Anyone who has clicked a mouse and entered the world of the internet appreciates that there are a significant number of anonymous online people who are out to judge, criticise, bully and do harm. These ‘trolls’, as we have come to know them, can cause serious damage. Nevertheless, it has been incredible to watch on and see how the public have reacted to the death of Claire Squires, after the London marathon, and how people took to the internet to provide a lasting legacy for one incredible lady.
It was heart rendering to hear that Claire, a 30 year old woman, collapsed during the final mile of the London Marathon and consequently died. Claire had raised over £500 herself in order to support the good work of the Samaritans who offered professional help and support to her family when her brother died. It was humbling to see that within hours of the sad news breaking, Claire’s name was globally trending on Twitter with a link to her donations page encouraging people to give in her memory. Before the first day of promotion was over £60,000+ was added to the total. A day later the media broke the story and less than seven days after Claire sadly died the total figure stands at an incredible £1million. At one point a staggering £1,500 per minute was being donated!
What an incredibly positive story demonstrating the true power of social media. It was the thousands of people across social media that decided to launch a campaign to raise as much money as possible – no newspaper, radio station or magazine, but people. Naturally, the next day the story was picked up by Sky News and in every leading National media outlet which further fanned the flames of the campaign. However, if it was not for social media and the public’s quest to raise as much money as possible, the media would not have a public campaign story to tell. The goodness of people and the viral nature of social media did this.
Of course you get idiots online. But the potential of people coming together online with the goal of doing something incredibly, outrageously positive has huge potential. It was fantastic to see how this campaign was launched and spread virally and, although it is not the first of it’s kind, it does represent an increasing move towards a discovery of how the internet can be used positively for social causes, causes that are not initiated by the government, the press or other bodies but, quite simply from the people. I love it!
After 25 years of the Oprah Winfrey show it seemed to many that ending the show to start her OWN TV station was a bad idea. Nevertheless, Oprah Winfrey has dramatically turned it all around and in doing so has provided a model that every brand can learn from.
When Oprah Winfrey launched her OWN TV show, ratings were plummeting and there was cause for concern at Oprah Winfrey HQ. Furthermore, between January and July of 2011 the audience to Oprah Winfrey’s own website dropped by over half, from 5.1million unique users to 2.4million. Nevertheless, appreciating the power of social media Oprah sat down with her team, sought advice of Facebook and Twitter Execs and launched season two of her Lifeclass roadshow making Oprah Winfrey Queen of the social media limelight.
Oprah Winfrey has traveled the length and breadth of the USA with her Lifeclass, which is a live TV show that is simultaneously broadcast on her website, encouraging live interaction on both Facebook and Twitter. Viewers can even Skype into the show to ask questions.
If you have not had the opportunity to watch Oprah’s Lifeclass, you really should. It is incredible to see Oprah bring together respected leaders including the likes of Life Coach, Tony Robbins and Bishop TD to share words of wisdom encouraging the audience to ‘live their best life’.
With the whole stage being social media driven, with tweets and Facebook messages appearing in the background and Oprah and her ‘gurus’ commenting on messages as they happen, this truly is a social TV phenomenon. The lifeclass buzz on social networking sites is thriving and the Oprah Team stated that in the first week of April 2012 alone there were 414,780 mentions on Facebook, 3,026 answers posted to the Lifeclass wall on Oprah.com and over 29,000 views to the wall. Meanwhile, the web cast brought in a staggering 2.7 million viewer minutes from 149 countries.
Granted, not every brand has the Oprah Winfrey budget, nevertheless, the idea is as important as the figures. Oprah Winfrey’s Lifeclass hits it hard in simultaneous locations – The live show, TV, Facebook, Twitter, Orpah.com for a concentrated amount of time once a week, with the brand benefits rolling out from their on in.
Imagine a live TV commercial airing that also promotes a hashtag and immediate engagement on their Facebook wall, perhaps for the chance to win an awesome prize. Imagine a brand rolling out the fact that they were going to make a major product announcement live online at a certain time and date with carefully selected methods of promotion on Facebook. Or quite simply imagine TV shows taking their social media engagement to the next level as the presenters sit in front of a backdrop of tweets and Facebook messages enabling the public to interview celebrities in real time.
Oprah Winfrey is revolutionising social TV by brining all the elements together at once. This is the ultimate lifeclass lesson for brands. Think about your brand and your business, what could you do via social media, your website and other media avenues in order to see your brand stand out from the crowd?
So, it’s been a while since I have blogged and some time since I have tweeted and I have enjoyed every minute of it and now, my hiatus is over and indeed, many things I have learn’t.
For the last 3 months the only tweets I have sent have been on behalf of businesses and brands whose social media accounts I manage. All personal social media engagement has been on ‘pause’. This social media hiatus was actually inspired by a friend of mine who took 6 months of social media and I felt that it was time to do the same.
In all honesty no tweeting and no blogging has been extremely challenging. As an individual who works in social media, if you stop tweeting and blogging you have this sudden fear that work will dry up and your position in the social media hierarchy will start to slip. Surely, someone who is passionate about social media should be tweeting 24/7 right? – Tweeting what they are watching, uploading Instagram pictures of beautiful sunsets and being seen to be in the social media ‘know’ and ‘on trend’.
Now, let me tell you something. I absolutely love social media, I love it’s power and potential. I love the way that customers have the power to engage, empower and own brands rather than simply buy their products. However, there is also a lot of cr*p out there. I have been to numerous networking events where the majority of people in the room are ‘social media experts’ and when probed further their own definition of a ‘social media expert’ is an individual who sets up Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. The majority of people in the social media world are doing a lot of rubbish, but, thank God, there are a small few who are creating something powerful in the socialsphere.
During the last 3 months I have spent a lot of time watching, learning, seeing what others are doing, seeing what is working and what is not working. And, there is so much to learn. Over the coming months I will share, via this blog, exactly what I have learn’t.
Now, to answer the question on your lips – no I am not arrogant enough to state that I am a social media expert. During my ‘time off’, I have been a social media student and I will continue to be. The biggest thing that I have learn’t is that social media is fluid, it changes, twists and turns. One brand can produce a viral master piece which another company may have previously tried and failed.
Social Media is like a wild beast. As soon as we think we have learn’t to tame the beast it run’s furiously into a different direction and we are left trying to keep up.
If you have some social media wisdom, please feel free to contact me. I am absolutely loving learning about all things social media right now.