Curated by Stuart Fogarty stuart@admaticallycom for AFAO'Meara Advertising, Streamabout The Video Agency and Admatic Ireland.
All comments will be posted - promise!
Original online programming moves on. Netflix now move into the Documentary space with the announcement of 'Mitt', a documentary following Mitt Romney's bid for the US Presidency. It starts in 2006 and goes to the loss in 2012 but what's interesting is that this is typical of "digital" film making. Not the sort of thing that would end up on TV but it can end up on Netflix. TV stations are no longer the arbiters of content, thankfully. Because Netflix want new and interesting, exclusive content and this is a classic example of that. They should be thanked. It airs Jan 24.
Oh dear, President Obama didn't look himself last night and so say Twitterers. It was broadcast live on YouTube for the first time. An analysis of Tweets by Crimson Hexagon reliably, showed that 10.3m Tweets during the debate, set a new record, with 26% saying Obama looked "rusty". 16% were in support of the President, 22% for Romney (with only 12% disagreeing with him). In plain English that's actually a landslide for Romney. The moderator, ex US marine Jim Lehrer (a well experienced debate corespondent) was badly criticised for not keeping control and 14% of the Tweets were just jokes. A post-event poll by CNN gave victory to Romney 2:1. Topsy, a Social Media aggregator, showed that Romney tweets spiked 2.5 times more than Obama. So if you want to use Social Media as a guide, there's no doubt that public opinion was with Romney. And I concur. Having no bias and having sat up until 330am, there was little doubt in my mind who was the winner (and I've worked on political campaigns in Ireland so I've a little experience of this). He was confident, thoroughly well briefed and almost presidential. Obama looked a tired, beaten old man with an almost "couldn't care less" demeanour. And yet, Obama is one of the greatest orators. It seemed to me (and it's one of the old tricks) that Obama was told not to fight, look confident and casual. In other words, don't try too hard because you're a winner. In keeping a stance like that, it often looks like you're in control but can sometimes just look so casual that it's like you're not bothered. "I am the President and I've nothing to fear" so the strategy goes. It makes the other candidate fight and possibly, trip up. But this backfired. Clinton was the master of the "I'm in control" stance. And if you're interested in American politics, buy Robert Caro's just published new book on Lyndon Johnson - a truly wonderful piece of work as was his previous. It's just terrific. The video on this blog is worth a listen to get a sense of the real Johnson. A really remarkable fellow. Anyway, Obama is in trouble. So expect one thing - a different fighting stance next debate. He'll come out charged up and attack Romney. Watch it and smile.
We talk about the impact of Social Media on brands and customer engagement but just to show how measurable it is, I think you'll find this interesting...and thanks to Mashable for the analysis.
Bill Clinton, speaking at The Democratic National Convention last night, had the most tweets. He beat Mitt Romney tweets at The Republican Convention, last week.
But he didn't beat Michelle Obama.
Clinton spoke for 50 minutes and the number of relevant, related tweets was a staggering 22,087 a minute! Romney's last week was 14,289, so a little over half. Michelle Obama was 28,003 meaning Clinton wasn't a mile off.
But measurability of Social Media can go further. We know, for example, that Clinton's tweets peaked when he talked about jobs and Obamas job record - so suspect that will be included majorly in Obamas speech.
Next biggest topic was his appeal to vote; then his "we're all in this together" soundbite; next when he was talking about Mrs. Clinton; and lastly his "takes some brass" piece.
So the measurability of this will actually help formulate future speeches and issues. It's a real, relevant use of Social.
5.5 million tweets were sent during the night.
I'll show off a bit and tell you I've met Bill twice including a lunch and trust me, you've never met a more absorbing, charismatic guy. In particular, he knows how to read a room - he knows what needs to be said and how to say it. The Republicans brought on Clint Eastwood who didn't do a good job and the Democrats used Bill. Bill won on tweets but more than that, he won on engagement. We'll see what happens to Social Media after Obama does his bit. But I guarantee you, they've taken notice of Clinton's twitter and they'll adjust Obama's speech. My money is on the fact that he'll emphasise jobs and do it early.
Because you ignore Twitter in politics, at your peril.
The first real "new media" TV debate was on Television in 1960 between JFK and Nixon. It wasn't about the content, it was about the way Nixon appeared visually that decided it, (sweaty and uneasy because he wasn't used to TV - earning the nickname "Tricky Dicky"). It is long, but well worth the watch when you've time. The current Presidential race will also be about "new media" but this time it's Social and Obama has outpaced Romney in Social Media. He has 10m Twitter followers compared to Romney's 895,000 on @barackobama and @obama2012. Obamas campaign tweets 29 times a day compared to Romney's one. On Facebook Obama has 7 times more fans at 28m Versus 4m - 7 times. On YouTube it's the same story at 839,000 versus 399,000. Obama is winning the Social Media debate by a mile. Yet, he's only ahead in the polls by 3%. However, both candidates tend not to use Social in an "engaging" way, using it simply to push messages out - rather than engage with voters and comments. In a way, using Social Media as almost an old fashioned media buy. It's not a two-way street.
"Campaigns are using technology to push out their own message rather than engaging in the social aspect," says Amy Mitchell, deputy director of the Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in Journalism as quoted by BBC.
"Social can be hugely effective at relationship building. But when you're Romney and Obama, if they did treat social as a two-way channel I think they'd be so inundated," says Paul Ten Haken, president at Click Rain, a multimedia firm. So there's a balance between pushing out stuff and engaging....whilst we all know that engagement wins every time, it takes up a lot of time and especially for candidates "on the road". "Both candidates' digital campaigns have focused on the economy more than any other issue; 24% of all Romney posts and 19% of Obama posts were about the economy. However, the campaigns differed in the angle they stressed. The Romney campaign devoted nearly twice the attention to jobs in its posts- 14% of posts compared to 8% of posts from the Obama campaign. Obama's economic messages were almost equally divided between jobs and broader economic issues, such as the importance of the middle class" according to their new survey at The Pew Research Centre. So whilst Obama's campaign has used Social better in numbers, and whilst neither are using it in an engaging way, messages about the economy seem to be the most used. The 57th Presidential Election will be held on November 6th.
The Republican National Convention takes place August 27-30 and The Democratic Party are on September 3-6. October then becomes the real hectic month with the first Presidential debate on October 3rd. December 17th the President is declared formally elected and inauguration day is Jan 20th. This will be an election driven by Social Media and with relatively little time to go (two months in reality) and Obama so far ahead, it will be interesting to see if he wins. Does the man with more Social Media become President? I would think so.
