Telemundo announced the launch of its new strategic social media arm to better connect with the growing Hispanic presence on online social networks. Dubbed Social@Telemundo, the new unit will be led by Borja Perez, vice president for digital media and integrated solutions at the Spanish-language media company. The five-person group will focus on delivering interactive content across key social platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, tied to each of Telemundo's shows and telenovelas. It will also build on efforts like the broadband series "Telemundo Live" by sharing more access to the broadcaster's programming and stars in Spanish and English. "U.S. Hispanics are incredibly active consumers of social media and are 1.5 times more likely then the general market to be active in this space," stated Peter Blacker, executive vice president of digital media and emerging businesses at Telemundo. He added that traffic to Telemundo's Facebook page had grown seven-fold in the last year and five-fold on Twitter. There's still a lot of room for growth. Telemundo has drawn about 52,000 fans on Facebook and 90,000 followers on Twitter, just a fraction of the millions of loyalists top brands or celebrities attract on those sites. MTV, for instance, has 13.8 million fans on Facebook. But Telemundo is counting on the burgeoning Hispanic online audience to fuel its social-media efforts in the months and years ahead. It cited comScore data showing 29 million U.S. Hispanics outline, with growth outpacing the general population by 50%. Latinos are also overrepresented when it comes to online video, with 42% watching entire TV shows on the Web compared with 28% of non-Hispanics. Telemundo cited SIMM Survey data showing 54% of U.S. Hispanics are on Facebook and 11.4% on Twitter, compared to 43% and 4.8% of the overall population. But a Pew Hispanic Center study released this month found U.S. Latinos overall are less likely than whites to access the Internet, have a home broadband connection or own a cell phone. Hispanics also trail African-Americans in home broadband access, but use the Internet and mobile phones at similar levels.
Telemundo is amping up its focus on social media through a dedicated group in the emerging space. Tabbed Social@Telemundo, Borja Perez, a digital media executive, will head the venture and work with production and ad sales. Initiatives are planned in Spanish and English. Networks may be struggling with how to accurately measure the impact of social media on ratings, but they are more than aware of its potential. They are also looking for ways to generate some ad dollars from the chatter and activity their content generates. The Telemundo group will emphasize building experiences using Facebook and Twitter linked with its content, promising a focus on all shows and novelas. "By leveraging the power of social media with our ability to create original programming, we are able to create a dialogue amongst our 'viewers' ... In addition, our bilingual approach allows the full spectrum of U.S. Hispanics to enjoy their unique identity and relationships with our content," stated COO Jacqueline Hernández. Telemundo cited figures about significant Hispanic interest in social media: About 54% of Hispanics are on Facebook, compared to 43% of the general market; 11% are on Twitter versus about 5% of the general market. More than 29 million Hispanics are online, Telemundo said. A general Telemundo Facebook page has 52,000-plus likes, while the network has 90,000 Twitter followers. Andres Cantor, the famed soccer announcer who just extended his contract with Telemundo, is active on Twitter with some 4,000 followers. Among others, he could benefit from promotional work by Social@Telemundo.
Telemundo announced the launch of its new strategic social media arm to better connect with the growing Hispanic presence on online social networks. Dubbed Social@Telemundo, the new unit will be led by Borja Perez, vice president for digital media and integrated solutions at the Spanish-language media company. The five-person group will focus on delivering interactive content across key social platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, tied to each of Telemundo's shows and telenovelas. It will also build on efforts like the broadband series "Telemundo Live" by sharing more access to the broadcaster's programming and stars in Spanish and English. "U.S. Hispanics are incredibly active consumers of social media and are 1.5 times more likely then the general market to be active in this space," stated Peter Blacker, executive vice president of digital media and emerging businesses at Telemundo. He added that traffic to Telemundo's Facebook page had grown seven-fold in the last year and five-fold on Twitter. There's still a lot of room for growth. Telemundo has drawn about 52,000 fans on Facebook and 90,000 followers on Twitter, just a fraction of the millions of loyalists top brands or celebrities attract on those sites. MTV, for instance, has 13.8 million fans on Facebook. But Telemundo is counting on the burgeoning Hispanic online audience to fuel its social-media efforts in the months and years ahead. It cited comScore data showing 29 million U.S. Hispanics outline, with growth outpacing the general population by 50%. Latinos are also overrepresented when it comes to online video, with 42% watching entire TV shows on the Web compared with 28% of non-Hispanics. Telemundo cited SIMM Survey data showing 54% of U.S. Hispanics are on Facebook and 11.4% on Twitter, compared to 43% and 4.8% of the overall population. But a Pew Hispanic Center study released this month found U.S. Latinos overall are less likely than whites to access the Internet, have a home broadband connection or own a cell phone. Hispanics also trail African-Americans in home broadband access, but use the Internet and mobile phones at similar levels.
Not everyone is the biggest fan of Farmville, Frontierville, Cityville and the like -- at the very least, if you don't play them, you've almost certainly hidden them from your newsfeed to avoid the constant requests. But one indie developer, Jonathan Blow, creator of the innovative platform/puzzle game "Braid", takes this idea a little bit further. In an interview with PC Gamer magazine , the developer described the way social games on Facebook ask you to tap your friend list as an in-game resource as "evil." "There's no other word for it except evil. Of course you can debate anything, but the general definition of evil in the real world, where there isn't... the villain in the mountain fortress, is selfishness to the detriment of others or to the detriment of the world. And that's exactly what [most of these games are]," Blow told PC Gamer. And he's not talking about the players -- they're more like smokers, while developers like Zynga are more like Phillip Morris. "It's trying to take the maximum amount while trying to give the minimum amount. So that's an ethics of game design question," Blow said. "To me it doesn't matter if people feel like they're having fun or feel like they want to play the game, because the designers know what they're doing." Blow's comments are making the rounds on gaming blogs, often without a great deal of context. But at the core of his message is an important truth, not just for game developers, but for all marketers. Social games are in a very nascent state right now, and developers can get away with asking players to do a great many different things for advancement, including evangelize the games to their friends lists for in-game advantages. But consumer opinions will eventually turn against that behavior, as it has against many other forms of marketing. The only real way to steer clear of being "evil," as Blow puts it, is to ensure that the experience you're creating rewards in equal measure for what it asks from them. This means, for example, when you ask for a consumers' attention with a TV ad, it needs to be at least entertaining enough for them not to feel like their last 30 seconds was a complete loss. When you're building a Facebook fan base or a Twitter follower base, your messages can't be constantly promotional and lacking in consumer value. Any action a marketer asks consumers to take needs to be rewarded, or they'll simply ignore your message in favor of marketers who have something better to offer.
Social search at Google took many twists and turns since the official introduction in Google Labs back in 2009, but it appears the engine may have just recently learned how to tie signals from Facebook, Twitter and other social sites into search engine results. On Thursday, in a blog post, Google explained updates to Google Social Search. Google will mix social search signals throughout organic results based on their relevance. The results also add notes for links that people in your network share. And the engine now gives users more privacy options to take control of who gets to see what. The big question for advertisers and marketers remains whether the signals will improve optimization and paid-search campaigns. How much influence will social signals have in Google's organic search engine results and paid-search ads served up in campaigns? There are several views on the subject. In a blog post, SEOmoz Founder Rand Fishkin outlines what he believes are the next generation of ranking signals. He writes that the "next generation of ranking signals will rely on three (relatively) new groups of metrics." Those metrics include brand signals, entity associations, human quality raters and trusted user behavior. Fishkin explains all three. Hypothesizing the changes, aimClear Founder Marty Weintraub likens the way Google might look at Twitter and Facebook signals similar to Klout, which monitors buzz and determines the ratio of followers with content shared such as retweets. How much social authority does the person sharing the content have? Google likely looks at the broadcaster and the re-broadcaster of a link to determine the person's authority. "Google says there's no association between organic and paid-search rankings," Weintraub says, getting into the whole conversation about how some marketers believe Google favors brands in search results. "But if I'm Google and want to determine whether something is related to a brand, I would look to see if the company's paid per-click ad had registered service marks. Google swears they don't, but I don't understand why they don't because it seems an awesome way to determine whether they're a brand is through paid search." Google will rely on social as an additional signal for organic search results, according to Rob Griffin, SVP, global director of product development at digital agency Havas. In fits into a recent move by the search engine to allow users to block sites they deem "crappy," hopefully putting an end to successful content farms. "I have to figure that factoring in 'Likes' and other social signals will help ensure I don't hire an undesirable firm in India," he says. "For paid search, it's mainly to enhance relevance by message targeting and retargeting to specific users and expanding reach by targeting look-alike segments." Kenshoo CMO Aaron Goldman doesn't believe Google will ever disclose how much weight it gives to social signals, but the latest move adds urgency to the development of social media strategies. It's more critical than ever to get people engaged with the company's brand and sharing links to capture attention in search results. A Google spokesperson says the company is not currently using social signals in its advertising products, and has no future plans to share. David Harry, an SEO expert, says organic rankings probably will not change. If anything, it's another form of personalization for search and local, he says. It might influence some ranking, but not all.
Let's start the column with a multiple choice question, which you can answer on your own. Here it is: I'm glad Facebook exists because: a) It helped Egyptians speak their minds and overthrow a dictator.b) It kept me up to speed on whether or not Lindsay Lohan was going to read the Top Ten list on David Letterman last night. (She didn't.) c) It's helping me make oodles of money because the brand I represent has so many Facebook "Likes." d) It has allowed me to reconnect with my 81-year-old uncle.e) All of the above.f) I'm not on Facebook, and I point and laugh at people who are. Why do I ask? Because Facebook is at the center of what can only be called a media profundity. Even as those of us in the business figure out how to market brands on Facebook, and also use it to catch up with our uncles and the latest gossip, it is also proving game-changing in ways that are exponentially more significant than, say, whether or not Oreos this week set the world record for Facebook "Likes." (It did, for 24 hours, only to be out-liked by Lil' Wayne.)When and where else, I've asked myself in the last few weeks, has a media property been an ad revenue juggernaut that can also foment a revolution? And what does that say about Facebook, as opposed to all of the other media properties that have come before it? The truth is that even Facebook is looking for a suitable answer to that question. In a story this week, headlined, "Facebook Officials Keep Quiet on Its Role in Revolts," unidentified execs told The New York Times about its challenges: "Facebook does not want to be seen as picking sides for fear that some countries -- like Syria, where it just gained a foothold -- would impose restrictions on its use or more closely monitor users." God, it's hard to make money and rally the people at the same time. But seriously, what Facebook -- and the rest of us -- are grappling with is what it means to be a platform that can truly be all things to all people. In fact, if the volume of corporate Facebook pages is any indication, it is also arguably all things to all entities. To an extent, I borrow this idea from Lou Kerner, the Wedbush Securities social media analyst who speaks of Facebook as the "second Internet." If I understand the concept correctly, he sees Facebook as a layer of audience, interaction and currency that more and more often sits on top of the first Internet -- which had plenty of content, but wasn't very social. Now, with Facebook (and, yes, other social platforms), the Internet is becoming a layer cake. There is the layer of platforms and content that have formed the Internet for more than a decade, and now there's this whole extra layer, where people share content, both from the first Internet and the hard-drive of their digital devices. Or they use the second Internet to get in touch with friends, interact with brands -- and tell like-minded souls the location of their anti-government protest. Before Facebook, we would've assigned that roster of responsibilities to entire platforms, not to one media company. The U.S. mail might have served many of those functions. Or the telephone. Or TV. But if I look for an equivalency in power involving only one media property, I can't find it, except possibly in state-run media, which, of course, is inherently not social. Something tells me Kim Jong-il doesn't have much need for Facebook. Yes, this is different, because now, only one property -- 600 million people strong -- is performing almost the entire repertoire of human communication at once. So what does this means for brands? It should never mean targeting camping gear to protesters who refuse to leave their city's central square, though, inevitably, some lines between commerce and community will be crossed. Instead, it highlights something that the best brands have always done, and that is to respect the media property in which you're doing business. It's just that on Facebook, this is heightened. While you should never show an ad for Viagra on Nickelodeon, on Facebook, advertisers have to respect that it's a loose collection of micro-communities, in some of which advertisers might be welcomed, and others where they might not. And the last few weeks are also a reminder of Facebook's power. Well, duh. If so-called new Coke --- the brand's disastrous attempt to reformulate itself in the 1980s -- were to happen today, the revolt over it wouldn't spawn a revolution -- or one would hope. But Facebook (and Twitter) would have served as the hubs of consumer outrage. This means that Facebook isn't just a media property, or a potent ad platform. It's a place where people express their love of Oreos (and Lil Wayne), while a couple of clicks away, people are using it to change the trajectory of their countries and their lives. And don't you forget it.
Telemundo is amping up its focus on social media through a dedicated group in the emerging space. Tabbed Social@Telemundo, Borja Perez, a digital media executive, will head the venture and work with production and ad sales. Initiatives are planned in Spanish and English. Networks may be struggling with how to accurately measure the impact of social media on ratings, but they are more than aware of its potential. They are also looking for ways to generate some ad dollars from the chatter and activity their content generates. The Telemundo group will emphasize building experiences using Facebook and Twitter linked with its content, promising a focus on all shows and novelas. "By leveraging the power of social media with our ability to create original programming, we are able to create a dialogue amongst our 'viewers' ... In addition, our bilingual approach allows the full spectrum of U.S. Hispanics to enjoy their unique identity and relationships with our content," stated COO Jacqueline Hernández. Telemundo cited figures about significant Hispanic interest in social media: About 54% of Hispanics are on Facebook, compared to 43% of the general market; 11% are on Twitter versus about 5% of the general market. More than 29 million Hispanics are online, Telemundo said. A general Telemundo Facebook page has 52,000-plus likes, while the network has 90,000 Twitter followers. Andres Cantor, the famed soccer announcer who just extended his contract with Telemundo, is active on Twitter with some 4,000 followers. Among others, he could benefit from promotional work by Social@Telemundo.