Sat, 19 May 2012 06:57:32 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails SocialSphere Feeds SocialSphere en Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:35:00 -0500 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/488_wake-up-millennials In 2008, Millennials (i.e., voters under the age of 30) in the United States were largely responsible for nominating and electing a President.  Three years later, young people helped change the world as tens of thousands banded together, organized themselves, became "Time's Person of the Year" and helped usher democracy in to the Middle East.  In 2012, Millennials hold the key to America’s future.  In the 20th Edition of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics Survey of Young Americans we now ask key questions, such as: Will young voters turn out and vote in the substantial numbers that they did in 2008?   Will they spend their free time volunteering and organizing for Barack Obama’s America?   Will they support the Democratic ticket by the two-to-one margin that they did four years previous? Is there an opportunity for the Republican nominee, or Republicans squ John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/488_wake-up-millennials Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:26:00 -0500 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/487_what-the-world%27s-saying-about-boston-%26-san-francisco Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to make a presentation to a number of greater Boston's civic and business leaders about what the world is saying about Boston.  It's the second or third time we used Prezi rather than Keynote or Powerpoint by the way, and its great. Sponsored by Boston World Partnerships, my presentation was an analysis of the online conversation related to Boston as a place to do business, a hub of intellectual capital and innovation.  We collected data in English-only (this time) from outside of the United States during a good chunk of last summer -- and compared Boston's data to San Francisco -- and here's what we found:  Boston’s conversations were dominated by discussions of Harvard - the college being mentioned in almost 50% of the cases during the examined time period. Harvard mentions outlined research coming out of the university and commented on the general prestige of the school, as well as the expected succes John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/487_what-the-worlds-saying-about-boston--san-francisco Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:12:00 -0500 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/486_bursting-the-bubble Over the last 45 days or so – I have had the privilege of traveling around the globe talking with and engaging some of the brightest minds in the worlds of academia, business, politics, media, sports, cinema, music, military and diplomacy.   It’s been a whirlwind that started in Istanbul and took us through Moscow, San Francisco, Bern, Amsterdam, Washington, New York and Los Angeles, not to mention Cambridge and Concord -- -– and I learned something.   Actually, a lot. Through the generosity of our friends and clients, through interpreters, translators, water pipes (Turkey), vodka (Russia), chocolate (Switzerland), and sushi (LA) – I learned what real leaders want.  Note: Amsterdam redacted ;) Our best ambassadors, our most successful entrepreneurs, leadership of global 100 companies, and the heads of the biggest, baddest movie studios and record labels in the world tell us essentially the same thing – they want despera John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/486_bursting-the-bubble Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:42:00 -0500 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/485_1st-nfl-orbit%E2%84%A2-scores-%2B-what-bill-simmons-should-have-said Earlier this week, I was honored to be a Featured Speaker at the Sports Business Journal's Media & Technology Conference.   It was about everything that it was supposed to be -- we had a great forum and the opportunity to connect with a few hundred of current and future leaders in the business of sports.  I also was offered a $1,600 ticket to see Springsteen at the Beacon, but that's another story. On Day 1 of the conference, I was the third of four featured speakers -- and asked to follow Bill Simmons aka to most as @sportsguy33.   When we had the chance to say hello before his talk, I mentioned that I have the toughest job in the house -- having to follow him.  Truthfully, it ended up working out perfectly.  While Bill was interviewed by SBJ Executive Editor Abe Madkour he talked a lot about how his life is different today, as the face, Executive Editor and writer for one of the most watched properties on the Internet, Grantland.  He offered some John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/485_1st-nfl-orbit™-scores--what-bill-simmons-should-have-said Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:40:00 -0500 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/484_socialsphere-outlines-top-50-most-impactful-internet-properties-for-nfl%2C-mlb FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                   Contact: Esten Perez November 9, 2011                                                                                      &nbsp John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/484_socialsphere-outlines-top-50-most-impactful-internet-properties-for-nfl-mlb Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:16:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/483_don%27t-use-twitter-to-pimp Funny, I literally just wrapped up a talk with some clients in Europe about the use of social media in the practice of diplomacy when Peter sent me this link from CNBC's @darrenrovell -- "Paid Tweets are a Gray Area for Athletes and Celebrities"   I only wish that I had seen Darren's piece before my talk.  Specifcially, I wish I had seen it before my response to a question about potential "government subversion" of social media channels.  Rather than letting my audience in on the fairly well-known practice of how the Chinese government pays people to masquerade as concerned citizens to set the tone on blogs throughout China (aka the 50-Cent Army) -- I could have talked about how American luminaries such as Michael Vick, McDonald's and Wheat Thins are doing the same thing online in the USA.  They're taking a few pennies to tell their "followers" that you can go BOGO on Wheat Thins this coming weekend.  Seriously -- is t John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/483_dont-use-twitter-to-pimp Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:22:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/482_surprise%21--bloggers-blog-because-... Yesterday, one of our oldest and best clients forwarded me this story from the New York Times, commenting that this was an "interesting piece."  Talk about an understatement. The story in question was the now well-worn tale of how Ketchum PR orchestrated a food-blogger event at an exclusive underground NYC restaurant where a number of influential bloggers would enjoy a "delicious four-course meal," "learn about the latest food trends," "engage in conversation with other foodies" -- and of course the evening would end in an "unexpected surprise" (as compared to an expected surprise, but that's another story). The event was an unmitigated disaster as Ketchum and ConAgra thought that they could invite bloggers out for an evening, engage them in one of their deepest passions, roll cameras -- and minutes later attempt to pass unhealthy, mass-produced, frozen four-cheese lasagna to a self-proclaimed group of "foodies" as au John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/482_surprise-bloggers-blog-because- Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:19:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/481_inside-the-beltway-social-media-strategy%2C-first-things-first It seems that a week does not go by without someone asking me about what’s going on in Washington these days. Whether we like it or not, understanding Washington – and the people who make it run (or not) – is a critical factor for anyone doing business today. And this holds true for everyone from small businesses to multinational corporations.  However frustrating it may seem, incorporating Inside-the-Beltway strategies into larger branding, communications and marketing initiatives is a must for about everyone operating on the Fortune 500 list – and I’d argue, so is a Washington-based social media strategy as well. So, in that vein, here are three pieces of advice we give to our clients and friends before they embark on Washington, DC-social media strategies: (1)  Remember your audience; it may not be who you think it is. While it is a well-known fact that dozens and dozens of members of Congress are active participan John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/481_inside-the-beltway-social-media-strategy-first-things-first Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:39:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/480_military-families-infographic We have been honored to have worked with the U.S. military for 3+ years on helping build and create online systems to connect military families in the U.S. and around the world.  As a small part of this effort, Elizabeth Holly (our Director's Intern from Harvard this summer) and Kim Ramsdell conducted analysis on seven of the most noteworthy organizations and websites in the space. Specifically, our team analyzed each organization's website (unique visitors and time on site) and Facebook presence (monthly posts, engagements and engagements/administrator post). It's interesting that while Military One Source -- tops the list for unique visitors and is essentially tied close for average stay, it's the smaller Mil Spouse blog that rules on Facebook. For bigger, better version, click here: Uploads/media/MilitaryFamily IG by SocialSphere.pdf John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/480_military-families-infographic Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:59:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/479_%40ochocinco-in-the-social-sphere I’m just guessing here, but it has got to be good to be Ochocinco these days.  Hopefully it will be better in February 2012 if the Patriots can get back to and win the Super Bowl – but right now, things don’t look too bad. Ochocinco is likely to play a big role in the most explosive offense in the NFL this year, his team is one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl and the fact that he has a Boston, not Cincinnati address, will mean that his off-the-field marketing and revenue opportunities will grow exponentially this year. In a matter of a few days, Ochocinco has used Twitter as masterfully as anyone I have ever seen.  The first human I know of to refer to Foxboro as #Heaven when he was signed by the Patriots on July 29th, more than 29,000 people subscribed to the @Ochocinco handle within hours of his announcement. Now with more than 2.5 million followers, Ochocinco has an opportunity to be not only one of the most endearing Boston athletes in quite a John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/479_ochocinco-in-the-social-sphere Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:00:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/478_%2B1-for-google%3A-connecting-real-friends  When I received my invitation to Google+, I immediately created a profile to see what the buzz was all about. My initial hesitation stemmed from the small user base, pain of setting up another social networking profile, and the seemingly complicated circles feature. So, really, what is the point of Google+? Randall Munroe got it right on xkcd: I’m not inclined to use Google+ necessarily because it’s a snub at Facebook, but rather because it better suits my needs in several respects. As someone who uses Facebook more than four hours a day, I find my profile is bloated with “friends” I rarely talk to – people I met once in a class freshman year of college, people I met at a mutual friend’s social event, etc, aka, marginal friends. Before posting anything on Facebook, I censor myself. Would this post draw unwanted attention from family friends or former bosses? Would this post offend any of my cl Vieshnavi Rattehalli http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/478_1-for-google-connecting-real-friends Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:00:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/477_what%27s-good-about-the-nhl For a little while now, I have been known to tell most people who'd listen that corporations in America and around the world could stand to take a page or two from the playbooks of the more innovative political campaigns and social movements -- whether that's Deval Patrick, Barack Obama in 2006 and 2008 respectively or the Cairo youth of January and February 2011. Tonight, I'm singing a slightly different tune.  I am suggesting that people interested in communicating and connecting in the modern world (and I mean around the globe) check out the National Hockey League. Since the Winter Classic in 2007, I have personally been paying more attention to the league, my hometown team and some of the more significant events online and offline -- and there's much to admire. Chiefly, they listen to their fans. There's a lot of research I have seen of late, that indicates that the NHL owns one of the youngest, more affluent, tech-savvy, fan bases in all of sports.  In fact, John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/477_whats-good-about-the-nhl Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:00:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/476_the-new-elite-take-twitter%2C-then-nyc It has already been two weeks since the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, and I haven’t spent a day without thinking about it. It’s probably because of the uniqueness of those “agents of change” (the theme of the conference), and the way that a Forum of 900 participants could reach an audience of more than 10 millions of people across the world by mastering the use of social media. Inherent to the rise of new media is the emergence of a new kind of elite, defined by the resonance it finds in those new tools, making them influential. Witnessing that made me tweet thoughtfully for the first time, and having the chance to work with amazing technologists that “get” the importance of analytics and data, I wondered who were the most influential and impactful new elites there, based on Twitter. During the conference, our ORBIT ™  Platform monitored the #pdf11 activity on Twitter, capturing 19,285 Tweets from 1678 profiles, reaching 1 David Zylberberg http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/476_the-new-elite-take-twitter-then-nyc Sat, 18 Jun 2011 19:00:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/475_%40repweiner%3A-the-final-tweets One of the questions we were asking ourselves this week around the office was... Other than the obvious, what else was @RepWeiner up to on Twitter?  Thanks to one of our super summer interns, Kelsey King, we now know most of the details. An active user of Twitter for only less than a year, @RepWeiner's account had been growing steadily for most of 2011.  Between New Year's Day and the day before the scandal broke, the @RepWeiner account grew by about 7X -- from 6,048 followers on January 1 to 43,133 followers on May 26.  Over the last three weeks, his account nearly doubled and as of this morning, more than 83,400 "people" follow @RepWeiner.   Kelsey's analysis tells us that former Congressman Weiner posted 478 times since he began actively using Twitter in August 2010, going no more than 15 days without posting and only going more than 9 days without a post a total of 4 times, including now. While most of us know how "busy" he was on Twitter, John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/475_repweiner-the-final-tweets Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:00:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/474_rep.-weiner%3A-twitter-for-talking%2C-facebook-for-engaging The timing could not be better.  This Monday afternoon, I will be with Trey Grayson (@KYTrey) and my colleagues from Harvard's Institute of Politics at the PdF (Personal Democracy Form) annual conference in New York.  The topic of our panel discussion is "Civility and Social Media: An oxy-moron?" -- and I am fairly confident that the subject of Anthony Weiner and Twitter will be raised, probably more than once. What I want to know is -- what is the real reason that politicians like Representative Weiner and 70% of his colleagues are on Twitter?  Is it because that truly want to engage their constituents -- or is it part of an ego trip, counting followers in the same way a 7th grader counts friends on Facebook or a recent college grad counts connections on LinkedIn? I think the answer is ... most of them really don't know. Twitter is great -- but its main utility is as a one-way, small d democratic, publishing tool.  Its an invaluable medium for @ John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/474_rep-weiner-twitter-for-talking-facebook-for-engaging Tue, 31 May 2011 19:00:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/473_red-sox-ahead-of-yankees-%28on-facebook-engagements%29 As the NBA (Go Mavs) and NHL (Go Bruins) finals begin this week, we are beginning a new chapter at SocialSphere as well -- the launching of our sports practice.  Please watch this space for additional announcements and postings on our site regarding this important and exciting initiative. Sports for us is a natural focus and extension to everything else we have been doing since day one, way back in 2007.  At SocialSphere, we have helped a number of our clients such as the NTRA, Breeders' Cup and West Point Thoroughbreds (along with a number of Thoroughbred tracks throughout North America) engage with their fans using social media -- and in our prior company, we were proud to work with MLB, the PGA TOUR, the USGA and the Atlantic 10 in their engagement with fans and sponsors as well.   At our core, we are about identifying, empowering and engaging the most passionate people -- so what better venue to do this than sports? Preparing for an upcoming presentation John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/473_red-sox-ahead-of-yankees-on-facebook-engagements Wed, 25 May 2011 10:36:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/472_message-behind-the-best-may-ever May has been one hell of a month for President Obama.  It started with his strong performance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, followed hours later by an even stronger one with the killing of bin Laden in Abbotabad (and Donald Trump's "campaign" for president) -- and it is ending with a trip through Europe and according to Gallup, the best poll numbers in about 16 months -- with a net change of 18 percentage points since the first of the May (53% approval rating, 41% disapprove). And while the world is still buzzing from the President's comments about Israel, I did not want the month to go by without a recognition of some of the other words that the President spoke during his May 19 speech at the State Department.   Marking a new chapter in American diplomacy, the President recognized the things that we hold sacred @SocialSphere -- the things that drive every one of the products we create and the opportunities we help our clients seize about every da John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/472_message-behind-the-best-may-ever Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:48:07 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/471_egypt%27s-%40alaa-please-meet-syria%27s-%40razaniyat A few days after the January 25 protests began in Egypt, our Public Diplomacy Analytics team identified a handful of the most influential social media activists emerging from Cairo -- and we wrote the blog on 25 January that identified @alaa -- a Simpsons watching, lasagna-eating, ex-pat living in Cape Town who quickly rose to prominence on Twitter and boasted 4,538 following when this blog was written. A little more than three-months later, our analysis shows that he remains every bit as influential as he was on #Jan25 -- referenced recently by Wael Ghonim,  the Internet activist, former Google employee who lit the spark that created this movement: @Ghonim: Can we organize a #OneVoice global protest in different cities in solidarity with #Syria and rest of Arab revolutions? (idea by @alaa) According to Twitter Counter, @alaa's followers have increased from 2,817 to 4,538 when we tagged him on 29 January to 26,521 as of this morning.  We're proud that our ORBIT™ John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/471_egypts-alaa-please-meet-syrias-razaniyat Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:48:19 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/469_we-need-sports-more-than-ever At a time when the price of gas and a soft recovery is making even the easiest things hard for American families, when the world is becoming more, not less, unstable – and where it’s becoming more difficult to trust those in charge – we need sports more than ever.   After the encouraging “cricket diplomacy” from the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers a few weeks ago – and a quick trip I made last week talking baseball with fans in Boston, St. Louis and Detroit – it is incredibly clear that especially in these uncertain times – the health of nations and communities can be measured in large part by their connections to the local teams.   Whether that’s through an unexpected work holiday throughout India and Pakistan as millions stayed home to cheer in unison for their nation’s advancement in the Cricket World Cup – or the connection that middle class families have with their hometown baseball teams in 30 cit John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/469_we-need-sports-more-than-ever Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:45:00 -0400 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/468_millennials%E2%80%99-trust-at-all-time-lows%3A--before-you-turn-the-lights-off-washington%2C-consider-your-legacy In the shadows of headlines predicting a government shutdown in Washington, and increasingly caustic and unhealthy debate emanating from state capitals like Columbus and Madison – last week about a dozen undergraduates from Harvard and I released the Harvard Institute of Politics’ 19th survey of young American’s attitudes toward politics and public service.n the Spring of 2000, when undergraduates, staff, professors and pollsters came together for the first time, one of the key findings of that inaugural survey was: America’s college students have little trust in federal and state government. Eleven years later, we can report that little has changed on this front for the better. In that first poll, 64 percent of college students indicated that they did not trust the federal government to do the right thing all or most of the time.  Today, among college students, that number holds at exactly the same point, 64 percent.  At the time of that first su John Della Volpe http://www.socialsphere.com/blogdetails/468_millennials’-trust-at-all-time-lows-before-you-turn-the-lights-off-washington-consider-your-legacy