Digital Connections – 360i Blog, Digital Marketing Agency

Today, we’re launching the first in a series of reports exploring the role social media plays in the lives of Hispanics living in the United States. Reaching and engaging this population has become increasingly important to marketers over the past decade. The growth of this population presents both the promise of reaching a dynamic and engaged audience – armed with ever-increasing purchasing power – and the challenge of understanding the cultural nuances of a demographic with unique digital behaviors.

» Download 360i’s Report on Hispanic Digital Influencers

Why a POV series?

According to the 2010 US Census, the Hispanic population rose by 15.2 million between 2000 and 2010, , accounting for more than half of the nation’s population increase. Furthermore, in sheer dollar power, Hispanics’ economic influence rose from $212 billion in 1990 to $489 billion in 2000, to $978 billion in 2009, and is estimated to rise to roughly $1.3 trillion in 2014 (Selig Center for Economic Growth, Dec. 2010).

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As a television network, how do you plan to succeed in making TV social?

With recent studies pointing to buzz from social networks to be a possible driving force behind television ratings, networks are now looking to capitalize on this fact by creating social TV experiences designed to keep fans talking longer, consuming more content and providing valuable show insight.

Second-screen apps are no longer the “future” of TV; they’re becoming an integrated part of the entertainment experience right now. These apps offer fans a place to not only converse about their favorite TV shows, but connect with talent, get access to behind-the-scenes content, participate in games and more. We expect to see more and more networks creating apps for their shows, which will provide marketers with a new way to serve advertising content, gather consumer data and utilize instant feedback from conversations within the app.

IFC Sync second-screen experience for the cult show “Portlandia” (via Mashable)

New technology seems destined to make 2012 the year of the second-screen app. Here are six tips for networks and marketers to keep in mind when creating a second-screen experience.

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The Consumer Electronics Show is a massive labyrinth. As soon as you enter Las Vegas for the event, and especially by the time you reach the Convention Center, you may feel like you’ll never escape.

The good news is that once you get free, it’s possible to put down your 3D glasses and reflect on what happened. If you weren’t there, then it’s all the more important to mute the hype (“Ryan Seacrest joined Steve Ballmer for Microsoft’s keynote!”) and get a sense of what matters.

The presentation is a guide for doing that. Based on that, here are some top highlights for marketers.

5 Things That Didn’t Matter

1. Ultrabooks: This was one of the big buzzwords. That’s all it is – a buzzword for a thin laptop the likes of which has been on the market for years. Yes, it took four years for PC makers to release a MacBook Air.
2. OLED: David Pogue said it best: “What’s so silly? Even if you bought one of these screens, you’d have nothing to watch. Nobody broadcasts or sells movies in 4K or 8K resolution.”
3. 3D TV: The televisions there were gorgeous, and I wish I could watch the Summer Olympics on one of those floor models (or all of them), but they’re impractical and won’t be a big seller. A huge drawback is that while wearing the glasses, one can’t interact with their digital devices — or other people in the room.
4. Nokia’s Windows Phone: It looks great, but marketers should be screaming, “Show me the market share!”
5. Social cars: Ford and Mercedes were among the automakers showing off cars with built-in social network access. That’s great that these cars are social by design, but that’s keeping up rather than changing consumer behavior.

5 Things That Mattered

1. Connected TVs: Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, Nuance, and many others showcased how TVs will better connect with other devices and add voice controls. This has the potential to make TV advertising far more interactive – and accountable.
2. Interactive gaming: WowWee, Discovery Bay, and Parrot all showed off toys and games where the software runs on a consumer’s phone or tablet, and the hardware seamlessly interacts with it.
3. Dressing room 3.0Microsoft, Bodymetrics and others are trying to crack 3D body mapping so that shoppers can comfortably find clothes that fit perfectly whenever they shop digitally.
4. Samsung’s AdHub: Samsung promoted its AdHub ad network to run on Android and its proprietary Bada system, competing directly with Google and potentially benefiting developers with more competition.
5. Google Indoor Maps: This launched for Vegas at CES, and there may be no better city in the world for this. Expect a ton of competition this year mapping malls, department stores, grocery stores, and other locations.

See the presentation for even more, and share your thoughts with us on what mattered most to you.

Since hitting the 2 million user mark, GetGlue is looking to move beyond its reputation as a “check-in” social network to a full-fledged recommendation platform. Best known for its integration within the media and entertainment industries, GetGlue utilizes real-time check-ins to rewards members with virtual stickers, personalized content recommendations and a platform to showcase value and taste.

GetGlue has recently revamped the user interface and data analytics offerings for both its site and mobile app to create a better user experience and secure a bigger foothold in the second screen movement. You can expect even more enhancements to come, as the platform has just scored another round of venture funding to the tune of $12 million.

GetGlue makes it easy to share check-ins across myriad social properties including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. This kind of exposure has proven successful for television networks and film companies looking to preview content before premieres and target early adopters to support programming in new ways.

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Google has rolled out a new “Search, plus Your World” product that places Google+ content from a person’s social graph higher in its search engine results pages. This marks a major change in the way people experience search within the world’s most popular engine: everyone logged in with a Google account (such as Gmail), will now experience search results that are highly customized based on the various +1s and shares of people in their Google+ Circles.

Source: Google Blog

Google’s Social Customization Layer

“Your World” is a superimposed overlay to Google’s traditional search results, which are already superimposed with shopping, local and other universal results, which are superimposed over results customized by your web history, over results that have been adjusted to your geographic location. You can therefore view the current Google experience as a layered series, with the latest social layer special because it has been given strong branding that clearly marks social results, pictures of people you know, and a toggle to turn the layer on and off.

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YouTube’s recent redesign represents some of the platform’s biggest changes to date, including a complete overhaul of the user interface in an effort to help people find more personally-relevant videos and to provide content creators with greater opportunities for customization and community development.

The changes mark YouTube’s evolution from a broadcasting platform to a community-based network fueled by social interactions – and not just “views.” With this transformation, brands are presented with new opportunities and should consider the implications these changes will have on Community Management, Content Strategy and Paid Media efforts.

Our latest POV (available for download below) outlines the key elements of the redesign and how brands can best approach this new social community.

‘Tis the season for “best of” lists, especially in the music industry, with pundits pumping out their favorite albums and records of the year. We here at 360i’s Music Council – an in-house group created to explore the intersection of digital and music – have undertaken a similar endeavor. Through the lens of our favorite albums and songs of 2011, we explore the year that was in social.

Content Strategy: Text, photo & “Video Games”

2011 was a year where emerging platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr entered the limelight thanks to our collective penchant for sharing visual content. While Tumblr took a few years to build its user base, newcomers like Pinterest and Instagram have achieved almost overnight success. Instagram had 10 million users within its first year and Pinterest’s unique visitors increased ten times over in six months (from 418K to 4.5 million).

Artist Lana del Rey gained attention this summer through her song “Video Games,” which garnered 12 million views on YouTube in four months. The video features different clips that together speak about a Hollywood wasteland and snapshots of a forgotten, more glamorous time. “Video Games” and other songs provide context to her lyrics through a collection of clips within each video.

The takeaway: When it comes to content strategy within online communities, no single piece of content will build your brand; the entire collective of content tells your brand story. Whether you are an emerging brand or artist or a cultural icon, the best way to become a hit-maker on emerging platforms is to offer compelling visual content that tells your brand’s story over time.

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