There is something awesome about these pictures…something so normal. This is my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and their children. They just had their third child. These pictures showcase their most recent appointment with the physician that delivered their third child, baby Miles.
Here we have one doctor’s visit with lots of smiles.
2013 was the year of the social share…people using their digital and social spaces to share stories, information, and content they love the most. Big brands, politicians, special interest groups, and numerous other entities leveraged the online passion of loyal brand advocates capitalizing on the digital word-of-mouth. Why? They want to capture your data.
Big Data
Yes…big data is the wave of the content marketers’ future, capturing more than just your contact information…but your clicking patterns and social share tendencies. They want to leverage your digital presence to focus more “relevant content” into your digital life…capitalizing on your purchasing habits.
So….was Phil Robertson’s statement during an interview with GQ a well oiled pr stunt, a statement of belief, an excited utterance, or just all the above.
Duck Dynasty is true pop-culture where some believe this A&E television has brought great christian values back into the living room. If you have watched the show…you know it is a mixture of down home humor and a display of christian values that surrounds a multi-million dollar dynasty.
So ole Olivier has pulled his punches and has shown us how headlines work…force individuals like me to pull over from a five hour road trip to write a post…somewhat related.
In his witty post about blog content, generating revenue from the blog, converting content into traffic, thus traffic into revenue…has led me to a discussion, especially as it relates to his headline:
“10 Digital Content Strategy Lessons from the Olympic Games.”
He goes on to pull this premise:
“”Content is king?” Bullshit. Traffic is king. “Content,” or rather the promise of content is just the pull, the pitch, the promise. The real carrot is the revenue from that traffic.”
I agree and I want to add to the debate.
Ok…I am going to use these two premises from his argument to make a point…
First…my thought is this…Stories Are King…Stories Sell…Stories Generate Revenue. Social Media is just the marketing tool to generate the traffic and buzz that feeds to the stories! Guess what, NBC is capitalizing on this free market of real time information exchange.
All week, people have been bitching and complaining about the Olympic spoilers. Think back to Tuesday when the Women’s Gymnasitics won Gold, first time since 1996. Huffington Post and many other outlets posted pictures and information immediately to the front pages of their websites, then tweeted and shared with the world.
People were fussing and complaining about this information coming across their social timelines and newsfeeds. They may been spoiled, but it was one hell of a marketing channel that NBC leveraged later that evening.
LaTimes reported: “NBC made the team’s story the anchor of its taped Tuesday prime-time coverage, which drew an average of 38.7 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.”
They go on to tell us, “It was the most-watched first Tuesday of any non-U.S. Summer Games since 1960, when American Olympic telecasts started.”
This storyline was one that captivated online, US audiences. We looked at the headlines, we complained we found out early. But…OOH BUT…do you think that Tuesday nights viewership would have broken Olympic viewership numbers without the social share of real time information?
Now let’s get to the story. We as American’s know the competitiveness of Women’s Gymnastics in the Olympics. I remember watching Mary Lou Retton capture our hearts with her amazing story and her amazing Gold Medal performance. Yep…it was 1984 and it was a perfect 10. You can watch it by CLICKING HERE. Thus the storyline gains American context.
As U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney was congratulated by her teammates after competing in the vault in the women’s team competition Tuesday at the 2012 London Olympic Games…the storyline was in place. The Gold was secured…and the social space blew up Tuesday.
From BlueFinLabs.com: As the US Women’s Gymnastics team wins Gold (just after 10am ET), roughly 23K comments/minute made on social outlets. And that was not the peak for the day. As the men’s swim team won the 200m Freestyle Relay, the social conversation peaked around 34.8K comments/minute.
The Women’s Gymnastic Gold story created buzz…this story generated social eruption…this story created a social awareness better than any digital tv guide. People knew they had to go home and watch the story unfold. And NBC capitalized by making this story the anchor of the taped delay broadcast.
They watched the social eruption and capitalized on the story. What does 38.7 million total viewers mean…ad revenue.
“Combined with higher production costs in London, NBC had expected at one point to take a $200 million loss for the games. NBC paid $1.2 billion for the rights to show the games on TV and online in the U.S. Before the games opened, it said it sold more than $1 billion in ads, breaking the record of $850 million set during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Ahead of the London Games, NBC got 10 percent more for every minute of prime-time advertising compared with the Beijing Games. It also tripled its pre-sales of online ads to $60 million, as it’s streaming all events live for the first time.
Better ratings could mean higher rates for ads sold at the last minute. They could also help the network, which is fourth overall in U.S. ratings, promote new shows in its fall lineup and boost viewership of non-sports programs such as “Today” and “NBC Nightly News” during the Olympics.”
So…23K social comments/minute during women’s gold and 38.4K social comments/minute during men’s swimming gold led to 38.7 million total viewers. Do you think this will help ad revenue? I bet NBC is going to capitalize on the moment when America was spoiled with this trending story.
Story’s Sell…Stories are King…and the real time social share was the channel that tied the story to the viewers online, converting them to watch later. They wanted to watch for their own eyes. Traffic (or the measurement of the traffic) just gives something for the bean counters to sell the story. If you don’t have a story (a compelling story with layers)…you don’t have traffic.
So I am reading an article on Media Post that states that “Friends Have More Credibility Than Brands”. Hmm…interesting assertion but I am sure we need to dive into the survey they created to lay out this thesis.
“According to Nielsen’s Latest Global Trust in Advertising Survey, 92% of respondents in 56 different countries said they trusted word-of-mouth recommendation from their friends and family above all other forms of communication. That’s up 17% since 2007.”
OK…so all the Word of Mouth ambassadors are patting themselves on the back for this reinforcement of the WOM movement. Yes…I know that Word of Mouth rules in the world of marketing. But hold on a freaking second…where does that information originate? Where does the content come from? Hmm….
“Trust in television is down 24%; magazines, down 20%; and newspapers down 25%, according to the survey.) Overall, 47% of consumers worldwide said they still trusted those media, although the drops are substantial. Meanwhile, trust in online advertising is growing. Thirty-six percent of consumers trusted online video ads, and 33% believed online banner ads — up from 26% in 2007. Paid search engine advertising was deemed trustworthy by 40% of consumers, up from 24% in 2007.”
Ok…hold on a freaking second, did they just assume that since it is online advertising that it is Word of Mouth and not coming from brands?
“Only 58% of consumers trust “owned media” such as company Web sites, while only 50% said they found content in e-mails they received from brands (by consent) to be similarly credible. Only 40% of global respondents found product placements credible, about the same levels as radio ads (42%) and pre-movie cinema ads (41%).”
OK…I am really confused, where the hell did they generate the assertion that based on this statistical information that “Friends” have more credibility that brands. I am so confused. I am trying to connect their dots.
Alright…enough of my rant. So here is the point of analyzing this article; the main reason is this little Tweet from Edelman Digital’s social brand/golden child @Armano that caught my attention. BTW…he is kind of smart…I guess. I have not met him, though.
We have scene a massive shift over the last few years in the digital space legitimizing this claim. Social technologies have built digital communities empowering us to share and share alike. We retrieve our information from our Timelines in Facebook/Twitter and even Google+. We chat and connect with our friends, see what they like, see what political rants they are generating, their spiritual movements, their purchasing power…we watch it everyday.
YouTube and Pinterest have given us the visual cues our products, services, rhetorical messages that influence and shape our purchasing. We see a cool video of what the next iPhone looks like and we go nuts. We see how someone used Martha Stuart products to decorate a room on Pinterest…we haul ass to Lowes.
Or maybe those brands have figured out this social stuff out…maybe they are influencing the digital word-of-mouth, providing us digital swag to share. They still have to make money and sell their stuff…their services…their votes…their organizations mission statements. We are just empowered to share their swag because they have shifted into social mode.
But it is getting ready to shift back….YES! People are getting tired of too many damn status updates, opinions, blog posts, Pinterest pictures, videos to watch…all from “Friends”. All these opinions are TOO MUCH TO SIFT THROUGH. Why did you think Google is updating their algorithms…we have over SEO’d everything. LOTS OF NOISE linking back to MORE NOISE giving opinions about MORE NOISE.
I do not know about you…but when a major news story breaks, a new trendy product is released, a candidate decides to drop out of a race, a brand has a new product…all those friends are sharing the same damn thing. YES…they are…look at your timelines and you will see the same Re-Tweets and Shares that originated from “trusted” brands. Their influencers are just channeling the information and there are a lot of “influencers” out there. Maybe they are now “noise makers.”
The social share is out of control which is why numerous write-ups have been published surrounding the social exhaustion. Friends may have the credibility (in our minds)…but how much noise will they make until we start moving back to the horses mouth. Sometimes we just want to buy something and we do not need to be influenced to do it…maybe?
Brands with consistent messaging, great customer service, and commitment to traditional, online, and social strategies will continue to wave the social storm. Yes, we will continue to depend on Word of Mouth and our “Friends” opinions, but we are trimming the fat and looking past those who are trying to scream wolf just as loud as the next.
Or maybe we should re-define who is really a “Friend”?