The Social Network at Oscars Night

Tonight is Oscars night, which means that Twitter and Facebook will soon be flooded with updates about who is wearing what, who told a good/horrible joke, and who is taking home the awards. Just like the Grammy Awards or Super bowl, it is expected that people who are watching Oscar individually at home would share their thoughts through social media streams continuously. You can watch Oscar on your TV, but also online, on your iphone, wherever you would prefer. How do you plan to watch it tonight? Mobility is important and the future of social media is heading towards the mobile platform. This is the power of groundswell, where people expect immediate response from each other and are interested in finding out what others have to say about the results. A list of mobile and web apps have been developed to enhance the Academy Awards experience. Go here to read more about these 5 apps.

This app allows users to compare their picks with their friends on Facebook, and follow Oscar tweets. Vanity Fair Hollywood encourages Oscar audiences to discuss about the big event and provides them with applications that are fun and easy. Creating an Oscars Edition of the app would increase the app's  popularity because new users would be willing to download even if they have never heard of the application. Making it easy for audiences to discuss allows the groundswell to talk to their friends and create buzz for both the event and the application. 

Again, the reward system that geo-location applications use would encourage users to check in and get special stickers for a particular event. This app encourages participation from the groundswell. 

After ceremony note: "GetGlue partnered with the Oscars this year, offering viewers special stickers for checking in to the event. More than 31,000 users checked in to the OScars using GetGlue, with 10 check-ins per second taking place in the first 30 minutes of the show. This was the highest number of check-ins for any GetGlue event to date — handily beating the Grammy Awards (18,000 check-ins) and the Super Bowl (20,000 check-ins)." Read more here 

 So, don’t miss out! Check out these apps and see if they make your Oscar night even more fun!! Let me know what you guys think about them. Because it is the 21^st century, the Academy is doing something different this year: broadcasting the Oscar nominee announcement live to the web! (Read more here) You can view it through Oscars.org OR Livestream.com OR Facebook.com This is a big deal, as the world’s most prestigious and buzz-about nomination ceremony, it is heading toward live streaming. Both Grammy and Golden globe dedicated a social media-inspired red carpet show. 

Watch live streaming video from academyawards at livestream.com

I am excited to find out whether “The social network” will get an Oscar or not! Of course, no one can ever know for sure before it actually happens, but critics have made an “educated guess”. Social Network is a movie that depicts the early days of Facebook. It has been named as best picture by LA Film Critics Association and NY Film Critics Online, Top 10 movies by American Film Institute. So, I have my hopes high. (read more about what the critics say here) It has been nominated for 8 Academy Awards, it is the most nominated film this year. However Tuesday’s live announcement has announced that The King’s speech is receiving 12 nominations. So, lets find out if this critics' new favorite would steal Social Network's place. 

It will air on ABC tonight and this is who the groundswell thinks should win. It wont be long before we find out!

Taken from http://mashable.com/2011/02/26/oscar-predictions/

Enjoy the show
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The Next Morning
Feb 28th, 2011

I would have to say that Groundswell did pretty good in guessing, except the huge mismatch for the Best Picture. As for The Social Network, it wins 3, and loses 5 Oscars. Who else is disappointed? The King's Speech and Inception were big winners of the night, both of them won 5 Oscars. But it was a disappointing outcome for the Social Network>< For a movie that talks about fighting for popularity and failing to fit in, losing friends over business matter, and the early days of THE social network that changed our lives, it deserves the BEST PICTURE!!! (Read more here)
A lot of Facebook Fans are disappointed....(This is a twitter search after the award was announced) Did you tweet about it?

Not only the audiences were tweeting about it, but also the celebrities who were at the Academy Awards. Co-Host James Franco was tweeting during the ceremony, hundreds of thousands of others joined. During the show itself, a few specific moments generated major spikes in Twitter activity. This is a chart that reflects real time responses.

And here is a list of most mentioned nominees.

Perhaps it was because James Franco was also tweeting throughout the ceremony? Even though this list doesn't include Co-Host Anne Hathaway, she is the second most tweeted person (not nominee), right before Natalie Portman. 

Over on Facebook, nearly one million people in the U.S. mentioned the word “Oscars” in their status updates over the last 24 hours.

The most popular U.S. Oscar-related Facebook status mentions included:

• The King’s Speech with 152,324 mentions
• James Franco with 138,437 mentions.
• The Social Network with 96,513 mentions.
• Natalie Portman with 80,704 mentions.
• Anne Hathaway with 74,979 mentions.

Worldwide, nearly 1.9 million Facebook status updates were related to the Oscars.

Data from Mashable.com
Without a doubt, the Oscars took its step towards groundswell, it let go of its control over what people may say about the results, the celebrity, or the rundown of the event, (there was no way to control it anyways) and instead encourage audiences to talk about it. Its collaboration with various applications not only allow the groundswell to respond and connect instantly, but also allow themselves to find out what worked and who did not work. Tapping into the groundswell is like heading down a one way street, you can become more and more involved with the groundswell. 

How did Dell do it?

Why companies are not in control anymore?

This video provides a nice summary of previous chapters we've read of groundswell. Charlene not only explained the importance of a bottom up approach to engage users to review and help innovate for product development, but also the value of building a culture of commenting, in which some control of branding must be let go. With groundswell, everyone is able to comment and publish. Therefore, it is important to listen to what the customers have to say, and respond appropriately. It is in a company's best interest to embrace it well, and make the most of what social media has to offer. As we have learned from Chapter 10, the transformation that dell went through was not easy. 

Go to Idea Storm

First of all, Dell observed the conversations among users about why are they no longer interested in Dell's products. It took Dell months before they published their first blog post that responded to the problems. With social media today, anyone can be a publisher, and any users are able to post reviews of any product, and these information cannot be controlled or contained. Instead of letting the conversation go on, Dell chose to get involved, and commit to listening to the customers. It may seem simple that companies should be investing time and resources in hearing from its customers, so that they can better improve their products and better market their customers. However, it takes a lot of courage from a company to change the way things work. 

Embracing groundswell is really about letting go of the control and trusting that the customers would help innovate, and improve the products. One of the steps that Dell took was to have a forum where customers could discuss about issues that they are concerned with, or share ideas that they have (Idea storm). Changes happened step by step, and each stepping stone lead to a progression. The biggest challenge is to gain executive support from within the company. For companies with long history like Dell, each worker see himself as  "I am my position": Every worker has a fixed position and responsibilities in the company, and they often forget the ultimate goal to work together to meet the need of an organization. Success of a company requires more than partial effort from each worker, but mutual effort of each person to come together as a unit. To convince each department to trust the customers' needs and give up control of the brand message was revolutionary for Dell. However, if you stop and think about it, people are talking about your brand and product anyways, why not have them discuss at a forum where you can read, monitor, and facilitate the conversation? It is not necessarily giving up control for nothing in return, because being engaged in customers conversation would help building close relationships and trust. Digital media can no longer be a supplement of a campaign, but in the center of attention. 

With IdeaStorm, Dell was able to talking directly to customers, as an online barnstorm sessions for customers to participate in. "Product development is hard. Why not let your customers help you with it? (P.181)"To involve customers into the innovation process, is to hear what new products or service they'd like to see Dell develop. After listening to, talking with, energizing, and supporting groundswell, you have gained insights from the customers, and these insights could be beneficial for the company's future development. Ideal Storm allows customers to develop empathy for the company and think in the company's position. Making customers an integral part of the way Dell innovates, is to use the knowledge that customers have about what is wrong with the product and how to fix it. This is one of the approaches that Dell took, in order to embrace groundswell, and adapt to changes that comes with the transformation. 

Read more about Idea Storm on Wikipedia

Even if the responding customers are not a representative collections of the entire customer population, the activist always help to define expectation, and provide useful ideas (Crowd-sourcing). But don't just ask for opinions, follow through and act upon these suggestions! Stay authentic and honest to earn your customer's trust! After building a community of contributors or speculators, solutions to common issues or problems would be available to all customers, which would lower the number of people that would come to Dell for solutions. This is an example of how a Dell customer helped Dell in products innovation.

If you plan to embrace groundswell, do so when you are ready because there is no way to back out once you have opened the door. What is out in the internet is not erasable and it will always be there for others to reference to it. Be aware of the context that you post because people are going to decide if they should become a fan or not based on your context. On the final note, check this video out about how embracing groundswell benefited Dell. 

How has groundswell helped Dell?

The secret behind Groupon's discount?

February 14, 2011

By Kris Ashton, Daily Deal Media

Groupon have had a string of missteps and bad press that they just can’t seem to shake. In this most recent blunder, Groupon teamed up with FTD to offer $40 worth of flowers for $20 just in time for Valentine’s Day. Over all a great sounding deal, but customers found that prices they were paying for the flowers were actually as much as $20 higher than on the retailer’s web site.

It was speculated that FTD hiked the price to make up for the loss they knew they’d be taking from the discount as well as Groupon’s 50 percent take on the deal. By the time users started noticing the price difference 3,300 vouchers had already been sold.

According to FTD President, Rob Apatoff, the company did not inflate the prices of the flowers for Groupon customers.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “Because there was some confusion with a few, we decided to step up and do the right thing to make sure everybody was happy,” he added.

FTD then went on to credit Groupon customers the difference between the retail price and the sale price. Both FTD and Groupon said they would offer full refunds to those who were still not satisfied.

Learn more Here

How are Geolocation applications changing our lives? (Original # 2)

The Check In Wars Foursquare vs Facebook (Youtube)

From last week's Geolocation presentation, I decided to join a few and see why is it becoming increasingly popular and how has mobile platform revolutionaized our social networking and the market. Foursquare, Facebook Places, Groupon, and Gowalla, are all important players in location-based service applications. 

On the other hand, companies like Starbucks takes advantage of these apps and build a loyal online community of customers. It is the first retailer to offer a check-in deal and it is definitely an inspirational and innovative leader that uses social media particularly well. It is the most "Liked" brand on Facebook and one of the top 10 most followed brands on Twitter (Mashable Awards). Last year, Starbucks teamed up with Foursquare to offer a special badge and a sweet mayor deal. In order to continue its sucess in ultilizing geolocation apps, Starbucks CEO has invested in Groupon, and joined the Board of Directors. 

Last Thursday, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz joined the Groupon's board of directors by investing undisclosed amount of funding. Throughout the years, the company continues to launch new campaigns and engage followers along the way. The business relationship between the Starbucks and Groupon does not only help Starbucks secure its leading position in social media marketing, but also allows Groupon to maintain its reputation by working with large, iconic, national brands. When it comes to social and digital networking, Starbucks continues to push forward, and enhance customer's in-store experience. It is much more than just "coffee". Other brands that rock social media also includes:

2.Jetblue

3.The History Channel

4.Whole Food

5.Dunkin' Donuts

(Find out why each of these brands rocked Here)

Beside Groupon's collaboration with Starbucks, Yelp is also integrating with OpenTable in order to  allow users to book reservations for restaurants using Yelp. Yelp is a social neworking, user review, and local search web site. By conbining local reciews and social networking, Yelp creates a local online community. Now, with OpenTable, users can make next dinner reservation using Yelp's mobile apps. Users can simply click to select a date, time and party size, and reserve a table without even making a phone call or leaving the Yelp page of the restaurant. This integration between the two is just in time for Valentine's Day, which is one of the busiest days for dining out. (Read more about how to make your next dinner reservation using Yelp Here)

Groupon and Yelp are both making effort to increase the number of users and enhance the power of geolocation service applications. How about Foursquare? Recently, Foursquare has been translated into 5 new languages, so that more people would be able to use the application in different parts of the world. It can now be operated in: Spanish, French, German, Italian and Japanese. Foursquare's co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley emphasizes the importance of the gaming element, which makes Foursquare a service "almost like a game in the real world". As it reward users to check in at various places and collect Badges, it changes users' real world behavior, and drives them to go out and have new experiences.

The future is with mobile platforms, people are not going to bring their laptops around. Geolocation social networks are set to be in 2010 what microblogging was in 2008. The Next Big Thing! The reason they are so popular is simply its ease to use. Arrive at a destination, fire up the app, check in, get points, badges, or even increased status and surprises like coupons. You can also network with your friends and see where have they been and what badges have they collected. So, what's next for Geolocation? and When are you going to start checking in?

Happy Valentine's Day

Read more about how Americans planned to spend their Valentine's day this year

Listening and talking to groundswell (Respond to reading #1)

Social Media marketing done right Youtube Video

Valentine’s day is coming up and I was looking for a place for dinner. First thing that came to my mind was to go to Yelp.com and look for a good restaurant in Boston. I was filtering the results with restaurants that are most reviewed, if the restaurant is just okay, people would not bother writing about the dining experience or uploading pictures for the place. Therefore, if a lot of people are motivated enough to write about it, it must be pretty popular, or at least worth a try. The thing I like about Yelp.com is that, there is no advertisement from the restaurant, but simply comments and reviews posted by real people who have eaten there. Sometimes, they even include coupons or special offers. Users could even share pictures taken at the restaurant and post it so that more people can check out the place. This is groundswell, interactions among the customers, and comments from real people, which is more cost-effective and popular than traditional ways of advertising. It is not to say that social media is the only way to market, but sure is an effective way to do so. 

If customers and users are on social networks, where should the companies be? Obviously, they should be listening to them through social networks. Listening from people who actually use the product or the service, companies can better market their prospective customers and understand what their customers think about the product.

Every company wants to sell lots of products and make profit. However, if the company only aims to make money without listening to what the people really want, they will never be successful. In this era, the only companies that can grow fast are the ones who can listen to its customers, respond quickly, and carefully monitor the brand through social media marketing. Therefore, it is extremely important to listen from groundswell and make changes accordingly in order to improve service quality or the product produced.

In the chapter, the author clearly asserted, “Your brand is whatever your customers say it is.” It is not the way you advertise it, it is not the way you imagine or present it. If restaurants owners were monitoring the comments on Yelp.com, they would be able to get insights from the customers through observing interactions among customers. Thus, they would know what do customers really think about their services and food quality. They could also search the brand on Google, blogs, communispace or youtube, and find out what customers are saying about the products. By carefully monitoring the brand, companies are able to take advantage of the groundswell by taking actions on the information gathered through listening, being responsive, changing future products and marketing plans, or generating new products.

Social media marketing with Youtube

After listening, companies can also talk to the groundswell by posting videos, joining social networks, blogging, or forming private communities. Building a community of loyal customers is essential, as they would help spread the word to their friends. As a result, conversations among users can be stimulated, and the brand image can be improved and monitored. So, wouldn't you begin to market through social media? 

This is a respond post to the Groundswell reading 

What Is Facebook, Really?

by Jeffrey F. Rayport

First, Facebook is not really a website anymore. Rather, it's a vast, branded utility. It's like another World Wide Web, but with a profit motive. It's a kind of Wikipedia, but built on a corporate, not a cooperative, model. As a communications technology, it has radically changed the ways we connect with one another. It accounts for nearly 10 percent of total time spent online by U.S. Web users (just ahead of Google). It has more than 600 million users. It's like a new global telephone network. For many online users, Facebook is to our era as revolutionary as the telephone was a century earlier.

Second, Facebook is preternaturally addictive. We humans are junkies for updates and information — gossip, news, hearsay, chat. Curiosity about what's going on now is a natural human attribute. That might explain why 48 percent of Americans with Facebook accounts check for "updates" when they wake up; and why 28 percent do so from their smart phones before getting out of bed. Facebook has woven itself into the warp and woof of all of our lives, not only teenage lives. The more it satiates our curiosity, the more curiosity we have to satiate.

Third, Facebook is magnetic as a function of its social engagement. People are drawn to it, because people are drawn to people. How much pull does Facebook exert? Google's own data tell us: in the last 24 months, Google's top search term was "Facebook." One in every 13 people on earth uses Facebook. With "Friend Finder" — a sometimes controversial feature that automatically suggests people you might want to "friend" — Facebook operates a connection engine of unprecedented scale and scope. It delivers on E.M. Forster's famous dictum: "Only connect."

In short, Facebook is not, in any sense, an online publisher. It does something related to, but distinct from, what such publishers do. The fact that Facebook is growing faster than Google did in its early days: the company's usage data tell a story that transcends even those stunning facts. Connection is a human imperative. As Facebook expands inexorably, perhaps we should focus less on the asset and more on the impact. By extending its seemingly endless tendrils online, Facebook is surely changing business; it's also changing us in ways that are arguably out of anyone's control — including that of the gifted entrepreneurs who actually run the "site" itself.

Happy Chinese New Year =)

The role of Social Media in Egypt, Original post #1

The recent unrest in Egypt has caught attention of the international community. Latest updates on daily protests in Egypt are reported on all major news channels, newspapers, and articles. Protests last month have brought the 29-year regime of Hosni Mubarak to a precipice. Hundreds and thousands of people gathered to demand the president to step down. In response, Mubarak quickly ordered his government to resign but did not agree to step down. With the freedom granted by the Internet today, young people in Egypt were able to use social media to report and publish first-hand images and videos.

Read more about the situation on New York Times

Twitter and other social media platform have been flooded with images, information and videos about the current situation in Egypt. Egypt-related tweets showed the intensity and urgency of the ongoing political crisis. Through social media, people around the world were able to get immediate information, well before the official news statement and broadcast. Over the past few days, thousands and millions of families who have friends or family members in Egypt were digging through the Internet, trying to find bits and pieces of what was happening there. This is a Youtube video shot by a local. 

Very soon, the information was out of the government’s control because everyone was able to broadcast his or her own stories. On Friday, the government shut down the Internet and was able to block most communicative messages by cutting off Internet and mobile services. 

Although majority of people in Egypt are not able to access the Internet, some journalists with satellite phones are able to report violent protests immediately. Social media intelligence in various countries tried alternative ways to help Egyptians connect online, so that they can continue to provide news, video clips, and images. Some offered a dial-up connection. Google has also launched a voice-to-Twitter service to assist Egyptian twitter users to journalize the crisis.

By searching for the key word “Egypt”, or “Yeman”, Twitter was able to analyze: 

With Web 2.0, the new school communication is through “Social Media”, they have become essential ingredients for democratic change. What is the role of the Media in political crisis like this one? According to the CNN, 

Some say Egypt is violating modern human rights by cutting access to the Internet and to mobile phone networks. Others say the fact that protests have continued despite these digital barricades reveals a massive hole in the argument that social media spawns modern revolutions.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told Al-Jazeera that internet access is a modern human right

Dave Pell, writing on the blog Tweetage Wasteland, says the internet isn't essential for revolution -- but it sure helps

At the blog TechCrunch, Alexia Tsotsis writes that Twitter is turning people into individual news networks

In The New Yorker,Nicholas Thompson, a social media expert, writes that the internet can benefit both sides of a conflict

Harvard's Jillian York writes the Tunisia protests would have happened with or without Twitter and Facebook -- but we might not have heard about it

Internet access is "fundamental" to the protests in Egypt, writes Khadija Sharife on the Huffington Post

Read details on what people think about the role of social media


Perhaps social media did not trigger people in Egypt to protest and fight for their freedom all of a sudden. However, it does provide a medium for people in different parts of the world to interact and share information immediately. With the situation in Egypt, people from the outside were interested in understanding the situation through personal stories by local people, and social media was able to help in such terms. As Jillian York suggested, "protests would have happened with or without Twitter and Facebook, but we might not have heard of it."