Is Time the New Metric?

Six Pixels of Separation

Responding to the fascinating new online video commercial from Burger King, “The Whopper Freakout,” Mitch Joel wonders if there isn’t a new metric when thinking about measuring influence in social media. The video is more than seven-minutes long, 14 times the length of a normal TV spot, and yet it has over 90,000 views on YouTube. The personal nature of the video, which examines how people would react if Burger King decided to pull the Whopper from its menus, requires a commitment from the audience, is this commitment the new metric that should hold our attention? “That’s the new currency of the Social Media space and the new metric we need to understand and learn from. Spending 7:35 with Burger King (something I would never normally do) is what inspired me to Blog about Whopper Freakout Commercial.”

Pick a Category, and Category

PR Studies

Blogging has evolved rather quickly in the few years since it became popular, peaking as 2006’s Time magazine person of the year was revealed to be “You.” Richard Bailey ponders the evolution of the blog from meaningless chatter to well-reasoned, respected contribution to the media landscape. He notes that rather than comparing blogging to traditional print journalism, we should be comparing it to the conversations taking place in the social media world, and wonders where exactly blogging “fits” in the “publishing ecosystem.” “Compared to the semi-public (and barely literate) conversations on social media sites like Facebook (2007’s ‘new new thing’) blogs seem considered, valuable and highly literate. The froth has gone, but there’s something substantial left. Yet rather than being too quick and easy, the criticism now comes from those who find the process of blogging too ponderous, too dull and without an immediate feedback loop.”

It’s Not the Conversation

Now is Gone

Suggesting a repositioning of the “old formula” set up for communication and interacting with stakeholders, Ike Pigott lays out the idea of throwing out the old definitions of audience and community. He argues that the word “conversation,” a favorite buzz word in social media that has been overused to the point where it’s become cliché, has become the focus of far too many efforts in the social media environment. Ike points out that conversation can mean many different things, and the focus should be on interaction, yes, but also credibility. “So, I’m officially calling off the “conversation” as the be-all end-all unit of exchange. You don’t need to have a “conversation” to succeed in business. You do need to earn the credibility required to be granted the Final Word regarding your product, performance, or service. Because people are talking, whether you’re listening or not.”