Fascinating Finds and Observations
What the Heck is Pinterest and Why Should You Care?
Quick. Take a stab at naming the top ten social sites.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn… these ones come easily to mind, but it may surprise you to learn that Pinterest also makes the cut. Coming in at #10, it’s clear that Pinterest is gaining traction fast. It may be time to sit up and notice it, if you haven’t already been lured by its slick and glossy look.
What the heck is it?
The name explains the essence of what it’s about: ‘Pin’ items of ‘interest’. It acts like a virtual pushpin board for things found around the web. Users can create multiple boards, each dedicated to something of interest to them. For example, a board for travel, a board for recipes, a board for home decor. You get the idea. It’s social bookmarking, revisited & refreshed.
Although still in invite-only mode, in just one week alone last December (2011) Pinterest is said to have attracted 11-million visits. It’s growing at an incredible rate, seeing a 4000% jump in traffic from just six months ago. Monthly visits are said to be averaging 3.2-million.
The website is most popular with women aged 25-44, accounting for 58% of the userbase in the past three months (Experian Hitwise). Here are some thoughts on why those who like it, like it a lot. Indeed it must be onto something when it starts spawning copycats.
So why should you care?
There is a business case for participating on Pinterest. It is reported that Real Simple magazine is getting more referral traffic from Pinterest, than from Facebook. From a business perspective, there are many opportunities for building a fan base, building awareness for products, and getting more traffic to your website, but you need to go about it the right way. Pinterest states very clearly there shall be no blatant promoting and marketing on the site. So what can you do? Some ideas are expanded on here, but I think one truth for gaining traction as a business on Pinterest is to have smoking hot photos of smoking hot products. This will inspire members to pin them on their boards, and thus increase the exposure of the business through the image. (Images link back to the original site)
So there you have it. Some pretty compelling reasons to consider Pinterest as a serious player in your ongoing online strategy.
Erin
Tags: facebook, pinterest, strategy
TV & Interactive Creators Beware: Who owns the audience?
Producers, broadcasters and funders are necessarily grappling with the rights and revenues attached to opportunities made possible by digital technology. To date, the discussion has centered primarily around platforms for distribution.
The June 2010 CFTPA (CMPA) research study, “Towards a Framework for Digital Rights” does an excellent job of summarizing challenges and opportunities relative to digital distribution and exploitation. However, the report doesn’t address the capacity of digital technology to transform the role of the audience, or who established a relationship with the audience. That relationship, once the exclusive domain of the broadcaster is now a rich source of content research and development, advance marketing, and testing, all potentially activities undertaken by producers. The extent to which the public can be now be engaged through digital tools right from the start of a program concept opens up questions around the purpose and value of those pre-broadcast relationships and who “owns” them, before, during and after the broadcast.
The People Formerly Known As The Audience.
Prior to the advent of digital technology, the viewing audience “belonged” to the broadcaster. How and when content was made available, and the promotional and sales messaging “pushed” in front of the audience were the levers used by broadcasters to drive revenue.
Mass adoption of the Internet, and particularly web 2.0 platforms, have enabled producers and audiences to engage in two-way conversations separate and apart from any broadcast component. Almost daily, tools are emerging that enable producers to join discussions already taking place about genres or subject matter. Content creators can learn where target audiences are gathering on line, how they like to be engaged, what they care about and what they don’t. When appropriate, content creators can customize their “products” to suit audience demand.
These relationships can help shape creative and foster deep engagement between a program and its audience long before the broadcast release. This early engagement can subsequently influence and improve the commercial success of that release.
Terms of Engagement
The right of the producer to engage existing online audiences and/or to build new groups in a way that helps to shape the very content of a show or series and its success needs to be protected.
Let’s say a specialty network licenses a personal makeover series. During development and pre-production, the producer uses digital tools to attract contestants and to engage existing online groups in the creative process. Contests and voting deepen the engagement and online profile. The producer may want to explore posting video tips and pre-releasing scenes, in order to build a web presence that also increases awareness for the series, and which may also have value as an independent asset.
However, as the program launch nears, the broadcaster will also want to develop or use its existing digital avenues to market and promote the program. The broadcaster may create a web page for the program as part of its larger branded website, as well as creating a Twitter feed and Facebook page even though the project may already have all of those applications in use.
Who Owns the Relationships?
Beyond some tactical issues that emerge with this scenario, it raises important issues about rights. A “database” of contacts developed by the producer during the development of the project may be tremendously valuable. Documentaries based on a “hot” topic, comedies that have managed to create viral videos teasing series’ content, may boast sizable and loyal followings. Who has the right to this “database?” Does the broadcaster “lease” or “license” access to it just as they do with the finished program? How is the value of that pre-built audience established? If social media profiles are established in the process of creating the program, who “owns” those profiles? What happens to the two-way engagement once the broadcast is completed?
While the broadcaster still needs to be in a position to promote a program to its audience, the age of two-way conversations has changed the very definition of “marketing” “content” and “audience.” Building a relationship with an audience is no longer about getting their attention with a good promo. It’s as much about listening to what the audience has to say. Creating engagement strategies require time and expertise that typically go far beyond the scope of the on-air promotions and marketing departments of the broadcaster.
However, if no new language or terms exist, then by default the activity remains with the marketing department even though the very nature of the activity has changed.
Delineating public engagement as an activity that has a much bigger footprint than that traditionally belonging to the marketing department would be an important first step to the future clarification of rights and responsibilities.
The Take Away
Producers are not yet fully exploiting the tools available to engage the audience early on in the production – and some may opt not to use them – ever. However, the activity of interacting directly with the audience needs to be recognized because it’s already valuable and will only become more so.
Engagement of the audience should not default to the broadcaster simply because the value is not yet fully understood and therefore not fully recognized.
At this stage in the evolution of public engagement it is not possible to anticipate all the future implications. However, recognizing at this moment in time that there are digital rights irrespective of distribution, and ensuring that they are non-exclusive to broadcasters will be an important first step for the future.
- Moyra Rodger and Rae Hull
Does Popularity equal Influence?
5 Predictions for 2011
I have a few predictions for 2011 with specific regard to online tools and trends. Here are my top five.
1. Scanning will be all the rave in 2011. Scanning items, events, people, vehicles – using mobile devices. Mark my words. It will be big next year.
2. Facebook Places will go the way of Google Wave. Facebook will learn a lot from FB Places.. but will ultimately take that learning and make something else. Bigger? Better? Who knows.. but something other than Facebook Places’ current form and functionality.
3. Klout will go the way of Delicious. Future = uncertain, but not looking bright. In my opinion, Klout had an enviable start: widespread word-of-mouth buzz, and a prestigious real-world exemplification of Klout’s relevance (re: Palms Hotel in Las Vegas), but fast forward a few months and already we’re sensing non-acceptance of Klout’s rating system. Part of the problem may be due to the fact that the majority have low Klout.. which may result in resentment, followed by outright dismissal of Klout’s clout.
4. The number of new blogs will begin to drop off. We’re already starting to see blogging lose it’s popularity. Perhaps the saturation point has finally been achieved.
5. We’ll begin seeing more crowd-sourced websites & services like 99 Designs and Crowd Spring. The reason: simplicity and a lot of choice. Services like these also offer a way to sidestep the personal baggage or politics that sometimes accompany artistic work.
What do you predict?
- Erin
Tags: 99Designs, Blogging, CrowdSpring, Delicious, Erin, Facebook Places, Klout, Scanning
What Does Facebook Smell Like?
This is about how a smell tells the story of technological evolution more succinctly than any graph, statistic or history lesson ever could.
Friends of mine have a vintage stereo in their dining room. To be exact it’s an RCA Victor Stereo Orthophonic circa 1950.
This piece of technology occupies about as much space as a loveseat.
It is beautiful, in pristine condition.
Polished and cherished for 60 years.
It was when my friend lifted up the heavy wooden top to reveal the turntable that I was really struck… by the smell of history.
Pretending to take a closer look at its inner workings, I leaned in and inhaled.
Even if my eyes had been closed, I would have known that scent.
The musky essence of another era.
And then I wondered.. what would Facebook smell like?
Back then, technology took up physical space and soaked up the scent of the times. Now it takes mental space, cloud space and server space.
Unlike the Victor Stereo Orthophonic, 60 years from now it is unlikely you will pull up an archived version of Facebook and breathe in the aroma of these times. Not to mention the fact that you will never be able to rest your glass of wine on Facebook.
Erin
Tags: Erin, facebook, history, technology, vintage stereo
