Did you know? 4.0
If you aren’t sold on Social Media yet…
Nowadays, unless your speaking to someone born before 1950, you shouldn’t have a hard time explaining the power and relevance of the social web.
But this cool flash app by Gary Hayes displays some strong metrics that might still dazzle the most seasoned Social Media evangelist.
Gary explains more on his blog post.
Social Media platforms need not be on the web
I thoroughly enjoyed Ji Lee and his talk at the 99% conference:
Ji Lee’s talk at the 99% Conference taught me a few things and validated some of my pre-existing beliefs:
1. Occupational demands get in the way of invention and innovation
the innovator’s dilemma, doing the work that feeds you prevents you from creating great things.
2. You can’t wait for others to jumpstart the changes that YOU desire. You need to do it yourself.
3. Social Media can manifest itself in venues other than on the web.
4. Crowdsourcing —people are truly itching to share.
Thanks to Emily Chang for her blog post where I encountered this first.
Typhoon Calamity puts Social Media Dynamics to the Test
Facebook and Twitter have been used quite effectively during this typhoon crisis we’re having. These social media tools have clearly amplified the efforts to inform, alert, and respond more efficiently and rapidly than before.
But as Lilit Reyes writes about in his blog post, there has been a significant stream of inaccurate and misleading information along with truly credible and relevant tweets, posts, and status messages.
The danger, as he points out, is that the same powerfully viral effect of these tools makes it as equally efficient in spreading false information and outright hoaxes.
The Dynamics of Social Media
As I frequently point out, social media is founded on crowd based content (a.k.a. conversations). Furthermore, since it seems that social media is becoming a permanent part of 21st century society, it would be good to be aware of its dynamics.
1. Social Media is viral. The network effect makes it possible for information to reach a vast audience at a dizzying and uncontrollable velocity
2. The value and credibility of information is directly proportional to the source’s social influence (or Social Capital). One’s decision to post, re-post, tweet, and re-tweet is quickly determined by the audience based on who originally posted it plus the crowd’s prevailing mood, adrenaline, and basic common sense.
3. Conversely, one’s Social Capital improves or is diluted over time depending on the value of information you dish out. Obviously, a continuous flow of conversations is needed to establish Social Capital.
4. The responsibility to correct, clarify, and even debunk content lies with the crowd itself. Being viral, it either continuously propagates with value added along the way, or it burns out as its value diminishes and is no longer re-posted.
I’ve Got an Itchy Trigger Finger
With that in mind though, it would indeed be ideal to have the information verified before setting it loose.
In crisis situations however, the time one takes to evaluate before sharing is greatly reduced because of the sense of urgency.
Moreover, in Facebook, the tendency to automatically trust information occurs most of the time because of the nature of the network. My guess is that 80% of one’s immediate Facebook network is composed of friends deemed credible enough to believe.
At best though, the decision to propagate unverified information during such situations can only follow another rule, it is best to err on the side of caution.
Philippine libel laws to be tested by social media
Much publicized cosmetic surgery practitioner Dr. Vicky Belo has just filed a libel suit against lawyer Argee Guevarra for the latter’s stream of remarks on Facebook regarding the doctor’s questionable track record. Check out the details of the issue here.
The truth though is that we now live in a time where the empowerment of consumers is strong because of social media venues that go against the paradigm of command-and-control of information.
MOB RULES
Anyone with a gripe or praise can express their opinion to the crowd allowing this word-of-mouth effect on steroids to find its own velocity. More importantly, the relevance or credibility of the information is either supported or downplayed by the crowd itself. In this case, Guevarra’s opinion is the only side being reinforced by the resulting response from the crowd. Rebuttal’s or contrary opinions are currently non-existent from the social media space.
Instead, Belo has resorted to a libel lawsuit and, according to Guevarra’s posts on Facebook, smear campaigns aimed at him through SMS messages to journalists. Now that’s old school. No chance of eliciting the crowd’s support there.
BRASS TACKS
Unfortunately for Belo, there are two major flaws in her complaint against Guevarra.
- There is no such thing as Internet Libel Law and a recent blog based lawsuit, Alfonso Yuchengco/Pacific Plans vs. Philip Piccio, was dismissed by the Department of Justice for that reason, and
- a Facebook network of friends posseses the characteristics of a closed and private network making Guevarra’s comments privileged and confidential in nature and protected by the constitution as free speech.
There’s no hiding from social media and the best that you can do is to listen and take part in the conversations. Better yet, clean up your act because social media has made the crowd braver and noisier than ever before.
Come on folks! Web 2.0 is passing you by.
gary:
Why is everyone waiting for IT to HAPPEN
I am just tired of brands and companies waiting for it to happen because by the time they react the ship will sail and this is the biggest ship we have ever seen.Having trouble viewing this video? Try the Quicktime version.
Nike Philippines’ attempt at a social media campaign
NIKE Philippines recently launched a Social Campaign that sought to engage the market with a ‘Message Wall’ where one could post personal statements on what was worth fighting for in the Philippines.
As Social Media consultant, Carlo Ople, rightly pointed out in a blog post, the “Message Wall” tactic has been much overused by other campaigns including the now defunct (?) SMART-PLDT’s Ako Mismo and Senator Villar’s Akalo Mo campaigns.
NIKE Philippines “Team Pilipinas” Campaign
Where’s the conversation?
The penchant for filipinos for expression was correctly exploited by these campaigns. Unfortunately, it lacked any kind of compelling factor that would fuel continuing engagement between Nike and the market— a key ingredient in effective social media dynamics.
As shown by Flickr and YouTube, the conversations need not always be based on words. Neophytes can easily make that mistake as they try to reinvent their competencies towards social media.
Carlo presented a critique of Nike’s campaign and a few suggested alternative approaches. Here is how I would do try encourage the continuous interaction between Nike and the market while using an already sticky and popular mechanism Nike had already been using.
Nike+iPod
Last year, Nike launched a cool product in tandem with Apple called the Nike+iPod. This was essentially a digital pedometer which communicated with either an iPod Nano, iPod Touch, or iPhone through a wireless connector. Data collected by the iPod or iPhone could then be synced to the Nike+ website where kilometers are logged on the users personal profile. A rich set of analytics is then available to the Nike customer giving him or her comprehensive information on their progress through time.
Through this product, Nike has developed a strong community that constantly re-visits the Nike+ website loggin an aggregate (to date) 245,000,000 kilometers worldwide. This entire campaign is obviously designed to drive sales of their products, such as the Nike+ shoe that comes with a custom pocket accommodating the device.
The Nike+ Dashboard
Sweat out your Support
Nike should have exploited on an already loyal community by converting kilometers logged into an aggregate measurement of support for Team Pilipinas. This would have actually given the market a stronger affinity with Nike’s call for support by attaching the customer’s athletic activity with Team Pilipinas’ FIBA campaign.
I’m trying to figure out how this social media campaign was conceived. My thoughts though are that a lot more could have been accomplished if a bit more brainpower and out-of-the-box thinking were applied to the effort.
