Last week, I attended a conference in Egypt all about the uses and abuses of social media in a changing world. One of the questions that kept cropping up during discussions was on the variable nature of the online network, and the implications this will have on our social behaviour.
Now, you may want to argue that the online world isn’t changing, or even that online is all about change, and therefore it doesn’t make sense to talk about about ‘changes in the online world’ – in fact, these are many of the arguments that surfaced during the discussion. But all of our protestations were swiftly silenced when communications expert Mark Comerford gave us all one very simple task: to define the word ‘digital’ in a tweetable summary of 140 characters or less.
What is interesting about these two definitions (and indeed, each of the 24 definitions our group produced) is that they were all different. Some were so different as to be mutually incompatible. According to Mark, it is this divergence of meanings that, ultimately, makes digital a meaningless word.
‘To me digital is a word that has no meaning. The word is so over-used that it becomes more of a problem to use it than a solution – because for everybody it means so many different things. In many ways it’s a lazy way to talk about the world as it looks right now.’
Not only that, but Mark also maintains that it is nonsensical to talk about our ‘online’ and ‘offline’ lives as if they were two separate entities.
‘Your life is your life is your life. There is no such thing as an unreal life.’
So what do you think? Is this the death of digital? Is it no longer useful, or accurate, to distinguish between our online and offline selves?
I’m new to 1000heads, and have often been asked by family and friends what it is we do. Here’s just one example.
We recently supported the Nokia US launch of the Nokia Lumia 900. The brand and international rap superstar Nicki Minaj teamed up to host a launch of epic proportions, live from Times Square. Local New Yorkers and tourists from around the world witnessed an exclusive visual and musical takeover, using nine immense CGI screens, crowned by a show-stopping performance from Minaj.
She performed a medley of songs from her brand-new album and then introduced the exclusive Nokia remix of her latest single ‘Starships’, featuring London-based DJ Doorly. Lucky fans in the audience were also filmed to appear in the official video for the Nokia ‘Starships’ remix.
And what was our role in all of this?
Prior to the takeover we invited bloggers from the worlds of music and technology to join us for the event. The bloggers, as well as New Yorkers in and around Times Square, had no idea what was planned. Aside from a few hints, everything about the event was secret. The only real clue was a giant blue box that had been planted in the middle of Times Square the day before the launch. The box was unbranded but for a distinctive clock that was counting down.
To add even more intrigue and mystery, on launch day we gave each blogger a scaled-down version of the blue box; inside was a pair of Monster headphones and a miniature countdown timer, synced with the main box.
To support the activity online we created a Facebook tab on the Nokia US page called ‘Lumia 900 Live’. The tab mirrored all activity leading up to the event on the ground, still giving nothing away. Then, post-launch, we ran a Facebook competition giving fans the opportunity to win a Lumia 900 signed by Minaj herself. The tab was also the home for the official video for the Nokia ‘Starships’ remix.
The trip was a blast for lots of reasons, the main one being getting to meet our bloggers face to face, and giving them an experience they’d never forget.
Augmented Reality apps aren’t new, but while playing around with Aurasma I started thinking about how I, as a consumer, am able to express my feelings about a brand.
I’ve never used AR before, so I started simple, creating a rudimentary example that exemplifies how I can, at the simplest level, say what I think about Marmite.
This love/hate example neatly fits in with the brand ethos of Marmite, which prides itself on the intense emotional response people have to its taste. But for any other brand there’s no doubt that a virtual sign shouting out ‘I hate’ whenever you point your phone at its label, could be seen as a problem. Brand vandalism, if you will.
Obviously, one of the glorious things about social media is that we can publicly comment on (and subvert) a brand however we see fit (as long as we’re not breaking any laws, that is). But we’ve seen how uncomfortable this has made brands in the past.
In 2009 Skittles turned its homepage into a live feed of consumer tweets, where any tweet featuring the word ‘skittles’ would be shown. But thanks to a lack of foresight (and appropriate language censors), chaos ensued.
Similarly, McDonald’s was hit during its ‘McStories’ campaign – when conversation about the brand was hijacked for the best part of a week, with a storm of complaints and vitriolic comment.
So are these sorts of AR apps about to make them terrified?
Well, perhaps. But in both these cases one could argue that the damage done to the brand was minimal. From a personal standpoint, if I’m craving a McFlurry on a sunny day, the likeliness of me being put off by a Twitter tag faux pas is frankly non-existent. But they do highlight a vitally important lesson; social means everyone can, and most probably will, have their say. Brands don’t get to choose who says what about them, whether online, in AR space, or in the real world. Social media and AR are simply new tools with which both brands, and their customers, can share their feelings.
What this does mean, however, is that brands that put themselves out there and encourage participation have to be ready for the consequences – and ready to respond to potentially controversial situations in an appropriate and positive way.
Beyond those instances where a person has a well-founded complaint, the majority of brand vandalism can be seen as silly, irreverent but also complimentary. If your brand excites and interests someone enough to generate an emotional response, even if it’s not on message, that should be welcomed and embraced.
Do the opposite by going on the offensive and you risk ‘doing a Nestle’, turning an opportunity to genuinely engage around an important issue into a potential PR disaster.
Ultimately, being part of the social environment means being part of the conversation. And just like in any conversation, confidence, humility, and not least a healthy dose of humanity, will prevail.
So don’t let the hijacking possibilities of AR put you off exploring an awesome new technology – just – like the proverbial Scouts, be prepared.
Pinterest is the current darling of the social media world (even Obama is on it). With the records for fastest adoption (the time it took to hit 10 million monthly visitors), highest referral traffic (beating Twitter in February) and an average user time of 98 minutes per month, ‘pinning’ seems a hot contender for that most coveted and elusive grail: being ‘the next Facebook’.
A cross between Tumblr and delicious, Pinterest has nailed online scrapbooking to become the place where virtual mood boards come to life online.
So just why is it so powerful for brand Word of Mouth? Well, it’s basically a public display of show and tell, allowing us to build aspirational identities and lives from others’ raw materials. With boards such as ‘Products I Love’ and ‘My Style’ encouraging us to share the images and items from across the web that most resonate with our tastes and lifestyles – it’s an instant, visual way to announce who we are to friends and strangers alike.
Pinners are a bonafide online WOM army, showing off what they have, want, love and dream about, using any impactful content they can get their hands on. And savvy brands are filling those hands with their own imagery and ideas.
Publishing and lifestyle brands with numerous high-quality images already at their disposal like Martha Stewart Living and The Knot are having the easiest time, while companies that don’t translate well visually will most likely find that Pinterest isn’t for them.
From a retail perspective, Pinterest can be a dream come true. Users can pin items directly from a brand’s site, creating their own virtual shopping lists – perfect for birthdays or gift registries. These pins, embedded with links to the brand’s own page, are already driving more referral traffic than Twitter. And brands can see what people are pinning about them either through search or the source functionality (pinterest.com/source/yourURLhere), so tracking and analytics are easy.
Yet the best brand boards don’t purely focus on themselves. Instead, they curate boards that represent their point of view. A great example is fashion designer Tory Burch, who mixes boards of her collections with collections like ‘Orange’ featuring inspirations in her signature color. From artwork and colour swatches to Boo, her favorite celebrity dog, she seamlessly blends her collection with other items in a fun way, which also gives love back to other creative content and brands. On the ‘Tory Entertains’ board, she shares ideas for throwing parties and some of her favorite recipes. Those personal touches give users a look into the world beyond clothes through Tory’s lens.
At 1000heads, we’re using Pinterest with our client Veria, the health and wellness TV channel. In the past month we’ve curated over 41 boards and helped grow their combined following from 220 to over 3,117 in just under three weeks. The Veria boards are filled with a mix of the brand’s own recipes, workout videos and health tips as well as re-pins from health and wellness bloggers.
Each of the pins and boards are curated through Veria’s lens of pop-wellness. They are all about health and wellness with a playful approach that doesn’t take itself too seriously (hence the board for cute pets and cats doing yoga). This reflects the motivations for why Veria’s audience (and target audience) is using Pinterest in the first place – education, identification and fun.
Already the opportunities for those brands wanting to take an active role on Pinterest are as numerous as the subject matter of the new boards appearing every day. But there’s also something else to consider – how Pinterest generates organic Word of Mouth between peers. Pinning something brand-related onto my board of ‘things I love’ creates immediate advocacy, and for those brands I’m really passionate about, I can dedicate an entire space to pay homage, visually displaying that passion.
Top 5 Pinterest take outs for brands:
1. Make sure you have lots of sexy and creative visuals on your own brand website and social presences – but also focus on ways to spread those visuals across others’ social presences, where pinners are more likely to stumble across them – independent blogs, social networks, forums. Pinterest shareability is hugely boosted by social visibility elsewhere
2. Create your own boards to give people a feel for the wider world and influences of the brand. Understand why people want to be associated with you
3. Pin others’ images, not just your own, for authenticity, eclecticism and a bit of community love
4. Monitor, thank and reward people spreading your own brand imagery
5. Take time to observe how passions, brands and trends spread on Pinterest. Understanding the psychology and motivations behind those pinners is the best place to start when working to generate your own Word of Mouth
There is a common belief that all western countries use the Internet about the same time of day. Nothing could be further from the truth. While US data traffic peaks about lunchtime, peak data use in Europe is in the morning. And in Australia, peak data use is between 6pm and about 10pm.
The joke goes that Australians are the only ones actually working during office hours. But the reality is a bit more complex. Not only is data use constrained by corporate policies for non-use of social media and entertainment sites during office time, but business data is constrained by time zone issues too, so it makes sense that Australian data traffic would begin to pick up right about the time that Europe starts its business day.
But it’s not just business use that jumps after 6pm downunder. Australia’s social media habits are also indulged after hours. User studies and our own client data is showing that Facebook and Twitter use peaks after hours in Australia, and posts appearing in the 6-10pm slot are more vibrant (generating comments, likes, shares and retweets).
It may be old news that Australians spend more time on social media sites than any other country in the world (averaging 7 hours and 17 minutes per month, per user), but it could well be a product of after-hours access that this dwell time is extended. It would only be one of several reasons – limited content alternatives in other media may also be a contributing factor – but the habit of getting online after work is one that Aussies don’t look like losing any time soon. So when planning a social campaign for Australia, it helps to have people on hand to respond after the cleaner departs.
But if one of the platforms we use every day changes, it opens a big opportunity to do something slightly out of the ordinary – and of course there’s usually a race to be first too. Did you all hear about Facebook changing the character limit of a status update to 63k odd characters? What’s the point of that?
Whatever the reason for the change, we thought it would be fun to team up with Nokia and be the first to make use of all that space and produce The Big Nokia Status, powered by Nokia’s worldwide fans…
“Welcome to the Big Nokia Status! We asked some of our fans to tell us what they thought about Nokia, this might be the longest Facebook update ever”.
In total the update consists of 63,157 characters featuring close to 20 passionate bloggers. Who knows… maybe it’s the biggest Facebook update so far, ever?
Here at 1000heads we love finding unique and creative ways of showcasing our clients’ products and services. Seeing them through another lens sparks new conversations.
Our Say it with Skype social campaign has been helping spread the word about Skype’s group video calling features through music. So far we’ve had nearly 65,000 user generated musical messages shared via the app and some great coverage. However, not being happy resting on our laurels, we recently added another twist to the group video calling musical theme.
We partnered with Scarlet Grey, one of the many great bands featured in the Facebook app, and transplanted each of the band members to different cities around the world. Each member went on to perform simultaneous gigs in different locations – all brought together into a single visual performance through group video calling.
At 11am PST the lead singer started busking at Universal Studios in LA supported by a giant Skype video screen which streamed in video of his band mates playing in other locations. At the same time, the guitarist was playing an intimate live gig in a NYC loft space (3pm EST) and the drummer and bassist were jamming at the Southbank Centre in London (8pm GMT).
The whole execution, from whiteboard to event, came to life in a little under two weeks and involved some amazing people from 1000heads NYC and London as well as great partners from Angelic Studios, Archer’s Mark and of course our friends at Skype.
There’s more to come. The NYC ‘heads will in force at SXSW this year. As part of interactive, we’ll be there showing some new app content and doing even more with Skype and music. Keep in touch with our movements via 1000heads Twitter and please come and say hi.
Here at 1000heads we often extol the virtues of using human analysts to derive meaningful insights and recommendations from WOM listening. We also talk about how brands need to be more human when interacting with people in social media (and beyond). For a large organisation to achieve this, and to deal with any customer service issues that arise, there must clearly be some sort of process involved.
But what happens when that process actually makes the humans seem like robots?
Watching the recent Tesco employment story evolve, we saw a well-run and personalised customer service Twitter stream begin repeating the same message to multiple people for hours on end. But regardless of your views on the issue itself something went very wrong with the way Twitter was used to respond to people’s concerns. What’s more, I’ve no doubt that it was a human in charge of the Twitter feed. So what went wrong?
I imagine what we saw here was that Tesco has a prescriptive set of KPIs telling operators how many people they should reply to and a flowchart telling them how to respond in a crisis. These two processes perhaps worked together to make Tesco suddenly appear less human and more like a robotic call centre. Like other Twitter outbursts such as the GAP logo change, this may not have a lasting effect on Tesco’s reputation in the short term. But all brands should remember that human operators are more than capable of appearing machinelike in certain situations. A coordinated, sincere, human response to a situation like this is really hard to pull off, but a modern social business has to aspire to it.
How do you encourage the people running your social presence to come up with a better solution? For me it has to start with measuring the right things. For example, if you measure the % of tweets you are responding to as a success metric, your team is left with no incentive to demand a change to the script when it’s really needed. They’ll just keep on tweeting to hit their quota. It’s the same reason why direct marketing can become labelled as junk mail. The need to hit volumes outweighs the ambition to be targeted and relevant, and brands only entrench themselves deeper when social interactions go wrong.
This problem of blind process getting in the way of delivery has been solved elsewhere. In his excellent book “How to Measure Anything” Douglas Hubbard describes the early days of agile software development, where people measured the speed of work simply because it is an easy thing to quantify and optimise. But when these developers produced a large amount of features that no-one wanted to use, the realisation struck that a gauge closer to a consumer-facing outcome was needed.
So if our supposition is correct the first thing Tesco needs is a shift from speed-of-work based reporting to measurement based on outcomes. In doing so its Twitter team would be empowered with the flexibility to identify an issue and elevate it internally (with the benefit of a linear organisation structure to provide the speed and level of authority needed), which would ultimately allow the brand to respond in a human and empathetic way.
We have a new look. Perhaps the result of a delayed January detox and an early Spring clean, we’ve tweaked our brand identity and revamped our website.
Yet while visual updates are refreshing and reinvigorating, what else has changed?
Mike Rowe recently talked about the journey we’ve come on, from humble beginnings in 1999 to more recent client wins, new hires and award successes. Over that time we have changed – in size and skill set – but what’s remained constant is our steadfast belief in Word of Mouth, conversation and sharing; in social communication.
And as the marketing and social landscape continues to change, at a rate nobody could have ever predicted, this ethos has never been more relevant.
So we’ve given ourselves a new look and used some new, simpler words to set out our stall.
As 1000heads’ HR manager you’d think Social Media Week has the potential to pass me by. Not so; yesterday I was invited to take part in a panel discussion, entitled ‘Mind the Gap: Avoiding a Social Media Skills Crisis’.
Crisis might seem like a dramatic word, but it’s true that many brands, organisations and agencies continue to struggle to recruit the right people to support their social media efforts. Yet I don’t believe a lack of social media skills is the problem; actually it’s almost the opposite.
Take graduates as a perfect example. For what is essentially a new and ever-evolving industry, graduates offer a virtually endless source of ‘social media savvy’ people. Students, perhaps more so than any other demographic, understand how to use Facebook, Twitter, and any number of social platforms and presences. They’re young, keen, and with social media experience built in, what’s not to like?
But it’s here where we begin to run into a few problems.
Having a passion for social media (something I read on a lot of CVs) is almost always inaccurate. People have a passion for their passions, and they may well use social media to converse and share in those passions, but they are very rarely passionate about a social media tool itself.
Using social media to manage a busy social life and interact with a multitude of friends and acquaintances is very different from using social media to listen, monitor, gather insights, activate campaigns, and do all the other things that will ultimately be required in the workplace.
Understanding social media doesn’t mean a person has social skills, understands workplace etiquette, or even knows how to deal with all of the diverse audiences working life brings to the door. Much of this comes with time, practise and experience, but too often the ambiguity of the word social can confuse our expectations of what it means to be social.
The crisis comes when employers misinterpret using social media for understanding its place in a business context. The reality is, we can teach someone to effectively use Twitter as part of a client campaign far more easily than we can train someone on how to problem solve, communicate with clients or juggle multiple tasks. So when a graduate knocks on our door, what skills should we be looking for?
For us, social media are just one piece of the Word of Mouth puzzle; and every other piece is just as important to up skill for.
As part of our graduate recruitment drive, this year 1000heads will be launching a summer school aimed at students who are about to graduate or who are still studying. While we’re obviously on the lookout for new team members, it’s also designed to give those attending a first hand experience of life in an agency. For us there’s no better way for all involved to understand the skills we think are truly important.
Watch this space for more details.
And any students looking for some immediate inspiration should check out the free Nokia’s Social Innovation Lab that takes place at Social Media Week on Wednesday 15th. The session presents four ‘Young Social Innovators’; each telling the story of how social has helped them bring their business idea to life.
