Thesis Writing

Greetings folks,

It is now the time for me to begin writing my Masters thesis and will therefore take a short hiatus from posting to the blog. No worries, once it's finished I'll be back online.

Thank you for reading. See you soon!

Abby

1995

“The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.”

Facebook, The Branding Era

As many of you know, I swing as a blogger for Rodgers Townsend. I wouldn’t ordinarily re-blog a post but this one seemed to fit well here. The original can be found at http://www.rodgerstownsend.com/blog/facebook-timeline-the-branding-era.

There’s been quite a bit of chatter about Facebook’s latest update lately. Perhaps you recall our own Jeremy Hagen lending his voice to the debate. March 30th is the official migration date for all ‘Page’ users to Timeline. Folks managing brand pages have circled the date.

The original Facebook was never designed with brands in mind. In fact, Pages and Applications only came about in 2008 and 2009. Pages were stale and forced, while Applications were just plain annoying. Facebook created its own dictionary of terms that changed just as soon as a brand thought they understood. They don’t even offer support or assistance over the phone.

Here’s a huge warning: Don’t be fooled by the fancy new layout. There’s more to Timeline than a Cover Picture. Brands that neglect to check out Timeline’s features, or more importantly take advantage of the preview feature, will most assuredly crash and burn in the transition.

To me, Timeline is a much bigger opportunity for brands than Facebook 6.0 and 7.0 ever were. This time, brands get to tell their story from start to finish with much more control.

Take Coca-Cola for example. Not only are they filling their page with the brand’s legacy, they’re encouraging followers to contribute. They have promotions and coupons in their Application bar too; who doesn’t love free Coke? And here’s one better: they’ve got videos and branded entertainment front and center.

The brands doing well on Timeline have edited themselves and created a story worth telling: Coke is sharing smile stories, Livestrong is sharing inspiration and survival stories, and Barack Obama’s 2012 Presidential campaign is sharing support stories. Every single post suits the brand and fits into a larger picture. There was some serious strategy at work.

New features like Highlights, which populates top stories, Starring, or featuring stories, and the new Application bar, are really changing the way brands can use Facebook. So think about it. Don’t just change your cover photo and call it a day.

http://www.rodgerstownsend.com/blog/facebook-timeline-the-branding-era

Generation ... C?

Check this out, Nielsen study about Millennials, or ‘Gen-Y’, or people aged 18-34, proves that their a generation about connections and communication. They make up 23% of the population but make up nearly 27% of online video/social network consumption. Even more crazy to think about 33% of them own tablets and 39% of them own smartphones.

(Okay, let me be honest 39% seemed a little low but I have to remind myself that my friends and I are the exception.)

Nielsen writes: “Their ownership and use of connected devices makes them incredibly unique consumers, representing both a challenge and opportunity for marketers and content providers alike…Generation C is engaging in new ways and there are more touch points for marketers to reach them.”

Pretty interesting facts for a Wednesday, huh?

Here’s a link to the report.

Brand Identity Through Pinning

Everyone these days wants to be heard; that's why Twitter and YouTube are so popular. We have opinions. We want to be understood. We want to show the world what we can do, what inspires us and what we're interested in. Perhaps that is whythe hottest Palo Alto start-up, Pinterest, has been on the lips of nearly every media source for about a week and a half.

We get it. Pinterest is hip.

It's a step beyond 'traditional' social media: it shows rather than tells. Users follow boards of like products grouped together by category and posted by their own personal board of trusted, opinionated influencers. It's basically a highly evolved form of raiding a friend's closet, desk or fridge.

People are more visual now than ever before and we're entering an age where digital is as much about utility as it is about art. Brilliant content is everywhere and anywhere.

Call me crazy, but there seems to be an alternative application to Pinterest where brands can leverage their personality through curating rather than displaying products and offers.

With Pinterest, brands like Gap and Chobani are so much more than retailers or manufacturers-they're showing followers how to work out, what to make for dinner, how to stay on top of the latest style ideas and trends and more. It's an opportunity to personify the brand in a way that lets followers discover their identity organically, letting consumers peek behind the scenes and gain a rounder understanding of what the brand is all about.

Check out how these four brands are using Pinterest in innovative ways (click images to visit pinboards and explore):

Chobani

Modcloth

Gap

Travel Channel

Yoda and Steve: Millennial Jedi Ghosts

This morning, amid a frantic and dizzy haze left over from my first Agency party, I took a moment to chat with an old friend. He’s my age, 23, and an avid Apple user. Of course the one topic we get stuck on was Steve Jobs passing; I’ve heard it over and over from my young friends, “I never thought I would have such an emotional reaction to a stranger’s passing.” Yet many young people have been very emotional about it.

If you think about it, Steve really touched a lot of people, connected families, educated the masses, and expanded (for better or worse) media’s reach. He, and Steve Wozniak, saw a word full of technology—with computers tiny, in hand, in every home. I owe a large part of my education to these men. I’ll go one step further to say I wouldn’t be writing this blog without these men--Lord Zuckerberg probably wouldn't be the millennial god he is today, and our beloved Twitter Jack and Myspace Tom would be average Joe's. The Steves, and in particular Steve Jobs, somehow became this generation’s voice. He’s like our Lennon, our Yoda, our connective voice from which great timeless wisdom flows.  Young people were are incredibly attached to Steve, not because he created cool phones and computers. They see in him enabled inspiration, through inspiration. 


We dream to change the world, which is what he accomplished. We dream to understand how he understood.

Apple Store Memorial

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something.”

Thank you Steve. Thank you for everything, really.

OccupySTL Observations

Today I took some time and visited a group of protestors in the city. I’ve never really been to an official protest so I didn’t know what to expect, maybe a manic agenda and a guy in red and white striped pants shouting about ‘Viet-fuckin-nam’. For about two weeks Crystal and I had been following the Occupy Wallstreet protests in New York; it finally spread nationally, with a meeting place right here in St. Louis, MO.  Of course there are hundreds of social and political issues at hand here, I had a only few note-worthy observations.

Disclaimer: These are just some of the generational takeaways I had, great fodder for emerging ideas. It should also be noted that there was not a community manager on ‘staff’, so tweeting, hash-tagging, checking-in, all kinds of fun mobile social networking wasn’t on their radar. If you want more, check out Rodgers Townsend’s blog. If you want to join the protest, or help out stop by Kiener Plaza downtown…and for God’s sake bring them some food and water.   

Happy Fall-tastic Monday Everyone

Here’s something short and comical that a co-worker of mine sent me. It’s hilarious and so fitting for an upcoming blog post. Since I don’t have time for many details, I’m leaving you with this:

Via The Oatmeal.

Is EVERYONE Updating Their Features?

It sure seems so. I’m not sure which happened first (because my iPhone, Pickle, was having a teenaged meltdown last week during the stream of App updates) but all our favorite social networks made some serious updates and changes. Most notable among them, Facebook; I’m not going to go too deep into that one right now—Mashable has done an amazing job of keeping everyone in the loop with updates. As I hear it there is going to be a second wave of update in the next couple weeks.

The timeliness of all these changes really is astounding—On the 20^th, Instagram gave mobile photographers their new and improved, hi-res, user friendly Instagram 2.0. Reactions online seem to be positive, although some of the opinions of avid Instagrammers weren’t so great. My Foursquare told me there were some updates to the ‘lists’ section of the mobile app on the 20^th as well. Then the changes to Facebook hit, and all hell broke loose.

I’m just putting this out here to say, I’m watching how these social networks feed off each other. What does it mean for users? What does it mean for developers? I’m just saying, watch them, they kind of move together.

Check out this blogpost from  Sam Lessin at Facebook, it's a perfect post about profile timelines.
If you don't have Instagram (sorry Android users) here's a great Mashable 'Top Users' review.

The Growth of Social Media 2011 [Infographic] via DigitalBuzz

Check it out here.

Absurdity and Subtlety

I’ve been hovering over a theory for weeks: Millennials generally lack the ability to understand subtle cues and changes in inflection and tone.  Obviously the theory needs serious testing, though I have some anecdotal evidence to support the theory—ultimately it needs academic style testing, one with a ‘control’ and all that science-y good-stuff but here’s how I landed at my current conclusion:

For years I’ve had friends who would rather text, IM, or Facebook me when they have a problem. Very rarely do I get a confrontational phone call; I can count on two hand the number of negative conversations I’ve had in person. An uncomfortable conversation normally manifests via text or Facebook message. A week ago I noticed two Facebook friends stirring up an online feud, escalating into a ridiculous Twitter battle, which finally ended with a phone call, I’m told, and ‘unfollowing’. Now, there are three things at work here:

1.     Communication is lost, or misinterpreted via online medium; in other words the lack of subtle tone, inflection, and physical cues is leading young people to hyper-react.

2.     The inability to communicate one-on-one about sensitive subjects, i.e. rent, cleaning the dishes, passing notes in class, anything that potentially causes an argument, big or small, in person. In essence, avoiding confrontation until it erupts.

3.     The socio-cultural weight of ‘unfriending’ or ‘unfollowing’ among young people. (Which is a larger post coming soon)

"Why not?"

It seems absurdist executions are “working” well with Millennials; why else would this DQ spot keep happening? I’m circling on a hypothesis driving this phenomenon: Millennials generally lack the ability to understand subtlety. More to come. 

The Science of Social Timing [Infographic] via David Larson

Formerly @Tweet_Tips, currently @TweetSmarter. This infographic breaks down when to tweet and (generally) who is tweeting. Please note this is very general and can potentially be demographic specific.

Study finds:

"Nearly half of all social-media users check Twitter or Facebook on their smart phone after going to bed and/or before getting out of bed in the morning. The proportion increases to 76% for [millennials], 19% of whom check their phones when they wake up during the night."

Check it out...

PEW Research has a section ALL about Millennials. There is plenty of further research, some applicable to this blog and some that's just fun and interesting.

http://pewresearch.org/millennials/

Enjoy nerds.  

I'm Late to the Game

I know it has been a topic for quite some time, and it just keeps coming up, but social check-ins still seem to be all the rage. I will be the absolute first to admit that for years I’ve thought “Why does anyone need to know where I am?” I am a fairly private person and a fairly cautious person at times, so I just couldn’t see why a service like FourSquare would be useful.

I will also be the first to say, “don’t knock it till you try it.” As a hyper-rational super nerd I feel it is my duty to experience the ‘full effect’ of every social phenomenon—okay, maybe not every social phenomenon, but for this blog’s sake just go with it—I’ve been conducting a little experiment for the past month with social check-ins to see what weight they actually hold and go figure, they’re actually more than just a silly game you play with your ‘friends’.

[Infographic] via SingleGrain

Interesting insights via Scribble and SingleGrain. It’s almost exactly as I imagine it, in a heavyweight battle who will win, Google+ or Facebook?

Verdict's still out.

Google+ Invite

As I'm sure everyone's aware Google launched Google+ about a week ago. Though I have 3 gmail accounts (yes, three) I didn't initially get in invite when I asked for one. No matter, there are great positives to being well connected with social, digital nerds. Within hours I was online.

The network is relatively small right now, so figuring things out is really just trial and error. Thank goodness Mark Zuckerberg and Mashable have Google+ pages or I would be absolutely lost. Well, not completely. Look to my Twitter for a Facebook vs. Google+ play-by-play.

If you need an invite, or just want one I'll think about sharing. Happy Google+ing y'all!

Museum of Me via Intel

This has been around for some time but every time I see it, it gives me chills. 

Simply amazing:  Museum of Me

Technology + Life