my 2 cents

Say nothing, rather than get called out on social media

 

Bill Bergman, a marketing instructor at the University of Richmond's B-school, notes an interesting trend in a recent commentary in MediaPost's Agency Daily.  He says college students he's teaching seem to be afraid to speak out in class for fear of being embarrassed by classmates who might call them out via social media.  So they keep their hands down in class and their mouths shut.

These are kids, he says, who have grown up seeing the impact of a mistake or bad judgment on social media.  They've seen firsthand that once something is online it can haunt you forever, possibly impacting one's ability to land a job or get into grad school.

So rather than get called out via a tweet, they seem to keep their opinions to themselves, Bergman believes.  He thinks, from what he sees in his students, that by the time they reach their senior year in college, they hit a social media saturation point. It's not that social media has lost its importance to them, but rather they're getting caught up with other priorities and pressures that demand their attention -- studies and the upcoming hunt for the next step in their lives, finding a job or continuing thier education.

Bergman notes recent grads seem to be less involved with social media than current students.  The explanation, he writes, may be "a boss, a cubicle and a 10 p.m. bedtime help diminish the social media habit."  And they realize, as they mature, that it's more important to protect your real personality than to build "a contrived popularity" through silly or controversial tweets and potentially awkward photos posted on Instagram.

After college, he writes, young adults "begin to recognize that college is really created for the young - and so too is the extensive use of social media platforms."

It's called growing up and becoming responsible.

Is Twitter trending downward?

 

More about Twitter than I can say in 140 characters...

 

The latest internet consumer study, reported in Mediapost's Social Media & Marketing Daily, shows Twitter, which was touted as the next best thing when it burst onto the scene, has slipped a bit.

The percentage of respondents using Twitter dropped two points to 34%. Twitter remains a major social media factor, though, behind Facebook and LinkedIn. FB remains the gorilla in the room, dominating with 77% of consumers saying they use it. LinkedIn is a distant second at 37%, followed by Twitter. Newer platform Pinterest jumped to the number four spot with 26%.

Highlighting the fickleness of social media (or maybe more the fickle nature of teens), FB continues to lose younger users who are migrating in droves to Pinterest. It's the platform of the day. (Remember MySpace?)

Twitter has proven popular as a way for fans of TV shows to share their thoughts in real-time as a show airs. And reality contest shows like NBC's "The Voice" have used Twitter not only to engage viewers, but also as an instant voting tool to let viewers decide if a contestant stays or goes.

The survey found that 52% of those who don't use Twitter make that choice because they feel it's "a waste of time."  I have to admit that was my initial impression when I joined soon after the platform launched. It seemed that all I saw was people tweeting really inane things like "The sun just came up" or "Can't decide whether to have a blueberry or corn muffin." Like I care (about the muffin, not the sun).

I have found Twitter useful as a way to point people to my blog posts. And early on, I participated in a few PR chats in real-time. Didn't learn anything about PR, but it got me many of my almost 1,000 followers.

So despite the dip in the latest user survey, I'm pretty sure Twitter will be around for some time, even as new platforms continue to pop up. By the way, I couldn't have expressed these thoughts in 140 characters. Blogging is still alive and well, despite predictions that it, like Twitter, would disappear.

A Deadly Wandering -- A Warning about Distracted Driving

 

At a national conference on traffic safety a few weeks ago, I briefly met Matt Richtel, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning series on distracted driving in The New York Times helped bring this important issue to public attention.  I'm just finishing reading an advance copy of his new book - A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention. (The book from William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishers, goes on sale later this week.)

I think the book should be required reading for anyone applying for a driver's license, as well as for those of us who already drive.  It's easy reading.  The book, although non-fiction, reads like a fast-paced novel and the reader gets to really know and understand the various characters in the story.  It tells of Reggie Shaw, in every way a model teenager who, like so many of his peers, used his cellphone to text while he was driving.  Distracted, he crossed the yellow line and sideswiped an oncoming car, which caused a crash that killed two rocket scientists.  The book chronicles the story of the driver, the victims, their families and the lawyers and prosecutors involved in the legal case that ensued.

What's important about this book is that it explains the science behind our addiction to texting and other mobile device functions. Yes, there is scientific proof, which the book explains, that texting or even just talking on a phone while driving is extremely dangerous.  It takes us through, in easy to understand terms, the reasons we cannot multitask, despite assertions from so many -- especially young people who've grown up with texting -- that we can drive while doing other tasks.

Working on the PR side of traffic safety for some 20 years now, I've met with and heard from so many people who've had their lives dramatically changed by bad decisions behind the wheel.  For many years, the culprit was alcohol, which still remains a real problem. Drowsiness is a significant factor as well, although driving drowsy is usually not a conscious decision we make.

Texting while driving is a conscious decision.  And now that it's become clear that it does impact our ability to drive safely, there is absolutely no reason to do it.  Legislators in 44 states have recognized that by making it illegal to text while driving.  So if for no other reasion than risking a ticket and points on your license, all of us should refrain from this dangerous behavior.

But as Matt Richtel points out in his book, so many of us, knowing the physical dangers and the risk of a ticket and points, continue to text and talk on cellphones while we drive.  There are now devices that can prevent people from texting or talking while driving, like an app made by one of my clients, LifeSaver.  It's very inexpensive and simple to use, but it still requires a voluntary step by a parent or spouse.

Richtel reported last week about plans by the cellular industry to have a device that comes with new cars that will prevent any cellphone usage while the car is in motion.  But, if it ever actually happens, it's still at least a few years away.

What I think is needed to stop what former Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood called "a national epidemic" that kills several thousand people every year is tougher laws with much higher fines and license suspension for a month after the first offense and license revocation after a second infraction.  No excuses, no exclusions.

It's that serious.  Read A Deadly Wandering and you'll understand and I'm sure you'll agree.

 

 

 

 

Weekend Thoughts: Connectivity -- Both Good and Bad

 

July was a busy travel month for me.  I was out of the office more than I was in, with client trips to Austin, DC, San Antonio and Wichita.  It was topped off by a great week in rural Maine for family vacation.

Through it all, I was able to conduct business seamlessly thanks to a few technologies that weren't around when I had travel for business or pleasure 25 years ago.

Thank goodness for cell phones with email and internet capabilities.  Before cell phones, I'd always have dimes and quarters on me so I could access pay phones, which were on every corner in the city and readily available pretty much anywhere you went.  I eventually got an AT&T calling card so I didn't have to carry change and keep adding coins as minutes would go by.

And then there's email.  It's just about the first thing I look at (on my cell phone) when I get up, often before I brush my teeth.  Since I get email on my phone, I find myself checking email while I'm walking in the city, while waiting for a light so I can cross the street... even in the elevator.  (It's amazing how many emails you can read as you go up or down 11 floors.)

The phone's come in handy in places where I didn't have internet access, like on a recent Amtrak ride from NY to DC.  I activated the phone's WiFi hotspot and, bingo, I had full internet access so I could work on my laptop during the ride.

All this is great, especially for smaller businesses that don't have legions of people back at the home office to cover us while we travel. Younger people may wonder what it must have been like in "the old days" before constant connectivity, and I often find myself talking with friends my age who recall the days of pay phones, costly long-distance calls, fax machines (originally called telecopiers).  Somehow we managed, because everyone else had to function with the same limitations.

Constant connectivity means the days of 9 to 5 (or 8:30 - 6:30 for us agency folks) no longer exist.  The office may shut its doors at 5:30, but business doesn't stop.  How often do you see emails sent to you at crazy hours of the night, early morning or weekends?  Many of us now work when we want to, or when a thought strikes us.  If we get an email from someone at 10 at night and we hear the ping, we often check the message and respond on the spot.  So much for 9 to 5.

During the vacation week in Maine, I handled my emails in the morning before we got started for the day.  I'd check in to the office voicemail early and late in the day, and sometimes mid-day just to be sure there was nothing urgent.  My clients have my cell number, and I had one client call during the week, which I was able to handle easily.  And when the client realized I was on vacation, she said it could wait till I was back in New York.

So I'd say connectivity is both good and bad when you're in business.  I realize we need to set our own limits on how connected and how accessible we want to be on our personal time.  A few times, I made the decision to let a call or email wait, and I felt good about it.

I love work.  But I also treasure my personal time, especially moments with my family.  Those moments, as the ad says, are priceless and I try to keep that balance in mind.

 

 

 

 

New Happy Meal character making McDonald's customers unhappy

 

Here's a good example of the error in thinking that because something works well in one country that it can be successful in another culture.

McDonald's now has a PR problem on its hands, after introducing its newest mascot "Happy," which, according to the company's news release, is "a new animated Happy Meal character that brings fun and excitement to kids’ meals while also serving as an ambassador for balanced and wholesome eating."

The problem is more attention is being paid to the public's negative response to the character than to the company's "balanced and wholesome" Happy Meals.

Despite the character's success in Europe, people here are making an uproar via social media, which is spilling over to mainstream media and becoming an even bigger story.  Some parents are complaining online that the Happy character is too scary, with its open mouth lined by big teeth.

I don't know about that, but I do feel sorry for the poor McDonald's workers who will have to wear one of those costumes outside the store, especially as the summer heat begins.

 

Are we smart with our smartphones?

 

Fifty-six percent of us now have smartphones. That number keeps growing every year.

MediaLife recently reported on a survey taken earlier this year on how we use our smartphones.  The study looked at how much time we spend doing various tasks on our phones.                                               Photo: New York Times

On average, we spend 2 hours and 42 minutes using our smartphones every day.  That number seems to have plateaued, rising by only four minutes after much bigger gains over the previous five years.  

The biggest percentage of time on smartphones is used on Facebook -- 17 percent.  All other social media sites, combined, account for 9.5 percent of smartphone time. 

YouTube takes up 4 percent, and Twitter is at 1.5 percent.

Gaming takes up 32 percent, via downloaded games and apps. 

The study didn't measure how much time we spend emailing, texting, taking pictures and videos on our phones.  Oh, and also, making and taking calls on the phone.

 

 

 

Smart marketing: Follow your target

 

Until yesterday, I don't think I had heard about an online series called "Between Two Ferns," hosted by comic actor Zach Galifianakis, possibly best-known for his role in the sophomoric "The Hangover."

But I'm not part of the demographic target that the White House is trying to reach with messages about the Affordable Healthcare Act.  The success of the President's initiative depends partly on younger people -- Millennials -- signing on so their premiums can help offset benefits that will be paid out largely to the older demos like me and my peers.

So I'd say it was a smart move to have President Obama go on the edgy comic talk show and submit to the intentionally rude and bizarre questioning by Galifianakis, whose questions included "How does it feel to be the last black President of the U.S.?" 

The interview was so strange and far from the norm for the President that it got tons of views, largely by the younger people that the White House has been trying to reach -- people who are probably not watching the shows where the President would normally appear, like the Sunday morning news shows.  Far beyond the program's normal viewership of perhaps hundreds of thousands, viral pickup of the interview has taken the total audience well above seven million so far, and there's sure to be lots more as the story gets out via both mainstream media and social media.

This is a good example of an important marketing tactic -- go where your target audience is.  A story in The New York Times calls this "the latest public relations gamble that Mr. Obama and his aides have taken in their pursuit of new ways to deliver their message to the connected-but-distracted generation." 

And it looks like it's paying off, with some 20,000 visits to the Obamacare website within just a few hours after the interview first went up.  Smart.

They just don't learn. Another Kimmel prank fools many TV newspeople

 

Jimmy Kimmel did it again.  Looks like many people on news desks at local TV stations and some networks just don't verify stuff when it's on the web.

Kimmel phonied up footage of a wolf supposedly stalking the dorms where the Olympics athletes are housed, and he got U.S. Olympic team member Kate Hansen to post it on her YouTube feed.

Take a look at all these newscasters around the country who talked about it, thinking it was the real thing.  It's a funny clip, but it points again to a serious problem with the authenticity of things we see online. 

 

  

 

Is Facebook passe among younger users?

So where else are young people going online?  And who are they talking to?

 

If you believe media reports, Facebook has gone out of favor with the younger demos, ages 14 - 34.

But a recent survey, reported this week by Adweek, shows that 66 percent of people ages 14 - 34 are frequent users of FB.  What's changing is that they're increasingly using other platforms as well -- mainly YouTube.

Another study, meanwhile, shows that nearly two-thirds of young people have joined at least one social network by the time they're 10 years old.  The survey, by the London School of Economics, found that 28 percent of British kids ages 9 and 10 already have a personal profile on a social network -- mostly Facebook.  That number has more than doubled over the past year and a half.

The U.S. has restrictions on how marketers interact online with kids under 13 -- basically, they can't.  And although many parents restrict (or try) what their kids can do online, the growing access to mobile devices makes parental control ever more challenging.  Once a kid has a social network profile, he or she becomes a target for sometimes questionable people -- scammers or, worse yet, pedophiles.

There's a TV station in New York that for years has been asking this question at the start of the 10 p.m. newscast -- "It's 10 p.m.  Do you know where your children are?"

The challenge these days is more like, "It's any time during the day.  Do you know what your children are doing online and who they're talking to?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Bowl: It's About the Ads

 

The big pre-Super Bowl story this year was about the weather in New York -- would the first outdoor Bowl played in a northern climate be played in single-digit temps or be snowed out?  But New York delivered good football weather yesterday, and the previous few days were also a hit for the hundreds of thousands who flooded Times Square and Broadway for the NFL marketing extravaganza "Super Bowl Boulevard." 

The ads did make news, but this year in a slightly different way.  One predictable story angle was the ever-increasing cost -- as much as $4 million for a 30-second spot. 

But the other angle, as Stuart Elliott pointed out in a New York Times video report, is that many of the Super Bowl ads got huge viewership even before the opening kickoff yesterday at Met Life Stadium.  Thanks to the combination of advance publicity in traditional media and added chatter on social media, some of the ads got millions of views days before the big game.  And, those views probably weren't interrupted by the distractions of bathroom breaks and reaching for the chips and wings.

As Stuart says in the video clip, people who've seen the ads beforehand talked about "that Cadillac ad" rather than saying "a car ad."  Releasing the ads in advance and putting them up on social media added visibility and brand awareness... a win-win.