YouTube reaches 1 billion unique monthly users, almost 15% of planet Earth

Google bought YouTube back in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

Twitter Advertising: More powerful tools for small business and self-service advertisers

Nice new targeting options in particular!

How Social Media Usage Among China’s Digital Natives Is Evolving

Consider: “China today has the world’s most social media population.”

Facebook Officially Launches Lookalike Audiences

Everything You Need to Know About the New Pinterest

Be sure to note: no more links in descriptions or hashtags (or at least – don’t use them as the “#” actually harms the search for that term now).

‘When we say it’s positive, the machine about 21% of the time says it’s negative,’

In this article, Coca-Cola validates why we specialize in true Human Filter listening (ignore the sensational AdAge title – they admit the way they are counting is way off):

“One problem Coca-Cola has is determining whether buzz is actually positive or negative in the first place. In one 2010 study where Coke pulled out more than 1,000 social-media messages randomly and had human raters compare them to automated sentiment analysis by one vendor, there were widespread differences.”

P.S. Ignore the sensational AdAge title and premise – it’s hilarious that they can talk about statistical significance with a straight face with 21% margin of error for HOW impact is counted.

New Study Confirms Correlation Between Twitter and TV Ratings

Twitter Archives Now Available In 12 More Languages, Including Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese

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Check back weekly for our top stories of the week and follow us on our Facebook page and Twitter page for instant updates!

I’m not sure if you felt it, but you might have detected a shockwave in the air as heads exploded at the thought of a reverse-procedure, modern-day telethon, held on the internet, using actual phones, conveying sensitive information the opposite direction while, of all people, Weird Al Yankovic pulled a list of musician’s names out of the butt of a paper mâché donkey. Okay, maybe that was all a lot to take in at once. But trust me, there was some method, some madness and actually some brilliance in the breaking down of true public relations and actual social media at work within an incredibly traditionally structured live event. But let me explain…

Bonnaroo Lineup Announcement Megathon (B.L.A.M.)

For a few weeks prior Bonnaroo had teased that they would announce this year’s lineup to their 12th annual four-day music and arts festival (held in June on farmland in central Tennessee, we’re fans) and telegraphed that comedian and song parody king Weird Al Yankovic would be a part of the big reveal.  Bonnaroo was no stranger to unusual or gimmicky lineup announcements. In 2010 Bonnaroo unraveled the lineup slowly throughout a whole day via a cartoonish clock hosted on MySpace (of all places). But this year’s plan began to coalesce with the announcement of an hour-long internet TV-special on YouTube called B.L.A.M., hosted by Yankovic.

Nevermind whatever you think of Weird Al, who, with the help of other comedians like Chris Gethard and a vaudevillian lineup of stunts, live music (Portugal The Man), jokes, tubs of meat and more managed to at least captivate if not actually entertain during the special event. Some found Weird Al’s humor painfully annoying while others were at least charmed in the same way they were when Al used to do a takeover of MTV for a Saturday (or indeed his whole movie on a TV takeover, the classic UHF).

No, the real magic was in the clever and casual use of social and traditional – and not in the same staid “one promotes the other”  cheap imitation of integration. In fact some of the ideas were so forehead-slappingly easy to pull off the real feat was that it all didn’t fall apart under the weight of what is a big news day for one of the bigger U.S. festivals.

Video Phones

After a montage of videos depicting what bands some people were hoping Bonnaroo to announce (which confused a few online who joined late into thinking these were the actual updates), B.L.A.M. hosted a mother-son duo who were chatted up and then given, presumably in the chat window below their private VOIP call, the names of the bands they could be the first to announce. This happened a few times during the event, putting a human face on the fans and allowing real surprise to show on the faces of fans also communicating a lineup to viewers.

The Reverse-Telethon

But by far the most unique, and frankly brilliant in my opinion, move by Bonnaroo was this unusual reverse-telethon they hosted. After a number had flashed on the screen several times early on, viewers were encouraged to call in and talk (presumably) to one of eight phone operators, which included comedians such as Eugene Mirman). When calls did manage to get through the caller was given a name of a Bonnaroo artist in the lineup that had yet to be announced. That’s it. And yet, it’s brilliant. No embargo, no requirements to share. You could do whatever you wanted with that information – you could just be privately excited. You could just tell your friends by phone, email, Facebook, whatever.  Or you could be the first person to tell the whole world an unrevealed nugget of news. If you wanted to reach the most people you’d use the #BLAM hashtag on Twitter – where you would no doubt be met with gaggles of new followers, hundreds of ReTweets. It was up to the caller. The truth would be revealed eventually whether you told anyone or not and so the onus was truly on the caller to make the most of the information. And the gem of news you were given was yours to do with as you please. It was a fantastic blend of the private hand-to-hand gossip world of social media and the opposite public desire to be a source to be recognized.

Love (and Information) Will Find a Way

Sure the whole, “let our audience announce it” bit has been done before, from white board photoshopped photos to even video clips – but Bonnaroo’s B.L.A.M. took it one crucial step further: they not only gave bits of info to fans directly but they gave them the freedom to use it too.

Timing was also on their side, theirs to mangle and play with like play-doh for the hour. No matter what happened, the Bonnaroo lineup would be revealed by 2pm. Countless media were no doubt ready to publish the list or at the very least would be sent it instantly. For an entire hour Bonnaroo (and Weird Al) could just screw with us. From a PR perspective the greatest weight was lifted with the concept that at 1:01pm EST if the whole thing unraveled it just didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if Paul McCartney was unveiled first in some ways (he wasn’t). It was a communications stress that lifted the moment the show started. It was play, it was fun, it was freeing. Yes, they wanted B.L.A.M. to be a success and be an entertaining hour but if the whole thing felt like a giant experimental theatre project that was perfectly okay. They had let the lunatics run the asylum and handle all the good china. In fact it was the best china Bonnaroo had: their precious and manically protected lineup before tickets would go on sale.

(At one point they had the internet live-vote through hashtag use to determine which envelope hidden in a poster would be open for the next reveal – one was Mumford and Sons, the other that Weird Al himself would be at Bonnaroo.)

The lineup content, or basic information in this case, was incredibly easy to separate and compartmentalize. Certainly some announcements were bigger than others, but not knowing how big a name was about to be revealed was part of the excitement (especially since, by many standards, Bonnaroo had managed to compile a relatively top-heavy lineup comprised of many other summer festival’s headliners and several unique ones all their own). There was more to B.L.A.M. than just reverse-telethons and you can watch the whole thing for yourself below.

Perhaps most refreshingly the B.L.A.M. stunt broke down the silos of not just “traditional” versus “new media” – but also the silos between channels. They had official channels that were all humming, but they didn’t try and make anyone use any channel they didn’t want to. With the exception of the live stream hosting exclusively on YouTube, fans of Bonnaroo could find out about the lineup a myriad of ways. The almost lackadaisical variety was nice to see – they weren’t getting worked up over how you revealed what whenever you wanted to. All control would still be theirs by the end. (Meanwhile I’m sure the entire endeavor would make many classically trained public relations professionals clutch their pearls.)

In the end, the important thing to take away from this isn’t how they utilized both channels and behavior to their advantage. No, it’s how they didn’t let a need for control get in the way of a number of smart ideas. Did everyone love every part? No. But as a series of tricks they managed to do more interesting things in 45 minutes than I’ve seen some brands do with an “integrated” strategy in an entire year.

- Dean

Apple announced the iPad 2 this week. The iPad 2 is 33% thinner, has duel webcams, and new color options. The prices will range from $499 (for 16GB WiFi-only models) to $829 (for the works) and will be available on March 11, 2011. Watch the following video to see more about the new iPad:

(For those who are TeamCoCo, watch a spoof on the commercial here.)

@CharlieSheen:

You’ve probably been following the tirades of Charlie Sheen… actually I know some of you are (on twitter, at least). Charlie Sheen joined Twitter (@charliesheen) this week, and gained a million followers in a little over 24 hours, breaking a Guinness World record.

Side note: Three Feedbacker’s made it into the list of Charlie Sheen’s top 10 followers. #Winning

Libya’s Internet Down

The government has shut down the internet for most of Libya, including the capital city of Tripoli. The Wall Street Journal reported, “U.S. firms that monitor global Internet networks reported that Web traffic in and out of Libya was disconnected abruptly Thursday afternoon local time and continued to be unavailable late Friday.” This is all too familiar to what we saw a few weeks ago in Egypt. Learn more here.

Behind the Scenes with Old Spice

Old Spice brought you the man that smells like a man, man, and now they’re bring you behind the scenes of their latest commercial shoot. Take a look at the following video, which shows the creative process behind the latest Old Spice commercial:

Healthcare Pick: Emerging Media Whitepaper

Those who are members of SHSMD, take a look at the official Emerging Media Handbook/Whitepaper from SHSMD – Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development where Feedback’s Dean Browell wrote the introduction as the Chair of the Emerging Media Task Force.

-Anna (@alucas9)

Censorship may be the physical act of filtering what we say and removing pictures we deem unacceptable. We may post photos that don’t completely convey what we look like in reality. Or, some people choose not to filter anything at all. Consider the constant need, for those who were recently in college and are trying to find jobs, to remove incriminating photos with alcohol. They aren’t abiding by government censorship, rather, just that of society.

Yet, even the choice to not filter yourself is a form of censorship – you censor the socially acceptable parts of yourself and unleash the ones you think most Internet users will relish.

Outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently stated that no anonymity and transparency is the future of the web:

“Privacy is incredibly important. Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity. It’s very important that Google and everyone else respects people’s privacy. People have a right to privacy; it’s natural; it’s normal. It’s the right way to do things. But if you are trying to commit a terrible, evil crime, it’s not obvious that you should be able to do so with complete anonymity. There are no systems in our society which allow you to do that. Judges insist on unmasking who the perpetrator was. So absolute anonymity could lead to some very difficult decisions for our governments and our society as a whole.”

We begin searching for our identity when we are adolescents. The online world is greatly contributing to how we as human beings go about doing that. Social media tools in particular are accelerating that process, and it all begins with a name. I’m sure you’ll remember when AIM was a big part of our lives.

Unbeknownst to most of us, our screen name became a part of our identity whether it was “hotchick12,” “animalhousecrazy,” or “susie_johnson.” Each of these accounts says something different about the user and for friends and strangers this affects the conversation topics they enter in to. This transcends to any other username/handle we use for a myriad of accounts we may have. These multiple identities allow people to explore and discover themselves, thus shaping and creating his or her identity of self.

This sense of self and the portion of it we choose to convey affects the content we produce on certain social media platforms. Let me use a personal example.

When my real name is used in my username or handle I have to ensure that that self adheres (somewhat) to the “me” that people see at work, at home and in the general public eye. I filter what I say/post in the hopes that there is no disparity between the person people “know” and think they know. With accounts using an alternate (or anonymous) identity it’s a free for all. Here boundaries are crossed and rules broken, testing the waters of How Far Is Too Far?

Last year, Reporters Without Borders posted an article about the crackdown on anonymous postings in Belarus stating that, “By subjecting online access to an identity check or to prior online authorisation that depends on the content and the applicant, this decree will force people to censor themselves. This is obviously the intention, regardless of the government’s insincerely reassuring comments about online free expression.”

The elusive Anonymous that overruns 4chan, wreaking havoc on all who make the mistake of crossing its path, is one such example. These are the guys that sent innocent little children to porn sites when they tried to watch a Justin Bieber video on YouTube. Anonymity allows for individuals choosing to operate under its guise to abandon the rules of the Internet and post whatever they please, like the uncensored versions of R-rated movies, without suffering the consequences (for the most part).

If Anonymous allows this form of chaos that people seem to want to peddle in, then why do so many people feel the need to censor the content they publish? I think it comes back to the desire for order: Chaos can be fun in moderation for most of us, but we still have a need to fit into a variety of social circles. In order to do so, we censor our image in order to be deemed acceptable. Even when we operate under an anonymous account you adhere to the rules of anonymity, or the rule of that rules don’t exist. Censorship is always happening whether you want to admit it or not. Take a look at your accounts and gauge how you censor yourself. I bet it’ll surprise you.

-Brittney (@bntrim)

Watch our social media picks of the week, filmed from The National:

My Pick:

My pick of the week was that YouTube changed the maximum video upload time. Now, all users can upload videos up to 15 minutes long. Previously, users (other than partners) could only upload videos that were 10 minutes or less. With YouTube being the largest video hosting site online, this is a big deal.

Gary’s Pick:

Old Spice Man + social media = ROI. As Mashable reports, “Old Spice body wash sales have increased 107% in the past month in part thanks to that social media marketing campaign.” The campaign also gained Old Spice 80,000 Twitter followers, increased their Facebook fans to 630,000, and bumped up traffic to OldSpice.com to 300%.

Tony’s Pick:

A new, hilarious viral video has appeared this week. Titled “g2_gets_mad_when_leaving_zoo.mov,” this video is about a 4 year old boy who “completely loses his cool” when leaving the zoo, after “only seeing gentle animals”…”because of the girls!”. In less than a week, the video has already received over 100,000 views.

Watch it here:

and watch our parody of the video on airport wrangling:

-Anna (@alucas9)

]]> http://feedbackagency.com/blog/2010/07/30/anna-social-media-picks-of-the-week-with-special-guests-073010/feed/ 0 http://feedbackagency.com/blog/2010/06/11/annas-social-media-picks-of-the-week-061110/ http://feedbackagency.com/blog/2010/06/11/annas-social-media-picks-of-the-week-061110/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:19:14 +0000 Feedback http://feedbackagency.com/blog/?p=814 It’s Anna from Bonnaroo 2010! Want to extend your Bonnaroo experience? Perhaps you’re not going to make it but still want to catch its acts live? Anna’s got three great picks for you this week.

Watch Bonnaroo Live on YouTube
Catch plenty of the acts you would be missing in all of their HD glory over at Bonnaroo’s YouTube channel! The channel also has a schedule of bands they will be broadcasting.

Listen to Bonnaroo Live on NPR
NPR will be carrying Bonnaroo live all weekend on their website and will be archiving the broadcasts for on-demand listening even after the weekend festival ends.

FourSquare and Bonnaroo Partner Up for a Rock Star Badge
If you’re at the event and an avid FourSquare user, you’ve probably been dreaming about getting a Bonnaroo-specific badge. Your dreams have come true! Check in to the Bonnaroo’s subvenues throughout the event for your Bonnaroo Rock Star badge!

Seth Godin, author, blogger and CEO of Squido.com, recently blogged about the “Coming Meltdown in Higher Education” (as Seen by a Marketer).”  Some of his insights certainly provide food for thought:

• Most undergraduate college and university programs are organized to give an average education to average students
• Accreditation isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.
• One reason to go to college was to get access.  Today, that access is worth a lot less.

His article has sparked lively conversation online and with those on both sides of the fence. The conversation has been, at the very least, interesting and entertaining to read.

Dubbed the “most comprehensive university social marketing campaign seen to date” – OSU’s “Power of Orange” campaign

OSU built a strategic social media presence on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and multiple Twitter accounts. What’s “Powered By Orange?” Here’s the answer from the PBO website:

“It’s you – the network of alumni, students, faculty, staff, friends and fans connected to Oregon State University. It’s the positive impact you make every day in Portland and beyond – on the economy, the environment and the community. Use this Web site to tell your story and connect with the other practical idealists who are Powered by Orange.”

Since the campaign’s launch, enrollments have soared, first-time donations by alumni are up and visits to the OSU website have grown exponentially. Luanne Lawrence, OSU’s vice president of university advancement said that they are letting social media drive their decision making,

“We stripped our budget and rebuilt it. It was the hardest thing we had to do. Fifteen to twenty-five year-olds are rebuilding every aspect of the industry, and I’m listening to them.”

Watching the Web Watch the UVa Murder Case

In a time of tragedy and a lot of questions left unanswered regarding the death of UVa’s women’s lacrosse player, Yeardley Love, social media seems to have found a way to respond with patience and maturity. The sports blog, Deadspin, known at one time for its vindictive and unprofessional posts, proved a firm and respectful grasp of the situation by shutting off comments on the UVa story when they veered towards bad taste.

Editor, A.J. Daulerio said, “It was more a message to think a little bit more next time around.”

There also wasn’t a single negative comment to be found when a Facebook page was set up in Yeardley’s memory. Instead, there has been an outpouring of compassion towards Love.  The number of likes on the Facebook page jumped from 4000 to 13,000 within 14 hours … and two weeks later, there are over 66,000 likes.

Social media addiction: Worse than you think

One student blogged the following: I started to feel isolated and lonely…By 2:00 pm I began to feel the urgent need to check my email, and even thought of a million ideas of why I had to. I felt like a person on a deserted island…. I noticed physically, that I began to fidget, as if I was addicted to my iPod and other media devices, and maybe I am.

Two hundred University of Maryland students agreed to live 24 hours without any social media – no cell phone, iPods, or computers. The results of this study actually found that students suffered from the same physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms as alcohol and drug addicts when they went without social media and their cell phones for 24 hours.

Self proclaimed middle-aged, balding college President learns valuable social media lessons

President Brian Rosenberg of Macalester College has never blogged, tweeted, and he’s not on Facebook. However, as he stated, he learned first-hand how new forms of social media “have more potential to connect audiences across both generational and geographic boundaries than do virtually all previous forms of communication.”

After a seemingly innocent, self-parodying video on YouTube, “President’s Day at Macalester College” initially designed to engage alumni reached over 40,000 viewers on YouTube and annual fund donations spiked, the self non-technology savvy college president has had a change of heart:

“I have begun to learn about the nature and power of the social media that are reshaping the way we communicate with one another and should be reshaping the way organizations of all kinds communicate.” – President Rosenberg

-Heather (@HMillar13) and Anna (@alucas9)

Feedback on Facebook (Facebook.com/FeedbackFB)
Where you’ll find  our active links, commentary, great discussions, photos, video and more on a daily (heck, hourly) basis… just click “Like” and you’re in!

Feedback on Twitter (@feedbackagency)
Twitterers can get their fix on our stream here, linking to great articles, thoughts and more!

And of course here on our blog and on YouTube (user: FeedbackVideos) you can catch Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week every week. We’re thrilled you’re here and hope you enjoy what you see – contact us (804-893-3437) for more!

-Dean (@dbrowell)

Flip for WiFi

If you like taking short videos and uploading them onto YouTube or Facebook, you’ve probably heard of Flip Cameras. Heck, you probably own one. Well, hopefully you’ll Flip for this: their cameras just got even better. In early 2010, a new Flip, with built in WiFi, will go on the market. So, now when you don’t feel like plugging in to the computer to upload your videos, you won’t have to.

Upload with Ease

Find adding photos onto Facebook a hassle? Well, Facebook addressed this issue on Wednesday when they announced that they were rolling out a new and improved photo uploading process. The new photo upload tool, which is just a prototype for now, gives you a preview of the upcoming replacement.

If you’re not excited to upload an album onto Facebook, maybe you’ll be excited to upload a video onto YouTube. On Thursday, Google announced that everyone now has the option to add captions to their YouTube videos automatically.

The Google Phone

Google is in the process of creating the latest android phone. Although details are still slim, we do know that they are creating and manufacturing a phone that will compete with the likes of iPhone and Droid. & According to sources, it’s coming soon. For more “well-sourced rumors,” read this TechCrunch article.

Foursquare Adds Fifty

Foursquare is a social game/application that is gaining popularity. Mashable has even named it “The Twitter of 2010.” Another thing Foursquare is gaining: ground. On Thursday, Foursquare announced that the mobile application is now available for 50 new cities, all around the world.

Retweet

I heard the announcement that Twitter was incorporating a Retweet action (making it easier for users to Retweet), and saw friends tweeting about how they were using the new feature. But it wasn’t until this week that I finally got to test it out myself. & Now, everybody can try it. On Thursday, Twitter tweeted that the Retweet feature has gone live for all.

-Anna (@alucas9)