Why People Follow Brands

Source: Get Satisfaction

At Home, In My Room, Alone.. Chilling With All My Mates

On the back of this video Ive been spending a lot of time monitoring technology and trend blogs trying to identify the where we are heading. In doing this one of the things that has really rubbed my nips is the rise in Social Commerce. Websites like this and this, and this, are really starting to gain traction and are generating healthy user-bases. Groupon, a website that slid straight out the tubes of social commerce was offered a staggering $6 billion dollars from Google just 2 years after inception. And they turned it down. There is BIG money getting thrown around in this area already, and its poised to get bigger.

Its not hard to see why either. A big portion of Gen Y spend almost all of their time behind a screen. The rise in cloud computing software has meant they are online while they work . The growth of smartphones and the steady decline of mobile data rates means they are online when theyre waiting at the super market. When they get home after a long arduous day at work.. They jump straight back on the internet and meticulously check Facebook until their heads hit the pillow.

They do this because thats where their friends are.

Their whole network of friends is sitting behind a screen talking about their day. About what the drunken chick on Jersey Shore said on TV. About what they are going to do on the weekend.

As they do this, lurking deep within their timelines are the Brands and Products that they like. Each one pushing out new deals, links or questions that spark conversations with their fans and followers.

As a marketer this is golden.

Companies pay massive money for market research. They pay companies to hold focus groups, to conduct A/B website tests, to survey their customer bases and to determine what is currently resonating with their target markets.

For the companies this is essential information when they're working out how to position products and build campaigns. Only now, its not necessary to spend the bucks.

All you have to do now is kick back and absorb Facebook and Twitter, get amongst some blogs, dabble in some popular YouTube clips. You can literally sit behind a computer screen and find out exactly what you target market is talking about, what they are interested in and what products they like.

Social Commerce is about to get massive because that is where the market is beginning to live. Theyve gotten sick of flicking through shopping racks at malls and sales. They cant be arsed driving from one shop to the next looking for a top that like totally makes their eyes pop. They want to sit in front of the TV chatting to their mates, and flicking through products that their peers have recommended.

The Rise Of New Media - The Christchurch Earthquake

A topic that’s been gathering a lot of momentum recently has been the impact that new media is having on traditional media outlets. Social media – such as social networking sites and blogs – are becoming more and more popular as a source of news and current events for the public, which as a result is taking away audiences from traditional mediums – ie. broadcast and print media. This is a trend that is sparking debate among many industry veterans who are beginning to question the longevity and sustainability of broadcast TV and radio as well as print media such as news papers. While I believe that these long standing mediums will be around for many years to come, it is not hard to see why they are under considerable pressure.

The recent coverage of the Christchurch earthquake is a prime example of how these traditional media outlets need to adapt to this new environment. Both TV stations and news websites were unacceptably sluggish with their coverage of the quake which prompted a huge number of people to follow via Twitter. Dozens of photos were surfacing and making their way around the world of social media as users “tweeted” and “re-tweeted” over and over in order to provider friends and followers with up-to-date info.

Here are some of the many photos shared (note all are via social media sites)

http://twitpic.com/2kwei5
http://twitpic.com/2kwhat
http://twitpic.com/2kwhsv
http://twitpic.com/2kwcnk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbergler/4954284461/
http://twitpic.com/2kw706
http://twitpic.com/2kw2j2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbergler/4954284461/in/photostream/
http://twitpic.com/2kwbf8
http://twitpic.com/2kwc34
http://twitpic.com/2kwc27

The extent to which talk of the quakes spread through social networking sites is illustrated bellow in twitters trending topics for both Auckland and Christchurch.




These trends were quickly identified as the best source of news for the quakes. This tweet from TelstraClear was "re-tweeted" 30 times.



One “tweep” (twitter user) was even quick to proclaim:

“New Zealand Earthquake: tweeters decide on hashtag in 30 mins: #eqnz”.

For those that aren’t familiar with a hash tag, it is a method twitter users use for consolidating data into an easy to follow stream. The promptness of this hashtag meant that any tweets regarding the earthquake could be tagged and anyone wanting updates needed to just follow the stream of that tag (see bellow)



This rapid and constantly updating stream became the go-to source of information for people following the quake.

As more and more info and pictures began to surface via twitter there was still no decent info or coverage on TV. This blog surfaced time-lining the lacklustre TV coverage after the quake and was tweeted amongst many outbursts as to the poor response time of the NZ media. Below are some of the tweets:

chiefie: @TelstraClearNZ @NZStuff I got news from BBC and CNN while MCDEM and NZ news aren't up yet. TCL was supplying tweet news since happened.

DavidSlack: What we've seen so far. Christchurch is made of bricks and TV news is made of marshmallow.

jofajafa: Grrrr #tv3 collect random pictures from twittersphere and scroll without commentary...

JonathanMosen: Coverage on TV 3 now, a little under 3 hours after the quake.

JonathanMosen: Getting better TV coverage from US than here. Some people need to be out of jobs PDQ

nztv: TV ONE, TV3, please interrupt your regular programming even if you repeat the same things over and over #christchurch #quake

nztv: Why is there not a news ticker on TV ONE/TV 3 for people needing information?

juhasaarinen: TV3's news site can't cope with the extra attention... 503 server busy

Ultimately the traditional mediums woke up and began reporting the quake, but their response was not nearly quick enough. This sort of response time and the fact that people were able to obtain such quick and constant updates via twitter is definitely not a good sign for TV and Print media.

More analysis will follow. What are your thoughts?