Harmonic Aftershock

“The Social Network” Movie’s Effect on Search Behavior

Since the premiere of The Social Network, there’s been a lot more interest in Facebook’s founders and the website’s origins. As someone who went to see the movie immediately on October 1st and then again 9 days later (and is craving to see it a 3rd time), I get the intrigue. For me (and I suspect many others), the movie powerfully fuels the entrepreneurial drive – much like I felt when I was in my twenties and first read, clipped, and kept in my wallet an article from Mecklermedia's now defunct Web Week titled “The 20 Something CEO.”

 

This “intrigue” that the film evokes is causing both the production and curation of related, yet non-fictional, content.  Bloomberg recently did an interesting documentary-style piece on Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook. This is soon to be followed by an in-depth special program with Lester Holt on CNBC this coming January featuring brand new interviews with many of the people fictionalized in the movie.

And just yesterday, All Facebook curated a number of existing online-videos of the Facebook founders which prompted me to check out and compare their search patterns on Google. Since search is one pretty solid indicator of interest over time, the chart below clearly shows how search queries for each of the “characters” featured in the movie increased since the movie’s October 1st premiere.

What’s also interesting is the fact that spikes in searches have occurred every Sunday since The Social Network premiered (presumably because most people are seeing the movie on the weekend and feel the need, post-movie, to look up the founders and investigate what really happened). Note: The large spike for Mark Zuckerberg on September 23rd (before the Movie premiered) was most likely due to his philanthropic appearance on Oprah.

It’s also interesting that the relative comparison in volume of searches tends to match the amount of movie airtime each person got. Chris Hughes who I didn’t include on the chart was barely featured/mentioned in the movie and was more-or-less flat-lined in comparative searches. Ironically, he was a pretty big part of the founding of Facebook and has gone on to do some very noteworthy things.

In the end, there's no doubt that mass media drives search behavior.

The Evolution of Journalism

Tonight I attended Mediabistro.com’s panel on “The Evolution of Journalism”.  About half of the attendees were journalists and the panel was moderated by Joshua Benton from Harvard University.

A lot of the discussion centered on free versus paid, content aggregation versus content production, and the last moderated question was around the future of newspapers in 2 years.

Here are my favorite soundbites from the 3 panelists:

Bob Buderi, Xconomy

• It’s about the quality of the audience not the traffic numbers
• We get a lot of traffic just by linking to good Boston Globe stories
• In 2 years the newspaper industry will still be in turmoil
• Death of the printed newspaper is exaggerated
• We’ll see more specialization – only very few can be broad and general
• We’ll see more partnerships and collaborations
• One of the beautiful things about media is people are coming up with all sorts of interesting ways to monetize and grow

Bob Kempf, Boston.com

• “Free” counterparts will rise up, aggregators will rise up
• What are we doing that’s not replaceable by citizen journalism?
• There is as much journalism in curation of content as there is in producing it in the first place
• Newspapers have been aggregating content for over 100 years
• Everyone wins with content aggregation because of the traffic it drives
• The Huffington Post has done a terrific job balancing original content production vs. aggregation
• Newspapers will, I hope and pray, they all exist [in 2 years] and will be more reliant on their digital platforms
• True platform convergence will start to happen (video, mobile, devices, kindle, etc.)
• News organizations will be smaller and far more specialized

Laura Fitton, Pistachio Consulting

• Small businesses tend to get the best ROI on Twitter (extends the people in their immediate view)
• The more genuine your content, the more people are interested
• We’re seeing the rise of the importance of curation vs. content production (“do what you do the best and link to the rest” – Jeff Jarvis)
• Are you serving the need of what people are looking for?
• Twitter and social media are an incredibly powerful way to find sources (for Journalists)
• People can become blind to [pay for post] as they have to banner ads
• Information, both the content and advertising, will come from many more sources being curated
• If a brand is trending on Twitter Search, that means there’s a news item up and that “citizens are recognizing a story”
• I wouldn’t have any following if I wasn’t extraordinary authentic all of the time.
• Serve your audience rather than build your audience

And the best soundbite:

[“We’ve been focused so much on advertising as the source which helps companies sell but what about turning it around and helping people to buy.” – Laura Fitton]

While the surface was merely scratched on the future of the printed newspaper and the role of citizen journalists, I would agree with Boston.com’s Bob Kempf who emphasized that newspapers must rely more heavily on their digital platforms.

And while it's hard to predict the future, in my opinion, we must look no further than the word “news” in newspaper. The act of publishing has become instantaneous. If we want news in its truest form, then we’re going to consume content from sources (still reliable) that deliver it to us as it is happening. How news gets published is key.  While I do believe there is a role for print in our future, when it comes to news content, I can’t imagine that the second word in newspaper (“paper”) has a lasting future.

See all the feedback from the event on Twitter at #mediabistro

Social Burglary

Oprah’s on Twitter. Twitter is on the June 15th cover Time Magazine. So who’s next to get on the Twitter bandwagon? The answer is thieves, robbers, and crooks.

If there’s any question about whether or not Twitter has hit the mainstream, a recent story on CNET features a guy in Arizona who’s attributing his May house robbery to the fact that his Tweets tipped the public off that he and his wife weren’t home – that they were in Kansas City on vacation.

Whether or not this was indeed the case, it does underscore the fact that the openness and connectedness of the social web and supporting technology can speak volumes to the general public based on our digital footprints.

As a kid, there was a reason why my parents always told me not to let strangers on the phone know if they weren’t at home. Is the culture within social media causing us to lose our common sense when it comes to privacy and security?

Be careful of the techno-savvy burglar – you never really know who’s following you online.

NightTline: One Step Closer to Web/TV Convergence

One May 11th Mashable’s Ben Parr posted about ABC’s announcement to launch a new 30 minute online-only news show incorporating Twitter. NightTline (2nd “T” is for “Twitter”) has now had 2 webisodes – the first covering “Torture” and the second honing in on “Veterans”.

As I watched, I was glad to see ABC embracing social media. At the same time, CNN has been integrating Twitter in a similar way for months now into their live TV broadcasts. And as Nielsen just reported, TV viewing is still insanely dominating web video viewing.

What also ran through my head is that while we all seem to get giddy about social media going “mainstream”, view participation in live programs has happened for many years via the telephone (remember that thing?). Larry King is a great example of this. The difference (and where the “social factor” comes in) is that unlike the “call queue”, everyone can see (and reply) to viewers commenting on Twitter in real time – and that’s where the conversation really takes shape.

A decent first step by ABC despite it being a bit clumsy and awkward. I would like to see much more interaction with the various Tweets (it seems that only a few are referenced during the 30 minute show which is billed as a “Twitter Web Show”).

Inspiration through innovation: March’s Fast Company

The exhibition of greatness. That’s what the latest issue of Fast Company illustrates as they run down their picks for “the world’s 50 most innovative companies.”

And inspiring they are -- as what many of them have in common is killer talent and leadership that pushes the boundaries of conventional thinking mixed with the elegant use of technology that enables and opens up possibilities. In my mind, a truly “harmonic aftershock”.

Some highlights from the issue that energized me:

• 37 year old Hulu CEO Jason Kilar who expressed to Fox and NBC that, “Hulu is about the shows, not the networks. The shows are the brands that users care about.”

• Zappos’s truly customer-centric business model that demonstrates putting the customer first (not just saying it) through free shipping for orders AND returns, a 365-day return policy, and a huge presence on Twitter. And CEO Tony Hsieh’s perspective on hiring talent by taking innovative measures to ensure they’re the right cultural fit.

• Etsy’s convergence of e-commerce and online community not just technically, but in philosophy to “go back to a time when markets meant personal interaction – when you knew who you were buying from.” And CEO Maria Thomas’ response to a question: What your craft? She simply replied, “I make businesses work.”

I’m a firm believer that we are only limited by our own selves. The great companies featured in Fast Company know no limits – and that’s what makes them so innovative.

5 Interactive Media Predictions for 2009

While I’m no Nostradamus, the year-end has me thinking what 2009 might be like for interactive and social media  – will it all be “harmonic”? Here are 5 predictions:

1. Broadcast TV and Web Converge: While I’ve called this the holy grail of “harmonic convergence”, it seems inevitable that consumption of media is on fast track of becoming a much more interactive experience in lieu of a passive one – instead of having to “go online” to interact with and extend broadcast content (in parallel), we’ll see several more examples of being able to just “go” in 2009 as a single integrated web/tv user experience. I have a hunch CNN will lead the pack on this one.

2. Boomers embrace Facebook: While my mom is still not on Facebook (although she did bring it up last night over Christmas Eve dinner), I’m willing to bet we’ll see a notable spike in Forrester’s Social Technographics profile for boomer “joiners” of social networks (mainly Facebook). The challenges of 2009 will compel people to further connect and support one another – families will want to stay close even if it has to be virtually – and that means boomers will not want to feel “left out” of the social conversations, especially with their kids and grandkids. Facebook will be a key facilitator in helping to make that happen.

3. Media Significantly Consolidates: The perfect storm of new and embraced media distribution channels, the horrible economy, and social media “citizen journalists” is only bad news for traditional media, mainly news-based print publications (i.e. newspapers). The fact is,we can get news in real-time online – we live in a world of instant gratification and up-to-the minute (sometimes second) reporting of events. We’ll see a major shakeup or two in 2009 with some big name news publications.

4. YouTube Goes Commercial: Google is looking to monetize YouTube and is trying hard to do so. This year, the site has seen lots more sponsored ads, featured movies, brand channels, and various other advertising experiments. The economic conditions of 2009 will force YouTube to become far more commercial than the user-generated, more organic experience it was a year ago. 

5. Twitter Grows Up: This was a big year for Twitter as it seemed to go mainstream as broadcast news and brands embraced the micro-blogging platform. Applications like TweetDeck turbo charged the Twitter experience creating a power user-base. I have a hunch that at some point in 2009 something significant will happen with Twitter – maybe an acquisition or redesign in order to monetize the service and help it through its adolescence. Let’s just hope it doesn’t lose the elegance of its simplicity.

Despite the economic outlook for 2009, I welcome the new year because I really believe it’s a year to re-group & re-affirm, innovate, and lay a solid foundation from which to grow upon when the economy turns around. Bring it on and happy holidays!

New Hampshire’s being all “Twittery”

Not only did the “granite state” get over 10,000 fans on Facebook (in just about a month) but now New Hampshire’s made its mark on Twitter thanks to Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH).

Last week’s ice storm crippled the state leaving hundreds of thousands without power and phones. A week later many (including my mom) are still left in the dark and dozens of schools are still closed.  Since those of PSNH’s customers without power can’t access real-time traditional media (TV, Radio, and let’s throw in the web as “traditional” at this point),  PSNH took to alerting those through mobile via Twitter.

I learned of this not via my mom (who still has and uses a rotary phone) but by CustomScoop’s report on the FIR Podcast.  Kudos to PSNH for leveraging non-traditional media channels to reach people and congrats to my home state for making its mark in the Web 2.0 world.

The real meaning of community

Hope.  It’s an overpowering feeling I share at this very moment -- One of unity, transparency, perseverance and, most of all, community. In the social media space, we hear a lot about “community”. Many of us, including myself, help design & build "communities". In the end it’s not about technology, it’s about people – feeling connected, being heard, expressing affinity, supporting one another, and affecting change.

Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s hard not to be affected by the images of tonight. They bring hope for a better tomorrow. “Yes we can.”

TV and Web Harmony (CNN & Rick Sanchez)

And it’s once again thanks to CNN – this time Rick Sanchez, the network’s weekend night anchor. After a party last night, I turned on CNN to find Rick in the midst of a live Twitter conversation. He said something the effect of, “I wasn’t sure if this social connector thing would work, but…” as he enthusiastically pointed to his over 2,500 followers on the popular micro-blogging platform.

Rick does a stand out job in connecting with his “community” in a down-to-earth and authentic way giving “tweets” in between and during broadcasts – then integrates follower comments live into his show. His genuine curiosity for social media comes out in a way that one can’t help but support him and CNN:

“wow, what a great way to do news... with real instant comments and help thinking of questions. 1700 of us. 1400 in 24 hours joined. yeap!10:01 PM August 24, 2008 from web”

He even gives credit for his recent #1 cable newscast rating to the integration of social media into the broadcast (In addition to Twitter, Rick is also on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube). And ensuring the community expectations of integrity and transparency, Rick’s producer self-identifies when “tweeting” on Rick’s page.

Rick is launching a new show on CNN weekdays at 3pm starting September 8^th (there’s even a Facebook Event invite for it). And it looks like he and his producer are planning on raising the bar even more with what already is a best-in-class example of harmonic convergence of media. Awesome stuff – soon the Web and TV will be one in the same -- and CNN will do just fine because they're embracing the impending change. They're obviously hiring smart producers who get the space. Great job, guys.

Vice-Presidents & Text Messages

I just signed up (by texting VP to 62262) to “be one of the first” to hear who Barack Obama’s running mate is. He will be announcing his choice for VP via text sometime between now and the Democratic National Convention on August 25th-28th.

What a brilliant move as it plays on our natural curiosity for breaking news and exclusivity. And, in return, his campaign now has our cell phone numbers to push messages to us based on our “opt in” to receive them.

Such a simple tactic yet part of a brilliant marketing and communications strategy. 

My only gripe? After hearing the news, I went to www.barackobama.com and could not find any information on how to sign up. I ended up having to google “obama and text and VP” to get instructions.