A couple of numbers and a publisher heavyweight now support our long-held opinion at Holler that twittering and video responses and dialogues are entering the mainstream. Twitter is the fastest growing social media site with 343% YOY growth thanks to big press coverage and election tie ins. In contrast to out-of-favour SecondLife the hype is less founded on a snazzy interface but a myriad of extensions, connections to other platforms and real and lasting changes to user behaviour/patterns.
Wearing my Twitter shirt / by nialkennedy
Apparently it is enough of a pull to lure Britney Spears into using it and lest we forget, MC Hammer has threatened that it’s Twittertime!. The current WIRED has a funny opinion piece by Valleywagger Paul Boutin (commented here by The Guardian) suggesting to “kill your blog” and to use twitter instead: more personal, more succinct with nice brevity and mobile/ubiquituous character. He even condensed his whole article into
@WiredReader: Kill yr blog. 2004 over. Google won’t find you. Too much cruft from HuffPo, NYT. Commenters are tards. C u on Facebook?
On the video front, my term of “vidlogue” is probably as silly as the next phrase, trying to encompass time-delayed video chats and video responses. But if the term catches on, I am claiming full and complete genius for coining it. If it has been coined by someone else before, I am claiming full DUH!-ness for not knowing.
Anyway, the BBC is now offering a sort of talk back (“Have Your Say”) on hot topics like the Credit Crisis in the following video sharing formats: Seesmic, Qik, Phreadz and 12seconds.
Twhirl with Seesmic player / by stevegarfield
It would be interesting to see if participation in these four places outnumbers the manual video uploads from users’ hard drives (which I predict it will). Submissions to the services or the BBC directly are potentially going on air (regular TV that is). The equivalent for us in digital adland would be to take YouTube submissions from a branded channel going onto Australian TV. Imagine the above-the-line ad guys developing an ulcer over this: no pre-tested storylines, no uber-important director and talent casting and worst of all, no exotic location for the shoot (Shazza’s bedroom anyone?)
Next time we get challenged on why these tools make sense in a campaign we’ll share some numbers (please add more stat links if you have). It is definitely not Geek anymore…
Between 0 and 1 
Top real-time commentary tools: Hacking US election debates
As Sarah and John enter their VP bout of phrases (this Friday, SBS 11am), I collected some examples of online politics with real-time communication. Big events like the US elections or the Super Bowl always raise the bar or set a deadline for which many companies, publishers and advertisers develop new tools. People at the same time are very receptive for changes in the way they consume and interact with media.
image by Laughing Squid
Voila, any user can turn into a qualified commentator, covering any complex debate like a pro — If they can keep hold of the “nuggets of meaning” in this vast amount of input. Connected with immediate polling it all gives a pretty exciting (or hectic, depending on your point of view) analysis at what matters to people and who scores in politics. What jolly good clairvoyance shown by Monthy Python in their Election Night Special.
And obviously all this generates more than direct political commentary. The amount of data, some of it even geo-location specific (entered via mobile or membership sites), gives an insight into who might be more susceptible to “green car”, “home alarm” or “cheap childcare” advertising. I guess it is not what most people who enter their comments are even aware of.
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Posted in apps, Convergence, Social Media, Video
Tagged biden, cnn, commentary, current tv, mccain, msnbc, obama, palin, Social Media, tools, tubepopper, twitter, us election