During these past 3 historical weeks, I could not help but look at social media’s role in the revolution, especially for activists.  If, why and how did social media play a role?

It is evident to me that indeed social media has played multi-faceted roles at different stages of Egypt’s revolution (which I will detail in a future post).  Through this, an even greater underlying principle emerged:

Social media is built and designed to support social movements. The social media framework itself is a powerful underlying force that allows the momentum of movements to surge uncontrollably and organically.

A revolution, a movement, or any major social cause nourishes on unity, “people power,” advocacy, connectivity, grassroots mobilization, free expression and shared aspirations… all of which are inherently embedded within the social media skeleton and system. (Best example lies within Facebook). It is almost as if social media perfectly fits as a layer within a movement’s structure.  Here is a diagram to further illustrate this model, based on Facebook and Twitter as examples (click to enlarge):

The revolution did not happen because of social media, but social media is designed for revolutions.

Yes, revolutions successfully occured long before the internet, tv, radio or newspapers, but social media, unlike any other medium, is ideally structured for revolutions/causes, as illustrated in the above diagram.  It is now the first and last place for activists, because its capabilities are designed to allow activism to flourish.

With more time, interest and digital energy spent on social sites, social media is now a fundamental and integral component for today’s activist.  If anyone wants to challenge a status quo, energize and mobilize their network towards a cause…

• Where do you think they will go first?
• What will help them gather supporters and resources faster and more efficiently?
• What will allow them to connect, notify, and engage their base?
• What will help them easily organize events, rallies and get donations?
• What will help them recruit other activists and get their voices across?

This is exactly what the Egyptians net activists understood and exploited, especially around the shameless censorship of the Mubarak regime, which realized the power of social media and blocked the internet for some time during the revolution.  (My next blog post will focus on “the how,” recapping the creative social tactics of the Egyptian revolutionaries, along with the events on the ground and how social-based strategies leverage the momentum of the revolution).

At this very moment, desperate and freedom hungry activists in Algeria, Syria, and Yemen are following the Egyptian and Tunisian example and are not only getting to the streets but are also flocking to social media, in hopes of spawning similar revolutionary change in their countries.  The momentum continues.

What are your thoughts on this issue?

@hisom

Amid street protests, Twitter shuttered in Egypt…. and shortly after AP’s
report on a man being shot, the Internet and RIM are turned off.
www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/twitter-revolution/
Egypt’s ruling Mubarak administration has pulled the plug on Twitter,
underscoring the power of the site and other social networks as tools to
both coordinate and disperse news of a citizen uprising. Twitter, Facebook
and YouTube were widely used in Tunisia’s recent uprising and in Iran last
year.

Twitter topples Tunisia?
www.nationalpost.com/news/world/Twitter+topples+Tunisia/4148834/story.html
Excellent compilation of opinions from global experts regarding the
Tunisian uprising. According to the experts, Twitter was not responsible
for the success of the uprising, but rather served as an incredibly useful
tool thanks to its short message format, multi-platform access and the
ability to use it on cell-phones.

Human Rights Watch condemns Vietnam for media and Internet censorship
www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1614312.php/Human-Rights-Watch-condemns-Vietnam-for-repression-of-human-rights
The Human Rights Watch reports that bloggers, human rights defenders,
workers’ rights activists, democracy and anti-corruption campaigners have
faced intimidation, arrest, torture and imprisonment in Vietnam. The
country’s government has extended its regime of media and Internet
censorship and introduced new regulations for monitoring Internet use.

Thailand: Serious setbacks in respecting rights
www.trust.org/alertnet/news/thailand-serious-setbacks-in-respecting-rights
The Human Rights Watch also addressed recent setbacks in Thailand, where
freedom of expression was a casualty of a far-reaching government
censorship campaign that shut down thousands of websites and dozens of
community radio stations, TV and satellite broadcasts, and publications.

China – cheap shots at an increasingly open internet
http://www.chinahearsay.com/nick-kristof-discovers-net-censorship-in-china/
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tried his hand last week at
investigative journalism. After a thorough investigation, he announced in
his column that . . . China is censoring Internet content… I actually
like Kristof and respect his commitment to important topics.. this cheap
gimmick is beneath him and ridiculous.
Here Kristof outline his “ridiculous experiment” which rewards readers with
the one insight, “A Chinese moderator once explained to me that grunt-level
censors are mostly young computer geeks who believe in Internet freedom and
try to sabotage their responsibilities without getting fired.”
http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/01/24/article/nicholas_kristof_banned_in_beijing

Download this great presentation from here:

psfk.com/2010/11/which-nation-is-the-most-innovative.html

Japan leads in terms of total patents granted, but it’s the Republic of Korea that is the most efficient in its innovation – each dollar spent on research is likelier to result in a patent.

Tencent Profit Increases 52% on China Online Games Sales, Advertising Surge

bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-10/tencent-profit-rises-52-on-china-online-games-sales-update1-.html

The company had 636.6 million active user accounts for its QQ instant-messaging service at the end of September, compared with 612.5 million three months earlier, it said. The online- chat program had 18 times more subscribers than Microsoft Corp.’s MSN service in China at the end of last year, according to research company Analysis International.

How Baidu Won China

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_47/b4204060242597.htm

The company has a 73 percent share of the world’s largest Internet market by users, and has the fifth-largest market capitalization ($38.3 billion) among the world’s pure-play Internet companies. It’s now 57 percent bigger than Yahoo!.

Baidu’s stock price has more than doubled since January, when Google first disclosed … “a new approach” to China, with the company saying it would no longer censor search results.”Every once in a while a gift is handed to you. We handed one to Robin,” says Eric Schmidt CEO of Google.

Social Media Booming in Indonesia and India

While you weren’t looking, Indonesia became Facebook’s second largest market, Twitter’s fifth largest market, and the number ONE Foursquare nation. The social media boom in Indonesia is also spreading its influence to other Asian nations.

techcrunch.com/2010/11/06/hey-facebook-twitter-and-foursquare-zynga-and-i-are-in-indonesia-where-are-you/

The mobile social network Mig33, which boasts over two million Indian users, has just secured US $8.9 million, most from an Indonesian entrepreneur.

watblog.com/2010/11/09/mig33-raises-8-9-million-from-indonesian-entrepreneur/

India’s Challenge to Facebook

bbc.co.uk/news/business-11525627

Ibibo is making a good challenge on Facebook by developing a range of local relevant games. Those games include “The Great Indian Parking Wars”, where users collect points by parking “legally or illegally” and – in a very local touch – removing idle cows. Like its home base of Gurgaon, which has turned from a village near Delhi to a shining new city in a matter of years, Ibibo has come seemingly out of nowhere. Since it was set up in January 2007, Ibibo has massed 3.7 million users, making it the largest locally based social network in India.

Kik, the Skype of Text Messages, is Registering 250,000 New Users a Day

venturebeat.com/2010/11/05/kik-sms-growth/

(Thanks to Rohan Deshpande for the link)

Fashion Forward in China’s Booming E-Commerce Market.

bloggerinsight.com/blog

Chinese business to consumer fashion e-commerce has grown by 100% in the past three years. TaoBao controls 76% of China’s eCommerce, but increasingly growth will be driven by more sophisticated offerings that can differentiate on service and style. With Gap joining established Chinese forces such as VANCL and Taobao, the industry is poised to grow even more.

Bain & Co on Luxury in China

What luxury goods to Chinese consumers buy? Bain and Co. have just released their new study of the Chinese luxury market. Research points to a new generation of luxury shoppers. 67% of the growth in 2010 is from new consumers. Also, luxury interest in expanding from Tier 1 cities to China’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

bain.com/bainweb/PDFs/cms/Public/China_Luxury_Market_Study_2010.pdf

This Week

Must read – Google’s creative round up

The new eCommerce – Groupon

Asia – iPhone 4 launches in China and promptly sells out

Social – How Twitter will be bigger than Facebook

Twitter – The value of tweets

Creative – Data driven snowboards

Headlines

Must-Read of the Week:

A 120-slide journey through what Google describes as “the creative internet.” https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0Abmo0iWBO2gEZGY3cnc3dnpfMzM4Y3o2bmduZDY&hl=en&authkey=CJ2Ug_IF

The new eCommerce – Groupon

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/groupon-grows-leaps-bounds/story?id=11681785&page=2

Also:

Check out French Connection’s new sales channel on YouTube click on products at the end of the video to buy

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=frenchconnection&x=H-N2FgoAv_0&annotation_id=annotation_867522&feature=iv

Asia

iPhone 4 sells out in China

http://www.pcworld.com/article/206506/china_unicom_sells_100000_iphone_4s_in_first_four_days.html

Also:

While smaller companies and start-ups are enjoying the low costs and quick speed of cloud computing, Asia’s larger companies are avoiding it due to security fears and legal regulation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/technology/11cloudasia.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Asia&st=Search

Mobile research guru Greg Sterling writes about how, contrary to the beliefs of some, the world’s biggest mobile markets will continue to evolve in isolation from one another. http://internet2go.net/news/asia/ending-myth-asian-mobile-usage-patterns

Social

How Facebook could be bigger than Google in 5 years

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/02/facebook-bigger-google/

Tw$$t$

Social Revolution

(Thanks to John Yucisin thanks for the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng

Social Plugins

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150210521510484 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB0hrJ_ZZzc&feature=player_embedded#!

Tweet/Like Promos

Create awareness around your promos just like Uniqluo lucky counter http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_110190609043963&ap=1 – !/Generous.Skoda

(Thanks Patou for the links)

Plus – a massive social media infographic for B2B

http://www.insideview.com/images/social-media-infographic.png

Innovation

The technological benefits of a physically aware Internet are far more environmentally friendly than our current system.

http://mashable.com/2010/10/13/sensors-internet

Amazon’s new venture for its popular Kindle platform are “singles” will comprise of pieces that are shorter in length than your typical novel or even novella, and will sell for as low as forty-nine cents.http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20019303-1.html

A  demonstration of what is actually unique about gaming’s most famous developer’s newest offering.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/12/the-3dss-glasses-free-3d-explained/

“Underground” musician EmperorX  is literally burying cassette tapes of his new songs and then sending fans on a treasure hunt through the very Web2.0 medium of GPS coordinates. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101010/20312611349/underground-musician-buries-music-underground-literally-for-fans-to-find.shtml

Business Matters

A comprehensive list of legal squabbles in the tech world. Important to note that the companies whose revenue is decreasing tend to be the ones launching more lawsuits. http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/12/who-is-suing-whom/

According to the report on Google’s windmills, this $5 billion investment could provide electricity for two million households. 

http://searchengineland.com/not-hot-air-google-investing-in-offshore-wind-energy-52738

Creatives

Snowbaords get connected. What happens when Nokia teams up with Burton  (thanks to Adam Morris and Brian Vella)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiCv_7RxBh8

3D Wonderbra poster ad

http://billboardom.blogspot.com/2010/09/wonderbra-billboard-in-3d.html

Virgin America’s Awkward Family Photos competition

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/contests/awkward-family-vacation-photo-contest/

Art made from a single sheet of paper

http://artbns.com/amazing-art-a-single-sheet-of-paper/

Project 10100 by Google

http://www.project10tothe100.com/intl/EN_GB/index.html

Help write this newsletter (please!) – If you see anything interesting send it to:

Barney.loehnis@ogilvy.com (@barneylo) & Michael.mcclelland@ogilvy.com

The sheer number of impressions this launch has generated is in itself impressive. But what is even more impressive is the use of early adopters and key influentials to drive the story, enthusiasm, excitement and buzz for Apple, not the company itself.

Remember that Apple is not a company that is that into social media, yet check out the Twitter hashtag #ipad and end user blogs to get a sense for the mountain of coverage and interest generated for the iPad.

How does it do this? Good old-fashioned smart PR and a communications strategy that relies on the magnification effect of early adopters and influentials to amplify launch noise via traditional PR, Word of Mouth (WoM) buzz and aspirational excitement.

Here’s some of the ground rules:

1. Carefully pick and choose your hero product(s) for the year and put as much wood behind these arrows as you can. The iPad was THE launch of 2010 for Apple. The company maintains ongoing influencer relations, a thorough reviewer’s program, and ongoing engagement for other products, like their laptops, iPods, etc., but the focus was iPad and later this year iPhone OS version 4.0. That’s it. Laser-like focus, picking and backing your product bets, not spreading the wealth across a wide product range that all cry out for PR support, even though they may be close to end-of-life (EOL) and have reached the downward side of the S-curve. The other products bask in the halo of the hero products. See what the iPod did for Macintosh sales post launch? See what the iPhone has done for iPad sales?

2. Focus on long term influencer and early adopter relations and engagement. These are your natural allies. Cultivate them, let them talk for you because they ultimately carry far more weight and credibility than your own Press Releases, blog posts or advertising. Engage with not just technology influencers, but with business, social and celebrity folk that give you brand cache and style. It’s no accident that Stephen Fry is an Apple fan boy, so is half of Hollywood, thanks to decades of engagement with product placement on set and off set, with the stars themselves. Every episode of Seinfeld has a Macintosh and a small statuette of Superman in the background. Check it out next time re-run comes on. At one point, Jerry Seinfeld had a Mac too (and probably still does even though he did ads with Bill Gates last year).

So how does this translate into the iPad launch? How do these uber-strategies map with launch tactics? Well, here’s a synopsis:

The iPad launched officially on April 1, but embargoes were set for March 31. This means a wave of launch buzz and hype 24 hours prior to people being able to buy one (not counting the rumours and speculation in the prior nine months).

Key influencers were seeded with Product Verification & Testing (PVT) units three to four months out in some cases, depending on when these units were deemed stable enough and of sufficient quality to pass muster for people that will forgive non-production machine foibles because they love the technology and because they consider themselves Apple-insiders. These units went to key Apple business partners/friends (remember Google CEO Eric Schmidt got a pre-production iPhone and not so surreptitiously flashed it at Davos, where it stole the headlines rather than dry economic prognostications?), celebrities, technology gurus, etc. Also note that they all honoured the strict Apple NDAs — no insider wants to be ostracized and get thrown out of the club.

Journos/key bloggers in the US (a very select few, high impact folks) had their iPads under NDA for a week prior to launch, enough for them to play and enjoy, but not enough time for them to be too heavily critical. Launch reviews reflect that and it’s commonsense when you think about it. The shine always rubs off the shiny new toy the longer you have it. This early enthusiasm sets the tone for the launch coverage, providing the initial launch gestalt.

Celebrity Twitter-ers helped fuel the social media buzz. Stephen Fry was on the US West Coast at launch (funny how that happened) and put up video of the un-boxing of his iPad. He openly Tweeted he had one a day prior to the rest of the population. Robert Scoble did the same thing, except for the video of the unboxing (he later went out and bought two more iPads because his family kept hijacking his — and Tweeted about it). Reviews popped up the day before the official launch by Walt Mossberg and David Pogue in the US — two of the most highly respected tech journos in the country. Surgical media placement and engagement for maximum impact rather than a broad ‘hit as many as you can’ approach most companies take.

Foreign (that is, non-US) media got flown to a glitzy New York event and even if there was no pricing for their markets, they got to play with units at launch in salubrious surroundings and with high profile Apple execs. They in turn also had the opportunity if they were keen enough to buy their own units in the US, which judging by the coverage, a good few did, thereby continuing the buzz momentum.

And the result is, as you can see, a wave of initial great coverage that drives WoM, then sales and sets the tone.

More importantly its a self-reinforcing cycle of clever, surgical market engagement that fuels Apple’s mystique as a cult rather than as a technology company.

And the interesting thing is that other companies with ‘insanely’ great products could be doing the same to build their own mystique and stories. Mass communications doesn’t have to be massive, just smart.

Postscript: The iPhone OS 4.0 was announced a few days ago. Only Apple developers are supposed to have the beta code for testing. Stephen Fry, who last time I checked can’t cut a line of code, Tweeted yesterday that he had just installed it on his 3G iPhone. General availability for the masses is not expected until the northern hemisphere summer/autumn (fall).

Hurry! Space is limited for this 30-minute webinar and registration is required.

Join the award-winning Social Media team from Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for a free 30-minute online seminar powered by Citrix GoToWebinar and done in partnership with The Wall Street Journal Asia.

This webinar will provide concrete examples, action plans and case studies, including:

· 5 key steps for a business-to-business strategy;
· How to build and engage a community of potential and current customers;
· Real-life case studies from successful business-to-business strategies;
· The highly popular – and now extended – Question and Answer section;
· Much, much more…

The seminar will be led by Brian Giesen a senior regional strategist in Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team and moderated by Graham White, Managing Director of Howorth Communications in Sydney.

Join us Wednesday, 3 March at 11:00am (Hong Kong time):

http://bit.ly/aWsvrI

Last week Google announced it’s real time search feature, which I believe is set to forever change the way we think about and use search.

If you haven’t seen it in action yet I recommend you go to the Google home page and search for something topical like climate change.

In the results some movement should catch your eye and there they’ll be – real time search results. Take a moment to just sit back, relax and let the strangely compelling waterfall of information wash over you.

Once you wake from the dull, Google-induced trance you’ll have hopefully experienced an epiphany similar to mine:

Right at this moment people all over the world are talking about you, your business, your brand, your event, whatever it may be, and now as soon as they say it – Google will display it.

So how are we going to influence the conversation and harness the power of real time in 2010?

What do hydrants, voicemails and denial have in common?  They’re all now closely associated with the Tiger Woods brand, according to new research from Nielsen Online.

Today, Nielsen Online provided me with a Brand Association Map demonstrating the impact of the controversy on the Tiger Woods brand – based on analysis of online discussion about Tiger Woods both before and after the controversy.

Not surprisingly, as a result of the recent controversy the Tiger Woods brand has gone from being closely associated with video games, golf and other sports to other, well, less wholesome topics.

While the jury’s still out on how long it will take for the Tiger Woods brand to recover, one thing’s for certain – these less wholesome associations will take far longer to fade away.