SmartMarket Media Blog

Nancy Giles is a regular opinion contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. Normally she has very witty, funny opinionated pieces as part of the show. This past week however I was disappointed. My disappointment was not in that she was taking a jab at Twitter…there are definitely ways to take clever jabs at Twitter and the people who use it, but Nancy Giles didn’t take that route.  My disappointment was that she clearly didn’t understand what makes Twitter so powerful and obviously had not used it. Here’s a link to her opinion on YouTube:

Her usual quick and witty opinion piece was about as blunt as a rubber mallet. Here’s the big point you are missing Nancy:

It’s about community

The Monday morning after this aired I went to an event (aka a TweetUp) organized by @AaronStrout in Arlington MA at a little coffee shop called Jam N’ Java at 8AM. I drove an hour in for this event. There were over 75 people who attended this event…all organized through Twitter. Yes Twitter is online but many people in the Twitter community actually like to get together at events as small as this or as large as SXSW. Here’s a picture of @JimStorer @ayemoah @alexa @esangenito and @AaronStrout at the event. Some people were networking for their business, some were meeting new people socially, some were continuing conversations they had started online. A few attendees were recently laid off and were there looking for potential employment opportunities or simply just for moral support and great conversation. The conversations were about everything from potential job opportunities in the current economy for a few to my conversation with @srdill about the finer points of vegetarianism.

It’s not about “What you are doing?”

Yes I understand that’s what the Twitter website says but if you actually take a minute to engage the community on Twitter you’d learn it’s less about the mundane “What you are doing?” and more about “What interesting article did you read?” or “Do you think the bailout plan will actually delay economic recovery?” Maybe even helping someone with a flat bicycle tire find a bike shop.

So Nancy Giles while your usual opinion pieces are spot on, this one…frankly was a dud. If you’d learned what Twitter is all about you’d know it’s about making connections, about conversation, it’s about engagement and most of all…it’s about community.

Getting Started with Twitter

How Much of a Typical Online Video Is Actually Watched?

Or how I get my hesitant friends & family to start using social media

Have a friend who doesn’t know what social media is or hasn’t gotten involved yet? Is your Mom on Twitter yet? How about your Grandma on Facebook? With over 600,000 people joining Facebook every day (that’s right…every day) and with Twitter being the current traditional media darling (watch any national news cast or talk show for proof) and having 10,000 people joining per day…chances are you may have a friend or loved one who is interested in what all the hubbub is about or may be ready to jump into the social media waters. It’s reached a tipping point now where the general population is joining but what if someone needs your help or is hesitant to join in all the fun? This is what I have done with a couple people that usually gets them hooked…have them look over your shoulder.

When I go to my Facebook profile I’ll show them how I can update my status, read other people’s updates, add videos, photos, etc. Then they see how easy it is and if they know people I know (which usually they do) they start asking “ooh! Click on their profile…I want to see what their up to” that usually leads to me searching for people they know. People are always amazed by how many people they know are already on Facebook so once they can play passenger while you drive, it’s pretty easy for them to take the wheel.

Facebook is easy because it has already reached a tipping point with the mass population adopting and joining the site in droves, Twitter is a little more complicated because the constant stream of conversation can be confusing and to some people…overwhelming. I usually steer newbies to read a how to get started on Twitter tutorial or direct them to Tweetworks which threads Twitter “tweets” into easy to follow conversations in groups very similar to chatrooms.

What about you?

Have you had a similar situation with a friend of yours? What did you do?

Getting Started with Twitter

5 Questions Interview: Mike Langford of Tweetworks

Or what the movie industry could learn by listening to conversations and engaging further on social media.

The Academy Awards are a once a year experience that is exciting to the movie industry insiders and fans alike. Although a lot is made of who wore what on the red carpet or what surprise winner there was — the Oscar’s isn’t just an event…it’s business. It’s important to keep in mind that the Oscar buzz and awards can affect many movie production studios who have a lot riding on their movie…for this year and, particularly for small studios, to get funding for projects in the year to come.

Which is why I found the following information from eMarketer so incredibly interesting. According to Nielsen, the five Best Picture nominees spent a combined $64.3 million on advertising in the US.

The film with the largest advertising budget was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which spent more than almost all the other Best Picture nominated films combined.

So with that kind of marketing blitz you’d expect the majority of online buzz to be centered around The Curious Case of Benjamin Button…right? On Oscar night however, all that spending had no effect on the conversations people were engaging in online.

According to New Media Strategies, who tracked the online conversation buzz for the 24 hour period surrounding Oscar night and produced two reports: one covering Twitter posts (lead by @leslieann44) and one covering blog posts (lead by @simonowens of Bloggasm).

On Twitter of the Best Picture nominees, the movie with the most mentions was the Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, followed by Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader and Frost/Nixon, in that order.

• Slumdog Millionaire: 6,369
• Milk: 3,617
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 1,110
• The Reader: 814
• Frost/Nixon: 543

The most tweeted about individual was Best Actor winner Sean Penn followed by Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger, Mickey Rourke, Best Supporting Actress winner Penélope Cruz and Hugh Jackman to round out the top 5 individuals.

According to their analysis of blog mentions, Slumdog Millionaire, was also No. 1, with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon behind.

• Slumdog Millionaire: 28,909
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 20,939
• Milk: 20,676
• The Reader: 16,123
• Frost/Nixon: 8,341

The most mentioned individual on blogs was Angelina Jolie followed by Best Supporting Actress winner Penélope Cruz, Mickey Rourke, Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger and Best Actress Winner Kate Winslet in that order.

It’s interesting to note that while heavy spending is required by the movie industry to get people into theatres; it had virtually no influence on the conversations being held online in the social media world. Was all the talk on Twitter about Sean Penn’s somewhat controversial acceptance speech? Were people cheering for the underdog story by talking about Slumdog Millionaire? Could more social media engagement by the movie industry and production studios on Twitter, Facebook and blogs help bring a happy Hollywood ending by creating more buzz about these movies? What do you think?

How do people discover videos online?

How Twitter Can Save The World