Posted by: Bryce Cullinane in Social Media on
Jan 21, 2010
A survey conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed, 89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.
Bates commented that
Cross-posted at the GSPM's Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
I can't think of a better time to examine marketing trends than the holiday season where consumers are bombarded by endless ads and marketing ploys. "You've already stuffed your turkey - now stuff your stockings with savings" - I mean, it's nothing overtly creative. But I'm sure after viewing this commercial's pitch, people will put away the leftover turkey, hop in their car en route to the nearest mall and start what will surely be excessive holiday shopping.
What makes these marketing efforts successful?
I recently stumbled across an article describing the marketing efforts of Coca-Cola. Are you aware that the Santa Clause that you perceive today as jolly, overweight, and clad in a red suit, hat, and black belt was created in 1931 by Coca-Cola? Prior to this institutionalization of Santa Clause, his image varied between every shape, size, and color - a figment of the imagination subject to the influence of each individual's creative spin on the fictional character.
Marketing trends not so different from Coca-Cola's Santa Clause are dancing on webpages across the nation; viral marketing trends are the new Santa Clauses and Stocking Stuffer Savings. An organized chaos of marketing ploys and efforts plague us on the daily through social media networks.
Much like Coca-Cola realized they could have an overwhelming influence over the human mind, company after company is continuing to capitalize on viral marketing through social media. Their ability to instill an iconic brand using the image of Santa Clause is genius - but does it work now?
I appreciate a combination of wit and geeked-out science. Especially in a blog post.
Nova: a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state
Supernova: a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass
Science! It's fun! And cute!
But the article has a point: traffic on Twitter sunk 27.8% between September and October of this year -- despite the fact that we send around 27.3 million tweets a day and that Twitter receives so much free media coverage (around $48 million of free media coverage in June 2009 according to a VMS estimate cited in the post).
One of Twitter's problems is retaining users. We see it all the time in higher education (and also politics). Faculty and staff hear about Twitter somewhere, create a profile, maybe post two twice, and then walk away. They forget to do one of the most important things. One of the things that makes tools like Twitter useful: finding people you know who are active members of the community and following them. Because if your tribe isn't using a social media tool, then you're probably not going to use it. Why would you? You're tribe isn't there (maybe they are, but you just haven't found them). Most of them don't.
And yet, there is another good point buried in the subtext: the tool, Twitter, is the fad. Even if Twitter continues to evolve, the tribe most likely will move on in a period of time. It's the lessons that tools like Twitter bring us (for most of us in higher education or politics, a sometimes-neglected lesson is the importance of connecting to students, faculty, donors, activists, etc. as individuals) that should leave a more permanent impression.
Cross-posted at the GSPM's Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet.
Last week, a few members of IPDI trekked northwest to Georgetown's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy for an event on The Internet, Free Expression, and Authoritarianism.
I've been working closely with several other departments within GW, including GW Today, the Elliott School, and current GSPMer Chris Brooks to launch the inaugural event of the Association of Social Media and Higher Education.
Our first event will look at trust, authenticity, social media -- and the U.S. Military. It will feature current GSPM student and former Naval officer Nicole Schwegman, along with other GW students, faculty, and alumni.
Among the many great people and organizations that the GSPM and The Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet are working with is Wayne Moses Burke, Executive Director of the Open Forum Foundation. We will be hosting Congress Camp, which he has been organizing, on September 12 & 13 at the Media and Public Affairs Building. Congress Camp will provide a venue for those working in and around Congress to have an open and honest discussion about Gov 2.0 and how web-based social and collaboration technologies are being used, or could be used, to transform engagement with the public.
Another way that Wayne has been trying to bring Congress into the world of social media is his new project GovLuv, which will seek to aid Congress Members and their staff in effectively using Twitter to communicate with their constituents. Today I sat down with Wayne to discuss GovLuv. Here is my interview:
We are all pretty familiar with the use of social media networks and innovative tools in our private lives. We are witnessing the increased popularity of these tools amongst businesses, nonprofits, and campaigns. But what about the government? How can the government whose job it is to protect Americans dispense potentially private information to the public via social networks?
Today, at the
Open Government and Innovation Conference at the DC Convention Center, countless experts divulged their knowledge to find ways to marry innovation and government. Collaboration is power, and the government will not be left out of this powerful arena. The government is finding useful and beneficial ways to collaborate and communicate within networks.
Beyond agencies and departments finding ways to incorporate social media networks into their communication plan, I stumbled across a few other innovative and unique approaches to collaboration that caught my attention. For instance, Steve Ressler created a social network that is specific to government:
GovLoop. Prior to the sites existence, Ressler noticed a lack of conversation amongst agencies and different departments. To fill this void, GovLoop facilitates a conversation and interaction amongst 15,000 users today. Connections are forged through cool features such as:
- Member of the Week
- Project of the Week
- Ask the Design Expert
- A Leader Board complete with a Hall of Fame for active members
Overall, the two themes of Ressler's approach to government networking and innovation are fun and hardwork. The site clearly needs continual updating, and consequently, a constant supply of fresh and fun ideas.
GovLoop truly indicates how far we have come in social media. The government which is considerably a conservative body has found inventive ways to connect and communicate via progressive social media networks. The forum is open: what will this openness and collaboration mean for the government?
I think that in some ways we all aspire to be "big." When I was a graduate student in the GSPM, I worked for a small non-profit that focused on global health issues. We had to struggle all year just to bring a few American doctors into a country like Haiti for a week-long clinic. I looked at the big non-profits like CARE and Red Cross and was jealous of their resources (the big buildings! the fancy, gorgeous looking promotional materials! hallways filled with well-paid staff!). We had to be plucky and resourceful, design our promotional materials in house, hand write our thank you notes to donors, and concentrate on providing a few small health programs in a few geographical areas.
Today, I run a small think tank attached to the GSPM called the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet. We've done some cool things in the past, but we're no Google. I don't have a full time fundraiser or full time event staff. I have a hard time pushing for our initiatives within our own university, let alone actually implementing them. We're small, and we're pretty danr hungry.
Lately, I'm beginning to realize that I can leverage being hungry and small into some cool projects for my institute, the GSPM, the GWU community, and (hopefully) the country.
Twitter has stampeded the social media scene, motivating millions of users to participate in microblogging on the site. As Twitter continues to grow and prosper, I am starting to wonder why Twitter has not been capitalizing on advertising on the website much like Facebook or MySpace. Currently, Twitter does not sell advertisement space on the website. Two questions crossed my mind - why would Twitter opt out of the advertising strategy put in place by other social media websites and also, if Twitter chooses to not feature advertisements, what other ways can they gain a profit?
Perusing Fastcompany.com, some light was shed on this particular subject for me. First of all, since Twitter is relatively new and still steadily gaining popularity, people are not quite sure how to exploit the tool yet for a profit. Kit Eaton explains the business plans set forth by Twitter's founders in Twitter's Ad-Free Future: Paid Tools and Services Instead . Twitter will not be "chasing down advertising revenues" but rather will find a way to make a profit through tools and services. Twitter's founders claim that they do not want to pester Twitter users by bombarding them with advertisements. Instead, the company plans to promote special services to professional users. The services would be targeted at "professional users [that] may be interested in buying services similar to what Stone [Twitter's co-founder] dubbed ‘lightweight analytics' and possibly paying for membership of a verified commercial account directory- a way of avoiding fake company spam."
