Hint: Insane fan photos, talking bears, and a one-of-a-kind NFL-backed “Social Media Command Center.”
USER GENERATED CONTENT
While players won’t be able to tweet from the sidelines this Sunday, that wont stop fans from sharing live, in-game content over Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You’ll be sure to see fresh new perspectives covering all aspects of the game such as photos and videos of: fan traditions and superstitions, team-inspired food, fans showing their pride, and on-field plays as they happen.
NY Giants Olapic Gallery - Giants fans can Tweet photos to @Giants and upload photos and videos from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They’ll all show up on photos.giants.com
ADVERTISERS JUMPING ON THE SOCIAL BANDWAGON
This year, advertisers are using commercials as jumping off points to start extended conversations - on a variety of social media networks - that will take place long after the game has concluded. Top consumer brands have already begun rolling out teasers trailers and hints at their Superbowl commercial surprise. This month-long narrative translates into more people getting more excited and sharing their favorite commercials with one another online. What to watch out for…
The Coca-Cola Polar Bears - On Sunday the Coca-Cola Polar bears will be coming alive! Complete with a live video feed of the bears watching the game and responding to Twitter and Facebook questions.
SOCIAL MEDIA COMMAND CENTER
Need help finding a parking spot or bar to watch the game in downtown Indianapolis? Have no fear! A “Social Media Command Center,” run by the marketing agency Raidious, has been set up near the stadium to provide:
[a] range of info to help both visitors and locals navigate the scene, including traffic, parking, events, where to eat, which streets are closed and more. They’ll also answer question on Twitter and Facebook through the Super Bowl 2012′s main accounts (blog.indystar.com).
Raidious agents will be monitoring and responding to Twitter and Facebook feeds for 15 hours on Gameday. Remember: If you’ve had a few too many and find yourself stumbling around downtown searching for a cab, just tweet it to the command center!
iReport, CNN’s citizen-journalist-social-network, was officially launched in August of 2006. The service allows anyone to upload report-worthy content to CNN’s website. Recently, the CNN Press Room announced an important milestone for the platform: there are now more than one million registered iReporters worldwide. And if that doesn’t make any of you small, independent local news reporters shake in your knee-high rain boots - get this. Last year, CNN held the first “iReport Awards.” Award categories included, among others: Breaking News, Personal Story, Compelling Imagery, Commentary, and interestingly, something called “Spirit Honorees.” Spirit Honorees (five were chosen) are iReporters “who have distinguished themselves for their positive attitude, [and] willingness to try new things [ireport.cnn.com].” Whats more, once a month CNN International airs a half-hour TV program hosted by Errol Barnett. The show highlights the most newsworthy iReport and citizen journalism reports on the Internet.
On the other hand, the “job cuts” side says that quality, hardworking journalists are being displaced by iReporters. Jakob Schiller, over at Wired starkly describes a recent corporate squabble at CNN. “CNN recently laid off at least 50 staff, including several photojournalists, in favor of affiliate contributions and [you guessed it] iReport.” The news, if you’re a struggling photo-journalist, appears to be grim.
THE GOOD SIDE
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE
Back to the main iReport page. There are lots of large, high-quality photos with headline titles above each photo. The featured piece at the top reads, “‘At Last’ is our song: Thank you, Etta James.”
Clicking on this last piece leads you to an article written by Rachel Rodriguez in the entertainment section of the site. Under the title, to the left of her name is written, “This story started on CNN iReport.”
Whether or not major news media agencies will figure out ways to reward their contributors with real money - instead of virtual medals and badges - will be seen in the coming months/years. Nevertheless, I can’t help but ask myself: Is this the future of large-scale corporate journalism? If it is then it appears that the journalist of the future won’t be the idealized daring reporter hitting the streets armed with just a camera and a notepad.
Power to the people.
Today, the giants are encouraging New Yorkers to wear blue in support of the NY Giants in what it’s called “Big Blue Friday!” Even Mayor Mike Bloomberg has joined the initiative!
I’ll be wearing blue tomorrow for #BigBlueFriday. Join me! Go @Giants!
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) January 13, 2012
He’s so confident that the Giants are going to pull a victory this Sunday that he’s even betting Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt a Junior’s Cheesecake and Salsa from the Brooklyn Salsa Company (in honor of the Giant’s wide receiver Victor Cruz’s touchdown dance)!
Olapic was born and bred in NYC and, as always, we’re super stoked to be rooting for the Giants on Sunday! Additionally, we’re incredibly excited to be teaming up with the Giants to collect fan-photos on their site for the very first time! Bleed Blue? Check out the Giant’s “Big Blue Friday” initiative here, and all the photos the fans have submitted so far here! Giants fans can also Tweet photos to @Giants, be sure to include #BigBlueFriday !!! 
Sport teams all over the world are realizing just how powerful user-submitted photos are in allowing fans to interact with their favorite teams. From the Dallas Mavericks, and the Baltimore Ravens, to FC Barcelona, Olapic allows diehard sports fans to live out their passion in every way they know, and they are loving it!
“@Olapic_Alert: Congrats @MsKewlAide! New York Giants just published your picture. olapic.it/m5r9do93”— WOOHOO IM FAMOUS! Lol — Stephanie Ortiz (@MsKewlAide) January 13, 2012
Big Blue Baby!!!RT @Olapic_Alert: Congrats @rebeccasantillo! New York Giants just published your picture. bit.ly/yXkcLL — Rebecca Santillo (@rebeccasantillo) January 13, 2012
IM ON THE @Giants WEBSITE!!!!!! GO BIG BLUE twitter.com/efarley04/stat…
— erin farley (@efarley04) January 15, 2012
We’ve already got tons of great photos coming in today! Check out a few die-hard Giants fans showing their pride below!
How cool is it to be recognized by your own team! See Ya Sunday!
Howdy! Happy New Year from your friends at Olapic! Right now is the perfect time of the year to take stock of your budding company, or small business, and ask yourself: Are we adequately engaging our online community? This year, empower your followers by building a thriving community on your site! Need help finding the right tools to use? You’ve come to the right place! Here is a quick tip, as Jim Rohn used to say, “asking is the beginning of receiving.” If you’re trying to engage your community, why don’t you ask them to do something interactive with your company? Take a picture of themselves doing something specific, drawing something, photoshoping something… anything at all! Just ask! Trust us, you’ll be amazed at the results!
And since we know you’re waiting for them, here are this week’s handpicked links: Letting the readers write the Magazine. Ladies’ Home Journal, a 128-year-old publication, is taking Crowdsourced Content to the next level. But unlike other publications such as the Huffington Post (where many bloggers post without pay) the magazine plans to pay their readers “professional rates” to write content for the site. John Battelle on building the conversation economy. In this interview with McKinsey & Company, the founder and executive chairman of Federated Media Publishing explains: how to build and measure conversational engagement (and the implications for marketers); and what it means to understand content not as a constellation of sites, but as a system of conversations. Pseudonyms drive communities. Pseudonyms are often used because they are more descriptive than the name your parents decided to give you. The guys from Disqus, our favorite commenting system, have concluded that users with pseudonyms engage more often than any other type of user in their communities. Stay Hungry! The Olapic Team
First it was the current NBA Champion, the Dallas Mavericks, then the current Spain, Europe and World Soccer Champion FC Barcelona and now the Baltimore Ravens, just getting started with the NFL playoffs, have adopted Olapic as their way to connect with their fans with photos and videos. The team is asking their fans to upload their Purple Pride photos, and they have reacted lighting fast, sending more than 100+ pictures in the first hour after announcing the initiative! 
Do you breathe Ravens? Send your pics here! Additionally, the team is using Olapic to launch some co-sponsored photo contest with brands like Play 60, who is sponsoring the Ravens School Photo Challenge, where the school or classroom that sends the best picture can win Ravens Play 60 T-Shirts. 
Simultaneously, M&T Bank and Legg Mason that are sponsoring their Ravens Corporate Challenge, where the best company showing off its Ravens pride is getting a one-hour appearance at The Office by Poe and Ravens Playoff T-shirts! 
As with the Dallas Mavericks and FC Barcelona, we expect the fan’s response to be overwhelming, and we’re happy to welcome the Ravens Fans to the Olapic experience! 
Howdy! Happy Holidays everyone!!! Here at Olapic we are getting our new year’s resolutions ready (hint: we are going to make our service even more awesome). 
If you haven’t thought of any yet, here you have an idea: How are you going to use Olapic in 2012? If you don’t know the answer, here you have some suggestions based on what we have seen so far. Get more eyes on the street: street journalism, trend-spotting, live-reporting… all of your audience can be now part of your photo squad! Brand building: Photos and videos of your clients using your product, inspired by your brand, enjoying your services… your audience is now your best evangelist! Community building: A picture is worth a thousand words, are you giving your community the right opportunity to express themselves using photos and videos? Communicate with your audience: Pictures tell the story better than anything else, if you want your audience to be part of your story… how are you letting them do it? Depending on which your goal is, there are different things you can adjust to make it happen, such as the quality of the pics you approve, the tone of your galleries, the update frequency, how you reward your best photographers… we’ll discuss these more in deep in next issues of the newsletter! And as usual, here you have 3 handpicked links that we think can be interesting for you. From Zero to millions, how to make content go viral. In this presentation, Jonah Peretti, co-founder of the Huffington Post and BuzzMedia, shares his best tips and tricks for making content go viral at Business Insider’s Ignition conference. CNN doubles down on iReport. A decision based on a three-year analysis by CNN concluded that, since consumer cameras are getting better and people are uploading up-to-the-minute photos on Twitter and other social networks anyway, there is less need to use professionals to cover news events. Social sports fans love their smartphones. Fans who follow American team sports on Facebook & Twitter are in some cases 2x more likely to own smart phones than the average person. What does that mean, and how are you preparing to tap into that opportunity? Have an awesome 2012! The Olapic Team Photo: Happy New Year by practicalowl
We are excited to announce that following the Mavs, current NBA Champios, FC Barcelona, the current Soccer World Champion has also joined the Olapic family to enable their users engage with the club at a new level! Last weekend, FC Barcelona won the FIFA Club World Cup 2011 in Japan. The team wanted to celebrate such special ocassion with their fans, and they asked to submit their photos supporting the team during the game and the celebration. Their loyal fans responded by sending picture via Facebook, Twitter and from many other sources creating a more engaging experience for all of them! The club,that has the largest social media presence in the web among sports teams is upping the ante when it comes to engagement and user generated content!
Pictures from the celebration
FC Barcelona kicked-off Olapic asking their fans for pictures from the celebration that were taking place around the world as the team won the FIFA World Cup 2011. In a matter of minutes, their site was flooded with great pictures from fans around the world and some of them sending pics even from the stadium, like this picture featuring Shakira that one fan took there:
Supporting David Villa
David Villa, one of FC Barcelona stars, was injured during the semi-finals and fans also wanted to show him their support, which they did sending their best pictures of him and including their “get well soon” messages, that were posted on FC Barcelona’s site.
Proud of becoming part of FC Barcelona’s site
For many FC Barcelona fans, the club is now part of their identity, and from now on, they can also become part of the club’s presence on the web. This translates intro great virality as users promote their own content across their social networks, bringing more fans to the site and growing the photo collection of the club with no effort for FC Barcelona.
RT *Awwww #♥BARCA mwah*@Olapic_Alert: Congrats @MegsJaneWesson! FC Barcelona just published your picture. olapic.it/motjx6z — Megan Jane Wesson (@MegsJaneWesson) December 19, 2011
Wowwww..:D..so happy..#viscabarcaRT @Olapic_Alert: Congrats @randy_R17! FC Barcelona just published your picture. olapic.it/mwcm9mt — Randy_R17 (@randy_R17) December 19, 2011
And similar reactions took place when fans found their pictures as part of FC Barcelona Facebook Fanpage:
FC Barcelona keeps making history, and now, thanks to Olapic, their fans are part of that history too!
We get excited when fans are able to experience the game on a whole new level with Olapic! That’s why we’re thrilled to be working with 2011 NBA Champions the Dallas Mavericks! The Mavs, as part of their social media strategy, are using Olapic to display beautiful photo galleries on their site and Facebook Fanpage. Our photo-sharing technology allows them to receive fan photos and videos from across the social web, increase audience participation, and focus more eyes on every game.
The Mavs are already receiving photos from the first three days of Training Camp and user-submitted photos of fans showing off their “Mav Gear.” Here are just a few ways that Olapic is working with the Mavs and changing the world of spectator sports:
Share From Anywhere in the World
When fans come together with their favorite teams the result can be absolutely phenomenal! Whether your fans are at the bar, on the couch, on the computer, or cheering for your team in courtside seats, Olapic allows your fans to send photos and videos to your site from wherever they’re experiencing the game in real time.
Connect to the Social Web
Fans of your team can send photos and videos from the most popular photo-sharing apps including Twitter, Facebook, Flickrm Instagram, and Picasa. Now Mav fans can instantly tweet a courtside picture of Dirk Nowitzki dunking on a rival to the Maverick’s site! Olapic allows fans to share their own intimate perspectives of the game increasing engagement and virality across social networks.
Increase Fan Participation
The Olapic platform transforms your site into a social community where fans can celebrate your team and connect with one another through photos and videos. Your fans can comment on any of the photos submitted to your site and share them instantly with family and friends. With Olapic, your audience is able to actively participate with your franchise and experience the thrill of being published by their favorite team!
Yesterday Apple announced Instagram as the “iPhone App of the Year” on its iTunes Rewind 2011 list. Instagram topped Angry Birds, Foursquare, Twitter and the likes. Apple calls Instagram, “The year’s definitive photo-sharing app.” The Instagram network is dominating the photo-sharing world with over 14 million users. If this isn’t a sign that photos are the wave of the future I don’t know what is!
Last week, TechCrunch produced a nice piece explaining Why Instagram Is So Popular. This week, we are offering different take on how Instagram became Apple’s “App of the Year.” Hint: Instagram’s success not only has to do with quality, audience, and constraints, but also with network design and media consumption habits.
Sharability. Its a fact: keeping up with your family, colleagues, and all of your high school and college friends can simply take a large chunk of time out of your week. Whatever your thoughts may be regarding shallow online communication, photo-sharing is a quicker, easier way to interact with the majority of your friends than talking with each of them in person or over the phone. Ease-of-Expression. Its a lot easier to take a quick photo or video of you, your friends at the beach, a protest march, or a concert than to explain your personal political views regarding the Libyan Revolution (and often involves a lot less eye-rolling). As we increasingly interact with one another through online images we become better photo and video sharers. Whether or not this is causing us to become worse at writing or vocalizing our thoughts and ideas is up to you. Social Network Design. Social networks are designed to share photos, videos, and …anecdotal wall posts. Just take a look at the info pages of four of your friends’ profiles on Facebook. Everyone seems to love the same music, watch the same movies, and “Like” the same Internet memes. Forget your profile page and your wall, the best avenue for original, “semi-authentic” self-expression is through your personal photo albums and the pictures you’re tagged in by friends. It’s easy to see that photo-sharing is quickly becoming the most popular form of online communication. Simply put, its quicker to share your experiences with hundreds of your friends or followers with the click of a button rather than to pick up the phone or write about it on your Facebook wall. That’s why Instagram keeps gaining popularity and that’s why Olapic is betting on photos too.
Greetings!
Welcome to issue one of the Olapic Newsletter! Every other week we’ll be updating you with tips on how to use photos sharing and social media to increase engagement, boost traffic on your site, and grow your business. If you have any suggestions about what you would like to see here, just let us know! We’re kicking off the first issue with some must-read articles:
- How to Spread Your Content Across Social Networks More Effectively – In this 15 minutes video, Michael Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media tells you how letting your brand’s content run free on social networks will increase site traffic and revenues by 12.89%. Yeah, exactly by that number.
- Why Instagram Is So Popular: Quality, Audience, & Constraints – Nate Bolt provides a nice rundown of how Instagram has risen to meteoric heights without spending a cent on marketing. Hint: Provide a quality product that no one offers and customers will find you.
- The “Occupy Movement” and the Power of Crowd-sourced Content – Our take on how several crowd-sourcing initiatives are fueling the occupy movement.
Enjoy!
The Olapic Team
Photo: Letters from my grandfather to his parents by Cynthia Closkey
