How brands get their content shared is perhaps one of the
most important challenges facing marketers at the moment. And whilst Social media gives brands an opportunity to attract
users, as well as encourage them to share with their friends how do brands
develop a personal relationship with a user that goes beyond just “like?”
Answer, provide them content that naturally integrates into their social feeds
that they can easily share with friends and makes them look cool in the process
was the notion offered up by Terry city VP of West coast sales for BuzzFeed
and Greg Colvin VP of Digital Universal McCann at the
recent social media week panel. ‘Social sharing and branded content=the perfect
match’
I believe we are now at a tipping point where Branded
content and social sharing now go hand in hand so why has this occurred and how
can brands get the best results with their own content as part of their social
strategies?
1. WE ARE NOW A CONNECTED GENERATION OF SUPERSHARERS
Over the last twenty years we have gone through a paradigm shift
in how we receive our news, the first stage was via websites like Yahoo and AOL,
stage two was via Google and more recently via our social feeds like Facebook, and
Twitter or via aggregators like Flipboard and Feedly that integrate all of
these for us into one neat package.
Indeed it is the rise of content that
we now receive through our social feeds that is turning us into a society of Supersharers or what Brian Solis calls Generation C who are defined by their connectedness, their interests and by the way
they learn discover and share information online. It is this generation that is
regularly seeking out new information to share with their friends and has led
to the rapid rise of sites like BuzzFeed whom attributes as much as 75% of their
traffic from consumers simply looking for cool content to share.
Tip: Find out what the online groups make up your target
audience & what their interests are and who influences them
2. A NEW WAVE OF SOCIAL MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS
MAKING IT EASIER TO SHARE THAN EVER BEFORE
Until now the majority of sharing
occurred in the browser via Facebook,
Twitter, +1, Stumble Upon, Redditt, etc., but with the proliferation and
increased use of the smartphones there has been a
dramatic increase in the use of mobile phones for all types of social sharing
activities from texting to photo sharing to streaming music and video.
This has led to a
tipping point in social sharing enabled on two fronts; one through the
convergence of smart mobile devices with 4G and
high-speed mobile broadband networks has meant the faster and easier delivery
of mobile services. On the consumer front, trends indicate heavy usage patterns,
the latest figures of which show that Facebook now has 543 million
active members who access the platform through mobile.
This new smartphone technology
has enabled users to instantly share any content
through their mobile phone by text message and via new applications to manage our social networks such as buffer and
Postling.
Another trend to watch
out for that has already started is the growing effect of issues of privacy and
personalisation is having on sharing. Expect a shift from sharing with from one-to-many to more selective, one-to-few narrowcast sharing with a more intimate
audience. E.g. Facebook lists, Google Circles, Path, and Foursquare etc. As a result people
are increasingly looking for opportunities to share their personal photos,
articles, images, thoughts and location with their closest friends, family and specific
interest groups instead of sharing with everyone in their social network.
Tip-Prioritise content strategies that facilitate personal sharing
through mobile as well as through the browser
3. CONTENT IS NOW A GIFT THAT IS A FORM OF
SOCIAL CURRENCY
Terry City from BuzzFeed said that content should now be seen as a
social gift and for brands an
important form of social currency that positions them favourably as part of consumer
consideration set. In effect content
is currency — something we trade for our audience’s attention. That currency
becomes more valuable every time it’s shared by someone other than ourselves.
In his article ‘How to
Thrive in Social Media's Gift Economy’ Mark
Bonchek argues “the purpose of a
social currency is express a relationship” and by providing relevant content to
your community you are forming what he calls a gift economy. One example
of a brand he cites that recognises this is Kraft foods that use exchanging recipes
as social currency and engage customers on the web, Facebook, Pinterest and
Twitter. When formulating content strategies Bonchek contends that brands need
to answer the following questions:
What rituals, traditions, or social
conventions involve your product?
What do people talk about, share or exchange in
these activities?
How might the experience be enhanced with
something better or different?
And it is through these insights that a brand can bring a social
strategy to life with branded content.
Tip-Look
for ways to transform your products
into content, and your content into social currency.
4. THE RISE OF THE VISUAL
SOCIAL MEDIA
The saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ has never been truer than on
the web today. Due to the constant noise, people have less time to read words
and prefer to digest information through eye-catching and appealing visuals.
A study this year by ROI
research found that when users engage with friends on social media
sites, it's the pictures they took that are enjoyed the most. Forty-four per
cent of respondents are more likely to engage with brands if they post pictures
than any other media. In effect pictures
have become one of our default modes of sorting and understanding the vast
amounts of information we're exposed to every day.
With the popularity
of sites like Pinterest, and Instagram coupled with the growth of meme culture sharing
pictures and photos has never been quicker or easier with numerous photos
sharing apps available via the web and mobile.
In fact the definition of a meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that
spreads rapidly from person to person within a culture and we
have certainly come a long way from Lol Cats to more recent incarnations such
as overly attached girlfriend and socially awkward Penguin. Indeed it is the productions
of these images on sites like meme generator, quikmemecheeseburger & know
your meme have meant that memes have crossed over into popular culture. It is
now at the point where any big event has its own accompanying meme be it Clint
Eastwoood speaking to an empty chair in the democratic election rally known as ‘Eastwooding’
or Mckayla’s is not impressed from the Olympics.
Whilst the current fascination is for animated
gifs, meme culture as a method of allowing people to contribute to popular
culture shows no signs of going away in the near future and is well and truly
ingrained into visual social media. This
led to Intel's social media strategist Ekaterina Walter saying
in a recent fast company article“Brands that can rock visual media will find
themselves market leaders”.
TIP
using original branded images in every one of your posts is one of the best
ways to promote the sharing of your content
5.
SOCIAL SHARING HAS NOW TURNED INTO A SCIENCE
How to get your content shared on the web is one of the most important
challenges for marketers right now so much so that there are numerous studies
on the subject. A recent report by compendium suggests that social sharing best
practices in B2C & B2B can vary dramatically based on the time of the day, what day of the week you post on which platform and even through the use of exclamation marks, question marks or hashtags.
However a study earlier this year by Nils Mork-Ulnes
and Judith Lewis “the Science of social sharing’ identified
seven different types of social sharers, ranging from altruists who share
because they want to help to careerists who share because it helps them in business.
In the UK, altruists account for the largest proportion of sharers (39.6%),
while careerists are in the minority (2.5%).
Social Sharing widgets like stumble upon recently have been given
major credit for driving social sharing by researchers like Dan Zarella the Social
scientist and BuzzFeed also found after recent analysis of its campaigns that Stumble upon was the most valuable
sharing tool for driving views on its site.
Whereas the other the other media property owned by BuzzFeed’s founder
Jonah Peretti’s Huffington post have developed great one-click features which tailors a tweet post for each of the
headlines you are reading. See below example.
Add to this a Culture of
hacking and developers are constantly finding new ways to make it easy for
people to share their content. One such person is Derek Halpun who has made it easier to share than not to
share posts on his social triggers blog by simply highlighting a passage
from his post and asking people to tweet it. See below
This is brilliant because it gives people a clear call to action right
in the middle of a post, not at the end when they’re ready to move on to the
next shiny object that they see.
Add to this recent examples of memes such as leg bombing with Angela
Jolie at the academy awards and Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair then there
is also the argument that
Social
sharing is about moments of relevance and timeliness which has
given rise to the term more recentlyMeme
jacking .
Tip
–Don’t be afraid to experiment with new tools & tricks ways to share
content. There is no one hard and fast rule is this rapidly evolving
space.
6. THE
RISE OF THE CREATIVE CONTENT CURATOR
According to Buzz feed’s marketing director creating great content
today is a mixture between art and science. I would go a step further and say it is a combination of creating stunning emotion provoking images and
great copywritingthat connects to the brand.
So in order for content resonate “It should provide a reason to share so if
your content is cool and its funny people and garners an emotion people will
share it.”
Que the role of the creative content curator whom has the ability
to monitor trends, and filter content around particular themes that resonate
with audiences.
By surrounding brands with cool content makes people feel
favourable towards them as part of their brand consideration. Curating content
into subsets and genres is something which that BuzzFeed have turned into an
art form.
For example tapping into the trend for animal content online they have produced articles
such as ‘why cats better then dogs’ that have captured in excess of 9 million
views to date. When Toyota approached them to try and become more relevant to
its target market to promote its new Hybrid model promotion BuzzFeed created ‘The
20 coolest Hybrid Animals’ post on a
custom page on the site for the promotion incorporating the brands Facebook and
Twitter feeds as well as a Facebook comments box all combined to ensure engagement for this campaign far exceeded the brands expectations.
Other content themes that have been played to great effect out
include tapping into to our obsession with nostalgia where BuzzFeed created the
“The BuzzFeed Time Machine." For
GE where readers can flip a dial from decade to decade and see the site
immediately re-skinned to reflect what the coverage would have looked like at
an earlier time
This was a fun way to bring the brand to the forefront of their reader’s
consideration.
What BuzzFeed do so seamlessly on their site is expertly leverage
the use of lists. They not only increase
engagement but add depth and widen audience appeal and in the process leverage
other great content.
Tip-
by associating your brand with content that is Cool, interesting, fun and quirky
people will feel favourably towards the brand
7. NEW
FORMS OF BRANDED CONTENT COMBINE STORY TELLING & BRANDS IN AN ORGANIC WAY
So whilst BuzzFeed is flying the flag aggregating and curating content
other brands are actively looking for new ways for new ways to connect with
audiences and integrate brands via storytelling.
According to Avi Savar, founder of US agency Big Fuel, who led the
inaugural Branded Content and Entertainment jury this year at Cannes, Whilst
Traditional advertising starts with defining “what is the unique selling
proposition of the product you’re trying to focus on?” branded Content is
really the inverse of that. It’s thinking about people first. What’s resonating
with them...and connecting those people’s stories to your product in a relevant
way?
The sweet
spot for branded content therefore is to tell a story in a completely organic
way so people engage with your content and it doesn’t feel like an advertising
message.
In effect according to Colvin “If content is fun interesting and quirky
the message can be secondary because the brand association and resulting
organic lift is what is so important.”
Great examples of branded content at the moment include:
Intel’s 6 part romantic video series “the beauty inside” that was
played out over a month that gained over 55 million views and 94,000 Facebook
“likes. Crafted as a fan-centric social film to promote Toshiba’s Protégé
Ultrabook and Intel software, it was consciously decided to make an online
coming-of-age love story. What they found is that whilst viewers came for the
innovation of the project they ultimately stayed for the story.
Another brand hot on the heels of Red Bull is KLM whom flew
the flag recently to record a year in the life of Dutch superstar DJ Armand Van
Buren. Check out their YouTube page to see some of the inspirational content
they are producing currently. Who honestly would have thought a few years ago that
a major airline would be producing content such as this to inspire brand
loyalty.
The Holstee fashion brand is another
great example that wrote a manifesto and posted it on its website to share the
company’s values and mission with its customers. Much to their surprise the
manifesto went viral and spread rapidly especially on visual platforms Tumblr and Pinterest.
The resulting effect was that Holstee
sold out of the first batch of products. Not only did the manifesto increase
sales, it encouraged people to start living the message and now the brand has
gone further by launching a whole platform called My life where people can
share their stories inspired by the manifesto.
The shining example of branded content for all other
brands to aspire to be Redbull has built itself to be a media publisher and the
recent Stratos project clocking up the record for the most watched live stream
event in History.
What all these brands have in common is that they
understand the importance of brand association through content and events that
are cool fun and interesting which gets people talking and sharing their
content.
Tip- Design an experience around what matters to your
audience and make it easy for them to share and express themselves as part of
the process.
CREATING YOUR OWN BRANDED CONTENT
As the saying goes “if you want a big snowball effect to start
with a big snowball” and start by putting some money, thought and sometime into
what’s going to go viral. The Starting point for any brand argued Colvin should
be to start by looking at what content is already out there that is working. 75
% is just noise and 25% is working so when we look at why is it working we
should ask ourselves why does it resonate, why is it easy to
remember and does connect back to the brand?
So for a brand that is experiencing some negative backlash online
a great way to look to counter this is to take a leap of faith and start
surrounding the brand with content people do like to get people engaged and
making the brand relevant.
The classic example now is Domino’s who after listening and held
its hands up and said yes our pizzas were crap and has done something about it
and has embarked on a transformation by adopting radical transparency approach
and baring it soul in such a public way. From publicising its tweets on New
York’s time square in a real time feed to integrating the time tracker for all its
deliveries it has succeeded in engendering consumer trust and reigniting the brand.
THE WRAP
Social sharing and branded content are important because
with social media at the pulse, the way we interact, engage and talk with our
friends has become based upon sharing more than ever. Brands that can
capitalise on this and associate their brands with cool interesting and quirky
content that people want to share will position themselves more favourably as
part of consumers purchase consideration.
Who would have thought an energy drink would set
the record of the most amounts of live stream views a few years ago. I wager this
is just a taste of things to come in the branded content revolution where designing
experiences which matter helps build brands alongside more product orientated
marketing.
So what are your thoughts?
Do have any great tips to share on social sharing? Any great examples of branded content you‘d care to share? Or do you think like me branded content made to share is
the future?
2011 saw an across the board rise in the use social media platform in Australia. Facebook growth and engagement rose to over 11 million average monthly views whilst Twitter (2.8 million) and LinkedIn (2 million) have almost doubled their user numbers. Video continues to explode with YouTube increasing its audience by 4 million whilst new entrant Google Plus has over 500,000 Australians signed up to the site.
Now social media usage is main stream how will companies and brands differentiate themselves when it comes to their social media marketing programs in 2012 ? It is no longer as simple as launching a Facebook twitter and YouTube channel or picking the top 10 influencers in a particular industry to engage with. Sustainable business growth through social media requires planning, a real time mindset and to be embraced wholly across the organization in order for it to be successful.
Last year some of the major topics I blogged about were social TV, Social Commerce, the new sharing economy and the intersection of mobile and social. The below presentation is a collection of some of the main trends that i believe will play a part in the Australian social media marketing landscape over the next 12 months to varying degrees.
I will be interested to see how these predictions play out in the local marketplace and look forward to covering Australian case studies in the next twelve months as more and more Australian companies move from Novice to intermediate and advanced stages of being a social business operating in the real-time always on business environment.
I look forward to you letting me know what you think of these trends and welcome all comments so please feel free to reach out and connect with me
Named last year as one of the ten most important emerging technologies by the MIT Technology Reviewsocial TV is fast rising as one of the hottest topics since group buying. Ynon Kreiz, CEO of the Endemol group the largest independent production company in the world responsible for Big brother said Social TV is going to be huge. “The ability to create content that will enable people to interface with each other, to connect, to recommend, to share and experience over television, is going to change the landscape of the industry.” But will social TV really live up to the hype? In this article we take a look at what social TV is, what the main trends are shaping TV, the challenges and the opportunities going forwards for media companies, businesses and marketers alike.
What is social TV?
Simply put, it’s about merging your social media networks to the TV. It’s making TV social–again. It’s about taking the water cooler effect and making this virtual, it’s about the empowered consumer viewing content when and where they want, deciding who they want to share it with and being able to do this all in real time.In essence it is a term that describes technology that supports communication and social interaction in either the context of watching television, or related to TV content.Viewers are now using social media to connect with the TV with content that matters to them. Then, as the MIT study shows, they are engaging in massive real-time conversations around those shows and learning to be a part of that conversation and it is a participatory culture as well as a personalised one.TV always been social and on the face of it TV and social media seem like a natural fit but if the TV industry is going to make the most of the opportunities it is going to have change quickly and learn the lessons of the music industry.
Figure 1 The Core elements of Social TV
The Drivers shaping Social TV
Whilst the rise of the web has heralded talk about the death of TV the convergence of internet & TV has meant quite the reverse where social media is directly contributing to a spike in TV ratings around events. Indeed some TV executives are crediting the power of social media as being instrumental in transforming ratings and TV as we know it now it. So what has changed?
1. The empowered consumer Perhaps the most important trend catalysed by social media is the need to share and contribute to the experience. People not only want to watch and consume, they actually want to actively connect to others while watching and be heard. They use their smartphones and tablets to share their thoughts and feelings on Twitter and their Facebook wall while watching TV, in preference to using their remote or SMS texting to vote in Live Talent shows. In essence viewers want to contribute, and have a bigger impact on the story than they have now? Indeed a recent UK survey conducted by Digital clarity of mobile internet users below the age of 25 it was found that: Most use a mobile device to talk to friends about the show they are watching.The most common way to communicate is to use:
Twitter 72 %
Facebook 56%
mobile applications 34 %
Whilst 62 % of Social TV users like a combination of all three.The study also found that 34 % of respondents described the trend as "fun,and 32 % said it made television "more interesting" ,With 42 % mentioned the "community" aspect of Social TV. Indeed it is the younger generations that are driving the change turning TV programs into real-time online events which you have to watch as they happen to be part of the experience with your friends.
Likewise in Australia a Nielsen Online Consumer survey of 5800 internet users said that 77% of respondents saying they “juggled at least 2 forms of media at once” especially the potent mix of TV & web (tablet, smartphone, laptop) When people did two-screen, 65 per cent said the internet had most of their attention, with only 14 per cent saying the TV did.
3. The Rise of Twitter TV
In recent months the rise of Twitter and TV has been quite staggering to the extent that I think it is fair to say that TV has a Synonymous relationship with Twitter whilst some commentators have gone a step further by crediting Twitter as redefining real-time TV. Not only does twitter allow you to get Instant feedback on shows but it allows the viewer to feel plugged in to the experience and be part of the conversation.
James Franco, host of this year’s Oscars, put Twitter into overdrive for fans by tweeting before and during the show. Indeed during the 2011 Oscars, there were over 10,000 tweets per minute-with the event racking up 1.8 million tweets overall. Oscar hashtags such as #OscarsRealTime and #SatisfyingWin further extending the conversation.
Not to miss out on the action MTV brought back the Twitter tracker for this year’s MTV Movie awards (see below) parsing a barrage of tweets in real-time to come up with the top trends of the event, from the top actors and actresses to the most-talked-about movies... Throughout the broadcast, MTV plugged various hashtags to correspond with the moment, with #MovieAwards being the predominate theme.
However it is not just the biggest blockbuster live-events where the numbers are always impressive but this water cooler effect has spread to other genres of shows that people care about. In a recent study into behaviour on Twitter by British content discovery company TV genius it was found that Over a six day period in the UK there were over 38,500 tweets about TV shows, with 90 different shows receiving more than a tweet a minute while they aired.
Clearly, many consumers have already bought into the idea of social TV – and are busy sharing what they love and hate on Twitter.One of the interesting facets the data reveals is that the show with the highest audience rating doesn’t always receive the most tweets. Twitter trends reveal shows that viewers wouldn’t necessarily know to watch. But they may want to tune in if they know that there is an extra juicy episode of a soap playing or an interview generating lively debate.People are naturally curious and want to see what all the chatter is about. Channelling Twitter effectively could curate content discovery habits, encouraging viewers to tune into a programme they might not watch otherwise.
Twitter has also made itself a mainstay in the newsroom, often being the first to break news stories with over 77% of TV newsrooms now use twitter. In fact, many news channels use the videos and images shared by viewers on Twitter to add meaning to their reports. Indeed the integration of social media into the newsroom has taken a step further with the launch of Al Jazeera’s social media cantered program ‘the stream’ which is probably the most ambitious integration of Twitter into a news program to date.
According to Twitter’s Chloe Sladden, ”What we’re seeing now is that Twitter is, in fact, about flocking audiences back to a shared experience, and that usually means a live one…If you’re not watching live — and reading the comments from friends, your favourite celebrities, and even total strangers via Twitter — you’re missing half the show.” Furthermore she says “In the future, I can’t imagine a major event where the audience doesn’t become part of the story itself.”
Considering using Twitter in connection to promote your TV program then check Digital agency Wiredset Twitter TV best practices below
4. Facebook & Social TV
In recent months Facebook has made a big play for TV & Mark Zuckerburg Speaking at the EG8 technology forum in Paris recently said that TV, music and books are the next “media experiences” that will be revolutionized by social media. “I hope we can play a part in enabling those new companies to get built, and companies that are out there producing this great content to become more social”.
At MIPTV Facebook outlined four key ways that the platform can be used to encourage social TV behaviour:
4.1 Building TV communities- Top Gear demonstrates how a TV show can successfully leverage Facebook as marketing and commercial vehicle. To guarantee conversation after each episode ends, Top Gear posts clips of the last episode on Facebook. This reminds viewers about the highlights, and helps fans share and talk about each episode on Facebook. Additionally, Top Gear posts behind scenes video clips, making the fans feel part of a privileged community. Top gear has also fully integrated social plugins to its site & one photo on the site received 10,000 likes.
4.2 Check-ins. Not to be left out on the hype attached to checking into shows along with Miso and Get Glue Facebook has also announced you can now check into your favourite TV show as well as places and with Top Gear for examples, a user would be able to see that actually ten of their friends are also watching Top Gear at the same and helps drive conversation.
4.3 Facebook EPG. Facebook could also provide a platform for a personalised electronic programme guide (EPG), complete with check-ins, reminders, personalised recommendations, and social integration. A social EPG could take the form of a Facebook app, check-in, or game. Facebook would like to see the EPG featuring filters based on time, and personalisation based on the user profile. For instance, the ability to browse EPG based on friends, like shows directly, and browse top ranked TV could prove compelling associate like with TV shows. The Facebook EPG would essentially act as a gateway to content discovery. By integrating social trends and friend’s preferences, users could discover new, relevant content. UK specialist TV research company TV Genius has developed some excellent Facebook EPG apps for just this purpose see below
4.4 Facebook as a second screen –The UK game show Million Pound Drop was supported by a wildly successful Facebook game. The show estimated that 8-10% of the TV audience played the game. The game served as an opportunity for advertiser sponsorship, helping monetise the second screen. The game featured social components that let players compete against their friends. The game was integrated into the live-event as well: the live show featured a real-time game leader board. Players were also incentivised to play; the best players had a chance to go on the show and play. 8-10% of TV audience plays the game.
Likewise American Idol is piloting a programme where users can login with Facebook and vote for free. Like the Million Pound Drop game, the voting is monetised through a sponsorship. American Idol is looking to further monetise the system in the future by allowing users to buy votes based on Facebook credits.
5. Social TV Apps
One of the main drivers of social TV has been the rampant proliferation of mobile social & TV apps which fall into two main categories:
5.1 TV “check-in” apps: “Check-in” with apps like Get Glue, Miso, PHILO, IntoNOW, TV Chatter and new Aussie kid on the block Twelevision, to share what you’re watching with your friends and, in some cases, earn social currency/rewards.
These apps are directly leveraging existing behaviours for example how many times when watching TV have you gone onto IMDB.com, Google, or YouTube to find out more about a show or actor? How many times have you tweeted or posted to Facebook about the show you’re watching? The various “social TV” apps begin to bring all of this natural online behaviour into a single second screen experience.But if you thought social TV apps were just check-in devices think again as Miso one of the main social TV apps has just announced a partnership with Fox that takes their app one more step beyond “just a check-in.”
See video here
Miso CEO Somrat Niyog is aiming the service not just live events but the long tail of TV programs so if you are watching Dexter for the first time you can engage with other fans to see what they said around particular episodes. As more and more TV becomes a “what you want when you want it ‘experience apps like this make sense to engage and add to the viewing experience no matter when you get into watching your favourite new TV series. Rival service ‘get glue’ has also been quick to run promos around key TV shows like scfi classic show the Fringe where subscribers have the opportunity to win props from the show as part of a promo for loyal fans.
5.2 Synced i-Pad apps: enable viewers to get additional content while you’re watching a show with a show specific app such as The Kennedy’s, Oscars,Royal Wedding or a via specific TV network (NBC & Discovery).Perhaps one of the best known ones in the Greys anatomy app which Using the audio watermarks that TV programs typically use for tracking TV ratings, the app can figure out where a viewer is in a program and offer up corresponding content on the i-Pad. This means that in addition to using the app when watching the show live, users can also use the app when watching on a time-shifted copy of the program or when fast-forwarding or rewinding the show.
See below video
The i-Pad since its launch is quickly becoming a unique second screen device and a new study by Nielsen reveals where people are using their iPads, and it’s even more evidence that tablets are natural “second screen” devices in front of TV. Compared to smartphones and e-readers, iPads are more TV-friendly, although television also ranks as the top “time spent” (20%) and “situational use” (68%) for smart phones.
It is a trend not lost on Daniel Heaf, Digital Director of the BBC Worldwide, who said in a Beet TV interview that he see’s tablets as an amazing opportunity for long form content
“Whether being on our magazine app or whether on our news app, are much more akin to the types of session times we’ve seen in traditional media apps, like TV and magazines,” he says. “It might not be a fully lean-back event in a way like watching your plasma screen might be, but it’s definitely not a lean-forward experience, it’s definitely not a 3-minute medium.”
Expect the iPad to grow in importance as a quick and easy way to leverage existing TV behaviour and enhance the viewing experience whilst TV manufactures rush to get app content launched on their respective connected TV sets.
6. Connected TV & The battle for the living room
At the moment 50% of all TVs currently being sold are internet-capable, and this figure could be 80% of all televisions within three to four years’ time. Convergence is happening now. In the near future there won't be much of a distinction between web content and TV content consumption as web and mobile applications will cross over to TV to deliver in-screen interaction and formats.Google are rushing to upgrade Google TV to integrate their Android platform system, YouTube is upgrading its media channels to include more hi-quality content, Microsoft with its X-Box live community and with its recent acquisition of Skype and Yahoo with its acquisition of Social TV app ‘Into now’. The TV manufactures are also cutting in and have launched connected TV ‘s with their own apps platforms whilst there are over 100 companies globally currently vying in the IPTV space along with cable and satellite, along with traditional broadcast channels all pushing hard for their slice of the social TV market. Web enabled games consoles like WII & PS3 are also shifting focus whilst X-box has been allowing people to gather in online groups around streamed TV programming since 2010. Not to be left out are the numerous social TV start-ups in the space like Boxee, Starling TV, Matcha.TV & Bee.TV who are all making a play for the social TV space. Only time will tell who becomes the dominant players in the social TV space BUT one thing is for sure the rate of adoption of social features across the various platforms is happening on an aggressive rate.
So what does the Social TV User look like?
In order to better understand the those people out there watching television today and why social TV is relevant, User Insight began a Social TV project which has mapped out the key social TV user personas to help us understand how social media is changing TV. How do the key user vary in their behaviour ? Results to date from this innovative project have shown five key personas based on technology, social media usage and enthusiasm for TV see below
Moving forwards it will be interesting to see how quickly what new personas emerge–which one are you?
So what are the opportunities in the multiplatform social TV arena?
1. Building Brand loyalty by sharing and driving real-time conversation brands have the opportunity to become facilitators when consumers have the need to share their experience. We have seen this with this with the concept of the check-in in Social TV apps which has evolved from a sign of presence in one place to gradually becoming a way to share participation in an experience.
2. Leveraging online communities- The big opportunity is to learn how to leverage the communities that exist outside of TV and their owned media assets to their advantage. Whether contributing in real time, via the TV set or via a second screen device, creates opportunities for people to become even more socially engaged with TV programming and nowhere better is this done than leveraging online communities. They provide real time feedback; act as a focus group, sharing content and recommending shows to their friends there by driving viewing figures especially during live events. Ultimately is about creating deeper relationships with your biggest fans.
Here’s a great example of USA Network utilising Facebook and twitter via its own onsite “Chatter” viewing companion which it uses for nine of its TV series. It integrates Twitter and viewers can connect with other viewers — and in some cases, actors and producers from the show — while the show is airing.
For its popular shows USA network also as a Facebook app and an iPad app. The web and Facebook app experiences allow viewers to switch between three different views — what viewers are saying, a curated feed of official accounts or all of the above. You can authenticate via Facebook or Twitter, and post to either or both accounts — or just keep it inside the Chatter experience.
3. The Gamification of Social TV –The opportunity exists to produce new TV shows that are designed to be social from the ground up which are more interactive & participatory through gamification. Gary Hayespresentation at the recent Australian TV show conference provided some great examples of the different levels of gamification. Not only can you include elements of gaming mechanics (competition), prize offers (awards, rewards) and participation voting but the opportunity to make TV a fully immersive experience can now be fulfilled.
Two such examples are where live users connect to the show and Users become characters or play roles in the show. In Destination truth Fans tweeted things for the actors to do and see where they were in real time. The viewers are also going to be able to track the teams in real time while they’re investigating. Whereas Beckinfield a sci-fi web series in which anyone can create and play a character build an audience and collaborate on storylines through social media. Called Mass Participation Television It is a blending of the technology and entertainment industries. 4. New business models & monetisation opportunities- So far, most of the money in social TV has been generated through sponsorship. For instance, in 2011 the Oscars ran a successful integrated social campaign to encourage viewership. The most significant part of this campaign was Mercedes Benz sponsorship of the GetGlue event which enabled event check-ins on its website through Get Glue’s widgets and users accessed stickers directly through Oscars.com which Fans have to “peel off” Mercedes-Benz branding to unveil the actual Oscar stickers.
Other Increased monetisation opportunities with a two screen approach include in-app advertising which falls into three main categories:
1. In-App Advertising: Display advertisements inside the applications
2. In-App Purchasing: Leading to in-app purchasing inside the application.
3. In-App Subscriptions: Paid for subscription video on demand.
Industry analysts now estimate the TV app market will be worth $1.5 Billion by 2013 with the availability of more than one billion apps downloaded by 2015. Retail has also been quick to jump into social commerce space with interactive social TV channels like Debenhams & French connection’s Youtique. Whilst another exciting innovation that takes the idea of social and commercial layering within TV to the next level is GOAB.
Developed by Syzygy The iPad app transforms the users handset (tablet/mobile) into a socially and commercially-enabled TV remote. The app brings the possibility of user interaction within television to life with a look at how social integration may work in the future.
5. Measurement & Social Data-Social TV also offers ample opportunities for extra media value, measurements and conversion. One of the main opportunities is around social graph data for content recommendation and TV viewing behaviour. This wealth of data can be used to target and identify future opportunities and potential new services to drive action. Measuring services will be critical moving forward to analyse the impact social TV is having and agency Wiredset this year developed its Social TV charts measurement system.Trendrr looks at data from Facebook, Twitter, Miso and GetGlue, combining mentions with check-ins to determine “total activity.” You can also drill down into sentiment analysis by show. There’s much more data available in Trendrr’s premium service — “most anticipated” shows and competitive graphs — which it offers to television clients.
6 Every brand to become a media company-With Social technologies it has never been easier to produce your own content quickly and easily. Two great examples of brands that have transformed themselves into modern day media companies are Billabong & Red Bull who are now competing with more traditional media companies in the space.
The opportunity going forward is for social TV to proliferate to the enterprise sector in the next few years. A great example of this exists here is Sydney in the shape of Evo TV who have built a media company off the back of the financial services sector not exactly renowned for its willingness to invest in the social media. Their ‘no more practice’ show was the first ever reality TV show for financial advisers with over 50,000 views over the entire series.
So what will the future of TV look like in 2020?
1. The Decline of traditional TV as we know it. The concept of TV as we know has changed and will be in the future over multiple platforms and social will be designed into all TV formats as a natural part of the viewing experience.
2. TV will be al a carte & you will be able to pay to avoid Ad’s. It will only be a few years away where you will be able to subscribe to your favourite TV show and pick and choose what show you watch based on your tastes as part of a subscription package and watch them on any device anywhere anytime.
3. Global communities will dominate media –Global social networking applications will continue to proliferate into the video arena, providing communal interaction and real-time ratings and recommendations, creating shared experiences and across geographic boundaries.
4. Every TV network will have a social media Team -Every launch will have a dedicated social media plan. Two years ago, there was nothing. Today, social is a core component of how the US networks do their job. This will spread globally across broadcast media.
5. Most viewing will be on personalised screens- The opportunities around Tablets and touch screens are only just beginning and more audio and video will be consumed on personal devices than on the traditional shared living room display, which will become more multifunctional and less defined by the television viewing experience.
6. Mobile will be the number one device people view TV on with programs made specifically for the format. In Tokyo there are currently more than 1.5 million paid subscribers for TV shows specifically made for mobile which will only spread globally between now and 2020.
7. Transmedia story telling will be the norm -Storytelling across multiple forms of media with each element making distinctive contributions to a fan's understanding of the story world. By using different media formats, transmedia creates "entry points" through which consumers can become immersed in a story world. Watch out for the new Fox8 series ‘Slide’ which launches in August a great example of home grown transmedia storytelling via Hoodlum entertainment.
8. Social Commerce on TV will be ubiquitous via new business model like GOAB
9. Touch devices will replace remotes-the awful point and click will be replaced by touch sensitive, interactive devices including tablets and multipurpose smartphones.
10. All TV’S will be connected to the web
The Wrap
Social TV is important because social media will bring together the TV and the digital world. People already use their TV’s socially: they either watch it together as a family, or watch a show separately but talk about them together at a later time. So Social TV is about bringing real-time interactivity back to TV, which has been lacking in recent years.The people who used to sit in front of a television and talk about their experiences to friends, family and co-workers are now empowered to do so right here, right now. Perhaps more important however, people are building full-fledged networks around them, creating a distribution channel of audiences with audiences and their reach is as influential as it is infinite.As WIRED magazine recently stated, TV is moving from a “vast wasteland” to a “vast garden". Today, “TV is a crazy, weed-filled, wonderful, out-of-control garden.” It is time to rethink TV. It is time to imagine what it could be and redefine it for the participatory culture of tomorrow.
What do you think do you think ?
How important will social TV be?
Want to learn more about Social TV then check out the following resources:
Not too long ago, we got eBay and craigslist, more recently we have got CouchsurferAirbnb, Free cycle, Zipcar and Kickstarter. What do they have in common? They ask people to share in one way or another and are part of a growing trend where access to of goods and services trumps ownership.
These days sharing is an industry thanks largely to new technology. And it's one that we still don't know much about BUT one that holds important implications and opportunities for marketers and business alike as we journey headlong towards a new era of the social web.
(illustration by Craig Robertson)
In 2010, Latitude Research and Shareable Magazine conducted the first-ever comprehensive sharing industry The New Sharing Economy to establish benchmarks for awareness and adoption of existing sharing services, as well as sharing attitudes and behaviours.
What they found was that:
75% of participants predicted that their offline sharing will increase in the next 5 years.
The most popular perceived benefits of sharing (67% each) were “saving money” and being “good for society,”
45% of participants liked the idea of sharing services that felt smaller and more accessible like local or grass root communities.
In her memorable TED Sydney keynote last year Rachel Botsman co-author ‘What’s Mine is your’s: The rise of Collaborative Consumption’ outlined what has happened is that there has been a profound shift in the way we do business and how we consume goods and services, we have moved from a purely consumption based society to a new sharing economy. This combined with an economic crisis, environmental concerns, and the maturation of the social web, have given rise to an entirely new generation of businesses.
To put things in context take a look at the following figures:
Bike sharing is the fastest growing form of transportation in the world which grew 200% in 2010
Two billion dollar’s worth of goods & services were exchanged on Bartercard in 2009 world’s largest B2B business network
Freecycle an online that circulates items to reuse had 5.7 million members across 85 countries
Couchsurfing a global website connects travellers with locals in more than 235 countries was most visited hospitality website in 2010 with over 3 million visits
According to Lisa Gansky, author of The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is sharing. “We’re at a point where online, shared interest communities and advancements in mobile, real-time and location-aware technologies have created a perfect storm for sharing in the physical world. “ The net effect of which is that sharing is becoming a “disruptive psychology” for existing businesses who’ll need to evolve and adapt if they’re to survive.
See her Jan 2011 TED speech “why the future of the business is the mesh” below for a more in-depth analysis.
Watch out for the key quote “a brand is a voice and a product is a souvenir”
The new business models
Traditional businesses follow a simple formula: create a product or service, sell it, and collect money. But in the last few years a fundamentally different model has taken root - one in which consumers have more choices, more tools, more information, and more peer-to-peer power. In this new climate typified by terms such as sharing, bartering, trading and swapping Botsman outlines three systems to arrange these new collaborative business models:
1. Product Service Systems: Pay for the benefit, not the product (think paying for the hole, not the power drill that makes it) Example: BMW’s new premium car sharing service Drivenow
See video below
2.Redistribution Markets: Exchanges that move used goods to where there’s new need (think the stretching of product life cycles for things like DVD’s) Example: Swap Treasures
3. Collaborative Lifestyles: People with similar interest’s band together (think co-working) Example: AirBnb The benefits are hard to argue -- lower costs, less waste, and the creation of global communities with neighbourly values.
BUT what are the implications for brands and marketers?
1. Businesses need to redefine their roles as purveyors of stuff to purveyors of services and experiences and think about what the changes in relationships are between customers in the new collaborative business model.
Why will people participate?
What are the right activities and outcomes to focus on?
What expertise is required?
What can organizations offer in return?
How do we quality control?
The below business model design from the board of innovation outlines the roles and relationship of the Etsy.com
It is possible with these building blocks to design your own business idea
2. Brands need to evaluate how their products are used. Marketer’s must consider if their products should be disposable or reusable, and if they can’t make them reusable then how to make the benefits worth sharing more broadly.
3. Brands should facilitate sharing and become active participants in communities and think how they can help that community to do what it wants to do. Furthermore if sharing online is a good predictor of offline sharing, it is important your product is shareable on and offline which in turn could lead to new types of engagement or advocacy around your product.
4. Trust & reputation-It makes sense if there is a drift away from buying new goods and services that brands should also focus on reseller’s commercial reputation in secondary markets to ensure brand consistency. It is these new reputation systems that facilitating trust between strangers that could possibly form future credit mechanisms.
5. Ratings & reviews-If it’s easier to share based on trust, then the power of a recommendation must be part of your business planning. Furthermore when consumers don’t “own” and “share” instead, ratings, and reviews will have more importance in the decision funnel. Reputation will therefore be a bigger filter.
6. Find Value in social and alternative currencies sharing culture makes it possible for virtually anything, including specialized skills or knowledge, used goods, and social reach, to become currency.
7. Become a we based brand–it is not enough to just sell products and services. If the “we + me” equation is a sweet spot of benefits to consumers, then are your products or issues properly positioned especially to millennials? 8. Moving from monopolies to market places-By simply selling the same products, in the same way, how can we enable entrepreneurial consumers to sell their own products through our platforms? The ASOS marketplace Is a great example of this trend.
9. Listen engage & experiment-Lisa Gansky contends that “with web-enabled mobile devices, social networks and our ability to track and manage physical assets, it's an imperative to listen, engage and experiment."
Opportunities
Based on the data from the new sharing economy report the top opportunity areas for new service offerings were as follows:
1.Time-Marketplaces that use network technologies to enable the exchange of less tangible assets such as time, space and skills.
2.Transportation-There’s still a large amount of unfulfilled demand for car-sharing. More than half of all participants either shared vehicles casually or weren’t sharing currently but expressed interest in doing so.
3. Household goods -Many people already share occasional-use household items (such as power tools, kitchen appliances, party supplies, and sporting goods) with friends, but few services exist yet to organize these sharing efforts. There's a lot of opportunity to share things we don't need to own.
4. Living space-is a valuable commodity, which is why more co-working and peer-to-peer lodging services are popping up and doing well. Moreover, new models of sharing like fractional ownership are refreshing how we think about accessing a variety of different spaces.
The benefits of peer-to-peer sharing are that it allows for potentially unbounded scalability, access to more resources and often at closer proximity to us. Because peer-to-peer companies aren’t subject to the overhead cost of purchasing and maintaining a “fleet” of cars all their own, the cost to renters is often lower; moreover, members have the opportunity to monetize their own possessions.
Building brand loyalty and generate more actionable marketing data through sharing-based offerings it is possible to find out more about their customers than ever before. E.g. Zipcar members log into their account every time they need a car. And in the process build a transaction history which translates into highly valuable information about how and where customers interact with services over time.
This wealth of data can be used to target and identify future opportunities & potential new services. Likewise this date could prove useful with selling ancillary services such as apps to monitor petrol consumption might prove useful to these new service companies.
Growth can also be achieved by partnering with businesses who share your customers’ interests. For example, Zipcar teamed up last year with Zimride, a popular ride-sharing service, to match car-sharers with those just looking to catch a ride.
Incorporating a game layer into sharing services may also mean a way for brands to get involved where it makes sense. If brands could provide a reward for sharing and doing more for the greater good, it could spur quicker adoption of sharing.
Sharing industry opportunities are not just for big brands, they can happen in small, but highly passionate communities—even if those communities are circumventing buying more of the brand’s product by sharing. Passionate communities are doors to social engagement for any kind for a brand, and collaboration may be the answer’
The New Sharing economy Ecosytem
The future
Lisa Gansky talks about a future of business that’s about sharing all kinds of stuff, either via smart and tech-enabled rental or, more boldly, peer-to-peer. The key challenge of which she see's as making sharing irresistible .What we have seen to date is a radical restructuring of business in sectors like banking, where Wall Street's behaviour has led to immense consumer distrust, and as a result companies like Zopa have benefited enormously from the banking crisis going from early adopters to a more mass-market crowd.
As more people are exposed to peer to peer sharing systems they will become more receptive to other community based solutions, the result being a deep shift in consumer mindset becoming more receptive towards to sharing in general. Indeed It is these growing P2P marketplaces that are the driving force behind many a VC investment portfolio right now and the question is how big will the sharing industry go on to be.
Gartner Group researchers estimate that the peer-to-peer financial-lending market will reach $5 billion by 2013.Frost & Sullivan projects that car-sharing revenues in North America alone will hit $3.3 billion by 2016. And Botsman says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market will become a $26 billion sector, and believes the sharing economy is a $110 billion-plus market.
Umair Hague’s The new capitalist manifesto delivers a bold framework for what he calls 21st century ‘constructive capitalism’ with new corporate values focusing on meaning, happiness, sustainability and radical innovation. In the book he sites examples of companies who are the leading the way to help recalibrate the “unbalanced scorecards’ of most big corporations today and having a unique purpose in people’s lives. He cites Google as an example of a value-driven business with a celebrated commitment to do no evil, its preoccupation with speed and its commitment to open data. He cites companies like Threadless, LEGO and Starbucks for commitment to co-creation. And he cites companies like Apple, TATAand Nintendo for their radical innovation and ability to redefine the music, mobile phone, and game and car market.
It is companies like that have figured out how to create value and earned our efforts in the process hence the term earned media who will be the corporate business models of the future. Alongside these new corporate values there will be an exponential increase in the number of peer to peer market places with new forms of currency and reputation systems that will allow for the exchange of good of services. People will have a reputation bank account alongside their normal bank accounts and a reputation rating that will measure their contributions to communities.
Start-up TrustCloud is already building an algorithm to collect the trail you leave as you engage with others on social media and calculate your reliability, consistency, and responsiveness. The result would be a contextual badge you'd carry to any website, a trust rating similar to the credit rating you have in the offline world.
Peer to peer marketplaces will form accepted forms of secondary income and instead of paying for cash barter talents skills and ideas and virtual social currencies will be the norm. We have already seen the beginning of virtual goods online and who’s to say that Facebook credits in the future become an everyday way of doing business with each other.
The Wrap
Whether we realize it or not we are in an era of rapid mobile and social technological change which is having far reaching economic and cultural effects. The new sharing economy has heralded the birth of the peer to peer marketplace that is revolutionizing the way we do business the world over. Not only are we making better use of resources but we are now moving towards a society that is less focused on economic growth but also focused on social well-being.
This has led to initiatives by President Sarkozy to examine what we interpret as wealth and how this is measured being redefined. Indeed we are already seeing this in the UK, France and Canada with the introduction of the happiness index.
As Botsman talks about in final chapter of collaborative consumption it’s as though we have woken up from a dream and as much as the new collaborative business models and sharing platforms that have been talked about in the last twelve months I really wonder how many people actually realize the significance of the period we are in and the far reaching impacts it will have for the next decade and beyond.
We may not be headed directly towards the new socialism, but it feels that we are almost certainly headed towards a new era for the social web.
What do you think?
10 Next Generation Social Sharing & Collaborative sites to watch in 2011
Whilst 2010 has arguably been the year of marketers asking the question “what is the ROI of Social Media? And, how do we encourage our fans to buy? 2011 could quite possibly be the year of Social Commerce. In its crudest form social commerce could be seen to some as the intersection of social media with ecommerce but I would argue it is more than just an extension of e-commerce “it is the use of social technologies and integrated strategies to redesign and personalise the shopping experience.”
According to a new US Social Commerce report by invoke solutions social media is having a profound effect on the consumer decision making process with Social media users:
Highly valuing new information from brands.
The majority sharing branded content within their network.
Participants viewing branded social media content as relevant across a wide range of categories.
Beyond discounts consumers want to engage with brands to help shape products.
Clearly todays social media users both accept and expect brands participating in social network sites and platforms.
The rise of social commerce
A recent survey of 135 top retailers and consumer goods manufacturers by research firm Altimeter Group found 86% of respondents are preparing to launch some sort of social commerce strategy by 2011. Combine this with the fact that over the last year ear, there has been an explosion of stores on Facebook and partnerships with Internet retailers which has prompted Facebook’s Ethan Beard who runs the Web giant’s developer network to also predict that social commerce will hit tipping point over the next 12 months.
“Social commerce will be big and disruptive,” Beard said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, referring to the use of social media tools and content (see ‘social tools & tactics’ section below) to make online shopping a more social experience.
What does Social commerce really change in terms of the customer relationship and how can we use social to take loyalty to the next level? Traditional CRM was very much based around data and information that brands could collect on their customers, all of which would go into a CRM system that then allowed the company to better target various customers. However we are now in a world of what Pete Blackshaw VP at Nielsen referred to as ‘friction free feedback’ and “the ability for us to provide feedback either good or bad has risen dramatically which leaves a digital trail that goes up exponentially.” It is in this context we need to move from a transactional to emotional interaction with our customers and brands now need to adopt an approach to of active listening and learning, engaging in meaningful dialogue, adapting, and shaping experiences to drive action. But what tools and tactics can we use to help engage, and re-energise the customer shopping experience?
Social Commerce Tools & Tactics
By leveraging some of the following social tools and tactics we can begin the path to product discovery, selection and referral along the consumer path to purchase.
1. Social graphs -Many of the recent examples of social commerce have been made possible by new social media technologies that link social media platforms to ecommerce platforms. Facebook’s open graph allows visitors to login it e-commerce sites with their social networking accounts and communicates directly with their social networks whilst on their sites. In essence portable social graph services allow visitors to bring their friends with them and create direct sales by leveraging the social graph. Not only does this lower the barriers to entry for many sites but it also brings the added benefits of increased traffic and a marked increase in engagement across the site. Linked to this also has been the rise in platform services like Janrain, Gigya, and Shop Igniter that help manage this process for companies.
2.Social Media stores-Alongside the integration of open graph into sites has been the embedding of e-commerce stores directly into social media platforms .Such stores maybe simply storefronts such as Best Buy or, full stores with integrated check in such as 1800-flowers and Delta Airlines ticket counter which both use the Alvenda storefront application . Such has been the growth in this area that Procter & Gamble in the US has also recently announced it was opening up a new Facebook storeselling 29 of its top brands as part of what the FMCG giant calls ‘small-scale direct-to-consumer’ initiatives.Indeed selling on Facebook has now also extended to’ network selling’ on where you can sell up your own store with Mark in the US to sell cosmetics to your social network .It can be seen therefore that Facebook has become a compelling place for brands to set up shop. That, along with the cost, is one of the reasons brands are increasingly using Facebook pages rather than microsites as the hubs of their digital marketing campaigns. Coupled with the arrival of stores on the platform has been the recent introduction of Facebook Credits which now allows people to pay for virtual goods such as games and eventually anything.
3. Social plugins -help generate social recommendations which not only realise the referral value of customers and advocates but also are personalising the experience. Logging in through Facebook on your Amazon For example automatically serves up birthdays and gift suggestions for your friends based on their stated profile preferences. It is these Personalised recommendations based on similarities in social, purchase and browsing profiles with other customers that are increasing context and relevancy to the shopping experience. Also very popular are Apple’s I-Tunes genius recommendations and personalised fashion recommendations from Stylefeeder. Expect a lot more companies serving up personalised shopping experiences like this as consumer start to realise the benefits of sharing their social and behavioural data.
4. The like button - is the new review has risen to prominence in a matter of months. Since its introduction Facebook has announced 2-million sites have integrated Facebook’s social plugins. As a result sites like IMDB have seen traffic double since in introduced the like feature. According to Facebook research on the value of a liker, the average “liker” has 2.4x the amount of friends than that of a typical Facebook user, they click on 5.3x more links to external sites than the typical Facebook user. So ubiquitous has the use of the like button become that sites like urban outfitters are using the feature to determine products selection for users based of the number of likes which has made it a powerful personal recommendation tool on shopping sites. New shopping search engine the find.com which uses your Facebook open graph data has found that using the like button also leads directly to a higher purchase rate.
5.Social Apps -Offering online apps or widgets that support social interaction and user contributions is another useful tactic as part of the social commerce toolset which when done well can be very powerful.
For example, the Hallmark Social calendar application on Facebook is integrated with your friend’s lists as part of a free calendar and incorporates all the features of social games –points, rankings, virtual goods and rewards– and works in conjunction with tools intended to help people organize and manage their social life. Nike+ is also another well-known social application that allows people to track and share sports performance that is fully integrated into a product and has now been updated into a mobile app integrating GPS acting as your fitness guru, motivator and record keeper. Social apps also have the added benefit of these utilities promoting a sense of fun and an association of trust and credibility in the brand.
6. Forums & Communities -Discussion and Q&A forums involve people offering each other support for example Threadless runs a curated marketplace that brings T-Shirt designers and consumers together on a platform which supports voting, rating and discussions. More structured forums include features such as ‘search FAQ’s like Yahoo Answers & AOL shopping which can both be integrated into e-commerce sites alongside consumer ratings and reviews. Another interesting case study is that of Burberrys ‘Art of the Trench’ site which curated a UGC discussion gallery of customers modelling Burberry trench coats. Between its launch in November 2009 and mid-2010 the site notched up more than 7 million visits and as a result was hugely important to Burberry’s repositioning and resurgence. Retail blogs and communities have an important part to play in the social shopping experience by using community feedback in the design of products and services. Juicy Couture’s for example whose community site Club Couture, use of their social tools such as ‘rate my juicy’ & ‘create a look” has resulted in page views jump up 141%, engagement ( time spent on site) up 150% and a 162% increase in conversion rates.
7. Group buying- allows consumers to use their collective buying power to get a better deal. Local group discount website ‘Jump on it’ based on the US Groupon Model also utilises the power of social media recommendations through its various I love Sydney, Melbourne and Perth Facebook pages to offer its members deals on goods and services. In a relatively short space of time the company built a network of some 450,000 members in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and uses these pages as the basis to crowd source the type of services they offer on site. Whilst there is considerable competition in the space no other local model can boast such a highly engaged community that provides user contributions to shape the business in such a unique way. Indeed it will surely be just be a matter of time before the major brands jump on board and utilise the service on a national level as was the case When Gap partnered with Groupon to smash all sales records in the US recently. Taking the notion of group buying to another level is innovative Japanese brand Uniglo.Their ‘lucky counter’ website utilises user contributions in a unique way by incentivising customers to drive down the price of goods by tweeting about them. Not to miss out on the action large corporate e-commerce sites have introduced their own group buying initiatives such as Dell’s Swarm and eBay’s recent ‘group gifting’ service which allows customers the ability to digitally pay for a present with contributions from more than one person.
8.Social shopping portals - The latest wave of Social shopping portals now enable people to shop multiple stores together using a range of the afore mentioned tool & tactics often combined with ratings and reviews , recommendations ,referrals and social bookmarking . A few of the leading sites include Polyvore, Etsy, and Kaboodle. However another social shopping site Modcloth takes the concept a step further by letting the customer ‘be the buyer’ and helping shape the vision of the company and its products. Its sourcing team places interesting items on site which members can then comment and vote on and the Mod stylists on their own and flourishing Facebook page extend this dialogue further by helping you talk through what is in stock and what might look good together. While a lot of these sites are uniquely in the apparel industries the opportunity exists for this type of shopping experience to extend to other industries in the near future.
9.Referral programs- Rewarding customers for referring new customers is also a practice which has transferred to social media .A great example earlier this year was Sky TV’s ‘introduce a friend’ campaign which offered free $50 vouchers and social media campaign to promote the initiative. Deltas Airlines booking system on Facebook also helps their customers earn air miles when booked through their innovative ticket counter booking system on Facebook. Likewise Hallmark has introduced a ‘refer a friend and get 10 Facebook credits’ scheme and again expect these initiatives to become commonplace on social media platforms as brands become more active within social media.
Mobile Social Commerce –Connecting online & offline
With the expanding capabilities of web-enabled smartphones, the growth of shopping applications and highly functional mobile shopping sites, more consumers are relying on their mobile phones for more commerce related activities. One of the main opportunities with mobile is to connect online and offline channels and building engagement beyond the screen. We are already seeing what this looks like with Augmented Reality (AR) apps like Yelp’s Monocle that display geo tagged reviews, deals and sales over street scenes whereas barcode readers like Red laser let the shopper scan and compare product pricing. However it is another service that might well represent the future for location-based marketing is Shopkick that utilises mobile to introduce real-world incentives to recognize and encourage checking-in. Using their mobile consumers can check-in to a store to initially earn “Kickbucks.” In addition, consumers are urged to scan barcodes to increase points and also learn about special deals.
The addition of Facebook places deals feature to the location based services market also now allows users to check in at locations such as bars, coffee shops or malls. Users can claim those deals by simply walking into a merchant and checking in on their phones or other mobile devices, giving marketers the ability to reach consumers and potentially attracting them into a given store. The new service cleverly combines the simplicity of location based service Foursquare, and local group deals service Groupon.Not only are consumers broadcasting their location, but they’re now willingly sharing their purchases as well, indeed, a new i-phone app from American express Social Currency built on the foursquare platform lets users keep a wish list, share photos of purchases, and comment on friend’s activities, syndicating content to Foursquare and Twitter and along with services like Blippy and Swipey users can now share their transactions like Social badges. It this ability of mobile to transform the offline world with the online social world that is enabling brands and companies the opportunity to integrate the shopping experience like never before .Indeed it is this ease and conveience and the fact that the social shopper “can do everything I want in the palm of my hand” that is driving mobile commerce in the social space .Therefore as mobile transactions continue to increase, delivering a consistent buying experience via mobile devices is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. Remember the mantra “mobile friendly =more sales“.
What doe s the Future of Social commerce look like?
1. Let’s Be Social: Programs are launched to drive brand advocacy and increaseVolume/market share.
2. Enlightened Engagement: Companies create interconnections of e-commerce andSocial platforms – both owned and in the wider web – to influence influencers, improveDecision-making, and distil the voice of the customer for the enterprise.
3. Store of the Community: Fans drive assortment, selection, and services through openInnovation networks and social networks.
4. Frictionless Commerce: Companies redesign the shopping experience acrossChannels and categories, to create a truly customer-centric shopping experience.
Whether brands like or not we are rapidly moving towards an era of social commerce where the new social consumer wear products like social badges they are simply asking for a asking for a return on this relationship and those brands that recognise this and adapt and engage with their audience have the best chances of influencing the path to purchase. The opportunities now exist for us to build on the development of social media and monetise the new social consumer through an integrated approach where online, offline and mobile all converge.
At a time where Australian retailers are feeling the pinch to cheaper online stores perhaps now is the time to think about redesigning the customer shopping experience. After all no brand is an island and it is only the companies that strive to improve their customers experience will be the ones that are winning. In the words of the Cluetrain Manifesto mantra No.57 “smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable happen sooner.“
According to a recent report by Nielsen social network use in Australia via mobile is increasing dramatically. Half of Twitter’s users visit the site daily via mobile, 36% of Facebook users visits the site via mobile, whilst 22 percent of MySpace users and 16 percent of YouTube users were making daily visits. On a worldwide basis 100 of 400 million Facebook users access the site via mobile. Social networking is one of the fastest-growing activities among mobile users domestically and worldwide, so it makes sense that marketers and agencies alike must follow the eyeballs and develop a social mobile strategy.
The rise of the Smart Phone
In tandem with the growth of social networking on mobile the sales figures for smart phones have also risen sharply. 2009 saw Smart phones sales top 25% of all mobile devices sold. A sizeable number, but nothing compared to the Smartphone explosion analysts are predicting being nearer 40-50% for 2010. In the US alone it is predicted Smartphone this year sales will also top sales of new computers for the first time.
Combine this with the advent of 4G and perhaps the biggest trend to watch out this year is the continued evolution of Smartphone’s with more sophisticated browsers and functionality which will continue to accelerate the rise in popularity of mobile applications and the mobile web.
watch the video from CTIA 2010 of the new Samsung Galaxy S Social Hub handset below
The Cultural shift
Perhaps the most important outcome of the Smartphone explosion isn’t sales, but rather the shift in the cultural expectations of the device has radically changed the way that mobile devices impact consumers’ lives, attitudes, and in turn, how they, view the role of a mobile device to support their daily needs.
The question for brands and marketers therefore is not if to get involved, but how and what social strategy should I adopt?
So let’s start by looking at what the opportunities which are available to marketers and brands alike?
The Opportunities
Both Social and mobile currently remain under utilised but the tide is changing with developments in:
1. Location based marketing
It’s comes as no great surprise that with the use of GPS platforms services such as Yelp, foursquare, Gowalla, Bright kite ,Loopt, My town and Glympse have presented the opportunity to help businesses offer additional services. The city of Chicago for example is making city exploration fun using foursquare whilst Lucky magazine is using the service as a digital means to promote tips from their editor-curated list of more than 600 stores nationwide. With the new tools for business to register their venues and gain free access to a free analytics watch the number of brands and agencies alike whom utilize foursquare increase dramatically over the next 12 months.
figure 1.The factors influencing social mobile strategy (click image to enlarge)
2. Augmented reality
Likewise in conjunction with location based marketing we have also begun to see the potential of augmented reality over the last 12 months and a recent mobile game developed for the WWFin China using augmented reality to inform China’s youngsters about the importance of the environment they live is testament to the possibilities of this medium on mobile.
The WWF Augmented reality case study video
Best Buy has also been experimenting with integration into social networks and used Bright kite’s augmented reality advertising platform to drive consumers in-store late last year serving up consumers store information and deals.
Other examples worth checking out include the Nike T90 and Fanta Play campaigns.
3. Social games
In playing out your social mobile strategy to get brands noticed nothing drives participation and builds lasting relationships better than gaming which is now spreading from online to mobile with versions of popular games being launched as apps in their own right. The convergence of games and social platforms typified by games such as Farmville are also influencing the way consumers use social networks on mobile.
Consumers now log on the mobile web both to communicate with friends and to be entertained and earn points along the way. Game playing mechanics are also spreading to mobile and Droga 5’s landmark campaign for the New York Department of Education to re-imagine education as a competition is a great example of incentivising behavior with rewards leveraging the mobile channel. Gaming represents a great opportunity for brands to think socially and have their business seen in a new light and drive meaningful participation.
4. The Application economy
With more than 3 billion downloads and 140,000 plus different applications the numbers for utilizing mobile applications as part of your social mobile strategy speak for themselves. The iPhone, in particular, allows brands to expand their product offerings beyond their traditional boundaries through the app stores built in monetization platform.
Brands who offer a compelling experience can trade on their expertise and reputation for high quality offerings by creating monetizable software. Interestingly enough last year Volkswagen took the unprecedented step of deciding to forego traditional advertising and relying solely on an IPhone application to launch the new GTi model. To date, the application has seen more than 2.1 million downloads.
However whilst I-Phone may still be the top dog,as more marketers develop mobile social strategies to connect with wider audiences, not developing applications for the Android and BlackBerry platforms will not be an option by end of 2010 as new 4G devices begin to offer viable alternatives to the I phone.
5. Mobile advertising
Mobile advertising will be an important way to monetize content on the mobile Internet, offering free applications and services to end users. The mobile channel will in due course increasingly act as a kind of “marketing glue” that allows the consumer experience to seamlessly jump between mediums: from broadcast or print to digital or even directly to point-of-sale. The net effect can dramatically amplify the effect of marketing communications used .With developments such Ad mob’s Adwhirl free ad serving tool which now gives developers the ability to use any mobile ad network and the newly launched Apple I-ad platform the future of mobile advertising in a social context is now starting to attract significant investment as revenue in traditional advertising declines. Gartner estimates in the US alone mobile advertising to reach US$7.5 billion in 2012 from US $530.2 million in 2008 with Australia having the third fastest uptake rate of the mobile web.
6. Mobile Video & TV
Since the launch of the I Phone 3GS Video has also seen 400% increase in uploads to YouTube and according to Cisco by 2013 it is estimated that video will occupy an estimated 66% of all traffic on the mobile web. Combine this with the growth in social apps like U-Stream which allows you to broadcast live from your hone and services like Bitpop and Flo TV which stream live TV programs to your phone, and whether we like it or Video is going to play a pivotal role in the expansion of mobile, as it has online. Whether it’s streaming, downloading, extra features and exclusive content the experience is increasing the influence of the handset as a first choice users turn to as a source of media as is the case in China. With the World Cup around the corner and the BBC recently announcing it would be making live games available the opportunities for brands on the mobile channel will only increase even further.
7. Social Commerce
With better phones, easily navigable mobile sites with transaction capabilities, there is now more confidence in mobile payment security and growing acceptance of mobile commerce. The ATG European attitudes to mobile commerce report showed that interest in m-commerce is rising.
As more consumers upgrade to SmartPhones, there is clear potential for certain goods and services to be sold via m-commerce with takeaways, theatre, and train, plane tickets, music and DVD’s all featuring prominently.
The future & beyond
The net effect of the mobile channels evolution is that it is dramatically altering the media landscape and consumer behavior. As Brian Solis in a recent post pointed out “for those active in social networks on behalf of businesses, please keep in mind that without a mobile strategy as well as content and engagement programs aimed at specific demographics and psychographics, you may be missing essential touch points for true engagement and collaboration.”
The challenge—and payoff—for marketers will come from finding effective ways to tap into social mobile social networks users’ locations and connecting places with people and things that offer the greatest value to the mobile consumer.
The future of social is mobile and the future of social is mobile What do think?
The launch of new Levi’s social shopping site recently is just one of a new breed social commerce platforms that are signaling the fact that ecommerce and social media have begun to converge into a very real and meaningful way for brands and consumers alike.
In essence social media has transformed e-commerce by changing people’s expectations and as a result shoppers now expect social features to help them make smart choices.
It is a call that has not been lost on Facebook who in the last 12 months have been slowly going down this road with the signing of an agreement with PayPalto enable a secure online payments and the launch of the shop front application which has allowed brands like Style Q and 1800-flowers a platform to not only sell physical goods bit to take advantage of the rising tide of virtual goods as well.
With the Levis site the integration of the new facebooklikefeature enables users to see the number of people on facebook who like the item and then cast your own vote. On individual product pages it also generates pictures of your friends who like an item .The site extends the facebook connect integration out to create a “friends store” which essentially customises the whole experience around your friend base experience!
Whilst incorporating social media features is nothing new to the likes of E-bay and Amazon, it is the most recent innovations in social technologies that are playing a key role in social commerce typified by Zugara’s augmented reality 'social shopping app'. The combination of Augmented Reality and Motion Capture allows you to “virtually” shop online and seamlessly connect with facebook to post photos of you wearing the latest dress or shirt and get your friends to comment live before you buy.
Blippy is a new social networking site which automatically publishes everything a user buys with a credit card to a short, Twitter-like feed for all to see .The online privacy nerds would have kittens over this one but the fact remains there is a whole generation of internet users that find it perfectly normal to personal information online. . As the slogan reads “blippy is a fun way to see and discuss what everyone else is buying”.
Thisnext.com takes social shopping concept to another level by using the wisdom of crowds to allow users communicate and aggregate information about products prices and deals and of course to shop for their favorite brands and to discover new ones.
Indeed the combination of merging social networking and ecommerce to purchase is also the premise behind the Soft City site which is based around computer software. Indeed there are a lot of successful social networking platforms in the tech sector and Soft City at first sight seems no different as It allows developers, users and experts to interact in a community.This is all done via the Soft City Cafe that provides knowledge, expertise, and resources as well as a chance to earn Soft Dollars, a virtual currency, to use in the Soft City Marketplace.
Not to be left in the Dark Google launched its product review program at the recent 2010 social Commerce Summit that will have search agencies frothing at the gills as it in helps companies and brands alike leverage their high-quality user reviews and ratings to attract more customers, by surfacing this content wherever it’s relevant for shoppers on Google. This is also including search results and advertising programs so the consumer can make an informed choice.
Also speaking at the Summit Mitch Joel from Twist image offered up the interesting perspective that we need to reboot digital marketing in order to build new digital platforms with social features that allow us to 1) promote real communication between real people (not brand-pap) 2) market to people who want to be marketed to (brand/category fans)), and 3) help those people to market to each other.
The new breed of emerging social commerce platform has begun this process and with online retail sales in Australia worth $18 billion there has never been a better time to start this process for your own company.
My top ten Social commerce platforms (in no particular order)
Whilst Sydney was embroiled in discussions around social media not being a one night relationship at Adtech last week the debate surrounding privacy and social media was very much at the forefront in Dana Boyd’s keynote speech at SXSW.
How the open internet keeps in balance with people’s privacy is a hotly debated issue, on the one side you have the digital natives whom have been brought up on the internet and think it is perfectly normal to share their lives in public on the internet whilst on the other end of the spectrum you have the privacy advocates that would be quite happy in their walled gardens just communicating with only their friends.
So when Google Buzz launched recently privacy advocates were quick to jump on the fact that was a default setting that disclosed a users list of Gmail contacts. Boyd explained that this was seen as such a huge privacy flaw because Google was integrating something very public with something very private.
The brand republic ‘reports from the floor’ video below summarises the main points from the keynote in a Venn diagrams format
Balance this up against the latest social networking phenomenon Chat roulette and we have two very opposing schools of thought about what it is ok to do on the internet and not?
Whilst it is ok for us to invite some complete stranger into our living room we do not want Google or Facebook to misuse our personal information. Fair enough but Google might add this is how they can build a better picture of our needs as internets users and serve us better so how do we find the balance?
It’s seems to me that we are in the midst of a social media paradox in that we love the thought of what social networking offers us but sometimes it can come back and bite us when we least expect it so we where does the line get drawn on issues of privacy ?
Boyd would argue that privacy is not dead and perhaps the most interest assertion was that Boyd saw this as a trend of making social communication tools “public by default and private only through effort”
This seems to be a common thread across social networking discussion and Listening to a lively podcast debate between Mitch Joel and Joseph Jaffe around Foursquare recently I was intrigued with jafee’s premise that ‘ 50% of the internet population is dumber than the other half ‘ because it points to a very real need for online education around social networking .
What are we signing up for when we accept terms and conditions of various different social networking services? With foursquare for example do we really want everybody on our friend list knowing where we are at all times and how carefully should we pick and choose our friends between all these different services? For example do we really want all our friends on Facebook signed up to us for Foursquare and vice versa?
My advice is to read the small print when we sign up for the latest shiny new toy and read up as much on it as possible before you start using it – As with any new technology there will be early adopters and people who will experiment and be successful so don’t be afraid of failure but just be mindful of how much information you give up and to whom. Jaffe argued why would he bother befriending people on foursquare apart from his close family and friends as he didn’t want people knowing where he was all the time?
This effort seems to be supported “When people say that privacy is dead, it just warrants others to disregard it,” Boyd concluded. Privacy is still very much alive and in need of defenders and only through that realisation can we be sure that we are creating the future we want to live in.
We are still it seems still in the early phases of social change via the internet and Calls for the need to educate the consumer online just as we educate our client’s has echoed the very real need for an online social media association that educates users to issues of privacy online.Maybe 50% really are dumber that the other half !
What do you think?
Is there anything you’d add to the above debate ? Anything you disagree with? Any research you know about educating internet users that might be useful?
"There is a very fundamental shift going on from the information Web to the social Web, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg stated at the recent San Francisco web 2.0 summit. At the moment most online marketing is geared to visibility in Google but I am going to go out on a limb and predict in the next two years social media will have overtaken Google as the main method by which we find out information about goods and services.
The 5 ways that social media is changing our lives” puts into context that whilst Companies currently are spending thousands of dollars each year to rank highly in Google this will be a thing of the past if the in the not too distant future and that the whole way to do marketing is fundamentally changing at an alarming rate which companies are struggling to keep up with.
With US Corporate’s such as P&G now willing to pay for advertising based on Customer engagement and the birth of the real-time web as a viable form of marketing for companies, is it any wonder that people who used to turn to Google for the latest information now turn to Twitter search instead .
It therefore really comes as no real surprise Google is about to unveil social search in an attempt to protect its online monopoly BUT perhaps more interesting is the news that very soon Bing will have access to all of twitters search feed so you will be able to search Bing for public tweets which is a pretty major coup for Microsoft.
The development of the real time web furthermore has prompted prominent technology blogger Louis Gray to declare “did you know there is a second parallel internet and its name is Twitter and forget about linking instead of re-tweeting .That’s the old way of web 1.0 dinosaurs"
So why not ponder how much time do you spend floating in and out of the real time web and static websites on a daily basis and how will your marketing be geared to these very different domains. Watch Louis Gray’s fascinating take on the real time web below and make up your own mind what the future has in store for you and your online marketing!
This week I had the pleasure of presenting at the 19th Annual Australian SOCAP Conference here in Sydney (see below Presentation) alongside Katie Harris from Zebra Bites to a receptive audience.
It’s always great to get a different perspective on how social media can be applied in today’s organisations.
Much was the debate afterwards was surrounding the legal implications holding back companies from engaging with Twitter and most interestingly what a complaint is defined as.The definition reads as "any communication a customer has with your company in which 'displeasure is expressed' .As much as it pains consumers to fill out forms does simply letting off steam on Twitter constitute a complaint? Apparently so and customer service departments are charged with the mean feat of logging all of these instances in some cases.
On the other hand maybe this is an opportunity and interesting way just to connect with consumers to find out what’s eating them. As one delegate from the conference explained, they make a point of arranging to meet those most vocal about their brand and afterwards the regularity of those tweets subsides. What is it about knowing a person that means we become less inclined to vocalise our thoughts?
Are we fulfilling an emotional desire to be heard amongst all the noise out there, or are we just wanting to have a connection with those brands that make up part of our daily lives with whom we are looking for a 'return on emotion' to justify the money we invest with them?
Perhaps spare a thought for the organisations that are monitoring the space and would like to offer extensions to their customer care programs by starting Twitter streams but have their hands tied because of what they can and can’t disclose online through rules of privacy. Cue lets take this conversation offline. Not every company is able to introduce a unique business models like Zappos into the market place so what are the lessons we can learn from this?
I would certainly be interested to hear from any body with information or strong views on the subject. Customer advocacy and the handling of customer complaints is an fascinating area and with the increasing use of social media there is still a way to go before legislation fully meets the needs of both the consumer and the organisations before we see more effective customer service programs that fully harness the power of the social web.
Hopefully the two can meet in the middle in the not too distant future But if the social web continues to transform at the current rate which it will according to Jeremiah Owyang more hurdles will need to be crossed along the way before this happen. Are organisations and the government ready for the changes?
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