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Dec 28 2011
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Social

KFC Big Bash hits a six with Social Media

Sydney Sixers

I went to my first Twenty 20 match last night. It was loud, fast and fun. The tournament is currently leveraging social media to drive fan engagement and awareness.

All the teams have twitter accounts and use them for match updates and promotion. Clever hashtags like #smashemsixers are used for twitter conversations which I’m sure other sports will look to adopt in 2012. Selected tweets from fans scroll across the big screen at the ground. The Sydney Sixers should look at including user handles as this would increase the ‘reward‘ for fans supporting their team.

Facebook pages have become great places for fans to show their support for their teams and players. Users from the West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India are using social media to support their fellow countrymen as they play in the Australian tournament. For many, social media and the internet is the only way they can connect to the game.

renegades facebook support

All the teams have template based and multiplatform friendly websites. Fox Sports holds onto highlights for a little too long (for example highlights from last nights game are only available on the flash riden foxsports.com.au and not on the team websites or YouTube).

It’s the social media presence that I’m most impressed with. The Big Bash is a new competition trying to succeed in a sport saturated market. The organisers have understood the power of social media and are harnessing it to both market the game and empower fans.

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Oct 12 2011
1 Comment
Social

Is Social Media narcissistic?

Social Media T-Shirt

“Some of the youth of today have a higher level of narcissism than perhaps the youth of the past, but one needs to take into account the developmental context to this…Narcissism is a normal stage of life that people often grow out of and it’s not the end of the world if children or youth are going through a narcissistic stage” - Dr Ranil Gunewardene

Watched a pretty interesting episode of Insight last night about narcissism. As a father-to-be and a Digital Producer it raised several interesting questions about parenting and social media.

Social networks are often referred to as been narcissistic. Users can portray themselves in a much grander, more positive but delusional light. I’m sure everyone follows someone who over shares ‘look at me’ photos, checkins or status updates that are nearly always of them having a great time or boasting about their successes. I may even be guilty from time to time.

Surely the positives of social media out way the negatives. One person on Insight suggested that Facebook is sometimes the only social interaction for people who work in offices. I know without Facebook I’d have no idea what my brother was up to in Munich. Arguably, without LinkedIn, I wouldn’t have my current job. Twitter is such a convenient way to stay up to date with the latest news and I use FourSquare to find/share good coffee shops and restaurants. Social media is about prioritising the good stuff from all the crap on the net. Yes it can be used for evil in the wrong hands but most of the time it’s a great lifestyle enhancement tool.

The picture above is from a T-Shirt design that you can buy from Despair.

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Sep 29 2011
3 Comments
Social, Strategy

Is Facebook Open Graph Doomed?

Facebook Dislike button

Facebook recently announced a raft of take-over-the-internet updates at their yearly conference – F8.

A significant update is an auto-share feature that will mean everything you read on certain sites will be shared with your Facebook buddies. Instead of selecting the Recommend or Like button on every SMH article that you want to share you will just tick once the Add to Timeline button. It will share anything you do on the site like comment, watch videos, listen to music or any other interaction.

This has a few potential issues including the embarrassment of viewing articles you probably shouldn’t. My beef with the feature is that social media isn’t about sharing everything – it’s about sharing the best stuff. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Last.fm, FourSquare, Yammer, Google+ shine light on what your network likes. This is the underlying strategy behind the Google +1 button and Facebook’s social ads and sponsored stories. Turning Facebook into a stream of people’s entire online activity will dilute it’s value.

Auto-sharing won’t do Facebook any favours in winning over privacy skeptics either. Who wants to be thinking – is this site on my timeline? Have I shared this article already? What if I want to add a comment to a story I’ve already shared automatically?

What do you think? The Like button is possibly the most passive/meaningless way to share content but is auto-sharing going one step too far?

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Sep 18 2011
6 Comments
Mobile, Social

Why Foursquare is failing Down Under

australia foursquare

One of my favourite apps in the whole wide world is Foursquare. I’m constantly checking into places. The only time I have deliberately not checked in was when I was at a funeral. Inappropriate.

I love finding out Lonely Planet style tips on what to order, the best time to visit or any special deals on offer. The stalker in me is also interested in where my Foursquare buds are hanging out and if they have just discovered the new micro bar or hole in the wall piccolo joint. I’m also trying to be the mayor of my new apartment complex in Leichhardt. Be warned that Karen C is going down.

I digress.

Despite the joy Foursquare provides and its worldwide success (over 10 million worldwide) Foursquare has failed to crack the Australian market. How come?

1. Australians are inherently lazy and without greater incentives won’t use a separate app for location-based  check-ins. It’s just too easy to check-in on Facebook.

2. Not enough places have deals. Australians love a bargain so more bars need to offer free beer with check-ins. Coffee shops need to get rid of loyalty cards and start rewarding loyalty check-ins like with eCoffee Card.

3. You can’t ‘tag’ users in Foursquare. Tagging significantly increases the reach of apps. Haven’t checked in lately on Facebook Places? That’s ok – your geek mate has tagged you. It’s reminded you of the app, the check-in functionality and reminded all your friends of the feature. Check-in fueled conversations put the ‘social’ back into what, some might say, is just narcissistic sharing. Social media can use location to stay relevant as, unlike interests, locations change all the time.

4. Australians are a modest bunch and Foursquare’s unique selling point of gamification isn’t enough of a draw card to get people to start checking in.

5. Despite Gen Y and many other Australians been obsessed with themselves and self-promotion, the audience simply isn’t there to call for the cries of  ’look at me’.

So in summary, Foursquare is lacking the mainstream critical mass of features, users and deals to grow and become popular in Australia. Of my Foursquare friends 47 out of 58 are in the early adopter/yuppie, media/arts, geeks/attention seekers world. Like Google+ Foursquare is stuck in geekdom.

Follow me on Foursquare

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