It was an impressive display of corporate sponsorship and ingenuity this morning at the Seesmic Look launch. For those of you wondering what I’m talking about, Seesmic has developed a new desktop application for Twitter users that is supposed to make Twitter more accessible and mainstream (i.e. those of us who might not have adopted it yet because we couldn’t understand it or find a use for it).
Several corporate sponsors (Kodak, Huffington Post, Red Bull) spoke about how they are using Twitter and how Seesmic Look helps them integrate into their online communities even better.
But what really impressed me today was the keynote at the end. I’m trying to find the name of the guy who spoke, but I didn’t catch it. What he said is important for EVERY brand considering the social media space or already engaged.
He pointed to 3 main Channels:
1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. YouTube
Just two years ago, MySpace and Second Life were the talk of the town. How might the landscape change two years from now? This is an age where more change happens in a quarter than it did previously in a year. Each calendar year carries the importance of four previous years in development, product launches, adoption, user behavior, etc.
The key of the keynote was “Curation.”
Brands and tools now have the task of funneling, or curating, content for the masses. An Amazon.com statement previously released said that more content was created in 2009 than in all years prior combined. All. That’s unfathomable.
With this growing torrent of content, we have a unique problem: how does the individual sort through all the information streaming 24 hours a day without getting lost and overwhelmed? How do they find what they care about and avoid what they don’t? This is the challenge that must be solved and will be solved, or the masses will stop adopting new media technologies. There has to be a way to make information accessible and prioritized. Seesmic Look makes a bold claim that it brings Twitter to the mainstream.
The ending keynote used a term, “digital embassies.” Basically, your brand should have a digital embassy on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. And the purpose of that embassy is to negotiate with the world in the language and customs it uses. It is not a force fed diet of brand culture. It is a blending and marrying of cultures to bridge the culture gap between brand and user. And therefore, each embassy has a different message.
Example: The White House. The White House tells a different story on Twitter, YouTube, Nightline, etc. and does it all within the same day. Each message addresses the people in that sphere in a way that makes sense to them and interests them. The message is easily digestible and most importantly, not awkward because it was force-fit into the wrong box.
In closing, he confidently predicted that more businesses will unblock Twitter and Facebook as they realize that more and more business and branding is being conducted online. He even encouraged companies to integrate Seesmic Look into their intranets. Not sure that will ever happen except in the 5% most creative companies, but we’ll see.
Important Note: Seesmic Look only works on Windows machines, and is optimized for Windows 7.
I invite you to visit Seesmic.com and download the new application, Seesmic Look. Test it out. Tell me what you think. Does this make your Twitter experience better? Worse? Or equally undesirable?
