Twitter is all you need in Las Vegas!

I've just returned home from an epic first trip to Las Vegas for Halloween and apart from the lights, glitz, shows, club scene, malls and extravagant hotels there was one thing I wasn't expecting: how many of the hotels and club promoters in Vegas use Twitter as a means of communicating.

I went to Vegas with 3 other girls from work (although this was by no means a work related trip, it was purely leisure) and we were all tweeting away to various club promoters and hotels at least three weeks prior to departure.



We stayed at the world famous Bellagio who not only had a Twitter profile but also a dedicated smartphone app. The instant nature of Twitter meant that we could tweet on a regular basis and keep a constant flow of communication in the lead up to our trip. Making a relationship with the social media team at the Bellagio before we arrived worked in our favour. Upon checking in I mentioned that we had been corresponding with them on Twitter which I'm sure helped us get a room upgrade! We also tweeted the Bellagio while we were staying when we needed any assistance - as lazy as it sounds, this was a great alternative to going up and down from the 26th floor to the guest reception. The Bellagio smartphone app was great for guiding us around the grounds and amenities that the Bellagio had to offer. With over 8 restaurants, 5 pools, 4 bars and a nightclub all located on different floors, walkways and locations the GPS navigation integrated in the app was a great time saver.

Bellagio App

On another more exciting note, we happened to stumble upon the one and only Mr Simon Cowell in one of Vegas' top nightclubs!! It was one of those surreal moments where we found ourselves being invited onto his roped off table and then being lucky enough to get a photo with him. As soon as I got the photo on my phone I wanted to post it on twitter and tag Simon. Any major Twitter geeks will understand my disappointment when I couldn't find an official @SimonCowell twitter account. He's clearly to busy for any of that but if he did I reckon he would have as many followers as Lady Gaga! When we posted this picture on Facebook we had over 100 likes and comments in the space of a few hours and within the few days following the post the picture was randomly taken down presumably by Facebook. Maybe we were stealing too much of their traffic!

Meeting Simon Cowell @ Tryst nighclub Las Vegas. 29.10.11

All in all Vegas was an epic trip full of adventure, excitement and fun! Social media definitely played a positive part in our experience at the Bellagio and helped us to get onto guestlists for top Vegas clubs for a hassle-free experience. Thanks @BellagioLV #LasVegasRocks!

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Instagram - Visual Joy In An Instant

Instagram has become one of the most successful photo sharing apps on the iphone. The founders of the app say that 'Instagram came from the inspiration—could we make sharing your life as instant and magical as those first Polaroid pictures must have felt?'
I remember getting my first camera when I was young which was non other than the Spice Girls polaroid camera. The joy of taking photos and the ability to instantly develop and show them to others was a great phenomenon and it was because of this my fascination with photography began.

Instagram launched just under a year ago and within 9 months of launch it had 150 million photo uploads with over 7 million global users. That's 15 photos per second and around 1.3 million photos a day. Pretty impressive for such a young company. After witnessing a friend's great satisfaction with the app I recently joined the Instagram bandwagon and have used it everyday since. I love the photographic filters that Instagram lets users apply to photos, making shots look professional and artistic. Who needs Photoshop?
In addition the functionality to let users instantly share photos to their profile is a key draw as you can simultaneously upload straight to social media favourites Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
Similar to when friends on Facebook 'Like' a comment, status or photo, Instagram users can 'Like' your photos, leave comments and follow your photos. It's always satisfying when a user 'Likes' your photo. As an amateur, this seal of approval feels like a small sense of achievement similar to when my teachers at school used to compliment my artwork and grade my paintings with an A*. Ok, so I'm naturally gifted at art but that's the joy of Instagram - it enables even the most creatively challenged to be artistic.

Like most social media and new technology it is never long before brands begin to experiment and implement them into their communication strategy. After all, brands need to associate themselves with applications and platforms which resonate and excite their consumers. Not only does it gives them a point of difference to other brands but it also helps consumers decide if a brand is worth following or supporting.
It also offers a way for brands to generate and share visual content with existing fans and attract new ones via its search and browse feature.
Because of Instagrams's #hashtag and geotag functionality brands can easily use the app for photo sharing promotions and competitions.Users just have to add the brand #hashtag to their photo. Jamie Oliver uses Instagram to upload and share photos of his dishes and ABC News demonstrates the age old saying 'pictures speak a thousand words' by uploading photos to share the main news headlines.
At present Instagram is only available on iphones, ipads and ipod touch, so inevitably the photo sharing app is likely to soar when it becomes available on Android. This will undoubtedly provoke more and more brands to use the app for consumer engagement - where consumers are, brands will follow!

Overall I can't think of anything negative to say about Instagram and I will continue  to use the app in the hope that my photographic efforts will inspire others to start snapping away. The fun never stops!

If you haven't already, download Instagram from the Apple App store and follow my photo journey on Instagram @laurrobbo

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Vote by texting and calling...oh and now through Facebook

As the season of Reality TV kicks off, it comes to no surprise that social media innovator Facebook has partnered with channel Five's Big Brother to enable fans of the show to vote online with Facebook Credits.
This is the latest sign of how live television is being complemented by social media and emphasises even more the convergence of online and TV.

By implementing online voting through Facebook, Big Brother will be tapping into a new audience. A study by Thinkbox found that around 50% of people who watch TV also go on the internet at the same time. Social media has become a key platform for generating discussions about TV shows and even more so for reality TV (the X Factor and Big Brother being the most talked about) where viewers watch live TV and vote to save or eliminate contestants.

Discussions on Facebook groups set up by such shows offer fans a deeper engagement by forming a personal relationship with thier audience and enabling a prolonged interest in the show.
According to Peter Fincham, ITV’s director of television, this so-called “dual screening” behaviour by viewers “shows they care about what they’re watching.

Voting via Facebook will provoke greater online interaction through its ability to virally distribute and share what fans are voting for. Similar to when Facebook users 'Like' something, their friends will see this activity pop up in their news feed. Reality TV shows are a huge topic of conversation on Facebook with users regularly using their status update as a platform to share their opinion on contestants as the show airs on live TV.

Consequently the move into voting with Facebook credits seems like a natural step forward - but how will it work?
Voting will occur through a specially created app on the TV show's Facebook page. Similar to text/call to vote messages, viewers will be prompted to use the Facebook voting app by the show’s presenter on TV. To use it, Facebook members must pre-pay money into their credits accounts.

The success of voting via Facebook will be determined by the ease of use of the voting app and how well the new system is promoted both on and offline. It will be interesting to also see how voting via Facebook will implement real-time voting. More often than not (and I am a culprit of this), people tend to assume that their favourite contestant is safe from eviction and don't bother to vote. However Facebook will greater provoke votes as users and fans of the page see will see votes being cast in real time.
 
Voting via Facebook is about to change the dynamic of reality TV shows and it won't be long before this method is implemented across a whole host of TV shows.


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Virtual Role Playing - Real Life Rewards?

The online gaming industry dramatically exploded in the mid noughties with the introduction of MMORPGs (Massively multi player online role-playing games) such as World of Warcraft (WoW). The success of such game experiences correlates with the player's ability to be fully immersed in the content creation and control of the game thus turning a fantasy into virtual reality.
Role playing games have traditionally followed the same gaming formula or theme whereby players create their own avatar character and compete or fight against other online players in order to progress through the different levels. Some game elements also give players the option to build and create their own levels, which consequently means a prolonged game shelf life.

However the development of role playing games has seen them migrate to the domain of social media. For example social network Habbo recently discovered that their members were re-creating favourite TV programmes including ITV's dating game show 'Take Me Out'. More surprisingly teens were also actively running virtual stores including Tesco, McDonalds and Starbucks without any endorsement from the chains themselves.

I was intrigued by the popularity of social role playing amongst teens and wanted to find out why this gaming movement had become a trend amongst teens. Habbo stated the following reason behind the gaming behaviour:

"Social platforms like Habbo provide young people with an outlet to not only play but also to enact ambitions such as running your own Tesco’s store or McDonalds restaurant, where they take it in turns to play the roles of shop-assistant, customer, security guard and even shop-lifter"
You can read the full article here.

Social media has been criticised for being intrusive to people's private lives and is seen as an unsafe environment for teens who spend a huge proportion of their spare time on them. However one thing has to be said - social networks such as Habbo act as a life-simulator where teens can learn and practice a number of key developmental skills such as socialising, negotiating and communicating. In addition it allows teens to practice these interpersonal skills in an environment where they perceive the risk to be lower. For example the fear of embarrassment and lack of self confidence that many teens have may deter them from using the skills in real life situations.

In most real life situations, people are generally rewarded when the result of using negotiation and other interpersonal skills lead to success. Having mulled over this idea I began to question how brands could use this social role-playing trend to their advantage and came up with the following thought:
I wonder how long it will be before stores such as McDonalds/Starbucks etc start introducing points and prizes which can be redeemed in real-life stores for teens who generate the most virtual business in games such as Habbo. Rather than the number of friends you can get to like your page or asking people to check-in to places why not actually get them to generate virtual business in exchange for real-life rewards...now there's an interesting thought!


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Watch n Tweet - How Twitter Encourages Viewer Engagement

I have increasingly found myself obsessed with the new trend of tweeting about a TV programme while watching it. There is a definite sense of enjoyment when you interact with fellow tweeters, some of whom you may only share a #tag in common with and the show in which you are tweeting about e.g. #essex.

TV and Twitter have a great connection which provokes greater social interaction. The micro blogging application has had a positive effect on broadcasters as it encourages viewer engagement.
For example I decided not to watch a particular programme and then suddenly it started trending on Twitter. There was a surge of tweets about that particular show which made me eager to watch it. Firstly I was intrigued as to what all the fuss was about and secondly I wanted to be part of the real-time conversation. I find the combination of tweeting whilst watching TV an extremely entertaining activity. The humour of some people's tweets alone keep me fixated upon engaging in both tasks simultaneously. Because of Twitter's rapid and real-time nature it is able to captures people's instant reactions and raw emotions without the filters that you would normally consider when using other types of communication. This therefore provides extremely honest and useful content and feedback for the broadcaster/advertiser.

Twitter turns watchers into instant commentators and participants. Research from Twitter found that when TV shows bring Twitter elements into the broadcast, there’s a direct and immediate increase in engagement on Twitter: Anywhere from two to ten times more Tweets are created while the shows are on air. Broadcast elements could include live tweeting and on-screen hashtags (#) to real-time visualizations of audience attention and the new 360-degree live events.

If I was to predict the future I would say that we will start to see live events/tv shows broadcast in real-time on social network sites so that the viewer can tweet and watch the programme from one platform and device. #predictingthefuture

Follow me on Twitter for more interesting insights and links @LaurRobbo88


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FYI Facebook Rocks!

82,557 is the number of status updates being posted every 60 seconds on the most successful global social platform. With an incredible 500 million worldwide users Facebook has outshone its competitors and in my opinion is a culture in its own right. If Facebook was a country, it would be the 3rd most populous in the world after China and India. Facebook has changed the way the web has been built. In the 90’s the web was built around browsing, in 00’s this changed to search and now in the 10’s it is structured around discovering. It is continually being re-built around ‘people’ to help users to ‘discover’.

Now that I have wowed you with stats it's probably worth noting that I'm not a huge Facebook supergeek but have actually just spent the morning at Facebook's London offices as part of my grad scheme at MEC. The 2 hour induction included a Facebook overview and case studies exampling how brands have used Facebook to target consumers. A great example is Cadbury's campaign to bring back the Wispa bar which began on Facebook and prompted a huge press campaign. Despite being interrupted by a fire alarm drill the morning was extremely insightful and I managed to bag myself my very own Facebook t-shirt!...hmm potential eBay listing?

I am fascinated by the social media giant as it provoked real people to create Facebook profiles giving them for the first time a real online identity. This profile creates and connects you to your social graph, mapping your friends, interests, hobbies, relationship status, where you live and work and so on. This has enabled businesses to use Facebook as a global communication tool and offers one of the greatest and most trusted online platforms for brands to target consumers. News, shopping and gaming are key industries which have re-organised their marketing and communication models around ‘people’. For example with the use of Social Plugins, 43% of news sharing occurs through social media - dramatically increasing the immediacy of news around the world.

For the future: Although this has already rolled out in America look out for Facebook Check-in deals using Facebook Places!
If i could share anything with you about the greatness of Facebook it would be this video: What happens every 60 seconds on Facebook: http://vodpod.com/watch/5268426-60-seconds-on-facebook# Enjoy!


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