As on air #hashing becomes more prevalent,  we can see on-air  use cases that highlight curation and return line implementation.  Last night on CNN Piers Morgan show directly addressing the convergence roll and Twitter as a publishing and communication platform was a good chance to see this.

Some screen shots below showing curation, messaging, call outs, hashtag usage etc.  The only other thing that is not visualized in this series of screenshots is the frequency.  These ran full stop never taking a break – it was part of the show and the context for the narration.

…Yet while these CMOs are setting aside more of their budgets for social media, they are still working on integrating this newer form of communication into overall business and marketing strategies.

CMOs are more confident in the integration of social media into marketing strategies, as 10.5% feel social media is very effectively integrated into those efforts. But when it comes to companies’ overall business strategies, 25% of CMO respondents said social media is not effectively integrated at all.

How Well Is Social Media Fitting into the Marketing Mix? – eMarketer

Behind the Information Overload Hype

Wanted to go back and dig out some of the slides from last summers Wiredset Marketing & Technology Trends presentation. Each fall we go out to our clients and present the marketplace opportunities that will impact and grow their businesses, why they are important, and how they are actionable.

We focused on unlocking value this year.

This was an slide from the convergence experiences outlining the expected outcomes. More relevant now than when we presented it.

Attention Swarms

If the long-tail is over-time activity, swarm behavior is the initial burst of activity.

Before the holidays I attended the fourth ‘Beta Day’. John Borthwick (@borthwick), the CEO of Betaworks, opened the day with a talk sharing many insights. One of the insights referenced was “flock behavior.” Being able to regard data via bit.ly, he was seeing very clear activity bursts around media consumption. These bursts have emerged everywhere. They are akin to “swam intelligence”

Swarm intelligence (From Wikipedia)

Swarm intelligence (SI) describes the collective behaviour of decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence. The expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989, in the context of cellular robotic systems.[1]

SI systems are typically made up of a population of simple agents or boids interacting locally with one another and with their environment. The agents follow very simple rules, and although there is no centralized control structure dictating how individual agents should behave, local, and to a certain degree random, interactions between such agents lead to the emergence of “intelligent” global behavior, unknown to the individual agents. Natural examples of SI include ant colonies, bird flocking, animal herding, bacterial growth, and fishschooling.

Media Swarms

Previously, we saw this type of engagement around video consumption. It begins with an initial swarm, followed by the long-tail. On average, video viewership peaks early in a video’s life-cycle as seen in the below example.   (via.. TubeMogal) Significantly, 50% of all views occur in the first two weeks, peaking at day three, which constitutes 11% of all views.

Television, in convergence with social media, displays a similar swarm pattern around new episodes. (09-’10 graph below)

These activity windows or ’swarm’ behaviors crystallized across many services over the last year. Tools, like Trendrr, now provide new visibility, measurement, and analysis into this behavioral shift.

Attention Density

Through data, we can visualize changes to better understand what is and has taken place in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

The data of activity streams allows us to see the swarm. As media offerings emerge and gain resonance, the attention to the media increases. This is known as the “epidemiology of action” or how certain behaviors spread through a population.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi’s book Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do has data driven insights on how bursts in our own behavior is a key component that drives us to participate is the swarm.

I like the lens Barabasi puts on this area: bursts in behavior are affected by how we prioritize our thoughts.  His insights came the same way most of ours have: though the analysis of previously unavailable data we are seeing new exciting patterns.

Data Driven Insights – Welcome to the Swarm

Bit.ly, tracking links and media shared, shows clear activity windows. Barabasi through access to LBS data sets discusses Bursts. Via Trendrr, we have seen the same patterns around media consumption, conversation levels, news, blogging, and LBS information.

We are a swarming species.

New Consumption Windows

If these are patterns are not random and are indeed predictable what are the media cycles and how do the new windows of consumption unfold?

In film it is the difference between the current industry model of windowing: big screen (first window), rental market/DVD (second window), to small screen TV (third window). These are controlled-swarm distribution models VS alternate-swarm distribution activity happening naturally in the wild.

Consider the current uncontrolled releases via BitTorrent ignoring studio windowing boundaries and competing on a different field of a attention. Understanding these natural windows of activity and their patterns can help frame more realistic studio windows for the future.

The studios current train of thought is “We need to maintain a “balanced marketplace” as the digital giants continue to grow.”

I disagree. The studios need to embrace the long road down and back up to compete with digital giants ASAP. The notion of control is an illusion.

Flash Transactions in the Swarm

We are living in a rapidly changing digital landscape where terms like social, real-time, apps, ‘checking-in’ move from new lexicon to the fabric of everyday life. This happened in just less than two years. Systemic changes in human behavior are happening fast.

This shift is significant and systemic as it scales past media to locations, transactions, events and distribution methods. Flash physical and digital sales are taking place right now as businesses begin to understand the change.

The below graphic(s) identifies the types, characteristics and windows of time the swarms take. Please @me with thoughts and or further insights.

2010 Top Albums

2010 Top EPS

Holiday and repeat programing in effect across most networks.  Here is Monday’s (12/20) chart looking at digital activity around prime time television on blogs, micro-blogs, press and search.

TLC Cake Boss and  A&E’s Hoarders both upping mindshare and holding down Top 10 status.

Bubbling Under…

Hawaii Five-O (CBS) at  13 still not getting the traction online you would expect.

Over 17,000 reddit Secret Santas spread a world record setting amount of clandestine holiday cheer.

Great example of an online community taking it offline.  Reddit Secret Santa scales well offline and has become a defining characteristic of their brand.

These types of common sense pairings really work –  Tried and true marketing paired with new channels to enhance, enable and scale programs.

THURSDAY

(Daily change of blogs, microblogs, search & press)

1. The Vampire Diaries (CW) 43446

2. The Big Bang Theory (CBS) 41623

3. Grey's Anatomy (ABC) 31382

4. Bones (FOX) 24278

5. Fringe (FOX) 19116

There’s no question that the real-time conversations around TV shows on social networks — the virtual water cooler, if you will — enhance engagement and drive on-air ratings. Whether it’s the Taylor and Kanye debacle, the Bad Girls, or the Real Housewives, friends tell friends when things happen on the air, and that viral conversation turns TVs on.

The significance of real-time participation is that it gives the audience a voice and a power it never had previously. Instead of being buried in message boards and comments, the fan is now front and center. If you prove yourself to be an influential fan, the smart marketers will incent you to do more with rewards, which will eventually result in even more advances in user behavior.

via How Social Media is Changing the Business of Television.