By any measure, the World Cup is a pretty big deal. 2010’s games will land among the most watched sporting events in history. This time it’s not just about eyes on televisions, though. The last time the world cup came around, Facebook had about 7.5 Million users. Twitter was less than three months old with 500 users. This time? Twitter is peaking at ~3,000 tweets per second when goals are scored.

The experience for the non-attending fan is far richer than before. Aggregators like tweetbeat add context and commentary while watching matches (especialy with the sound off). Location-based networks are helping to bring fans together in the real world. I set off on a rainy Satruday morning to catch the first U.S. match vs England. Foursquare let me know which bars and restaurants the largest groups of people were gathered at and which teams they supported. I ended up at the Drafthouse, which happened to have the biggest U.S. crowd.

For matches during which I’ve been away from televisions and computer, I’ve been using the new version of Hot Potato. This service offers threaded discussions with people who are having the same experience as I am. I was happy when notifications (SMS or Push) became available for sports scores; I’m even happier now with my fully interactive experience. Although the games are taking place 9,000 miles and 8 time zones away, I’m having a better time than I’ve had attending other sporting events in person. [Go USA!]

Everybody’s Doing It

Based on a Nielsen report on this concept of media multi-tasking, which is now often referred to as three screens (television, Internet and mobile), you can see that I am not the only person engaging in such behavior. I enjoy the distinction between Internet use while watching T.V and T.V. watching while using the Internet. If asked to prioritize, which one would you pick as the primary?

Three Screens in Action

To dig a bit deeper, I pulled together a Crimson Hexagon filter that looks at T.V. viewing mentioned through Twitter. The act of Tweeting while watching T.V. constitutes just two screens, but I was interested in what else people say they are doing. The volume is fairly high. Over 1500 people, every day, are tweeting about this. Though almost 50% of people tweeting were simply stating that they were watching T.V., it was the 15% who were acknowledging their multitasking who I was most interested in.

Accounting For The Three Screen User

The Twittersphere is conscious, or perhaps a bit self-conscious, about their multi-tasking. Plenty of people point out that they are both on Twitter and watching T.V., but plenty of people also point out that they are texting, networking, or on the web. So when you start to think about the impact of or buzz around a T.V. show, you need to take into account the online activities happening real-time around the television (or computer). This isn’t just opinions and reviews. This isn’t just email and Facebook distraction. This could be additional layers added on to a show, only available to those engaged in three screen habits. It’s worth considering the kind of content that YOU would want to consume to supplement your viewing, and also worth thinking about the new places you want to get T.V. content, whether that be information through Twitter or geo-located updates relevant to your favorite shows.

Additional Reading

Lots of people are talking about this, so I’ll suggest a few posts for further consideration.

• Brian Solis and how three screens effects broadcast media
• AT&T building a strategy for the future of consumers and three screens
• Steve Ballmer of Microsoft discusses how the concept of “three screens and a cloud” is a game-changer

Three Common Reasons for Social Media

In our experience at Room 214 we typically see three major reasons organizations dive into social media:

1. Product Development/Feedback
2. Sales/Marketing/Brand
3. Customer Service

Each one of those “reasons” requires its own cast of characters to “own” the process. In addition – each carries unique key performance indicators to measure the health and success of the project. Because function-specific business goals, community value and KPI’s are all different – it’s critical for anyone heading social media efforts in a particular channel to have a clear understanding of the impact measures.

Know Thyself

To steal from Farmer Ted ask: “Who Am I?” In a recent webinar delivered by the Altimeter Group about developing a social strategy one key point was to consider how your company will run things. Will it be Organic, like a Microsoft, where it’s loose and open? Centralized like Starbucks, where it’s controlled by one department? Coordinated like HP, where all departments are participatory but guided by strategy and rules?

The success for a social media program increases significantly when the structure matches the culture – in the beginning that is. As the organizations ingests social media into its culture it will change things – but to begin with – know who you are. Natural leaders will emerge.

Structure Your Team Based on the Golden Rule: You Respond To It – You Own It
The rule is if you respond to an online conversation you own it. For that reason you don’t want PR people responding to a customer service issue because more than likely they don’t have the authority, or resources, to drive resolution. If you’re not driving resolution with customer service issues you’re doing more harm than good.

Conversely you don’t want a product developer in charge of creating a response to an attack (justified or not) on the brand.
Know the conversations happening around your brand and make sure the right people are there to own it.

Ensuring a Common Thread

We do believe Corporate Communications should have intimate knowledge of the organization’s social media activities. Reason: a disturbance in the force requires a quick and professional response. The organization does not want the 24-year old tasked with community management on Facebook stoking consumer ire because they didn’t keep their cool.

Competent Sounding Board

Even if the Corp Com team gets pulled in there needs to be an individual(s) acting as a competent sounding board to provide insight into the rules and structure of the community. This keeps from crafting a response strategy that unintentionally throws fuel on the fire.

So Who Owns It?

Answer the questions:

• What’s your reason for getting into social media?
• How will you measure success?
• What’s your corporate culture?
• What are people saying?
• Who’s got the budget?
• Who’s got the time, energy and willingness to do it right?

Envelope Please
And the answer is: It Depends

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

- Dr. Suess

….glad you asked though.

Within seconds, Emily tweeted back to me recommending Iron Works BBQ – and Kit Seeborg called laughing. She said, “Listen carefully. You now must leave the hotel. Walk out, take a left, then a right to the convention center. Get your badge tonight to avoid lines tomorrow. Leave the convention center, taking a right until you hit 6th street. Then, fly and be free little south-by birdie.”

I followed these instructions carefully, and soon found myself with a juicy Texas steak and glass of cab at the Iron Cactus. When I checked in with Foursquare andGowalla I realized that I was not alone in this. I caught a quick tweet which I cross-referenced with Foursquare to learn that Jeremiah Owyang was two blocks from me. Seconds later, Brian Solis tweeted that he was in the same location. Seriously? If this wasn’t an open invite, I was going to make it one.

I walked into the Driskill like a groupie, and Jeremiah greeted me with a cold glass of Guiness. Within 15 minutes I was introduced to Charlene Li, (happily reporting to her that Groundswell is mandatory reading for our employees). Brian Solis poured me a glass of champagne, and we discussed his new book release, Engage.

Later that night, I talked with JR, founder of lunch.com, met the Altimeter team,Steve Hall of Adrants – then spread into other conversations with a contingent of Amsterdam fans (@Marlooz) and smart LA women including Melissa Rowley and Sherry.

Growing weary of my name dropping? Hopefully the point of it all is coming through:SXSW offers unparralled accessibility to the thought leaders, founders, speakers, researchers, colleagues and best-selling authors in the social media space.

From little known to well known, these are the people who are shaping and transforming our space everyday. I was blown away.

Additional Highlights
The best speakers and panelists were amazingly transparent and unselfish in their advice giving. My favorite sessions were those that lead me to the next best thing. Here are a few examples:

I asked Chris Brogan and Julien Smith during their insightful panel “I Don’t Trust You One Stinking Bit” what their best advice was (how ironic) for writing a book. They referred me to two people who helped them, Tim Sanders and Nick Morganwho I quickly met and spent an hour with the same day. Wow.

• Peter Shankman’s presentation on self-promotion (tip: the key is NOT to self promote, but help others so they promote for you)
• Charlene Li’s discussion of her new book, Open Leadership, available to the public May 24th (thanks Charlene and Ellen for getting me an early copy)
• Social Search Panel, featuring one of the smartest researcher on the topic I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet, Brynn Evans (More on her in my next post)
• Meeting Gary Vaynerchuk and David Meerman Scott – with whom I actually had the pleasure of doing a podcast on this blog for his most recent book,World Wide Rave.
• Robert Scoble’s late night check-ins on Gowalla

South by Southwest is a must attend if you have never been. If you aren’t into geeking out with the interactive part, go for the movies, music, food, parties and good Austin atmosphere.

I’ll close this out with a quick note about Gary Vaynerchuk, since he left such a lasting impression. This guy is the real deal, having built a $50 Million wine business using social media – long before he ever started making money talking or writing about social media. Rare.

Peter Shankman and Gary both shared a similar, simple message. Caring is under-rated. “Companies mostly suck at showing they care.” Each of us in this industry must accept that we are in the customer service business… and this is the thank-you economy.

Thanks to you all who took the time to meet with me over the last several days, answer questions and care. Thanks also to the Room 214 crew for working hard (and also caring) so I could take the time to enjoy SXSW as I did. We are all blessed.

If that doesn’t tell you how seriously he takes his tweeting, consider this: Someone asked him if he was affected by Twitter’s outage a few weeks ago, he responded by asking if that person was affected by waking up in the morning.

The man follows 30,000+ people, so he of course does not see every tweet. However, Hammer has several huge monitors at home so that he can see as much Twitter activity as possible. In fact, while promoting one of his projects, he randomly saw a negative comment come into his stream. Rather than letting it be, and letting the negativity grow unchecked, Mr. Hammer decided to inject his opinion into the conversation. The negative commenter, was basically blown away that Hammer paid enough attention to his stream to catch his comment. The negativity ended there.

To sum everything up, MC Hammer cares (A LOT). It has helped him to build a Twitter following of 1.5 million (give or take a few hundred thousand.

The point I am attempting to make is that social media is not a set and forget process. You have to dedicate a lot of time and effort into building connections. If you aren’t willing to put in the time to make the little connections, nobody is going to want to connect with you.

This time and effort is so important that it can encompass your very being as in MC Hammer’s case. But the payoffs will come back to you in ways you never thought could happen.

There is an excerpt of his keynote below:

I am inspired by Mashable’s latest effort, Summer of Social Good. They have made it quick and easy to donate to some great organizations and they have harnessed the power of their influence to encourage their readers to do some good.

Honestly, this is something we should all be doing as marketers in the social media realm. You may not have the cash on hand to donate, but you can easily use your influence to inspire some of your followers to donate their time and money.

I thought up a few quick and simple ideas on how any business can do some good through social media:

1) Run contests that encourage people to volunteer. (ex: We are giving away a Macbook Pro. The first person to volunteer 30 hours at the Denver Rescue Mission gets the prize.) Twitter contests are getting pretty popular. If your followers are willing to re-tweet a message or leave their house for a scavenger hunt, certainly you can get them to volunteer for a nice prize.

2) Get involved with sites like http://www.snapimpact.org orhttp://www.globalgiving.com and find something that inspires you. Encourage your online communities to go and check out their content and possibly donate to a cause.

3) Build relationships with local non profits in your area (only a google search away). You can help them by simply tweeting a link to their site every day, or giving them space on your wicked cool Twitter background.

Your followers are donating their time to read your updates, interact with you, and support your efforts. It is just as simple to donate some time to do some good in the world.

End of discussion. Continue with normal life using Google maps, search, and documents etc.

But today, I saw this: http://www.BingTweets.com and I realized the possibilities.

Your web searches are more powerful because you are able to cross reference them with real time results from Twitter. Your Twitter searches become more powerful because you have a web search that allows you to dive deeper into the topic. Things like deciding where to eat, or finding the latest news on a Twitter topic are incredibly simplified using Bing Tweets.

Average search process to find mexican restaurant in Boulder using Google:

1. Search “Mexican Food in Boulder” – (Here are the results: http://snurl.com/nljyx)
2. See list of 10 Restaurants.
3. Let out a big hungry sigh, and sift through reviews for each restaurant.
4. Weigh the good reviews vs. the bad reviews. Ponder meaning of life.
5. Possibly click on link to Yelp or City Search and continue researching there.
6. Narrow the list down to 2 or 3 locations.
7. Ask friends/coworkers/Twitter friends where to eat.
8. Follow friend’s advice and finally pick a place to eat, hopefully before dying of starvation.

Average search process to find mexican restaurant in Boulder using Bing Tweets:

1. Search “Mexican Food in Boulder” – (Here are the results: http://bit.ly/293g8r)
2. See list of 10 Restaurants, and a scrolling list of Tweets about “Mexican Food in Boulder.”
3. Read this tweet: “Efrain’s tonight – the BEST Mexican food in Boulder, by far, esp. the chile verde.”
4. Get directions from the web-search
5. Go to Efrain’s. Stuff face with delicious mexican food that was recommended by someone on Twitter.

By my very scientific process, Bing Tweets gets you there in three fewer steps.

All joking aside, real-time search has the power to revolutionize the way web search works. As Twitter becomes more popular, search engines will have to take its activity into account in results. Why? There is simply no better way to find out what people are talking about at this very moment than to look at Twitter topics.

As Facebook makes it’s user’s updates more public and open (and hopefully searchable) those results will also be a valuable source of up-to-the-second information.

Bing Tweets is one of the slickest real-time search engines I have seen to date. It is something that I can be excited about, and it will certainly move a few of my searches away from Google.

• www.newestfindings.com update: Zimbabwe parties ‘agree timeline’ (Mediators say Zimbabwe’s rival parties have agreed to share power…)10:05 PM Jan 26th from web

There are a few fundamental things this computer is doing wrong: 1. Every tweet is self-promoting and comes out in the same format. 2. It does not interact or converse with anyone. 3. It is is sending way too many updates for any real Twitter user to ever want to follow. You are never going to experience any kind of success running your account this way. In fact, it only showcases that you do not belong on Twitter. Now lets take a look at the way a human uses Twitter: One of my favorite persons to follow is Mr. Chris Reinhard. Chris’ stream comes packed with plenty of humor and down-to-earth friendliness. He responds to people. He communicates with his friends. He shares his thoughts and feelings. He even took the time to do a favor and let me interview him on his Twitter use: 1. Are you a human or a computer? I am human. Or am I dancer? 2. Why do you Tweet? I use Twitter as a news source, a writing and editing aid, and a place where I can make small talk without having to answer any questions about the weather. 3. Do you use Twitter to interact with other humans and physically meet them at some point? I’ve only met people from Twitter who came recommended by other friends. Random folk…no thanks, unless it’s a job opportunity. I was able to get Chris to fill out an interview within 3 minutes of sending him a direct message. It demonstrates the kind of connections you can build on Twitter if you just use it in the appropriate way. It can be far more effective than any of the banners or links you see everyday. I was able to get someone to stop what he was doing, open an email, and fill out an interview by sending him one direct message. The auto-generated account has failed to make a real connection with anyone in two years. There are no shortcuts, but having a well-run Twitter is valuable and important for any company.