Bill Bode

When Tech Meets Hollywood: Celebrities Flock to Re-Invented Macworld/iWorld

Growing up in Baltimore, I was always told two things about California before moving here: all the celebrities live in Los Angeles and the world’s most innovative technologies come from the Bay Area. In late January, the two merged at the 29th Annual Macworld/iWorld event, right here in San Francisco, and Schwartz MSL was lucky to be part of the action as the agency of record for the show.

Let’s start with some back story, shall we? For years, the Macworld Conference & Expo was known as the annual event where Apple unveiled its next game-changing technology. Over the years, iTunes (2001), the original iPhone (2007) and the MacBook Air (2008) all debuted at the show. In 2008, following several monumental shifts in the tech world—including the expanding social web, a continuous shift to mobile and growth of its own retail chain—Apple announced its decision to forego all trade events. As a result, Macworld found itself at a crossroads: should it stay the course with a tried and true format (trade show plus conference) or evolve into a lifestyle event?

Last year, Macworld answered that question, rebranding itself as “Macworld/iWorld: The Ultimate iFan Event.” While 2012 tested the waters, in 2013, the new formula took hold. While the event still caters to the diehard Apple fanboys and fangirls who made the event what it is today, an expanded focus on the many ways that Apple technology drives creativity and innovation now aims to bring in new audiences. This year, the show floor and a variety of education sessions and live experiences showcased the impact of Apple technology on how we live, work and play. And nothing brought that intersection to live more than some of the celebrity talks. Here are just a few of our highlights:

Film
“Playing Steve and Woz” – JOBS, the feature film set to explore the legacy of Apple, will be hitting theatres April 9. What better place to preview the film than Macworld/iWorld? The stars of the film, Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, spoke to a packed house about what it was like to play Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, respectively, and what Apple means to them in their own lives. Steve Jobs was a pretty mysterious guy, so buzz surrounding the film was sure to be off the charts in front of his biggest fans. You could even argue that like the Continuum Transfunctioner, Jobs’ mystery is only exceeded by his power. Movie lovers at this year’s show were also treated to the iPhone Film Festival, which highlighted films made entirely on iPhones.

Television
“Fred Armisen Talks Tech” – With over ten years under his belt as an SNL cast member, Fred Armisen is without question the heart and soul of this year’s cast. Anybody who watches Armisen on Saturday nights can tell you that his passion for Apple shines through his characters, having recently played a Foxconn factory worker, and previously, Steve Jobs himself.  Armisen’s talk gave an entertaining look into the many ways he uses Apple devices in his everyday life, and as a co-writer/co-producer on IFC’s excellent series, “Portlandia.”  Still no word on the overwhelming number of birds scattered around the Expo Hall after his presentation, though.

Design
“Futurehunting” – Black Eyed Peas musician will.i.am is a futurist. Just read the cover story in last month’s Fortune, and you’ll learn all about his visions for the future of technology. Big brands are taking note too- several of the world’s biggest companies are tapping will.i.am’s mind to help them explore what’s next in the tech world. At this year’s Macworld/iWorld, will.i.am made us say “Boom Boom WOW,” stopping by to give an hour-long Tech Talk with Intel Futurist Brian David Johnson, discussing how the merge of tech, culture and fashion will challenge and expand traditional thinking in the tech world. “Don’t think outside the box,” he suggested, “Kick the box and make it a circle.” The singer also showed off his extremely cool tech meets fashion device, the foto.sosho. Unfortunately, Taboo couldn’t make it. Crossing my fingers for next year.

While an emphasis was placed on celebrity this year, don’t let this fool you- the stars of this year’s show were, and always will be, the coolest apps, software and technology that makes the life of every iFan easier, more stylish and more fun. Some of our favorites include JAM (they brought a monkey), Bowblade (A bow-and-arrow accessory that helps you prepare for the inevitable zombie apocalypse) and Double Robotics (an iPad robot- seriously.)

Interested in learning more about Macworld/iWorld? Make sure to follow the Expo on Twitter at @MacworldExpo, and free up February 1-3, 2014 on your calendars- we’ll see you next year in San Francisco!

 

Posted by Bill Bode on February 22, 2013 at 2:34 PM
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2012 Social Media March Madness: Duke vs. KU

It’s March, which can only mean one thing to the Schwartz MSL Research Group- it’s time to once again get out our calculators and basketballs- it’s Social Media March Madness time.

Since we first started measuring social media muscle amongst college fan bases back in 2008 (we believe we were the first to do it), the NCAA Social Media rankings have slowly become one of our favorite and most popular analyses of the year. This year, two members of the Schwartz Research Group (Bill Bode and Kiley Phalan) took the lead. As Syracuse alum, Kiley had high stakes rooting on her Orangemen. On the other hand, Bill’s alma mater, Towson University barely missed the tournament. (Just kidding. This year, Towson set a NCAA Division-I record 41-game losing streak. Go Tigers!)

Twitter exploded in 2011, and college hoops fans have taken notice. After years of using Facebook fans as our primary data point, this year, the Schwartz MSL Research Group enhanced and refined our methodology. We realized Facebook fans of the Schools main page did not measure engagement with the basketball team. When analyzing brands it is essential to analyze the right basket. Additionally, with so much sports commentary happening on Twitter, we added that to our analysis for the first time this year.

How do we determine a winner?  To determine each school’s SMPR (Social Media Power Ranking), we used the following formula: (# of Facebook fans for each college basketball team + # of Twitter followers for each college basketball Twitter handle/Number of students attending the university, according to Wikipedia.) Sure, it’s not an exact science, but it’s the closest we can get to assess each school’s social media prowess and compare them against each other. This also eliminates school size as a factor in determining the winner.

We won’t keep you waiting. Ladies and gentleman, your 2012 March Madness Social Media Power Rankings:

Observations:
•    Kansas takes the top prize over Duke, with a SMPR of 5.244
•    Last year’s winner, Ohio State, is eliminated in the first round this year to #15 seed Loyola MD. This is likely due to our change in methodology, requiring the Facebook and Twitter fan pages to be basketball-exclusive (Ohio State has 1,135,676 likes, but only 18,042 fans of the Basketball team). This is the biggest upset throughout the tournament.
•    The West is easily the weakest bracket. Memphis is able to wiggle their way into a Final 4 appearance, despite the fact that Syracuse, UNC, Gonzaga and UConn all have stronger rankings- luck of the draw!
•    This year’s biggest buzzer beater was the closest match up we’ve seen in the history of Schwartz MSL’s SMPR- Memphis topped Mizzou in the Elite 8 with a difference of .002.
•    Two members of the Schwartz MSL Research Group, @mcclennan and @kphalan, swear Syracuse will do better in the Dance.


The Top 10 by Social Media Power Ranking:
•    Kansas- 5.244
•    Duke- 4.577
•    UNC- 3.957
•    WVU- 3.307
•    Gonzaga- 3.165
•    Syracuse- 2.811
•    UConn- 2.205
•    Memphis- 1.832
•    Mizzou- 1.830
•    Michigan State- 1.650

Posted by Bill Bode on March 13, 2012 at 12:23 PM
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Power to the People! Social Media Breakthroughs at Social 2011

Halfway through Mitch Joel’s keynote speech on the first day of Radian6’s inaugural social media measurement conference, Social 2011, I leaned over to my fellow Schwartz Research Group member, Kiley Phalan. In a day that ended with severe writer’s cramp from writing down so many optimistic social media visions of the future, I joked to Kiley that I would name my recap blog post “The Future is Going to be Awesome.” As the conference progressed, more emphasis was placed on how social media is changing the volume at which your average consumer can be heard, so I opted instead for one of my favorite John Lennon songs: Power to the People.

I could write a book with all of the intel I gathered at Social 11, but the takeaways were clear: the world (and business in particular) is in a transition phase. At one point in time, businesses learned how to adjust to telephones. Then came fax machines, the internet, email and now--social media. Radian6 CEO Marcel LeBrun calls it “the biggest transformative force in a century.” I can’t argue with that. It’s been known for a while that more people communicate via social networks than they do via email, a point that was echoed and driven home throughout the conference. Naturally, as social media continues to grow, people are starting to demand metrics to prove that social media is helping drive business. And we have them. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Radian6, it’s one of many tools the Schwartz Research Group has in our measurement arsenal. Analyzing Radian6 metrics allows us to identify industry and news trends, listen to consumer conversations, determine key influencers and soon enough--report on your brand’s audience demographics with Radian6 Insights. Speaking of brands, we learned a lot about those too. Marcel LeBrun says “your brand is the sum of conversations about it.” Mitch Joel offered another definition, saying “your brand isn’t what you say it is--it’s what Google says it is.” Say what you will, but one thing is clear: with social media, businesses aren’t determining what their brand is any more--consumers are.

So what does this mean for the future? The Schwartz Research Group has a few predictions:

Demand for Measurement & ROI
Imagine you’re a football coach. If you’re the only one who knows the score, what good are you? Words of wisdom from Amber Naslund, co-author of The NOW Revolution. It’s easy to have a score, but it’s better to know what you need to improve on. As many traditional businesses tread into the waters of social media, they’ll be unfamiliar with what kind of expectations to set. Measurement and benchmarking will be critical to establish realistic expectations and find out if your social media strategy is actually working.

The Consumer is in Charge
“With social media, every customer is now a reporter.” Brands like Dell and Nike are utilizing social media to interact with their consumers. Social media monitoring allows us to effectively communicate with our customer base, ensuring that major customer concerns don’t go unanswered. To interact properly with the consumer, we need to be as human and personable as possible. Don’t be a business robot.

Social media has reunited families, changed the course of businesses and even helped overthrow dictatorships. “Power is no longer in the hands of who has the biggest buck--it’s in the hands of the community,” says Marcel LeBrun. We couldn’t agree more and we can’t wait to watch it all unfold.

Posted by Bill Bode on April 19, 2011 at 1:21 PM
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How Are The NCAA Social Media Power Rankings Doing?

Yesterday, we wrote a blog post that analyzed who would win the 2011 NCAA March Madness Tournament if it was decided solely based on a school's social media prowess.

How is it working out?

Take a look at the Southeast Bracket:

Posted by Mark McClennan on March 18, 2011 at 8:16 AM
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2011 NCAA March Madness Social Media Power Rankings

For the past few years, to critical acclaim, the Schwartz Communications Research Group has conducted the NCAA Social Media College Basketball Bracket Analysis (we believe we were the first to do it in 2008). As a PR firm that deals with high-tech, healthcare and services companies, we live social media every day and have a love of metrics. Therefore, we asked ourselves what if the schools in the Big Dance had to compete based on their social media prowess, not their hoop skills? I mean, forget guard play, or how the Orangemen’s zone has been inconsistent…

Two members of the research group (Mark McClennan and Bill Bode) carefully evaluated the field of 64 and had the teams face off solely on social media skills and came up with a power ranking for each school. We kept the NCAA seeds and let them face off.

You may question - does this really work? Well in 2008, the NCAA Social Media Power Rankings were one of the few to predict Davidson's tremendous run deep in the tourney - so mock it at your peril.

How was the power ranking determined? It was determined by (# of Facebook users in the School/Team group or fan page (whichever was larger)/number of students at school according to Wikipedia). Note: Yes that includes alumni, but they count as fans in the stands cheering on the team. And if the students didn't join their schools network or the groups were hard to find...we considered that they didn't show up for the game. We recorded it in Excel and took it from there.

Is it mathematically perfect? No. But wait to you see our plans for next year! Do we encourage wagering on games or any other activity which may take this as anything other than entertainment - no.

Without further ado:

You can see the full size bracket. here. View image

As for surprises?

• Ohio State runs away with it all. They have a SMPR of 14.95.
• Butler is a strong #2 with a SMPR of 13.47
• While Duke does well (8.29) it runs into a reinvigorated Texas team (8.98)
• SDSU is the weakest #2 seed, and one in the weakest in the tourney (0.36) but it manages to squeak out a first round win.
• The biggest buzzer beater? Wisconsin (2.064) vs. Kansas St (1.987) for a difference of 0.07.
• The East and West Brackets are the toughest draw with 7 of the top 10 SMPR teams

The top 11 Schools by SMPR

• Ohio State 14.95
• Butler 13.47
• Kentucky 12.81
• University of Texas 8.98
• University of Florida 8.76
• Duke 8.29
• U of Michigan 6.09
• Syracuse 6.07
• Texas A&M 5.36
• Notre Dame 4.963
• Mizzou 4.950

Posted by Mark McClennan on March 17, 2011 at 9:29 AM
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Gazing into the Schwartz Crystal Ball: Social Media in 2011

Folks in PR love statistics (especially when you’re a member of the Schwartz Research Group, as I am). We also love speculating what the future holds. When you put the two together--look out!

Every New Year brings along with it a frenzy of predictions. Last week, Wall Street Journal contributors offered up their media expectations for 2011 in an article called “Digital or Die.” Amongst their hunches? ‘An onslaught of digital technology laying waste to traditional media.’ eMarketer, another forecaster of the future, estimates that in 2011 80% of companies will be using social media tools. Sure, that’s only a 7% increase from 2010, but it’s enough to make companies think twice about who they are targeting and how they are doing it. Looking forward to 2011, here are a few of our crystal ball predictions:

1. An Increase in Measurement
As more companies are incorporating social media into their business models, we’re seeing more interest in ROI. Measurement and Research allows us to get as close to demonstrating ROI as possible.

Tools like Radian6 provide the ability to benchmark and measure share of voice for companies who may be a bit hesitant to make the jump into social media. Social media measurement also allows us to identify industry influencers and zero in on the key opinion leaders who matter the most. Who are your top competitors? How are they reaching their audiences? Is it working? These are all things you can find out when you include strategic measurement in your social media blueprint. You wouldn’t invest in a stock without doing any research or measurement--why should social media be any different?

2. Facebook, Facebook, Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg is a busy guy these days. When he’s not being named Time’s Person of The Year or adding more numbers to Facebook’s already astonishing 500 million+ users, he’s taking down FourSquare by launching Facebook Places or changing the face of email. No big deal.

Every day, Facebook is making itself an integral part of more websites and becoming a more effective medium in the business world. In years past, the general consensus was “use Twitter for business and Facebook for personal use.” Not anymore. Facebook is one of the most direct and personal ways a company can reach their audience. While some companies in the B2B market remain split on the question of whether Facebook is an important part of their marketing or customer support strategies, we’re starting to see more companies at the very least test the waters. Through offering contests, promotions and providing news to their core audiences, we expect to more companies to be utilizing Facebook throughout the New Year.

3. Rejuvenation of the Website
If you attended Schwartz’s Content Marketing Breakfast Roundtable last month, you know that content marketing is quickly becoming a part of many companies’ marketing strategies. Are you still making cold calls to generate sales leads? Not in 2011!

While having a company Twitter and Facebook profile is important, some companies are neglecting their first true “social media” outlet: their own website. Whether through video content or blogs, the website should be a critical tool helping companies communicate with potential customers in order to nurture leads.

With a content marketing strategy in place, companies can determine where leads are coming from and utilize this data to cultivate prospects over time. If you’re looking for a good place to start, our friends at HubSpot recently posted a blog on 25 Ways to Increase Sales & Lead Generation through content marketing.

In 2010, 100 million people joined Twitter. 2011 has just begun--how much bigger can social media get? My guess? Much, much bigger. What are your predictions for 2011?

Happy New Year!

Posted by Bill Bode on January 11, 2011 at 9:02 AM
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The Long and the Short of URL Shortening in Social Media

140 characters. A couple of years ago, this phrase would have been meaningless. But in today’s world of fast news, direct customer outreach and explosive social media, every PR professional knows what this means and how important it is to a social media program. When we are limited to what we can say on Twitter, beggars can’t be choosers, and message delivery needs to be punchy and impactful. Enter URL shorteners, allowing us to go beyond 140 characters and extend our message to the web, videos, client blogs and more.

There’s no short list for URL shorteners. Bit.ly, TinyURL, is.gd and even awe.sm (yes, believe it or not, that is a real service) are all tools PR professionals are using daily to link to content and effectively communicate with their audience. But how do we take advantage of URL shorteners to make the content valuable to the audience and deliverable to the client?

Tracking
Several URL shorteners provide users the option to create a username and track over time how many click-throughs their links receive. What do your followers care most about? What are they reading? Measurement provides us with the ability to analyze what our readers actually care about and gives us the opportunity to refine our message and provide actionable content. Here is a real-life example of a client’s Bit.ly statistics, giving us insight to what works and what doesn’t.

With URL shorteners, we can even measure the level of visibility the competition is receiving. Curious to see how many people are clicking your client’s bit.ly’s in comparison to their competitors? Adding a “+” to the end of a bit.ly URL allows us to view how popular any bit.ly is and gives us the option to not only report to the client statistics of their social media program, but statistics of their competitor’s as well. Tracking these statistics can be a valuable long-term deliverable, measuring how visibility and social media traction has increased over a finite period of time.

Customization
Certain URL shorteners, like Bit.ly, also provide users with the option to customize their links. Let’s face it, if I were to link to Schwartz Communications’ homepage, the link http://bit.ly/SchwartZ is a lot more attractive than http://bit.ly/aZdm2u. Not to mention, customizable links allow you to highlight company products and ideas in your tweet.

Challenges
In communications, URL shorteners clearly provide value, but some people are still on the fence. In 2009, TechCrunch called URL shorteners a “necessary evil,” and much of their audience agreed, with over 57% of poll respondents echoing similar sentiments.

So what’s the fuss about? As TechCrunch points out, random links can be opaque and cause spam concerns when users are unaware what they are clicking, and yes, some click-throughs can be attributed to bots, applications and browser plug-ins.

Still, when all is said and done, URL shorteners allow for more compelling and targeting messaging. In social media, our job is simple: relate to the public and encourage target audiences to take action. Whether that action be clicking a link, taking a poll or anything in between, URL shorteners are outstanding tools to encourage and begin to measure audience activity, and for that, I’m all for them.

Posted by Bill Bode on September 30, 2010 at 7:34 AM
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