Reading into the not getting of Facebook & Twitter

I read a blog today talking about people who don’t understand social media platforms and their potential. The main message to be extracted from the entire article/blog was this idea of ‘ambient awareness’. The meaning of such a label was the idea and concept of being in close proximity to someone and picking up on their thoughts, moods and behaviours.

This made me think about the connection between the need for brands to project a message continually to its audience in a manner of ways, over a progressive period, to develop a relationship with their audience.

This links to the age old idea of cognitive processing, i.e. how we absorb information and assimilate this into meaning, leading to memory schemas which collect and store brand information, images and perceptions. Much like we do about our friends on a day-to-day basis, learning their traits and habits.

This becomes even more relevant in today’s media environment. The article discusses this idea of collecting posted information (on Facebook, Twitter etc) together, over time, bringing little snippets into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends and family members.

This paradox of ambient awareness is such a relevant concept in todays development of social media and its use. Reading one individual twitter post or status update is irrelevant, mundane and insignificant - take for example reading a strangers update, one entry means nothing, it is simply babble. However, following the entries throughout a day becomes intriguing, almost like a short story or window into their world. Follow them for a week and it may lead to an insight and connection never expected from this original insignificant entry. This repetition and continuous message exposure can lead to the development of a more comprehensive picture and allows an educated view to be created of that person/brand from which you make judgements and decisions, to further develop intelligent strategies moving forward.

When comparing these data types, such as a brand image, product/service information or simple social updates, we often lose the point or message when looking at information individually without a context or repetition. It therefore becomes increasingly important to understand and embrace the overlap of approaches to social media usage and the basics of advertising principles. Maybe it is because of the industry I am in or the interest I have in the subject, but I still find it difficult to understand how people really don’t ‘get’ the importance of social media and the information it can bring.

Tapping into these little snippets of information and the way in which people express themselves using social media, can become invaluable in relationship building between friends, but also consumers and their brand. We are much more likely to develop perceptions and judgements when we are fed up-to-date information in a way we find intriguing and almost something we kind of feel privileged to have access to. It is not necessarily the message which is the only differentiator but the way in which is portrayed and updated.

Is there more of a need for transparency in both approach and execution, to achieve a deeper level of understanding on both sides of the fence? What I mean by such a statement/question is as we inform our friends of different stages we go through to get to the end of the day, do we, as brands, need to inform people of the development stages of a campaign or identity to truly create interactive engagement?

Moving back-to-basics? The opportunities and plethora of different media strategies and options, marketing strategies, creative messages and tools, creates a clutter which often leads to a loss of simple elements of success i.e. targeting/talking to people at the right time, in the right place, with the right message.

Behavioural targeting is the direction in which we are evolving, which so closely links to what I talked about above. This idea of gathering as much information as possible on each individual in order to group and segment them, which allows us to reach them with the best message through right channel - oh simple! There is a phenomenal amount of research and analysis on behaviours, attitudes and all the elements that make up people. However the simple task of obtaining this information direct from the source (through social media) is often overlooked.

The simple update of Eve is ‘checking her emails’. Obsolete, of no relevance… however take this into account when looking over the course of the updates, which may have ‘gmail is down and Eve is pissed off’, and now you know what email account I have, and when I’m checking my email. Where am I likely to be? Was my last update ‘Eve is on lunch’? What messages am I exposed to? I am also obviously on Facebook at this time, but what have I done on Facebook? Uploaded photos? Wrote on a friend’s wall? Created a group?

Ok then the update changes to ‘I am back to work for the afternoon’. So it’s likely I spend my lunch time on the internet, and if you check these over the week, you have an insight into my key behaviour - when I have time to browse web pages, consume brands and most importantly, you have a channel through which to target your message at me. How many people see it like this? I know it isn’t as simple as all that but you understand what I am getting at right?

Let’s go back to direct marketing and the euphoric scenario of being able to send one message to one person, a relevant message at the right time. Ok in reality I know this is very far stretched, and a lot further down the line, but in the meantime surely this information and way in which we update and collect information, on small insignificant details provides, over time, quite a rich data source which will allow the closer segmentation of groups to directly target and provide more effective communication and strategy?