Flash mob – Oprah vs. T-Mobile

After recently joining Twitter, Oprah continues to successfully integrate social media into her overall reach.  Oprah kicked-off her 24th season with a choreographed flash mob in Chicago, Illinois.

Oprah seems to be doing her best to embrace the social web in her own celebrity way and yet many staunch online purists reject celebrities like Oprah because of their media power and international reach.  Oprah’s flash mob reportedly attracted 21000 plus people, that is impressive and yet I wonder.  Is that the largest amount possible for a flash mob?  Does it take a celebrity like Oprah to provide that kind of clout?  I’d say yes, in this world there are cynics, haters and the uninspired, as a result people are not as trusting.  Motivation to help others or freely join in has been tempered by a feeling of self-preservation and let the other guy do it, Oprah’s recognizable credibility is what makes the difference.

Frankly, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a “true” flash mob.  I’m not at all trying to take away from the fun energy that Oprah’s event produced, rather, just communicate that true flash mobs as I understand them are spontaneous micro-tribes generated by the people with little to no real preparation or plan.  This was inspired by a celebrity owned organization, choreographed, practiced and then deployed.  Certainly the effect was impressive but not exactly a raw groundswell.  Does anyone care?  I don’t think so.

My only reason for pointing this out is to demonstrate how mainstream celebrities are continuing to integrate these social media elements into their world and the evolution that comes along with it.  I believe this continued integration will raise the mass-adoption rate of social media to the next level.  Sure Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte and others have social web street cred and yet their reach into mainstream circles and overall house-hold name power is next to zero when compared to that of Oprah.

There is a convergence of the media savvy and Internet savvy, some are going kicking and screaming into this reality and others are embracing it.  Regardless of where you stand.  Oprah has entered social media and it seems she’s here to stay.

Now compare Oprah’s flash mob to that of the T-Mobile “Life is for sharing” advertising focused flash mob series and in most cases you’ll find a very different feel.  Sure, there are still elements that have clearly been choreographed and yet in several of these ads, T-Mobile has taken special care to leave the fringes of their effort untouched in the hopes that average unsuspecting citizens will spontaneously join in the fun.  In fact, I’ve found the reactions of the average citizens to be the most fun part of the experience.

T-Mobile – Liverpool Street Station.

Both approaches are highly successful and show slightly different approaches to mastering the concept of a flash mob.  I like them both for different reasons.  Now I sit and wonder when Edmonton will have it’s first serious flash mob?

Social media vs traditional advertising

When was the last time the number of “impressions” your ad campaign generated also told you how many conversations about your brand were happening in real-time?

When was the last time “frequency” explained how many times a customer mentioned your brand, product or service to others and the sentiment of that comment?

When was the last time the above information actually told you “why” people were buying your stuff?  Or why they didn’t buy?

The truth is, most organizations despite the decline are still spending large dollars in the traditional advertising space and are justifying these expenditures on metrics that are estimates in many cases.  Then those same executives look at social media investments with risk in their eyes, a lack of understanding and claiming there’s no way to measure.

Top executives claim there’s no budget for social media.

What they’re really saying is “we don’t understand.”  Then they provide a media buyer with $250,000.00 or more to go fire away at the big three, print, television, radio for a 90 day campaign.  Why?  Not because it’s necessarily the right answer but because it’s what they understand and the safe move.  Now in this recovering economy there are shifts in these patterns to be sure.  Much of the traditional ad industry is feeling the effects.

Every once and a while, I come across an executive who has thought the above questions through and has realized that the ability to hold conversations, build rapport, inspire action directly on a mass scale or one on one and track all of those activities is definitely appealing. “Welcome to the social web.”

Social media metrics do exist, they’re just different.

Social media is word-of-mouth advertising ON FIRE!  You have to change how you look at measuring things.  Measuring conversations is a hands on job.  You can’t just tally up the traffic numbers and say we won.  You have to dig deeper than that and it is possible to do so.

A strong online campaign will demonstrate “engagement” levels that will include a number of things.

My definition of social media “impressions” would constitute the number of times elements of your campaign get mentioned across blogs, articles, comments, video, images, mass-media, micro-sharing platforms, social networks.  This information would also include, “sentiment and influence within micro-tribes.”

Beyond just eyes seeing the message, many other things can be identified.  Did your message move or inspire further actions or discussion publicly online?  If it did, this can almost certainly be tracked.

What was the sentiment of action taken?  Are citizens blogging about your message, brand, product or service positively or negatively?  If they explain their position and why they feel the way they do that can be identified.  Did they spoof your television ad on Youtube?  Did they create a twitter hashtag and engage others on Twitter?

The interaction and what can learned within the social dynamics identified can help your organization understand your customer and their relationships or “social networks” better.  That understanding can lead to emotional engagements, emotional engagements can lead to influence and influence leads to action.  The social web is where you need to commit your resources long-term and you need to do it, yesterday.

Where’s the value?

The value is in the human connections and relationships generated between your brand and your customer.  Those connections properly nurtured will build loyalty and loyalty means repeat business and influencing new business.  The social web is the perfect environment for this.  That’s where the value is.  This doesn’t happen overnight and it isn’t easy.  However, the ability to amplify a message is immense and shouldn’t be ignored.  The problem isn’t with the social web, the problem is with current organizational mind-sets and it’s time for a change.  If you truly understood the social web, you’d never call it a fad.

• The Social Web Isn’t Just for the Young Anymore (gigaom.com)
• Forrester: Social networking grows up (infoworld.com)