Abrams Research Blog

There comes a time in the life of every business when a difficult reality must be faced: value optimization cannot continue indefinitely when the underlying business model fails to generate sufficient profit. Twitter’s most recent announcement, that it intends to integrate advertisements through Promoted Tweets, is therefore the long-expected, highly anticipated (and somewhat feared) step towards diminishing the disparity between operating costs and profit.

Unsurprisingly, the news has been met with a firestorm of opinions. But before we get to that, let’s cover the changes.

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There is no question that brands are flocking to social media. Sure, I suppose it makes sense that Absolut Vodka has 435,000 Facebook fans. People are passionate about their Vodka (and really, drinking in general). But what about this Facebook page for the Febreze Home Collection?   It’s been up for a couple of months, and has amassed (if that’s even the right word) all of 117 fans. The enthusiasm that inspired almost a half million people to “fan” Absolut seems to be missing with room scent products. Which begs the question, are there brands that don’t belong within spitting distance of social media?

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Imagine this: two girls age 10 and 12 became trapped in a storm drain in Australia, and used a cell phone to update their Facebook status and alert their friends and family to their predicament.

It should be noted that cell phones also have features for dialing the police.

Social networking is more popular than email, nowadays, and mobile devices have adapted to bring social media into the realm of instant contact. We rely on social networking and the age of the instant as our new modes of communication. It is not merely that social networking features exist in mobile devices, but people are using them more and more their default mode of communication (even in emergency situations!)

Mobile devices are adapting their technology to accommodate users’ need for social media connectivity. Mobile devices are modeling their social media integration after social media programs such as TweetDeck, and all of the new applications that are coming out for mobile devices further fuel the need for instant information. Starbucks has created an app that allows users to order their coffee from their mobile device, pay through the same device, and locate the nearest store to pick it up from. Users do not even have to wait in line anymore. Everything is about ease of use and instantaneous access.

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“If relationship George walks through this door, he will kill independent George. A George divided against itself, cannot stand.”

I can almost hear George Costanza (from Seinfeld, for those of you that have been living under a rock for the past 20 years). spewing those same words today. But instead of “relationship George” and “independent George,” he could just as easily be saying “internet George” and “real-life George.” Almost inevitably, the popular character of Seinfeld would have a Facebook, Twitter, or some kind of social networking device allowing the him to clumsily post grievances about his job at The New York Yankees, or tweet out his affair with the cleaning lady at Pendant Publishing. Think of the comic possibilities!  Without a doubt, George Costanza would experience a collision of viral proportions.

I call it the “Spheres Colliding Theory”—when one is caught between the life they lead and the life they tweet. The intersection of these dual identities is becoming more and more evident, as our sometimes have radical implications on our real world selves. We tend to think of these areas as separate. Our familiarity with the Internet and operations in the cloud sometimes lead to a false sense of security and anonymity. (Think about those stories of average suburban dads running bordellos in Second Life). In reality, accountability is alive and well. Creating a broadly mediated self across the spheres is an important part of living in a digital age.

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