lynchmobs, new media moguls and the socially promiscuous

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Lynch Mobs,New Media Mogulsand the Socially PromiscuousThemes in UK Social Media 2009

By Mark Iremonger

Head o Digital & Planning

[email protected]

Proximity London

February 2010



Lynch Mobs,New Media Mogulsand the Socially PromiscuousThemes in UK Social Media 2009

ContentIntroduction 1

Social Promiscuity 2

New Media Moguls 3

Lynch Mobs and Lobby Groups 4

– Bra Wars 5

– Subverting Xmas 7

Pemanent Infuencers 9

Conclusion 11

Links 12



SOCIAL MEDIA

1

Humans are social. We always have been.

This is why social media platforms have massively outpaced traditional content providers online.

So the past six years or so has seen web technology enable what we like to do best: catch up, exchange

views, swap stories, find partners, power or allies. We

laugh, argue, smirk, smile, nod, agree and oer a

helping hand. Whatever.

In the UK, February 2010 is the month that New

Media Age, the UK’s main digital industry news

magazine reports that Facebook is now challengingGoogle’s Adwords or direct response advertising

spend. NMA reports that market leading brands like

O2 (Mobile Telco), Virgin Media (Cable Telco) and Vodaone (Mobile Telco) are switching spend away

rom paid search towards Facebook advertising

placements. This is a significant indicator o

how social media has grown up in the UK. It hasdramatically changed people’s behaviour online

and is a mainstream part o people’s lives in the UK.

Facebook is the biggest social media platorm in

the UK and yet is only six years old. In this short time

it has grown dramatically and quickly integrated

itsel into people’s lives, becoming part o theireveryday rituals or staying in touch with riends

and amily.

This makes it a good time to look back at what has

been happening in the UK and see what we canlearn that might perhaps be useul or entertaining,

that can be applied to advertising and marketingin social media.

“Lynch Mobs, New Media Moguls and the

Socially Promiscuous” identifies themes that have

been drawn rom watching what is going on in

social media.

Social media platforms have

outstripped traditional content

platforms.

Introduction



SOCIAL MEDIA

2

Theme 1 – Social Promiscuity

Social media has given people a new dimension

to their social lives that is un and convenient. It hasgiven people new ways to find and make riends, as

well as created new ways o seeing people, through

their profiles and networks.

Research in 2009 rom nVision confirmed two

interesting acts: About a quarter of people on

social media sites in the UK have friends they’ve

never met, (who they have regular contact with).

These are people they have never met ace to

ace. These riends are more akin to pen pals o a

non-digital world. More surprisingly than this, nearly

a third of people go on to meet people they’vemet on social media sites in the flesh.

So we are finding new ways to make riends and

the barrier between o and online has really broken

down; online is mainstream, and social media is

central to online.

At the same time people’s number o riends,

ollowers or contacts is becoming important topeople’s perceived status, which makes it not

unusual to find people with networks o hundreds

and hundreds o people.

Back in the 70s, Robin Dunbar, Proessor o

Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxord University

posited the idea that there is a “cognitive limitto the number o individuals with whom any one

person can maintain stable relationships.” This

became known as Dunbar’s Number, and is broadly

accepted to be between 135 and 150, and is

based at looking back at society rom early tribal

days up until today.

Dunbar’s Number –150.

More recently Proessor Dunbar assessed Facebook

behaviour using the criteria ‘riends you care about

and contact at least once a year’, and ound that

this number still holds true.

This Social Promiscuity in new ways to make riends

and meet people is here to stay, but expect a

backlash against quantity being an indicator o

quality, and see people start to prune their riends

and ollowers over the coming year. Expect lots o

‘deriending’ as people put quality beore quantity.

Although Social Promiscuity is seductive, i you areinvesting time in social media concentrate on ‘who’

rather than ‘how many’.

Social Promiscuity has

opened the door to the

New Media Moguls.



SOCIAL MEDIA

3

Theme 2 – New Media Moguls

One o the new belies created by social media is

that people have much more power as consumers.But the truth is, that or every person who manages

to create real change as a consumer, or a person,there are millions o people who ail to create any

infuence whatsoever.

There is a big gap between the infuence most

people like to think they have compared to their

actual ability to infuence anything at all.

The Influence Gap.

The difference between

people’s belief and actual

ability to influence.

The New Media moguls are the exception to this.

Jon Morter and Beckie Williams are good exampleso the New Media Moguls. Two people who

created big waves in the UK in 2009 that are hardly heard o six months later. Jon is 35, rom Essex,

and works or a hi-fi company. He generated

more music single sales than ever beore in the

UK. Beckie, a 26 year old Brighton Based writer,

persuaded a leading UK brand to reverse a pricing

decision and publicly apologise over a period o

about six weeks.

These are the New MediaMoguls. Social media allows

them to connect and motivate

networks of people to create

real change, through Lynch

Mobs and Lobby Groups.

“ This is absolutely fantastic news. I just want to thank all the women who have stood up for what they

believe in.

” Beckie Williams

Oh bloody hell,” he said, as the consequences

of what he had done became clear. Composinghimself, he said: “I think it just shows that in this

day and age, if you want to say something,

then you can – with the help of the internet and

social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

If enough people are with you, you can beat the

status quo.

“

” Jon Morter



SOCIAL MEDIA

4

3 – Lynch Mobs and Lobby Groups

Lynch Mobs and Lobby Groups are

what have driven the observation thatconsumers have more power these days.

When conditions are right they can orm very quickly and create real change.

Two examples in the UK in 2009

dramatised the power o the new social

media lynch mobs and lobby groups.

‘What people say

about you is more

important than what

you say to them’.



SOCIAL MEDIA

5

3.1 – Bra Wars. Beckie vs M&S

In mid 2009 Beckie, created a group called

‘Busts4Justice’ as a vehicle to express her dissatisfaction that bras at M&S, the UKs market

leader for underwear in the UK, were priced at£2.00 more for larger cup sizes. How can this

be fair? she asked, when other clothes are not

charged differently for different sizes. She set up

a Facebook group and a Twitter feed.

Mainstream press picked up the story quickly,

dubbing it Bra Wars. This prompted M&S to respond

ormally. In their press release they put orward aair and considered response that explained their

reasons or charging more. Beckie’s Facebook

group started swelling in numbers and soon

attracted 17,000 members. Beckie bought a singleshare in M&S to challenge the company at their

AGM, and everyone ollowed the story closely in

social media.

The Bust4Justice network grew rapidly. Everyone

had an opinion on bra pricing policy and was

happy to express it online. The story attracted

mainstream press and in the ace o a growing

stack o digital content that saw M&S pricing as

being unair, M&S olded under pressure and dida dramatic u-turn. They turned this into a positive

and ran an advertising campaign to let people

know they had listened and responded. An

M&S spokesperson said: “We’ve heard what ourcustomers are telling us that they are unhappy

with the pricing on our DD-plus bras and that

basically we’ve boobed. So rom Saturday 9 May no matter what size you buy, the price is going to

be the same.”



SOCIAL MEDIA

6

3.1.2 – Bra Wars. Beckie versus M&S

The Bra Wars happened very quickly. Over a space

o several weeks M&S reversed their pricing policy and invested in an advertising campaign to let

people know. Looking at the search volumes orBusts4justice in the chart below you can see that

there was a big spike in search interest that ended

as soon the campaign did.

A more interesting and permanent legacy that

is now attached to M&S or the oreseeable

uture is the wealth o content in social and

traditional media that chronicled and trackedthis event. From discussions about the relative

merit o size pricing, to mainstream news stories

and video content.

In the UK a Google search reveals about 50,000

discreet hits or Busts4Justice in the UK and nearly

1,000,000 worldwide.

M&S quickly lost the bra war,

reversing its pricing policy in

a dramatic u-turn in the face

of a determined lobby group

made possible by social media.

Search and newsreference spikeover just four

weeks

1,000,000search results

worldwideconnect

Bust4Justice toM&S in its digital

footprints



SOCIAL MEDIA

7

3.2.1 – Subverting Xmas. RATM versus X Factor

UK Xmas Number 1s have been dominated by the

TV talent show The X Factor in the UK or the pastsix years. The show attracts up to 19 million viewers

(63% audience share) in the UK and 10 million votes where cast in series six. It has been taken as a given

that the winner o the inamous TV talent show will

enjoy taking the Xmas Number 1 music single slot,

because o the timing and popularity o the show.

In an incredible two week period in December

2009 the UK saw millions o people mobilise across

Facebook and Twitter to generate unprecedentedmusic downloads, the X-Factor winner Joe

McElderry was pipped to the post.

Millions o people in the UK celebrated Xmas 2009 with the most unlikely o songs at Number 1. Little

known rock band, Rage Against the Machine had

an unexpected and unimaginable moment o

glory when their single, Killing in the Name beat X Factor winner, Jo McElderry’s The Climb. At the

end o a nail biting week that broke UK singles

sales records, as the mainstream TV show X-Factor

battled it out against a determined and huge social

media movement to disrupt what was seen as the

inevitable.

This campaign was very dierent rom Bra Wars.

It mobilised millions o people in the UK and

spawned thousands o pieces o user generatedcontent. The band Rage Against the Machine

stepped in, oering a ree concert in the UK, and

to contribute sales proceeds to charity. The social

media movement came under intense mediaspeculation. Everyone rom X Factor TV producer

Simon Cowell to Sir Paul McCartney had a view.

Sir Paul summed up the situation nicely in an

interview with Sky News: ““Everyone expects Joe todo it, and i he goes to No1 then good luck to him.

He’s just some kid with a career ahead. I’ve gotnothing against that, but it would be kind o unny i

Rage Against The Machine got it because it would

prove a point.”

Facebook groups oftenhad up to onemillion fans



SOCIAL MEDIA

8

3.2.2 – Subverting Xmas. RATM versus X Factor

The campaign was kicked o by New Media Mogul

Jon Morter, on his second attempt, having ailed toget traction the year beore.

A record breaking 4.22 million singles werepurchased in the UK over the 7 day period.

The charts below show how X-Factor search volume

has matched the shows increasing popularity over

the past six years, and how the RATM campaign

generated massive news volume. At the peak o

the campaign Rage Against the Machine briefy

out stripped ‘X Factor’ in search volume. This is apowerul dramatisation o the power social media

has to raise awareness over a very short period.

In the words o RATM, this was “A historic grassrootsrebellion made our song ‘Killing in the Name’ the

number one Christmas single o 2009. The people

o the UK toppled the X-Factor giant, raised a great

deal o money or homeless charities, and shockedthe world. As a thank you to our UK ans and

reedom fighters we promised to play a ree show.

Well...here we come. June 6th, Finsbury Park, the

celebration/party/revolution is ON!!” - Tom Morello

Lobby Group or Lynch

Mob? RATM versus X Factor

dramatically demonstrates

how networked consumers

can create change, generate

value and disrupt established

media power.

‘X factor’search volume

‘X factor’ newsreference volume

‘X factor’ (red)& ‘rage againstthe machine’(blue) searchvolume and

news volume

Generatedst £93,700

charity donations

on Justgiving



SOCIAL MEDIA

9

4 – Permanent Influencers – identifying and

influencing the real directors of consumer sentiment

While the New Media Moguls will come and

go, briefy creating dramatic Lynch Groups andLobby Groups the Permanent infuencers have

always been around. These are the people whohave a vested interest; a personal or proessional

connection with a given subject or community.

Social media has made it much easier to identiy

and observe more o them.

They are a tiny, but infuential subset o Forrester’s

‘Creators’ group (that make up 15% o online

adults in the UK). ‘Creators’ are identified as eitherpublishing a blog, web pages, uploading video or

audio they created, or publishing articles or stories

online at least once a month. The Permanent

Infuencers have a disproportionate eect on theconversations that play out on and ofine.

This is because they are the people who are

pushing content and opinions into the social mediaspace. What they publish is what stimulates debate.

A brand can choose to try to be a Permanent

Infuencer, and/or to build relationships with existing,

established Permanent Infuencers. Identiying

Infuencers using listening and social media tools

like Proximity’s ‘Six Sense’ is simple, and analysingthe types o conversations they stimulate gives

a valuable insight into what is important.

Permanent Influencers need to be listened to,

responded to, understood and held close.

I you can build a mutually beneficial relationship

with them, this should be a key step in infuencingonline conversations. I you can identiy the

Permanent Infuencers who relate to your brand

then they should be an immediate priority when

considering social media activity.

I you can’t build a relationship with them, watchthem closely and have a strategy that at the least

balances content that they may be producing.

In the UK Proximity London reached 11% o young

people in the UK by embarking on a co-creation

project with just 12 YouTube video bloggers.

Online conversations are acilitated by people,

networks and search, and uelled by content. ThePermanent Infuencers are the content generators.

The Permanent Influencer dilemma is ‘What am I going

to say today?”. Brands can help

answer this question because

they have resources, insights

and expertise the influencers

can benefit from accessing.

In some casesit will be betterto invest

in influencerrelationshipsrather than go

directly toconsumers.



SOCIAL MEDIA

11

Social Promiscuity, New Media Moguls, Lynch Mobs, Lobby Groups and Permanent Influencers haveall made themselves felt in the UK in 2009.

Social Media is a natural part o people’s everyday lives in the UK, and as social media platorms mature

they are opening up incredible opportunities or brands to gain insight, engage and infuence consumers.

In 2010 in the UK expect to see people cutting back their networks to put quality ahead o quantity.

New Media Moguls will come and go, bringing Lynch Mobs and Lobby Groups with them. Listening to

and responding to these new social phenomena opens up real opportunities and challenges or brands.

The Permanent Infuencers are here to stay, and or brands, identiying, listening, understanding and

responding to these key conversation starters and sentiment builders will be key to social media marketingover the next 24 months.

I you’d like to find out more about how Proximity helps brands connect with consumers in social media,

or have any questions about this paper please get in touch.

Conclusion

Proximity Worldwide

Simon Bond

Global Head o Business Development

[email protected]

Proximity London

Mark Iremonger

Head o Digital Planning

[email protected]



SOCIAL MEDIA

12

Links

Bra WarsBusts 4 Justice Facebook Group –

http://www.acebook.com/group.

php?gid=18589103563

Busts 4 Justice Twitter Feed –

http://twitter.com/busts4justice

Telegraph reporting –http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2286647/

Busts-4-Justice-Marks-and-Spencers-deends-extra-

tax-on-bigger-bras.html

Subverting ChristmasRage Against the Machine BBC Interview, YouTube –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUPYIShaX1s

Rage Against the Machine Website –

http://www.ratm.com/

Rage Against the Machine Killing in the Name –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuOAY-S6OY&eature=vw

Joe McElderry singing The Climb on X-Factor,

YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=jEca0ZnzOKw

Joe McElderry oficial video, YouTube –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLC-DGiPBRU

Joe McElderry YouTube page –

http://www.youtube.com/user/JoeMcElderryTV

lynchmobs, new media moguls and the socially promiscuous

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