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COM401MEDIA MANAGEMENT

{Group AssignmentAhmad Khan SuratteeChan Luo ErChong Wan Ting VanessaWang Liang Yau Wilson

New media and social networks“Talk to 5 individuals and 2 companies in the media industry who have started using mew media technologies and social networks – handphones, iPads, FaceBook, LinkedIn etc – to grow their businesses. Consider the effect the new media has had on them as individuals, and on the business itself.”

IntervieweesAdam Chan Aisha KhanCatherine DickieCameron NgSteph Phua

Avenue One Undergraduate (NUS)Channel News AsiaAvenue One DDB

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The advent of new media technology ignited an epoch of change that resulted in an inevitable shift of many communication processes online.

Manovich mentioned in The Language of New Media that the most common definition of new media invovles the use of a computer to distribute and exhibit content.

Digital mediums have now overlapped. The emergence of commentary and new technological options like the smartphones (Ulanoff, 2011) have changed the prior one-way communication style of new media in the early 2000s into the vigourous feedback system we see today.

Indeed, as technologies continually develop, the demands for interactivity and mobility have also evolved.

NEWMEDIA

TECHNOLOGYAn Introduction

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Facebook500 Million Active UsersFacebook has 500 000 000 active users, that’s 1 in every 13 people in the world

>700 Million MinutesOver 700 Billion minutes a month are spent on Facebook, 20 million applications are installed per day and over 250 million people interact with Facebook from outside the official website on a monthly basis, across 2 million websites

• 200,000,000

• 100,000,000

• 50,000,000• 25,000,000

• 12,500,000

Number of Users

700millionminutes

55,492Years=

In Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship, Boyd & Ellison defined Social Network Sites as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.”

Social Networking sites is a component of a larger entity:

Social Media. The key to social media’s ubiquity is the fact that it allows creation and sharing of user-generated content. Online social media may come in the form of blogs, forums, interactive websites and social networking sites. (Wikipedia)

Adam Chan, the owner of Avenue One, a Marketing and Advertising agency, refers to new media as ‘anything that isn’t print, outdoor and radio.’ He further classifies the definition according to people of

Social Network Sites

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• 200,000,000

• 100,000,000

• 50,000,000• 25,000,000

• 12,500,000

Number of Users

Twitter106 Million Active UsersTwitter users average 200 million Tweets per day where 67% of brand followers will actually purchase the specific brand.

The top 5 popular Twitter users are all Americans.Starting with the top, they include: Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Barack Obama and Kim Kardashian.

1 Lady Gaga2 Justin Bieber3 Katy Perry4 Barack Obama5 Kim Kardashian

different generations. According to Adam, ‘to the old generation of consumers, new media is anything that is not traditional. To people of today’s generation, it is the standard. Hence, new media keeps evolving to things like AR, instagrams etc.’ Adam further implores us to look at trends and statistics of Social networking in New media in play today where ‘most campaigns now give equal allocation in their budgets.’

As of 2011, Facebook has 500,000,000 active users, that’s 1 in every 13 people in the world with over 200 million people accessing it via their mobile phone.

That’s the amount of people exposed to advertisements on the go. In addition, the ability to ‘share’ links and information through the networks multiply the exposure one gets.

Over social networks boast of the similar astounding statistics. As of

June 2011, Twitter users average 200 million Tweets per day where 67% of brand followers will actually purchase the specific brand.

Youtube has approximately 8 years of content uploaded everyday, with 48 hours worth of videos uploaded every minute. Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day. As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month.

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How does Social Networking and New media work for businesses?

The online community engaged in much discussion when Facebook’s web traffic numbers in the US saw it overtake Google as the country’s most popular website in March 2010.

Yet according to Hitwise, since September 2007, Social Networking and Forums have been consistently the most popular online industry visit by Singapore Internet Users. Social networks have risen to become more influential than search engines.

As Jon Russell said in his 2010 article, Social Networks Continue to Beat Google in Singapore, summed up, “visits to Social Networking websites by Singaporeans is a deeply embedded component of Internet usage and has been for a decent amount of time.”

It is a global market today as new media takes us beyond the traditional geographical borders. Advertisers are no longer limited to their country’s market. Companies are no longer restrained due to their size. Today, a small outfit of only 5 people can still be international.

With the rise of social media, advertising became not just about how much capital you can invest but the strategic ways you can employ to capture audiences.

Facebook thrives on advertising revenue. They are a ‘live’ consumer database for companies to tap on. Advertisers are able to reach out to their targeted

The Significance

BLOGGING

MICROBLOGGING

RSS

WIDGETS

SOCIAL NETWORKING

MESSAGEBOARDS

CHATROOMS

PODCASTS

VIDEOS

PHOTOS

ONLINEADS

KEY SOCIAL MEDIA

PLATFORMS FOR BUSINESSES

audience with minimal effort and money. Update your status to wanting new shoes? The banner on your home page will change to one of a shoe shop the moment you hit the enter button.

Moreover, Social media can work for business by creating related social network databases to target their potential customers by congregating groups of people with with similar interest.

New social networking site Google + came up with the concept of ‘circles’, a new way to group contacts into groups based on social circles of same interests. (Hopkins, 2011) What this means for businesses is that there is a higher percentage of potential customers looking at their content through these social networks.

In addition, Social networking provides feedback for businesses to find out

what the customers saying about their products and services and how they may improve.

Likewise, businesses are also able to connect with their audiences via these platforms in response to the customer’s feedback, hence building relationships with customers without having to invest in expensive PR methods.

Avenue One’s advertising business is “all about touch-points”. There is no way to ignore social media and its unceasing potential.

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What are some successful examples of companies currently using these mediums?

ExamplesCertainly, new media can empower companies and improve businesses.

In Tribal DDB Singapore, a full-service interactive agency, business revolves around the digital platform as they provide their clients digital solution.

Social network and new media is hence at the core of their business. Other than making use of content management systems such as Trackvox and Wordpress, they also make use of tracking tools such as Google analytics, Radian 6 and Facebook’s analytics. Tribal DDB also develops interactive websites, digital display advertisements and also smart-phone apps.

The recent HUB IT! Campaign that DDB ran for Starhub is a good example of how traditional media and social media were integrated into a full-fledged campaign. Singapore’s first interactive commercial is similar to a role-playing computer game. You install the app into your phone and scan it over the commercial. The app is triggered by sound from the commercial.

Likewise, CNA has incorporated social media into a number of their activities. They have segments within news bulletins ‘giving details on sentiment online towards a specific story’ and also won awards for their groundbreaking programme BlogTV.sg, which focuses on stories that are hot in the blogosphere & social networks and allows users to take part in the debate and interact with the show live via webcams, social media and their website.

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TheThreats&OpportunitiesThe Significance

Cameron Ng, Avenue One, said of New Media, “It’s a recent thing, seeing as social media has only recently taken off in a big way in the past few years. It is hard to gauge where the tide will turn next but what we do know now, is that it’s huge.”

His boss, Adam Chan, added: “Half of our business is driven by the business of social networking, hence it is obviously a testament to how much we embrace that area of communication. Anybody who refuses to acknowledge the effects of these technologies will soon find themselves stuck in a very primitive place.”

Catherine Dickie, Channel NewsAsia’s (CNA) Digital Manager, agrees with them, “While TV is still a major source of news, our viewers are looking online, accessing through their phones and through their social networks. In order to serve out audience well, we need to provide alternative ways for them to gain access to our news coverage.”

As a matter of fact, CNA provides content to their viewers while they are online, expanding their audience by increasing their presence outside of the television and their website. This allows CNA to have a dialogue with their audience.

The shift was prompted by the audiences’ change in media habits. They use a variety of tools such as RSS feeds, blogs, forums, micro-blogging (like Twitter), Social Networking and video sharing. Leveraging on the ubiquity of smart-phones, they also developed content for smart-phones platforms such as iOS and Android. (Dickie, 2011) The result was a positive one with their audiences responding around various topics.

The internet is a major threat to news media conglomerates as consumers head online for their news, relying on multiple channels ranging from blogs to forums to official new networks. It is hard for official news networks to stand out in the World Wide Web and offer their professional information.

Moreover, there is a need to deal with the speed of dissemination of information. A time lapse is unavoidable as time is needed to double-check articles for accuracy and then vetted by news editors. The immediacy of the web with the ‘you snooze you lose’ mentality would mean that news networks might lose their ‘scoop’.

Another dilemma is the digital divide or as Adam Chan puts it, “technology keeps changing, and new stuff keeps coming up. You’re talking about smaller adoption rates. Because technology moves so fast, by the time the majority picks it up, the next big thing comes along, turning what you’ve built obsolete.”

In truth, the most avid users online are youths. They are also your more technologically savvy counterparts. This means that companies are restricted in their reach as the older generation shuns the Internet.

Joe Weinman on Chanel NewsAsia’s Asia Business Tonight

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How has these cost/benefits affect companies positively and negatively? ApplicationCameron Ng of Avenue One believes the implementation of processes into Social Networking sites is unquestionably positive. “Social media allowed us to hold a conversation with our audience in a way that more traditional forms of media never could. A print ad can only tell your audience what your company is trying to sell, but a Facebook fan-page can allow your audience to give you feedback on what you’re selling and whether they are enjoying your product/service.”

Avenue One actualises many social networking mechanisms on Facebook and other social media networks. They create micro-sites that allow for user interaction beyond just the consumption of information.

For their clients Robinsons and Marks & Spencer, a good deal of the campaigns objectives were focused on acquiring new fans through social media, Avenue One has helped them successfully double those numbers. Naturally, the next step would be engaging those consumers.

According to Catherine Dickie from Channel NewsAsia(CNA), social media provides an additional dimensionwhere consumers can subscribe to a dialogue thatallows them to give their opinions and views on currentaffairs. This adds to what CNA is able to deliver and thiswill augment the quality of news stories, giving CNA anedge over their competitors.

In addition, Catherine believes interactivity is key to success but there is a need for constant monitoring.

She says, ‘Most of the challenges surrounding new technologies centre on processes and resources. New processes need to be developed to ensure that information is delivered across all platforms you engage on, in particular when you begin to engage with the public. Someone needs to respond to comments and moderate content that is submitted or posted to our sites.’

New Media and social networks were likened to a double-edged sword. Without question, consumers now have control over social media. Studies have shown that opinion leaders on social media platforms are able to tap on their social capital to stimulate responses and the

spread of information large enough to affect masses.

On the contrary, it is difficult to manage clients who still believe in traditional methods of reaching to their consumers.

Admittedly, most are hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. Steph Phua of DDB claims most clients are still ‘receptive if you can prove to them that is relevant through setting KPI to track the success of online campaigns’ however, clients are usually ‘not willing to spend too much’ on social networking campaigns.

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What about theIndividual?On Micro-levelsOn an individual level, Adam Chan believes that social media has rendered socialising today, ‘superficial’.

“People nowadays also have “so many things to do and so little time” syndrome. You can maintain friendships without ever meeting people, making it rather anti-social,” he said.

Steph Phua loves the ‘challenge’ of constant having to keep up with new technology but believes that ‘in order to stay ahead of everyone else, you have to be an early adopter of the latest, most cutting-edge technology’

where one needs to constantly upgrade his/her technology skills to secure their job.

Aisha Khan, a media undergraduate from the National University of Singapore is perturbed by the ‘severe lack of privacy in people’s lives now where personal information is shared with people we know, and we don’t know’. She is aware of how companies exploit all our personal information based on what we put online.

Looking AheadWhat is the predicted future of the use of these mediums in their business or lifestyle?

Will consumers be too saturated with all the advertising they face online that they ‘switch off’ completely? And will companies place an over-emphasis on social media that they neglect traditional forms of media?

Adam thinks there is a need to maintain the current balance and that there cannot be a complete transcendence to becoming totally digital either in his personal life or his company’s future direction.

“Social networking, despite being a digital platform, is still a very laborious activity. In its purest form, we should be engaging each and every customer, understanding their needs, and talking to them according to their preferences. The computers still can’t do that, so that means humans still have to hold the fort. Until Skynet* is formed, i don’t see that kind of artificial intelligence taking over human interactions so soon.” (Adam Chan, 2011)

Indeed, technology is constantly evolving. Today’s new is tomorrow’s history. Cameron aptly sums up, ‘One day, social media will also shed its title of new media and become traditional media. There is no actual segregation. They are all just different avenues of media.’

We leave you with a quote from Catherine:

“Traditional forms of advertising are still important. No medium can reach everyone. Advertisers need an adequate media mix to maximise exposure and response. Different media play different roles in marketing campaigns and what is used will be determined by the objectives of your campaign.”

*Skynet: the computer system in the movie, Terminator 3.

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ReferencesBoyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (January 01, 2010). Social Network Sites: Definition,

History, and Scholarship. Ieee Engineering Management Review, 38, 3, 16.

Manovich, L. (2002). The language of new media. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Ulanoff, L. (20 October, 2011). The State of Media: Content at a Crossroads. Mashable Business. Retrieved 21 October 2011 from http://mashable.com/2011/10/20/media-

digital-revolution/

Hopkins, L. (12 August, 2011). How social Media can help grow your business. Better

Communication Results. Retrieved 21 October 2011 from http://www.leehopkins.

net/2011/08/12/how-social-media-can-help-grow-your-business/