Spotlights on Apple
Last week the spotlight was firmly on Apple. Unfortunately we learned that Steve Jobs had died at his home on October 5. Just a day before he died the new iPhone 4S was launched and created a big online hype (Infographic). Fans of Apple could follow it through the ‘Let’s talk iPhone’ live blog. Steve Jobs’ death initiated a wave of social media interactions. #iSad and #ThankYouSteve had been trending on Twitter. A lot of pictures appeared showing either fans remembering Steve Jobs with candles or posting videos of older interviews with him. Fans, artists, and designers paid tribute to the Apple co-founder.
Steve Jobs: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to love what you do.” #ThankYouSteve
The relationship between Social Media and TV
We’ve seen TV and the Internet together already: WebTV, video on demand, web series etc. But now we are seeing TV being heavily influenced by social media. NM Incite and Nielson found out that there is a significant relationship between online buzz and TV ratings. Their statistics reveal that mainly persons aged 18-34 years and the younger generation between 12 and 17 engage on social media platforms about a TV series, reality TV and other TV shows. Radha Subramanyam, Nielsen’s senior vice president of media analytics, points out: “As television becomes more digital – in the form of sharable video clips or articles about a show’s premiere, for example – social media will continue to play an increasingly important role in how consumers discover and engage with various forms of content, including TV.”
Analysis demonstrated online impacts at a show’s premiere, in the middle of the season and at the finale. While the younger generation have a strong social media buzz at a premiere of a show, the older viewers interact stronger towards the finale. Are you engaging in dialogues about TV shows on social media as well?
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. “The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%”, it says on their website.
The demonstration “Occupy Wall Street”, which was mostly ignored by the media in the beginning, soon became big news through social media. #OccupyWallStreet on Twitter, many videos on YouTube and a high level of engagement on Facebook meant that the demonstration was very well seeded in the media.
The Tumblr blog “We are the 99 percent” shows pictures of hand written messages from people who lost their job or who are looking for a permanent position and couldn’t find one for a long period of time. Many messages contain a list of debts they have gained through unemployment or loans for their education. People commit their lack of understanding for the government’s denial or shifting paying back debts.
It’s brilliant to see how engaging and committed people are these days. Many other cities got involved and the impact on social media is growing. We will definitely keep an eye on it!
Right Here All Over (Occupy Wall St.) from Alex Mallis on Vimeo.
