Tag Archives: social media

How social media can save television

By Aaron Hoos on May 15, 2013 in Business

When I was a kid, my family set aside Thursday nights as our “family TV night”. Dad would bring home a bag of chips and a bottle of pop. He’d turn on the TV a couple of minutes before the show started and the four of us would sit there on the couch and watch Family Ties and The Cosby Show (and maybe something else? It’s a little foggy now).

TELEVISION VIEWING HAS CHANGED

My parents were the last generation of people who may or may not have had a TV in their house. I’m in the generation that grew up with television — usually just one in the house. The generation(s) since have grown up with more televisions and more channel choices. Today, the entertainment choices have grown beyond “television” (in the strictest sense of the word) and the very existence of television as we once knew it is threatened.

Once, viewers were at the mercy of whatever was showing on the available channels. Some people had more choice because they had cable or satellite. My family couldn’t afford that stuff so our TV grabbed whatever was broadcast through the air. I remember it being someone’s job to adjust the rabbit ears on top of the TV to improve reception when things got fuzzy.

Other technology changed how we view television (and I should also include movies here, too): VCRs and DVDs allow us watch our own entertainment choices when we want. PVRs allow us to delay watching our chosen entertainment (and skip the commercials if we want). Other services (like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, AppleTV, etc.) are all changing how we are entertained by giving us more choice and more control.

WHAT IS REALLY CHANGING?

Entertainment is not going away. And neither is watching something (i.e. a “television device” — whether it’s a big screen TV or a tablet). But what is really at risk is what we might call “real-time” television. Maybe there’s a better term for it. By “real time” television, I mean sitting down to watch a show from start to finish, including commercials, at the time it is broadcast.

I never watch shows when they are broadcast, and you probably don’t either. I use my PVR almost always, to fast forward through commercials and to watch shows on my time. And the occasions when I happen to watch a show in “real time” (when it is broadcast), I feel impatient and impotent because I can’t fast forward through the commercials. In fact, if I happen to see that a show was on that I wanted to watch, I usually prefer to record it on my PVR and return to it about 20 minutes later just to skip the commercials.

WHY TV PRODUCTION COMPANIES WILL FEEL THE SQUEEZE

Most channels earn their money from commercials. But people are skipping the commercials so the value isn’t there for show providers anymore. To counter this effect, we’re seeing other monetization techniques like product placement or on-screen marketing broadcast in the corner of the screen during a show.

Real time television is at risk. But I think it can be revived. I think people will watch real time television once again.

And I think this is where social media is the answer.

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN SAVE THE DAY

My wife and I love NASCAR and we PVR the race because we usually fast forward through the pre-race show and the commercials, and because sometimes (depending on when it airs) we might not get to see it right at the very beginning.

The PVR gives us a lot of control, which we love. But there’s a drawback: If a driver does something that I want to tweet about, I don’t… because my tweet will seem almost silly coming a full hour or two after it actually happened. And, Janelle and I both avoid Twitter before and during the race because of our self-imposed PVR-delay. We don’t want to know who won the race if we’re still only at the halfway point in our viewing.

It’s almost enough for me to want to watch a race live. And if I had more friends or followers who were as avid race fans as I am, that might just happen. (But my network of people who are also NASCAR fans isn’t that big so it’s not likely going to happen any time soon).

If that’s the case for me, it’s going to be the case for other people, too — for other shows or sporting events. In fact, the “second screen” phenomenon is a growing industry in itself and I think we’re only seeing the start of it: The second screen — a mobile device or tablet or laptop screen — becomes a way for people to act on what they’re watching. They can research, shop, find news, and interact with others.

TWO SCREENS + SOCIAL PEOPLE = DEEPER ENGAGEMENT

In my opinion, television hasn’t caught up to the second screen phenomenon yet. It’s still broadcasting as a real-time medium in an on-demand world. For TV to survive, it needs to give people a reason to watch real time TV again. We’re seeing the very first elements of that happening — mainly through hashtags or encouraging people to view more online or play social games. But a lot of those efforts encourage participation after a show is complete. Can TV do even more?

Here are some ideas:

  • Pose questions for people to answer in a forum or with a hashtag. Instead of just inviting people to talk about the show, give them something to talk about.
  • Encourage live commentary/discussion during the show (perhaps on Facebook or some kind of Twitter-like discussion page)
  • Get crowd-sourced decisions that will adjust how characters deal with a situation in a show. This could be done either in a live show setting, which would be very awesome, or on a delay until the following week.
  • Split a story across multiple screens — sharing the first hour on TV and the last 30 minutes online
  • Provide deeper plotlines on multiple screens — sharing the main storyline on the first screen and a secondary but intersecting storyline on the second screen. You could follow the lives and adventures of secondary characters this way, fleshing them out more fully for avid fans.
  • Broadcast a post-show talk show (similar to what AMC does with The Talking Dead, a talk show that follows The Walking Dead). Broadcast it online if you don’t want to use up air-time.
  • Split a show (perhaps creating a 45 minute show instead of a one-hour show) with actor discussion part way through — answering questions live.
  • Drop clues during commercials that people have to watch for, perhaps something that will help them understand the show or interact more fully online.

I’m sure there are more things that could be done. As I write this, I’m seeing some major themes: More intentional splitting of the story (or characters or storylines) across screens. More intentional interaction/involvement required of viewers. Discussion. Dissection. Learning more.

The production companies and channels that create these shows will need to invest more time and effort but the result will be deeper engagement from viewers and the cultivation of a group of people who watch the show in real time.

A simple guide to Facebook usage (so you don’t drive your friends bonkers)

By Aaron Hoos on April 27, 2013 in From the desk of Aaron Hoos

As someone who works from home, Facebook is a way to stay connected to friends and family. For the most part, I enjoy interacting with my close friends and reconnecting with long-lost friends.

But my Facebook experience is far from perfect. Could we all agree to some ground rules so that we don’t drive each other bonkers? Here are four simple rules to keep us all from going crazy:

1. Check Snopes… PLEASE

For the love of all things sacred, please check Snopes before you randomly post stuff you read. Half cut onions that heal cancer? Check Snopes. Eddie Murphy died? Check Snopes. Meth that looks like pop rocks? Check Snopes. If you didn’t write it yourself (and even if a trusted friend posted it on their wall) please check Snopes.

2. Take it easy on the heartwarming pictures

I love seeing pictures on Facebook. YOUR pictures. Those vacations. Those family pictures. The 100,000,000 pictures you post of your baby. Heck, even your food. (Confession: I’m indifferent about the histograms of your unborn baby but at least they are your pictures). What I hate is when my newsfeed fills with pictures of angels or dogs or heartwarming sayings that have been fake-written on papyrus. I’m not saying that you should NEVER post them. Just take it easy. One a day is probably way more than we need to see. Remember: You’re not the only one posting them. A good rule of thumb is: If the picture says something like “like if you like this; ignore if you don’t have a heart” then you can probably ignore it. I won’t think less of you!

3. Please don’t complain about Facebook… on Facebook

Every time Facebook changes its interface or some other aspect of how it runs, my newsfeed fills up with complaints about it. But the people who hate Facebook are still on it, years after Facebook enraged them with a UI change. Hey guess what. Every company makes changes. If you really don’t like it, sign out. I’m not sure why this one throws me into a rage but it does.

4. Stop sending me invites to your games

I don’t care if you spend all frigging day playing games on Facebook. But take it easy on the invites. The daily invites are getting to be a bit too much.

I guess what I want is a newsfeed of, well, stuff about you. Even if it’s a vacation pic or an Instagram of your awesome lunch. Facebook is a valuable tool for sharing our thoughts and feelings, and all of life’s wins and fails. And it’s a great way to rapidly spread a bit of news that is worth spreading.

Think of Facebook like a big get-together. The same rules apply there. You don’t want to be the guy spouting fakes stories as if they were real, you don’t want to be that annoying jerk who just gives empty inspirational answers to anything people say, you don’t want to complain about the party itself while the host is within hearing distance, and you don’t want to be the person shouting from the recroom that everyone needs to see your high score in Mario Bros. Be cool like a party and we’ll all enjoy Facebook just a little more.

Rant: Complete.

Aaron Hoos’ weekly reading list: First edition

By Aaron Hoos on April 14, 2013 in From the desk of Aaron Hoos

Aaron Hoos: Weekly reading list

I’m starting a new series on my blog, Aaron Hoos’ weekly reading list. It’s a collection of links to stuff I’ve read in the week that I think you might also find interesting or useful. Enjoy!

  • Dennis Crowley and the cycle of second-guessing. This article by Om Malik gives a positive spin to Foursquare, Foursquare’s co-founder, and the company’s latest software release. I really like Foursquare and I there there is a huge opportunity for location-based social media (especially the way Foursquare eventually sees their offering). I want them to succeed but I confess, I’m having a hard time seeing widespread, long-term adoption. But I hope I’m wrong.
  • 7 simple productivity tips you can apply today, backed by science. As the title suggests, this article lists 7 productivity tips. Most of them won’t be a surprise to anyone who reads these kind of productivity lists regularly. But for me, the most thought-provoking one was the 7th one… and it just might be enough for me to rethink how I wake up in the morning.
  • The happiest people pursue the most difficult problems. Although the article, published at Harvard Business Review, was written primarily for larger businesses, the key concepts are the same for those of us who spend our time in small businesses. The idea of stepping up to difficult challenges and rising above them is an underlying theme I’ve been thinking about lately (see my blog post Why you should revel in chaos).
  • The state of content curation (and where it’s really headed). This is a good article on content marketing. What’s interesting is that it could have been written 10 years ago and still say exactly the same thing: There is no substitute for good content. Don’t try to cheap out and hire cheap, crappy writers so you can flood the web with volume instead of value.

10 topics that a financial advisor can tweet about

By Aaron Hoos on January 12, 2013 in Finance

Financial advisors have a unique challenge on social media, and on Twitter specifically.

While other entrepreneurs can tweet just about anything they want (with impunity!), financial advisors are highly regulated and therefore need to watch very closely what they tweet. There aren’t enough characters in a tweet to include a full disclaimer, plus every advisor knows that general trading advice compressed into 140 characters pales in comparison to carefully selected advice for individuals.

So what CAN a financial advisor tweet about? How can you add value and build up a following without broadcasting unhelpful advice?

Here are 10 ideas from which you can build your own pool of original, engaging tweets:

  1. Likely you serve a local area. So tweet about what is going on in that area — from news to (positive) reviews of local establishments to updates on weather to local sports and more. Become the finance guy for an area.
  2. There is always good “general” financial advice you can give that won’t risk your advisor’s license — things like “Make sure you set and stick to a budget” or “Make sure you have a will”, or “it’s tax time! Don’t forget to file your taxes by April 15!”. You can get more specific about them, too, but those are perennially good reminders.
  3. Share other good advice that aren’t specific to finances. Consider tweets about daylight savings time, changing batteries in smoke detectors, the importance of getting a carbon monoxide detector, etc.
  4. Choose a charity and promote that charity generously. (Bonus tip: Even better if the charity is involved in your local market).
  5. Tweet financial facts that people might find interesting, like the number of people who haven’t saved for retirement or the average amount of credit card debt per household.
  6. Ask thought-provoking questions that encourage people to think about their financial situation.
  7. Reflect on how larger issues (i.e. on a municipal, state, national, or international scale) will impact the people you meet every day.
  8. Regularly tweet reviews of your favorite must-read financial books.
  9. Promote your fellow professionals in related fields — attorneys, accountants, real estate professionals etc. Spread some local professional love. (Of course you can do this for other people, too, but attorneys and accountants and real estate professionals are your biggest potential referral sources.
  10. My most important tip: Share something of yourself! Talk about your interests and hobbies. Yes, your sales training probably told you to avoid talking about yourself. But social media is about being real and sharing part of yourself with others. You don’t have to overshare (no need to post pictures of your lunch) but there is value to being a real person.

To get started, I suggest you come up with 3-5 tweets for each of the ideas listed above and then tweet them in a rotation, periodically adding to this growing pool of tweets. (OF COURSE you should be doing other things on Twitter too, like following and listening and retweeting and replying. But when you want to tweet your own stuff, rotate through these over the course of a week or so).

Here’s why Facebook’s biggest threat to its existence is its own users

By Aaron Hoos on November 3, 2012 in Business

A few years ago, a couple of friends had to convince me to join Facebook. There were three people in particular that worked hard at convincing me.

Although I like to embrace new and useful sites, I was reluctant at the time because I didn’t see a lot of my own peers on there. Facebook was still pretty new and the demographic of the userbase was much younger than I was. But my three friends — a guy my age and two girls in their early twenties — convinced me to join and I relented.

Fast forward several years: I’m a frequent Facebook user now and most of my peers are on Facebook too, so it’s a great connecting point of current and resurrected friendships. I sign on multiple times throughout the day; I post statuses, comments, private messages, and chat with people. As someone who works at home, Facebook really is an integral part of my social life and its functionality has largely replaced the phone and email. I like Facebook for its ability to keep me connected.

But the userbase has changed. I first noticed this when a few of my friends admitted to me that they only signed up to keep tabs on their teenage children. Then my aunts and uncles signed up. Then my parents (who are the most Luddite of all of my relatives). Then my grandma. Many of THEIR peers are on Facebook now too.

It’s convenient to have EVERYONE on Facebook and for the most part, it’s pretty good (except when a relative posts a picture of me as a child!!! haha)

Because of its convenience and connectivity, Facebook’s userbase has grown… and aged. Not only has its userbase aged because of the passage of time (we’re all 6 years older than when we signed up, and 6 years can put you into a new demographic) but the sign-ups in recent years (the masses and the late adopters) are older.

So when I signed up, I was in my early thirties and on the older end of my Facebook friends. Today, I’m in my late thirties and in the middle or, perhaps even on the younger end of my Facebook friends. And the three people who convinced me to sign up? The guy who is the same age as me still uses it sometimes but the two girls who were also part of that conversation are almost never on it. My nieces and nephew never use it. Some friends who are early adopters of social media have deleted their accounts.

Yes, this is my a slice of my own life on Facebook but I think I’m a pretty typical person. So if I’m noticing a rapid aging of Facebook users, it’s likely that it’s probably happening to approximately the same degree elsewhere.

Facebook’s demographic will continue to age, obviously in part because time is passing, but even more so, I think Facebook’s average user demographic will age faster than the passage of time because older users are joining and younger users are leaving in favor of newer ways communicating (i.e. texting right now and then whatever else is around the corner).

So Facebook’s userbase has aged faster than Facebook has aged, and although Facebook’s pre-IPO valuations talked about how important its massive userbase was, I’m not sure that its userbase uses Facebook today in the same way it used Facebook in the early days. Yes, people are still connected but are they clicking ads? Are they liking pages? Maybe they are. Maybe they’re not. I don’t know. This older demographic uses the web far differently than younger users. Today’s older users are way more skeptical of the internet, reluctant to share information about themselves online, and struggle with knowing what to click and why to make something happen online. My older Facebook friends use Facebook very differently than my younger Facebook friends.

The key is: With a changing userbase, Facebook’s business will likely need to change. Functionality will need to shift more slowly for this group of slow adopters. Yet, if Facebook wants to survive and avoid becoming deserted like MySpace, they’ll need to also stay relevant to the younger group.

Interesting times are ahead for Facebook.

7 ways I use Twitter (and 1 way I don’t)

By Aaron Hoos on November 2, 2012 in Business

People ask me all the time why I’m on Twitter. “What’s the purpose of Twitter?” they want to know. Naysayers wonder why I’m on Twitter. Skeptics can’t figure it out. And sometimes clients ask me to help them get new clients from Twitter.

There’s a lot of confusion around Twitter and there are many ways that people use it. I certainly don’t profess to be a guru but I’m happy with my Twitter experience and my business has been positively impacted by it.

7 WAYS I USE TWITTER

  1. I use Twitter to stay up-to-date on general news, weather, sports, and industry-specific news. Twitter is in real-time so with properly chosen people to follow, I stay informed.
  2. I use Twitter to meet interesting people and businesses: I’m fascinated with entrepreneurs, equity and real estate investors, and innovators and Twitter is a great way to listen to them.
  3. I use Twitter to do market research. I pay attention to what my target market is tweeting, retweeting, and commenting on, and it informs my business decisions pretty regularly.
  4. I use Twitter to get outside of my bubble: I work from home and I’m focused on only a couple of niches. It’s easy to stay within that little world. But Twitter helps to get me out of it.
  5. I use Twitter to share myself with the world. I try to do that on my blog a bit, too, but my blog has a focused formality about it that Twitter doesn’t have. Twitter lets me relax a little and share my excitement over a NASCAR race or what I’m reading or eating or doing right now.
  6. I use Twitter to establish my expertise by listening to experts in my field, interacting with them, and sharing thought-leadership that I’ve written or found online.
  7. My favorite way to use Twitter is to have conversations and network with other people. I’ve met some pretty great people on Twitter who I would never normally connect with… but I’ve been able to connect with them on Twitter and then subsequently I’ve connected with them off of Twitter (and even in person). It’s very rewarding.

1 WAY I DON’T USE TWITTER

  1. I never use Twitter to solicit business from a potential client. I don’t ask people to hire me to write or consult for them. I don’t offer my services on Twitter.

In my experience, everyone has a slightly different take on Twitter and some people are totally cool with selling their services or products on Twitter. I’m not there. I love that Twitter is a lens to a larger world of awesome people that I wouldn’t get to connect with in any other way.

One Twitter skeptic asked me if I ever got business from Twitter. Some people who have become my clients have checked out my website, my Twitter account, and other online profiles of mine before hiring me. And I have built some pretty amazing relationships with smart people who have made my business better (through ideas or joint ventures). But no one has ever tried to hire me exclusively because of my Twitter account… and I’m just fine with that.

How do you use Twitter?

Ideas and opportunities in the location-based social media space

By Aaron Hoos on March 23, 2012 in Business

Earlier this week I was writing an article about real estate investing and the value of using location-based search and location-based social media for real estate investors.

As I was clicking around to link to relevant sites, I noticed something quite interesting: On the location-based social media side, only Foursquare survives as a strictly location-based social media. Two other sites — Gowalla and Loopt — both shut down in 2012:

In very short order, the race changed. There is a a big marathon of location-based social media and Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt were far ahead of the rest, with sites like Facebook and Twitter also offering some aspect of location-based social media as well.

But now Gowalla and Loopt are gone and Foursquare remains as the only real pure-play contender against “consolidated” social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. (And the other location-based social media sites are so far behind right now that they don’t really count).

One pure-play social media site that owns the industry right now. That’s a HUGE opportunity. So what’s going to happen next? All the elements are in place for new competitors to step up and do something exciting in the location-based social media space: Social media is hot, gamification is hot, EVERYONE has a smartphone now and that is driving change in mobile search and mobile marketing.

So I think the location-based social media space is ripe for MORE competitors not fewer.

8 OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LOCATION-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA SPACE

  1. Facebook has an opportunity to dominate this space by taking its geotagging up a level, perhaps by combining some of the concepts that Foursquare uses — like recommendations and lists based around the places you are visiting.
  2. Twitter has an opportunity to do what Facebook decided not to do — buy a location-based social media site and integrate it. Maybe people can tweet to check-in at locations, and businesses that are ‘registered’ with the location-based side of Twitter can auto-DM deals to the people who have checked in. (Hello! Possible revenue stream, Twitter).
  3. It seems to me like Groupon also has an opportunity to extend its reach by offering daily deals to people based on where they are. Groupon can offer more deals and customers who are at a specific location can take advantage of specific relevant deals rather than relying solely on whatever deals are offered that day.
  4. Yelp has a similar opportunity as Groupon to invest in a location-based social media site to leverage its database of reviews.
  5. What about a time management system that uses location based social media to prompt you to do stuff? (“Hey, you’re at work: Here’s a list of the things you need to do”). Foursquare does this to some degree but it’s not really that cool to check in at work or at home so you miss out on an opportunity to use lists in a meaningful way (and Foursquare’s list system is rudimentary to the point of barely being useful, IMO).
  6. Foursquare encourages check-ins and makes it possible for people to see who else is there but it’s not a communication tool like Twitter or Facebook. (You check in on Foursquare and then you text with the people who are there). So there’s an opportunity for existing communication platforms (Facebook and Twitter were mentioned but also texting platforms/smartphones/BBM/etc.) to leverage the location-based aspect to strengthen their service.
  7. There’s an opportunity here for the next big location-based social media to own whatever happens after check-in. Ordering? Shopping? Exploring? Working? Socializing? Oh, that reminds me of another idea…
  8. Paying. Location-based social media does not need to always be about checking-in. (Yeah, that’s a nice thing but there’s more). Mobile payments are on the horizon and this is an opportunity to help make that happen. So an opportunity to innovate in the location-based social media space might not be to create a new social media site but to find a way to safely integrate mobile payments into a location-based social media so that people who are all together in one place can all spend money at the same time. No, that’s not as weird as it sounds: People split the bills at restaurants all the time; churches take up offering and don’t always need to pass around a plate anymore; timeshares use a group-selling method; seminars can leverage the mass-buying phenomenon to encourage everyone to check-in and buy the “back-of-house” sale, musicians can offer special deals to people who are checked-in at a concert, etc.

When there’s only one pure-play company that is the clear forerunner in an industry, they have a huge target painted on their backs. And, from what I’ve observed, the risk isn’t from businesses that are doing similar things and are farther back in the race. Rather, the risk to those forerunners is from innovators who join the race late and do something surprising and different.

Watch out, Foursquare! Your competition may have disappeared for now but soon you’ll discover some new competitors and they WON’T be the ones you’re expecting.

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