One of the recurring subjects mentioned on the Trendwatch is the parallelism between sociological and historical themes applied to the online – such as the Invisible Hand for example. But the fact is that we’ve never tried to explain why we do it. Why is it important for marketers and online managers to understand what makes the internet, and most importantly, what makes the internet audience tick?
It’s quite simple – we know that the Internet is a Media tool like the Television or the Press but the fact is that it goes far beyond it. The Internet is a society by itself where people are free to express their free will and practically live a life disassociated from their real self. Yes, nothing new there. The reason why we keep analyzing the impact of the Internet, Web 2.0 and Internet Audiences is because the Internet is undergoing evolutions quite similar to our society – from the dawn of time to the classical age.
Consider this – when the Internet was first created we know that it didn’t allow a very complex interaction from the users. Like the Stone Age Society there wasn’t a common language approved and understood by all as only the detainers of technical skills were able to communicate online, necessities were basic and much wasn’t expected.
With the rise of Web 2.0 we entered the classical age – where the Greek democracy showed the power of the people and of free speech. Content was king and it was the time were the basis for today’s knowledge were first laid out – such as philosophy, politics, mathematics, amongst other great advancements of that age. On Web 2.0 we witnessed such a phenomenon – Social media tools started emerging allowing users to share their knowledge on an equal level and like in Ancient Greece a few users had a little more power in their opinions than others (Kevin Rose, Steve Jobs, you know who I am talking about). Concepts like social entertainment, the longtail, online oxygen, amongst others, started to give true shape to the Internet and created the common basis for online sociology and philosophy yet to come. Mentors have risen and are freely sharing their knowledge towards their school of thought, be it focused on Search Engines, Social Tools or Front-end tools – like ancient philosophers with their students. I could go on with the comparison but I believe you got the picture.
So we should start looking towards the future – if the online society is evolving in a similar way to our own society, then we can loosely predict the next steps. Empires will rise and fall, new comers will develop new tools that will surpass the previous changing how the users interact online, new business models will rise shifting the free knowledge sharing to a profitable income. All of this might happen or not, but the truth is you should start looking at the internet with broader eyes – it’s a society we’re talking about, not just a simple communication tool.

Virality is one of those big words used so much nowadays that it’s almost blaze. Clients demand it, marketers sought it, but it doesn’t have an effective study done to show how to obtain it. Of course there is some randomness to it – but it also involves some background and context.

Virality can be obtained via the following formula:

Know thy Consumer + Brand DNA + Stresstetainment + Social Tools = Engagement

Know thy Consumer – Who are you talking to? Well, if it is viral, then you definitely want to contact the trendsetters for the online world – the well know Generation C. Based on World Domination via Content creation, earning Cash, exposing their Creativity, paying no attention to the Casual Collapsing of old moral and social values, being in absolute Control of the market and soughting the Celebrity status, this generation is spending more and more time online, engaging with Brands in an hardcore fashion. Searching for information from their peers and pushing their influence onto others, they are the main motor for virality – so don’t ignore their way of life.

Brand DNA – How are you talking? Brands have to preserve their identity more and more in order to show a coherent image to their consumers – the Transparency Tyranny effect. This way, the Brands who are considered more influent in the symbolical universe of the consumers are those who clearly show their mission and values in a consistent, in-your-face attitude.

Stresstetainment – How long are you communicating? A trend first communicated in the Trendwatch, Stresstetainment shows us that time nowadays is apprehended as shorter than it used to be. We hardly have enough time to see everything we have to to be decently in tune with the latest trends and news. This way, three areas have to be considered when you want your consumer to pay attention to you and not to others:

- Timing – Be holistic in your approach – choose your channels wisely and communicate accordingly;

- Target – Be consistent in your target – take the long tail approach in your communication;

- Transparency – Be transparent in your communication – don’t fool your target or you’ll be wasting your time.

Social Tools – How are you communicating? Social tools are here to stay and their usefulness is far from being explored. Consider all the Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, Social Evolutionary Computation or even Forums, Blogs or Virtual Worlds. So instead of trying to replicate them, try to use them to your benefit – Database included! If you try to replicate them, the most probable result will be having a mere 1000 user database versus millions in a full scale Social Website.

In the end, it all leads up to ENGAGEMENT. Virality isn’t obtained via a short lived hype or random role of the dice in the online world. It can be obtained via a careful study of the context, the investment in a strong holistic concept and a deep knowledge of the consumer online.

This doesn’t guarantee you 100% sure virality, but it definitely takes you down the right path!

Social tools’ usage and potential are far from have been completely explored. This is a fact. Besides their original use – Social Networking for friend aggregation or Social Bookmarking for common bookmarks shared on a webpage – there are subsequent effects and results that have derived from the constant use and reinterpretation of social tools. One specifically comes as a result of peer pressure, generation Y and the Youniverse theory – the rise of a civic and social conscience on the Web.

Surely you’ve come across P. Diddy’s campaign “Vote or Die”. A political service group, Diddy’s group Citizen Change aimed at getting young people to vote. Exercising civic duties is a lost art on younger generations who grew under the influence of disappointed, entertainment driven parents whose disbelief in politicians and economical system influenced the younger people to just not care. Following the words of Bart and Lisa Simpson – “We’re the MTV Generation. We feel neither highs nor lows.” Well, they couldn’t be farther from the truth – this generation simply lacked the necessary tools and influential peer to actually push towards a more civic mind..

This is where Social Tools pop in. From Facebook groups oriented towards a cause – the Breast Cancer Research counts up to 3,000,000 members – to the amount of topics related to politics in sites such as Digg – in which you could count at least 5-10 topics related to politics and the current Hillary/Obama struggle in the US – young people, influenced by a World after 9/11 are just looking for the right cause to make the World a better place. From politics to ecological trends, there is a soul search to make amends for the mistakes of former generations.

This is not something new. In fact, numerous studies have already mentioned this “nostalgia” trend for better days in the younger generations – a hermetical circle of reinterpretation of society in the eager eyes of believers. What comes as something to be considered is the role Social tools took. Young people weren’t expecting a Big Brother to emerge and tell them what’s right – they were looking for the right Forum to discuss their topics without the obvious moderation of an higher figure, where they would be given the right to judge and tell right from wrong. And guess what – they do know the difference.

And why is this important for marketers? 3 simple lessons:

Who needs face to face communication these days? Created in 2004, Mixi (pronounced Mikushi) is one of the most popular social networking service sites in Japan with over 14,000,000 members by the end of 2007. It’s very much like how most social networking sites work. But it has a few little twists that make it unique from the rest. Mixi is made up of 99% Japanese and of course does not offer an English version.

First off, not just anyone can join Mixi. You have to be a member of the ‘über elite’ and have to have at least ONE friend that already has an account (if you don’t have one, I’ll sponsor you, leave your email in the comments), a bit like GMail was working when it was launched. They send you a friend invite, which gives you permission to access the site. The best part is, as soon as you register the person who sent you the invitation is already in your friends list! Like Tom Anderson, but you actually know them!!!

One feature that I think is great is the Ashiato (footprint) that allows you to see who has been stalking you has clicked on your profile. What a great way to track down your stalker and start a relationship. “Hi, I see you viewed my profile 13 times yesterday. You are genuinely scaring me. Let’s be friends!” Breadcrumbs will be displayed on the members profile that show the exact relationship between you and the other person.

Your profile is pretty basic. It shows your name, location, birthdate, interests and blood type. Blood type is a big deal in Japan. I think it’s about as pointless as a zodiac sign. Instead of someone saying “Oh my god, I can totally tell that you’re a Cancer” you would hear “I can so tell your’re AB” and of course the BS of bloodtype compaitiblity exists.

It also has a wall-like feature to it too, where your friends can write really ‘deep’ messages. After reading other friends comments I found it to be a bit different than what you see on Myspace/facebook. None of that “Hey girlfriend! Last weekend was so fun! OMG LOVE YOU!” but more of a positive message like “I like Mika because she’s really nice and makes cheesecake”. So profound and meaningful.

Communities play a big part in Mixi. Much like groups, or “clubs” the user can join a community of his or her interest and discuss same topics while meeting new people. There is a huge range in communities from music groups, fresh beer lovers, and even one for people who love Macintosh keyboard shortcuts. Some groups are private and you need an invite to join.

My thoughts on Mixi: The design itself is good, for the first few days of viewing. Since I joined a year and a half ago the same stale orange color remains, and I hate the color orange (sorry FullSix). However I feel it lacks the organization that facebook does. Most users fail to post their actual photo, or name, scared by the lack of privacy protection, a hot hot topic in the web industry. And it’s not because my japanese girl friends would sell you their dirty underwear online that they want to share EVERYTHING with you! As a result, this makes searching for friends very difficult, but stalking so much fun.

15 years ago (on 3 December 1992) the first text message was sent from a computer to an handset in Vodafone labs.

Since then, text messages have changed our lifes.

All around the world new words and expressions appeared. Early Internet users knew how to save key strokes with shortcuts like “brb” ; text messages gave it a name : SMS language. New language introduced new habits, and text messaging became in a few years a very important part of seduction. In 1997, french rapper Mc Solaar sung: “Times are changing // Pick up! With a cellphone”.

SMS allowed new type of business services to emerge. Alerting gives customer information they need, wherever they are. It has been applied to many contexts: stocks alerts, delivery notification, breaking news, etc. More services are coming: Texting money is now possible in the US, northern europe and quickly spreading in the rest of the world.

And of course, text messaging is a very successful advertising channel: the only marketing channel that allows a brand to talk with a customer at a precise time with a very personal message that has an opening rate over 90%.

What next?

SMS is also a huge source of revenue for carriers all around the world, and they have been fighting very hard to protect it.
Experiences in Africa have shown that instant messaging can replace text messaging, it is probably just a matter of time. Now you have figured out why there is no instant messaging in iphone …

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R3m3mb3r wh3n 4ll th3r3 w4s t0 f34r w4s Sh0rth4nd? 1t w4s 31th3r 1nv3nt3d by 4l13ns 0r m0nks wh0 h4d n3v3r typ3d 4 c0nv3rs4t10n 0n 4 d3v1c3 1nt3nd3d t0 sp34k 1nt0 0r f0r th4t m4tt3r t4lk3d sh1t t0 4n0th3r pl4y3r 0n W0rld 0f W4rcr4ft.

Wh3n th3 l4ngu4g3 4p0c4lyps3 c0m3s, d0n’t s4y 1 d1dn’t w4rn y0u!

The members of the MLA lose sleep over it, kids could get *RSI* doing it, and all your english are belong to us. Is the written language dying? or transforming? What is our destiny? Does Leet Speak define us as we morph into super human beings who suffer from a collective attention deficit disorder that spawned from a virus that originally inhabited the motherboards of our Windows 95 boxes and has now sought refuge in human tissue?

Remember when all there was to fear was Shorthand? It was either invented by aliens or monks who had never typed a conversation on a device intended to speak into or for that matter talked shit to another player on World of Warcraft.

When the language apocalypse comes, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Every movement has a counter movement. It has been true for political, cultural or sociological movements throughout time. It is normal for it to happen as it is as innate to human nature – we can only see black because white exists. In movements this happens naturally – it’s a natural evolution. And, as in every other aspect of society, this applies to the Internet.

The clash that the engagement on the Internet causes in various factions is noticeable. People who defend the web, who are against it, who are indifferent, and who simply don’t have an opinion. The fact is that the Web has given birth to a whole new level of interaction between users, as it has evolved from a mere channel to the stature of an era changing tool – the engine of digital philosophy (more on this coming in a future article). But, to focus on the main point of the article, one of the most important tools that appeared on the web is the Social Networking Websites. I will not rant into the importance or characteristics of SNW, as each of their aspects deserve an article on their own. I’m going to focus on a more sui generis subject – the counter movements of social networking.

For every major SNW tool, such as Facebook or SecondLife, a counter website has appeared. Although it brings nothing new to the ying/yang balance of movements, it does bring up a few interesting details – just as specific as the characteristics of the SNW, so are the movements as they show the flaws of the original ones in ways that sometimes we fail to grasp. And, above all of it, it all comes down to a fight between the SNW engagement and relationships axis vs the real life experience. We can actually witness to the birth of an online symbolical universe that we begin to share as a connected community.

Take SecondLife for example. The Virtual SN System found opposition in the one page satire First Life, which displays the advantages and perks of getting on using the account you were born with – reality. Using the same homepage structure as of its original counterparte, GetaFirstLife can’t be considered a tool on its own, but it has gained quite some popularity due to the blunt way it shows the users how disconnected from real life they become when engaged in the SecondLife Hype.

Facebook, on the other hand, found a few more counters, being Enemybook, Snubster and Hatebook the best examples. While the first two are apps inside Facebook itself, in which users can list their hated users and list their misdeeds, or “snub” them by pointing out warnings to them on their behavior, the second is a website on its own. With a structure very similar to Facebook, Hatebook makes fun of just about everything on Facebook by containing, for example, a “Hate Album” where the users place the things they hate the most. Actually, the site includes some added value the go beyond the basic features of Facebook, like a Google Maps app that shows where the members are. Of course, the more hyped the SNW, the bigger the probability for a counter-movement to appear. That is barely the point – the point is how these movements have a life of its own and an entire line of thought that doesn’t connect to the offline world at all.

Apart from the counter-movement websites that are directly connected to a popular SNW, there is an example of one directed towards the Social Networking phenomena – NoSo, where people are invited to join in Flash Mobs without actually talking to each other – the joy of making no friends and no connections. This shows how the main focus of the counter-movement – the fight against the constant, non-stop contact in every area of the Web, as well as against the nonsensical social graph developed through the profile adding frenzy of people who aren’t even friend’s of the user.

So how does this relate to a Brand? At this stage it is early to say – as I delve more into Social Networking Profiling and in the coming Digital Philosophy article, I will try to make it clear to you how the Web should be faced – not as a digital print of real life but actually as an evolving independent organism, whose importance is widely acknowledged. But, studies done upon this subject do no justice to the inherent concepts and lines of thought that a online marketer should take into account when developing the Brands’ online presence. In the course of these lengthy articles, I hope to help the reader to develop the in-depth necessary to consider your work in the online world with the necessary context – connected to an online world without being stuck to the offline world universal knowledge. When you are able to do so, then you’ll definitely have gone from the Information Age to the Communication Age and will have taken the most important step towards creating true and relevant engagement with the online consumers.

Browsing through the Internet demanded originally some previous knowledge when you wanted to find something. Sites were scarce and they were too oriented towards information depots – you knew that there was a clear distinction between real life and the virtual web, as contents you’d find in one were different and required specific search logic to find it. I’m talking about the time of the Web 1.0, of course, where you could find some static non-interactive information regarding your traveling needs, for example.

The evolution in the Web was so amazing that searching for information on any given search engine is a natural input of keywords – users no longer have to devise careful anagrams and keyword combinations to find the page they needed. Essentially, they have to think what they need, type it in and find it. This shows how the fusion of the virtual and real world has evolved – you know you’ll find those tickets you need, the hotel you want to book and information regarding what other users thought about the services you are using.

This leaves a lot of room open for the transition of offline services to the online world – that’s what people are expecting to find – but, of course, taking in account the whole sociological and societal evolution that is occurring online. In this logic, a great amount of services online are appearing in a daily basis, taking advantage of the tools and spirit the users are immersed.

This entire introduction serves as a basis to explain a type of website that is a perfect example of real world meets virtual world in web 2.0 logic – Social Lending Sites or Microlenders. I’m not talking about lending services for objects or services – I’ll approach those on another post. The Peer-to-peer lending focuses on two axis – people who have money to lend and people who want to borrow money. Each user is a bank on its own and can gain interest off a loan while users who want “small” amounts and that wouldn’t be eligible for a loan in a real bank have an opportunity to get that investment cash!

There aren’t many P2P Lending Websites existing yet – mainly we have four big sites:

- Zopa – Having already gathered three web awards since 2006, Zopa works by giving credit scores to borrowers for lenders information. The Lenders make offers with a certain amount and time period oriented towards on credit score (A+ to C). The Borrowers can then choose from the various offers they have towards their credit score. Since no bank is involved, Zopa does all the mediating – paperwork, checking legal the identity of the users and cases of missed payments. Another concept introduced by Zopa was the split lending – one user who needed 1000 € can get it from 50 different users until that amount is gathered. Of course, Zopa receives money through transition fees from both parties.

- Kiva – Kiva is the “benefactor” of the P2P Lending Sites, as it focuses on loans to low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries. The Lenders can find what country, region, business and risks associated to their loan via the website and present a loan to the struggling business-man. Borrowers don’t apply for loans – they post their needs and the Lenders browse them, searching in their hearts for the best business opportunity while helping someone. Like Zopa, users can join together to raise the money needed – but while in Zopa it’s a Borrowers initiative, in Kiva it’s the Lender’s who contribute with what they can to each business. Field wise, each country has its own MFI (Micro Finance Institutions) who track the loans, their use and payments. Since it is a non-profit website, PayPal allowed Kiva to transfer the money without transaction fees – partially due to the fact that Kiva’s Presidente, Premal Shah, was Principal Product Manager at PayPal. This website has gained high visibility at Oprah’s, after which a lot of the struggling businesses found a happy ending to their financial needs;

- The Lending Club – What differentiates this site is the lender-user match up service it consists upon and the use of the Facebook application platform to connect lenders and borrowers. It’s a use of the Social Graph and connection trust as security for the users. The Lending Club has high credit standards – they turn away borrowers who are too risky and do a rigorous checking before any transition, claiming to be the safest P2P Lending Site available. They focus on one-time event loans and credit card debt consolidation loans;

- Prosper – Not wanting to repeat myself, Prosper uses the same principle as the other contenders, differentiating in one main characteristic – borrower group affiliations. This group functionality allows borrowers to group together and gain reputation according to their collective repayment records. The better the reputation, the lower the rates the users will get of future loans. Using a auction platform, lenders set their interest rate and bid in increments on the loan listings they’re interested in. After an auction is over, Prosper gathers the bids with the lowest rates and combines them together into a single loan – handling all the administrative tasks from here on.

To what point has the Internet evolved that allows for users to directly lend money to each other, having only a small company (when compared to a Bank) managing these transactions? This shows that some of the “new media fear” surrounding the Internet and financial transactions associated to it is beginning its decline. Of course, I didn’t approach the natural dangers and gaps that can rise in these sites – but they’re just taking our first steps in this area, so some things need to be fine tuned. Besides, the online social network structure and work ethics have shown us that there is definitely space for growth in services that depend on user-user interaction and trust.

Besides being an important learning for most marketers, these websites show us two things:

- The power behind the social networking in any aspect of the online life – trust is rising on the web. People trust peers and causes – Kiva hopes for a better future and The Lending Club helps people who already know each other to share money – these sites aren’t loan sharks but intermediaries of a natural loan flow that should happen in the online world;

- The fusion of real life and virtual web – when thinking on your next campaign, try not to think only about the online – that’s old and it doesn’t work anymore. The online and offline worlds are becoming one, like steps in the same staircase. Don’t consider the online experience always as an alternative experience to the offline – sometimes it’s just better to think “What are people doing offline that the online would simplify and help?” – you might just find that winning edge for your Brand.

You are no longer advertising on the New and Old Media – we are talking about the version 2.0 of New Media, where you have to go beyond the 360º approach and into the virtual X + Y + Z axis approach. A whole new dimension in the making!