Social Media Monitoring Assignment # 2

Again, the company I am monitoring is Boost Fitness where I work as a certified personal trainer. On their Facebook page, they describe themselves as “the area’s premier independent fitness center that caters to adult professionals in the community. Boost Fitness offers individualized, group and semi-private fitness training programs to help our members achieve their goals.”

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boost-Fitness/77623690632

My analysis of their social media presence and suggestion for improvement will primarily stick to their facebook. This avenue of social media is where they have had the most relative success and attention, but also still have huge potential to grow. They do not yet have a Twitter, and their youtube presence needs a great deal of work. While they do maintain a “Boost Blog” regularly, it is consistently linked to the facebook, and any traffic it gains comes solely from this area. For these reasons, increasing the effectiveness and outreach of the facebook page is the top priority of my monitoring project. As of now, it has the highest potential to energize clients and facilitate innovation!

Demographic

• As a trainer there, I have a first hand perspective that adult professionals are the demographic most represented in their members. Of these, I would say approximately 60% of Members are women. When it comes to personal training clients, the number is in fact well above 2/3’s!(For me it is 100%).

Immediately, this is a good sign in-terms of the opportunity to use social media to create and maintain relationships. According to a study done by NetPop Research, a San Francisco-based research firm studying Internet trends, “women in their 30s make up more than half of heavy contributors — that is, they engage in six or more social media activities.” http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-02-21-socialanimals21_ST_N.htm. Indeed a quick look at the Boost Facebook page confirms this, as 99% of the contributors are females.

Applied Example:

In fact, after briefly discussing “listening” and inciting dialogue with one of the managers, I suggested a tone for the next post. It subsequently received feedback, and although it was not a large volume, it was very immediate. It is a major issue that nearly all of the excellent blog posts are ignored, as they are not framed with a question that personalizes them and establishes the interaction as a more personable conversation. Again, this goes back to what Li and Bernoff continually state, relationships are EVERYTHING!

Data & Social Media Metrics

Of course, a major component of this project was obtaining hard data of social media metrics, noticing aggregate trends, and performing a qualitative analysis of topics, tone, message salience, word-of-mouth, engagement etc. This was difficult with Boost Fitness, as they are a company with a small outreach, only existing in this central Massachusetts area. With this in mind, I extended my investigation towards other prominent fitness organizations in hopes of finding data I could similarly apply to my situation. The question I asked was:

What are these other Fitness Organizations Doing Well that Boost Could do Better? Where is their Outreach & Energizing Lacking? What can be learned from Them?

Boost Fitness

Google Insights

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=Boost%20Fitness%20&cmpt=date

• While the volume is low, they are a rising search term! Note the spike in activity each year at the beginning of January. This is when marketing efforts are in full force, as well as customer interest peaking in light of New Years resolutions.

• Boost Fitness does not have a large enough presence currently for me to obtain any data on them from sites such as Addictomatic, Social Mention, etc

The respective Boost Fitness Clubs are "rising" searches on Google

Equinox:

Google Insights

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=Equinox%20Fitness&cmpt=q

• Again, similar data trends, notice interest peaking early January, then decreasing until March, then subsequently building up again as the fitness community gets motivated for "Summer Bodies." The next major fall in interest is typically around October, as warm weather and revealing clothes are on the way out.

• Social Mention reveals respectable levels of "Passion" and"Sentiment." Also, even the detected "neutral" mentions are in this case more positive. As long as it is not negative, any press is good press in this case.

Gold's Gym:

• http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=Gold%27s%20Gym&cmpt=q

• Again, same seasonal trends

http://socialmention.com/search?q=Gold%27s+Gym&t=all&btnG=Search

World Gym

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=World%20Gym&cmpt=q

• Again, seasonal trends mirror previous examples

http://socialmention.com/search?q=World+gym&t=all&btnG=Search

LA Fitness Co.

• http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=LA%20Fitness%20&cmpt=q
• Exact same trends continue in this case as well.

Social Mention Vibe:

For the clubs that did have a large enough following to leave a footprint on social mention, one trend was overwhelmingly clear. Customers feel passion and sentiment about the organization when it is able to create a sense of community. Equinox in particular does an excellent job in this regard. Not only do they cater to clients health and fitness needs, they also become a high end social club of sorts. Primarily their target is young and middle aged working professionals. Content of their blog and twitter reinforces this.

Example Equinox Tweet:

It’s casual Friday! Do workout leggings cross the line? http://nyti.ms/fqBsMe

25 Mar via web Favorite Retweet Reply

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/fashion/17elastic.html?_r=2

• This is an excellent example of listening, understanding your audience, and creating content that will engage them on a personal level and establish the "relationships" that are paramount. Boost Fitness can do the same thing, but as stated before, must respect its primary demographic of middle aged women. Many of these women are also mothers, so perhaps they can personalize their approach by adding content that would specifically appeal to them in this regard.
• Boost Fitness already has an EXCELLENT community, feel, but lacks the online community to complement it. Luckily, it should be an easier transition because it has that established “neighborhood” feel where most members know one another and everyone is friendly.

Overall:

Despite a lack of metrics available for analysis pertaining specifically to Boost Fitness, analyzing other companies in the same market provided some very applicable data.

1. Figure out strategies for the identified interest"lulls" during the year. When social media interest lulls, energizing, and in-turn revenue decreases. This could be as simple as designing seasonal discounts or marketing specials. IE energizing using knowledge of trends, such as "Don't wait until summer to start working on that body! Get started now!"
2. Going to the gym is not just for fitness, it is part of ones lifestyle, or "habitus." It is great if you have encouraged a strong community offline, but if it does not exist online as well you are only gaining half the benefit! Make sure to listen and thoroughly assess customer base to provide adequate response. Equinox's social media campaign is a good example of this, however the same messages will not start a groundswell within the Boost Fitness member base... Different Target audience!

These Equinox advertisements demonstrate the different demographic they are marketing too. They are absolutely begging for a semiotic analysis, but for now lets just use them to affirm the fact that great marketing for companies is not universally applicable, even in the same industry... However, great marketing strategies are! Regardless of some of the questionable thematic aspects of these hyper-sexualized images, the advertisement does finish by asking a question "What's Your After?" This is an intertextual reference that invites the viewer to interpellate themselves into the narrative being created. Whether it is a print or video add, a tweet, or a Facebook Post.. Prompting your audience with questions is one of the best ways to engage the groundswell.

Reading Reflection # 3

Chapter 11-The Goundswell Inside Your Company

Whereas the majority of Li and Bernoff's book has focused on utilizing groundswell technologies to best support users/consumers, chapter 11 was a very interesting and equally relevant take on how this approach can also be invaluable to your company from the inside perspective. This chapter especially resonated with me because I work in an organization (Boost Fitness) which I feel could strongly benefit from such tactics.

Boost Fitness is awesome at not having the overly hierarchical nature Li and Bernoff relate that larger companies typically have. However, as a trainer, while I appreciate the voice I have at the specific facility I work at (There are 3 in the central Mass/Metro-West are), I cannot say that there is any communication between trainers across facilities. Besides being coaches and motivators, from a business perspective personal trainers are always sales people. Whether literally selling training, or selling ideas and motivations to best help our clients, we are constantly selling! Li and Bernoff relate and illustrate using Best Buy and the example of Blue Shirt Nation how invaluable sharing information over long distances can be, especially for those in sales! Because of the fact that many people are asking the same questions, it can be a great resource to have a varied perspective on these common issues and be able to view all employee's unique and valuable perspective.

Li and Bernoff state the benefits of Blue Shirt Nation:

i. Listening- management and employees listening to employees
ii. Talking: communicate company-wide uniformly
iii. Energizing
iv. Supporting- promoting from within and building culture
v. Embracing

Just as many clients I work with have similar goals, many clients across the entire organization do as well! So why not create communication? There is huge potential for benefit. For all occupations (and perhaps sales/service more then any) the effective employee must place himself in the mindset where he is constantly learning. Furthermore, employers themselves can learn an immense amount from their employees, as the BSN case illustrates.


Every single day I go to work I try to leave a little bit better at providing my services and closing sales, because every day listening to my clients, learning from a mistake, or being in a new situation evolves my perspective. It could be as simple as saying: Ok, I have realized clients are much more successful when I set short term goals for them, but theses goals must be measurable. Then perhaps I learn, yes, short term goals are essential, but a long term measurable goal is necessary as well to ensure they see the big picture and continue to stay motivated! This is simply a basic example, but the applications are endless. Above all, company wide communication enhances what matters the most to management, employee skills. Additionally, it energizes and builds a community feel within the organization, something I personally do not have because there is limited interaction between the trainers at the other respective clubs. It is a win-win for both employee's and management! Of course, there are many depths this idea can be taken to, illustrated by the varying approaches of Avenue A/Razorfish, "Intelpedia," and Bell Canada.

Organization wide, multi-level communication: Invaluable!

In any organization where this is an entirely new implementation, it may take time to catch on, and a simple approach is likely best in the beginning (i.e. a basic "forum" vs. an in-depth "wiki.") Regardless, utilizing the Groundswell inside your company in any way WILL bring benefits, and is very cost effective. As Li and Bernoff caution: Consider the opportunity lost by not harvesting this potential!

-Sam

Additional Links:

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/sme-tv-discovering-the-best-buy-blue-shirt-nation/

http://businessinnovationfactory.com/weblog/archives/2008/09/best_practices.html

Brand Analysis: Boost Fitness

Aside from my academic studies in communications and film, one of my other great passions is fitness. I enjoy the rewarding feeling of changing my body and its capabilities through exercise and hard work, and love to help others achieve their own personal goals! Two years ago I obtained my national accreditation to become a Certified Personal Trainer, and since then I have worked training clients here at Clark (both students and faculty), and more recently at Boost Fitness in Northboro, Massachusetts.

www.myboostfitness.com

Using strategies from Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s book, Groundswell (2008), This brand analysis will focus on the social media marketing presence of Boost Fitness, asking the question: Is the organization utilizing groundswell tactics effectively? If yes, how so, and if not, what areas can they improve in?

The good news is that one can immediately see Boost Fitness understands the importance of social media. They have newly revamped their website, and now offer links to their facebook fan page and a Boost Blog (started in Nov. 2010). They also have an “icon” link to Twitter, however it appears they have not set it up yet. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Li and Bernoff state (chap 4.) if they do not master the “relationships” (rather then simply the “technologies”) then any aspects of their groundswell presence will be negligible. A quick look over their social network presence reveals they do have some work to go with establishing the relationships, as nearly all of their facebook group wall posts are what Li and Bernoff refer to as “shouting,” pitching sales or providing info, but not making a strong enough attempt to actually engage in dialogue with the participants. In short, they are talking to participants when ideally they should be talking “with” them. Not only will this create greater participation in discussion, but as is continually reinforced by Li and Bernoff, it makes business much easy for the company as customers often provide the best innovation. Even though Boost Fitness is not doing this currently, the good news is their attitude toward embracing the groundswell is positive, they simply have to change their approach. Let us now consider a few specific examples from their facebook page contrasting with other leading pages in the industry.

Clearly they have frequent posts, but they talking at their consumers rather than conversing! Farther down the page there was one instance where dialogue between members and management was started up.

Immediately there are several differences with this post. First, it is an original post rather then simply a reposting of a link from their blog. Rather then an “info-blast,” it is a personable notice. Now regard the comments below. The “groundswell” is taking hold even though that was not the intention of the poster. Simply giving the Boost community a place to converse instantly facilitated two very beneficial outcomes, buzz and new product and marketing ideas. Not only did this action “energize” the groundswell, it was completely free. Simply by providing a forum for communication, by talking to fans as if they were in a “relationship,” they very effectively used the groundswell, by accident or not. Boost fitness needs to do this on their facebook page MUCH MORE. I like to use the analogy of social media as one big cocktail party. If you walk up to a group of people and a) Try to sell them a product immediately, or b)tell them a long story they don’t have the time or interest for, they will at best hear you out, at worst walk away, and 99% of the time very little will come from your interaction. No one else will join in the conversation, the ideal scenario. Blog links and articles can be helpful, but they must include a semblance of “relationship,” THEY MUST NOT BE ALL TECHNOLOGY. This can be as simple as prefacing the link with a statement and question. For example, lets examine on of their most recent postings, the article “Are You Drinking Enough Water?” The effectiveness of their attempts at energizing could be increased ten fold simply by prefacing it with something such as:

“This article has really made a difference in the way I train! What do you guys think? Do you feel like you get enough water? What are some of the ways you help make sure you are adequately hydrated?

Even a statement as simple as this makes a potentially huge difference. Now, instead of seeing Boost Fitness Facebook as a mindless automaton, fans are reminded of the truth that there is a person behind all of this! Furthermore, as Li and Bernoff State, perhaps the most important groups to reach regardless of the technological medium are the critics and creators. As of now, Boost could certainly benefit from their presence! Responding to a question like the above query gives participants a direct opportunity to accrue the psychic value we all hold in significance in some way. As Li and Bernoff relate, it is important to appeal to people’s humanistic and altruistic motivations. A conversation as simple as this could start out as a simple energizing attempt, but lead to much bigger relationships and innovations that will be extremely beneficial to both the management and clients. For example, dialogue could begin with “I like such and such water bottle, its big, but not too big to fit in the side of the treadmill,” and continue towards “You know, I have heard a lot of complaints about the lack of a water fountain on the second floor. Do you think that could be something you guys could look into in the future? Thanks!” Boost needs to realize that embracing the Groundswell hinges on the ability to make customers an invaluable and involved part of their innovation. They are actually very receptive to dialogue such as this in traditional person to person communication, but again, need to facilitate these RELATIONSHIPS with their social media ventures.

With this in mind let us take a glance at a few facebook pages from other fitness companies. Keep in mind, boost fitness is a privately owned gym, and does not have the immense budget of these “Globo-Gyms,” but nevertheless, the lesson learned is the same! Even better then that, thankfully it can be done very cheaply!

Notice: Not only does asking a question personally involve members in dialogue, it motivates them personally (as well as encouraging them to come into the gym more/purchase more classes!) One woman even suggested a potentially new target market, and at none of the cost of a focus group, survey, etc.

Notice: Questions creating buzz and relationships both within the user community and between the user and company!

Notice: Questions can be effectively targeted toward specific audiences! Also note the personalized response.

Notice: Groundswell feedback is invaluable for employees as well! From posts like these a trainer such as myself could easily assess their performance against what clients clearly love. Trainers can ask themselves questions such as "do I have enough enthusiasm? Maybe I could pump up the encouragement? Ahh, high energy music, thats a great idea!" These are general examples, but the application is endless.

For next assessment, I will focus more on the specifics. Yes, "relationships" are important, but what are some of the best ways to establish long lasting and effective "partnerships" that are mutually beneficial? I will also delve more into Twitter and Youtube integration.

Let me know what you think! Which Facebook/social media posts do you find yourself most likely to respond to?

-Sam

Film Promotion: Social Media Marketing More Important than Ever

Regardless of the medium, undoubtedly one of the best aspects of using social media and web 2.0 interconnectivity to market your product or service is the fact that it is often very cheap, if not FREE. For a very minimal overhead, you can reach a massive percentage of your target audience, by (as Bernoff & Li continually restate) focusing on the relationships rather than the technologies.

With this in mind, it is no surprise the independent film market has been attempting to use social media extensively to promote their films. They simply do not have the enormous budget to rely on the previous "old school" model of film marketing used by major studios, primarily TV an pre-Film Trailers, or the network to distributing promotional posters to theaters nationwide (let alone world-wide).

One of the first example's of effective use of social media marketing to promote a film (even before the "groundswell" Li and Bernoff discuss) was the Blair Witch project. A invaluable component to their marketing approach was an accompanying website that from the start pitched the idea as if the film was genuine "found footage." With this in mind, the website continued bio's of the filmmaker's, historical data, everything and anything to create the initial allusion that the film's occurrences were real.



http://www.blairwitch.com/aftermath.html

It was not the technological set up that mattered. What was significant was that it got people interested, it got people talking amongst themselves. Mostly, what these curious interested viewers were wondering was "Is this true?" Some thought so, others did not, but what was important was they created relationships and engaged in discussion. In fact, in 1999 the New York Time's even called the Blair Witch Marketing scheme "the center of a new form of synergy and an inspired multimedia blitz." CNN summarized their statement by relating "In other words, expect new films to rely on their Web sites more, and expand their plotlines to other media." http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9907/27/blair.witch/

If only they knew how right they were! Before social networking as we know it existed today, a hotly debated online community emerged from this clever marketing, creating a huge buzz for the film with very little cost or effort.



While Blair Witch proved the effectiveness of groundswell tactics for the Independent film, Hollywood "studio" pictures soon caught on as well. Social Media marketing, first seen as unnecessary, then accompanying, is now practically the most prominent marketing for motion pictures out there! So why has it become a necessity? According to a 2008 study by film marketing guru Gordon Paddison, 73% of 4,000 moviegoers have established profiles on social media networks. At this time the number has only dramatically increased.

Similarly, Dave Poland (http://moviecitynews.com/)makes this assessment

WHO’S ONLINE?
94% of all moviegoers are online; this is true across age groups. 88% have high speed/broadband connections.

86% of moviegoers across all demo segments go online via computer or mobile device at least once a day. They spend more time each week online (19.8 hours) than they do watching TV (14.3 hours).

90% of all ages of moviegoers have mobile phones; 32% of moviegoers no longer use a landline (44% of the 18-29 demo).

93% use Internet search to find more information about movies. Exposures that trigger online search include: Seeing a trailer (71%), seeing a TV spot (60%), someone telling you about a movie (58%).

Furthermore:

CRITICISM:
84% of moviegoers make up their mind to see a movie regardless of what the critics say about it.

62% of moviegoers now get review information online.

45% of heavy moviegoers rely on movie review aggregation sites, placing a high value in seeing an average score.

75% say they trust a friend’s opinion more than a movie critic.

80% say positive reviews from other moviegoers make them more likely to see a movie (vs. 67% who say a positive review from professional critics does).

40% say negative reviews from other moviegoers make them decide not to see a movie (vs. 28% who say negative reviews from professional critics would keep them from going).


In effect, the movie industry practiced another one of Bernoff and Li's MOST critical points before they took action. They LISTENED!

After realizing of simply "Listening" for market research and to realize what consumers wanted out of a relationship, they finally let go of purely analyzing by data, and learned to truly think like the consumer.


Observe a more recent film very comparable to The Blair Witch Project. Paranormal Activity is similarly a low budget horror film, but again was a HUGE success due to clever and cheap marketing.

Advertising Age.com summarized four major lessons to be learned from Paranormal Activity's success:

- Let consumers dictate distribution.

- Don’t waste money on large-scale TV campaigns when you can talk directly to your fans.

- Don’t create false hype

- When there are low financial barriers, have fun

http://adage.com/article/madisonvine-news/low-budget-movie-marketing-paranormal-activity/139588/

All of these aspects throughouly exemplify a groundswell approach. Notice in particular, relating to "false hype" Bernoff and Li state "strategies based on deception are doomed to failure (p.239)." There is simply such a steady stream of feeback in today's world, your customer's will not stand for it!

Unsurprisingly, the main points continually reinforced throughout Groundswell are what advertising agencies are finding work well to promote films. Just as the Bernoff and Li emphasize on pg. 240 "Never forget that the groundswell is about person to person activity. This means you as a person must be ready to connect to people you haven't met, customers of yours." Using the examples of cancer patient Lynn Perry and luggage buyer Jim Noble, they state how crucial it is to engage in a two way conversation with your audience. This audience conversation is particularly efficient in the film market as potential moviegoers are typically VERY well connected via social technologies.

On February 10th, the film X-Man: First Class (Due out June 3, 2001) debuted the trailer on facebook. There was a clever catch however, you first had to "like" the page to unlock it. Furthermore, the more you shared the trailer, the more you unlocked special items. http://www.facebook.com/xmenmovies. Not only does this make it fun for the audience, but it is some great free marketing assistance. Hollywood has come a long way, from being underwhelmed with the groundswell, to premiering the trailer of a major blockbuster exclusively on facebook. There is no telling how much more creative future efforts willl be, but as long as they appeal to consumer's sense of interaction and entertainment, there is no telling how daring and bold groundswell film marketing will grow to be.

Groundswell Reflections #2

As I continue reading Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's Groundswell, my appreciation for their ability to use simple stories to hammer down crucial points continues to grow. Even though I am relatively new to the concept of "groundswell thinking," I find that the major points the authors reinforce are so cogent that I am constantly thinking, "Of-course! That makes so much sense, how could I have not thought like that before?" Their ability to take simple statements of advice and elaborately explore them has made the book an easy and enjoyable read. In today's post, I will reflect on 2 of these statements as well as one anecdotal quote that particularly resonated with me.

• Product development is hard. Why not let your customers help you? (p. 181)

Note: Apologies for the italics! My blogspot will not let me switch back! Hopefully I can go back and fix in edit.

This first statement is perfectly illustrated by the Del Monte Snausages Breakfast bites example. While this and similar methods of market research have been industry staples for countless years, web 2.0 makes taking surveys of opinions much faster and cheaper. Customer's have always been tapped for feedback, but the realization that they have the potential to be product creators themselves is a more radical notion. Traditional "focus groups" of the past were more likely to provide subjects with the already established products, receive feedback, then return to the drawing board, but in the groundswell, using customers help leads to innovation much faster.


Dove even has their own social networking site, where participants can hold dialogues about "real beauty" and discuss products and potential products. The majority of the participants would be users of the products, so this is a great way to get feedback.

http://www.dove.us/#/connections/

• Learn to give up control of the brand message. (p. 200)

Previously, (and currently for organizations not utilizing the groundswell) giving up control of your brand image was the absolute last thing you would want to do. After working so hard to establish their public image who would want to turn it over? The fact is, regardless of your efforts, this will inevitably happen with web 2.0 technologies. With this in mind, ceding a portion of your brand image and allowing for critical feedback and comments makes a company seem more responsible (and responsive!). What Dove did with The Apprentice in 2004 is now appearing everywhere. Many companies are even doing contests to create ad's for their products. Not only is this an effective use of of delegation, it is a win-win situation for both the artist and the company. Both receive promotion, and the company receives new ideas from the perspective of people who are actually fans of the product.
http://www.zimbio.com/Nissan+Cube/articles/10/NISSAN+CUBE+COMMERCIAL+COLLECTION

• "With a blog, we would be talking with people who are not coming to us with a problem, but are still interested in hearing from us." -Bob Pearson, Dell VP of Corporate Communications (p.208)

Previously, companies were stuck only talking to customers when they had problems, which is an extremely limiting approach. This directly relates to the point Li and Bernoff bring up early on in the book, focus on the relationships, not the technology. The technology behind Dell's outreach was inconsequential, what made the difference was the Lionel Menchaca's dedication to understanding what his customers repeatedly were looking for, and that "whether the discussion is with one person or a thoudand, the conversation is very similar.
The more frequently creative dialogue can be created between companies and the people who actually use their products, the greater the chance there is for innovation.

Article from today detailing Dell's now social media approach

http://irwebreport.com/20110216/dell-inc-breaks-new-ground-for-social-media-in-investor-relations/

Facebook: Has Clark University Used the Groundswell?

Li and Bernoff relate that longstanding businesses that were used to a successful marketing model prior to web 2.0 often have the most trouble transitioning into marketing themselves in a groundswell effective manner. So how does our University stand on the social media curve?
I will examine their Facebook page specifically, and focusing mainly on the images, conduct an analysis an potential plan for improvement.

Facebook
Clark University has a Facebook page that 3,848 people "like." It produces interesting content, including pictures of special student activities, or recent events. In particular I was impressed they had significant photos, especially of the recent snowstorm. This, and personable status updates in the tone of Clark as a "personified individual" seem to be an effective strategy to create responses from critics as several people responded, recollecting their pleasant Clark winter memories.

Clark University:

Buried in snow!

February 3 at 3:39pm

My only criticism of this approach was while the photo's were decent, none of them particularly impressed me. Granted, as a digital photographer I have perhaps a more discerning eye then most, but I feel considering the very talented student body (I personally know MANY phenomenal photographers at Clark), it would be very easy to have better photos. All I can really say to the Clark Facebook page is take a hint from Linux and other open source business models and DELEGATE EVERYTHING YOU CAN, and USE WHAT IS ALREADY THERE.

This would be especially easy considering their is so much related content about Clark already on Facebook! From student's taking photo's of themselves and their friends lounging on the green, to photos students have taken on campus for artistic purposes, their is plenty of content already out there! For example, ten seconds of browsing found me this photo a friend of mine had taken in the fall.

Photo: Brendan Golubjatnikov

Clark University might even pay for a photo like this to be taken by an outside source. However, all the resources for good photos are right in front of them, they just need to know how to harness the power of the creators in their own community for promotion!

Current Clark University "Profile Pictures"

Clark Profile Pictures: Only 5 unique shots, all relatively underwhelming.
The J.C. shot has potential, but the low quality of the upload is unacceptable in
this day and age where cellphones have 10 mega pixel cameras.

A few Photo's taken by another Student friend of mine, all from Facebook



Photos: Rick Segal

Specifically note the content of the last picture, Geography publications. Clark continually markets itself on its reputation for Geography. A quick glance it it's wikipedia page makes this especially apparent. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_University) A photo such as this could be used effectively by Clark. As it stands, content produced by the student body far exceeds the quality of content produced by Clark's social media team. This holds true even for photos on the main website. Furthermore, it would be a great way for Clark to support their students, display their talents, and would look very cool to prospective students.

This example is not limited to photography, and seems to hold true for Clark's social media presence across the board. It is great that the people behind Clark's new media marketing program have taken the first step by clearly realizing the importance of an effective social media presence, but their content is still lags behind where it COULD be, and is mostly un viewed. However, Clark University student content is remarkable, across Youtube, the blogosphere, Flickr, and of course Facebook.

As Li and Bernoff state, taking advantage of this "user generated content" only encourage creators to create more, as is an incentive for such users to have their work shown on a greater level and receive comments from the "critics" and responses from the "conversationalists." Clark University needs not only to listen to the web 2.0 groundswell on the whole, but first it needs to learn how to appreciate and utilize the growing groundswell within its own community. As digital photography is a hobby of mine I use this example, but the formula holds true in all areas. Clark is clearly working hard to improve their web presence, and they have made great strides even in the past year, but their is still much room for improvement.

Initial Impressions: Groundswell

Firstly, I am enjoying Li and Bernoff's format thus far of opening each chapter or lesson with a brief story, then integrating their information to relate to it as they delve further into the specifics. Know your audience was the first point they made. Simple enough one would think, however, after further explanation I totally agreed with their segmentation of the each of the main groundswell participant categories. At this point, it was clear that my own tendencies landed me as a devoted spectator/joiner, and while I had a hand or two in the realm of the Creators, Critics, and Collectors, I was not a committed member of any of these spheres.

One question I immediately had regarding the relevance of the survey was how accurate is this data, over 3 years later? Would the social technographics ladder still appear the same? Have the number of "rungs" now increased so to speak? I was pleased when a quick web search revealed author Josh Bernoff had considered this as well.

Social Technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder

On January 19th 2010 Josh posted a "new" Technographics Ladder, integrating conversationalists into the mix. The data came from a survey late in 2009. One thing initially puzzled me however, conversationalists higher up then critics? But doesn't being a critic take much more work and is of more significance then sending a 140 character maxium tweet? A follower of Josh's Forrester blog had a similar question, to which Josh replied:

"Regarding the placement in the ladder -- the ladder is a guideline. Conversationalists are more active in general, but don't have to put in as much effort. So don't put too much stock in the placement of the rungs."

Posted by: Josh Bernoff | January 19, 2010 at 11:49 AM

Additionally, the two most important points from the rest of the short article:

"Conversationalists intrigue me. They're 56% female, more than any other group in the ladder. While they're among the youngest of the groups, 70% are still 30 and up.

The data from this survey continues the trends from the last two years -- Spectators are maxing out at around 70%, Joiners are still growing rapidly, and Creators are still growing slowly."

Personally, I was unsurprised females are the most dominant of this new category. Just from my basic observations I feel that females are much more willing to share info on facebook, they just seem to post more status's then males. Aditionally, I would wager these statuses are generally more personal, "emotional" feelings comparitively. Most immediately, I would account for this by simple gender differences, and cultural conditioning, but this is a social media survey, so I needed some hard facts.

Time to check the Facebook mini-feed! What was usually my procrastination tool of choice was actually aiding in my research! Maybe I could get used to this social media thing after all. I decided to take the first 25 actions to pop up on my mini-feed, all "sharing" included. What I did not include in the survey where "such and such are now friends" and any "profile picture changed" notifications, because I deemed these not to be direct voluntary social interactions, aswell as from the mini-feed there is no indicator which party actually initiated the friending.

So what were the results? Opening my minifeed at random and examinging the first 25 posts, a whopping 20 of them where female!

Of these male posts, only 2 were status updates, the others were:

• A "Places" check in
  

• A survey of "What type of Drinker are you?" (The user recieved "Pisshead")

• A youtube Electro-Song.

The two status's were as follows

1. "I wish had ATMs had breathalizers on them"

2. "I'm still mad I missed amateur night at the titty bar. It's pretty bad though when it's your girls idea to go in the first place haha. I can't wait for the first Monday in march!"

So... Not the best showing for the home team! Nevertheless, so far my hypothesis was holding up. The females had a mixed batch of shares, all of them more emotional in this case however, ranging from touching statements expressing happiness, excited to be out socializing getting some drinks with their girlfriends, and one stating:

Shout out to my haters, sorry you couldn't phase me. = ]

(Six likes within the hour, 5 of them by females. 2 female approving comments.)


Overall, I found it very interesting that Forrest's new survey found Conversationalists to be primarily female. This category is one that more then ever is relevant, as it becomes increasingly easier to post status's or tweet from mobile devices. Short bursts of information truly do facilate increased activity, which is why I do feel imposing a character limit was an essential decision for Twitter to make. Li and Bernoff make the excellent point that there are a variety of contributers in the social media world that all play a different yet important part in the groundswell, forming a symbiotic relationship of sorts.

However, just as Creators, Critics, Collectors, and now Conversationalists all occupy their respective realms, what about subdividing them further by gender? Conversationalists seem to differ significantly in their behavior by gender, what about the other categories? While some categories may be explained relatively easily by societally ingrained and natural gender differences, what about those that have a less clear cut explanation? It is a question that may be worth exploring further, and I intend to keep it in mind as I progress further through the book.