360DigitalInfluence

(Part 2? Yeah, check out Part 1.)

In case you missed it, Ron Paul supporters, ASU students, and VFX artists were among those that joined the fray since my last post. The variations continue to proliferate further down the tail, satirizing - and entertaining - more niche audiences. What does this add up to? Segmentation.

While I easily enjoy Sh*t ASU Students Say even though I’m not a Sun Devil - and haven’t even been to the campus - the video resonates better with those who were. Beyond that, the video’s arc is more relatable to students who enrolled in the past 5-10 years and drink socially - perhaps even deeper for students who were in the Greek system and enjoy campus takeout.

The point is, there’s a clear difference in the type of viewer who’s going to watch the video halfway through for a chuckle and a viewer who’s going to share across social networks. Those pearls of info are demographic, psychographic, and behavioristic qualities - in some ways digital has obscured their importance.

As segmented as some brands' social media programs get these days.

On-platform segmentation

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“It’s an English basement.”

That might not mean much to you, but it probably made you chuckle if you fall into one of the two groups:

1. Current or former D.C. residents
2. Viewers of Sh*t People In D.C. Say

Of course, this video is one of many variations of the Sh*t Girls Say series - which has a cumulative YouTube viewership of 20+ million and growing. You know the premise: Stereotypical expressions from people of a certain ilk, organized by gender, hobby, lifestyle, or geography. There are takes on skiers, hipsters, suburban moms, and even sh*t nobody says (a personal favorite) and the meme’s ’success’ reminds me of basic marketing program goals: generating word-of-mouth, stimulating co-creation, and targeting segmented audiences.

$1,400 for a converted sunroom? Not bad - better than an English basement.

First: Why do we care about sh*t other people say?

As a meme - both intentionally and by accident - these videos satisfy several of the 7 Drivers of Word of Mouth synthesized from Emmanuel Rosen’s work: there’s a good story, people can show their involvement, there is an implicit invitation to participate through their involvement, ’supporters’ can be creative, and, most crucially, there’s a clear value offering - comedy.

The power of these elements is not only clear in the 20+ million video views of the original - and millions more on the variations - but the number of amateur aueters who created their own. An absurdly unscientific calculation using YouTube shows 200+ videos using a basic search - let’s safely presume 50 are duplicates and 50 are spam. Even at 100 and with absolutely no prize, that’s higher participation than most branded video submission challenges get - save Survivor applications and Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl.

What’s the lesson?

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I was certainly not surprised to read that Twitter is calling this the year of the Twitter election; former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had said as much in a PRWeek interview last October that stated: “political campaigns, governments, and businesses face a “unique” environment with a completely new set of rules: no-one is immune to society’s doubts and everyone has to be accountable to their users, who are now the ones in control.”

Moreover, we see the impact of users’ voices on Twitter every day - whether occupying Wall Street or voting for The X Factor winners. As social media professionals, we advocate that one of the regular benefits of social media listening for any organization is the opportunity to take a pulse of the community, but in the upcoming election, that pulse can impact media coverage, debates, and candidates in real time.

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Recently, I’ve been involved in helping a client launch a new Twitter feed. This will be their sixth or seventh account on Twitter, all the previous of which are still active and serving specific functions. The process has sparked several discussions among the team — not for the first time — about a question we’ve all encountered: how many different Twitter feeds should a brand really have?
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If you are anything like me, your mailbox has been filling up with notifications of new followers on Pinterest as the still invite-only platform seems to be opening the flood gates to more users.  Thanks to a few savvy gals in the design world that I follow on Twitter, I have been a Pinterest member since late Summer and must say that I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Pinterest feels like the “aha” moment for social media; a repository for all of the visual stimuli that has gained popularity these past years.

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TIME Magazine’s person of the year in 2006 was “you,” paying tribute to the hundred millions of social media users who framed the information age with user-generated content. Conceived in 2006, Twitter, along with other “emerging platforms,” was evolving and looking for better ways to enable users to share content. Five years later, Twitter includes brand pages in efforts to expand its 100 million user base.

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This week, Atlanta is celebrating social and digital media with five days filled with workshops, panel discussions and networking events known as Digital Atlanta. Ogilvy’s 360⁰ Digital Influence team in Atlanta is happy to be part of the celebration.

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Next week Social Media Week makes its highly anticipated debut in Chicago. Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team will be partnering with Buddy Media to present a panel, “Fueling Your Social Media Strategy For B2B.” Come join us along with brand and platform social media specialists as we discuss the current landscape of B2B in social media as well as future opportunities at 11 a.m. on September 20 at the Merchandise Mart Conference Center (located in the Skyway to the Chicago Sun Times building)

This panel will walk you through what you need to be doing now and provide a glance ahead at what you can do next.

UPDATE: LinkedIn has signed on to join the panel since this blog post was first published

Panel representatives include:

• Mark Skroch from OgilvyOne
• Lauren McCadney from Ogilvy client, CDW
• Myles Kleeger from Buddy Media
• Kyleen Fishwick from LinkedIn
• Ian Sohn from Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence

To register for the event and for more information, visit http://socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id=827

Also, if you have any questions for the panel please leave them as a comment to this post.

Can’t make the event? You can follow all the Social Media Week events on Twitter by searching #SMW11.

Multimedia: the foundation of social media. When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, the emphasis was on the “face” -  the actual image behind the profile. Since the conception of social networking, photo sharing has been the foundation. People have continued to  illustrate their Facebook profile with an array of photos detailing their lives and brands have learned that multimedia is more valuable to their constituents than ever.

But what about Twitter? I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Twitter’s stake in the photo game. Within the many changes that Twitter has rolled out in the past few months (the acquisition of Tweetdeck, the new interface, the “who to follow” functionality), we’ve definitely seen an emphasis being placed on photos.

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I’ll admit it: I don’t think about the “future” of music that often. I’ve been listening to a steady rotation of musical soundtracks, country music, and late-90s soft rock ever since late-90s soft rock was current, and while I’ve made the switch from CDs to iTunes, I haven’t been more creative than that. However, the subject keeps bubbling back to the surface with the launch of new platforms like Spotify and Google Music, the rise of mobile applications, and even the changing needs of radio (as discussed at a recent client event I attended hosted by Ford Motor Company). Finally, when this infographic showing 30 years of music sales from Digital Music News was circulated last week, I took note:

There are some quick takeaways on where music sales have been and where they’re headed:

• Never again will any source of music dominate the way CD sales once did. CDs accounted for 95.5% of music sales in 2002 and we’re moving to a model with even more options, not fewer.
• The whole is likely not greater than the sum of its parts. Single sales both digitally and on CDs/vinyl are a significant piece of sales when, in the past, we looked for an entire album. This changes both the sales model AND the approach of artists who no longer need to have 12 songs ready to release new music.
• Cassettes haven’t reached the retro cool point yet. Vinyl sales as full records and singles are making a comeback, but not cassettes.

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