Is social media causing a Flu Epidemic?

Courtesy of Flickr - tioguerra

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how things go viral and how the spread of information can create action in the mass public. While reading “The Tipping Point” I’ve gotten some great theories about the spread of epidemics to help fuel my fire.  What I’ve found is, the spread of information can cause mass panic in a population, enough to create action even when there is no call to action. I personally think that people are fueled by information and emotion that we get from the media and our friends and family, enough for us to spread that very info and emotion with others. The information we receive from these sources are seen as highly credible because of the personal relationships we have with them. To better illustrate this thought, I wanted to take a look at a topical example; The Flu.

Flu Fear

I heard a statistic this morning that said there have been more people visit the hospital for flu like symptoms in the last 6 weeks than during an entire average flu season. Why is this happening? Is it truly that we are all getting sicker or is it something else?

there have been more people visit the hospital for flu like symptoms in the last 6 weeks than during an entire average flu season

We are being bombarded with information and fear about the severity of the power of the flu and the H1N1 virus which is being permeated throughout our lives by the media, friends, family, social media contacts, even the President. Overwhelming information like this creates panic in within the masses. It makes us think that each and every time we sneeze or cough, we think we have the flu. This panic coupled with the fear of the devastating H1N1 virus, forces us to visit to the hospital for something that we would typically overlook. Hence, increasing hospital visits for flu like symptoms.

What are your thoughts?

So my question again… why have we seen such an influx of hospital visits for flu like symptoms? Are we truly getting sicker or is it something else?

Social Trust… Do you Trust Your Information?

I heard something on the radio today about the September 6th episode of Meet the Press that I wanted to see some other thoughts about… Below is the transcript of the conversation between Tom Brokaw and Tom Friedman…

MR. BROKAW:  Well, I’ve–one of the things I’ve been saying to audiences is this question comes up a lot, and a lot of people will repeat back to me and take it as face value something that they read on the Internet.  And my line to them is you have to vet information.  You have to test it the same way you do when you buy an automobile or when you go and buy a new flat-screen television.  You read the Consumer Reports, you have an idea of what it’s worth and what the lasting value of it is.  You have to do the same thing with information because there is so much disinformation out there that it’s frightening, frankly, in a free society that depends on information to make informed decisions.  And this is across the board, by the way.  It’s not just one side of the political spectrum or the other.  It is across the board, David, and it’s something that we all have to address and it requires society and political and cultural leaders to stand up and say, “this is crazy.” We just can’t function that way.

MR. FRIEDMAN:  You know, David, I just want to say one thing to pick up on Tom’s point, which is the Internet is an open sewer of untreated, unfiltered information, left, right, center, up, down, and requires that kind of filtering by anyone.  And I always felt, you know, when modems first came out, when that was how we got connected to the Internet, that every modem sold in America should actually come with a warning from the surgeon general that would have said, “judgment not included,” OK?  That you have to upload the old-fashioned way.  Church, synagogue, temple, mosque, teachers, schools, you know.  And too often now people say, and we’ve all heard it, “But I read it on the Internet,” as if that solves the bar bet, you know?  And I’m afraid not.

How do you “vet information” online? Do you see this shift in communication and information “Frightening” as Mr. Brokaw points out? Or do you enjoy the right to choose your information source? I’ll post my personal thoughts later about the issue…

my thoughts.

For all of us online, we have molded the way we personally gather information. We have spent years upon years reading various information sources (some good, most spam) and have  subconsciously developed an intrinsic “spam filter” that allows us to look beyond the bullshit out there and fully recognize a legitimate inforamtion source.

To be told by Tom Brokaw and all the other elitist journalists out there that the information we are gathering is false simply because they didn’t deliver it to us. To me I think this is ridiculous. We live in the crowdsourcing time where the collective whole is stronger than the individual parts. We know what sources are credible and what sources are falsified. I know from my personal accounts, that I don’t pass any information along to my friends, fans, and followers without knowing for sure, that it comes from a legitimate source.

Tom Brokaw is frightened by the way we now gather information, simply because his job is being threatened by video phones, blogs, and YouTube channels. So I say, continue my fellow information gatherers and sharers. Keep it up and don’t let them get you down.

Enjoy!

Marketing Ecosystem: Gather Information

Photo Courtesy of Flickr - typedown

Last time we learned about the importance of goal setting as it pertains to developing an all encompassing marketing ecosystem to create fully integrated brands within our customer’s lifestyles. The next step in creating this marketing ecosystem is to gather as much useful information as possible to fully understand our global environment as we sit right now, identify possible opportunities, and begin to build personas around our best “niche” target segments (personas will be discussed next time). To gather all this information, we need to take a global, holistic approach to interviews, research, surveys, etc.

information = power

In today’s overly communicated, high speed society, information and the speed at which you send and receive is, in itself, becoming a competitive advantage for many companies. This trend is likely to continue as more social strategies are integrated throughout our lives as marketers and consumers. With this said the gathering of this information is not only important…it’s a necessity.

gathering berries.

Some of the information that we will be gathering will help us:

• identify communication paths
• understand effectiveness
• identify needs in environment
• create brand competitiveness
• identify best customer segments
• identify key entry points
• understand communication pods

To help us fulfill these obligations, there are four aspects of our business we need to fully understand, inside and out. They are listed below along with some strategies to help you begin gathering this important information.

Our Company/Brand: How can we communicate our strengths without fully understanding our company/brand/products. First things first, we need to become intimate partners with what our brand is, what it stands for, where it’s been, and where it’s going. To do this we need to conduct:

• Stakeholder Interviews
• Employee Interviews
• Customer Interviews
• Vendor Communications
• Company History Analysis

Our Competition (Known and Unknown): Understanding our competition and their communication strategies, allows us to fully understand, not only our current position, but also opportunities for position transition for different markets. Some strategies to better understand our competition are:

• Interview competition customers
• Research Industry Information
• Interview our current customers

The Brand Climate: Knowing where we’ve been and forecasting where we’re going is a powerful tool. By identifying the climate in which our brand occupies is a vital part to goal setting and communication strategies.

The Different Consumer Segments: By fully understanding your consumer base, you can begin to segment the entire base down to highly defined niche segments, if not down to the individual. Each of these segments will have specific communication, brand, and interactive needs. Understanding is the first step in fulfilling these needs and, once filled, will move toward complete lifestyle brand integration. Some strategies to get to know your customers a little better:

• Usability Testing – How the different customers use your brand/product
• Contextual Interviews – Face to face, individual interviews in their environment documenting behaviors, surroundings, self-reported experiences, attitudes, etc.
• General Surveys – gather general demographic/psychographic information
• Focus Groups – Understand similarities within groups and niche segments, identify the group communication aspects, and document interactions between members

information overload.

This may look like a lot of information to gather, but once it’s done, it’s simple maintenance as we move forward. After all, we’re not looking for a quick band-aid fix, we’re looking to completely transform the way we communicate in the business environment and our loyal customers. We’re trying to create a marketing ecosystem that learns and grows on its own. Understanding the ins, outs and what-have-yous of our business environment will give us the competitive advantage to build personas (highly defined target niche segments) and devise communication strategies to fulfill the needs of those personas; completely integrating our brand into their own personal lifestyles. Pretty cool, huh?

your thoughts.

How do you gather information on your business environment? How has information helped you in a communication debacle?