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Use of social media by minorities

Use of social media by minorities

by | Feb 19, 2013 | Political Media

GOP LEADERSHIPPew Research Center recently released a study finding that minorities are increasingly outnumbering whites in their use of certain social media platforms.

The study entitled, “The Demographics of Social Media Users — 2012”, shows that in general, Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to use social media sites than whites (percentage wise)and almost twice as likely to use twitter & Instagram.

Social Networking Sites

% of internet users who use social networking sites

Use Social Networking Sites  All internet users (n=1,802) 67%

Race/ethnicity

a White, Non-Hispanic (n=1,332) 65%
b Black, Non-Hispanic (n=178) 68%
c Hispanic (n=154) 72%

The study goes on to make a point that Urban users are using all social media channels more than suburban or rural users.

Guess what? Republicans can do better among all minorities and Urban dwelling voters.

This study makes no mention of HOW minorities or anyone for that matter are using social media to interact with politics; however, the high use alone should be a further wake up call for changing Republicans’ political outreach strategy.

If Republicans are to get serious about minority outreach, as a Party we must study and understand how these new social media channels can assist us in the effort because it would appear the digital divide exists more in Republicans’ mindset than in actuality.

To read more of the study.

 

The freemium advertising problem

The freemium advertising problem

by | Feb 15, 2013 | Ozean Media

The term ‘freemium’ was coined to refer to any software or service offered for free use, but offers some some enhanced functionality if the user or organization pays a monthly or annual fee. Notable examples include DropBox, who offers 2GB 5GB of online storage for free — up to 1TB for paying users — or Pandora, who offers free Internet radio but allows paying customers track skips and an ad-free experience.

While ten years ago paying for a service such as Internet radio would be regarded as a frivolous expense, there are a growing number of paying subscribers who would contend such an expense is just as vital as keeping the electric bill paid.  According to an internal survey, 67% of Pandora listeners said the company’s Internet radio service made a positive impact on their life.  When narrowed to just the musical experience, some 84% said Pandora connects them with the music they love.  With stats like that, who wouldn’t want to listen to, or advertise on, Pandora?

A recent survey showed 67% of listeners said Pandora had positive impact on their life.

But this presents a real problem for advertisers.

Let’s take Pandora; with over 80 million registered users, they’re arguably the widest reaching internet radio platform — a lucrative advertising medium to spend our media budgets on. Here I am, Mr. Media Buyer, trying to target the Pandora’s most loyal listeners, particularly ones who have disposable incomes what most would consider a

Add to that the psychological effect on a user who pays for a service he or she was already getting for free:  they use it a heck of a lot more.  After all, if I’m catching grief from my penny-pinching wife on spending six bucks a month on some internet radio service she gets on her iPhone for free, I had better spend every waking minute of the day using it.  This means the users with the highest frequency to the site are excluded from my advertising reach.

For a company like Pandora, it equates to the users with the highest listening hours per month — with the greatest chance of seeing my client’s ad — are totally off limits to my campaign.  This makes it a harder sell to clients, knowing that a sweet piece of a pie will never hear their clever ad.

Even with that considered, advertising on freemium services is far from a bad option.  This stands especially true if you’re targeting the coveted 18-25 demographic, who’ve all seemed to embrace conventional-media-replacing services like Pandora and Hulu.

It’s a limitation, not a deal breaker, but I sure hope these service providers fully explore every option before excluding the crème de la crème to us media buyers.

The complexity of Networks

by | Feb 14, 2013 | Political Research

The Network of Global Control

Network Analysis

As I have written before, I am becoming obsessed with two things: the study of persuasion and the study of networks and their effects on the political process.

Today, a fellow political consultant sent me the following link to a Ted Talk by James B. Glattfelder.

The Ted talk was entitled “Who controls the world?”

sidenote: some copy writer some where knew exactly how to write a headline that would make every political geek in the world click. Nicely done!

This is NOT the old 80/20 rule, this is a network analysis showing exactly how a few emerge from a large, complex network to exert massive amounts of power.

The political implications of this study are enormous. If you are as interested as I am in this topic, please read the entire study, “The Network of Global Corporate Control”.

If you don’t want to read it, then listen to the Ted Talk. It is 14 minutes well spent. I promise!

Six Social Media Skills every politician needs

by | Feb 8, 2013 | Political Media

A twitter conversation

A twitter conversation

I have been called a political nerd on more than one occasion   I will admit, I love the ‘science’ of politics.   My latest interests revolve around network analysis and the use of twitter for political communication.

In an effort to study how Florida’s elected officials are using twitter, I embarked on a weekend project to round up the tweets of said leaders.

I  put together a quick website FLTweets.com.  Here I could read the tweets of Florida’s Federal, State Senate, and State House members, and the website allowed me to focus in on how these leaders are using twitter.

I have been watching the feeds for a little over a week now ( I will release further study in posts to come), but lets just say FL’s  political class is for the most part horrible in embracing twitter’s and social media’s potential.

Here is my working hypothesis:  If elected officials “talked” to voters over a kitchen table in the same manner they “talk” using twitter, they would be clubbed to death by their own constituents before dinner ended.

It is obvious that elected officials see twitter and most likely additional social media outlets as a one-way broadcast channel and NOT a place to interact or “talk” with people.  (Much more to follow on this….)

However, as I pondered my hypothesis, a paper in the Feb 2013  McKinsey Quarterly came across my desk, and I thought I would share due to its relevance.

It basically agrees with my hypothesis; however, it uses much more “diplomatic” language.

It too recognizes the problem that leaders just don’t know what to do twitter and social-media.

It has the added bonus of providing a framework for leaders to decide how they can develop their social media skills.

McKinsey says there are six dimensions of social media leadership

Six-social-media-skills-every-leader-needs---McKinsey-Quarterly---Strategy---Innovation

 

1.  The Leader as Producer:  Creating compelling content

2.  The Leader as Distributor:  Leveraging dissemination dynamics

3.  The Leader as Recipient: Managing communication overflow

4.  The leader as adviser & orchestrator: Driving strategic social-media utilization

5.  The leader as architect: Creating an enabling organizational infrastructure

6.  The leader as analyst: Staying ahead of the curve

Conclusion: When organizations and their leaders embrace the call to social-media literacy, they will initiate a positive loop allowing them to capitalize on the opportunities and disruptions that come with the new connectivity of a networked society. And they will be rewarded with a new type of competitive advantage.

My fellow Republicans, are you listening?

You can read the paper in its’ entirety:  Six Social Media Skills every politician needs

PS.  Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @alex_patton