Happy New (Media) Year - The power of the internet in 2010 and beyond

2009 was a very busy year for Skylab’s social media team… building Facebook applications, creating Twitter accounts, building blogs, online apps and huge websites with social media woven into their DNA. 2010 will be an even bigger year for social media as businesses and organisations start to appreciate the inherent power of social media. Here are a few observations that mark the dawning of a Happy New (Media) Year.

There is no doubt that the use of social media is still growing. There are 45 million status updates a day posted by Facebook users and Twitter have 25 million users and is expected to rise to 100 million users by the end of 2010.

Every day there are remarkable stories that are driven by social media and here are some of the more interesting ones over the past few months.

The Race For The Christmas Number One 2009

In the past few years it has always been the winner of X Factor who has taken the Christmas Number One. Jon Morter decided to set up a campaign to try to usurp the X Factor winner from the number one slot with the song ‘Killing in the Name’ by US rap metal band ‘Rage Against The Machine’. He was helped by the comedian Peter Serafinowicz who urged his 268,000 plus Twitter followers to join in. Even Paul McCartney and former X Factor winner Steve Brookstein joined the campaign. A simple Facebook group started for free mobilised enough people to beat a multi-million pound promotional machine that had previously thrashed all comers to the Christmas number one. Rage Against The Machine outsold X Factor winner Joe McElldery by 50,000 with a song that, before social networking, would have been unlikely to trouble the Christmas top 40.

The Daily Mail and Jan Moir

Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir wrote an controversial article about the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately. People started discussing the article on Twitter and Facebook and as readers became aware shared a sense of outrage. The Press Complaints Commission received thousands upon thousands of complaints. The Mail’s website was deluged with negative comments, but major advertisers such as Marks & Spencer and Tesco had their banner advertising removed from the article on the Mail’s website.

Pop Svengali Simon Fuller

The creator of shows like American Idol is launching a new series that will exist primarily online and will be streamed 24 hours. ‘If I Can Dream’ will follow the aspirations of 5 performers who will interact with viewers via social media devices like Twitter and Facebook and potentially influence the trajectory of the show. Performers can test ideas and rehearse in front of fans online, gaining instant feedback about their performances and building hitherto undreamt of relationships with the viewing public.

“I am determined to continue challenging convention and pushing the boundaries of mainstream entertainment,” Fuller said. “The next frontier is the video world of authentic real-time interaction. It is time the public got to see the truth behind what it takes to launch the careers of young artists who have a dream that one day on pure merit they can be professional entertainers and gain the recognition they crave. This is the dawning of a new age.”

The 2010 General Election

Finally and perhaps most intriguingly is how the general election will pan out using tweets, blogs and social networking. Politicians will for the first time in a campaign be able “to talk directly to voters” through media such as tweets, updates, podcasts and blogs, bypassing the traditional outlets. Taking the lead from the success of Obama’s election campaign, already all the political parties are using social networking and the internet to get their message across. All the main UK parties are devoting almost as much of their attention to how to turn the internet’s power, reach and speed to their advantage, as they are to actual policy.

For example on 2nd January 2010 when David Cameron announced his election campaign in a traditional style at Oxford University, his new media team were already alerting tens of thousands of followers through instant updates on Facebook and Twitter, giving them an internet link to the full speech so they could download it on their laptops or mobile phones. Political bloggers were briefed before they poured their instant analysis onto the web. Film was prepared for YouTube. The day’s main TV news bulletins were hours away but the key messages were delivered through social networking and shows how easily a direct message can be given. “We can just press the right buttons and people know within seconds,” said a member of the Cameron team.

In the election campaign in 2010, many of the issues at its heart will be familiar but the ways the main parties use technology to get their messages across to the widest possible audiences will be unrecognisable.

2010 will be the year of social media. In its infancy Twitter was a place where you read about someone else making a cup of tea - now it’s the place you go to when big news stories are breaking (the death of Michael Jackson for example was broken on Twitter).

Sites like Digg, Reddit and Facebook can have an enormous impact on the real world as viewers turn from being passive receivers of media product to participating in the event itself. The growth and potential of nearly every aspect of social media has been and continues to be enormous.

Happy New (Media) Year from Skylab