Showing posts with label Web 2.0. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web 2.0. Show all posts

Saturday

Advanced media societies are vulnerable to 'influence' from abroad

Eight years ago, The Public Diplomacy Blog talked about a strategic mismatch between  advanced media societies and the developing ones. The argument we made was that with free and open social media, developed nations with high levels of media penetration, become vulnerable to "influence" from abroad, including from not so advanced media societies.


"Putin used cyberwarfare to poison American politics, to spread fake news, to help elect a chaos candidate, all in order to weaken our democracy"
Friedman further states,
"We should be using our cyber-capabilities to spread the truth about Putin —just how much money he has stolen, just how many lies he has spread, just how many rivals he has jailed or made disappear — all to weaken his autocracy"
The truth is, IT'S NOT THAT EASY!




In the blog post, Web 2.0 in Public Diplomacy - a strategic mismatch, in The Public Diplomacy Blog in 2009, it was argued that,


"...if we look at developed economies like US or Europe, internet penetration and usage are high. So, for lesser countries with the capability and knowhow ... it will be a lot easier to influence Europeans or Americans in a focused way with mass out reach. 

In a way, the strategic advantage actually lie with these countries rather than the developed West when it come to Web 2.0 Public Diplomacy.

Being on the wrong side of the digital divide may be beneficial for these states.

To illustrate further, we all know about Iran "twittering away" few months ago... but these twitterers are very minuscule and do not form the huge popular support base for conservative Ahmedinejad. (Read my blog post "Public Diplomacy & Social Media" in June, 2009.)

For Iran, it is easier to reach and attempt to influence an American audience rather than for US to reach Iranians via Web 2.0. Naturally, the tactics have to be different and a realistic assessment of Web 2.0 potential has to be made for each country."

... and we all know by now that this is exactly what Russians did to the Americans isn't it?  So, it may not be as easy for Americans to undermine Putin's autocracy simply because of the nature of media consumption in Russia. But the Americans did well with their ant-Soviet propaganda during the Cold War, so we would have to wait and see!




Sunday

Pew Research Center findings on Social News Consumption

News consumption is becoming a community activity. It is becoming social. We have seen this happen and know that it will gradually change the way we try to understand our world.

A recent research by the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation explored the characteristics of news consumers and the size of their population across 11 social networking sites. The research was conducted in the United States.

The research – “News Use Across Social Media Platforms” – found that the primary social networking sites where users also consume news are Reddit, Twitter and Facebook, in that order. But when looked at in terms of the percentage of the total U.S. population , Facebook seems to be dominant, surprisingly followed by You Tube. The report states:
“Facebook is by far the largest social networking site among U.S. adults, and with half of its users getting news there, is also the largest among U.S. adults when it comes to getting news. As discussed in an earlier report, roughly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults use the site, and half of those users get news there—amounting to 30% of the general population. YouTube has the next greatest reach in terms of general usage, at 51% of U.S. adults. Thus, even though only a fifth of its users get news there, that amounts to 10% of the adult population, which puts it on par with Twitter.”

The report also finds out the access to traditional news sources is still there and states that,
“YouTube, LinkedIn and Google Plus news consumers are more likely than Facebook and Twitter news consumers to watch cable news. Twitter news consumers are among the least likely to turn to local and cable TV.”

The demographic analysis reveals that news consumers on Twitter are more likely to be younger than other social networking sites, LinkedIn news consumers tend to be college educated and higher earners while Facebook news consumers are more likely to be female.

It would have been more interesting to also understand how news selection happen in social networking communities keeping in mind aspects of ‘virality’, conversations and engagement. News on social networking sites may often be consumed on the basis of prominence it may enjoy in a certain community. In the process, sometimes the not so significant news may become important with community action – a trend that should not be encouraged. It also has the potential to promote news that traditional outlets might choose to ignore or play down – a trend that can become empowering. For practicing communicators, social news consumption seems to be the next minefield to navigate!

Suggestions/Critiques welcome.

-- Madhur


Social Proofing and Public Diplomacy

Much has been written about the US State Department spending USD 630,000 to "buy millions of Facebook 'likes' on it's Facebook page. A story by AFP in the Indian newspaper Mint reported the following,
"A scathing report by the department’s independent watchdog took the coordinators of its social media outreach policy to task saying it needed to “direct its digital advertising to specific public diplomacy goals ...
The report by the Office of the inspector general found that two advertising campaigns launched in 2011 and 2012 cost some $630,000 with the “goal of building global outreach platforms for engagement with foreign audiences by increasing the number of fans... on four thematic Facebook properties.”
Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as ‘buying fans’ who may have once clicked on a post or ‘liked’ a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further.."
While the idea of directing tax dollars to buy Facebook 'likes' may seem atrocious to many but the criticism is not fair. While the amount spent may be debated, but the buying of 'likes' reflects the State Department's astute marketing sense and aggressive style - which is good. It also shows an understanding of the concept of 'social proofing' that matters in digital marketing,
"an attempt to guide user behavior by showcasing social influence. Facebook ‘Like’ is the most common example"
A higher ratio of Facebook Likes implies higher influence, popularity and more often than not influences others to explore. People are more likely to engage with a page that has already received large perceptible acceptance. 

While some may feel that the ideal scenario is to build the fan page organically; it is time, effort and resource intensive and promoting the page can take much longer. Also, keep in mind that it is dependent on posting meaningful content ... and achieving the level of streamlined collaboration that is required to source content within a bureaucracy, and the vastness of the State Department, would have made organic growth difficult.  Nonetheless, by making its page dynamic and reaching out to a larger group, specific public diplomacy goals would have been realized by more engagement. 

Similar to 'Likes' on Facebook,  Twitter following is another example of social proofing. See the following infographic from social selling university on the practice of buying Twitter followers. Do I see Obama?




Suggestions/Critiques welcome.

-- Madhur

Wednesday

Being Hyperconnected


“The illiterate of the 21st Century are not those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”  Alvin Toffler  in Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century
          I am often reminded of Toffler’s famous observation when I see the rapid disruptions in the world of communications. It’s becoming difficult for comms pros to keep pace, to consult clients and remain relevant in an industry that is constantly forcing us to learn, relearn and unlearn.
       ‘Hyperconnectivity’ is one such trend and is going to define the future. What it essentially refers to is a paradigm shift from ‘going online’ to ‘being online’ – a coming of age of the internet; the reality of a parallel virtual universe.
  1. Complex media environment: We need to be agile and alert. It is increasingly becoming a complex media environment. We need to be adept at communicating ‘in’ and also ‘across’ different platforms being aware that the message will be consumed differently and conveyed further increasingly differently.  It’s complex where there are numerous apps, different screens, different devices, different formats and add to it the customized narratives for each. While we talk content, it’s interesting to realize that the monopoly over content by prominent individuals and conglomerates have been completely broken. A good story can be told by anyone, anywhere with great impact. Managing narratives have become difficult and this brings me to my second point of  target audiences.
  2. Demanding  Audiences: Our audiences demand more, and along with the story we need to deliver an ‘experience’. Interactivity is important, so is the format and experience of consumption, and we have to take care of all, knowing fully well that a story that isn’t credible won’t last long.
  3. Audience Fragmentation: Audiences have access to multiple sources of information. Loyalties switch across platforms depending upon the format and experience across platforms and there can be 'multiple loyalties'. Multiplicity of platforms actually means audiences are getting divided into smaller groups and the same group of people might exhibit different behaviors across different platforms. This brings me to my third point.
  4. Measurement Difficulties: How do you make sense of all this? I am not too sure of accuracy levels of current data analytics and to what extent are they effective when it comes to some sort of predictive modeling simply because of the overwhelming number of variables that are coming into play. Will be glad if any reader can enlighten here…
  5. Monetization difficulties: How do you monetize what you create? How do you protect what you create from being duplicated? While we talk of content marketing and content being king, content actually seems to have become real cheap thanks to over supply! You should read this interesting piece (if you haven't read it already) in The New York Times, that talks of the Slow Death of the American Author.

Critics in India often argue that this reality is not relevant for India. Given the weak broadband & data storage infrastructure, including the huge digital divide, any talk of internet enabled media doesn’t necessarily find takers among all media practitioners always. I wonder if we can move in any other direction though. 

Suggestions/Critiques welcome.

-- Madhur

Sunday

@IndianDiplomacy posts on Twitter

India's Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) is known to be quite active on Twitter compared to other ministries. The ministry also used Twitter quite productively for the evacuation of Indian nationals from Libya during the NATO led war.

@IndianDiplomacy currently has 26, 774 followers with 1,855 tweets posted till date. Indian diplomats and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), as well, routinely tweet on foreign policy matters now. As one of the followers, I  receive regular updates from the ministry on my Twitter feed. One can't help but notice that most tweets remain in the form of notifications or announcements and are primarily in the 'broadcast mode'. While this is not bad in itself, in order to leverage Twitter, or for that matter any digital platform, it helps to switch to the 'engagement mode' where an action or a response is sought to a post and more and more two way communications happen. It may be a good idea to personalize it a little bit and not make it look like an information window of the government. While one may find lot of interesting information or updates, most of the times one may get the feeling 'so...why should I care?' This  is the question @IndianDiplomacy should seek to address. What is also required is better usage of hashtags and even some basics such as usage of bit.ly etc.

I personally think former Foreign Secretary and current Ambassador to United States, Ms Nirupama Rao is doing a fabulous job on Twitter. Not only her posts have a personality but the tone and overall nature of tweets are very engaging. Her Twitter handle is @NMenonRao. How do we add personality to a Ministry? That is another interesting challenge altogether.

Some useful resources:
Suggestions/Critiques welcome

-- Madhur

No Child Born To Die

I am currently involved in another advocacy project that aims to use social media to mobilize Indian citizens. This Right to Health campaign was inaugurated by acclaimed Indian actor Shabana Azmi, who is also the ambassador for the NGO, Save The Children that's running the campaign called "No Child Born To Die."

International NGOs seem to have more faith in the power of social media than most private sector companies. More than generating awareness, these campaigns are used mostly to build a soft pressure on the policymakers and government from the Indian middle class in urban areas. The No Child Born To Die campaign hopes to create a people's movement to demand better healthcare facilities for every mother and child in India by increasing the share of budget allocation for healthcare to 5% of GDP, from the current 1.1%.

The campaign runs on a webportal where one can sign up to show support for the cause. More the sign-ups the better it is. It will run parallel with a focused publicity campaign leading up to the Union budget 2012, demanding increased spend on healthcare by the Government of India. Last week, to give the campaign action a wider visibility among public and media in New Delhi, India, Save the Children showcased people’s support on a huge screen, 60 feet by 50 feet, mounted at the Statesman House, a landmark building, in the heart of New Delhi. This was a first of its kind stunt by an NGO in India.

Wall of Fame at Statesman House, New Delhi

The need for this campaign was felt given the following alarming statistics on healthcare in India:
  1. Every 20 seconds, a child is dying in India due to PREVENTABLE diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia. 
  2. India has the highest number of children dying, more than anywhere in the world.
  3. These children are dying even before they are five years old. According to a report prepared by Save The Children, every year, 1.73 million children die in India even before the age of five. And nearly one million of them die within the first month of their life. 
  4. India ranks lowest in public healthcare spending. South Asian neighbors like Nepal & Bangladesh spend more than India on healthcare.
  5. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that all developing countries must allocate five per cent of GDP on health. India's current spend is only 1.2 per cent with a goal to increase it to 2.7 per cent by 2017.
Do support the cause.

Suggestions/Critiques welcome.

-- Madhur








Understanding the Indian Digital Consumer

I attended a talk recently by business analyst & strategy consultant, Mr Mohit Chhabra, (currently, Business Head at Skillment Edu) on the rise of the digital consumer in India. Mohit, who is also closely associated with TED gave his audience great insights on the digital revolution that is sweeping the country aided by the penetration of mobile phones in India. Contrary to the general perception that social media/digital platform is an urban phenomenon what emerged during the talk and discussions was that the growth of the digital medium in India will, in fact, be pushed by demand from rural India. According to Census projections of 2010, Government of India, there are 164 million households in rural India - 70% of the population - and this group loves their mobile phones!

There are 3 Indias according to Mohit:
  1. The Metropolitan India
  2. Rur-ban India
  3. Deep Rural India (the group that loves their mobile phones the most.)
In a really interesting example, it was demonstrated that while consumers in India rarely pay (or prefer to pay) for their own education but when it comes to entertainment, have no qualms in spending. In 'deep rural' India, there is a huge demand for entertainment and it has been found that the favorite entertainment device for rural India is the mobile phone. This demand for entertainment according to Mohit will drive adoption of social media and rise of the digital consumer in India. Communicating to 'deep rural India' digitally is more effective if it serves this most important demand - something that communicators must be aware of - the plank of entertainment. I have included Mohit's presentation below:

Indian digital consumer
Suggestions/Critiques welcome.


-- Madhur

Indian bloggers for PD practitioners to engage... ?

My friend, a certain Mr X, member of the diplomatic corps in New Delhi, asked if it makes any sense to engage bloggers in India. Mr X apparently is being prodded by the 'higher ups' in his country to reach out more to bloggers in India; and my friend believes it is important, but, not so important. 

To my 'why' he gave an interesting insight.

Apparently, the free press (militant, vitriolic, opinionated and commercial) and proliferation of media in India makes it unnecessary, unimportant. It's unlike the Middle East where blogs are an outlet to discuss and debate in the absence of a free press. Blogs are influential in countries where there is no space for a public discourse. (?)

If we look at the Indian blogosphere there are indeed very few that are authoritative or 'referred to' blogs in the 'issues' space. For many Indian bloggers the interest areas range from personal hobbies, lifestyle and  professional topics. 


Classification of blogs in India
by www.indiblogger.in

At the end of our chat I understood where Mr X was coming from. I promised to find him a few!

Suggestions/Critiques welcome.

-- Madhur


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