Only four weeks into the new year and social media is all the rage. From the White House’s new “transparency policy” and a WhiteHouse.gov blog, to facebook dwarfing Myspace in size, this week was a VERY eventful week for social media and we decided to cover it with a new editorial piece called “Inside Social Media.” We’re debating if this will be a weekly contribution to the blog, so if you like, please say so below. Without furtherado, the stories in social media that caught our eye — this fourth week of 2009.(Apologies in advance for the formatting issues below. We have a bug in our system:)
FACEBOOK + CNN INAUGURATION
With Superbowl-esque viewer ratings, the online winner of the inauguration coverage came from CNN and Facebook. The two teamed up to make a very unique and memorable expereince, integrating CNN.com’s video player with Facebook status updates. User’s could toggle between commentary generated from the entire Facebook community, or choose to see what only their friends were saying. All in all, it made for a incredibly powerful expereince, displaying the interactive power of the internet which passive television audiences probably missed. Two incredible statistics (1) CNN.com served more than 21.3 million LIVE video streams globally (2) People commented an average of 3,000 comments per minute.
For more visit: AdAge, ReadWriteWeb.
SONY ENTERS THE COMMUNITY GAME
Sony has graduated to the social media big leagues. Evolving their social media strategy from blogging efforts in ‘08, to full-fledged community sites in 09. Spear headed by Rick Clancy and Marcy Cohen, these communities speak volumes for lessons learned in The Groundswell (e.g. listening, talking, energizing, supporting, embracing). It will be exciting to watch as Sony energizes its core!For More: Chris Brogan’s interview with Marcy Cohen. Kudos to Awareness who built the communities.
“DON’T BE LIKE THIS GUY” — A SOCIAL MEDIA LESSON
This true story goes as follows: James Andrews (aka @keyinfluencer, his twitter name) works for Ketchum, a PR Agency in Atlanta. One of Ketchum’s biggest client’s is FedEx, a Memphis based company. Upon arrival to Memphis, Mr. Andrew’s tweets “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’” Someone inside FedEx was following Andrews on Twitter, and that person shared the tweet with top executives in the FedEx office! Two press releases later, Ketchum is up a creek, and we have an entertaining lesson on how not to use social media.
The Full Store by David Henderson, fittingly titled, “How not no be a Key Online Influencer.”
FACEBOOK = MYSPACE X 2
According to Michael Arrington of Techcrunch, Facebook is now nearly twice the size of MySpace worldwide. Arrington reports that in December Facebook drew 222 million unigue users, according to ComScore, at a 10.8% month over month gain. More that 1 in 5 people on the internet, went to Facebook in December.
The Full Story at: TechCrunch
THE WHITE HOUSE BLOG
Continuing momentum built during President Obama’s journey to the White House, the new administration is taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our Country’s future. WhiteHouse.gov seeks to expand and deepen this online engagement. Stating priorities include Communication, Transparency, and Participation.
The Full Store at: WhiteHouse.gov
HERO OFFLINE, HERO ONLINE
Captian CB “Scully” Sullenberger, the hero pilot who safely ditched US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River last week, has been all the rage on Facebook. Captain Scully has over 500,000 fans and has been growing by 100 fans per hour. Also made “internet famous” from the event was Janis Krums, a regular guy who happened to catch the first glimpse of the plane in the river, then posted to twitter. Here’s his photo http://twitpic.com/135xa.
AD OF THE WEEK (Repeat. Just in case you missed it!)
Filmed with hidden cameras and 350 dancers. This unsuspecting London train station filled with commuters was the setting for T-Mobile’s new “Life is for sharing” TV ad. Seemingly out of nowhere, the dancers start performing one by one and create a really unique expereince worth watching. The ad was created by Saatchi London and aired within 48 hours after the filming.
Reactions from the real life people caught off guard in the train station:
