Digital is not the main event
Digital often facilitates and sometimes even transforms real life, but it is not the main event. People are simply using online tools such as Twitter and Facebook to enrich their offline experiences. If online content or brands don’t enhance people’s real life or inhibits it in some way they will log off. 60% of users considered quitting Facebook over privacy concerns this Summer and 16% did quit. Unique, real experiences are peoples sweet spot, online tools merely allow us to lengthen the feel good factor of LIVE by sharing comments, pictures and posts. Brands can create longevity around their events and sponsorships with a strong digital presence which builds group momentum and anticipation prior to the LIVE event and allows them to relive it afterwards.
Twittersourcing – a new way of discovering insight
George Hook and I shared a micro blogging conversation on Twitter about three weeks ago.
Last week, Oliver Kay, a football journalist from the Times commented on an opinion I gave him regarding the World Cup.
Last weekend, Shane Hegarthy, Arts Editor for the Irish Times, asked me my advice about a music festival.
The accessibility which Twitter has provided to actors, football players, journalists and TV personalities is one of the many reasons why I have become a huge fan of Twitter. It is not just the micro conversations and accessibility I enjoy though, they have made it really easy for me to like Twitter in general. Being from a generation with a relatively short attention span, 140 character micro blogs is just about the right amount of information especially when you only have the time for a quick browse.
But what really impresses me about Twitter and something which I am very excited about in terms of how we will understand consumers in the future is the ability to crowd source news, views and reactions from people in real time. When I want to find out news instantly, I am increasingly using Twitter over Google to get news in real time. Recently, I crowd sourced England’s World Cup squad (it broke on Twitter before Sky Sports), why the French team went on strike at the World Cup and it is how I discovered why my train was recently delayed on Irish Rail and just how long it was going to be. Mark