The Disruptive Nature of Social TV

Social technology, such as social networking, has become an ubiquitous platform that has completely transformed how human beings connect, share, communicate, and now even watch TV. And social technology has not even begun to mature….

Right now, the industry is witnessing a spattering of new companies have caught wind of the emerging Social TV market and are developing content, interfaces, platforms and devices that deliver more relevant, customizable and relevant entertainment with embedded social features such as sharing, chatting and games. For example, the recent YouTube redesign and the announcement that Youtube will be producing its own contents will only add more fire to marketplace. Yet, in spite of how new the concept and technology of Social TV is, it is one that is continuing a model of disruption of traditional media that began with cable and accelerated with the adoption of the Internet. But what does this disruptive model mean?

For one, giving viewers more power to control over what they watch completely destroys the one-way conversation entertainment publishers have enjoyed for decades, which mean they must work harder. Ultimately, publishers will have to pursue a relationship with their audiences - sometimes from scratch. But with that extra, more responsive work to create compelling and social entertainment content comes the benefit of more data and essentially newly discovered streams of revenue such as advertising and digital goods. ReadWriteWeb’s Alicia Eler provides an insightful overview of the nature, trends and future of Social TV here.

As Social TV becomes more prevalent, publishers will need to ground themselves in the notion that the old ways of entertainment content and distribution are over- now is the time to give consumers more of what they want and less of what they don’t.

Walmart Defines What a True Bricks-and-Mobile Strategy Is

Walmart does a lot of things that, well, defy common sense (I’m thinking about every single Walmart that I’ve been to ANYWHERE ALWAYS has only 3 lanes open). But when they do something right, man do they do it right.

Recently, Walmart announced their revamped iPhone and new iPad apps that will merge online and in-store shopping like never before. Using mobile to truly establish a relationship with the customer, the apps feature options such as home barcode scanning, enlists Siri to create lists, creates budgeting tools and integrates coupons (from Coupons.com) and Walmart inventory. Walmart stores service 140M customers a week, an undisclosed percentage of those customers are smartphone customers. Nonetheless, according to Walmart, the Walmart customer is adapting mobile technology on pace with the general population, so this move is a good look.

Walmart’s mobile strategy is set to prove a few strategic points to retailers and marketers - for retailers, mobile is a prime channel for relationship marketing. It’s one of the few spaces where you can customize an intimate environment and interact (one-on-one) with the the customer. For advertisers, this is another sign to move away from the stagnant thinking that mobile is only a vehicle for advertising messages- think about engagement.

You can read the story in its entirety at Ad Age.

What do you think?

Socialize your next event - New Tools for the Event Marketer

You've finally convinced your client to integrate social media into their current campaigns. You've maybe even convinced your client to use social media to promote one of the events they have produced. You've done your job- congrats! But perhaps that was the old way of social media event marketing. Yes, I said old.

It's difficult to keep up with the barrage of new social tools in the event planner's arsenal, but some are definitely worth exploring. According to EMI Research, social media tools and events go hand-in-hand, as they help drive the human experience offline with the use of technology (EMI Research, 2010). Here, we take a look at a few that can turn a humdrum client event into a connected client event.

BumeBox

Bumebox allows the event marketer to tap into real-time social media by allowing brands to schedule special promotional events for a specific period of time. Any posted content interaction that occurs during the event is immediately posted on the brand website - a much more simplier, streamlined process than collecting Twitter hashtags, posting links to Youtube (media is actually displayed). Event goers can comment, vote and engage in real-time.

DJTXT

While good music is essential to any soiree, it's pretty difficult to please everyone. DJTXT gives everyone a chance to play DJ by uploading a playlist and allowing your party-goers to text "like" or "dislike" to change the song selection, or upload song requests into the queue. Now, how fun and interactive is that?

Mobile Barcodes

Marketers love using mobile barcodes in direct mail, retails, and events are no exception. Placing mobile barcodes on site at an event connects the experiential with the mobile- and allows you as the event marketer to capture valuable data, or influence behaviors (purchase, brand interactions, etc.).

These are just some of the tools that an event marketer can use to create a seamless, cross-channel event that blends the boundaries between brand and consumer engagement.

It's Harder to Be Kind than Clever in Business + Life

Starting your own business is rife with uncertainty, fear, doubt, pain, sometimes, even a little regret. But what's most painful is the decision not to follow your passion for fear of failure.

Having started a business in vain some time ago, I go through daily mental conversations that go something like this:

Are you crazy? You're going to do this again? - Yes.

You're smart, you can do this, right? - Yes

Ok, let's do this. Ok, wait, hold on. Ok, now I'm ready.

It can be mentally exhaustive to go through this, but I feel it is necessary reality check. See, when I started my first consultancy, I was armed with my cleverness and ego - not much else. And after a few years of ups and downs, missteps and burned bridges, I've learned that it takes more to run a business. A lot more. Including hefty doses of integrity.

Why do I bring this up? Because during one of my midnight web crawls (yes I do those, and no, not those kind of web crawls), I came across a TED video of Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com speaking at a Princeton graduation. His 18-minute speech was dripping with paternal anecdotes, but the main point was this: "Dont regret trying and failing. Take the less safe path. What matters in the end are your choices, your kindness". He goes on to explain that it requires a lot more mental and emotional acumen to walk the path of passion and integrity.

I hold this lesson very near to my heart as I set out to conquer the world of marketing and advertising, not wanting to make the same unbalanced decisions again.

Jeff Bezos: What Matters More Than Talent, TED

The Results Are In - Social TV is a Hit

By now, it's no secret - TV is driving social. Need more proof? For example, "Glee" viewers dutifully tweet their favorite bits of dialogue right into their Twitter streams, or a specific team would trend on Twotter because it was doing great (or sucking) in the game being broadcast at that verymoment on ESPN. More recent examples are The X Factor, The Voice and now, Dexter. Yes, TV is in fact driving our social (media) engagement in real-time.

According to Mark Ghuneim of Wiredset, "Social TV could not be heating up more. Because engagement is really starting to map to currency." The networks that "get it," he added, "are using the social graph tomeasure the effectiveness of their marketing spend, for real-time audience research to understand the demographics of their viewers, to be smarter about how production dollars are spentand what content will resonate. And especially to demonstrate to advertisers the value of the network off the network."

GetGlue seems to be the entertainment social network du jour, so if you're still having a hard time grasping just how powerful the intersection of entertainment content and social media can be, take a look at the following stats:

GetGlue

GetGlue, which launched in June of last year. It is slated as

a social network for entertainment , I would take this

a step further and call it a

gamified social network, meaning that it allows its

members to earn virtual badges and points once they

check-in and consume media.

• This past August, the networkhit a high of 11.5 million check-ins, driven by partnerships with big broadcast and cable networks from ABC and Fox to Showtime and HBO. (The summer's most popular show on GetGlue was "True Blood" with 490,787 total check-ins.)
• GetGlue users seem most excited about publicly declaring their devotion to returning shows like CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," whichhas been experiencing a ratings surge in its fifth season; it has won its night (Thursday) each of its first two weeks back in prime time with freshepisodes.

Dummenco, S. Showtime's 'Dexter' is Totally Killing It In GetGlue. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/trending-topics/showtime-s-dexter-totally-killing-getglue/230196/ on October 16, 2011.

It’s the final countdown: Google+ vs. Facebook

My clients often consult with me on the best social media practices and which networks to actively participate on. In fact, this question comes up so much that I recently helped my agency co-author one sheet trending topics. These are our little crypt sheets for clients which concisely explain the ends and outs of trend du jour.

What's the nagging question of the moment? Is Google+ really poised to knock out Facebook? Well, that question presents a mixed bag of theories.

In late June, Google, once again, solidified its interest in taking over the internet, and subsequently, the world, with the introduction of the the Google+ social networking platform. Although a newbie on the block, and going up against social networking juggernaut Facebook, the search engine giant has already reached 29 million visitors globally in July.

To better understand the inherent difference between the two platforms, I've used this Technobombs infographic with my clients:

But is it really a threat to Facebook? David Kirkpatrick, author of the "Facebook Effect" seems to think not:

I have to echo the same sentiment as Kilpatrick, Google+, although an interesting platform, has a lot of catching up to do. In fact, Google recently announced that it will start adding games from Zynga and Rovio, social game makers whom have already seen tremendous success with Facebook. Also, Google+ touts great visitor numbers and interest, but how loyal are its visitors to the platform? Only time will tell.

All in all, Facebook and Google+ appeal to two completely different audiences. Google+ has done a wonderful job with building buzz about a platform that appeals to the Diggerati, maintaining that buzz, engagement and surpassing what Facebook has already accomplished is a completely different story.