Friday has come around again (rather too quickly this week in our opinion) so below are some of the stories from around the blogosphere which caught our eye. We did six last week…so let’s stick with that for the moment!
Social Media’s True Impact on Haiti, China, and the World– Ben Parr at Mashable – The devastating earthquake in Haiti has continued to dominate mainstream and social media this week. In this post, Ben looks at the continuing role of social in fundraising and how the real time information streams have impacted recent world events.
Toward a Definition of Engagement – KD Paine – Engagement and the hunt for definitions and metrics is all the rage at the moment. Here, Katie offers a six-point scale of engagement from the unengaged (0) to the addicted (5) and then 35 different signs which can point to an engaged user. I like the notion of measuring passion, feelings and love of a product or brand as by digging deeper into comments and posts, we can start to glean real insights rather than merely an interaction. Some big thinking, as always.
The Real Cost of Social Media – Danny Brown – What? Social media isn’t free?! Who’d have thought! A good post shining a light on the fact that even in the planning stage, this stuff costs money. From man hours, to creative build to measurement, there are (quite significant) costs along the way. Danny puts forward some ‘worst case’ scenarios…so don’t freak out but its important to address an often overlooked topic.
World’s Most Valuable Soccer Team Doesn’t Get Social Media – Nick O’Neill at social times. One of my favourite stories this week…and not in a good way. Man Utd have announced that NONE of their stars maintain a social network profiles, so don’t bother looking for Wayne Rooney or Ryan Giggs on Twitter or Facebook. I think this is a huge own goal (sorry!) in terms of fan engagement. They are the biggest team in the world with fans on every continent crying out to be brought nearer to the club and the players. Yes there are pitfalls of letting players speak freely but surely, if managed correctly, the benefits can out-weigh them.
Social Technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder – Josh Bernoff – Forrester Research introduced the Social Technographics ladder a couple of years ago, profiling the types of user behavior online from creators to inactives. They have added conversationalists to include those who tweet or update Facebook at least once a week…and there is a lot of them, 33%. A good update.
Wiring In Social Media Measurement – Amber Naslund – A nice post on how businesses need to start internally calibrating to be able to measure social media programs. Many companies don’t measure their current activities so finding the meaningful nuggets in social media is almost impossible. Some useful tips on how to start and set up measurement infrastructure.
Have a good weekend guys and girls!
