Social Media for BusinessTutor - Tom WalterTwitter – tomwalter

tom.walter@op.ac.nzwww.flickr.com/tomwalter

Please write down the following: Your name A little bit about yourself, your work/

business What are your interests/ passions in life? What’s something most people don’t

know about you?

Tag clouds are a great way to display search terms

It’s worth trying to make sense of the principles behind social media before diving in!

Making the decision to enter and navigate through an often complex and confusing world can be quite confronting for a digital immigrant

What’s a digital immigrant?

Mark Prensky coined the term in his work Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants in 2001

Natives - born when digital technologies were already prevalent, speak the ‘digital language’

Immigrants - born before the existence of digital technology and adopted it to some extent later

Where do you think you are?

In the same way there are rules and norms in the regular world, a similar set of rules applies to all on line communities

‘tune in’ to what is going on around you by listening to some conversations first!

Look at what people are posting in that space

Most online communities have their own rules and are self-regulating. It’s worth abiding by them or you may not get the level of engagement you seek.

Play nice – insults and bullying aren’t tolerated in the ‘real world’ and are not in these spaces either

What stories do you have to tell? People are generally more interested in

the experience you offer, more than the product you sell. The product is the flow-down result

Social media allows you to create a high-value proposition, often at low cost.

Try to make it fun - if it’s not fun, it’s probably not worth doing…

A unique, humorous and well-told story and it’s relevance to social media

TED talk by Rory Sutherland

Digital Natives and Generation C

Dan Pankraz, a youth planning specialist for a digital marketing agency in Sydney, Australia, has created a great presentation, posted on SlideshareLet’s have a look-see…

Generation CBy Dan Pankraz

C for…..?

Content CreatorsConnectedCo-creationCustomise

CommunityCuriousControl ‘C’

“The spread of digital technology has exploded the number of video moviemakers, bloggers & bedroom musicians. Suddenly we're all poets & publishers. Are we witnessing a creative renaissance?” Idealog

5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT GEN C

1. They love creating and ‘mashing’ content2. They are not passive, they form ‘active

communities’3. They thrive on social media sites where they can

get involved in ideas and cultural conversations4. They’re in control of their own lives and are

happy with complexity5. Gen C aspire to work in more creative industries

with less rigid social structures

MYTH: Gen C is exclusively teenagers

…is the age Gen C most wish

to be

THEY’RE DIGITAL STORYTELLERS, CONSTANTLY CAPTURING AND SHARING THEIR LIVES

96% of wired Aussies under 21 have joined a social networking site

Source: Universal McCann Global study on social media trends April 2008

WHO LOVE THEIR ‘15 SECONDS OF FAME’

And crave constant stimulation…

…there is NO OFF SWITCH

THEY’RE WORLD IS BASED ON CONTINUOUS PARTIAL ATTENTION

iTunes

MP3MMORPGs

Avatars

iMovie

CGI

YouTube

iPodDV cam

Blogs PSP

Xbox

Apps

Wii

AV remixes

USB MySpace

Chat rooms

IMCamera phones Twitter

Facebook

Mash-upsSkype

Sidekick / Hiptop

UGCNokia

Online profiles

iPhone Flickr L8R ;-)

File sharing

WiFi

WikiHDWidgets

Torrent

VOIP

WITH HUNDREDS OF DIGITAL ACRONYMS TO KEEP THEM OCCUPIED

Facebook

THEY’RE CREATIVITY HAS EXTENDED TO AN EXPLOSION IN BODY ART

Cuprocking.com Andy Uprock bringing his graffiti revolution to the world..thanks to Aussie brand Mooks

AND A RESPECT FOR BRANDS WHO CREATE CULTURE, NOT MIMIC IT.

THEY HAVE A PASSION FOR LEARNING NEW SKILLS

• Comical instructional footage on how to improve your photoshop skills

WHILE NOT TAKING THEMSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY

AND FLOCK TO BRANDS WHO ALLOW THEM TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF IDEAS

LIKE VOTING ON HOW AN AD CAMPAIGN ENDS

Flickr Sightings

Source:runcactuskidrun.com

EVERYTHING HAS TO BE CUSTOMISABLE

AS THEY TREAT CONTENT AS COLLABORATIVE AND RECOMBINANT

The ‘Control C Generation’

LIKE SPOOFING THEIR FAVOURITE CHARACTERS ON YOUTUBE

Movies are now being created based off gaming platforms

GAMING NOW DWARFS HOLLYWOOD

Gen C see real and imaginary worlds as one….their personas can be fluid and malleable through these different worlds

GEN C LOVE PLAYING WITH ‘AVATAR’ CREATION TOOLS THEY CAN PASS ON

BRANDS WHO INTRIGUE THEM WITH BRANDED CONTENT WIN

OR WHO SIMPLY MAKE THEIR LIFE BETTER

FIAT ECODRIVE HELPS GEN C BECOME MORE FUEL EFFICIENT DRIVERS

THEY’RE INSPIRED BY BRANDS INVITING THEM TO BE PART OF BIGGER WORLD

ISSUES

VIRGLE..THE 1ST PERMANENT HUMAN COLONY ON MARS

GEN C LOVE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTERS… NOT THE CLEAN CUT

Experimental

Torah BrightRestless

Imaginative

Mysterious

Challenging

Bam Marguerra is THE cult Gen C hero….He’s dark, constantly rebelling and doesn’t take himself too seriously

THE GEN C LOOK IN 2008/09

Casual coolFluid

UnisexUnderstatedAnti-colour

Industrie

Terminator 4

Tip: HYPER REAL AND SCI FI MOVIES WILL CAPTIVATE GEN C IN 2009

Transformers 2

Watchmen

Wolverine

10 THINGS TO TAKEAWAY

1. Focus on sparking conversations in culture, not on one way messages2. Foster their creativity and allow for participation/co-creation in all your ideas3. Treat Gen C as ‘active communities’ who can spread your message NOT

target audiences you’re aiming to hit4. Make sure your brand is always in BETA mode..never fixed or static5. Plan for content you don’t create, building flexibility into your marketing

programs6. Create useful stuff like widgets and applications that’s relevant to their lives.7. Treat real and virtual worlds as one..ensuring ideas live seamlessly across all

platforms8. Don’t treat your brand too seriously…stick to a core idea, but allow for lots of

different manifestations to keep Gen C interested9. Don’t be scared of complex ideas which ‘build’ across different media

platforms….don’t just plaster one message everywhere10. Think about how your brand can make a meaningful contribution to gaming

culture

THANKYOUdans_pankraz@hotmail.com

a love of content creation and 'mashing’ the tendency to form active communities

rather than remain passive a gravitation toward social media sites where

they can participate in discussions about different ideas and get involved in cultural conversations

a desire to be in control of their own lives, and a contentedness with complexity

a desire to work in more creative industries and be less restricted by rigid social structures.

http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html

Decide what sort of participant you are before launching your social media strategy – are one of the 90%, the 9% or the 1%?

Spend a decent chunk of time listening and ‘tuning in’ at the outset

Concentrate on what you’re best at from the beginning, you’ll stay motivated that way

Find your niche and do it well Collaboration and community are key