News Goes Social: 75% of online news consumers get news socially and 52% share news socially
A new study from PEW Internet research shows that news is moving increasingly online & mobile and is getting increasingly social & participatory.
The internet has surpassed newspapers and radio in popularity as a news platform on a typical day and now ranks just behind TV.
Some of the most interesting stats:
- 92% of Americans get news from multiple platforms
- 46% get news from 4 – 6 platforms per day
- 59% of Americans get news from online and off-line
- Online is the third most popular news platform
Online News Consumer are Less Loyal:
- Most use between 2 and 5 online news sources
- 65% do not have a single favorite online news site
- Only 21% rely on a single site for their news
- 8 in 10 online news consumers get or share links in email
News is Increasingly Portable, Personalized and Participatory:
- Portable : 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
- Personalized : 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
- Participatory : 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Where do People get their News in a Typical Day?
- 78% of Americans say they get news from a local TV station
- 73% say they get news from a national network such as CBS or cable TV station such as CNN or FoxNews
- 61% say they get some kind of news online
- 54% say they listen to a radio news program at home or in the car
- 50% say they read news in a local newspaper
- 17% say they read news in a national newspaper such as the New York Times or USA Today.
37% of Internet Users Have Contributed to the Creation of the News:
- commenting on a news story (25%)
- posting a link on a social networking site (17%)
- tagging content (11%)
- creating their own original news material or opinion piece (9%)
- or Tweeting about news (3%)
News is Customized:
- 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from their favorite source or topics
- 40% of internet users say an important feature of a news website to them is the ability to customize the news they get from the site
- 36% of internet users say an important part of a news website to them is the ability to manipulate content themselves such as graphics, maps, and quizzes.
Some food for thought….
Growing Your Business with Social Media – Over The Rhine (OTR) Chamber of Commerce
This morning I had the honor and privilege of presenting social media presented by the Emmanuel Center to members of the Over the Rhine Chamber of Commerce . As a resident and advocate for OTR, I was thrilled to see that the Chamber & the Emmanuel Center are providing such innovative programs to help local businesses grow. My presentation was the first of a “Creative Marketing” series that the chamber is presenting – you don’t have to be a member to participate in the events.
Thank-you to all of the businesses who participated this morning. As I mentioned in the presentation, you can find a detailed presentation on Facebook Marketing here. We had a very lively discussion and addressed some interesting topics.
Also, we didn’t discuss this at the training, but an OTR business, Taste of Belgium, is running a groupon promotion today – check it out – a great opportunity to promote your business (or get a deal on waffles).
Where do you Share? 44% do it on Facebook.
Last week, Tech Crunch reported that new data released by Gigya shows that 44% of sharing online happens through Facebook, with an additional 29% coming through Twitter. (note – this data does not include email as a sharing source. Almost half of all sharing happens on Facebook and almost three quarters of sharing takes place on twitter and Facebook combined.
What are the implications of this for your business?
If you want your content to travel – make it Shareable.
- Include Facebook Connect (since it is the most popular place to share)
- Have a “tweet this” button
- Share video on sites that publish across social networks
- Use Services like ShareThis to enable sharing across social networks.
Don’t Forget Email
While email wasn’t included in this survey, according to EMarketer, email remains one of the top ways that people share content. Be sure to include email as a way for readers to share your content. Email has also been shown to have higher engagement rates; meaning that people who receive content via email tend to spend more time on that content and be more interested.
Read More:
Also see articles by Marketing Pilgrim and DM Confidential.
Thank-You for Joining us at the Cincinnati Office Open House and Ribbon Cutting
First, thank-you to everyone who came out to the Boot Camp Digital Cincinnati Open House and Ribbon Cutting Happy Hour. We really enjoyed hosting you at the new office (and it gave us an excuse to finish decorating!), and I truly appreciate your support.
We had over 60 people in and out throughout the night (both new and familiar faces), and the party was a big success!
Also, a special thank-you to the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and Susan Houghton for conducting the ribbon cutting ceremony as well as Kelley Long, for presenting the certificate, Debba Haupert from Girlfriendology who held the ribbon (but didn’t make it into the photo), Joe Wessels for helping assemble the furniture and prepare for the party.
Again – A big THANK-YOU to everyone who came out – your support and encouragement have helped to make this all possible.
All of the photos can be found on Flickr.
I heard a lot of good feedback about the networking opportunities (and free alcohol) so we are planning to try to make this a regular event. Stay tuned for details on Thirsty Third Thursdays – A Social Media Mixer at the Boot Camp Digital Global Headquarters in Cincinnati Ohio.
Thanks again to everyone who came out, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon!
- Krista
Brands get in on the Flash Mob Game
According to Wikipedia, a flash mob (or flashmob)[1] is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms, protests, and publicity stunts.[4][8]
Flash mobs started in 2003 in New York and caught on quickly.
A new trend with FlashMobs has started – brands are creating their own Flash Mobs to take advantage of this trend and get some of the ever elusive viral buzz.
Is it working?
Sometimes.
T-Mobile = Success
The T-Mobile Dance got over 17 million views and “The Making of” video even has over a million views. They also posted other videos including rehearsals and even an instructional video where you can learn the T-Mobile dance. They also replicated the T-Mobile Dance in other cities across the UK.
The video is also really engaging to watch (which is why it has so many views).
What T-Mobile did right was play off the original Flash Mob concept – they shocked people in a public venue. There was also brand relevance as they showed people taking photos and videos with their cell phones.
Trident Single Ladies = Eh
The video has had almost 4 million views as the Trident Single Ladies performed in Piccadilly Circus.
The dance routine is very entertaining (although I wonder why they did it in Black and White) and ties in to the brand promotion with a Beyonce concert. The relevance ties to an offline campaign and they have callouts during and after the video to drive action.
This is probably more of a PR stunt vs. legitimate Flash Mob since it lacked the spontaneous element and didn’t include a lot of reactions. That being said, it did get them 4 million impressions.
Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund = Success
The Cincinnati Fine Arts fund capitalized on this trend by staging Flash Mobs in Findlay Market and Fountain Square (unfortunately it was raining that day). They also used music from local artists.
This was a great effort since it clearly ties back to the arts and helps build awareness for Cincinnati Arts. Great idea and execution. They also posted learning videos so you can learn the dances at home.
There are only 27k views, but for a local effort, with a small budget, I would say this was a success.
Scope = Failure (at least so far)
When Procter and Gamble brands start to participate you know the trend has jumped the shark. Scope recently launched a Flash Dance for Scope to the song Kiss Me. You can definitely see the brand relevance in this video (kissing + scope) and they clearly tie the brand in (although somewhat awkwardly) with the T-Shirt at the end and the Scope Bottle Juggling guy.
The video is currently 10 days old and only has 80k views (and it is being promoted by Ryan SeaCrest). In my opinion the whole thing is a little too corporate, which is partly why it didn’t spread. Compare the impact of the scope video to TMobile and it is obvious.
They are also offering to donate $$ to charity if it gets a certain # of views. Also kinda lame. Donate to charity anyways. Do it because it is the right thing to do. Not as an incentive for people to watch your commercial. If the video was better they would easily get millions of views. If you have a great idea you don’t need to do force it.
Don’t they need Model Releases?
The initial Flash Mob movement wasn’t commercial – nobody was making money, do they could record reactions of people and post them since it was a non-commercial effort. I’m not a lawyer, but I would think that the brands doing flash mob videos would need signed model releases from the people in the audience that they film if they are identifiable. This probably somewhat limits what brands can do.
Special Thanks to Matthew Dooley for pointing me towards some of these videos.
