JuicyInfo

Youth travel

I'm working on a great project right now all about youth travel. Of course, travel and tourism really does have its work cut out at the moment doesn't it. Not only a global recession to contend with, but also a global pandemic in the form of swine flu. I think that subject is being well-covered pretty much everywhere, so i won't dwell on that.

On my research travels, I came across this rather fascinating document from The Lonely Planet. It's very topical, looking at how consumers are embracing social communities, with a great comparison of how brands stack up in their approach. There's also some insight into how communities are feeding into the editorial process. I particularly like this stat: "In 2007, The Lonely Planet had feedback from 13,500 travelers, which, in turn, created over 30,000 useful bits of information. Pretty impressive.

If you're into social media and communities, it's definitely worth a read. Perfect for the bank holiday weekend.

Travel and Social Media. The Lonely Planet Story

View more presentations from opaline.

Google launches 'Survival of the Fastest' B2B channel on YouTube

Google's new video business blog on its own YouTube platform provides a useful tool in an engaging format. The video content features experts from a number of business disciplines, including Ogilvy's Rory Sutherland, Boris Johnson, IAB and London Business School.

Last month, Google joined forces with WPP to fund new research in the digital realm. As reported by the Wall Street Journal in this article, it includes a number of studies, using Harvard Business School, among others. Google already works as a consultant to advertisers, so this takes that relationship a step further. In addition, it showcases the ways in which businesses may also leverage YouTube from a B2B angle.  

Functions covered include Marketing, eCommerce and Finance & General Management. There are also themed videos around speed, agility and consumer insights. Altogether, a useful tool for businesses in  turbulent times. 

New studies: Razorfish Digital Outlook & Nielsen Online

A couple of new studies emerged on the web this week. Razorfish launched its 5th annual 'Digital Outlook' study and Nielsen Online also released a report 'Global Faces and Networked places.'

Nielsen Online looks at the growing popularity of so-called 'member communities' (referring to social networks and blogs) and the global adoption of this media, which now represents one-tenth of all time spent online. One of its primary conclusions is the global popularity of member communities, ranking fourth across the online sector after search, portals and software applications. Crucially though, they now outrank personal email. 

Another major finding is the rising popularity of member communities among older age groups. The 35-49 and 50-64 age groups are both seeing massive growth and driving the popularity of Facebook - now the 9th most popular brand online. Other recent studies have also emphasised this trend. Independent blog Inside Facebook revealed back in February that women over 55 represented the fastest growing demographic in the US market. iMedia Connection digs deeper and highlights the rising number of 'Moms' on social networks, including Facebook and MySpace, as well as a host of niche sites specifically targeting this lifestyle group. Razorfish itself produced an indepth study Digital Mom earlier this year, and was the recent subject of discussion on NBC. If you're looking for insight on social networking from a generational perspective, Pew Internet Research does a good job in this report.

You can check out the full Nielsen Online report here

Razorfish's Digital Outlook 2009 provides a much more analytical and broader perspective on social media as it relates to the changing nature of advertising and branding. The 180 pages cover an array of angles, pointing to where digital advertising is headed. Central to its theme is the rising importance of building experiences, against the old adage of 'producing great advertising,' and the untold potential of digital in creating those experiences. Its a guiding tool for advertisers and agencies, providing a benchmark on digital spend and strategy, and continuing its theory around Social Influence Marketing. As Razorfish outlines on their Digital Design Blog, the biggest takeaway perhaps is a flattening of spend in social media spend by major advertisers. You can check out the full report on the last link. In short, buckets of insight.

The delights of Twitter

Oh the wonders of social media. I've recently set myself up on Twitter, mainly out of intrigue and experimentation to see what delights it can offer. As someone that is constantly surfing the web, my first thoughts are how refreshingly quick and easy to access insights from around the web, without the feeling of being overloaded. Perhaps Twitterers are more selective in what they send around? Focusing on the most important, groundbreaking trends, as well as the plain humorous. 

Apparently, according to HubSpot, I'm now one of some 5 million fellow Twitters, all busy following and being followed. Already I feel part of something quite different and exciting. Let's face it, poking is a bit passe isn't it. But then, I'm not so sure you can compare Facebook with Twitter as its just so incredibly different. There really is no 'this is me' element (apart from a small profile), because your page is one big chain of conversations. The name of the game is communication, very like other social media, but it's more cosy somehow. I quite liked getting a tip from Razorfish's Mr Schmitt today, sharing a very good post from the NYTimes, which reviews people's opinion on what Obama should focus on in his first year as President (gathered from Facebook). Maybe I would have found that somehere else, but maybe Twitter gave me a faster way to get there.

So how are other brands embracing this new medium? Mashable has compiled an excellent review of the Best 40 brands on Twitter, going into detail in terms of numbers, who takes ownership of it and so forth. Definitely worth checking out for examples, with lots of big brands listed from cars, retail, banking etc...

Social media sites continue their ascent

This is perhaps no big surprise but provides us with more evidence of how social networks are now a dominant communication platform for UK consumers. Nielsen Online has reported that in the year to April 2008, the total number of minutes UK consumers spend on Facebook grew from 500m to 2.4bn. Their latest research shows that the large social networking platforms appear to be stealing share from instant messaging platforms, such as MSN, and the arrival of Facebook IM is likely to bolster that trend.

Entertainment and search sites have both experienced 8% growth in total minutes over the year. By comparison, consumer-generated media, which incoporate social networks and blogging sites have seen a 47% climb in minutes (+1.3 billion) over the same period. Nielsen calls this a 'seismic shift' in how people are spending time and communicating online.

The full Nielsen Online press release can be found here

Really real

The BBC's technology team recently got talking about the technological applications that are facilitating what it terms a ‘hyper-connected society'. Applications such as Twitter, Kyte TV and Jaiku are all mentioned as being drivers of this trend, to name a few. In tune with the global social media phenomenon, the BBC explains that hyper-connectivity is evidence of a growing band of consumers that are happy to share their lives in public and who are comfortable with being open and honest in front of potentially millions.

Universal McCann's Wave 3 study on social media provides a wealth of data on how the blogosphere is becoming increasingly participatory. Top of the agenda on blog content is talking about personal life and family, but one-third will also post opinions about products and brands on their blog.

So it stands to reason if consumers are being open, they expect brands to reciprocate. The trend towards 'authenticity' has been documented for a while now, but as social media has gained traction, so has the need for even more open, transparent and honest branding and communications. Trendwatching provides a great insight into this issue - called ‘Really Real', or if you want to dig deeper check out this book: Authenticity: What consumers really want, Gilmore & Pine.

And in case you missed the Universal McCann's report, here are a few key snippets from the exec summary:
• Asian markets are leading in terms of participation - China has the largest blogging community
• Video clips are the quickest growing platform on social media - 83% penetration
• Of it's 17,000 global respondents, 57% had joined a social network
• Blogs are a mainstream media and a collective rival to any traditional media - 48% include blogs as part of their weekly media diet

Brands on social networks

A few snippets from a report by digital agency Tamar contrasting the creation of unofficial brand groups on social networks with official branded content

- Only 30% of major financial organisations have an official online presence on the social media scene, but 80% are the subject of unofficial consumer groups

- In travel, few brands have pursued an official social media strategy on leading sites, but all leading brands have a lot of consumer support via unofficial groups.

- Retailers were found to be well entrenched with social media. All major brands have an official presence on a least one major social network. But retailers are also the focus of a lot of commentary from consumers, with a high proportion of unofficial groups.

The 2008 Social Media Sectors report, from digital agency Tamar, compared the number of unofficial consumer groups on Facebook, Myspace and Bebo with the top ten retail, financial and travel brands. You can read their blog here

Interest networking

In the fast changing world of social media, one new brand Twine currently still in beta is of particular interest to us. Unlike traditional social networks, Twine, is based around clustering interests - 'interest networking'. Instead of the user profile being the core element as with many social networks, subjects or topics of interests are the common currency. Although, the ability to be able to communicate with like-minded individuals that share similar interests is a key benefit.

A twine is basically a subject or topic and you can create your own or join others. It's beauty seems to lie as a reference tool. Once you've created your twine, you can add links with their social bookmarking system (the Bookmarklet), which works just like Del.icio.us. Once you're signed up to your favourite interest areas, you can hook up to feeds summarising all the latest news on your interests. Currently the most popular twines are ‘web 3.0 - semantic web' and ‘cool', a place for sharing unusually cool things on the web.

The website is based on semantic technology, which is a key part of web 3.0. In a recent article, Trendspotting highlights the importance of being able to manage the abundance of information we deal with day to day. Something where Twine will be very useful.