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- Majority of users adopt the center-left-right strategy.
- Users do not go to the bottom; they assume that anything important would be in the center area of the screen.
- Bright colors and animation attract users’ eyes, and
- Users often stopped at the borders around ads, these lines apparently indicate content that is unimportant to their task.
- 100% accuracy. Find out exactly what the testers look at on your website.
- Controlled environment. Your visitors are asked to carry out pre-determined tasks. You can therefore define exactly what to test and know the objectives of your testers.
- Open Dialogue. Visitors can give in-depth feedback and answer any questions you may have, removing any guesswork.
- Cost. Eye tracking comes with a hefty price tag, requiring specialist equipment and staff. The cost can increase with multiple participants and higher frequency of testing.
- Limited scope. The number of participants, screen size measurements, and variety of participants is limited. Your data results are based on a small sampling of unique visitors.
- User interaction. Visitors know that their every move is being monitored, therefore cannot be expected to act naturally.
How The NRL Are Breaking Ground In The Digital Space
September 28th, 2011The NRL continued to set the pace within the digital space in 2011.
Recently breaking new ground with the launch of the first official finals iPad App for a major Australian football code as well as becoming the first sport to launch its club iPhone Apps in Australia with over 90,000 downloads to date.
Featuring exclusive news and video content, finals previews, photo galleries and expert analysis from the game’s leading minds, the Telstra Premiership NRL Finals Series 2011 Official App gave League fans free access to the thrills and unpredictability of the Telstra Premiership Finals Series direct from their tablet.
With the introduction of these apps, the NRL experienced growth in several areas.
• A 14% (1.8 million fans) increase in the number of people logging on to NRL.com per month.
• An increase of 12% (222,000 weekly visitors) of fans visiting the NRL Club Network (Individual club websites).
• Average lift in streams of club webcasts from Round 14 to 21 of a staggering 69%.
In 2011, fans registered over 2.6million views of videos, including game highlights, team announcements, player interviews and media conferences.
The NRL’s combined audience across Facebook and Twitter is the largest social media following of any sport in Australia.
Becoming the first Australian sport to reach 375,000 fans on Facebook and are now the largest sport (over 380,000) with the largest team following (Queensland Maroons with 324,133) and the largest club following (Brisbane Broncos with 213,410) in Australia.
Online coverage of the 2011 Dally M’s via Twitter saw #dallym enter Australia’s top five trending topics on the night and the first Finals Series game between Wests Tigers v St George Illawarra Dragons was the highest trending sport topic in Australia, beating out the AFL finals series and Rugby World Cup opener.
History of NRL and social media
• The NRL became the first sport to launch a club iPhone app in Australia in 2011 with more than 40,000 downloads across four clubs (Broncos, Bulldogs, Storm, Dragons) in the first four weeks, and over 90,000 total downloads to date across 12 clubs.
• In July this year, the NRL also became the first Australian sport to reach 350,000 fans on Facebook, and has quickly established itself as the largest Australian sport (currently 378,000 fans), with the largest team (Queensland Maroons with 322,000) and the largest club (Brisbane Broncos with 205,000) on Facebook.
• The NRL’s combined audience across Facebook and Twitter is the largest social media following of any sport in Australia and its growth reflects the booming popularity of the NRL digital network, with over 2.3 million unique monthly visitors logging on to NRL.com and club sites throughout the 2011 season.
• With 15 clubs now active participants, the NRL Club Network has become a key destination for 222,000 average unique weekly visitors to July 2011.
• Over 2.6 million club videos have been consumed from Round 1 to 21 in 2011.
I look forward to what other exciting things the NRL has in store for us in 2012 and beyond.
You can follow me at @shanebrien
Sports And Social Media: The Fan/Athlete Relationship
September 19th, 2011As a massive sports enthusiast myself, I thought it would be interesting to examine the impact social media channels, in particular Twitter, has had on sport in today’s society.
Sports and social media look a perfect match. Rarely does a topic such as sport inspire such passion and discussion amongst people. It offers us all the opportunity to vent frustrations, share views and interact with people of a similar inclination.
So where does social media fit in?
For a start, the landscape has changed dramatically in the last five years. Before the emergence of social media, following sports online was not an interactive or communal experience. This is not the case anymore.
Twitter, for example, is a very beneficial tool in regards to sporting information online as it offers the opportunity to gain more insights into your preferred sports more than ever before. The Rugby World Cup is the perfect example. Journalists and players are tweeting from training camps, press conferences and from the games themselves. This is the kind of instant information that you would not normally receive without social media and it’s invaluable to sports fans.
Twitter has made sports stars more accessible than ever. We now have unprecedented access into their lives. Like any celebrity status, there is a mystique about sports stars and this access has now changed our perception into who they are.
In fact, sports stars have taken social media to a completely new level. Veteran fly-half Matt Giteau (@giteau_rugby) all but confirmed that he has been overlooked for Australia’s World Cup squad in a message on his Twitter page days before the official squad was released.
Giteau, the International Rugby Board world player of the year only two seasons ago, effectively delivered his demotion – and retirement from the game – ahead of Thursday’s official announcement in two emotional tweets, “Thank u ballboys, thank u linesman! That’s it”, followed by, “Really want to thank everyone for the support! Was a huge honour to get the chance to represent my country as often as I did”. Unprecedented instant information only available through the progression of social media.
Whilst many professional athletes are genuine fans of Twitter, how many use it to build their brand? Pushing you to things like their sponsors and personal ventures.
The increased accessibility of athletes coupled with the personal touch that social media brings makes it easy for professional athletes to promote themselves and their products. The key is that they don’t simply use Twitter to advertise themselves or their brand. There must be some interaction and valuable information in there to keep their followers interested.
Alternatively, Twitter could potentially be quite destructive for a professional athlete’s brand. Sporting agents and the affiliated clubs must be concerned as they cannot control what their client says online, and it only takes one tweet to unhinge much good work.
A famous example was Canberra Raiders Rugby League player Joel Monaghan who was forced to walk away from the NRL after a photograph was published on Twitter of him simulating a lewd act with a dog.
These new technologies have continued to blur the lines between the athlete and the fan, placing fans on the field, in the locker room or smack-dab in the everyday lives of their favorite celebrity-athletes.
I used to be a fan of the minute-by-minute renditions on various sporting websites, live blogs as such. This was essentially a pre-cursor for Twitter and showed that there was an appetite for live updates. Twitter is just an extension of this. Used correctly, it can be a live sporting news feed from all your favourite journalists and bloggers. This is the kind of content that is very attractive to me and, as an added bonus, its instant. I now find Twitter to be the best place for updates on team news, transfers and general information providing of course you are following the right people.
Athletes free to Tweet during 2012 Olympic Games
September 5th, 2011Australia’s London-bound athletes have been warned to use social media responsibly ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.
Athletes competing at the 2012 Olympic Games in London are free to tweet during the competition, the Olympic Committee said.
During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, athletes were confused over what they could and could not tweet. As a result, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) put rules in place for the 2012 games so from July 27 to August 12, 2012 in London; athletes will be competing and tweeting, with only a few stipulations, which are outlined in the IOC Social Media, Blogging and Internet Guidelines.
I for one, think it is great to see the Olympic Committee embracing social media. It’s a way for fans to stay connected to the games while on the go or in the office and it’s a great opportunity for the athletes to take part in social media and to post, blog and tweet their experiences.
In light of the release of the IOC guidelines, new Australian Olympic chef de mission Nick Green – a former Oarsome Foursome member – said athletes were being encouraged to use internet forums “in the right way”.
“We encourage the athletes to support their team members and talk about their own performance, not so much critique or comment on other people or what’s going on around them,” he said.
Athletes have been known to behave badly through their personal social networks. There was an outcry last year when Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice – in a high profile relationship with Wallaby five-eighth Quade Cooper – used her twitter account to post a comment that was considered a gay slur.
“Suck on that faggots,” the triple Olympic gold medalist tweeted after the Wallabies’ victory over South Africa’s Springboks.
But hopefully with the right education and the release of the IOC’s social media guidelines athletes will use social media responsibly.
Who will take home the gold in terms of the most tweets throughout the 2012 Olympics?
Is Social Media Killing Our Relationships?
September 1st, 2011Lovers who are on the rocks are now airing issues in counselling sessions that have arisen from social media, chat rooms and dating websites.
A recent online survey conducted by Relationships Australia discovered the internet is being turned into a battleground, with social networking sites such as Facebook becoming breeding grounds for jealousy, cheating, snooping and the playing out of nasty break-ups.
Preliminary results from the online Relationships Australia survey show 95 per cent are worry about privacy, 87 per cent about the time their partner spends on the net, and 85 per cent by less personal communication.
Trust and privacy are the two top concerns in relationships, as well as the amount of time people spend on social media pages.
It’s easy to say social media is killing personal relationships, and in some ways, I tend to agree.
On Facebook, I have about 250 friends. Most of them I knew before I joined Facebook, and a vast majority I met in real life first. They include family members and my closest friends from high school.
We would regularly call/text each other, go out of our way to catch-up over a feed and beer, and generally interact as much as our lives and the distance would allow.
Now, we mostly track each other through Facebook and Twitter. We feel we know what is going on in each other’s lives. The urge/need to reach out over the phone isn’t as pressing. This seems good because I spend so much more time online, so it helps save time. Aside from maybe commenting on their statuses more than average, I interact with them online just as much if not more as offline.
Because of these habits, my strong relationships seem to be becoming weaker. My interactions with my close friends are, on average, more superficial than they where before social media.
Will I give up interacting with my friends on social media? No, it still serves a purpose that was not being met before. I am simply going to make a more concerted effort to connect the old fashion way with my close friends.
Has social media affected different types of personal relationships in your life? How so?
*Click here to take Relationships Australia’s social media and relationships survey.
FOR TWITS SAKE!
May 31st, 2011The ugly side of Social Media was exposed last week when National Rugby League team, the West Tigers, found themselves embroiled in a Twitter storm. The rumors involved two teammates Bryce Gibbs and Benji Marshall, who were allegedly involved in a scuffle during a routine training session.
Last Thursday was when all the alleged off field issues came to a head. It started with a report that Gibbs had knocked out star player Benji Marshall at Tigers training. It was alleged that one player’s wife was having an affair with another player.
Bryce Gibbs (Ball in hand) has been at the forefront of the Twitter scandal as well as Tigers captain Robbie Farah. (Behind Gibbs)
West Tigers coach Tim Sheens has publicly labeled the ongoing issue a “disgrace” also stating, “There was nothing we could do” referring to how quickly the rumours had spread.
During the press conference after Sunday’s loss to competition front-runners St George Illawarra, Tigers club captain, Robbie Farah, was quoted as saying “At first I had a chuckle about it, and then it got out of control.”
He then went on to say “But it didn’t affect us. If anything it brought us closer together”. What started as a bit of laugh soon turned into a nightmare for this usually tight knit club.
The club has since declared they will do all they can to put a stop to these fabricated rumours and have again insisted the club is in a “good place.”
As of early this morning, it is being reported in the Daily Telegraph that the wife at the centre of this drama has broken down in tears over the past week stemming from the alleged ‘affair’.
The fact that player’s families are involved have forced the Tigers hand. Wests Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys is still furious that a player’s family was involved. “This one crossed the line because it was about player’s partner and family,” Humphreys was quoted as saying.
He then goes on to say, “That’s why we felt compelled to say something when we normally might ignore it.”
Star playmaker Benji Marshall in action. Marshall was alleged to be in a scuffle with teammate Bryce Gibbs.
Rumors have always and will continue to be around Rugby League clubs, but the issue now is how quickly they can spread. The social media network is as powerful as ever and despite the NRL holding several workshops a year, they are basically powerless when it comes to controlling such events occurring.
It has been an interrupted season for the West Tigers, ongoing issues with injuries and contractual issues causing some angst amoungst the playing ranks. Things did not imprrove over the weekend most recent with winger Matt Utai suffering a double blow, scans revealing he has not only broken his left arm but also fractured his right hand. Adding to the injury woes are the ongoing contractual issues. Several contracted players have been given permission to speak to other clubs. This has apparently angered several players within the club.
Contract issues arise every year as clubs look to cut costs as they bring in new talent, but rarely do these rumors cause such a firestorm. It just so happened that this year it is the Tigers turn to feel the wrath of social media.
My Two Cents
@BryceGibbs, a player involved in this furor, is a prolific Tweeter and constantly interacts with fans and the general public alike. Kudos to him for not jumping off the Social bandwagon as he has continued to Tweet and help promote the game of Rugby League.
Do you think professional sporting clubs should ban the use of social media?
Athletes, Tweets and Co.
April 29th, 2011There has been no shortage of stories of athletes using Twitter and social media to further their ‘personal brand.
Not all stories are bad though. This is why I thought it would be interesting to focus on those athletes who use social media, in particular Twitter, as a way to interact with their fans.
Being a sport fanatic I find myself constantly conversing with several athletes, commentators and various sporting identities. The best thing is you don’t even have to be famous to interact with all your sporting heroes. The majority of them are happy and willing to converse, have a bit of fun as well as keep you up-to-date with what’s happening in their world, professionally and personally.
Whatever code you follow there are plenty of athletes/teams you can ‘follow’. Below is a list of athletes/teams I follow on Twitter along with a few others.
Rugby League
• Wendell Sailor – @RealBigDell
• Robbie Farah – @robbiefarah
• Nathan Hindmarsh – @NathanHiney
• Lote Tuqiri – @LoteTuqiri
• NRL – @NRL
• Sam Burgess – @SamBurgess8
• St.George Illawarra – @NRL_Dragons
• Newcastle Knights – @NRLKnights
• Mark Geyer – @markMGgeyer
• Scott Prince – @scottprince7
• Bryce Gibbs – @brycegibbss
AFL
• Essendon – @Essendon_FC
• Carlton FC – @Carlton_FC
• Brad Green – @BradGreen18
• Cameron Ling – @CameronLing
• AFL – @AFL
• Mitch Clarke – @MitchClark1
• Jackson Trengove – @JacksonTrengove
Football (Soccer)
• Nathan Burns – @nathanburns10
• Robert Cornthwaite – @RCornthwaite
• Scott Jamieson – @ScottJamieson
• Travis Dodd – @trav_dodd
• Harry Kewell – @HarryKewellOFCL
• Tim Cahill – @Tim_Cahill
• Wayne Rooney – @Wazzaroon08
Other sporting identities
• Michael Clarke – @MClarke23 (Australian Cricket Captain)
• Shane Warne – @warne888 (Cricketing legend)
• Craig Foster – @Craig_Foster (Football Identity)
• Cameron Williams – @camjwilliams (Television personality)
• Mark Bosnich – @TheRealBozza (Former footballer now television personality)
• Tiger Woods – @TigerWoods (Professional golfer)
• Andy Raymond – @Andy_Raymond (Television personality)
• Alyssa Healy – @ahealy77 (Australian cricketer)
• Australian National Women’s cricket team – @_SouthernStars
• Alex Blackwell – @AlexBlackwell2 (Australian cricketer)
• Benita Willis – @Benitawillis (Three time Australian Olympian)
• Susan Pratley – @susanswifts (NSW Swifts and Australian Diamonds Player)
• Libby Trickett – @libby_trickett (Australian swimmer)
So you can see, there are many sporting identities from all walks of life you can follow and interact with through Twitter.
Oh, before I forget you can also follow me @shanebrien
Who haven’t I mentioned that you think I should follow? Drop me a line in the comments box below.
Are you being watched?
March 29th, 2011Eye tracking is the process of measuring the point of gaze (“where users are looking”). The concepts underlying eye tracking are deceptively simple: track the movements of the user’s eyes and note what the pupils are doing while the user is looking at a particular feature on a screen. The most popular method of eye tracking uses video images from which the eye position is extracted.
Research studies have been and continue to be a key method for testing and optimizing website usability. Studies have shown it’s clear that users quickly learn to look where they expect to find content alternatively they also quickly learn to avoid areas where they don’t see—or expect—what they’re looking for, including banner ads and parts of the page outside the central area.
Some key results gained from various studies have shown;
Using eye tracking tools and research will help improve the effectiveness of your website. Sites such as http://eyetools.com/ offer advice and post research studies on real client cases.
Below are some key points when considering using eye tracking for your website.
Advantages-
Disadvantages-
In an ideal world eye tracking would be tested on every website. In reality, only some of the world’s biggest websites can afford to conduct regular eye tracking studies. For a smaller business I suggest using an inexpensive tool, such as mouse tracking. Ultimately, we all deserve to know what our visitors think of our websites, and if they understand them, for your benefit and theirs
What positive/negative experiences have you had with eye/mouse tracking? Do you plan to use eye/mouse tracking in the future for your website? Drop us a line in the comments box below.
A piece of the puzzle.
March 1st, 2011Just because your company has a profile or two on some of the popular social media networks doesn’t necessarily mean you’re social media push will reward you. The key is to maximize the management of your accounts and below I will outline how to go about this.
Different brands have different approaches to managing their presence in social spaces. Assigning responsibility of specific accounts to a single person or a group of people can be challenging but is essential step in the process. Depending on the brand and the tone required to communicate the brand will form part of the decision and will shape the future and direction through the social network.
To begin, you need to choose what platforms you’re targeting. There is no need to be everywhere at once so take time in determining which platform is right for you, build your community and gain some credibility. Without the right tools, effort and strategy, you could end up with a mess on your hands. I would suggest starting with the more popular platforms such as Facebook and or Twitter and then later on using other sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Delicious to enhance your marketing efforts.
Once the networks have been decided upon here are the steps I suggest you take to maximize full potential from your account(s):
• Clearly outline your approach; decide whether or not your account warrants more than one person managing it.
• Do your research (how big is your brand currently in social media?)
• Decide what your long-term objectives are for the accounts? What specifically are you looking to get out of your presence? How many people will it take to meet these objectives?
• And possibly most importantly of all, how much can you afford to outlay?
Having multiple people managing a brand’s social network accounts isn’t a negative option, for a large well-known brand it may be a necessity. Communicating with the community of what to expect when they engage with your accounts is vital. I suggest two key options when you have multiple people managing a single account.
The first option is to set out rules for each account manager that all contributors to the account speak as one and speak as the brand. The alternative direction is to allow each account manager to bring their own personal voice to the account, with communication between each account manager being vital; as long as the community knows whom they are talking to either option can take your each account in a different direction.
It’s important to decide whom the key decision maker will be as this will effect the voice of your brand and different brands require specific tones of voice. For example, if you want to be delivering customer service through Twitter, then someone from the customer service department needs to be involved. A friendly tone is essential as is having the ability to answer any issues that may arise and having a manager capable of devoting his/her time consistently will be a key factor.
As always, continually monitor and review your progress. If you are having huge successes on Facebook, but the level of engagement is being interrupted by only having one person managing the presence then it may be time to re-evaluate. And similarly, if you’ve put together a team of ten people to manage a Facebook page, but the growth hasn’t been quite what you anticipated, it might well be time to scale back. Flexibility, consistency in tone, and having a strategic direction will ultimately be the major focal point in the success of failure of this push into the social network.
Finally be prepared, design a content calendar with one week’s worth of material, two if possible, this will help with direction and give you something to work with as you get to know your community. Watch their tweets, comments and actively engage with them. Follow trending topics and engage that discussion. You can’t expect success if all your posts and tweets are simple advertisements. This will be seen as spamming and it will be flat-out ignored at best and could possibly deter followers and fans from linking the accounts at worst.
Once the brand begins to flourish look at tracking each account, measure engagement and your KPI’s for social media. You might want to measure total followers, monthly mentions, traffic from any one of these sources, but ultimately, you need to be able to measure how much new revenue is being generated from your hard-earned social media efforts to determine the long-term prospects of further progression.
So in summary the key points to a successful media campaign is preparation (strategy), consistency and execution. This can take some time so be patient and I’m sure by sticking with the outlined strategy you put in place and believing in what you are doing you will reap the benefits the social network can provide. The opportunities are endless.
Let us know of any strategies/campaigns you have set in place and the results in the comments box below.
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Legends of League Come Together
January 31st, 2011With an average age of 42 in both camps, you could have been forgiven if you thought last nights Qld Flood Relief Fundraiser #legendsofleague Rugby League match was going to be a friendly hit out to raise some much needed dosh for all those affected by the Qld flood tragedy. How wrong you were.
From the first bust – when Gorden Tallis produced a reminder of his rampaging dominant best to send Gary Belcher over the line for the opening try – it was clear the Maroons in particular had brought the passion and desire that has seen the present generation win the last five Origin Series.
The fierce NSW Vs Qld rivalry even brought out the passion of a former Australian cricket Andrew “Roy” Symonds who got into a push and shove with former Balmain great Benny Elias. With a call in the back ground from Mark Carroll, “if you’re going to hit him mate, make sure it hurts,” you knew this was no ordinary game.
Regular punter Tony Trim who paid $14,600 to be apart of this memorable experience at one stage even went nose to nose with Tallis in what will be a story to tell the grand kids.
The dream started a little over a week ago when Penrith great Mark Geyer announced he was putting this fundraiser together. With the help of Twitter he promoted the game, announced the teams and within minutes of the tickets going on sale all 20,000 were snapped up by footy lovers of all ages: some looking to bring back the memories of past Origin games, some seeing league legends stroll around the park for the very first time.
The end of the game saw Geyer hand over a cheque for $380,587 to Queensland Sports Minister Phil Reeves and the man once hated by Queensland faithful will forever be in their hearts.
Did you go to the match, if so let us know what you thought? Should this be an annual event?
Three things to know before entering social media in 2011
January 5th, 2011Social media can be a great tool to expand your business and reach a broader audience. With over 10 million users on Facebook and approximately 2.5 million on Twitter in Australia alone, taking those first tentative steps can be scary. Below are the first few things you need to do to get in the game.
1. Understanding social media: Before you put yourself (and your organistation) in the social mediasphere, you must first understand the different channels. Having a game plan will give you a starting point and direction. Knowing and understanding the channels you plan to use and listening to the conversation within those channels will give you a lot of what you require in order to develop a social media strategy for your organisation. Identifying how you will handle common support issues, what tone is appropriate for your organisation within the social media environment, how you will address negativity should it arise and how you will reward and encourage your fans/followers should all be part of this initial step.
2. Create content: Target specific areas related to your business. Joining specific networks will add stability while you build your brand and gain credibility. Creating interesting content to attract people will be a challenge but with innovative headlines, stories (personal experience stories are always a good start), and credible contributors from the targeted industry, the challenge can be met.
What is realistic and appropriate for your organisation? Are you able to create videos and slide presentation quickly and easily, or are blogs and podcasts more achievable? Remember to consider your budget and your resources.
Lists and polls are a popular tool to breed conversation and help drive topical and relevant conversation for your industry. Keeping your content current and updated is a key factor. The more up-to-date the information, the more likely conversation will be fuelled amongst your audience. Fresh information is also more likely to be shared with a broader audience.
3. Be ready to act and commit to responding: You want to listen, respond and engage. Listening in social media involves monitoring, reading and comprehending the conversations online. This will help you get a stronger grasp on what is happening within your industry.
Understanding the difference between positive and negative is usually an easy task but is vital and will give you a direction on your response. DO NOT run away from negative feedback. Try to understand the audience point of view and respond accordingly. Negative feedback can come from the audiences’ own bad experiences, factual errors or in the form of a ‘serial pest’ – this is someone who tends to comment on anything and everything with no real purpose in mind. Usually, these people get bored and move on pretty quickly and the broader audience will pay little, if any, attention to them at all.
Bad experiences and factual errors both need to be dealt with on merit and should eventually have a solution. Negative comments will seem a whole lot less meaningful if you have a plan to combat them before they happen. See where other companies have gone wrong and work out how you will do it better. Remember, as in offline communications, it’s ok to acknowledge the problem and get back with an answer when you’ve had time to find out what that might be.
Commit yourself (and your company) to constant engagement with your audience; this will help build credible relationships between you, and your targeted and potential audience. Continued, regular conversation will increase traffic and awareness amongst your audience.
Having a game plan and sticking to it will be beneficial for you and your organisation when entering the social media network. Understanding social media and what you want from it will give you purpose and direction and make the whole process seem less scary. Remember to have fun with social media and you will reap the rewards.
Let us know your experiences entering the social media world with your business in the comments below.
