(The following comment was posted as a response by Colin Donald, Director of Futurescape.TV, to an article in the recent Economist: Struggling for control: The humble channel-zapper is evolving in ways that will shape television’s future)

Internet-connected TVs lead to massively increased choice and require next-generation EPGs to help viewers navigate the wealth of content.

One solution backed by many in the industry, like Rovi, is to develop social EPGs that let friends recommend TV shows and videos to each other, via social networks or via systems which use data from social networks.

However, the implications are even more radical than your article suggests.

When Futurescape.TV recently researched this nascent social TV sector, we concluded that Facebook and Twitter are already battling for key roles in the TV industry as Internet-connected televisions transform TV into a social medium.

The two social networks have an actual or potential commercial role across the entire TV value chain.

For instance:

1. Global pay-TV, estimated at $250bn in 2014, NEEDS social recommendation and discovery services because these encourage viewers to subscribe to more expensive packages and buy more video-on-demand – Facebook and Twitter are both major providers of social data.

2. Facebook in particular has a highly developed social graph of people’s relationship with entertainment content, from the ubiquitous Like button, integrated into many broadcasters’ Web sites. Both it and Twitter own considerable, detailed data about people’s behaviour, such as discussing TV shows and sharing links to videos.

3. As your article described, set-top box middleware and EPG providers similarly need social network data for recommendation and discovery – the European EPG market alone will be worth $555m by 2014.

4. TV manufacturers’ strategy to provide video-on-demand direct to viewers also requires social recommendation, while their connected TV apps enable viewers to interact with Facebook and Twitter on home TV sets.

5. Facebook aims to tap the $180bn worldwide TV ad market, competing with broadcasters for brand advertising – Google TV and similar Web-on-TV systems will put Facebook and Twitter targeted ads on TV screens.

6. Facebook and Twitter buzz affects TV ratings, while broadcasters that use the social networks for viewer engagement are effectively sharing their audiences with them.

7. The social networks know in real time how people react to TV programming – this is an essential supplement to Nielsen-type viewing data.

8. Integrating social networks with EPGs is only one manifestation of a profound and permanent change in the television industry, a change through which Facebook and Twitter are positioning themselves as major industry players.

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Excited to be included in JWT’s Social Media Checklist 2010 at JWT Intelligence.

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Reflections on The Dachis Group/SOMESSO Social Business Summit by Nathaniel Hansen

(Held on March 18, 2010 at Limkokwing University in the Mayfair District, London, UK)

Published originally on May 17, 2010 in Marketing Week, Greece’s leading marketing publication. www.marketingweek.gr

On March 18, 2010, I was the sole representative of Greece in the External Customer Facing Social Solutions case study group at the SOMESSO Social Business Summit in London. The summit was a invitation-only event for leaders in social business theory, solutions and practice. I was invited due to the pioneering work I have been involved in within Athens, a true blue-ocean environment for social business integration. At the summit, our joint project in the External Group centered around providing a solution for a large bank. After the session, I had many confirmations of what businesses need as they enter the social fabric of the internet.

OVERARCHING THEMES:

• Businesses need simple, efficient solutions, which tie internal, external and eco-system elements together.

• De-mystification of the social business process and education in the possibilities.

• Our businesses must be customer-centric vs. brand or product-centric.

EXTERNAL FACING SOCIAL SOLUTIONS:

• MARKETING: Creation of simple, effective and proven strategies for social media marketing success. A blended approach with traditional media is advised. Marketing projects must always begin with a Digital Brand Assessment, where intelligence about where the brand is currently functions as a baseline for achieving gains in social equity and understanding of the CLV (customer lifetime value).

Marketing Departments and advertising organizations MUST understand the importance of getting their customers and audiences involved in the co-creation of their offerings.

• PR: Training of existing PR staff in simple monitoring software and remedial techniques for reputation management.

INTERNAL BUSINESS PROCESS SOCIAL SOLUTIONS:

• HR: Training of HR Director on what to look for in an adept Community Manager, Online Brand Ambassador, and Chief Customer Officer. Training of existing staff in social networking best practices while at work and out of the office, instituting company-wide rewards for employees who act as brand ambassadors.

In the social oriented business, the CCO plays a central role in communicating to brand managers what the customer wants.

• sCRM: Training of COO and Executive staff through one-day seminars on how to use their existing databases for quickly building their social equity (eg.- followers and fans in specific social properties + what serves this community).

In the coming 12-24 months, Greece and the Balkans will see a deepening involvement in social business due to an overwhelming migration of audiences from traditional gathering points. Studying best-practices and successful case studies from mature social markets will be an essential action toward creative solutions geared toward Greek and Balkan audiences.

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Facebook’s ambition
by ROBERT SCOBLE on APRIL 22, 2010

1. It gets Facebook plastered all over the web. Already Facebook likes are on many many sites and I’d expect to see Facebook’s new social features to show up on at least 30% of the web’s most popular sites within a month.

2. It lets us apply our social graph “fingerprint” to sites we visit. You do this by adding social plugins to your site, which is pretty easy to do.

3. It lets us apply our behavior “fingerprint” to sites we visit. Again, by adding social plugins onto your sites.

4. Facebook gets to study everything we touch now and will bring a much more complete stream back to the mother ship. This lets them build new analytics features for publishers, too, as All Facebook’s Nick O’Neill writes, but now Facebook will have the best data on the web for advertisers to study.

5. Facebook gets us to keep our profile data up to date. Marketer Ed Dale nailed why this is such a big deal.

6. Facebook gets to overlay a commerce system, called Credits, on top of all this. Justin Smith of Inside Facebook writes about that.

7. Facebook has opened up to enable all this stuff to flow back and forth and has removed the 24-hour limitation on storing data gained from its API. This is probably the biggest deal for developers, Inside Facebook writes about that, but they’ve also made their API more granular so that sites can ask for, and get, very specific data instead of getting everything stored on a user. We’ll be talking about this for a while, because it actually has good implications for privacy.

8. All this new data will enable Facebook to build new kinds of search experiences, as All Facebook hints at in a post where they say Facebook is trying to build a version fo the semantic web. Search Engine Land goes further in detail about what these changes will mean.

9. It lets Facebook minimize the need for a “public” fan page, like mine. Inside Facebook explains more in detail why this is true. Mostly because they’ll spit all those bits over onto my blog, if I add the code to my blog (which I’m pretty sure I will).

10. Finally a stream of focused bits for the people who are actually visiting your page can be pushed back out to you, as Inside Facebook demonstrates.

11. They made the API much simpler and shipped a powerful graph API so more developers can build apps for Facebook (this has been one of the advantages of Twitter, for instance, because Twitter’s API was simple to figure out). Heck, you can even hit it from a web browser to see what it returns. Here is what it returns for http://graph.facebook.com/scobleizer (if you want to try it yourself, just include your Facebook name instead of mine).

(full article, including many great videos of the F8 conference, here)

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NO FACEBOOK FOR PRIESTS
APRIL 22, 2010
ATHENS, GREECE
(Source: kathimerini)

A prominent bishop has warned priests to take extra care when using Facebook and perhaps even avoid the social networking site altogether to avoid becoming embroiled in situations that could embarass the Church.

Archbishop Irenaios of Crete sent a circular yesterday in which he advises priests to be cautious when either posting messages or setting up a profile on Facebook. “It is a precautionary measure so that our priests do not get involved in matters the extent of which they do not fully comprehend,” he told Kathimerini.

The social networking site is becoming an increasingly popular way for priests to keep in touch with their faithful. “Worshippers often ask to confess their mistakes,” said Father Pavlos, a priest from Thessaloniki who has more than 1,500 Facebook friends. “The distance seems to help and makes young people, especially, feel more comfortable expressing themselves.”

(It is FABULOUS and NECESSARY that ALL spiritual beings, teachers and practitioners be in Social Networks. Social Networks are inherently spiritual, tapping into the emotional sub-strata of humanity ~ Nathaniel Hansen).

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Cool #1 – Social Shopping moves forward another step:

Jodi Bricker, Vice President of Digital for Levi’s® Americas said, “We’re creating a new social shopping experience that will change the way people shop online and, frankly, make buying jeans more fun. We’re excited to pioneer this new technology and help our loyal fans connect with our brand and share their favorite Levi’s® products with friends.” (http://bit.ly/cool_social_idea_1)

Cool #2 – digg Labs:

Nice way to check in on the latest: (http://bit.ly/cool_social_idea_2)

Cool #3 – Facebook Social Graph moves forward another few steps:

The new Graph API attempts to drastically simplify the way developers read and write data to Facebook. It presents a simple, consistent view of the Facebook social graph, uniformly representing objects in the graph (e.g., people, photos, events, and fan pages) and the connections between them (e.g., friend relationships, shared content, and photo tags). (http://bit.ly/cool_social_idea_3)

Cool #4 – An on-going GREAT social numbers counting project by Gary Hayes:

Gary Hayes Social Media Counts v1.8!!!

LARGE VIEW OF SOCIAL COUNT HERE!

Cool #5 – This is THE future:

Augmented Reality 1 – A 28 Second Movie on How it Works
AR 2 – Esquire’s Augmented Reality Issue
AR 3 – James Cameron’s Avatar Toys Augmented Reality Demo
AR 4 – Augmented Reality Business Models

…and the world’s first Commercial Augmented Reality Conference in SF is happening NOW: http://america.arconf.com/2010/

Cool #6 – Smart Clothing is sexy and truly amazing!:

Smart Fabric!

Smart Fabric Conference 2010: (http://bit.ly/smart_fabric_conference2010)

PING by Electric Foxy – Ping is a garment that connects to your Facebook account wirelessly and from anywhere. It allows you to stay connected to your friends and groups of friends simply by performing natural gestures that are built into the mechanics of the garments we wear. Lift up a hood, tie a bow, zip, button, and simply move, bend and swing to ping your friends naturally and automatically. No phone, no laptop, no hardware. Simply go about your day, look good and stay connected. (http://bit.ly/electricfoxy_PING)

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What inspires you? The answer to that question can be found in the timeless words of a visionary leader or literary giant, the stunning beauty of historical landmarks and modern marvels, or the fighting spirit and the responsibility to support causes that speak to the very best of what humanity has to offer. The answer is a resounding yes. All of the above.

Truly, inspiration is a brand than can never be oversold. This is why I am excited about profiling the 16 people below. They are among the most respected, motivational voices on Twitter today. They inspire hundreds of thousands with their daily dose of gratitude, use of icons, thought-provoking blogs, support for nonprofits, and a great mix of uplifting quotes and affirmations. (read more and see Marvin Towler at Huffington Post)

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Minister reacts to Facebook expulsion

Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou attempted yesterday to defuse a row that has broken out over the expulsion of a junior high school pupil who criticized her principal on the Internet, although the government official accepted that Greece needs to update its laws to deal with such incidents.

Diamantopoulou issued a statement after the girl, who was not named, was forced to leave her school in Hania, Crete, after starting a page on the Facebook social networking site under the title “I hate the principal at Chrysopigi [high school].”

“The need for young people to express themselves and to vent their feelings is not only a given but is something that should be encouraged,” said Diamantopoulou. “But this should happen within a framework of respect for people and the smooth running of schools.”

The minister chose her words carefully after an apparent groundswell of support for the expelled teenager both in the media and on the Internet. Following the announcement of the girl’s dismissal on Thursday, another Facebook page was launched, this time demanding that she be readmitted to Chrysopigi school. By last night, the page had close to 10,000 members.

This came after the Hania school inspector, Nikos Vestakis, said that the school should have invited the pupil and her parents for talks and not expelled her.

Diamantopoulou did not indicate whether she thought the school was right to dismiss the teenager but made it clear that Greece needs to update its laws to keep up with technology. “The rapid developments in technology and in communication and the need to modernize our rules mean that we have to approach new challenges with seriousness and responsibility.”

(source)

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by Dave Jackson

Last week, social shopping site ThisNext announced plans to buy smaller rival StyleHive; that announcement came after news from Time Inc. last month that it would buy social recommendation engine StyleFeeder as a way to incorporate ecommerce into its online fashion magazine properties.

This recent rush of consolidation points to a trend that’s evident no matter where you look: Consumers have flocked to social networks as an easier way of communicating with friends and peers, getting information, building relationships and participating in community. Activities that used to take place in the physical world — in shopping malls, over the phone, at restaurants and at neighborhood events — have rapidly moved to places like Facebook, Twitter and countless other third-party networks like StyleHive, ThisNext and StyleFeeder.

Most brand marketers have realized this shift and have stepped into these new “common spaces” of the 21st century. They’ve created fan pages on Facebook, accounts on Twitter and channels on YouTube, and have replicated offline marketing tactics, like advertising, coupons and promotions to engage online fans and gain new customers.

With the exception of a few innovative brands like Mattel and Charlotte Russe, however, the majority of online businesses have yet to take the next logical step and allow this social interaction to take place at their own online stores. To continue the common-spaces analogy, imagine if a downtown store only let one customer come into the shop at a time, while the customer’s friends waited on the street. The shopper could go outside every few minutes to get opinions on the outfit or finish a conversation, but had to return to the store alone to browse or make a purchase. (read more)

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Social media marketing campaigns are proving to be goldmines rich with customer engagement and insight that companies wouldn’t likely have otherwise. Companies like PepsiCo are going to extensive lengths to foster this type of collaboration with fans, and the payoff has been big.

The company’s Mountain Dew division is several stages into its DEWmocracy campaign — a plan to launch a new Mountain Dew flavor with the public’s involvement at all levels of the process, and PepsiCo also just launched the Pepsi Refresh Project on January 13th. Rather than spending money on Super Bowl television ads this year, the company is spending $20 million on a social media campaign. read more here

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Despite Facebook privacy changes and serious cases of Twitter Fail Whale, social media use has increased astronomically since this time last year: During December 2009, global users spent an average of five hours on social networking sites, up from three hours in December 2008. That’s an 82% increase.

Nielsen just released a report on its blog detailing increased social media use, and the results are impressive, while not exactly shocking. Some highlights:

- Social networking sites are the most popular online destinations globally (based on the amount of time people spent there in December), with games and instant messaging coming in second and third, respectively. (Side note: As gaming becomes more popular on sites like Facebook, it will be interesting to see how this affects time spent.) (read more)

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FIVE journalists will lock themselves away in a French farmhouse with access only to Facebook and Twitter to test the quality of news from the social networking and micro-blogging sites.

http://bit.ly/social_is_best_news_source

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This year for the first time in 23 years, Pepsi will not have ads in the Super Bowl telecast. NoCindy Crawford, Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake. Instead it is redirecting the millions it has spent annually to the Internet. Pepsi has chosen to give away over $20 million in a social media play it is calling The Pepsi Refresh Project, debuting in 2010. …read more

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Facebook Memology: Top Status Trends of 2009

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Is Blippy, the online social media location for viewing and sharing purchases, taking transparency too far? http://bit.ly/blippy

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http://bit.ly/twitter_dell

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Looking for the perfect, unique gift for the Gmail addict this holiday season? Look no further than the Gboard, a keyboard just for Gmail users. Rather than commit all of those keyboard shortcuts to muscle memory, you can execute the same tasks with action-specific keys. At $19.99, it’s an interesting stocking-stuffer. Check it out!

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Vail Resorts has abandoned its long-time advertising strategies and practices. In their place, the billion-dollar-a-year corporation, which operates five major resorts and twenty hotels, has built a new in-house marketing operation that uses social media and other digital venues to constantly engage skiing enthusiasts in real time…more here

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