The SocialWork Blog

Tumblr’s Latest Venture: Virtual Community Journalism

2012-02-21T17:26:24Z

At first glance, Tumblr’s recently announced hiring of Chris Mohney for their newly created position of editor-in-chief doesn’t sound like a stroke of genius. After all, Tumblr is a blogging platform, not a content creator itself. But Tumblr’s reasoning may just bring their community closer together while giving marketers valuable insights into what makes Tumblr users tick.

Mohney told The New York Times, “Basically, if Tumblr were a city of 42 million, I’m trying to figure out how we cover the ideas, themes and people who live in it.”

With this move, Tumblr isn’t just encouraging creativity on Tumblr, they are marketing their platform by leveraging the content created by users. Tumblr isn’t the only social platform that is making this move either. Twitter has already launched Twitter Stories, which aims to tell the stories behind influential tweets. Facebook has hired a managing editor for their 850 million and growing users, and LinkedIn Today began covering the biggest news on their networking service almost a year ago. These companies understand that in addition to offering a great service, they need to curate their communities, encourage them to interact with their platforms in new ways, and begin marketing themselves as a platform to both advertisers and new users.

Without realizing it, these internet companies are collectively bringing about the next stage in social media’s development. This next stage of “virtual community journalism” solidifies the rising importance and dominance of online communities as offline communities become smaller and more localized. Tumblr has attracted thousands of fashion bloggers who have built up a passionate community of trend setters–a community which has no offline space to congregate. For marketers, virtual community journalism may someday offer a platform to advertise and market to a vast decentralized group of people connected only by their passions and interests. Tumblr’s soon-to-be released blog has no plans to host advertising content, but advertisers will still be able to benefit from the trends and news of the Tumblr community straight from the source.

Social media 2.0 will need to vie for more of their users’ time and open their platforms for more advertising in a way that also enriches the social experience. Both are vital to social media’s growth and longevity. Virtual community journalism will be fascinating to watch develop as social media continues to shape our society and offer advertisers inside access into interest-driven slices of our culture.

The Highlights of CES 2012

2012-01-31T19:09:34Z

Although the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is now over, having wrapped up less than a week ago, many of the key themes, products and services highlighted during the show will leave indelible impressions in the minds of the 160,000 plus attendees for the months ahead. So what were the key themes of this year’s CES and what do they bode for the advertising and content industries in the near future? Here’s my take on it:

Content + Devices + Connectivity = The Perfect Storm. One of the big take aways of the show is that the technology manufacturers are finally able to distribute consumers’ preferred content on the device of choice. This is a perfect storm of improved connectivity though in-device wifi and 4G/4G LTE mobile data speeds, proliferation of tablets and smartphones with big, crisp screens, and a large number of content providers (Hulu Plus, Netflix, Google TV to name a few) distributing content across multiple screens. As we saw with the Tom Hanks and Yahoo partnership, 2012 appears to be the year where consumers discover and watch content not through a cable provider, but thorough online content publishers.

3D TV’s might still be hype. Once again, the floor is packed with 3D TV’s from the likes of Samsung, LG, and Panasonic. While the content from providers like ESPN and Discovery seem fantastic, many TV’s require consumers to sit directly in front of the screen which makes co-viewing difficult. Also, we know that people like to look at their tablets, mobile, and laptops while watching TV. I still find it difficult to look at these other devices with 3D glasses on. Video games in 3D; however, are quite immersive and intense.

Connected TV’s mean proliferation of content searching. While 3D still seems a bit further off, connected TV’s are all over the show floor. With streaming content from apps, social networks, and publishers, consumers will soon become used to searching for shows both from the cable provider as well as the internet. Even more, many devices like Samsung and our client’s AT&T Uverse product allow consumers to link the television and mobile device together for extended content, additional content controls, and potentially extended advertising.

Gaming in new ways. With huge smartphone screens and Sony’s Playstation Vita the buzz of the show, I think handheld video games will just continue to boom. Plus, the Playstation Vita has both front and rear touch screens; the thought of playing a game using both sides of the device seems intriguing. Microsoft Kinect has spawned a few imitators as gaming without controllers continued to inspire people to line up to play games at a variety of booths.

Touch screens galore. It seemed hard to walk around the floor and not see a gesture or touch-enabled device. From TV’s to laptops and tablets and smartphones, we will be swiping, pinching and typing on our screens more and more in 2012. The physical keyboard as we know it will continue to be excluded from these devices going forward.

Ultrabooks, Tablets, and smartphones continue to converge. Intel and others have released multiple ultrabooks that resemble a Macbook Air but, with 10+ hours of battery life, are highly portable. Tablets are becoming a part of almost any major manufacturer’s offering and continue to abound. Smartphones are becoming larger and more powerful. With each of these devices creeping into each other’s categories, I predict that consumers will no longer find it necessary to carry a smartphone, tablet and laptop while traveling. Which one to leave behind likely depends on work needs, but tablets and smartphones will soon become interchangable.

Connected home links devices together. Many manufacturers are creating apps that connect technology around the home such as the kitchen, heating/cooling, washing/drying and lights. Often dubbed as a way of saving electricity, a connected home may be closer than we think.

The fun parts of CES. There are always a few random devices that make you smile. This year I’ve seen an at-home dry cleaning machine from LG that refreshes garments in 39 minutes, a new and improved AR Drone remote control helicopter, and a gesture-controlled iPad-enhanced skateboard (think a Segway meets a long skateboard…with an iPad attached!).

With more attendees from industries outside of electronics than ever before exploring its trade show floors and media events, this year’s CES had a little something for everyone…and also gave a little peek into what’s coming ahead. Things are definitely about to get more interesting.

Digital Lab CES 2012 Coverage!

2012-01-09T22:28:26Z

This week marks one of the most exciting periods of the year for the technology industry everywhere as 2012’s Consumer Electronics Show gets underway in Las Vegas. What used to be a gathering dedicated merely to what it was named after – electronics – has blossomed over the decades into a full-fledged global summit celebrating everything related to the convergence of advance consumer hardware, lifestyle based software and content from all corners of industry. An estimated 2,700 exhibitors and 150,000 attendees are expected to descend on this year’s event.

This is why last week’s Advertising Age heralded CES as arguably the most important event outside of the Cannes International Festival of Creativity for the global advertising industry. As more and more consumer and engage with their content – and the advertising that comes with it – through the types of next generation devices introduced at the show, it becomes more and more important for all marketers to keep their eyes on it for a sign of what’s coming next. It is also why, for the first time ever, BBDO and Proximity will be delivering exclusive coverage of CES, featuring one-on-one interviews from top executives and keynote speakers from companies including Yahoo!, Facebook and AOL every day this week.

With the global tech device industry estimated to reach the $1 trillion spending mark this year and the importance of the consumer trends and product innovations coming out of CES at an all-time high, BBDO and Proximity’s Digital Lab is ready to bring you the exclusive news and views you need to stay ahead of the curve in this space. To see all of the latest Digital Lab CES updates as they’re available, “like”/”friend” the BBDO Worldwide Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/bbdoworldwide now.

And stay tuned to Digital Lab for what’s shaping up to be a truly exciting week on the tech front!

How well do the top brands participate in social media?

2012-01-11T22:16:13Z

UK-based social media consultancy Sociagility (founded by my former H&K colleagues Niall Cook and Tony Burgess-Webb) have issued an interesting scorecard called the Sociagility Top 50 that shows how the world’s top 50 brands rank in relation to how well the participate in social media.

Using their proprietary PRINT (popularity, receptiveness, interaction, network reach, trust) methodology, Sociagility has mapped the relative social media effectiveness of the globe’s biggest brands (based on Millward Brown’s BrandZ and Interbrand’s Brand Value studies).

It’s an interesting measuring stick to see how your favourite brands stack up and also to see how your brand or client stacks up against these category leaders.

Meet The Screens

2011-11-15T21:58:20Z

Earlier this year, we at BBDO/ Proximity Worldwide partnered with Microsoft to undertake an unprecedented global research study to better understand how today’s global media audience perceives and behaves around content consumed through different screens in our multi-screen environment.

The results of this quantitative and qualitative effort shed new light into how today’s media consumers relate to the PC, TV, mobile phone and tablet. It also revealed new rules on how marketers should best create content based on the different expectations around these screens.

Since completion of the study, we have delivered the insights from this project, called Meet The Screens, to warm reception at advertising and digital events across the world. And, now, the complete findings for Meet The Screens is being made available directly to you in our look book below.

Before you contemplate your next multiscreen marketing effort, dig in to this revealing study and read up on why all screens are truly not created equal.

Meet The Screens

Facebook Fans: Quantity vs. Quality

2011-11-11T18:12:51Z

Is the quantity of friends you have on Facebook as important as the quality? “No” says BBDO President and CEO Andrew Robertson, at least as far as brands’ fanbases go. In a recently published post on Fast Company.com, Mr. Robertson tackles the increasingly important question of what a Facebook Fan is worth. He acknowledges why the construct of becoming a friend is valuable:

“Whenever someone asks me to be their friend on Facebook, I’m flattered. Who would have thought so many people like me? Then I realize why: the act of friending simulates the ultimate act of opting into a conversation.”

However, Mr. Robertson goes on to challenge some generally accepted thoughts related to the Facebook friend chase and shares his views on where the real value lies when brands venture to engage with consumers on the world’s largest social media network. Read Mr. Robertson’s post on Fastcompany.com here and ask yourself the question, “How valuable are my Facebook friends?”

Meet Your Canine Match

2012-01-11T22:40:01Z

In New Zealand, Pedigree wanted to create a way to find more homes for the thousands of abandoned dogs arriving at shelters every day.

How could we help Pedigree increase the number of emotional connections between a human and a dog—the types of connections that lead to a dog being adopted? Introduce technology.

Enter Doggleganger.

Studies had shown that the happiest owners and dogs shared uncannily similar features, personality traits and even body types. We decided to help Pedigree leverage high-tech facial recognition and matching technology to create a platform called Doggleganger. It was the first system of its kind: human/canine pairing software that allows users to upload their pictures and be connected with their “best friend” matches from the country’s largest database of dogs looking to be adopted.

The result was real dogs being connected with real people through the magic of software, allowing more dogs than ever to be adopted.

Brands Like Me

2011-10-18T14:09:23Z

In recent months a slew of trendy new websites have popped up, aiming to help consumers with their future shopping needs. No, not with daily deals, but with product and brand discovery. Sites like Fancy, Pinterest, Svpply, and CircleMe, to name a few, are deeply social but don’t try to connect consumers with one another and then try to show brand ads to all of them. Instead these sites offer platforms with which consumers can discover and display the art, books, clothing, brands, and technology they already love.

Svpply

These sites are engaging users in one of the most fundamental ways possible—by asking them what they like. On Svpply, users scroll through and add pictures of products they like. When a user finds a particular product they like they can “add” it to their Svpply. On Fancy, the concept is very similar with users browsing through products, art, and photographs and clicking “fancy it” when they find something they want to save or show that they like. On Pinterest, users can “like” the images they find as well as repost the photo in a similar vein as one would on Tumblr. Finally, Circleme is a new social network that tries to reconnect users with themselves. Users fill out their profile by “liking” all of their favorite things whether they are products, books, people, stores or brands. Rather than post a status update on the site, a user’s profile displays what they currently like or are interested in at that moment.

All of these sites beautifully cut through the clutter for consumers looking for hip products that they can express themselves through. A friend told me that Pinterest has literally changed the way she browses the Internet. Personally, I have found that I can spend hours on Fancy looking through gorgeous photographs of products that interest me, but would never consider spending time browsing through products for fun at other actual online shopping destinations. It is worth noting that none of these sites (so far) actually offer a way for costumers to purchase the products they see directly through the website. On Fancy and Svpply there are links to where to buy many of the products (likely generating affiliate revenue for the sites), but the sites are primarily for discovery and there is no data widely available yet regarding how often users actually buy the products they discover on these sites.

For marketers, these product discovery sites have clearly provided a platform for a niche of dedicated consumers. Now there is a clear (and growing) array of ways to reach active consumers who enjoy talking about products and their favorite brands and see these things as an extension of their own personality. While these platforms offer easy access to a receptive audience for many types of brands, the challenge for brands will be how to relay their brand message in a way that is highly visual (the majority of these sites are very visual and use minimal descriptions for products) and not overly commercial or intrusive since these sites are about celebrating individual brand curation and taste. Their message must also touch on the heart of what these product discovery sites are about: expressing an individual’s tastes and personality through the things they like.

CircleMe

Will brands jump onboard product discovery sites quickly or struggle to adapt their message for a platform that is more about individual style than shopping? Either way, consumers of all kinds are flocking towards a new way of expressing themselves, which coupled with the rising popularity of social search recommendations, has the capacity to significantly alter how and why people shop online.

Facebook Commerce

2011-10-17T22:06:49Z

Over the past several years, Facebook has created a destination that is central to the lives of over 750 million Internet users across the world. This scale, along with its ability to harness the power of individuals’ social connections, has allowed Facebook to usher in the next phase of commerce on the Internet. This next era of the Web will be driven by brands everywhere not only leveraging Facebook’s master social graph to conduct e-commerce but also selling directly to consumers on the platform itself. This is the new era of Facebook commerce or F-commerce.

This month’s Digital Lab thought piece, Facebook Commerce, is brought to you by BBDO Proximity Germany and examines this emerging phenomenon in unprecedented fashion. It thoroughly uncovers, through a comprehensive study, the current state and future promise of F-commerce through the lens of Facebook, users, businesses and service providers.

Facebook may irreversibly change how brands connect and transact with consumers for years to come. Tap this study now to get the insight you need to know what’s coming ahead. Please read, learn and share.

Facebook Commerce

Twitter: the new complaints hotline

2011-11-01T17:30:02Z

I’ve never been a big proponent of the many organizations who rushed into Twitter to deal with all the negative tweets about their brands or services. Often times this was a directive of the PR department who looked at Twitter as a channel to manage online reputation.

While reputation management is a part of a good social strategy, I’ve always felt in my gut that it’s impossible for the communications department to serve as de facto customer service/tech support/consumer complaints personnel solely based on a familiarity with the channel. Planning a Twitter presence should be part of a broader communications and/or social strategy. It should based on customers’ journeys with your brand over time and ladder up to how you want your brand to be perceived in the long term.

Figuring out how to deploy Twitter isn’t as straightforward as setting up an account. Every brand has different needs and requirements in the space. Sometimes you need to have multiple Twitter accounts to talk to multiple constituencies i.e. consumers vs enterprise vs developers and sometimes you’ve got geographic or language considerations to think about. In my view many brands have been too literal with their customer-oriented Twitter handle. Using “Cares”, “Helps”, or “Support” are very restricting, though commonly used. Your handle is less important than the speed of response and the quality of the interaction with your customers. That’s what really matters in customer service.

Thinking about a longer term relationship over a short term customer transaction will get you thinking of handles like “Ask”, “Connect”, “Talk”, “Voices” or simply your brand. I have three concerns with the path many brands have charted and others have quickly followed that are great for customer service and not-so-great for building a long-term relationship:

Creating a fast-track customer service hotline
Sharing the knowledge
Putting their brand on the back foot

Customer service hotline

My biggest worry is that by being reflexively defensive in Twitter, brands would be providing a customer service hotline to those who either gave up on other channels (60 minutes on hold, anyone?) or figured a public social media space provides the right level of public shaming to get a reaction from a big company.

I know brands have ventured into this space with the best of intentions with “Cares”, “Helps” and “Support” suffixes on their Twitter handles have struggled with how to scale for the volume of interactions and simply keep up. Many have integrated customer service staff right into their Twitter teams, which is a move in the right direction. But what if you outsource support to call centers with a transient staff that follows a script and refers to a manual?

Even the celebrated Comcast example had some problems with scale. Tara Hunt, blogger and author of The Whuffie Factor noted in a presentation a few years back that only one-third of tweets to @comcastcares were being answered. This was at the height of Comcast’s celebrated use of social media for customer service. A recent study from Maritz/evolve24 shows that consumer expectation of receiving responses to Twitter-delivered complaints is growing.

Have the early adopting brands modeled a new consumer behavior based on how they approach the channel or are they simply reacting to where the consumer is most comfortable “complaining”? Either way, if each complaint takes 10 minutes to deal with and you get 60 complaints in a day, you’ll need 10 hours to deal with them all. If the trend continues companies will either need to train customer service staff to be proficient in Twitter or train their Twitter staff to be proficient in customer service.

Sharing the Twitter knowledge

Companies have invested in creating extensive knowledge bases, FAQs, and user forums on their main domains. They aren’t all perfect. They aren’t all well organized. But there is a wealth of information there. If you take the opportunity to add to the knowledge base away from the main domain and deal with issues on Twitter you’re giving up a huge opportunity to capture that knowledge for your broader consumer base as Twitter doesn’t keep all of its tweets searchable forever.

If I’m spending 10 hours helping consumers, I want to make sure the interaction is captured, indexed and easily found by someone with the same or similar problem in the future. Luckily, there are solutions like Lithium that allow for community managers to connect Twitter and Facebook with brand communities on main domains so that there is a seamless ecosystem and the ability to capture knowledge centrally while sharing it through various social channels.

Brands on the back foot

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against customer care or using social to connect with and solve problems for your customers. I’ve been helped many times by blurting something out on Twitter…and other times I’ve been directed to content that was completely irrelevant. It’s not easy dealing with a one-to-one problem in a public space. The margin for error is zero and the upside is a consumer who feels listened to and looked after stays loyal. With the rush to be present in the social conversation many brands have jumped in to the social spaces to help.

The best known and most followed tend to be the customer service accounts (@ComcastCares >54,000 vs @ComcastVoices >2,400). While this approach served an immediate need, it hasn’t translated into a real relationship with the brand beyond the need for assistance. I’d caution brands not to join social spaces with a vision solely to helping in the now. It puts your band on the back foot. Think about the future. Once you’ve helped someone on your “Cares” account, they won’t be sticking around to connect with the brand in other more meaningful ways. They’ll be back when they’ve got another problem, but the only relationship you’ll ever have is based on being a troubleshooter.

I’ve got no axe to grind with Comcast. In fact, their leap into the social space has been the inspiration for many other companies to start talking with their customers through social media channels. But as much early-adopter cred they’ve gained, I bet they wish they entered Twitter with @ComcastVoices or @Comcast and built followers for a handle that gave them the ability to add value to the relationship after the initial issue was fixed. I can understand that some brands want to keep the customer issues away from the master brand, but in social we need to look at all interactions as marketing touchpoints and not be shy about showing how we solve problems for angry customers.