“The dominant ideas of our time, are the memes that spread the most”

- Everything is a Remix 4: System Failure on Social Evolution on how ideas are copied, transformed and combined. 

-Jamie

A longtime leader in equality in the political and education systems as well as in gender, Sweden now pushes the democratic line even further. In an effort to boost tourism, Sweden has handed the reins of its Twitter account, @Sweden, over to the people. Each week a different Swedish citizen is selected from a breadth of industries and backgrounds to manage the national Twitter feed. These “Curators of Sweden” share their experiences, make recommendations, and answer questions, all with the goal of spurring international interest and swaying perceptions, painting a “picture of Sweden, different to that usually obtained through traditional media.”

This strategy brings to mind a panel, “The Future of Fashion Storytelling,” which I attended last spring as part of The One Club’s New York Creative Week. Theresa Canning Zast, Executive Director of Creative Services at Kate Spade New York, spoke to the brand’s initial forays into social media and how they developed the voice of the “Kate Spade girl.” It happened in the most literal way possible – they set up a red typewriter at the front of the 5^th Avenue store, and shoppers would type out a 140-character message which was then uploaded to the @KateSpadeNY Twitter feed. This method simultaneously peaks the curiosity of the consumer and offers an authentic voice, and while it’s doubtful Sweden was aware of the origins of the strategy, it translates just as effectively from brand to nation.

-Jordan M.

Greetings! Thought I should introduce myself before I begin posting; I’m Jordan Middendorf and the newest digital strategist to join the First Word Digital Team. My background is in fashion and digital public relations, having spent nearly the last two years at the online magazine StyleLikeU.

You can follow me on Twitter @JordanLines and can reach me via email at JordanM@MBooth.com with any questions.

Best wishes,

Jordan

In November of 2011, we conducted a research study to better understand the modern social consumer, which we called the “Science of Sharing.” In essence, we wanted to use data to reveal exactly how social channels influence the way consumers discover, research, and share brand experiences online. Yet, as illuminating as this study was, a part of us kept wondering –how much will this all change in five years?

In conjunction with Social Media Week, we are excited to release the findings of our follow-up study: The Future of Sharing.

And we’ll be discussing these findings at Social Media Week SF, NY and London with brands that include: Buddy Media, Buzzfeed, Facebook, Haymarket Media, Microsoft, Nokia, OPOWER, Reuters and Spotify.

This study essentially aimed to take a deep dive into four broad categories:

• Where are consumers sharing and why
• What types of content are shared most
• How are consumer’s lifestyles and surrounding environments impacting sharing and their interactions with brands
• Why are consumers sharing certain content; ie. what are the current/future trends in what makes content share-worthy

Quite frankly, this discussion couldn’t be timelier. With the introduction of Facebook OpenGraph, brands like Spotify, Ticketmaster, AirBnB – and soon to be plenty more – are ushering in a new era of sharing, dubbed “frictionless.”

And, this shift has proven to be quite polarizing already. Molly Wood of CNET wrote simply about how Facebook is ruining sharing, while Mike Isaac of Wired shares a different view (no pun intended), offering that “It’s a telling sign of the age we’re in. With the early aughts, search and discovery meant algorithms, Page rank, Google. But Facebook — and sites like it — have ushered in a new era of discovery: The social era. Instead of a search bar, there are friends’ ticker feeds. Instead of Page ranks, there is the priority of an action in Timeline.”

These competing views formed the basis of our study. Are we approaching a huge sharing backlash? Or, are we at the tip of the iceberg in how brands can leverage new forms of sharing to integrate their products or services into the thread of consumers’ daily lives? A middle ground also exists – that the trends in sharing are both positive and dangerous, with the greater importance on making sharing more intelligent.

The criteria for the study was as follows:

• 2059 consumers worldwide were surveyed (1059 US, 1000 UK)
• All had to be active Facebook, Twitter or Google+ users
• Ages 16-40, with 68% of respondents between 19-34
• 98% were active Facebook users, with 60% logging in several times a day

(We also gathered insights from a variety of industry thought leaders, which you can read here)

The results that emerged shed interesting light on what the future holds for consumer behavior online. And, not surprisingly, they present both challenges and opportunities for brands:

• A “sharing burnout effect” does exist with sharing behavior peaking for users between 3-12 months, while social network usage (amount of times logged in per week), grows continually on a per-user basis from 3 months – 2+ years.

• As part of sharing burnout, 61% of people report feeling “annoyed” by applications that automatically post content, and the longer people have Facebook accounts the more likely that they are to be annoyed by applications that post automatically to their profiles.

• Despite consumer frustration, 67% of people have done at least one of the following things:
  • allowed an application to post automatically to their profile
  • listened to a song that was automatically shared (spotify, etc)
  • read an automatically shared article (online reader)

• Overall, only 40% of people have created subgroups to selectively share posts, but 62% said that that the idea appeals to them.

• There is a significant relationship between number of friends and preference for using the filtering feature (filtering how you share content by groups of friends). People with higher number of Facebook friends are more likely to use, or want to use, the filtering feature than people with lower number of Facebook friends. 70% of people who have at least 250 friends use, or want to use, the filtering feature compared to 57% of people who have less than 250 friends. This implies that as people build out their social networks, the networks essentially need to be more complex (with more disparate groups), instead of just amassing a high volume of people that you share of your content with.

• 23% of people say that they are overwhelmed with the amount of posts shared with them in social networks. Those who are overwhelmed tend to be older and have fewer friends in their social networks. Power users, despite being subject to more content, are less likely to be overwhelmed. 34% of people who log-into Facebook a few times per week or less are overwhelmed by the amount of sharing content compared to 21% of people who log into Facebook at least once per day.

• 60% of people say that they’d willing to post about products/services on Facebook if they were offered a deal or discount.

• “Informing friends” was the most-cited reason for sharing content, as 64% of people report that it’s important to them to inform friends when sharing content.

• Personal milestones will be the biggest category of content people share with 43 percent of people saying they will share a personal milestone, while 30 percent will share planning a trip, 28 percent will share purchasing a ticket to an event, 27 percent will share a donation to a charity or getting a deal from a deal site and 23 percent would share a purchase from an online retailer such as Amazon.

Looking at these results, a few insights can be extracted that offer a view of what the “future of sharing” looks like:

• The rate of shared content online will eventually plateau. A sharing burnout currently exists, with the individual rate of sharing peaking between 3-12 months of setting up a new social account, despite usage (rate an individual logs in) steadily increasing over time. In short, users become more passive the longer they are on a social network, which means brands will need to find a way to keep their fan base active and engaged over time.

• Frictionless sharing is here to stay, but it will need to get much, much better. The majority of people are currently experimenting with these apps, but there is a growing backlash. If done right, ultimately just about everything we do in a day will have the capacity to be shared online, but with accuracy and without needing to actively think about it.

• Segmenting your social networks into disparate friend groups to selectively share content (ie. the Google+ model) is likely to catch on – but needs to be simple to manage for users

• Tried and true marketing tactics will continue to fuel the sharing evolution – discounts & free giveaways will spur users to share brand content, particularly as it relates to location based services.

• Sharing will expand to include transactions as well as life events and personal achievements to define a new action-oriented sharing culture. The most common type of content that people currently share are status updates about life achievements (89% of people posted this type of content at least a few times per month).  But, looking ahead, respondents indicated that reaching a personal milestone was the most likely sharing activity they would do in the future if the sharing was made easier (ie. via frictionless sharing).

• The personal motivations for sharing content will remain the same. The top 3 motivations for sharing content are to inform your friends, express a point of view and humor. You could argue these have always been the three biggest sharing drivers.

But, it is not to say that these are etched in stone, nor does it mean that other meaningful changes don’t lie ahead for sharing online. Let us know your thoughts on the Future of Sharing by attending the Social Media Week event in your city and allowing your voice to be heard:

New York

Wednesday, February 15
4:00 – 5:00 pm
Location: Big Fuel Headquarters, 40 W. 23 Street

Craig Hepburn, Global Director of Social Media, Nokia
Mike Lazerow, CEO, Buddy Media
Dave Altarescu, Head of US Consumer Marketing, Spotify
Jon Steinberg, President, Buzzfeed
Ben Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Buzzfeed (Moderator)
Matt Basford, Director, Beyond

London

Thursday, February 16
9:00 – 11:00 am
Location: Design Council, 34 Bow Street

Trevor Johnson, Strategy & Planning, Facebook
Mark Jones, Financial Communities Editor, Reuters
Michael McClary, Business Development, Microsot
Ash Choudhury, Head of Digital Marketing UK, Nokia
Gordon MacMillan, Social Media Editor, Brand Republic Group, Haymarket Media (Moderator)
Nick Rappolt, Managing Director, Beyond

San Francisco

Thursday, February 16
1:00 – 1:50 pm
Location: San Francisco State University, 835 Market Street, 5^th Floor

Phil Schwarzmann, Head of Owned and Social Media, Nokia, North America
Carla Bourque, SVP, Buddy Media
Andy Weidlin, Chief Revenue Officer, Buzzfeed
Stephanie Berner, Engagement Director, Opower
David Hargreaves, CEO, Beyond (Moderator)

In addition to collecting survey data on consumers’ behaviors on social media sites, Beyond also conducted an experience mapping project. We invited local Bay Area participants to our offices in early February 2012 to tell us how they use social media to stay connected, distribute various content with their social groups, and how they imagine the social media landscape might change in the next ten years. We were eager to hear how individual users might narrate their interactions online and how they expected their social media behaviors to change.

We gathered two groups of people, who did not know each other previously, on two separate nights, to get them to tell us about an average day of using social media platforms and the kinds of information they chose to share or chose not to share. We plied them with pizza and set them to work with markers and big sheets of paper. Using process map techniques, participants drew for us different layers of their daily sharing behaviors and shared how they engaged with the media throughout their day.

While our sample group was small, with a total of thirteen participants, a common theme emerged from our participants’ maps, both from their mapping of current behaviors online and their projections of how their behaviors might change in the future.

• Most of the participants recognized that they engaged in some form of self-curation, managing their audience either by social platform choice or within the social network itself. It is unclear whether this idea of audience-management reflects the Google+ introduction of Circles, and Facebook’s subsequent allowing users to create lists, but the participants all had thoughts about with whom they were sharing information and what sorts of information they were willing to share with their targeted audiences.
• Curation of groups was also something our participants expected to remain constant in the future. The people with whom they might choose to share and the content might change, but our respondents foresaw segregating their audiences. They did hope that this might get easier to do in the future.

The experience mapping groups, unlike those surveyed, were much more wary of frictionless sharing than the broad consumer group that was surveyed (67% said they had used some form of frictionless sharing), perhaps partly due to their own active management of their content. One participant had two separate Twitter accounts for her public persona and her personal life and interests. Another participant segregated her Facebook friends by the sort of content she was going to share with them, keenly aware that her hometown friends or parents might not be comfortable with some of her activities or shared information.

Most of the participants had a hard time imagining their future behavior, but many expected the existing platforms would still be around, though hopefully improved upon.

Areas that our respondents wanted to see changed included a more centralized method of sharing, although this did not seem to mean “frictionless” sharing, but rather reducing the number of sites and ways in which they shared or accessed content. One of the challenges users faced was deciding which site was appropriate for what sort of content they wanted to share. This was somewhat mitigated by their own curation of groups or social media site usage, but they found this to be a significantly limiting element of social media sites. A couple of people responded to this decision-fatigue by reducing their usage, instead of trying to sort groups or content they would share.

Respondents were interested in using social media platforms for self-tracking. Though they did not refer to it as a form of “quantified self,” they saw the sites as opportunities to keep journal-like data about their own activities. This was less about sharing the content than just having a way to aggregate information about themselves for themselves, but many of our respondents didn’t really mind if this information was widely disseminated. There was a gender difference, however, with the male participants finding this less troubling than women, who noted they might not feel safe having their whereabouts accessible publicly.

The responses and user-generated narratives raised a lot of questions about what users want in their sharing experiences.

• Do people actually want to review the data that ends up being collected over time? Do they look at it again or is it enough to just know it’s there?
• How important is others’ feedback on shared content? Is having other people’s engagement with shared content an important motivator to continue sharing?

As social media platforms refine their forms of engagement with their users, there is a clear need to better recognize what keeps people coming back and the consequences of willy-nilly changing sharing parameters with no real user input. More than half a decade after the launch of Facebook, users are more savvy and more wary. Everyone we talked to shared some content at least once a day, including status updates, but everyone also had plenty of workarounds and critiques of the current systems. This is an exciting challenge, but it also requires that those who produce easily-shared content minimize spamming users.

At Social Media Week around the globe, Beyond is releasing the findings of a new study called the “Future of Sharing.” We surveyed 2059 consumers about their attitudes towards some of the emerging sharing trends to better understand what the future holds in store. While the findings were enlightening, we also recognize that there is no replacement for the perspective industry thought leaders can offer on future trends.

As such, we approached some of the biggest brands and brightest social media minds to hear directly from them what they think of the future of sharing:

“I’m really curious about how people decide what groups to share with, and how people establish emotional and personal connections with certain groups by sharing different kinds of things. I believe that as sharing gets more sophisticated, people will learn – and technology will help them – share different pieces of their life with different groups, given the model of Google+. I also think that Facebook will evolve and learn to adopt what has worked across other social networks. For example, subscribing to feeds which models Twitter, establishing groups which models Google+ and enabling more seamless professional connections which models LinkedIn.”

Vivek Wagle, Senior Marketing Manager, Content & Social Media, AirBnB

“We just won’t know for another five years if there will be a backlash against the kind of sharing we see today. We need to wait for the current generation who have been bought up in a world of oversharing and always-on, to get their first jobs, start families, etc — and then take stock and decide if sharing all content with everyone they know makes as much sense as it once did.  Will be interesting to see if and when that tipping point happens, and if more discrete sharing services with the likes of Path, Google Circles, etc will become more mainstream.

People’s motivations for sharing are different depending on the platform and also very much depends on their personality types. A lot of people share and curate content to create a very specific persona; other people will share information because they want to be seen to be the first to share a piece of news. I would argue that some people just get addicted to wanting to be the first to know something and being the first to tell their friends – it’s a competitive thing”

Ranaan Bar-Cohen, VP Media Services, Automattic/WordPress

“Before we can determine the future of sharing, we have to first figure out how we get ourselves out of the sharing backlash that is currently happening. There is a huge rise in content being shared and I believe people are struggling with how to turn it off. So, as a result, they are leaving social platforms all together. As we work through this period, we are going to continue to see segmentation in terms of the channels people choose to share content on. Twitter has a unique purpose for people, which is very different than Facebook or YouTube, or other channels. Also, don’t forget about email. That will always have its place as a huge sharing vehicle.”

Rick Sylvestrini, Global Product Marketing Manager – Monetization, YouTube

“Surprisingly, there are still many e-commerce sites that are not optimized for sharing, and as we saw this holiday season, online shopping is growing at an exponential rate. A lot of sites have added a share button or two on a product page, but not much else. There often are no share buttons on purchase confirmation pages, and there are no share buttons on customer reviews. We’re moving toward a time where every e-commerce site should be a totally social experience. When that happens, brands are going to need to realize the amazing potential of social commerce.

When brands start to really look at the data around sharing, particularly in regards to social commerce, they’ll begin to fine-tune their strategies to capitalize on the power of sharing. When you look at some of our initial data from ConversionBuddy our social commerce and analytics product, you see the opportunity right away. Our aggregate data suggests that the average Facebook share generates $2.10 in incremental sales, that the average conversion rate for a Facebook share was 10.2%, and that the most sharing for Internet retailers occurs on Wednesdays. This is crucial information for marketers, and when they have it, you’ll see them really start to change the way they communicate with customers.”

Mike Lazerow, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Buddy Media

“The layering of social, local and mobile applications will have the most important impact on consumer’s online behavior in the next 1-5 years.  This convergence is especially relevant at point of sale and has provided new opportunities to engage consumers.  Seeing this trend, we’ve socialized the deal experience through our Link, Like, Love Facebook application in which we are able to deliver Cardmember deals and experiences based on both their likes, interests and social connections.  We’ve made deals local and relevant through our partnership with foursquare in which we offered couponless deals to Cardmembers.

We’ve seen that mobile customers are highly engaged, spend more and spend a greater portion online than other digital customers. As social, local and mobile converge, these consumers will continue to share relevant deals, offers and experiences with their network of friends.”

Shari Forman, VP, Global Social Media Strategy,
Digital Partnerships & Development, American Express

“As a global news organisation, sharing information is at the core of our mission. New technologies and networks provide opportunities for innovation and allow us to grow and engage our communities on ft.com and elsewhere. The world is becoming more connected and social media will continue to enable us to share our award-winning journalism to new audiences around the world.”

Charl Porter, Group Product Manager, FT.com

“Frictionless sharing is pretty impersonal and not that social.  It feels like Friend-Spam, which we tolerate because it’s from friends, but still, pretty much useless. However, this is phase 1 and it WILL almost certainly get better.  I just wish that the engineers worked equally as hard on filters as they do on distribution.

Also, In 10 years we will look back at pictures of people with their heads buried in their phones and laugh our asses off.  Why?  Because it’s completely anti-social and antithetical to the idea of living in the moment.  How can you live life when YOU HAVE TO SHARE EVERYTHING via Facebook!!  The gateway that technology provides is one that will lead us to a better, more socially engaged life, but one that is not filled with compromise.  Right now, we are compromised by having to use physical devices.”

Toby Daniels, Founder, Social Media Week and CEO of CrowdCentric

Joins us at Social Media Week to share your thoughts on this topic, in New York, London or San Francisco.

New York

Wednesday, February 15
4:00 – 5:00 pm
Location: Big Fuel Headquarters, 40 W. 23 Street

London

Thursday, February 16
9:00 – 11:00 am
Location: Design Council, 34 Bow Street

San Francisco

Thursday, February 16
1:00 – 1:50 pm
Location: San Francisco State University, 835 Market Street, 5^th Floor

Rupert Murdoch, Founder, Chairman and CEO of News International

News International has hit the headlines again this weekend as five of its top reporters were arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning. There have been some eyebrows raised in the PR industry that much of the commentary coming from News International has been internally focused but, as in any crisis situation that could affect people’s livelihoods, this is absolutely the right thing to do at the outset.

The closure of the News of the World in 2011 was seen by many as the new guard paying the price for mistakes made by the old. For News International, focusing on getting the internal message right from the outset should be an absolute priority. They might be hacks but they are still human, and by reassuring staff at The Sun they will not suffer the same fate as their colleagues at the NOTW, News International will be hoping that they can instil an element of business-as-usual.

The News International management team can now focus on handling the intense anticipated scrutiny from the police, their own internal standards committee and, of course, the rest of Fleet Street and the general public.

This makes sense as, from a commercial point of view, it is imperative that News International is able to focus on containing these latest allegations to avoid falling foul of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which would have disastrous consequences for its vastly more profitable US operation.

Some challenging days (and nights) ahead for the News International communications team.

To mark 30 years of the Next 15 Group, Hugo Brailsford – MD of specialist mobile agency Animo – talks to Beyond’s Nick Rappolt about how mobile usage has changed the game for brands, and what the future holds for mobile comms.

Welcome to San Francisco and the Bay Area’s largest ever Social Media Week which starts this morning at 8am PST.

Our theme for all the events is “Shareonomics: The Growth of the Sharing Economy.” With over 100 events taking place across San Francisco and the Bay Area, there is almost too much to choose from. So, we thought we would pull together a summary for you.

If you haven’t yet registered, you can see the entire schedule and register here:

http://socialmediaweek.org/schedule/?locale_id=19

Monday:

Social Data and Analytics at Adobe in Silicon Valley 

Social Commerce from eBay in Silicon Valley

Social Central from Trulia in San Francisco

Recommended Sessions:

Social Data is a Crystal Ball at Adobe
by Jeremiah Owyang

Your Employees are Your Best Social Recruiters at Trulia
by Ken Shuman

Future of Mobile Wallets at eBay

Tuesday:

Social Data and Technology at Razorfish in San Francisco

Social Enterprise at Cisco in Silicon Valley

Recommended Sessions:

Social Insights Shoot-Out at Razorfish

The Road To Becoming a Social Business at Cisco

Wednesday

Social Enterprise at SAP in Silicon Valley

Social Good at San Francisco State, Downtown Campus in San Francisco

Recommended Sessions:

Building a Social Culture at SAP

How Non-Profits Can Leverage Social Technology for Growth at San Francisco State Downtown Campus in San Francisco
with Tech Soup Global, Charity Blossom, San Francisco State University, VolunteerMatch, and the San Francisco Zoo.

Thursday

Social Central at San Francisco State, Downtown Campus in San Francisco

Social Lifestyle at AOL in Silicon Valley

Recommended Sessions:

How Our Social Circles Influence What We Do at SF State
by Paul Adams, Facebook and author of Grouped

Online Content is Broken at AOL
by Alexia Tsotis, TechCrunch

Friday

Social Media and Entertainment from thismoment at Adobe in San Francisco

Recommended Session

The Future of Social TV
with Bite Communications and GigaOM

If you want to find out where all the parties and free drinks are, check out the schedule.

To make life easier as you navigate you way through Social Media Week download one of the mobile apps here: http://socialmediaweek.org/mobileapps/

To keep in touch with everything that is going on as it happens, check out the realtime infographic here: http://ig.socialmediaweek.org/

On behalf of Beyond and the extended team that has curated a fantastic program of events to help you get more out of social whether at work, at home or at play, we hope you have a fantastic week and enjoy all of the events.

Ever wonder what you’ll be talking about in 50 years? Social Media Week is here, and in celebration Entrinsic created this video showing us a possible glimpse into our future. Done in a similar style of the Sh!t (insert group of people) Say videos, this funny video shows senior citizens dressed as hipsters reflecting on apps, QR codes and social media sharing. My favorite part is definitely the gentleman wearing the t-shirt that reads “I Poked Your Grandma.” This video hilarious and a really smart ad for Social Media Week. It serves as a good reminder that social media is ever evolving, and it’s important to stay connected and up-to-date, especially though attending events like this. It definitely got me excited to check out next week’s panels.

Tell us - what are you most looking forward to seeing at Social Media Week?

-Alicia

P.S. Can’t get enough of this video? Check out the Future Hipsters tumblr