What is Social Media?

Exactly what constitutes “social media” has been the subject of much debate. In advance of their Media Summit 2010, Mashable invited its readers to submit their views – in 140 characters.

My own submissions are:

Interconnected individuals’ interface incorporating iterative interaction, input & interchange of idiosyncratic insights, information, ideas

Conduit collecting, catalyzing & closed-circuit circulating collaborative citizen comments, contextual contributions & co-created content

‘Twas the night before (a social media) Christmas

A Visit from St. Nicholas (with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when across social media
No-one was blogging, no mouse on Wikipedia;
All feedback was silenced, no comments appeared
As they waited offline for the man with the beard.
Children logged out of Myspace, signed out of Facebook,
Swapping Windows for windows-through-which-you-can-look.
And although their new status should have been “In sleep mode”
They remained on standby for a special download;
Santa’d texted them earlier with a rough e.t.a. -
SatNav leading him straight to their roof in his sleigh,
Drawn by eight virtual reindeer, all with GPS,
And a fondness for prancing that was hard to suppress.
“We’ve been buzzed by Saint Nicholas”, the children exclaimed -
(For whose brand recognition Coca Cola is blamed)
The visitor’s arrival would make the ears tingle -
Loud polyphonic ring tones instead of a jingle.
“Now, Orkut! Now, Bebo! Now, Badoo and Flickr!
On, Revver! On, Friendster! On, Flixster and Twitter!
To the top of the page! To the top of the wall!
Now Blog away! Blog away! Blog away all!”
Faster than broadband the avatars fly
Up, over the satellite dish to the sky
Cheery-faced Santa Claus pilots the sleigh,
Laden with presents auctioned on Ebay.
Then light as a snowflake on the rooftop they flutter
(Except for poor Bebo, whose hoof sticks in the gutter)
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound,
A new carbon footprint on the carpet was found
And out of the top of his sack poked a Wii,
A PSP2, camera-phone, MP3
His eyes – yes, they twinkled, but he looked a bit merry!
Neither Cola nor Fanta; Santa’d been on the sherry!
Not fat, just big-boned with a jolly demeanour
His hair Russell Brand-like, but whiter (and cleaner!)
He was temporally challenged, but not past his prime
Cos that would be “Ageist”, non-PC at this time.
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
With one foot in the grate and one foot on the shelf
“If you’re pleased with the service and I’ve not kept you waiting,
Five stars would be good, cos I need a high rating”
Struggling back up the chimney, as his trousers were tight,
Then I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

© Tim Davis Elicit Consultancy December 2007

The Shifting Sands of Marketing – A – from Awareness to Activation

Before the disruption caused by the digital sandstorm, Awareness was a key marketing objective. The aim was to deliver big numbers and was inextricably linked to Reach. The model was based on a world view encapsulated by the pneumonic AIDA, a four-step sequential approach, where it was initially necessary to interrupt the recipients of the communication in order to gain their Attention. (Steve Harrison, the talented and influential Creative Director, prefers to use the term “Relevant Abruption” to interruption.)
Having gained the prospects’ Attention, the message was intended to arouse Interest before igniting (or rekindling) a Desire for the product as a prelude to encouraging Action (ideally leading to product purchase.)
The model implied that the larger the number of the “right” people exposed to the advertising, the larger the resulting sales volume. This is a classic example of a top down strategy.
Post sandstorm, advertising awareness at scale is no longer a key objective. Awareness has been superseded by a bottom up metric – Activation. Emphasis has effectively moved from breadth to depth, with marketers eager to understand not the number who have been exposed to the campaign, but to what extent the behaviour of those exposed has been modified.
Activation is a measurement not of “how many?” but “how much?” and includes a quantification, not of the soft historic metric – opportunities to see, but of a harder-edged behavioural metric – accepted invitations to engage.
Activated engagement in this context includes physical interaction with branded content, downloading, customisation/manipulation as well as onward dissemination of the marketing communication within each individual’s personal network.

The Shifting Sands of Marketing – An A to Z

Since the turn of the century, a digital sandstorm has been swirling relentlessly across the face of planet media, blurring the vision of some whilst leaving the landscape changed beyond recognition for all.  A few established media landmarks have been seriously undermined, their foundations swept away by the elemental force, while new imposing features have been thrown up to dominate the new media skyline.

Brushing themselves down, planet media’s inhabitants, resourceful by nature, have been quick to adapt to these changing circumstances, collaborating to find new pathways that do not rely on the historical media reference points for navigation.

In the age of SatNav and GPS, I offer an industry observer’s A to Z assessment of how the digital sandstorm has changed both marketing objectives and priorities.