(click to enlarge the Media Universe infographic)

The media universe is constantly expanding, so as consumers adopt more devices and gadgets their usage of how they watch, shop, and connect continues to evolve; today the media universe revolves around the consumer.  As the media landscape changes, PRs, Advertisers, and Marketers must navigate this new media universe, understanding not just all the gadgets consumers own, but also how they use media across devices to form their own behaviors.

Working with Nielsen’s data to provide insights into cross-platform media usage, I helped design the 2012 Consumer Usage Report from concept through completion, including the above inforgraphic meant to help navigate the media universe just in time for CES in January 2013.  Using the common marketing metaphor of the “universe”, meaning all people in the target audience, this visualization provides a snapshot overview of the US media market.  Visualizing the media universe as a solar system of planets (devices) which revolve around the sun (consumers), this infographic maps consumer ownership of digital devices (computers, mobile, tablets, etc) and devices connected to the TV (cable/satellite, game consoles, etc).  Pulling these devices together is gravity, illustrated by how are consumers spending their media time, and some may be surprised that the overwhelming majority of time spent (150+ hours per month) is watching traditional and time-shifted TV.

At the same time consumers’ media habits are rapidly changing, and the media universe continues to expand to incorporare new devices akin to a technological big bang.  During 2012 smartphones became the majority of mobile users in the US for the first time, and nearly 1 in 5 households now owns a tablet computer.  Social media usage continues to grow, and while many more consumers are using it on the go most still connect to social networks using their home computers.  And for cord-cutters like me who get much of their viewing through online stream sites, it may be surprising to learn only 4% of households own IPTV sets, but with 56% of homes using video game consoles it seems likely at least a few are watching video on Netflix and Hulu on their TVs as well.

To learn more about the how consumers use tech and media in their daily lives, please download the full report from Nielsen’s website.  And to see more examples of infographics and data visualizations I’ve worked on, check out my portfolio on this site.

Last week I asked the love of my life, Miss Lauren Reid, to marry me and she said “Yes!” Normally I wouldn’t share much from my personal life on my professional blog, but this is too big a part of my life not to mention the good news. We’ve both been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and well-wishes from friends and family, and we share their excitement as we start to plan our wedding and to begin married life together. After sharing the big news with family over the phone and with friends through social media, we started to set up a wedding website which is already up and running (like our wedding plans, it’s a work in progress).

Since you’re visiting my website, there’s a good chance you already know a little about me. So I wanted to take a moment to introduce my fiancée Lauren Reid, whom I’ve been dating for more than 6 years. For anyone who hasn’t met Lauren in person: she’s super smart and has a witty sense of humor (but is never afraid to laugh at herself). I think she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met (and have over 1000 photos on Flickr tagged with her name), but she’s also sweet, loyal, and caring; all great qualities for my best friend and now fiancée.

Lauren is also quite active online and in social media, which helped us stay close even when we were far apart; although we grew up only a few miles from each other in St. Louis we met each other later in life, and for the first 3 years we were dating long-distance. On our fifth anniversary in 2011, I compiled some of my favorite moments we shared over social media as a timeline story of our courtship, which I’d like to share as an introduction to us as a couple:

]]> http://www.matthewhurst.com/2013/01/im-engaged/feed/ 0 http://www.matthewhurst.com/2012/12/top-12s-of-2012/ http://www.matthewhurst.com/2012/12/top-12s-of-2012/#comments Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:20:57 +0000 MattHurst http://www.matthewhurst.com/?p=2050 As another year comes to a close, I wanted to take a look back at the media that shaped my life during 2012, or at least a few of my favorites.  Like most bloggers I love makings lists, and since my career is in communications and marketing I spend a lot of time watching, listening, reading, and playing with the latest media across devices; I’d like to think I’ve developed some critical experience (if not expertise), enough to make a few recommendations   While this blog has written more about measuring my own media usage and the quantified-self, these lists take on more qualitative measure to rank what ideas were most interesting and useful over the last year.

Top 12 Memes of 2012

Top 12 iPhone Apps of 2012

• Best New App: Timehop. While most of social media emphasizes the daily pulse of online buzz, Timehop makes your past posts useful again by bringing you daily doses of nostalgia.  I’ve been using Timehop for the past 2 years over email, and now it’s even more useful as an app by giving the ability to share old updates with friends.
• Most Improved: Facebook.  Recently upgrades to Facebook’s iPhone app, which made it into a native app rather than universal, have improved the app’s functions and increased the rate of upgrades to the app.
• Notable Mention: Aereo.  It may not replace a cable subscription, but it will help you watch TV on whatever device you want, including on the iPhone.  It’s not strictly an app, but the mobile screen first approach for this great technology merits a mention in the
• Other apps considered: FitBit, Pris, Sonar, Untappd, ScoreCenter, various Subway apps, CinemaGram, Movember, and GetGlue.

Top 12 Mobile Games of 2012

• Best New Game: Turf.  This Kickstarted project turned Location-sharing iPhone app turned my daily routine into a real-life game of Monopoly.  Picking up where Foursquare’s gamification left off, Turf is an addictive game with creative pixel-art graphics that won me over in 2012.
• Most Improved: Pocket Planes.  This pixel-art inspired spin-off of the Tiny Tower franchise makes simulator games fun again, by making players into owners of their own airline empire.  I started playing the game over the summer, and many tweaks and improvements (including one update doubling the maximum amount of cities you could own) kept me playing through the beginning of 2013.
• Notable Mention: Draw Something.  The first few months of 2012 belonged to a game called DrawSomething, which put a Facebook-connected game of Pictionary into the hands of millions of smartphone owners.  Like many others, I’ve found myself playing this game less as the year went on, but it was fun to play with my friends.
• Other games considered: Game Dev Story, Tiny Wings, “Zombies, Run!”, Ghostbusters, Sonic Jump, Tetris, Epic Win, Sonic 4, and Tiny Tower.

Top 12 Social TV Apps of 2012

• Best App: GetGlue.  This isn’t a new app, but GetGlue continued to be the best to discuss TV, Movies, and more with like-minded friends.  Upgrades to their app this year made GetGlue into a program guide, using your own checkins to recommend new shows, and creating new tools for shows to interact with some of their most engaged fans.
• Most Improved: IntoNow.  Another popular app for Social Tv already made checkins a breeze with its audio fingerprinting, but the app added several new social tools.  My favorite new addition allows you to use stills from the episode to write your own LOL captions.
• Notable Mention: Olympics Apps.  If 2012 was a breakout year for Social TV, then the Olympics was it’s coming out party.  When NBC released a series of apps which allowed for viewing and engagement during the games, it encounted some backlash from experienced digital natives, but it also brought new casual sports fans to the social TV party
• Other Social TV apps considered: Miso, Viggle, SocialGuide, Yap.TV, Tunerfish, Zeebox, Clicker, Hulu (kind of), and Boxee.

Top 12 Music Albums of 2012

How I listen to music changed significantly during 2012, as streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio made a bigger portion of my time spent listening to music. As a result I had the chance to listen to more new releases, but also to explore older albums of favorite artists and making new discoveries of my own. Still this post is about what was new and great in 2012, so here are tracks from my own top 12* albums in 2012:

Top 12 Gadgets of 2012

• Best New: FitBit.  Since I recieved mine as a brithday gift, I’ve used my personal fitness tracker everyday.  What makes this gadget great goes beyond the tech within, but to all the apps and social media connections it makes possible to add a little social encouragement to get into shape!
• Most Improved: iPhone 5.  Everything that made the iPhone great is improved and expanded on (literally) into this brilliant new design.  In a year when smartphone screens grew larger, Apple stayed true to it’s human-level design to keep the iPhone within hands reach.
• Notable Mention: Nintendo Wii U.  Nintendo pushes the gaming envelope again with their newest console, and taking full advantage of the second screen for home entertainment options beyond the games they sell.
• Other gadgets considered: iPad mini, Lytro camera, MacBook Pro with Retina display, Nokia Lumia 900, Nike Fuelband, iPad with Retina display, Makerbot Replicator, Microsoft Surface, and Boxee TV.

Top 12 Most Read Blogs (via Google Reader)

• In order of most read posts on Google Reader: Daring Fireball, Bits blog (NYtimes.com), Alexis Madrigal (The Atlantic), Alyssa Rosenberg (ThinkProgress), Geekosystem, Culture blog (The Atlantic), Silicon Alley Insider, Ikea hacker, About Foursquare, Sean Ludwig (Venture Beat), Hacking Netflix, Underwire (Wired)

Top 12 Most Visited Websites (via Google Chrome)

• In order of recent usage: Tumblr, Facebook, Nielsen Wire blog, Woot, Gizmodo, Mashable, Buzzfeed, Twitter, NYTimes.com, The Verge, Flickr, and TechCrunch.

Top 12 Most Streamed TV Shows (on Hulu)

My Top Tweets of 2012

• My Year on Twitter infographic.

My Top Stories on Facebook

• Here’s a timeline of my most shared moments during 2012 

Top 12 Beers of 2012 (via Untappd)

• Read this full list on my beer blog: The Brew Noob.

What does 2013 hold for me next? It’s hard to know for sure, but my new year’s resolution is to consume media a little less and to spend more time creating media of my own. Thanks for sharing all my great memories during 2012, and best wishes to everyone in 2013!

* While the list only includes 11 songs you can listen to, there was a twelth entry I wanted to include: Beck’s “Song Reader” album. While this isn’t a traditional recorded album of music, I’m looking forward to playing this music myself in 2013.

Movember is about much more than growing a mustache, it’s also about putting a new face on men’s health issues.  When I first heard about No-shave November I didn’t know about the connection to men’s health, so I had no reservations about shaving my mustache for a job interview. But a year later when my new employer sponsored Movember participants I learned all about their fundraising for cancer research and raising awareness for health issues such as prostate and testicular cancer.  For a third year I’m participating in Movember, but the history of Movember actually goes back much further and serves as a great case study of using social marketing to promote men’s health.

When Movember started in 2003 it was just a fun idea between two friends in Australia, but it quickly grew into a global phenomenon. Within a couple years their small group of friends expanded to reach thousands in Austalia raising millions of dollars for prostate cancer research, incorporating into the Movember Foundation by 2006.  Gaining charity status in the US in 2009 helped the organization grow abroad, but also to attract partners to their cause alongside individual participants. Today Movember has nearly 1 million participants in 14 countries who raised over $100 million last year.

Key to Movember’s success is not just the great cause it supports, but also the global marketing campaign that promotes it.  Anyone who visits their website will be impressed by the creative media ; everything from videos starring famous mustachioed celebrities to personals flyers and smartphones apps, used by participants and for supporters of Movember.  But perhaps the most important promotional tactic is much more personal- their mustache growing participants:

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

Another popular part of Movember is their own social network, MoSpace, which gives each participant their own page to raise funds and interact with supporters.  Mo Bros and Mo Sisters use the social network to make updates on their progress and also allows them to share their Movember campaigns on other social networks.  The site also serves means to personalize their Movember efforts within their social group, a proven tactic whether to raise funds or awareness within a social marketing campaign.

Indeed Movember is a successful example of a social marketing campaign, which is different from social media marketing, a key tactic within the overall marketing strategy of the campaign.  Social Marketing uses traditional marketing techniques to motivate behavior changes by individuals that serves the public good (rather than for selling products), most frequently used in issues of public health like Movember.  These campaigns use research to identify what will motivate individuals to modify their behavior, using specific “asks” of the changes to be made, in which the benefit exchange must be more positive than the “costs” to the individual.  It’s based on the same premise as Movember: that awareness or informations about health risks, such as prostate and testicular cancer, is not enough unless it motivates people to take action or change their behavior, in this case getting regular cancer screenings and working towards finding a cure.

Growing a mustache during Movember does carry some costs to individuals as well; a little light-hearted ribbing from friends and co-workers is to be expected.  But like any good social marketing campaign it creates benefits and rewards for continuing to grow your mustache, not the least of which is the agknowledgement of your peers through MoSpace, as well as rewards for top fundraisers. So I wanted to share some more of my personal experiences during Movember with you, in hopes that it will encourage you to participate as well:

Feel free to learn about my own participation in Movember and make a donation on my MoSpace page. Or learn more about the many philanthropic causes I support in addition to Movember.

Comparing how the Presidential candidates are using new media this year, the 2008 race looks like the social media stone age. Back then Myspace was still the largest social network, Facebook was considered a mainstay for mostly students, and the most followed account on Twitter was then candidate Barack Obama. That campaign was noted for it’s pioneering use of new media, at a time when few politicians had social media profiles, but the benefits were immediately understood and adopted by nearly every campaign since 2008.

I was lucky to have a front row seat to the communications changes taking place that year, both as one of the early adopters of Twitter (when the site had only a million users) and as a graduate student in DC studying public communications.  That fall I was enrolled in Matthew Nisbet‘s course in Communication Theory, learning all about agenda setting by the newsmedia and the role of opinion leaders in swaying public opinion.  The 2008 elections proved a great working example to apply the theories I was learning.

Pulling together what I was learning about communications theory with my own experiences using social media (especially blogs) and observing its growing influence on politics, I wrote a report explaining the role of new media on agenda setting and opinion leadership.  My review of relevant research showed that many bloggers had an active interest in shaping policy agendas, and that both journalists and young americans were increasingly reliant on blogs and online news as their main source for political information.  Further research revealed that social media would change the spread of information by opinion leaders, building on real-life social networks and two-step flow of information that academics had observed as a key to influence over political opinion.

Download my 2008 report on the growing influence of bloggers on political communications here.

By using this academic understanding of communications, it was easy for me to anticipate the growing influence of social media on politics, even as most of the research had only begun to demonstrate the impact of blogs.  It seems obvious now, but back in 2008 many still thought social media was a fad and most were only beginning to understand the growing role of bloggers in the news cycle.  YouTube had only recently made its initial splash into politics, exposing hypocrisy in hidden camera videos during the run-up to the 2006 mid-term elections; in 2012 another hidden camera video (of candidate Mitt Romney) made an impact on public opinion. Already in the 2010 election cycle we saw the growing impact of social media; a case study I worked on demonstrated some correlation between online discussion and elections - in 3 out of 4 contests the candidate most mentioned in social media was also the winner in their election.

In 2012 the media landscape has transformed again, and political campaigns embracing new media like never before- instant news and reactions on Twitter, virtual town halls on Reddit, and even smartphone apps for candidates – but the fundamentals of how news is made and shared remain consistent.  Blogs continue to play a key role in agenda setting, and Twitter has evolved into an important echo chamber for sharing news (and occassionally misinformation and memes), just as email and message boards had in prior elections researched in my report.  As the media used to spread news and promote ideas evolves, it becomes even more important to understand the theories behind communications and interpersonal influence.  And as the candidates turn from influencing political opinion to mobilizing voters on election day, not to mention engaging with citizens after elections, they’ll again turn to social media to reach the public.

Full disclosure: I’m a supporter of President Obama’s re-election campaign, and worked for Democratic candidates in 2008 by volunteering on a Gubernatorial campaign. My current job involves working with reporters and bloggers, so my own ideas about the news media draws from those experiences.  

My first instinct was to share my experience through social media, where I learned that a few more of my friends had also had their phones stolen riding the subway.  A little further research led me to see the problem was growing across the US, and that many more shared my frustration being unable to recover my handset, even using the Find My iPhone feature. Most recently, in acknowledgment of the growing theft problem the FCC proposed changes to how the carriers manage reported thefts, hoping to help consumers avoid the hefty costs often associated when their stolen phones.

After I learned that the problem had become so widespread, I made a collection of clips on Storify sharing how the problem has grown, which I’ve updated over the last year. Here’s my ongoing story about the growing problem of iPhone theft:

As this story points out, some solutions to the growth of these thefts might stem from changes in public policy, both by training of local law enforcement as well as regulation of how carriers help consumers following their theft. Of course prevention of these thefts are also dependant on individual responsibility as well, and reflecting on my own stolen iPhone here is what I might have done differently:

• Don’t sit near doors on the subway, as thieves often target riders by the doors for a quick getaway. In my own experience, the thief jumped out the subway doors right before they closed, so I couldn’t persue them.
• Put your phone away while riding the subway, or at least hold it close to your body when the doors open.
• Report your theft to the police immediately. Many police departments have started to use the Find My iPhone function to recover handsets to their owners.
• Suspend your phone’s plan as soon as your report the theft. I thought I might catch the thief using my iPhone by maintaining the data plan, but instead they racked up thousands of phone minutes. Thankfully my provider (ATT) didn’t bill me since I had already reported the theft to them.

As my experiences demonstrate, losing these gadgets can be much more than just the theft of a phone handset. Not only did I lose my phone that night, but also personal data like contacts and app-specific data along with it. Thankfully I had a backup I was able to restore some of the data from, and fortunately I was able to use an old phone I had kept from before the theft. But for many people (like myself) their cellphone is their only phone line, and its loss creates additional challenges. So as smartphones become increasingly the personal hubs of communication, any problem with theft, especially those targeting popular devices like the iPhone, will have a growing impact on the everyday lives of their victims.

It’s hard to know exactly why the site didn’t receive much traffic, but one trend I noted was that most visitors to the site came directly, rather than through search or referral links.  Using Google Analytics I conducted an audit of the site’s performance, and found the site not only had fewer visitors than expected, but that visitors to the page didn’t spend much time – often less than 1 minute.  Since the site didn’t host any original content but rather aggregated my social media streams, it seems that the site didn’t offer visitors any compelling reason to stay on the site once they arrived.  In short, the site failed to achieve my goal to connect with a new audience.

While it’s disappointing that the site didn’t attract as much interest as I’d hoped, like any good online marketer I knew I needed to change the strategy based on my measurements of how people used the site.  So last week I relaunched MattHurst.com, using my Tubmlr site as a new means to connect with would-be visitors. Starting with over 1000 posts I’ve published over the last 3.5 years updating this Tumblr blog, the new site offers original, compelling content I hope will interest readers/viewers.

My new site also gives me an outlet to connect with people in a different way than my professional blog at MatthewHurst.com, by serving as an outlet for my interests in infographics, internet memes, and cultural commentary that might not reflect my professional brand as much as my personal tastes.  And as before, I’ll be keeping a close eye on my site’s performance, and making any adjustments necessary to meet my goals

First, here’s a funny and surprisingly accurate primer on how TV viewing is measured in the US (from Jess3 and ESPN):

Appointment Viewing

For the last two years I’ve been using social media tools like Get Glue, Miso, and IntoNow to track my viewing and to share my favorite TV shows with friends. These social networks use websites and smartphone apps to encourage more social viewing, opening up the sometimes isolated TV watching experience by connecting viewers who check-in to the same program and generating conversations among fans of the shows. For example, here are some of the shows I’ve checked-in to most recently:

View Matthew Hurst’s check-ins on GetGlue

By putting these social media tools into viewers’ hands to interact while watching, more consumers are using their smartphones and tablets simultaneously while watching TV. And there have been many case studies showing that social media discussion drives more people to tune-in to TV shows, and even some corrolation between the increase in online buzz corresponding increases in TV ratings. Of course, not all viewers want to use social media while watching TV, so while GetGlue and others may not be a repleacement for the TV ratings it does make an interesting way to measure about your own viewing behavior.

Cord-swapping

Another major change in the way I watch television is that I no longer subscribe to pay-TV, and have become a so called Cord-Cutter. When I moved to NYC I decided to forgo Cable or Satellite and replace most of my viewing with online video sites like Netflix and Hulu which offer many of the same TV programs. Since then I’ve added faster internet service for more HD video, a networked Blu-ray player to stream content, and a new big screen TV to showcase all my favorite shows. Increasingly I’m not alone in my choice to cut the cord, although the vast majority of Americans get their TV through cable and I even pay my old cable provider for broadband internet access.

For me cord-cutting is a viable option not only because it’s less costly, but because it allows me to watch TV on my own schedule. For years time-shifted viewing has been a growing trend, first with the emergence of DVR and On-Demand viewing and now with an increasing variety of viewing sources. From screens small (like my smartphone and tablets) and larger (like my new TV) not only can Americans view television more sources than ever before, but also whenever we want and with more choices of what to watch!

Recently I’ve written about how timelines can be used for visual storytelling, and likewise Facebook’s new design lends itself well to creating social narratives out of photos and status updates, especially by highlighting key events in our lives. Timeline’s changes to personal profiles gives individuals greater control not only of what information is shared publicly vs privately, but to highlight their own accomplishments and personal stories with friends both new and old. And because we know most employers look for Facebook profiles of job candidates during their evaluation, it’s critical to make sure your timeline reflects your personal brand.

Timeline also changes the Facebook pages for brands, and earlier this year I converted my Facebook Open Graph application (for this website) to a full-fledged page. Facebook pages can be built for personal brands to share career accomplishments and insights with like-minded professionals, which might otherwise come across as spammy to your friends; one of the top reasons people are unfriended is for sharing too much work-related information. Many brands have used applications to customize their pages in the past, but now Timeline will become the public face of these pages, allowing them to create more engaging stories which reflect their history. So far I’ve added my work history and career accomplishments to my Timeline, showcasing my professional development for all to see, with the most recent stories highlighed at the top of my timeline (a bit like a blog).

For example, here’s how I use my own Facebook page:

While no one Facebook strategy is the best for all personal brands, it seems clear that Timeline will give individuals new opportunities to tell their own story. For others Facebook’s new Subscriber option may offer a viable alternative, giving journalists (for example) a way to share public updates using their personal profile. And like all marketing strategies you should pick the tactics which contribute to your goals for your personal brand, whether it’s a Facebook page like mine, or just changes to your individual profile.

As a communications professional I see my work not just as copywriting, but ideally to tell stories through my writing. My storytelling can take many forms through the written word, including blog posts or social media, and even tactical media like press releases or fact sheets. But of course writing isn’t the only way to tell story, and as a visual storyteller I’ve created a number of infographics
and visualizations that intergrate data with images and text to help make complex stories more accessible. Not to mention my work as a film student writing and editing short stories in video.

Another kind of visualization that is helpful for telling narrative stories is a timeline, which spacially represents key events over time. In a timeline events can be as significant as a milestone/landmark developments which culminate from continuous iterative progress which is illustrated over time, or as simple as a tweet/status update that shows a conflict’s initiation/resolution. And like all narrative storytelling there are key elements like context/setting and esclating conflict which should be resolved by the end.

For example, here’s a story I made about the increase of stolen iPhones around New York City, including my own iPhone theft in July 2011, told in a timeline built using excerpts from social media and blog posts:

While this timeline isn’t strictly chronological (it’s split into parallel narratives from other cities around the world), it starts with a specific conflict (iPhone theft) in a setting (New York City), and concludes with examples of the conflict being resolved.

In the interest of better sharing my own professional (and personal) story, I’ve added a page of timelines which help tell my stories visually. The section includes a overall timeline of my life, professional developments, a list of blogs I’ve written for over the last 8 years, and a few of my favorite personal stories. Please take a look at my visual storytelling using these timelines, and feel free to let me know what you think in the comments of this blog post.