Social Media and Politics
Anthony Weiner resigned this week from the House of Representatives. His resigned was uttered on the terms that he has no longer able to carry out his duties as a public servant due to his involvement in an explicit sexual relationship with a woman who was not his wife, carried out via Twitter. When the scandal initially broke a few weeks ago, it came as a shock. Anthony Weiner, a rumored favorite for the coveted Mayorcy of New York City, was a popular young democrat with a bright political career ahead of him. A native of New York city, the young democrat married Hillary Clinton’s aide Human Abedin, causing only further excitement that such a strong and well-received political alliance was sure to have only one path: the Whitehouse. The two were pinned as the up-and-coming stars of the Democratic Party. When the news broke that Congressman Wiener had sent nude pictures of himself along with overly sexual messages on Twitter, many were caught by complete surprise and dismay. Following the release of the transcripts of his conversation with the Las Vegas black-jack dealer the dismay turned to disgust, which quickly turned to anger. with the house already strongly divided between the Democrats and Republicans, the last thing either needed was an excuse to launch upon a moral war. House democrats quickly clamored that he was needed to depart due to possible party repercussions. Weiner resigned with the promise of a shattered career ahead of him. Yet his cyber-popularity only increased.
Anthony Weiner is not the first politician, nor the first prominent public figure, to suffer detrimental career damage due to the emerging popularity of social media. Only this year American politicians have been caught soliciting for sex, hiding mistresses, and the worst, love children. English athletes have been named as adulterous traitors, and the list does not stop here. Social media, initially used as a marketing tool for those in the limelight, was a fresh new approach for fundraising, campaigning, and even bridging the connection between local constituents and the celebrity in discussion. Social media is now used as an investigative tool as well. Not only is it the platform for attracting attention, but also for analyzing the statements made me those in public positions. The words, actions, and even interests of prominent figures can now be used for or against them.
Regarding the resignation of Anthony Weiner and the increasing muti-utility of social media platforms, it is interesting to assess the actual position that these new news forms play in today’s society. Even more interesting, is to note the now importance of these social media platforms. When at one time it was considered novice or even presumptuous to have strong internet connections, it is now quite the norm for those in public positions. The debate that has arisen on these two issues are very clear. Some think that social media should be protected as a means of personal privacy, while others argue that these websites are for public property and the contact that is displayed on them is accountable. When at one times those who were in public positions were only sure to cover their footprints leading to scandal, today’s public figures now must make sure that even their smallest of actions are clean.
The question that should then arise is, what kind of people are we holding accountable? To what extent should social media matter? Despite Anthony Weiner’s creepy connection, without social media he would have perhaps been able to resurrect his once-promising political career. Now the man who was pegged as the future President of the United States will be unlikely able to run for even his child’s school board. Is this fair? What about the legislation that Anthony Weiner has helped to pass? His strong knowledge of security issues and his now even marital connection to the Middle-East? Does no one care that a future most influential man will not be able to help the world at all? With the emergence of twitter we can most assuredly answer the previous question with a resounding no. Whether the accountability of social media is morally or legally correct, we will have to wait for further scandal to discuss. For now, the scandals will continue to emerge, social media will stand as unregulated, and public figures world-wide will feel the wrath of the internet waves. At least we can be sure that Twitter will keep blackberries dinging with alerts of political sexual scandals for a few years to come.
Finance and Football
During my finance class, Company Financial Analysis, I came accross an interesting concept of Ownership and Investment when my teacher began lecturing on the English football league (Premiere League) and its football clubs.
A few years ago, football clubs were often owned by rich and successfull businessmen who, thanks to the capital accumulated from their professional activities, invested their money in their favorite sports, specifically local clubs. At that time, football represented a hobby for large corporate business owners. At the same time, this ownership acted as a means for advertisement for the corporate alliances of the owners. For example, Bill Kenwright (born in Liverpool, Merseyside), a leading West End theatre producer, is the chairman of Everton Football Club since 1984.
With the effect of globalisation and the increase of revenue generated by the Premiere League (today, the second most profitable league in the world after the German one following Deloitte’s Sports Business Group),investors from all over the world look at football clubs as a means of investment. We can site an example when using Malcom Glazer, an American businessman and sports team owmer, who took over Manchester United in 2003 for a total of 800 million pounds, which he financed through a sequence of different share acquisitions. The trillion-dollar Sheikh Mansour (Manchester City) or John W Henry (Liverpool FC) followed both the same investment strategies.
It is also important to notice that football does not follow the usual economic model where customers adhere to a brand loyalty due to montetary reasons. Outside offootball, customers prefer products due to brand loyalty, popularity, or affordability. If a brand loses popularity or becomes inaffordable,customers are likely to look look towards competitors. As a result, brands often lose revenue and thus their instrinsic value. Football clubs do not operate as such. Football fans tend to support a team independently of results, but rather due to longevity of brand loyalty.For example, for family reasons (the grand dad and dad are supporting Man U so the sons and grand sons are supporting as well). I myself am a Liverpool fan, and despite the fact that the team has not won any major trophy since 2005 (UEFA Champions League), I continue buying shirts almost every year by because I am a “loyal fan”.
I have heard many times in the news that Liverpool was not profitable enough because of a lack of trophees and because of the relatively small revenue from tickets (Anfield “only” has around 45 000 seats) and thus was in difficult financial situation since the acquisition of the club by two American Businessmen Gillet and Hicks, which they aquired for 300 million pounds in 2006. This is not completely accurate. These 300 million pounds came mainly from different bank loans. When Hicks and Gillet took the club over, the club was basically debt free. In order to pay these loans back, they registered the 300 million as debt for the club which was therefore in charge of paying back its own purchase ! In other words, the two Americans did not spend any money to acquire a club that all of a sudden had enormous amount of debt. This was a “break even” operation for the two businessmen: no money spent (or pretty much), but an acquisition. The club, instead of buying new players and build a new stadium instead had to pay these loans back. The club found itself in a situation where its debt were more than 400 million pounds until John W Henry wiped it few months ago and bought the club for 300 million pounds.
This is the perfect example of the effects of financial deregulation and globalisation in football. Football in itself is still profitable (i.e the report from Deloitte’s Sports Business Group) regarding merchandisings and general revenues but these revenues must not be directed to investors directly but to the club itself (wages, capacities, marketing, etc.) in order to make sustainable revenues..
It was only a short time ago that the modest businessmen from the Mersey knew that principle and stuck to it to in order to keep enjoying their hobby which was watching football. May this principle be reminded to greedy investors from today.
Digital Marketing gains green goodness
This week, the United States passed its first monumental piece of green environmental legislation. A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid is the closest that the United States has come to releasing an official document on climate change thus far. The piece of legislation made international news and drew attention to the fact that even the most conservative of industrialized nations worldwide has recognized the need for a more sustainable future. This interesting aspect of this legislation is not necessarily in the framework itself, but within the opportunities that indirectly come from it. In ordering a smarter development of the energy grid of the United States, the US has commanded and funded the installation of greener applications into their entire electrical grid. They have acknowledged the need for greener energy consumption. As the largest energy consumers in the states are often those who lie within the corporate sector, this legislation also stands for the advancement of all things digital.
Digital marketing and media through internet sources has become immensely popular due to the ease, accessibility, and appeal to the technologically- inclined youth of today. The discussion of how beneficial digital applications of marketing can be for the environment has not thus far created a great dialog. But it is here that we can see yet another interesting aspect to the digital marketing sector. Not only do the computerized techniques cut down on physical material but they also encourage other firms to compete more through the internet air space.
In an age where even a few kilometers saved on the delivery of products can be counted as a positive contribution to carbon reductions, digital marketing can provide a new green source of public engagement. This piece of American legislation is extremely interesting as it points again to the need to modifications of current electrical grids and provides insight as to how economically important and environmentally friendly wireless communications can be. Even more interesting is this affirmation that anything associated with smart technology and wireless services can considered themselves, with the correct marketing scheme, as a green industry alliant. The relevancy of this piece of legislation to the course of Digital Marketing is providing a new insight of how digital marketing can yet again be the preferred method of marketing applications. Relying heavily on internet sources and the tracking and analysis of business through the internet, digital marketing can also be used for firms who are interested in greening their business operations. In a era where an accurate life cycle assessment (LCA) can highlight any sort of carbon hot spot digital marketing can reduce on all physical aspects of employee public engagement. In relying on digital techniques a firm can help to not only compete in one of the most preferred and strongest method of marketing but can also aim to do so in a green manner. For today’s eco-conciscious, the greener the better. This American legislation shows how yet again Digital Marketing can provide a wise business application.
Content Strategy and how to measure its success?
In her book called “Content Strategy for the Web”, Kristina Halvorson argues that people who make websites are focusing too mych on design or user research instead of focusing about the content itself, what she calls the “meat of the matter”. Her own words to define content strategy are “planning for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.” In other words, content strategists work on which content will they publish and why do they publish it.
The main elements of a cohesive content strategy are the following:
- key themes and messages: what do we want to say, what do we want to deliver to the users/readers
- content purpose: why do we want to deliver the content to the users/readers and how are they going to benefit from the it.
- links building and related content attributes: to offer judicious and related content to our main themes and messages. The goal being to add some “meat” (again!) to the matter. The goal being to create content that is interactive enough to keep the users/readers online.
- Search Engine Optimization: choosing the right key words in order for your content to be high ranked. It implies to foresee what terms are the users/readers going to type in their search engine and constantly think about new terms that match the content while attracting more and more traffic.
The obvious best way to measure success in digital publishing would be to monitor the website and look at: which page/content is the most read, the hot and cold points of the website, where do the readers/users come from, how much time do they spend, etc. To measure the success of your content strategy, it would also be interesting to set goals and look at qualitative and quatitative data related to post-startegy/ pre-strategy.
If the company use newsletters for example, the click through rates and bounce rates are the kind of data that would give the company an idea about the relevance of the content sent to its users/readers.
The other way I see is to “listen to customers”, gather their feedback, monitor forums so you can have some insights about the website and the content.
The first form I would like to use as new form emerging from digital publishing has already relatively slowly emerged. I am talking about eBooks you can read on new devices such as Kindle. Ebooks are electronic versiom of traditional print books that can be read by using a computer or an eBook reader (Kindle for example). In term of sales, the Kindle for example has been sold more than 8 million times in 2010 (following Bloomberg Businessweek) which can be considered as a promising sign. The ingredients of success are relatively simple: comfort of reading, accessibility (easy download and storage) as well as relatively low prices. The content being mostly text and images, the publishers did not need to adapt much it to the new devices (a page on the Kindle looks necessarily the same as on a print book). The only drawback I see it is that for many eBooks, especially bestsellers, the prices are similar and sometimes higher which could kill the format. On the contrary, I believe publishers should “surf” on that trend and propose different packages with attractive prices that could match readers’ interests. This is the key feature of that form I believe.
Podcats, like the ebooks, are a new form emerging from digital publishing that has already emerged. Podcasts are pre-recorded audio program that are posted to a website and are made available for download so that people can listen to them on their computer or mobile devices. Indeed, thanks to them, users can have access to their podcasts whenever thanks to an internet connection, for education purposes for example. In my personal case, during my financing classes, the teacher uses podcasts to give us more information about specific topics.
Both forms have seen their number of users increase manly because the development of new devices such as smartphone, Kindle and Ipad.
New devices like Smartphone, Kindle or Ipad are changing the way that content is published in the way that publishers need to think in place of the users and adapt the content to their behaviours. To integrate links to the content in order to offer the users more content related to the subject is one of them. The increasing importance of social media platforms also pushed the publishers to think about how to integrate these later to their content broadcasted on new devices. Indeed, users now want to make the most of the new devices and want to be able to share, on their social media platforms, the content they consult. Thus, the content and its form must encourage the users to do so on their Twitter or Facebook account for example. Unlike most of the PDFs often blamed by mister Tucker, my Digital Publishing teacher, the content provided on new devices must allowed the users to underline and quote a text for example. The goal being to optimize the usability of the content while offering a confort of use.
Obvious digital tools online readers use to access information are web-based aggregator such as Google Reader, NewsMonster or Bloglines. These tools can read RSS feeds from different online sources and aggregate them in one single place. The advantage for the online users is thus to have access to multiple source of news and content in few clicks.
However, the trend is now that online readers use social media websites like Twitter or Facebook to access information.
The first one is qualified as “best feed reader” by Don Reisinger in its post called “How Twitter replaced my RSS reader”. Reisinger describes how he slowly moved to Twitter in order to have access to information quicker and broader. Quicker because now Twitter is a support for breaking the news: to be the first one to announce the news even in a short amount of words is a race every news organisation runs. Reisinger takes the example of CNN’s and Fox NewsTwitter profiles that post updates sooner than their RSS feed updates. In general, Reisinger believe “Twitter’s updates are actually ahead of some of the RSS feed updates for some of [his] most trafficked sites.” In other words, Twitter is now becoming faster than most of aggregators and their RSS feeds: “I now know that by following other people, your chances of getting more news, and getting it faster goes way up (Reisinger).” Finally, Reisinger gives us tips in order to maximize the effectiveness of Twitter in getting news: “follow people so they can do the heavy-lifting, follow news sites so they mimic my RSS reader, and follow news aggregators to catch anything I might have missed from the first two groups.”
Facebook is also becoming a source of news for many online readers. In its blog post called “Facebook Could Become World’s Leading News Reader (Sorry Google)”, Marshall Kirkpatrick defines Facebook as a publishing, syndication and subscription platform where the interests of the reader, the publisher and the platform provider are all in sync. In his opinion, Facebook could thus become the first RSS readers in terms of users, which is not really surprising knowing that the social media platform already has hundreds of million users.
Both sites have in common that their users check their accounts regularly, at the very least, daily. They are becoming central hubs where people receive updates from brands, artists, blogs and news outlets. This is therefore logical that news are going to find their way right where online people are active now.
Lex Column: the column with no name.
As many of you know, my general interest in Marketing has some narrow limits and that is why I decided to take a break and pick a course entitled “Company Financial Analysis” (what a break some of you may say) as elective for my module C. As part of this class, it is mandatory to read the Financial Times (FT) and get used to the data provided in this quite complex newspaper. And at the begining of the class, our teacher, Mr. Bill Ryan, gave us a brief introduction of the newspaper and the main parts that organised the Financial Times.
He highlighted a part called “The Lex Column”. This is one of the most prestigous and important part of the newspaper, where the FT gives its views on some of the most important economic and financial stories each day. By tradition, the FT does not actually state who the writers of the column are but they are some of the most important journalists who work on the paper. I was particularly intrigued by this detail and start thinking (yes, sometimes I do..) about the reason for this anonymity.
The first reason of this anonymity that came to my mind is to protect the journalists: the Financial Times being read predominantly by people working in financial organisations, interpretations and financial decisions taken after reading this part could therefore be influenced by the content provided. In other words, incorrect data could lead to wrong business decisions and therefore readers could turn to the journalists and blame them for tehir column. Their credibility and reputation could therefore be weaken and, in the future, these journalists could be “black listed”/boycotted by the readers, thus challenging their financial skills and knowledge.
The other reason I see is to affirm the power of the company: no need to mention the journalist, if its written in the Financial Times, it must be true. In other words, the strong reputation and brand image are enough to attest the reliability of the newspaper that included this column first on Monday, 1 October 1945.
Another though that came to my mind is about the strong relationship that the newspaper must have with its journalists. Indeed, the journalists who write the colum, deliver the official words of the newspaper. The company must therefore have full confidence in the journalists because if the content proves to be wrong, the newspaper itself is going to be targeted by the readers.
I tried to find another example of anonymous articles I might have came accross during my readings but I do not have any. Any thoughts ?
