Digigen & The TinMan

The new BBC iPlayer launched this week to a chorus of applause. You may take a look at it and wonder what makes it so special. The truth is on first glance, you might simply think this is simply a slightly more polished video player, but with plans to share the iPlayer further abroad the social aspects of the player are suddenly much more apparent.

My view on the old player was simply that it wasn’t social enough. There wasn’t much, if any, sharing functionality, it didn’t profile me or my interests and I found it hard to get recommendations. The new iPlayer is much more social. Although I have to log-in via a BBC iD rather than the seemingly standard Facebook Connect, the connection allows me to post what I am watching through my status update on Facebook and Twitter… effectively meaning that BBC is allowing users to show they are “checking-in” to programming, something that GetGlue have been trying to kick-off in the UK recently.

Fast Company have done a really good piece on this:

“The watchwords for the new site are convenience and personalization. Hence, the BBC has arranged the user landing page for so that it’s easier to find TV shows one wants to see. The player module can now be launched in a stand-alone window, meaning you can continue to watch a show while you do other things on the site, or elsewhere on the Web, much more easily. It’s also a neat way to power your TV directly with iPlayer content, if you’re one of those connected souls who’s TV is hooked up as a second monitor for your PC. Meanwhile, integrating the iPlayer profile with Facebook and Twitter accounts is now simpler, to facilitate sharing info about your shows with your friends or followers.

But this social net interactivity isn’t fast enough for the BBC, so soon the network will be building in Windows Messenger powers to the system, enabling real-time chats during program viewings. The Beeb is obviously envisaging TV show catch-up parties, with excited folks IM-nattering about this week’s goings-on by Doctor Who or whatnot … though the jury is still out over whether this is actually a good idea (check out Fox’s disastrous attempts at the same thing). In a move something akin to Facebook’s “like” button or Amazon’s “wish lists,” you can also now build lists of your favorite shows to share with people.

The revamped system is also cleverly rigged up so you can download TV show content before it’s had its first terrestrial broadcast, and although you can’t watch it during this period, it means you can do so instantly upon its TV airing. In some sense, this is the BBC enabling a Tivo-like “live TV pause” power into its service.”

The reason I find this interesting as a benchmark is that the iPlayer has made some really simple changes to a product which was already fundamentally very strong. What they have done by adding sharing functionality is to create multiple advocates, linchpins, or collaborators for every single bit of content that is screened on the iPlayer. This is something that all business should be thinking about socially… how do I turn every consumer touchpoint I have into an opportunity to create advocacy for my brand?.

As with every network my handle is: mattbambow

Seth Godin stands out as one of the most important business writers of this generation. Not only has he been at the forefront of ideas such as The Purple Cow and my Dad’s favourite, Tribes, he has also recently pushed forward the idea of the Linchpin. (Link Here) The Linchpin is an essential person to be, but also an essential person to have around you in your organisation.

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David Armano is one of the leading thinkers in how the modern business can become more social in terms of interaction. His model of internal v external is certainly very interesting. My view on the internal v external interaction is this:

A business can not become social unless the internal co-ordination is right and the business is already operating socially itself. Internal, therefore, drives external. Although the external technologies are an influencer for the way we should now behave, we can only determine the way the company acts by looking at who or what makes the company integral to the community. Think about, if I as a marketeer go off and engage in social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, yet internally we aren’t sharing, propogating or acting socially, there will be an obvious disconnect between how the customer interacts with marketing and how the customer interacts with the rest of the company.

Anyway, David’s model is below and a really good starting point. Keep an eye out for my model this time next week. It certainly takes cues from David’s model but is utterly unique to me. I hope.

laters.

I have been talking about Social Media for awhile. Put simply, I don’t think the use of social media channels or the choice of technology, is the best way of understanding how to become more social. My preference and desire has always been to work with great brands from the inside, helping them to think more openly about how they interact with consumers, their customers and of course some of the most important people in the building..their co-workers.

It seems to me that we are at the second stage of a revolution in thinking. One that is a pretty good step away from the first stage thinking of “you need to become more transparent”. This is much more about how do we use our greatest assets, our people, to create a realistic, relevant and responsive change to the new social marketplace.

Don’t get me wrong, the social media channels we adopt and use are of course massively important. However, for the meantime I’m going to talk about the real passion that drives me forward, social business strategy…. working from the inside out. I hope you find the writing interesting, the thoughts provoking, and of course the content worth sharing or spreading.

A new dawn. It is quite exciting really.

Matt