard the complaints already. However, I am here to bring calm to the storm…rest assured, Facebook is making a very intelligent change in status here. And most importantly, businesses will be able to flourish greatly from this move.
When it comes to the new business pages - it will now look and function much like personal profiles, offering stronger brand connections via the wall stream, which now takes center stage. When a fan comes to your page now, the very first page they look at is the ‘wall stream’. On this page, businesses that create content often, will thrive in this new environment. As a brand, the wall stream page will gather content and post information about the page and posts by the page itself. Also, content shared by you, links, photos, videos and short text updates via the status updates, and posts by your fans left for you - all now show up in the wall.
In this update, which is really the holy grail here, the wall updates you post will publish to your Fans’ news feeds, and posts by your Fans will go to their friends’ news feeds as well. So, think about this a second - the more content you are able to place and create in your channel, the more you engage with your fans, in turn, the more people you will be able to reach constantly. A single status update of your business profile seeds through Facebook into your fan’s news streams. Now, all their friend’s see this, and can ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on the update, and possibly go one step further and become a Fan of the page.
The wall stream will be a large key in driving attention to your page - use it wisely! You are familiar with how Twitter works, Facebook is integrating the same concept using this wall stream - homepage stream. The more frequency of status updates on your page, the more chance you have to stand out with your fans in the Facebook stream.
When it comes to the layout of the page, Facebook rid themselves of the long ‘leaderboard‘ layout, and moved to a tabbed layout - exactly how your user profile pages now function. And now, when a fan goes to your business page, they are defaulted to the Wall tab, so that fans can see the most recent added content to the page. And for non-Fans that visit your page, you can set a default landing page within your business profile page.
With the ability to send new potential fans to your business page, you can highlight a specific default tab to send them to that might have the most appealing or interactive elements within your page. This will allow users to better promote different portions of their page by driving ad traffic or new fans to certain sections of your profile. By driving potential fans to landing pages within Facebook, you can dramatically grow your fans and leads that ultimately improve conversion rates.
If you are running a specific campaign, or have a new application, event, or interactive element on your page you want new users to connect with - now you can easily create that conversion path for the user.
Some interesting analytics were also integrated into new business pages. Facebook now allows you to track video views, comments posted, news feed posts viewed, and this is all in addition to page views and unique views. And even better, all this data is exportable via CSV sheets.
New Design Makes Advertising on FacebookIrresistible
Facebook is clearly trying to drive more advertisers to use the platform, and it makes a lot of sense now with Facebook allowing you to drive non-fans to specific pages inside your business profile. This is going to add value and interest for users who will make their way to your Facebook page. Brands should embrace this tactic and give Facebook advertising a shot - you won’t be disappointed this time around.
People in the past have been reluctant to spend money on advertising within social networks. The real fact is, social network members are co-creators of content, and in turn, feel they have a sense of ownership within the site. Advertising needs to be more about participating in relevant conversation with consumers rather than simply pushing ads onto a social network user. Advertising should focus on being part of the conversation, not invading the social space.
Advertising needs to be about adding value to a user’s experience, as social networks are built around members adding value to each other’s lives through interaction. This is why fan sites and sponsored groups are truly one of the most successful strategies when marketing within the platforms. This act touches on the principles of interactivity, and adds value to a user’s experience via offers, previews, and the ability for user’s to help create content.
The true challenge though in creating a perfect marriage between social network advertising - marketing and that network’s user, is time. There is no quick-fix in social network marketing, sure there can be exceptions, but those are few and far between. Much like a friendship, social media marketing requires effort, time and a continual investment in the platform to build and foster relationships. Remember, your messaging needs to be authentic and humble, and built on two-way conversation, not a push (one-way) model - in the end, this will add value to the consumer’s decision.
As today marked the first day of what many people hope is a shift in direction for the United States, CNN also embraced the day with live video coverage tied into the Facebook Connect platform.
Inauguration Day, the day Sen. Barack Obama became the first African-American President of the United States. The day the 44th President of the United States expressed that although we are in a midst of crisis, and the challenges we face are real, they will be met. More importantly, President Obama expressed this thought through not only television and radio, but also through streaming online video on thousands of websites across the Internet. One of those websites who met this challenge and decided to integrate the most widely used social network with this online video component, was CNN.
On CNN.com, video was integrated with the Facebook Connect platform to create a streaming conversation piece that utilized the Facebook message status capabilities along with live streaming video. This combination turned into a very successful technique that allowed users to connect with their friends during the Inauguration, and chat directly with them through the status update & comment capabilities.
This is a great example of allowing social media to connect with important, live events in today’s society. This is the kind of connection that we need to enhance in today’s web 2.0 world. Tired we are of the naysayers who express that social media is for those who have too much time or use it too frivolously. This allowed people to interact on a personal level with each other while watching a highly publicized event. Going one step further, it allowed users from across the world to access the event and make their points through conversation.
With just this example, a simple CNN.com live webcast - we see the powerful message not only in the direct message itself, but through the community we interact with daily. Your friends, friends of friends, everyone involved in the Facebook community, were able to see each other’s comments and create interaction on the platform - using a large, public event and tying it to Facebook.
Quick numbers just in courtesy of the CNN.com broadcast, during the speech, there were over 1 million people who updated their status messages, more than 85,000 updates just a minute before President Obama began to speak to the crowd. Numbers alone…wow! To say that is impressive is an understatement. The crew at Facebook said that this was the largest number of user status updates ever, in such a short period of time.
Web 2.0 - Time for “Change”.
It was not only a powerful speech, but a powerful move in a web 2.0 world. We all know that social media has had a very strong impact on this past year’s election, and something we should recognize is the fact that social media is being embraced by the current administration. Barack Obama utilizes Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and many more social networks to help connect with the users on a personal level, and realizes how important these social community networks have become in relation to his message.
Not only will President Obama’s message be relayed through these channels, but it will also help build grass-roots support for his agenda.
In a major move just done this morning, the official WhiteHouse.gov website was switched over from the old interface to the brand new ‘Obama’ look about an hour before his Inauguration. The new website looks very familiar when compared to his campaign websites. The most important aspect to recognize here, beyond the design, is the interactive features he offers on the platform. Tremendous calls-to-action that create a significant gateway to features such as his blog, videos, slideshows and much more!
Conclusion.
In the end, we have to examine the priority when confronting not only politics, but social media as well - to stand alone or stand together? When I see the new administration and analyze how they have reached where they are now - they did this with efforts that can be contributed greatly to social media and its external reach. And when we look at a president who can connect with us in these channels and not just speak to us, BUT WITH US - no matter what party affiliation you are - you have to respect that!
When approaching the subject of social bookmarks, (aka website chicklets), think about your strategy. I know it might seem easy enough to just place a ’share this’ or ‘add this’ widget to your website, but you need to consider the ‘little’ things about these valuable marketing assets.
I am not going to dive into the definition of what these devices are (as you should be aware) - you have seen these on hundreds of thousands of websites. These social bookmarks, also referred to as website chicklets, offer the ability to share content easily through social content network websites, such as Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Google, Windows Live, Yahoo Buzz, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Fark, Magnolia and many others.
These sites might seem silly at first, but if you are a fellow blogger or social media enthusiasts; you know how valuable this social media strategy is for you. These websites allow access to an audience of hundreds of millions of people who converse inside these channels daily. I don’t know if I need to go into numbers, but why not…let’s do it.
During the time frame of December 2007 through December 2008, the following are the number of unique visitors to each respective social community network website: (Remember these are unique visitors to the website - NOT overall traffic for the year)
Google Bookmarks: 140 million people
Yahoo! Buzz: 134 million people
Windows Live: 88 million people
Facebook: 60 million people
Digg: 33.5 million people
Twitter: 4.4 million people
Stumbleupon: 4.2 million people
Delicious: 1.8 million people
Fark: 451,000 people
Mag.nolia.com: 90,000 people (**numbers courtesy of Quantcast)
I think you see my point - these networks are growing on an exponential level. To think of the daily traffic numbers these websites receive every single day - it could make you shiver. Google Bookmarks alone probably sees close to 100 million visitors a day, if not more. And the numbers given above are just unique visitors to the website. Do you know how many more hundreds of millions of people come back daily to take part in what these websites offer?
These social networking channels are key components in driving not only traffic, but linkage to your website. Placing your website into these networks allows you to drive thousands of unique visitors based upon submission of your content through the social bookmark channels.
Sites.
Blogs, News sites, content networks, article banks, products of any kind online, almost anything with original content tied to it is attached to a social bookmarking tool. Some of the best and worst examples come with news websites.
The New York Times are one of those examples of great placement and overall use of website chicklet attachment. Placing this option on EVERY story on the website, as the NYT does - allows them to gain great traction on linkage and enhance their overall presence on the social network community websites.
An example of a misguided attempt at using website chicklets would be on Boston.com. I look at their placement and say OK, that is fine - but their call-outs are poorly designed, as this example blends in too much with the story overall. It is best to create a completely separate call-out-box, such as the NY Post and Philly.com does in their examples. Otherwise, look at the New York Times (above) and see how they separate it off strategically to the right side of the story - not in line with the copy. This is wonderful placement!
You need to think, when a reader is about to take hold of a story, they look at the picture and title initially, and then start reading down, looking for their CONTENT first, not a social bookmark chicklet they can pass to their friends. They have not even read the first couple paragraphs of the story yet. You have to allow the reader to get comfortable with the material before having them pass the story along to their chosen social network or email it to a friend option. In the Boston.com example, you don’t see any particular call-outs; you only see a ’share this’ application that does little for a user who is unfamiliar with the chicklet. In the NYT example, you see separate icons (calls-to-action) for Linked In, Facebook, Digg, and then you see a button to press for more options - much more effective! Do you see my point?
Conclusion.
Whether you are a website that offers products or content of ANY kind - consider using these social bookmarks to help grow your traffic. These websites offer the ability for people to easily ’share’ your content, as well as create a number of outbound links for your website. You might have a blog, or other types of content, a viral product, videos, pictures, etc…whatever it might be - you can attach these chicklets to your overall marketing strategy and allow users to push your content into these social community content websites.
Late last week, our team at Overdrive Interactive released the first version of the Social Media Map. This map is designed to help marketers and random people alike view the components of the social media landscape and determine how it can be best leveraged for their marketing or personal branding needs.
“We know how complex and overwhelming the social media landscape can be,” said Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. “We wanted to map it all out, so that marketing professionals can use it as a guide to what we believe are the most important social media tools out there. The power of social media is growing exponentially by the day, and now is the time to harness it.”
The map details the ‘key’ social media websites that Overdrive believes you should know about. As a key component in putting that list together - I can’t stress enough the importance of what we did with this social media map.
Our efforts to bring you the most up-to-date social media strategy for you company is key in our mission of social media branding. You have all heard me talk in the past about various websites that come and go, and the social media websites that seem to be flashes in the pan - but remember, they are all relevant in someway. They are helping us shape society on the Internet, and the way people, brands and identities communicate with each other.
Think about the various social engines that are present in the social community; micro-blogging, social bookmarking, groups, life-casting, travel, wikis, B2B social networks, blogs, and more! Many of these have become key points of interest in your daily Internet life, and many of you might still be wondering what certain websites do, and how you can utilize them. That is where this social media map comes into play - for you to see what type of ‘expressions’ on the web you might be curious about, and how you can get started involving yourself in them.
Soon, we will have an interactive version on the web - so stay tuned! Although for now, head to http://www.ovrdrv.com/social-media-map to download your copy today & take part in the revolution!
I came across a viral branding website yesterday for a popular television show on HBO, Flight of the Conchords. The TV show is about two men that live in NYC doing sketch comedy and singing their comedic folk songs inside a once a week half-hour show that looks at the everyday happenings of the two main characters, Bret and Jemaine
The idea.
Take a concept of the brand and distinguish it as a ’sensation’. I know that might sound complicated - but it’s really so easy, and I don’t understand why other companies aren’t utilizing their ‘usable’ assets for something similar.
This is exactly what the Flight of the Conchords are doing with their new micro-site - “Lip Dub Video Fansterpiece.” The concept is to learn the lyrics of one of the songs the two main characters sing, and then you are supposed to videotape yourself lip-synching the song, and then upload it to the website - where you might be added to a final “Fansterpiece” that will air on HBO. This content is being advertised only on social channels, and is completely viral - meaning this is not having any media or TV dollars spent on the campaign.
The contest was launched in mid-November, and will last until the new season of the show starts in mid-January.
Simple. Simple. Simple.
I can’t get over how simple this is, but how effective it has become. They don’t give away any lavish prizes, you don’t win a trip to any special destination or big lump sum of money - just about 10 seconds of a small amount of fame.
At the same time, they do a great job of implementing bookmarks or sometimes referred to as chicklets. These are the type of calls-to-action that include the ability to post the “contest” to Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Delicious, and you can also email to a friend. These are all tactics in “spreading” the word-of-mouth further into the social networks.
The video service they are using is YouTube, making it ‘free’, as well as very viral! This allows HBO to spread their contest through the social channels with little to zero promotion on their part, which was their full intention.
Statistics.
Since the website launched in mid-November - the main website where they utilize the videos, the YouTube channel that was created for the contest - has seen nearly 8,000 views since the project launched on Nov. 13. I know those numbers are not monumental, but you have to think about the ‘trickle’ down effect from this contest alone.
On the microsite, you also are able to access the Flight of the Conchord’s Facebook and MySpace pages. Their current Facebook page has a more than 245,000 fans, and they have a little over 25,000 friends on MySpace. These channels were setup well before the contest started…but both channels have seen an increase in activity in fans/friends since the middle of last month.
So What?
Well, I tell you this information because it’s important to consider the outreach of a ‘viral’ campaign, such as this one, and what it can do for a brand. Chances are, many people are going to submit videos to try and appear on the channel, and many more people may just watch the videos other people create. Either way, their creating a ‘buzz’ about the show and the new season, interest of not only current fans, but new fans of the show are found through the ability of allowing others to easily spread the contest into the social content networks, such as Digg, Delicious, Twitter, and so on. They attach links to the show’s page on the HBO website, as well as create easy access to the show’s MySpace and Facebook pages.
Through a viral campaign like this, you should explore your brand further to see what kind of similar outreach you may be able to do. This is social media branding 101 friends - don’t take something as small and ‘funky’ as this to be something silly - when in all honesty, they spent next to nothing to engage new fans and current fans of the show - to stay tuned to the new season, maybe buy the DVD, purchase some apparel, or some other Flight of the Conchords related materials. It’s genius.
The point is - you need to think about social media branding if you have not already. Agreed, for some brands social media might not be the way to go - but as they say so often - “don’t knock it before you try it.”
Chances are, I think it will.
For more information, and if you have any questions on viral or social media branding - feel free to contact me @ nicholas.cifuentes@gmail.com
