Category: Articles

The actual birth date and age of the hashtag is unknown. Its early years are surrounded in mystery, leaving many to speculate to its true life story. Seeking public approval from a young age, the hashtag tried on many monikers and identities, making it difficult to trace a linear life story. However, most accept that the hashtag has distinguished origins and was always destined for a life of fame. Today, it is one of the most powerful and frequently used tools in public affairs campaigns. However, it’s journey to becoming a titan of online conversations was not always a smooth one, and you should consider both its life story and shifting cachet when seeking its services.

Early Life

The hashtag’s ancestors hail from Ancient Rome, from the renowned Libra Pondo, or ‘pound in weight’ line. An established and respected name, the family business began in the 14th century (during the late Medici rule) and was active throughout Rome. Their crest of ‘lb’ marked the weight of various goods and it was often stylized with a bar across the top of both the ‘l’ and the ‘b’ to indicated the connection between the two letters and to ensure that the ‘l’ was not mistaken for the number 1. When the family immigrated to North America, a misunderstanding at the immigration desk, so common to new arrivals, resulted in a name change and the stylized Libra Pondo ‘lb’ became the # and referred to, informally, as ‘the pound sign’. Once in North America, the Libra Pondos carried on the family business of indicating pound units under their new crest, and as they established themselves in North America they also branched into new ventures, such as indicating general numbers.

Referred to simply as ‘the number sign,’ the hashtag spent its childhood in a completely different sphere than its current fast-paced life of fame — moving around the countryside, growing up in the slow-paced and pastoral landscapes of chess games, proof-reading, and cartography. Precocious and something of a prodigy, it received the honour of representing a move that results in a checkmate in chess when still in its infancy; moving into proof-reading, it shouldered responsibility beyond its young age and took on the role of indicating that a space should be inserted. In adolescence, the hashtag experienced a fit of restlessness and decided to travel abroad. Wanting to differentiate itself from convention and the family business, the hashtag began experimenting, and upon graduation, embarked on your typical post-secondary Eurotrip. The hashtag found alternative work slightly outside of the standardized family business while on sojourn in Sweden. Living far from its familial traditions and ties, it explored its artistic proclivities and settled into a more ‘European’ and ‘free’ lifestyle, marking the locations of lumber yards on Swedish maps.

Yet, a return to North American life was inevitable. While it enjoyed the bucolic and sleepy pace of Swedish cartography, the quiet life was not for the hashtag and it could not deny its ambition and thirst for the limelight. However, after years of living abroad on a meager cartographer’s stipend, the hashtag’s finances were strained. Having rejected the family line of work, this was no prodigal return, and it could not avail itself of the Libra Pondo resources. Thus, with no other options, the hashtag settled in New Jersey and took up work with a new and exciting telephone company.

Early Career

In 1968, Bell Laboratories, creator of the Touch Tone phone, wanted symbols to use with their new technology and even out the numbers on their keypad grid. The company sent researchers across North America to assess public opinion on what they would like included alongside the numbers on their dial pad. Being referred to as ‘the number sign,’ the hashtag was a natural selection, and was taken on by Bell Laboratories, where it made its debut on their new phone pad. Incidentally, this is where it met its close friend the asterisk, also a new addition to the dialing pad. Thanks to their lineage, both the hashtag and the asterisk were already familiar to computer systems and the standard QWERTY keyboard, and they enjoyed success in their new employment. Despite its achievements, however, the hashtag still wanted a name and legacy separate from its family line. While at Bell Laboratories, it changed its name to ‘the Octothorpe’ and asked to be credited as such in the phone manuals.

The hashtag toiled for some time in steady employment, but low-level celebrity. Sure, it was ubiquitous, but it still hungered for greater fame than simple name-recognition and procedural convenience— something a little more Hollywood and little less textbook. Looking to hit it big, it jumped on the opportunity to, yet again, be involved with new and exciting technology. In the late 1990s, the Internet was catching fire, and the hashtag searched for avenues that would present new challenges and uncharted territory. After an exhausting search, it finally found work in the unregulated, unfiltered, and underground realm of chat rooms. Exploring the dark corners of Internet Relay Chats (IRC), the hashtag threw itself into the heady and reckless universe of instant communication, usernames, and slang. While its family still enjoyed quiet mainstream success, the hashtag became a member of the secret group of elemental symbols, The Glyphs (rumoured to be affiliated with the Free Masons and Illuminati. Various theories suggest that together, these three groups are responsible for the success of some of the most powerful figures in the world). Other notable, but less famous members of The Glyphs include the slash, the pilcrow (aka paragraph mark), the interrobang, and the manicule. Driven and competitive, the hashtag quickly gained prominence within the community, appearing before subject titles to mark different topics and channels of conversation in IRCs.

Fame

Into the 2000s, the hashtag was powerful and respected, but in secret. After years of dominating online backroom conversations and being employed by the technological elite, the hashtag became a crossover hit in 2007, when it was thrust into mainstream spotlight by communications giant, Twitter.

Twitter’s designer, Chris Messina, drew from his experience in IRCs and suggested the team use the hashtag to indicate different topics and create groups on their burgeoning communications platform. In a blog response to Chris and his suggestion, Stowe Boyd referred to the hashtag as such, instead of as the ‘pound sign’, for the first time in mainstream record. The hashtag immediately seized upon its new identity and prepared itself for the massive exposure this new social media platform offered.

Soon everyone wanted a piece of the hashtag. Even Twitter rival, Facebook, could not deny its star power and incorporated it into its social media interface. Instagram and Google + were quick to follow. Instagram in particular decided to employ the hashtag at every chance, where it was immediately swarmed by its millennial groupies who hastened to attach it to everything from #grateful, to #sorrynotsorry, to #brunch. With new fame and fortune the hashtag was no stranger to the #riseandgrind, and was forced to start every morning accompanying millions of Instagram and Twitter users on their daily trips to the gym and afterward, join them for breakfast.

Backlash

Like many celebrities in the 21st-century world of constant information and marketing, the hashtag experienced overexposure. Similar to other superstars such as JLO, Ben Affleck, and virtually every boy band in the early 2000s, the fact that the hashtag was everywhere became a reason to hate it. Suddenly, once a celebrated and respected member of communications groups, it was a source of derision and sarcasm.

This backlash reached its climax in 2013 with the infamous late-night Jimmy Fallon skit. Joined by Justin Timberlake, the two celebrities mocked the excessive use of the hashtag and inflicted untold injury to its reputation (the hashtag briefly considered seeking damages, but ultimately, decided that would only do further harm to its brand). The skit culminated with ‘#hashtag’, painfully depicting that its overuse had rendered the hashtag, essentially, useless. Reeling from the blow, it took a step back and lowered its public profile. After the skit, people were less enthusiastic in employing the hashtag and for a time, it was notably absent (although not completely gone) from the tweets and posts of cutting-edge social media users, such as journalists, writers, and editors.

This is most clearly seen in Twitter’s daily ticker of trending tops. In recent years, the hashtag has begun to slip from the headlines of today’s news. Recently, Twitter’s ‘trending’ account, a live updated log of the top issues on Twitter, has begun to include topics that do not include a hashtag. While this space was once completely dominated by the hashtag, new algorithms and Twitter’s realization that the hashtag is only used in particular instances resulted in a slip from prominence.

Humanitarian work and campaigns

While away from the mainstream spotlight, the hashtag became involved in various political and human rights causes. Becoming affiliated with various advocate groups, the hashtag became involved with some of the biggest online movements and conversations of the 21st century. From #YesAllWomen, #BlackLivesMatter, #BringBackOurGirls, to corporate outreach like #BellLetsTalk, the hashtag was instrumental in drawing attention to important issues online. This wasn’t completely uncharted territory for the hashtag: it came up working on causes, such as Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential run, when it was employed on the #askobama campaign.

With these causes, the hashtag realized its true worth within the social media realm: that it is uniquely suited to transcend geographical space and connect like-minded people. The hashtag’s humanitarian work demonstrated that it is no mere marketing tool, but a useful part of raising awareness and effecting change. The ability with which the properly employed hashtag can rally people and focus them on an issue is unparalleled on today’s social media platforms.

Employing the hashtag

Now, the hashtag is more selective in its employ. While it once latched on to any phrase or tagline in hopes of stealing more and more spotlight, with its age, maturity, and experience it has somewhat receded from the public eye to more practical and logical applications. If you are attempting to engage the hashtag in its services for your public affairs issue, you should remember its history and use these guidelines to ensure a successful working relationship:

Pick one:

At this stage in its career, the hashtag does not like to be overemployed. Like others who have survived the social media boom, the hashtag has realized the value of strategic restraint. As with most established tools, its power come in its practicality. You should not employ the hashtag multiple times for multiple phrases and idioms related to your cause or issue. If you do, it’s distinction and usefulness is diminished. Going back to its roots, the hashtag prefers to be employed for its organizational and research capabilities. To gain awareness, you want users to be able to easily search and find all of the content related to your public affairs issue. Thus, you should decide on one appropriate phrase that encapsulates your campaign as a whole and that can be applied to your messaging. If you are running multiple issue campaigns, use your best judgement as to whether you should engage the hashtag for separate phrases for each campaign or one overall brand hashtag. In every instance of employ, at most, you should use only one to two other hashtag phrases in conjunction in a single post, such as with affiliated causes.

Be specific:

The hashtag recommends that you do not make your selected phrase too long or too wordy: brevity is key, and while the hashtag appreciates style, it prefers relevance. For a successful engagement with the hashtag, above all else, ensure that your phrase makes sense for your campaign. It can be witty, it can be funny, and it can even be oblique, but it should not be too broad. It should be quickly and easily identifiable as your cause and be specific enough to demarcate your issue from other similar causes and organizations online.

Speaking of brevity, and of course, style, do not include spaces or punctuation with the hashtag. The hashtag does not like them, and it will refuse to hyperlink your content within a group based on your phrase.

Do your homework:

Given its prominence, the hashtag is in demand and pressed for time. Do your due diligence before coming to the hashtag, and research the other phrases and channels on which it is already employed. If you want to have a successful and fruitful relationship with the hashtag, you must first rule out that you are not engaging it in an interaction that conflicts with its other work. Otherwise, the hashtag cannot help you in distinguishing your messaging from existing online content that is not applicable to your cause.

Play to its strengths:

At its core, the hashtag is about the people. For public affairs campaigns you want to connect with people who are likely to support your cause and to educate others. In addition to bringing together groups — both online and offline — the hashtag also excels at consumer/audience communication. Don’t use it simply as a a brand awareness mechanism. One of the most effective engagements for the hashtag is to host a Q and A on Twitter in which people can track and participate.

Life today

Today, the hashtag enjoys a respected and illustrious career. Should you wish to engage the hashtag in its services, remember that it has already lived a long life. Achieving its childhood dream of distinguishing itself from its family, most online users think of the hashtag first and the pound sign second. If you wish for your public affairs campaign to be similarly successful in engaging and building awareness, learn from the hashtag’s experience. It would be best to team up. There is little to lose in such a relationship and much to gain. After all, the hashtag is, truly, a pro.

Photo: “scales” by Petter Palandar

It’s Monday morning. You sit down at your desk and prepare yourself for the long week ahead. But before you can even grab your first sip of coffee, your computer suddenly becomes inoperable. A message appears on your screen, purportedly from a hacker group, claiming they have taken over your company’s technological infrastructure. As you stare in disbelief, confidential information and vicious threats flash on your screen. You’re under cyber attack.

If this sounds like something from Hollywood, well, it kind of was. It happened to Sony Pictures in November 2014, reducing its employees to using pen and paper, spoiling the theatrical release of its film The Interview and making global headlines in the process.

Unfortunately, Sony Pictures isn’t the only victims of hackers. Home Depot, Walmart, Winners and Target, have all been hit by data breaches, exposing these companies to vulnerable customers, lost revenue, nervous investors and years of litigation.

If you’re concerned about your personal or business information being stolen, you’re certainly not alone.

In February 2015, Navigator undertook the first in-depth opinion survey in Canada on the public’s awareness and assessments of data compromises, losses and breaches. We wanted to understand Canadians’ awareness and expectations regarding the private information they’ve entrusted to their retailers, financial institutions, government agencies and technology providers. We found that 70 per cent of those polled recalled recent data breaches in the news. Of these, nearly half could recall specific attacks on companies.

The fact that so many Canadians are aware of cyber attacks might explain why 79 per cent of those polled expressed that they were concerned about their data being improperly accessed. Further, 68 per cent believe incidents of cyber attacks have increased in the past three or four years. Canadians are most concerned about the safety of their governmental and financial information.

This public anxiety has manifested in two ways. First, more than half of Canadians believe our laws protecting online privacy are insufficient. Second, Canadians hold those who experience breaches or cyber attacks as responsible. Few will accept any deflection of responsibility in security compromises of their personal information or transactions.

Governments and organizations are quickly realizing the importance of cyber security. In Europe, new data protection laws coming into effect in 2018 will drastically increase fines for privacy breaches. This month, President Obama released his ‘Cybersecurity National Action Plan’ that boosts annual investment to over $19 billion. New measures include password research programs, addressing labour shortages and extensive public awareness campaigns. Perhaps most importantly, Obama’s plan creates the American federal government’s first Chief Information Security Office, a position that’s now common for large private sector organizations.

In Canada, a survey of IT professionals from Scalar Decisions Inc. found that reported cyber attacks increased 17 per cent in 2015. Respondents reported an average of 40 attacks per year, with 51 per cent experiencing a loss or exposure of sensitive information. Of those surveyed, only 37 per cent believe their organizations are winning the cyber war, a decline of four per cent from the previous year.

Ultimately, these denial-of-service, phishing, web-borne or rootkit attacks can damage a company’s bottom line. On average, respondents said their organizations spent approximately $7 million on the remediation of an attack. Incurred costs included clean up, lost productivity, operational disruption, damage or theft of IT assets and infrastructure, and harm to its marketplace image. In response to these growing cyber threats, respondents claimed their information security budgets have increased 10 per cent since 2014.

While investment in security infrastructure increases and governments implement tougher laws, some data breaches and cyber attacks are still inevitable. How can organizations best prepare themselves for the communications fallout of it all?

Obviously, it’s best not to be left scrambling in the event of a digital breach. That’s why we’re working with many of our clients to produce response plans for these occurrences.

Disorganized or delayed responses to security breaches exacerbate challenges with your customers, investors and media. You need an insightful response plan to defend your reputation. In fact, clear communication is something the public demands too. Our research found that over 60 per cent of Canadians expect affected companies to immediately disclose any breach, assure customers they will be reimbursed for any costs and comply with government regulators. If your company was hit with a cyber attack, would you know what to say or how to say it?

One of the key tools in any response is social media. It provides the means to push your message and the tools to understand what is being said about you and the incident. Further, advertising, analytics and conversation listening ensure your message reaches the right people while granting you the ability to measure its reception. A forceful, informed approach helps to define the issue on your terms while preventing the spread of misinformation.

In future years, cyber security will probably be viewed as a less intimidating topic. Modern infrastructure and procedures will likely be equivalent to those associated with product safety, and understanding the right, tools, responses, and professionals will be critical parts of doing business. However, how and when that will happen is still being determined. In the digital era, you can’t afford to be voiceless, incorrect or tone deaf. The current reality is that there are no procedures in place that can protect you better than taking the necessary steps yourself to ensure you have an appropriate and effective response to cyber attacks.

Photo: “Mud Lock” by darkday

First impressions matter. You never get a second chance at a first impression. Every touchpoint someone has with you (or your brand) can make or break that first impression. As an individual, even if you don’t see yourself as being in the public eye, the Internet sees it differently. In fact, as too many people have learned the hard way, the Internet can ruin a reputation with speed and efficiency. We live with a permanent record of everything we say and do, whether we like it or not, regardless of our say in the matter. Even if you’ve lived a deliberately quiet life to prevent online troubles, you’re not guaranteed a clean personal reputation online. If you’re not filling up digital space with factual content about yourself, someone else could. And trust me, some people dedicate their existence to this kind of work. I’d link to some examples, but I don’t want to give them any currency. And as brutally unfair as it is, even if someone is not deliberately attacking your reputation, someone who shares your name can just as easily ruin it.

Navigator often gets mandates to help companies and individuals with these types of challenges. Of course, we don’t see this work as ‘online’ reputation recovery; it’s reputation recovery, period. But it’s impossible to do reputation recovery without a digital plan. No matter what lengths you take to recover your reputation in the real world, so long as people can plug your name into Google, you’re vulnerable. What will they find? Do the search results tell your story? Do you own your personal brand? I’d like to take a deep dive into why (online) reputation management and recovery matters, and how you can protect yourself. While I’ll focus on personal reputation recovery, many of these principles apply to brands and businesses too. So, take out your notepad, and let’s get started; I’ve got plenty of actionable take-aways for you.

Why do I need to manage my digital reputation?

For many people, your digital image will be their first impression of you, whether you like it or not. We have seen first-hand that when someone says something nasty about you and it appears on the first page of a search engine’s results—whether it’s true or not— it can have long-term consequences for your reputation.

But just as much as your online reputation can be a liability, it can be an asset. If you’re wont to put your best foot forward in real life, you should also do so in your virtual life. Treat your first page results as your public C.V. You have an opportunity to tell your story. Make sure you’re doing it. If not, someone else eventually will. So, stop what you’re doing, head on over to Google, type in your name, and see if that’s the story you want told. Do the same on Bing and Yahoo. For each result, identify whether it refers to you, and whether or not it’s positive. Also keep a close eye on items that are about someone who shares your name and may have negative content. Sure, that person isn’t you, but don’t expect searchers to always know the difference.

I found something nasty, how can I erase it?

You can’t. Welcome to the Internet, the Wild Wild West of free speech, where even the best lawyers can’t remove slanderous attacks. If you try your hand at a lawsuit, I wish you all the luck in the world. You’ll expend considerable resources, with no guaranteed outcome, while your search results remain unchanged. Instead, you need to manage risk by giving search engines better and fresher content to source. While you cannot completely erase unflattering content, you can work to have it removed from the first page of search results. And that’s what you should focus on— 94% of searchers never click through to the second page. If it’s not on page one, as far as the Internet’s concerned, it doesn’t exist. This is why you need to focus aggressively on these results.

Where do the biggest threats lie?

As a digital guy, it pains me to say this, but this is where traditional media outlets have a leg up. It just takes one negative story in the Toronto Star, or the Globe and Mail, and it can skyrocket to the top of the search results. Media outlets have very high domain authority, which is one of the variables search engines assess in determining rankings.

This is why media relations still matters. In almost all cases, reporters will try to contact you for comment before publishing your story. You need to get your side of the story in that article, because whether you like it not, that article has a very good chance of appearing on page one results. And since we know that’s a likely outcome, you might as well take every possible measure to frame the story on your terms. If the story is published without your share of voice, you might be too late. Don’t let it come to this. This is why a solid media relations strategy is critical to your online reputation. If you want a positive online profile, you need a media relations plan. Period.

If I can’t delete the nasty stuff, how do I fight back?

You fight back with a sea of positive content. If that sounds daunting, you’re right; it is. And when it’s your own reputation on the line, the last thing you want is to be told to be patient. I wish I had a silver bullet for you, but I don’t. If anyone tells you they have it, run away. The best online reputation managers will tell you it takes time and patience to improve search results. It can be done, but it won’t happen overnight. Instead, you have to hunker down, get your elbows up and crank out information about yourself that is truthful. It’s the best way to obscure, then suppress, negative content. Don’t wait until it gets nasty. Build a content wall – a fortress that makes it tough for unwanted content to float to the top of the results. A preventative strategy is by far the best approach for your long-term reputational health.

What can I do right now to take control?

Sophisticated search engine optimization takes engineers and pros who do this work for a living, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting started today. Here are 10 things you can do to get a handle on your online reputation:

Own your domain. Search engines use hundreds of variables to determine how to rank content, and whether a keyword (in this case, your name) appears in the URL is an important factor. A domain name that has your name in it, has a good chance of ranking at the top. Of course, it will only rank if you do something with that domain. Simply owning it isn’t enough. Hence the next step.

Launch a website and produce quality content. Once you have your domain, you need to put it to use. The best way to do that is to launch your own website and use it to share content—ideally in your area of professional expertise. You need to feed the beast that calls himself Google. (Yes, I just personified a search engine, but it’s totally called for, given that the search engine now has its own brain). You don’t need to pump out new content every day, but you will need to develop and stick to a regular schedule. Google prefers fresh content when ranking results. Feed the beast.

Convert your LinkedIn profile into a well-curated news feed. This one’s a big one. LinkedIn profiles skyrocket to the top of search results. That’s why it’s the first social media network I’ve listed here. In terms of personal branding, it’s more effective than the others. If you don’t have a profile yet, get one. If you have one, take 30 minutes right now to give it a thorough update. Make sure all the fields are filled in. Ask professional contacts to give you endorsements and recommendations. Start sharing thoughtful content (your own blog posts, industry news, and trends, etc).

Develop SlideShare content. Now would be a good time for you to develop a slide deck or two, showing off your knowledge and expertise in your industry. This platform also ranks well, and connects to LinkedIn seamlessly (surprise, surprise, LinkedIn owns Slideshare).

Make sure your Twitter account is appropriately named. This isn’t a place to be creative. Stick with your name—you need Google to know which Twitter account is yours, so it can list it in search results. Keep your Twitter feed focused. Find and share useful information on topics in your industry. Engage with others, but only if it helps you build relationships. Don’t spout off your political or religious views unless that’s your business. Instead, write well-crafted tweets that add value to the conversation and attract influencers to follow and engage with you. And while you’re at it, retweet influencers you respect.

Create a Google+ profile: Never heard of Google+? You’re not alone. It’s a highly underused platform, and its death has been predicted countless times in the last five years. Yet, it’s still here. This is a good thing because it’s a Google product and Google connects many dots to build online profiles. You might as well make it easy for the Google universe to know who you are. Add links to your website and other digital properties and profiles. Share your LinkedIn content here too.

Clean-up your Facebook profile. Now would be a good time to do a thorough review of your previous status updates. Unless you’re a ninja with Facebook’s privacy settings, assume that everything you’ve ever published on Facebook is there for the whole world to see. Triage accordingly and delete questionable content.

Set-up an About.me profile. About.me has a high domain authority, which means that search engines give it high rankings in search results. It costs nothing to set up an account and it gives you another platform to promote yourself.

Provide value on Quora. If you haven’t heard of Quora, it’s a question and answer website. Create an account, fill out your profile and search for questions in your industry. Then, go answer them. Even if 10 people have already answered the question, don’t let that stop you. Your job is to write an epic, thoughtful response that demonstrates your knowledge.

Share your amazing website content across all your social media platforms. Doing so gives you an opportunity to engage other key influencers. If you’re going to invest time and effort into producing good content, you want it to get as much mileage as possible. The only person who can get you the mileage you need is you (or someone you’ve designated to do this work for you).

What can I do in the future?

• Now that you’ve taken all the steps I’ve outlined above, don’t take your foot off the pedal. The moment you stop maintaining your online profile is the moment you tell Google that other content is more relevant. Remember, search engines value fresh content.
• Don’t forget about the second most popular search engine: YouTube. Much like you should use SlideShare to show off your expertise and add value in your industry, you might want to consider doing the same on YouTube. YouTube videos also rank well in search results (surprise, surprise, Google owns YouTube).
• Consider writing a Wikipedia article. As you’ve probably seen countless times, Wikipedia content always ranks high in search results. Of course, not every person qualifies for his or her own Wikipedia article. You need to be what Wikipedia deems ‘worthy of notice.’ This means the information must be verifiable via third-party sources. The subject of the article (you), needs to have received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent. In other words, your own website or social media profiles don’t count as third-party validation. This too is where a solid media relations plan can make a world of a difference; there’s a lot of science (and some art) to writing an article that will pass Wikipedia’s test. If you want to take that route, I highly recommend you consult professionals.
• Write for other websites. The more links you can drive to your own website, the better your chances of boosting its rank. This has the added benefit of helping you drive content from other web properties higher in search results for your keyword.
• Write a book. I know, this probably sounds like an impossible idea, but writing and publishing a book can do wonders for your online reputation. With it comes earned media, which boosts your search profile and positions you as an expert or authority in your field.

This is a lot of work, how can I do all of this without going crazy?

Dealing with a crisis, especially when it’s personal, is incredibly tough. You spend a lifetime building your reputation, and it can be compromised with just one negative search result. It’s vicious and unfair. The good news is that there are professionals who can help with all of this. If it gets to that point, having people in your corner can make all the difference.

Do you know what Peach is? Are you on Peach? Should you be on Peach?

If you have never heard of Peach, chances are you are of a certain age. Chances are you are over the age of 25. If you have heard of Peach and you are also over the age of 25, chances are that you spend a lot of time on Twitter. Peach is a new social networking app. Two weeks ago it was talked about, whispered, suggested — ‘are you on Peach? You should get on Peach’ — and as of last Monday, it’s already been declared dead. Such is the life of fledgling social media apps. But whether Peach’s death knell has really tolled or not is too soon to tell. It could grow in popularity to become a Periscope, or go on to become a behemoth, the likes of an Instagram, Snapchat, or Vine. So what determines if these apps live or die, and how much attention should you be paying?

Lifecasting and affect

There are some important things to know about these apps. In terms of use, these apps are used for what is known as ‘lifecasting.’ Lifecasting is basically constantly broadcasting your life through digital media. This would be opposed to say, sharing news stories or other content that doesn’t pertain to your identity. Obviously the two can overlap, but the focus is on the person doing the posting and their life, interests, likes, etc. What sets these specific apps — Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and Peach — slightly apart from the others, is that they are much better at communicating ‘affect.’

Affect is the parts of human experience that are difficult to put into words — such as emotion and intensity. The visual and video aspects of these apps make it much easier and quicker to communicate feelings that are difficult to get across with just text. Peach actually takes this one step further, in that when typing your status update you discover how to share certain gifs, photos and emoticons, and other content. It asks you to think in abstract feelings to produce a visual or interactive element. So the question then becomes, if you’re in public affairs and trying to spread your content, which ones should you use? And when do you use it? Whose lifestyle are you targeting and what kind of affect are they looking to communicate? To do this, you need to understand online demographics. Let us break it down for you.

Millennials: from Money to Mini

Social media tools are a young persons’ game, generally considered for millennials. But labelling them as such is a little problematic: ‘Millennial’ has become a catchall for a very wide age range because no one has come up with a term for post millenials that has stuck (people are trying to make ‘Generation Z’ and ‘The Founders’ happen, but short of making them sound like a dystopian young adult novel, it’s really not happening). The group referred to as ‘millennials’ now spans people who are in their thirties all the way down to kids in their early teens. This group of people can and should be broken into subsets based on their social media activity when thinking about which platforms are appropriate for your delivering your message.

1) Money millennials:

For lack of a better term, I’m referring to the oldest millennial group as ‘Money.’ Whether this age bracket is actually within the millennial group is debatable — these are people in their early thirties who got the Internet in their teen years and got Facebook in their early twenties. They are reaching an age where they are making big investments — like houses and cars — and making big decisions — like having children. Moneys have firmly established their purchasing power and are in a more stable position — both in life and finances — than the other subsets. In Internet parlance, this group has come to be referred to as ‘olds’ — which is basically anyone who doesn’t know what the next big ‘it’ is. If you don’t understand the last sentence, then chances are you are in fact an old, but if you want to double check you can find out for sure here.

Social media platform of choice:

Facebook Primarily, this group uses Facebook and stays off of most other social media platforms. Furthermore, their interactions on Facebook more closely reflect how they interact with each other via phone or in person than the rest of the age groups discussed here. There isn’t much Internet slang, there aren’t many memes, and a third-party can probably decipher the conversation without much pop culture or Internet context. Most likely, their feeds are full of new babies, new homes, new furniture, brunch, and more adult upscale restaurants.

2) Medium millennials:

Medium millenials are currently experiencing a wave of nostalgia as they realize that they are approaching ‘olds’ status. The Mediums remember a very brief time without Internet, but practically their entire lives have been shaped by it. They are mid-to-late twenties, and they cut their teeth on dial-up Internet, MySpace, MSN Messenger and LiveJournal. In today’s digital age, the three platforms that I just mentioned are kind of like the ‘I walked uphill both ways to get to and from school’ of social media. Facebook was a giant new tool near the end of high school or the beginning of university and they enjoyed a blissfully long period on the platform before their parents and great aunt decided to jump on board and comment on their activity.

Social media platform of choice: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Medium millennials are still big Facebook users because, like the Moneys, their enduring online social circle was built on the platform. However, Medium millennials have adapted to online culture and language, which is why they have adopted newer platforms like Twitter and Instagram. If you look at demographic numbers, this group still is one of the larger users of Facebook but the way that they use Facebook is different. For both Mediums and the next group, Facebook has become an organizational tool, the easiest way to plan an event and communicate with a large number of people at once.

3) Most Millennials:

The Mosts are the group that participate the most in the bulk of activity that is associated with the catchall of being a millennial. They have never known a time without Internet, and Facebook was a normal part of their teens. They effortlessly get a high number of likes on an Instagram photo because their entire social group uses the app constantly. They are late teens — think seventeen, eighteen, nineteen — and early twenties. They have no nostalgia for clunkier platforms and the way they engage online is different from their older counterparts. Their posts are more prolific and their lifecasting is more constant.

Social media platform of choice: Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter

As early as 2013, reports were saying that teens were tired of Facebook. The younger you get on the millennial scale, the less likely they are to engage with established social media platforms. A Pew study found that part of the reason they shy away from the platform is because it mirrors the structure of their real-life social status too closely. In other words, the same adult presence in their real lives exist online, and there are pressures to be professional, or at the very least, constantly appropriate or presentable, lest a future employer conduct a quick Google search or be connected to you on through friends of friends. On Facebook, you are still likely to come into some kind of contact with people you are looking to avoid.

Snapchat, on the other hand, is direct ephemeral communication. You can take a photo or a video, add text or scribbles using the drawing tool, and choose the specific people you want to send it to. The content that you sent disappears after the person has viewed it. It is more spontaneous and less curated than other tools used for lifecasting, such as Facebook or Instagram. The Mosts did not experience the growing pains that the Mediums did with the Internet — learning that content that you create is online forever. They have grown up knowing that you will be judged on your online image. The desire for a platform that allows for temporary content that does not need to be perfectly prepared for a (fully) public audience is a reflection of their growing digital awareness.

Snapchat also lends itself to teen experiences. Although there are no actual rules on how you should or shouldn’t use Snapchat, it keeps track of how often you use the app by awarding posts and also displaying your three ‘best friends’ (people with whom you interact the most). Brands, news outlets, and other companies get their advertising in via ‘stories.’ Stories present content in a visually-engaging way, combining graphics, video, sounds/music, and interactive elements like quizzes. An important distinction with Snapchat’s advertising is that it’s a separate section of the app: your actual user experience is not interrupted by ads (except from Snapchat itself). Snapchat users have to actually decide to navigate their way over to the corporation or (Internet) famous person’s story. But also equally important are that regular users can create their own story — basically a collection of their Snaps.

4) Mini Millennials:

Minis are today’s teens. They are around 12-16 years old and they dictate the next big Internet thing. They think Facebook is lame and for the olds, and their social interactions online and offline are not siloed the same way they are for other millennial groups — one does not exist without the other. The Internet is a place for expression, genuine communication with one another, and is a real space for identity-building. They are constantly looking for spaces that fit their changing needs.

Social media platform of choice: the newest thing available, Vine, Youtube

I know you’re probably thinking that everyone uses YouTube, but the way Mini millennials use YouTube is vastly different. It’s probably closer to how everyone else used to watch TV. They aren’t just finding clips and searching for specific moments: Minis are subscribing to channels and are fawning over YouTube celebrities. Can you name a single YouTube celebrity? They are a regular part of the Minis’ online existence.

And then there is Vine. Vine is another beast entirely. Be warned. Vine is for experts. Vine is not for the faint-of-heart. Vine creates six-second videos that loop continuously. Vine stars display impressive technical knowledge, dramatic flair, or excellent comedic timing to get their message delivered in six seconds. They are very expressive, often odd or quirky, and take a lot of personality. Vine is now pumping out new talent the way YouTube used to — like, for example, Ontario native and pop recording star Shawn Mendes, whose six-second videos launched him into the spotlight in 2013 and landed him a spot as one of Time’s 25 Most Influential Teens in 2014.

Vine advertising doesn’t even officially exist, in that Vine doesn’t show ads on its platform. What do exist are brands and organizations that contact Vine stars and contract them to make videos on their behalf or featuring their products. In February of 2015, Twitter acquired Niche — a company that connects parties interested in advertising with social media stars. Organizations have recognized their knowledge deficit when it comes to this extremely technically savvy demo and has decided to outsource their outreach to the experts themselves.

Affect and Lifecasting, today and tomorrow

From this list, it would seem that anyone over the age of 16 is old online — which isn’t untrue. While the Internet is for everyone, the newest social media platforms are generally a young person’s game. The newest platforms are spaces for teenagers to work through their evolving identities. So if you’re looking to play the game, part of it is about being the coolest thing going, and it’s also about understanding and mimicking the actual social interactions that are taking place through these platforms. It’s also about whether you need to play the game at all.

If you’re in public affairs, you probably don’t need to worry whether or not you’re old or whether or not you’re cool. Focus on your target audience and rest easy on the teens — they may know how to use the newest platform, but they’re fickle. In terms of the next big thing, the youngest millennials will have already gotten tired of it before their older counterparts have even signed up. Have you seen The Social Network? At one point, Mark Zuckerberg’s character is fighting with his CFO about getting advertisers and monetizing the site while they’re having lunch with Napster creator Sean Parker:

Eduardo Saverin: Hey, you know what? Settle an argument for us. I say it’s time to start making money from The Facebook, but Mark doesn’t want to advertise. Who’s right?

Sean Parker: Umﾅneither of you yet. The Facebook is cool, that’s what it’s got going for it. Mark Zuckerberg: Yeah. Eduardo Saverin: You don’t want to ruin it with ads because ads aren’t cool.

Mark Zuckerberg: Exactly.

They understand this better than anyone and they jump ship as soon as something stops being cool. Ads aren’t cool and most users are going to resent the presence of advertising on any new platform, even if they understand that ads are part of the way these platforms stay afloat. If you’re not trying to reach these demos, or your content doesn’t align with the newest medium, it could just be a waste of time and money. There is nothing wrong with sticking to Facebook if that is where your target audience spends its time. In the long run, most of us were better off not trying to be the most popular kid in school. There is a time and place for using these platforms, and for most public affairs campaigns they probably aren’t necessary. So what’s Peach? Do you need to know? It’s up to you. But remember, trying to be cool is usually the easiest way to achieve the opposite anyways.

 

Photo: “Two Peaches” by peter burge, Creative Commons license 2.0

Political campaigns and media are not the only ones embracing long form content. With the rise of Netflix and online ad blockers and the decline of traditional television viewership, consumers are simply tuning out and turning off traditional advertising. In response, big brands are turning to new advertising techniques that inform and entertain more than directly sell.

These trends suggest long form content will not be relegated to a brand’s YouTube channel, but instead emerge as a key way marketers reach and engage consumers. Advertisers will need to find new opportunities with new digital platforms like Hulu or Amazon Prime, while competing to create the high quality, compelling content to which users have grown accustomed. With so much consumer choice, brands are now competing for the attention of a user whose preference is watching House of Cards on Netflix, where there are no ads. Ads need to be high-production and offer quality entertainment so that audiences want to watch them and have reason to seek them out and share them.

While the 30 second television spot is far from dead, successful brands are adapting to a new consumer-driven landscape, producing less heavy-handed content to appeal to the modern cynical viewer. When we took a look at the online campaigns that have gone viral, we found that they tend to be genuine, endearing, or humourous, connecting users to the traits brands try to represent. Red Bull sells adventure, Coca-Cola sells friendship and Nike sells athletic ability.

The old adage that Internet content has to be short and sweet to appeal to attention-deprived Internet users doesn’t hold as much weight anymore. Instead, companies like Pepsi are connecting with audiences using lengthy ads. Recently, Pepsi created a six-minute video for the Chinese New Year. The ad celebrates the year of the monkey using ‘The Monkey King’, an 80s TV show derived from a classic Chinese novel, Journey to the West. With more than 20 million views, the video ties Pepsi’s generational marketing to the impact ‘The Monkey King’ has had on many generations in China. This is the focus of the ad, and it takes much longer than 30 seconds for the Pepsi logo to make an appearance.

Closer to home, Dove uses long form content to position itself as a champion of male role models and positive body image. Its online videos explore these themes, the longer format delving into fatherhood, community leadership and self-esteem in ways that are thought-provoking, while complementing Dove’s traditional advertising efforts. Millions of views later, Dove’s ad proves audiences are interested in longer videos. So much for our short attention spans! If your content is compelling, your audience will stop channel or web surfing to take it in. Traditional advertising targets the viewer, while successful long form advertising attempts to reach their audience more organically by targeting shared themes and feelings that viewers can connect to the brand .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

Long form marketing immerses the viewer. When digital advertising is captivating, it’s more likely viewers will add a comment or share it with personal networks. Not only do these social media interactions help spread the ad, they add social proof – when something is shared online, it has been vetted by someone in your network. As such, people are more likely to click on ads when the source is a friend or a family member rather than a company. The Facebook like button and referral programs from online retailers all use the concept of social proof; people trust their networks more than marketers. Long form content is able to tap into this human characteristic in the same way that makes online reviewers like Yelp,TripAdvisor, and celebrity endorsements (like the Monkey King) so authoritative.

This new, longer approach is not limited to video. Recently, Shell partnered with the New York Times to produce an immersive digital takeover of its site. Interactive and animated, the ad discusses global urbanisation and how governments and corporations can work together to adapt to this trend while decreasing their environmental footprint. Adeptly showing that the medium truly is the message, the ad positions Shell as a forward thinking and innovative company – terms not commonly associated with oil companies.

The New York Times is not alone in experimenting with long form advertising. Recently, Turner Broadcasting announced that CNN, its flagship network, plans to launch its Native Plus platform. This new approach will ditch 30 second commercials in favour of two-to-three minute vignettes. Turner Broadcasting claims it is a less intrusive format for consumers and more powerful for marketers. If successful, the new format could mean that spectacles like the Super Bowl will be a completely different experiences.

The decline of traditional media consumption and the emergence of streaming video, tables and smartphones has advertisers migrating to new platforms and tactics. Long form content is one such promising tool. It offers tools for marketers, provides enjoyable and informative content for consumers, and for beleaguered traditional media companies, hope in the form of new revenue.

Photo: “SF Bridge II” by Folkert Gorter