Digital Ecosystem

1. Digital Ecosystem New Rules of Engagement PAMRO 2011 Vivien Marles Managing Director, InterMedia Africa

2. Fundamental Change InterMedia Board Meeting- 2 May 2011

3. Driven by • Broadband – speed and connectivity • Mobile – real time; hyper local • Social Media - forums for action; people now have their own audiences

4. Major loss of trust in big institutions to one’s own network

5. PARADIGM SHIFT FROM ORGANISATIONS & PASSIVE AUDIENCES

6. TO HUGE NUMBERS OF ‘FEW TO FEW’ NETWORKED INTERACTIONS AMONG USERS InterMedia Board Meeting- 2 May 2011

7. Challenges for the Industry • Acknowledge how the terrain has changed the way we seek and spread news and information - Google has grown from small beginnings in 1998 to index a billion web pages by 2000 and a trillion by 2008 - Facebook (2004) now has 500 million active users collectively spending 700 billion minutes on Facebook each month - 24 hours of video are added to the Youtube servers every hour - Twitter has over 5 billion friendship relationships between its users • Reframe our traditional thinking and adapt our rules of engagement • Strategies and research must adapt to the shifting landscape

8. Influentials now play a critical role in • advocacy and act as conduits of credible • information flow • We need move beyond correlations of • demographs and audience behaviour to • understanding the profile of these Nodes • in information networks

9. Why Nodes are Important • Nodes are Opinion Formers/ Influentials • They are connected to a significant number of other people • They play a critical role in information and social networks

10. Who are Nodes? • Many in this room today.. - degree of connectivity to peers and to people of higher or lower positions in society - extent of news and information consumption - perceived level of expertise (in news and current affairs) - numbers of people who seek their advice and opinion Nodes are respected, connected and networked

11. New Framework for Engaging Networked Audiences

12. New Rules of Engagement • Recognise that meaningful engagement is taking place through huge numbers of few to few interactions • Traditional model of “one to many” is no longer relevant • News and information seekers huddle in niches

13. New Rules of Engagement • Participate in User Networks to generate loyalty - successful media organisations must become participants in the digital realm rather than distant creators • Redefine concepts of Reach, Motivation, Response and Impact - complex multi-directional networks call for tools that measure engagement in multiple directions

14. New Rules of Engagement • Move beyond time and geography as the standard for defining audiences - focus has shifted from broadcasters deciding when, where and how to broadcast content, to users deciding when, where and how to consume, share and create content • Identify prominent producers, brokers and consumers of information - tap into brokers/ nodes as a way to expand reach

15. New Rules of Engagement • Give ‘reciprocity’ equal weight to reach as a factor in successful engagement - analyse reciprocal flows of information - identify nodes clusters of users sharing content • Propel journalists beyond reporting to information brokering - as instigators, moderators and drivers of online discussions

16. New Rules of Engagement • Tap into the extensive networks of celebrities - celebrity sells – Alyssa Milano in the Arab Spring Twitter galaxy • Strive to retain users’ trust as users increasingly turn to their own networks - individuals use social networks as evaluators of the quality and trustworthiness of information - media industry need to be aware of those influentials (nodes) who are the arbiters of quality and trust

17. What Does this Mean for Research?

18. Good Social Science Research Principles Remain • Clear objectives • Sound sampling and recruiting – have you reached the target population; is your sample random, representative? • Appropriate instrument design—do the respondents understand your questions as you intended? Do your questions reflect cultural sensitivity? • Avoidance of bias—intentional or accidental • Field training, piloting, pre-testing, observation—is fieldwork going as planned and how are corrections being made? • Data entry and processing quality control • Data analysis—accuracy, reliability, validity, generalizability? • Reporting—clarity, synthesis, user-friendly, compelling graphics, action-oriented, recommendations

19. Conventional Measures still Relevant • Reach • Percentage of a given population reached • Frequency • Count of exposures e.g. how often an individual listens/views material • Share • Percentage of the total audience for a given platform, programme, genre or time of day

20. Word - of - Mouth: Audience amplifier impact Increasing ripple Increased effect impact Key influencers INFLUENCE through through Direct & trusted Audience disseminators trusted trusted contact networks social networks Influence Impact Trust Social Media: Amplifies WoM

21. Whole new Industry Measuring Online Activity • Many tools are available, some for free: • Google Analytics • Piwik • Snoop • Yahoo Analytics • BBClone • Omniture • Radian6 • Collective Intellect • 4Q……etc., etc. • Key is interpretation and synthesis

22. New Engagement Metrics • Ever-evolving metrics on what constitutes online engagement: • Unique visitors • Time spent on site • Total time spent per user • Frequency of visits • Depth of visit • Conversions • Most popular content • Location of visitors • Bounce rate (% of visitors who left site after visiting a particular page) • Who is reading your blogs? • How many comments? Who is contributing? From where? • How many and who are bookmarking your site/blog posts? • How many and who are subscribing to your RSS feeds? • How many emails are being sent through your web forms? Who and where? • Who is talking about you, how often, where and with what ‘sentiment’?

23. Are we ready to lead the way?