“You find a previously unnoticed urban neighbourhood, ideally one that’s a bit down on its luck. Pioneer hipsters move in and coolhunters ensure it starts trending on Twitter. A year later, the mainstream media notices and, for the next 12 months, the neighbourhood is byword for urban cool. Soon property prices soar pushing the original residents out, the bankers (always a trailing indicator) begin to move in and a Foxtons opens. Finally, the New York Times runs a piece in which it “discovers” the area and the cycle is complete. The last hipsters move on and find a new neighbourhood to play with.”

Now if we swap ‘urban neighbourhood’ for {social platform} or {tech trend} I think this description could still remain true.

Marketers, brands and agencies have become obsessed with the next big thing – I believe most refer to it as ‘Innovation’ currently – although even the terminology or words suffer the locust-like effect of Shoreditchification.

One minute, platforms, apps or technology are under the radar, picked up by the early adopters and played with out of genuine interest. It’s then brought to the attention of the masses by a Mashable article and suddenly everyone wants a piece, there’s a land grab to be first but in the process the real value or end user is forgotten and there’s a potentially great platform filled with attention-seeking CTAs. Much like in the real world that Alex describes in his article, those early adopters that unearthed the original potential have now moved on. Slowly, everyone else starts to do the same as Mashable flags another ‘next big thing’. And so the cycle continues.

The rate at which this happens is getting faster and faster. The time a brand spends or invests in a platform seems to get shorter and shorter. Everyone focuses on growth over a sustainable existence.

Alex mentions how a Foxtons will pop up and the bankers start to roll into town. Again, a metaphor for the point that a platform brings in a bigger sales team and starts to pay more attention to how much money or new ad formats they can rollout instead of enhancing the user experience or offering. Perhaps this is the IPO or over-inflated evaluation stage which it seems now happens on a monthly basis.

Alex’s take on Shoreditchification could be a positive in terms of urban renewal and allowing cities to spread outside of their congested city centres. Maybe things have become a little same-y with the pop-up restaurants and stripped brick walls, compared to a few years ago. The Shoreditchification that engulfs the Internet does not build towards something to be left behind to carry on, it seems more like we move on leaving something behind to die.

How to cut down the Shoreditchification of the internet?

1) Stop looking for the next thing, look at where you are now – are you doing it right?

2) Where’s your audience? Move with them, not with the trends that the media report.

3) If you do turn up and everyone is making burgers, don’t be scared to make Pizza.

Alex W has posted before on ESS about putting the customer first and how we need avoid getting caught up in platform hype with: Snapchat – apples, oranges and marketers

We can be honest though, we’ve been lazy as the job has already been done for us by each of the social spaces themselves, and they all do it so nicely we’ll let you just enjoy them at your own leisure. Just so that this isn’t viewed as too much if a cop out we have at least gone through them an placed them in order of our favourites.

Starting with – not a social media network – Spotify. They baked in a bit lovely shareable  insight by highlightin that in fact 20% of their total library hasn’t been listened to even once. Their mission in their round up not just to celebrate success but drive an interesting piece of discovery.

Next up tumblr, which yes you guessed delivered their best of 2013 in a tumblr. Lots of good, weird and fun stuff to rummage through. This a good resource to get that snap shot of what tumblr actually is and the kind of content that does well. It gives people who might not use it the context of the platform to help shape content. More on that in our Why We’re All Fingers And Feeds Post

YouTube. This isn’t the usual statfest they could trow at us about growth, they’ve lead with a big budget production featuring some famous faces – most of which you might not know. They are the you YouTube Superstars. There’s no doubt all of these and more of the UK talent are going to keep growing and crossover more into the classic mainstream media too.

Facebook and twitter have been doing a solid yearly round up for a few years now as they’ve had a lot to shout about in terms of growth. This year both have looked more to their stand out defining moments.

Facebook showcasing most talked about topics, most checked in locations and then also letting you connect your account and produce your own 2013 highlights page based on your posts from the year.

Twitter, again being clever in the way they showcase their highlights. Sorting by topics but then specific events and embedding their newly rolled out custom timelines to show the specific tweets related to the event.

Have we missed any? Let us know. We’re looking forward to seeing what all the platforms and perhaps some new ones have to offer in 2014.

The below is a quick look at the shift in consumption and some tips to help your content stand out in a variety of feeds.

1) TWEETING LINKS TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS THAT DON’T WORK ON MOBILE.WHY?

Chances are a majority of people clicking these days will be doing so from a mobile device, do you really think they’re going to add to a playlist and fire up the PC later?
You Tube mobile

2) FORGETTING TO FRONT YOUR @ MENTIONS

common but easy mistake to make, if you’re starting a tweet by mentioning someone and don’t front it with something, it will merely be a conversational mention going to that one person, only to be seen by people following the both of you – instead of all of your followers. See what Gary Vee had to say on the matter too.

3) NOT MENTIONING YOUR SOURCES

If you’re getting the good stuff from someone or somewhere in particular make sure you give them credit using via, or HT (HT meaning Hat Tip, as a nod to the person you discovered the amazing link through). Even someone tells you about something in person, give them a shout out.

4) IGNORING TWITTER SEARCH

Broadcasting in hope of convo rather than talking to who is already there and discussing relevant topics to you or your brand. Brands especially should invest some good time into actively searching out mentions that aren’t @ mentions, see what people are saying about your brand off your radar and jump in to the discussion if relevant.

5) MAKING PEOPLE CLICK FOR IT WHEN THEY DON’T HAVE TO…

Twitter cards are an awesome addition to Twitter meaning media is served up directly within twitter – use them! – don’t make people click off to a site then click again and then leave them clicking around some more to make their way back to where they started. Give the content to them then and there where possible.

Image credit

I’ve been working in social for a few years now, and the last 2 years I’ve spent a lot of time with brands on Facebook. A lot of the brands we work with are active on Twitter, posting on average twice a day. Volume hasn’t ever had a negative impact on what we have done – we’ve adapted and learnt from everything we’ve created and strived to improve what we do to keep our audience entertained and informed.

Using the platform everyday gives us a lot of insight and experience with what does and doesn’t work. Not just on a tactical level but quite an in-depth personal level. What has become interesting (or difficult) is when Facebook’s behaviour changes. When something unexpected happened you’ll start by wondering what it was you did wrong. Did you post at the wrong time? Use the wrong media targeting? Or was the creative just not right? And then you start to notice, no, it’s not me – there’s something different about it, something has changed.

When you try to talk to Facebook you’re often met with denial and mentions of ‘a bug’. You’ll listen to them – they know best. But then you hear of similar experiences and explanations from other teams around you, and other teams in other agencies. We all work with this platform intimately. We know when it’s had a haircut.

Recently Facebook have expressed thoughts on pivoting their proposition, comparing themselves to mainstream media channels they are positioning themselves as a broadcast channel. Part of the reasoning is that there’s now more competition in the newsfeeds for brands to cut through – people have more friends and follow more brands than they did a year or two ago, so it’s harder to stand out and convert organic or low reach. Shifting back to the classic broadcast model of mass reach you’ll pay to be seen by the masses and by being seen by more you’ll obviously sell more. All you have to do is spend more. With Facebook.

It’s another new haircut, but you can’t help but notice this one – they’re coming to you and asking if you like it. The truth is, I’m not sure I do. For a long time they were always about engagement and deep and meaningful connections. But now it’s feeling like an uncomfortable shift, less about the user and being meaningful but more about the advertiser, and that’s just not social.

Social media marketing is full of metrics that can impress clients such as follower count, but until they are put in context they mean absolutely nothing. If your Twitter account has 1000 followers that may seem good, but when you some research and find that all of your competitors have at least 3,000 followers, the sheen wears off.

These numbers are used to agencies to show their work as being successful. It’s largely a runoff from the social media industry being co-opted by the PR world, obsessed with hollow figures such as opportunities to see. They see the number of followers a brand has a direct translation to opportunity to see brand messages. They promise that they can get a Facebook fan page X number of followers in X amount of time, and because it’s relatively easy to do so, they can deliver. And so they give the impression they’ve been successful because they’ve delivered what they told you they would. This does not mean that it’s been a successful social media campaign though, far from it.

If they aren’t engaging with users, having conversations, learning what consumers think and want then ultimately it’s a failure. So what if every time you put out a message 1000 people have the opportunity to see it, if no one cares about, understands or wants to see the message, then it’s pointless. Just as pointless (and potentially dangerous) as getting PR coverage about a new burger in a vegetarian magazine would be.

Social media isn’t just about reach, it’s about engagement. Until you start putting follower numbers into context, and showing the value of these followers then they’re just meaningless numbers.

A good example of social currency is gossip, people will share rumours with their friends, who in turn will share with their friends, which is why rumours can spread like wildfire. But the key to understanding social currency is to understand the psychology behind sharing, why do people want to share? Ultimately people share when it benefits them, when they get some personal value out of sharing. The single most important component of social currency is personal value.

Basic human needs

Personal value itself is typified by fulfilling two basic human needs, the need to belong and the need to feel significant.

Humans are social beings; we are compelled to identify ourselves as belonging to groups of similar people. This need to belong is the most important element of personal value – people share content to show that they belong to a certain group of people. People will join groups on Facebook to show that they belong, quite literally, to that group of people. Just as people will tend to dress themselves according to quite specific social groups, the things we share and advocate are just another way of identifying ourselves with a group.

Within these groups individuals want to feel valued in that group; they want a feeling of significance. People who share content do so to get recognition from others in that group and in doing so give themselves significance. An offline analogy is an individual in a group of friends who always wants to be the one telling jokes; they gain significance by sharing jokes with their friends.

Social currency therefore not only provides value to the end users, but also provide additional personal value as a form of currency when shared.

Four further types of Value

Personal value can be broken down into four further types of value: Utility, Knowledge, Entertainment and Monetary.

Utility

This is literally something useful, be it a piece of useful content such as a “how to” guide or a fully fledged branded utility. Branded utilities are where brands create something that provides a tangible, useful benefit to users, such as banks providing applications that allow users to compare the various interest rates

Knowledge

A different kind of value can be gained when people share knowledge within their group. This can start from people who remind their friends that a mutual friend’s birthday is approaching right through to thought leaders in industry, who produce white papers and innovative new methods of working. The personal value is a reward for individuals who share their knowledge; they are valuable members of that community.

Entertainment

Probably the oldest and certainly one of the most common, types of social currency that provides personal value from entertainment is the joke. People tell each other jokes to make members of their group laugh, just as they share funny videos with their social networks and email each other funny pictures. Providing entertaining social currency to your peers gives you significance within your peer group.

Monetary

The final type of value a user can receive from social currency is monetary or financial value. A good example is the online coupons that brands encourage their customers to share with their friends, entitling them to a discount. It is of value not only to the end user, but also to the sharer, as their community gives them kudos for sharing the discount.

Multiplying the effect

These values are not delivered in isolation however, the types of value can be combined to provide stronger social currency, with common examples including useful financial knowledge in the form of “How to live on a budget” guides or entertaining information, which explains why infographics are so widely popular.

At the end of the day, if your brand doesn’t have social currency, if the content it produces isn’t entertaining or useful, if it doesn’t share knowledge or provide a monetary benefit to users then people won’t share it. So what social currency does your brand have?

Now attempting to create a social media campaign is outdated. Now is the age of integration. Creating any element of a campaign in isolation is not only the sign of a poor strategy, but it’s a wasted opportunity.

Social media should now be considered in the brainstorming sessions of fully integrated campaigns, and no longer reserved just for seeding or tacked on to the end of a larger campaign.

Just like any other medium, social media works better as part of a fully integrated offline and online strategic approach to campaigns, with each element complimenting and amplifying each other.

Just having a Twitter a page doesn’t cut it anymore. Having an isolated social media campaign is a stupid idea.

Having a Facebook page or a Twitter profile isn’t a means to an end. And simply stating that you want to “engage with your community” doesn’t count as a strategy. Engagement isn’t a strategy. It’s barely even an objective.

You wouldn’t just create a website for your brand. You wouldn’t start an advertising campaign without knowing first why you are advertising, who you are advertising to and what effect you want your adverts to cause. And you certainly shouldn’t start an advertising campaign as a silo; it needs to belong to a wider strategy that considers brand, tone of voice and long term goal. The same needs to be true of your ventures into social media, you need to plan for success.

Facebook and Twitter are channels, tactics, and you need to understand their role and place these tactics in your broader communications strategy. Until you are ready to do this, you probably should not set up a Facebook page or a Twitter profile