Harmonic Aftershock

Twitter users are confused about Promoted Trends.

Every-so-often I like to click on Twitter’s promoted trend of the day to see if the conversation is on-topic and what the general sentiment is like.

I was a bit surprised by yesterday’s #BlueberryOatmeal promoted trend at just how many people were tweeting about the fact that it was trending (thinking it was organically trending).

 

Tweets generally fell into 3 categories:

Category 1 - The Observers 

 

Category 2 - The Inquisitors

 

Category 3 - The Frustrated

At the point I looked, about 40% of the tweets fell into these three categories each thinking that #BlueberryOatmeal was organically trending – not realizing (despite the yellow “promoted” indicator) that this was a paid media buy and only showed up in the trending topics list because the brand behind it gave Twitter money to have it show up there.

In the end, I supposed it doesn’t really matter from a brand perspective whether Twitter users know whether the trend is paid or organic but that people are talking about it – and the good news in this case is that many of the tweets were positive “social impressions” celebrating the fact that Blueberry Oatmeal sounded good to eat.

Yet another TV check-in app: TvTak

I first heard of TvTak back in April of 2011 – the premise sounded interesting: Visual recognition of your TV screen (versus audio or manual) in order to “check-in.” Since then, the company was seemingly on the down low but it sounds like that’ll all change next week when they announce a new TV gamification platform at TechCrunch Disrupt.

Their updated platform will join a ever increasingly crowded social TV check-in space with the likes of GetGlue, Miso, IntoNOW, Shazam, and Viggle (just to name a few).

If the video above is any indication of TvTak's possibilities it’ll be very interesting to see how marrying augmented reality + gamification with television’s second screen will resonate with television viewers (or rather television “experiencers”).

5 Social TV Stats

The Pulse Network put on an "enterprise social TV webinar" this past Wednesday. It was interesting watch Allen Bonde and Tyler Pyburn take concepts from the consumer world of social TV and apply them to companies and the B2B marketplace.

As part of this, they asked me to do a short bit about 5 statistics within the social TV space and their team produced this video.

Social TV is a topic that contines to evolve and (seemingly) expand in its definition. Interested to see where things are at a year from now...

Remembering my dad…20 years later.

I increasingly long to slow down the passing of time but I know that’s simply not possible. Today's date means that I’ve now lived longer without my father than the 19 years I had with him. April 27, 1992 will forever be embedded in me making it seem like it was yesterday. Yet not a single one of the past 7300 days has come and gone where I didn’t recognize my dad’s influence on me. I miss him – a lot.

“If there’s something you see needs to be done, you do it,” my dad would say regarding chores around the house. And it’s this mantra that’s fueled my own self-discipline over the years.  I often sense and relate to my dad’s introverted side, relentless work ethic, disdain for gossip, quiet compassion, MacGyver-like creativity, and sheer love for the outdoors.

And it was what he said to me exactly 20 years ago when visiting me at UNH that I will always remember, “You’re old enough to go out and enjoy life – That’s what’s important.” Little did I (or he) know that that would be the last time we’d see each other.

But life (and death) happen -- and will continue to happen. And I made a promise to myself on that day that I would live and experience things to the absolute best of my ability. Looking back...some of the best moments in my life have happened since. I can only hope that I’ve made my dad proud.

I’ve kept a card from my college art instructor that she mailed to me in 1992. She included a poem that was given to her when her own father died five years prior. Today, I re-read it for the first time in 20 years – And the words could not be any more true:

They are not dead, those loved ones who have passed
Beyond our vision for a little while
They have but reached the light while we still grope
In the darkness where we cannot see them smile.
But smile they do, and love us,
and do not forget, or ever go so far away.
But that their hands still clasp our hands and hold
Us safe from falling when we fain would stray.

                                                                        - HAC

I love you Dad – Thanks for never letting go of me...I will never forget you either.

 

TV Shows: One or Many Hashtags?

Seeing a hashtag display as a lower-third on a TV show is, at this point, pretty commonplace. But an increasing number of shows are incorporating multiple hashtags beyond their primary one that flash at particular crescendo moments within the program.

This past week’s Glee used four hashtags for its “Saturday Night Glee-ver” episode which centered its music around the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever. The main #glee hashtag remained persistent in the lower right corner of the screen throught the show and used over 76,000 times during the both coastal airings of the show.

Three new hashtags flashed in the lower left corner for brief moments during performances.

#saturdaynightGLEEver appeared for about 22 seconds at about 1 minute into the show during the performance of “You Should Be Dancing” and was used over 8,500 times.

#DiscoInferno displayed around 24 seconds 16 minutes into the broadcast generating about 2,000 tweets.

And #boogieshoes also appeared 40 minutes into the show for about 24 seconds with about 1,600 tweets.

The unanswered strategic question is whether or not it’s better to stick to one hashtag or introduce multiple – which method sparks trending topics and helps drive tune in? The answer is still unclear.

What I did notice, however, is that in most cases when people tweeted with one of the “other” hahshtags they often also included the regular #glee hashtag as well.

Charts were generated using Radian6.

 

Television is new media.

HITE Radio & TV sits at my street corner. The company was established in 1940 – one year after David Sarnoff announced the dawn of television in the U.S. I’m reminded everyday when looking at the logos of TV set manufactures of days passed that a “traditional” medium television is no longer.

While TV has always been, in effect, “social media” it’s an entirely different experience today that it was 73 years ago as television has converged with the web, social media, and mobile – deeply affecting how we not just watch but experience the medium making television a new medium.

Brands looking to better reach their target audience via “television” must approach it as new media – unshackling themselves from decades of planning TV in a similar fashion. A new planning model is needed for modern television. Stacey and I introduced the WATCH model as a first step – available in the bonus chapter of SOCIAL TV.

You can read more about W.A.T.C.H. by downloading Chapter 11 of SOCIAL TV (for free). Enjoy :-) 

 

Credit card theft isn’t an online issue.

I’m always a bit, admittedly, taken aback when I hear someone resisting e-commerce for fear of what could happen when they enter their credit card online. My general response usually includes a reminder of the days when carbon imprints used to be made of credit cards for each physical-world transaction.

While there are many clever ways that cyber thieves can steal an individual’s identity online, it’s easy to forget that old fashioned bricks-and-mortar credit card exchanges are as (if not more) risk-fraught.

I was reminded of this while in NYC earlier this week when, starting at around 5am Tuesday morning, my debit card # was being used for purchases I did not make in the suburbs of New York City. While I still physically had my card, somehow someone stole my information. The only two times I used it between when I arrived in NYC and before it was compromised was in a cab ride and when I checked into my hotel Monday evening.

Fortunately I noticed the theft before too many purchases were made (unlike when this also happened to me 7 years ago) – what clued me in was when I saw transactions from Burger King and McDonalds. It’s kind of funny actually as for those that know me well, will understand ;-)

The issue here isn’t a debate of e-commerce vs. “traditional” commerce, it’s about basic credit card safeguards regardless of the channel it’s transacted in. I’m baffled by how my debit card could have been used by someone who didn’t physically possess my card to make “in-store” purchases at a gas station, a grocery store, and two fast food restaurants. But it was…and quite easily at that.

 

“Unified Messaging”

During my BBN/GTE Internetworking days back in the late 1990s, I remember a product the company was marketing called “unified messaging” – a place where voicemail and email became a single go to source.

Fast forward 14 years and it occurred to me just last night while trading instant messages over Skype with my mom just how many messaging sources I have in my life at the moment:

• 2 voicemail services + an answering machine
• 4 different email addresses
• Twitter Direct Messages
• Facebook Messages
• Foursquare comments
• LinkedIN messages
• Skype messages
• Text/SMS messages
• Blog comments
• YouTube channel/video comments
• Instagram comments
• GroupME messages

I’m sure I’m missing a few – but what strikes me as interesting is how seamlessly I move from one messaging platform to the other in large part because of my smartphone. While there’s no one “unified messaging” source for all of these messages, my iPhone acts as a way for me to easily be alerted to and respond to new messages regardless of their source.

At the same time, it’s a stark reminder of just how many ways we communicate today – so the next time someone asks me how they can contact me, I’ll be sure to give one of the (at least) sixteen ways.

 

A move from sponsorships to social TV integrations...

NBC’s Fashion Star premiered last week to pretty good Nielsen ratings and social ratings which went on to increase for this past Tuesday’s second episode. While from a content perspective, it’s not exactly what I tend to watch on TV, I’m really impressed with the elegance of the program’s architecture and social TV format for three main reasons:

1. Strong social TV footprint: Fashion Star hits on what is becoming a standard footprint for these kinds of shows by integrating the Twitter backchannel into the broadcast programming, making episodes available on demand across multiple platforms, and having a beefy social media presence in Facebook, Twitter, and a partnership with GetGlue.
2. Test & learn attitude: I absolutely love that Fashion Star is experimenting with “emerging” platforms like Pinterest which is an appropriate and, frankly, perfect place to be in both from a target and user-experience perspective.
3. Content as advertising: Most interesting to me is the fact that the show has brilliantly integrated 3 major brands into the content of the show in a way that, in my opinion, sets the bar for sponsorships because it doesn’t feel like a sponsorship – it feels like (because it is) a natural part of the show. Many times brand integrations have an evident and blatant beginning and end – almost like a commercial within the show – but in this case, the brands are editorially woven throughout the show’s content as three retail buyers act, in effect, as the ultimate judges of the designers’ fashions.

Check out the show’s trailer to see how it all comes to life.

Moving beyond a sponsorship: In our book, Stacey and I challenge advertisers to move beyond traditional sponsorships and, instead, to create experiences with television. Here’s what is awesome about what the buyers from Macy’s, Saks, and H&M are doing on Fashion Star.

• Brand Proof Points: The brands are able to inherently convey their brand proof points without in-your-face advertising -- They’re showing, not telling.

• Emotional Investment & Loyalty: Viewers become more invested with how each buyer thinks and makes decisions around fashions for their brand and, in the process, what kinds of styles comprise each of the brands.

• Purchase Intent: Anticipation is created among viewers to get their hands on the fashions and by having them available online immediately following the show and in-stores the next day leverages that instant gratification and purchase intent.

The fact that many of the fashions featured have sold out of their respective stores is one compelling measure of success so far.

This post was originally published on Hill Holliday's blog.

The new iPad Dictation Feature

I’m totally digging the new iPad’s dictation feature, especially when doing email. Here’s a quick demo video I shot.

So far it seems to be fast and pretty accurate.