FACEBOOK IS THE NEW TV

It's finally time.  There's absolutely no more excuses.  We've officially heard them all now.

With 450 million users globally (and millions more being added each week) Facebook is dominating the web in unparalleled ways. Almost half-a-billion users and 80% of all Americans online, spend at least 6 hours per month on Facebook.  Add to that, Facebook is the most visited site on the web to date in 2010, surpassing even Google in search stats for the first time in history.

There’s not much you can do today on a traditional website that can’t also be done on Facebook.  Where a brand URL was once the place to go for brand communications, consumers of all ages are more and more looking to Facebook as the de facto place to find information about the brands they’re interested in (and follow the ones they like).   Brand relationships have always been a form of self-expression.  Facebook just provides a platform to evidence and amplify this affiliation and loyalty to the world.  For Gen-Y or “Millennial’s” for example, brand preference ranks as high as religion and ethnicity as top personal identifiers online. 

The cat's out of the bag.  Facebook today is the hub of all social and online activities. It’s the new TV and our new background noise — it’s always on.  

Facebook is, for all intents and purposes, Public Relations, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, CRM, Focus Groups/ Product Testing, Target Advertising, and Data Analytics/ Research departments – all wrapped up into one offering. While we certainly concede there are much “sexier” media vehicles, none deliver the same simple value proposition and return on investment as Facebook.   

It’s really as simple as fishing where the fish are.  

Need some expert help?  Give us a shout.

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [OCT-GB_V12.0]

Adobe is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Photoshop this year and over one million fans on their Photoshop Facebook page -Adobe Blogs 

Honda is launching a month-long social media effort on Facebook to build buzz around their new "Dream the Impossible" documentary series -Market Watch 

Mercedes-Benz is using Facebook to promote their new online video series, "Profiles," which features real-life Mercedes owners recounting their near-death automotive accidents -MediaPost 

Kraft Foods' shares how the relationships Oreo built on Facebook are now spreading to other social media channels -Vimeo 

Kraft Foods: How Oreo Learned to Fish Where the Fish Are, presented by Beth Reilly from GasPedal on Vimeo.

Orange is hosting a competition on Twitter that introduces Singing Tweetagrams. The best Tweetagrams from their followers will be transformed into special video messages sung by the Rockabellas - Recombu.com 

SAP recently published a case study detailing how they've successfully integrated social platforms into their Community Network -Social Media Today 

Procter & Gamble is rewarding fans with electronic "Green Stamps" for blogging and using social media to spread the word about their environmentally conscious "Future Friendly" program -Ad Age 

General Electric share how they're recruiting YouTube stars to reach new audiences online -Fast Company 

Polartec and The North Face talk about their new social media partnership that encourages a green lifestyle for all -IEWY News 

With over 760,000 followers each, CME Group and the Chicago Board Options Exchange are in the Top 300 most followed Twitter accounts worldwide -Institutional Investor 


Elvis Costello uses Social Media Mix to Promote new Album - Mashable 

THE POWER OF TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING

Is your favourite TV entertainment character on your computer screen and your phone as well?  Those focused on Transmedia Storytelling won’t be surprised. 

What’s transmedia storytelling?  In Transmedia storytelling, content becomes invasive and fully permeates the audience's lifestyle.  A transmedia project develops storytelling across multiple forms of media in order to have different "entry points" in the story; entry-points with a unique and independent lifespan but with a definite role in the big narrative scheme. Each distinct element makes distinctive contributions to a fan's understanding of the story world; "entrypoints" through which consumers can become immersed in a story world.

Research has shown that when consumers meet their characters in different media contexts their bonds are strengthened. It’s like bumping into your CEO at an amusement park. The context changes the relationship and strengthens it.

How does Transmedia storytelling differ from just telling a story in different mediums?  Under the traditional model, when a big movie comes out, for example, we are offered the novelization, the adaptation in comics, and the videogame version for our Xboxes. It’s the same story over and over again, so the property is essentially milked until it’s dead. The transmedia approach to this kind of narrative would give us different pieces of the narrative on different media platforms, so that we can see the movie and then explore different aspects of the characters and the world in other media. Taken as a whole, it’s a richer, deeper experience that gives us more of what we really want.

One distinctive element of Transmedia is that it, by definition, has a number of “invitational” components where audience members are welcomed to participate by commenting on the narrative, by playing established or original characters, or even by contributing creatively to the world and the storyline.

The easiest way to create a Transmedia story is by first immersing ourselves in the original vision. We ask ourselves, what are the building blocks of this narrative? What makes the characters and the world unique? What is this story trying to tell the world?  Once we understand this, we can set about creating a guidebook to the narrative. There are often so many people, divisions, creative teams, licensors involved in generating content around these large franchises that we work on, this roadmap/Mythology addresses all of their concerns by teaching them the essence of the characters and stories and making recommendations for how to best weave the story across multiple media platforms.

Today’s web facilitates the meeting between creator, creation and audience, and by its nature (when properly used) the web turns audience members into participants.  When you are invited into an aspirational world and given a voice, a connection is made, memories are formed, and an experience is created that can last forever.