Social Media Revolution…

If you’re looking for stats on social media, you could do a lot worse than watching this video by Socialnomics.

Rather than data though, what sticks out for me is one particular phrase.

“Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.”

enjoy…

nb. Many thanks to Albion’s Neil Potter for sending me this. You should definitely go read his excellent Digital Agency Blog

3 To Bundle Spotify Mobile With First Android Handset ‘HTC Hero’

Every other post here seems to be about Spotify these days…

Mobile operator 3 UK has announced plans to include Spotify Premium for mobile on their first Android handset, the HTC Hero. Thats the good news, the bad news is you have to have a 24 month contract to secure it.

Users will have to pay £99 for the handset and 3 will include 24 months of subscription to Spotify Mobile for free.

Read more on the Spotify blog

Read more on the 3 website

Spotify To Take On Myspace By Allowing Music Uploads?

One of the (few) good points remaining that Myspace has to offer is it’s music upload function. Artists can, with relative ease, create a profile and upload their music to their page. This then allows users of Myspace to listen to tracks and discover favourite new bands.

Spotify has now hinted that it too will soon be allowing artists to upload their own tracks to the music streaming service.  Here’s what they say on their website:

“We are constantly adding albums and tracks to Spotify and want to offer our users all of the music in the world. We aim to release an uploading platform relatively soon so that content owners can partner with us easily.”

Spotify is currently allowing artists to register their interest and no date is set nor details given on how this will work. It will probably however only allow labels or signed artists to upload rather than every Tom, Dick and Arctic Monkey to upload music.

Watch this space!

Why Email Is Still The Most Social Of Media

Now, this isn’t a scientific study you understand. More something that strikes me as obvious. Mention social media and you will instantly start thinking of Facebook and Twitter. However, it occurs to me that there is nothing quite as sociable as email.

And here is how I arrived at this mad crazy postulation:

1. Email has mainstream acceptance – When I say mainstream I mean everyone who has a computer can use email. I can (and do) email my wife, my friends, my colleagues, my clients, strangers (should I wish to send spam, which I don’t) and family. I speak through email with my Great Aunt who is approaching 92 years of age.
2. Content – An email can contain text. This could be a quick note to a friend or a lengthy business case.  You can attach photos, video (ok not large files I agree) or documents. Links can be inserted and HTML emails can have external content embedded.
3. Mentions – Email had ‘mentions’ long before Twitter appeared and Facebook copied. It’s called CCing someone in. Even this gives you the option to include everyone in a conversation OR blind carbon copies to maintain privacy.
4. Social – Once an email has been sent this can then become collaborative and therefore social. One can forward, reply and crucially for this argument ‘reply to all’. Users can forward emails to anyone in their address book meaning an email can (and often does) go viral, much like Twitter.
5. Management – Who needs CoTweet et al to manage relationships when you have Outlook! List all emails, order by name, size, date or subject. Segment and store messages by keyword, subject, contact.

Obviously email is a dated technology but it really does have all of the elements synonymous with social media and the arrival of Google Wave is its  natural evolution.

BBC Innovating Social Telly

I’ve long been a fan of how the BBC take the internet seriously. They have great team in place and this culminates in their brilliant BBC Internet blog. Who is this blog written for? I don’t know. It seems to be random pieces of information surrounding BBC Online, recent projects and challenges. I love it.

Then there is also the upcoming Digital Revolution series commissioned by the BBC for 2010. This will be a User Generated Content (UGC) TV series and I look forward to it hitting our screens.

Strictly Social

A fab recent example of their innovative digital  approach is the Strictly Social project. Forget ‘red button’ interactive TV, this is truly interactive – and social.

Designed for use both during the show and throughout the week, Strictly Social allows viewers to ‘play along at home’. The most notable thing about this is…I actually do play along at home. The number of time I find myself shouting out ‘7′ just before the judge does. So, rather than being abstract, this actually matches a real life demand.

What is it?

A Flash application that allows viewers to play along at home. It consists of five main elements:

1) The Video Screen – This displays the actual show.
2) Emotional Reaction Visualisation – Allows viewers to react to the show using ‘boos’, ‘wows’ and ‘gasps’.
3) Guess The Judge’s Score – Does what it says on the tin. allows viewers to pre-empt the judge’s verdict on dances. Users are then awarded points depending on how accurate their predictions were. This is a good loyalty feature.
4) Have Your Say – Comment or view other user’s comments.
5) Answer This – Quiz with random in-show questions.

Large Audience

Of course, with it being the BBC there will be no problems around seeding or advertising the service. The BBC website broke its own record for unique visitors when 300,000 people visited on the day the Strictly dancers were revealed. These are big numbers, at the level most commercial brands only dream of attracting. As the BBC admit themselves;

“The TV show traditionally has an older, female audience who don’t tend to come online, whilst the site attracts the younger web savvier audience.”

They hope that this application will attract the older viewers to the website and, I presume, the younger online users to watch the TV show. The team have made the conscious decision not to focus on the Strictly Twitter feed, as a large part of their audience don’t regularly use Twitter.

So log on on Saturday night and enjoy!

Social Media – Why Bother Using A Digital Agency? 5 Reasons…

Recently Mark Cridge of digital agency Glue wrote a feature for NMA online raising the point that social media use has become so widespread that brands can now handle their own social media. We are so surrounded by Twitter and Facebook that it is almost a given that anyone with an ounce of sense can ‘do’ social media. Well they can. Just not very well. And certainly not as well as those working for agencies who offer social media as a product.

Why choose an agency rather than do a DIY social media campaign?

1. Experience

Many digital agencies will have undertaken social media campaigns for different client across a range of industries. They will have learnt from previous mistakes and have processes in place to avoid them in future. They may have specialist ‘gurus’ who’s expertise lie in particular areas from content creation to seeding.

2. Immersion

Any digital agency staff will/should make it part of their daily routine to keep appraised of industry news and updates. This ensures they are aware of the latest techniques being applied to social media and can learn from recent campaigns by other companies. If they know what everyone else is doing then the agency can go 2 steps better and create an even more innovative (and therefore attention grabbing) campaign.

3. Not what you know…its who.

Agencies who regularly deal with social media campaigns will know how/where to get the best media space for display ads to drive traffic to social media. They should have among their freelancer list a selection of the best Flash guys, developers & creative kooks.

4. Economies of scale

Particularly in measurement and metrics – agencies handle several client’s social media campaigns (and therefore you’d hope) the measurement of the success/failure of these campaigns. They should already have these tools set up and so have all the processes in place to track your brand with ease.

5. Passion!

Any one who is lucky enough to get a job at a digital agency doing good social media will/should be extremely passionate about social media. As well as wanting to do well for you, the client, they will want to create the most creative, impacting, innovative and successful campaign they can. Just because they love it! No other reason. This is in contrast to those people client side (not all, just some), to who social media is part of the ‘to do list’ that needs grudgingly ticking off.

So…

Those who use social media best know that it’s a means to an end. It’s not the be all and end all. The social media campaign isn’t the story it’s just the channel.What is important is the conversation, and the language of this conversation differs so much between campaigns that it takes a real specialist or someone doing it day in, day out to understand it.

Facebook? Twitter? They’re just tools. Social media specialists* are artisans who can use these tools to create amazing things.

*ACTUAL social media specialists of which there are very few, not social media ‘experts’ of which there are a lot!

Picture Of The Original Twitter Design From 2000

Back in 2000 Jack Dorsey signed up for a site called LiveJournal which led his trail of thought to something more instantaneous. After six years this resolved itself in to Twttr which, of course became our one and only Twitter. As Jack says on his Flickr post of 2006,

“The 6th year; the idea has finally solidified (thanks to the massively creative environment my employer Odeo provides) and taken a novel form. We’re calling it twttr (though this original rendering calls it stat.us”

Here’s what it was sketched out to look like in 2000

Uncannily similar in layout with the status bar featured in the centre and most recent, short updates showing underneath. Interesting to see Twitter was first thought of as ’stat.us’

Read more on Jack Dorsey’s Fickr

It’s All Go At Facebook -A Review Of Facebook’s Recent Twitterisation

It’s All Go At Facebook…

Its been all go with Facebook the last couple of weeks. On the one hand we have them emulating Twitter by allowing @mentions in status updates and now, with a new plug-in from Vivox they may be taking a slice of the Skype pie. Oh and they’ve also launched their own version of Google Labs called ‘Prototypes’.

Friend Status Tagging

Two days ago Facebook launched the @mentions feature (although in keeping with Facebook lingo they call it ‘friend tagging)’. This allows users to invite their friends in to conversations by placing an @ symbol before their friends name in the status bar. Since it’s launch I have only seen one person use this feature (and they work in digital). It’s not setting the world alight. Yet.

Voice Calls To Facebook Contacts

Yesterday, cnet news covered the launch of Facebook voice calls through the app/plug-in by 3rd party developer Vivox. Although developed independently of Facebook, according to Mashable, “it’s likely Facebook will have a hand in its implementation or gave Vivox the thumbs-up for its deep site-wide voice integration.” This will allow users of the social network to enjoy Skype style internet phone calls with their Facebook contacts. This will also include the option for group calls. Will anyone actually use this feature? My guess is not really. Surely it would be far more useful to be able to extend the existing Facebook chat feature to allow collaborative chat (groups). Hopefully Facebook has this in the pipeline.

Facebook Prototypes

“For all the products that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to see the light of day, we’re introducing Facebook Prototypes.” This is a list of features/apps that users can choose to use by ‘activating’ and then providing feedback. For example, Facebook Desktop allows users to be notified on their desktop if ‘interesting activity happens on your profile’

To access Prototypes, visit the Application Directory and filter by “Prototypes.” From there, you can activate or download any of the Prototypes listed.

Read more on this on the Facebook blog

How Facebook has mimicked Twitter in the last few months:

1) Facebook purchased FriendFeed a real time status & sharing site. Facebook have since opened up the Friendfeed API to 3rd party developers. This is the tactic that has helped Twitter grow so well.

2) Facebook launched real time search

3) Facebook Lite launched – Status centric version. Twitter is status centric.

4) Facebook add @mentions. Possibly the biggest Twitter copy of all.

Spotify Mobile App – Now Available in The App Store!

On July 27th 2009 Spotify announced that they had finished work on an iPhone app to allow premium users to stream Spotify to their iPhone. The only problem was, they had to wait for Apple to give the app the thumbs up. As everybody knows, in authorising this app for the iPhone, apple may well have been shooting themselves in the foot. But by not authorising it…well that could have been a PR disaster! They did authorise the app but it takes a while for this to then become available to the public…

Well today it is available! (Although it’s rated 12+?!)

Here’s what they say:

“ We’ve worked hard to bring you the same great Spotify experience you’re already familiar with to your phone. The mobile apps will allow you to take the entire Spotify catalogue and put it in your pocket. You can use our ‘offline mode’ to make playlists available at all times, even when no connection is available. Perfect for that ride on the tube or long flight across the Atlantic.

Launching these apps is our first step at going mobile and we’d like to thank all the people who worked hard on making this happen as well as all the partners involved in the process.

We’ve set up a mobile section with more details and we look forward to hearing your thoughts. We know that you’ve been eagerly awaiting this launch and we appreciate the patience – now go out and get that app! “

You can now download the app from iTunes or for Android  from the Android Market here

Read more on the Spotify blog

NMA Live Review – Marketing on Twitter

Ok so this is hardly liveblogging I know. This event was five days ago now and I’ve only just got around to writing this post, but there were some important points raised. Some brands are struggling to comprehend Twitter and, on a larger scale, social media.

What’s it all about? Why bother?

Well this event allowed some brands at the top of the Twitter game to discuss what has worked for them. The audience included representitives from Orange, Clinique, Direct Line, AXA and EMI, illustrating the breadth of industries interested in social media. The room was packed out and it really was a who’s who of digital.

Twitter & Regulation

This was headed up by Nick Stringer of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) who ran through the ‘official’ stance on Twitter/Social media regulation. He recommended that brands using Twitter, adhere  to the CAP Code and suggested that this may become compulsory. Although who exactly would enforce this is as yet an unknown. The ASA, IAB?

The general conversation veered towards self regulation. Vis, if you do something that irritates other users then they simply won’t wish to have a conversation with you.

Four key words:

Legal – Decent – Honest – Truthful

Robin Grant from We Are Social followed by using examples of when Twitter goes bad. The famous Habitat ‘intern’ and Moonfruit getting pulled from trending topics by Twitter themselves.

The Twitter Eco-system

Ciaran Norris (@ciaranj) was up next. Great speaker and really knows his stuff when it comes to social media and digital. Although he should do, he is after all Head of Social Media at Mindshare’s social media venture, Social Media8.

The Twitter ecosystem concerns the vast array of 3rd party apps that have sprung up around Twitter. From Twitter clients such as Tweetdec or Seesmic for individual users to Tweetfunnel, for brands requiring multiple users. He also mentioned a few of the hundreds of  Twitter ‘apps’. Twubble looked good, as did Less Friends (unfollow people unrecipricated follows). Cursebird live streams rude tweets and Twibbon allows users to show support for various things by adding a logo to their profile picture/avatar.

Ciaran’s presentation:

World Of Twit: Tools, Apps & Mash-Ups

View more presentations from Mindshare.

Making Money Through Twitter
-Kerry Bridge, Digital Media Communications, Dell @kerryatdell

Dell have to date made over $3 million from their effective use of Twitter and their employee persona’s are well known. I had heard of @KerryatDell and @RichardatDell (Kerry’s American counterpart) long before this presentation.

Kerry advised that the Dell team started off with just a few members on the social media team and, as awareness spread, the team had to grow too. She warned brands not to have a single member of staff manage their social media presence as should that person go on holiday, be ill or leave the company, their social persona will go too. This was in contrast to what panelist Ted Hunt of Innocent Drinks said of their social media use. He admited that he managed all of Innocent’s social media presence himself. Using the metaphor of a swimming pool, he said that Innocent were only in the shallow end at the moment.

Twitter Etiquette slide by Kerry@Dell

Kerry listed out their five tweet types:

1. Personal Tweets
2. Share News
3. Have discussions
4. Share useful links
5. Make friends

Talking about social media measurement, Dell track clicks using Bit.ly and Twitter Counter. For a more holistic reporting method they use Radian 6 software.

To find friends, Dell use Twitter Search, #hashtags, We Follow and geotagging.

Who Owns the Twitter Account? the Individual or The Company?

Kerry was asked who owned her Twitter profile and what would happen to it when she left? Interesting question.

The answer was that the account was Kerry’s but should she leave Dell, the account would become redundant and would not be changed to @KerryatApple.  That would be a loss of over 1200 followers, not all of whom would follow Kerry’s successor. Not to mention the value of Kerry’s personal Twitter brand.

Moonfruit

Joe White of Moonfruit then took to the hotseat. The pulling of Moonfruit by Twitter from their trending topics was much publicised and derided. The fact was though that Moonfruit site traffic went through the roof following this campaign and continues to be higher than prior to the campaign. Joe mentioned the popularity of the creative side of the campaign (users submitting videos of themselves etc). Many in the audience had not heard of this side of the campaign, including the panelists (who spend a lot of their time immersed in social media).

Pictures courtesy of Andrew Grill