Audiences
- Ethen Dent
- Oct 14, 2021
- 3 min read
Convergence Culture
Media convergence - the concept of how content flows between multiple content platforms and the audience's behaviour that migrates to these platforms.
Participating culture - the idea of a passive viewer in a time when producers and consumers do not show clearly different roles but interact with rules we don't seem to fully understand yet.
Collective intelligence - the idea of a trend to turn consumption into a collective process, sharing knowledge to cope with the amount of available information. e.g. social media platforms develop in this unique convergence, participation and 'crowd-sourcing' environment.
Crowdsourcing
Being introduced to a list of different business models, we now cover crowd-sourcing in depth as a viable method to fund our business.
[Crowdsourcing diagram by crowdsourcingweek.com]
Crowdsourcing is a business model involving individuals or companies obtaining not only finances but goods, services and ideas from an open and evolving group of participants.
One particular company that I am fond of is MOUS. A company which produces highly durable phone cases that also doesn't compromise on bulkiness and style. Their crowd funding campaign raised over $2.5 million (2017) making them one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever.
I personally own one of these phone cases as it advertises everything I want in my phone case... a product that will ultimately protect my phone.
[Screenshot of MOUS phone product]
Social Technologies
Social technologies consist of any technology that facilitates any form of social interaction, often possible though communication devices such as the Internet and mobile devices.
Two Forrester Analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (2008), give their analysis on 25 real case studies on how companies can increased their market knowledge, generate income, save money and mobilize their employees by using these social technologies. Additionally, Li and Bernoff consider the idea that their is a definite social trend towards people using technologies to get the desirable information/goods/services from other people, instead on relying on the traditional methods like obtaining from companies.
Developing your Brand Image
Identify your target audiences - attempting to sell to everyone is certainly going to result in a failure. Identify a specific demographic that wants your product/services. Learn all there is to know about that demographic and make an effective marketing strategy that will connect with them.
Understand your audience - know your audience's pain points and fix them. Use a tool, such as 'Similar Web' to learn your target market's wants and needs. Similar Web is a useful tool to conduct this research.
Understand you product quality needs - the quality of the product is determined by the end user's expectations and needs (customer satisfaction). It is advisable to look at your competitor's product reviews, especially the negative ones.
Maintain brand reputation - ensuring that your customers are happy. Achieve that by providing unparalleled customer engagement.
Further Reading
Convergence Culture - Henry Jenkings
Socialnomics - Erik Qualman
Wikinomics - Don Tapscott & Anthony D.Williams
The Production Guild
Reflection Segment
"Convergence Culture is a theory that I am still struggling to understand. Media convergence is the aspect of this that I do not understand. I may have to ask for help during the next session at the time of writing (27/10/21)."
"Collective Intelligence; culmination of knowledge in a particular group of people."
"Participation culture; the roles of consumer and producer are no longer binary. Each and every consumer can now be a producer given the platforms that are now available. e.g. personally, I am someone who consumes content on YouTube but I have also produced and uploaded content to the platform. Just need a little help for media convergence."
"My thoughts on social technologies; they give huge benefit to business by deceptively allowing the business model of crowdsourcing to exist. Crowdsourcing does not have to consist of a transaction of monetary value. It also includes the exchange of ideas. Businesses that use social technologies can tap into crowdsourcing by looking for their personas on social technology platforms. Because how social media platforms are constructed, individuals are rewarded by converging in social groups that possess the same inclination (rewarded through information, acceptance, inclusiveness, etc). As social groups are constructed this way, businesses can benefit from this if their constructed persona co-exists in a social group (if it exists on the platform, however). [Collective Intelligence Theory]"
Citations
Mikos,Lothar(2017)."Transmedia Storytelling and Mega-Narration: Audiovisual Production in Converged Media Environments". In Sparviero, Sergio; Peil, Corinna; Balbi,Gabriele(eds.).Media Convergence and Deconvergence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp.159–175.
CROWDSOURCINGWEEK,2021.What is Crowdsourcing?.[image] Available at:<http://crowdsourcingweek.com>[Accessed 27 October 2021].
Mous UK.2021.About Mous.[online] Available at:<https://uk.mous.co/pages/about-us>[Accessed 27 October 2021].
IBERDROLA,2021.What can social technology help with?.[image].What I've been listening to:
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