If you haven't heard, the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference series commences this week in Austin, Texas. These week-long conferences and festivals bring together music, film and media minds alike in a unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies.  The Interactive portion of this event gives its participants a chance to not only shape the direction in which social media is headed, but puts into perspective the vast impact we as a generation have the ability to make by utilizing these channels.

Working in a field engrossed in social media, it is impossible to avoid the chatter surrounding an event that has the digital world doing what they do best - buzzing, digging, blogging and tweeting.  This conference has been around for twenty three years, and the festival that many in the marketing and PR profession regard as a social media conference is much more than that, merging digital media with music and film elements.  In some respects, it is a lot like a modern day Woodstock - drawing massive crowds, and bringing people together to enjoy a common passion and genuine desire to impact the world around them.  It is a stimulating conference that is more than deserving of the buzz it creates.

It's amazing to realize how drastically the Interactive conference at this festival, which was started in 1994, has changed since its inception.  Thousands of bloggers, consumers, and industry professionals come together from all over the world to learn, develop, teach and discuss topics that didn't even exist when the conference was first created; although these have quickly evolved in only a few short years.  With keynote speakers such as Twitter CEO, Even Williams, and discussion panels on topics ranging from "The Broke Diaries: Using Blogs and Twitter to Live Cheaply" to "Crime Scene: Digital Identity Theft," this festival brings together thought-leaders, bright minds and new talent who are the driving force behind this rapid evolution of the social media world.

When you read the many Tweets and blog posts full of passion and enthusiasm surrounding this event, it becomes even easier to connect SXSW with this idea of it as a contemporary Woodstock - not just based on what it was, but on what it meant and what it stood for.  Thanks to the abundant social media tools being - quite literally - at the fingertips of the current generation, we too have the opportunity to be involved in something significant and historic, and we take part in it every day.

The over arching movement and development of the digital world, furthered by events such as SXSW, is a defining moment in this generation.  Social media is a powerful tool that gives everyone a voice and a platform to be heard.  Gen Y-ers have the ability to make the same noise and impact as their Baby Boomer parents; we just have the capability of doing it with a few clicks and typed words.  It's both exciting and rewarding to be a part of a generation that not only has the chance to experience the wonderful world of social media, but to appreciate and utilize this platform as a way to shape and directly affect marketers, brands and the world around us. 

Working in a field where "Tweeting" is  a common verb as well as a daily task, and updating client Facebook pages is second nature, it's easy to become wrapped up and lose sight of the bigger picture of how the world around us has changed and the vastness of what these social media tools have brought to us.  I encourage all of you out there who are still skeptical of why anyone would care about what you have to say on Twitter, or what difference voicing your opinion of a product makes, to jump in and join the conversation.  You will be surprised by the wealth of information you will learn, and may even find the voice you never knew you had.  And at the very least, years down the road you can look back and tell the next generation - "yep, I was a part of that."

 

 

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Two weeks in, FOX has gone back on this decision, citing their inability to hide the number of fans and followers each contestant had as a factor in the move to discontinue contestants' profiles.

Why is this a crucial question, anyway? Is there anything about being able to see a contestants' number of followers and fans that makes the competition less fair? Does the predictive power of followers affect the outcome of the show? Does this predictive power even exist?

Let's concern ourselves right now with that last question: What is the predictive power of followers? In other words... is the contestant with the most followers most likely to win the competition?

If we were to try to predict the outcome of American Idol using Zócalo Group's Digital Footprint Index [PDF], we'd take into account three different dimensions of the online conversation around each contestant:

• Height - The sheer number of blog posts, forum conversations, status updates and pieces of multimedia connected to the person, from all sources - official and unofficial.
  
  
• Width - The level of engagement and interaction with this stuff. Followers and fans would come in here, as would views, comments and sharing.
  
  
• Depth - The tone and content of these conversations. Do people love or hate the contestant? Do they think someone is "pitchy, dawg," or maybe that they've got a Kevin Covais thing going on? Interestingly, WhatNotToSing.com has built an entire database around the potentially predictive nature of online sentiment alone.
  

From a Zócalo perspective, these indicators only create a comprehensive picture of the online conversation when taken together and compared across contestant. Of course, using that picture to predict the outcome of American Idol would require two major assumptions:

1. That online conversations are an accurate representation of all conversations - and that there is nothing distinct or disproportionate about a contestant's digital footprint as opposed to his or her overall cultural footprint.
   
   
2. That a bigger or "better" footprint (digital or cultural), will necessarily translate into more votes.
   

We have reason to believe that the first assumption is true in many cases. The second one would probably need to be tested. As for the question of whether revealing contestants' follower counts would compromise the integrity of the show... when was the last time American Idol had any integrity to preserve?




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I was recently asked by a friend what I did. After giving her an elevator speech-style description of our company's work with social media and strategy behind making brands the most talked about and recommended in their category, I was shocked by her response. She looked at me and very simply stated,

"That's great, I'm glad you like it. Now someday, you're going to have to explain what you mean when you say social media."

At that moment, amid the noise surrounding me as I walked down the street of one of the country's largest cities, I realized that I lived in a bubble. My work brings me front and center with a world guided by platforms like Facebook and Twitter, or technologies like augmented reality and geo-tagging. Brands are eager to be the most innovative and always, the most successful among their competitors. And so, as an agency, we must deliver. Although a strategic marketing plan guides our efforts, very often, the tactics used to execute involve some variant of social media--used as a way to reach consumers and inspire recommendations of and for the brand, sustainably, over time.

To me, using these tactics seems obvious in today's age of social networking and online sharing. All I could think was, how can any well-informed person not know what social media is, or what you can do with it?

The bubble had engulfed me and I was no longer looking at our consumerist society from the eyes of those we hope to target. Being able to experience a product in 3D via black squiggles of a jagtag may be cool, but do people really care? What's the point of having location-based services for finding the closest subway stop or restaurant if reliable and consistent cell-phone service has yet to exist? Is broadcasting on Foursquare exactly when and where someone is always a good idea?

As marketers we are responsible for creating effective programs that attract the attention of consumers. We must also remember that we have a biased view of the online landscape. Not everyone knows what we're talking about.

Despite the flurry of business, make sure to take a step back. At some point in your life, you weren't as plugged in as you are now. Even if you can't do without your Blackberry used during work, your iPhone used after work, the 10 online channels where you share with the world hourly status updates, or the multi-platform-HD-1000-channel entertainment system that can even sleep and eat for you, there are people who can. Those are the people we need to remember. Just like my friend -- well informed, smart, interesting -- they are just as eager to talk about and share their experiences with a brand.

So, I'm curious, what are other creative ways marketers are engaging consumers that perhaps use social media, but go beyond technology to successfully engage?




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