Spreadability vs Stickiness

I heard on FIR podcast a new word, which I really liked: Spreadability.

Spreadability is about making content easy to share and spread online. Its not viral, where viral is creating something that a large amount of people send on. It's more about creating something that you would want to send to a friend, embed/post on your blog, tweet about. It's smaller scale and more about something that appeals to a certain group of people who have a common interest i .e. a target audience.

The word was used in the context of being the new stickiness - i.e. a few years back, everyone was trying to make a website that was extremely sticky. The goal being to keep people on your site for as long as possible.

In the social age, it's not about driving traffic to your site and gluing them to it; it's about creating something of value that people will want to spread through their network. Well, that's what I reckon.

I'm not normally a big fan of buzz words, scoffing at them whenever possible, but I do like this one. And so, will be appropriating it for my own use. [I have resisted the considerable urge to use margarine related metaphors, but please feel free to apply liberally.]

Twitter goes Yoof

A new report out by Pew Internet shows that more young people are using Twitter. The micro-blogging service is now the second youngest social networking site with an average age of 31.

Of the top 4, MySpace is the youngest with an average of 26. [Bebo wasn't including in the research, otherwise I reckon that would be the youngest]. Facebook has matured, the av age going from 26 in 2008 to 33 in 2009. I wonder of this was due to its international expansion?

Linked In has the oldest members - av age of 39, which you'd kind of expect.

It wasn't so long ago that research was saying that Twitter was the domain of old farts like myself. I'm sure there are loads of socio-psychological reasons for this, but I can't help thinking that the main driver could be the influx of celebs using Twitter. Celebs start using Twitter and their young fans follow.

Naturally, I feel like my dad when I'm writing this and I have to fight the urge to say

'I remember when it was all geeks' .

Social pooing

Charmin, the loo roll maker, have come up with a..well... I'm not sure what adjective to use to describe the idea, but it definitely isn't shit [sorry:)].

In a campaign called Enjoy The Go, Charmin is recruiting five loo ambassadors to meet and greet toilet goers during the Christmas period in Times square, NYC, and then blog about the experience. The ambassadors get $10K each for doing the job. I shit you not!

I love the line "All candidates must really really enjoy going to the bathroom"

I mean, what do you say at the interview to explain how or why you really really enjoy going to the bathroom? I really helps me think and problem solve when I'm having a good dump? Or I just like it for the crosswords?

Toilet humour aside it's an interesting project and I will be intrigued to see how it turns out. Although, I can't help thinking what the objectives are and if they measure input, output and outcome.

Glove Love: The Green Thing

Really cool initiative by Do the Green Thing called Glove Love. The eco friendly social media gang at DTGT are collecting single gloves from around the country and pairing them with other single gloves and selling them on for a fiver.

It's a great example of doing something really simple and smart to cut back on wastage.

Marketing to digital youth conference

I was lucky enough to attend the Marketing Magazine conference on Marketing to Digi-savvy Youth. There was a lot of focus on social media, as you'd expect, and lots of talk about 'losing control of your brand', having an authentic voice, listening to the audience first. Which was all well and good, but kinda stating the obvious.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed [although this could have been because I was slightly jaded from getting up at 5.15 to catch the train down, there being no usable wifi at the conference and no hashtag]. Although, for a conference about marketing to 15-24 years olds, the youngest presenter was 30. I thought there might have been some young people present to give there thoughts.

However, there were a few notably exceptions. Mark from Durex had some excellent insights [but I guess I would say that, Durex being a client] and I picked up some pointers from LastMinute.com's social media manager. I've put together my top ten below [in no particular order]:

1. At the heart of all successful strategies is content that people want. This was illustrated by Conde Nast use of a backstage video of Lily Allen getting ready for the GQ photo shoot [sadly not embeddable]. Everton FC had similar success by using exclusive content such as player interviews.
2. Getting celebrities involved in marketing to youth is still hugely successful, perhaps even more so now that celeb content can be shared online e.g. Alliance & Liecester's use of bucket loads of stars such as Danny Cipriani and Trevor Nelson.
3. Find the things people are passionate about and work out a way to link your brand to those passions e.g. using music to connect with people as per Glamour magazine.
4. Be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them. You are not going to get it right all the time.
5. Paid for media owners and traditional advertisers seem to be embracing the power of earned media, natural conversations and authentic advocacy. There was lots of discussion about creating a stream of stories throughout the year, rather than running campaigns - a traditional PR approach.
6. Reward fans and followers of your brand. Don't just bring them in and try and sell them stuff, give them stuff they really value for being fans and getting involved with your brand.
7. The biggest challenge with social media and conversation campaigns is dedicating the resources. Lastminute.com seemed to have got it right by employing an experienced blogger as their dedicated social media manager.

OK, so it's not exactly ten, but top seven, just doesn't quite sound right.

Social media stat counter

This is a nifty app - it counts stuff happening in social media. Its called Gary's Social media counter and can be found here.

You can download it or embed it in a site [although I couldn't get it to work on my blog].

Still, its pretty cool.

First Direct goes all social

I must admit, I am quite chuffed to see a bank embracing social media in a very open way, especially after all the problems banks have caused the world. First Direct has created a new website, First Direct Live, that aggregates all the comments about the black and white bank, good and bad. It's a great initiative and builds on the great word of mouth reputation the bank has created - from providing plain old excellent customer service.

The site has three main areas:

1. A live display of the latest comments from Talking Point - a comment board where people can post their thoughts about First Direct.
2. A percentage split of positive and negative feelings
3. A short list of positive and negative words about First Direct

It's very simple and for me, embodies what First Direct is all about - focusing on its customers and what they think. My only criticism would be that the site doesn't display the actual comments from social media, just a summary of the key words and sentiment.

Still, if only more banks were that customer focused....