The End of TV
by Martha Randolph Carr
There’s a cultural shift taking place that may mean the end to another icon, the television set, that we thought was here to stay. First, it was the newspapers that lost a large part of their circulation as more and more people got their news from their laptops and phones
Now, the television industry, which in this case means the cable industry is seeing the same trend unfold right before their eyes and may not be able to stop the exit, either.
More Americans are spending less time with their television every year according to several new studies. We’ve replaced the TV set with a computer.
There were 800,000 fewer Americans watching a TV at all by the end of 2009, according to the Convergence Consulting Group, www.convergenceonline.com, and that number is expected to double to 1.6 million fewer TV viewers by the end of 2011. That’s a small percentage of the entire viewing audience but already 17 percent of all viewers, both traditional and computer-only, are watching some episodes of their favorite shows like Gossip Girl, Third Rock or the cooking show, Aarti’s Party on their computer. That last one is my favorite.
Most networks delay the airing of an episode for at least a day after the original broadcast on television-only but apparently more and more viewers don’t see that as a problem and are willing to wait. Several factors could be the economy and not wanting to pay an extra bill to a cable company, a lot fewer ads when the show is viewed online or being able to watch the show when it’s convenient.
The fact that the reasons to permanently switch are starting to pile up is another bellwether of a new TV-less age.
The marketing research company, Morpace, www.morpace.com found in a July survey that 52 percent of Americans are watching video of some kind on their computer or phone, rather than on their TV. The evolution of phones has even resulted in 17 percent of those viewers using their phone rather than a laptop to watch a program or a movie. If that keeps up there could be even fewer cable customers as Americans opt to access the internet over their phone, saving even more money, than on their computers.
A new twist may also be regular programming offered on Facebook, according to Morpace. A survey in May noted that not only is one in every three hours on the internet spent at the Facebook site, but among 18 to 34 year olds it was a whopping 38 percent. Also, those with an income of $100,000 or greater spent 39 percent of their internet time exclusively at Facebook.
Advertisers, who are spending less and less on TV ads, will go where the faces with expendable income are sitting still for a few hours. If Facebook starts to offer free episodic or movie content with a few ads sprinkled in then Americans will start to click and watch in greater numbers.
We’ve already shown that we love convenience and cheap stuff. It’s why we have a plethora of drive-up windows to get married, bank or buy dinner, food that needs to be fast that we didn’t make and giant Wal-Mart’s that have yellow happy face stickers announcing even they rolled back their prices.
The trend toward the internet for our viewing entertainment is good news for actors, producers and even writers, for once, because there isn’t the expense of setting up a channel or the limit on the number of web sites, which means more content. There are already episodic shows, called webisodes that air only on the internet and have devoted large audiences.
But this could forecast a change in the way on-air news is packaged. Just like newspapers, which offered a wide variety of topics, only to watch readers run to the internet where they could find content packaged specifically for their interests, traditional on-air news shows may find that viewers are tuning them out in favor of internet news shows that exclude topics they don’t like, such as politics or crime or even how-to segments.
It could become more difficult to reach a diverse audience in large numbers with new ideas that are more niche or dispense information we could use but would rather not hear, like weight loss or saving money. However, if it means that we can avoid political ads altogether then it might just be worth it. More adventures to follow.
Martha’s latest book is the memoir, A Place to Call Home. www.MarthaRandolphCarr.com. ©2010 Martha Randolph Carr. Martha’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate. Her column is licensed to run on TMV in full.
Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank, helps non-profits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus on making an impact and achieving their missions. Find Frank on Twitter @franswaa.
Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media. A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace Inc. 500 businesses and higher education institutions in their familiarity, use and monitoring of social media.
In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social good.
But what about the little guys? The social web can give smaller players a big voice if they know how to leverage it. Here are three inspiring success stories of small non-profits who met or exceeded their goals with the help of social media.
1. Create a Video, Start a Movement
Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project will inspire you. Suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Darius and 11 of his best friends decided to head out on a cross country road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where Darius hoped to have his wheelchair spiffed up by MTV’s Pimp my Ride. Though his wheelchair did not get pimped by MTV on that trip, there was a far better outcome that even Darius couldn’t have imagined.
The 25-day trip resulted in memories, experiences and 300 hours of video which were turned into a documentary that has impacted thousands of people around the world. That very same documentary has now raised over $2 million for DMD research.
According to the Darius Goes West team, “We had offers from distributors, but, in the end, we decided to self-distribute our film. By opting to self-distribute, we bear the responsibility for marketing, but we also have the power to devote $8 of every DVD sale to promising DMD research.”
It’s apparent that social media has played and continues to play a significant roll in helping to raise both awareness and money for DMD research through Darius and his friends. Here’s a snap shot of their social media footprint:
They’ve accrued close to 700,000 views on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, collected more than 14,000 Facebook fans, obtained roughly 2,000 Twitter followers, and raised almost $45,000 through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.
2. Empower Your Supporters to be Free Agent Fundraisers
Well known cycling blogger Elden Nelson did something incredible a few months ago — he raise more than $135,000 in less than 10 days for LIVESTRONG and World Bicycle Relief using his blog, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Friends Asking Friends.
It all started when Nelson sent Lance Armstrong’s racing team manager, Johan Bruyneel, an open cover letter as if he were applying for a job.
Nelson, who dreamed of becoming a pro cyclist, reached out to Bruyneel, with low expectations on its return. But through the power of social media, Bruyneel did see it, and he challenged Nelson via Twitter and his blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog to raise $50,000 for LIVESTRONG and $50,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Nelson took on that challenge and completed it in less than two days.
Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his network using social media, this wouldn’t have been possible in such a shot amount of time. Nelson tweeted numerous times as the story unfolded, as did Bruyneel, @livestrong, @livestrongceo and @lancearmstrong. Those three accounts combined have over 3.5 million Twitter followers. Add to that the numerous blog posts, Facebook status updates and YouTube videos, and you get a social media-fueled fundraising phenomenon like we’ve never seen.
3. Raise Funds by Creating a “Heartspace”
Mothers Day 2010 brought about quite a few online fundraising initiatives, but none were more impressive than the To Mama with Love campaign created by the passionate folks at Epic Change and a host of great volunteers. The goal was simple — raise money to support Mama Lucy in her efforts to educate children in Tanzania.
Mama Lucy is a change agent who saved her own income and used it to start a primary school in Tanzania, believing that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. Over the last six years, Mama Lucy has grown the school from one classroom with fewer than 10 students, to a school that now serves more than 300 children at eight grade levels.
The initiative was simple but powerful. Supporters were encouraged honor their own mothers by making a donation and then creating a virtual scrapbook or “heartspace” on the site, including photos, videos, notes, and artwork. They could then share their “heartspace” with their mother, friends and family via Twitter and Facebook, or via a customized e-card.
Using social media as the primary communication and engagement mechanism, Epic Change was able to raise close to $17,000 and provide a safe home for 17 children in Tanzania, while also encouraging more than 300 mothers along the way. They did all of this in about a week’s time with a staff of two.
So you see, social media has truly enabled non-profits both large and small to reach out and make some real change. Tell us about the social cause campaigns you’ve donated to in the past in the comments below.
More Social Good Resources from Mashable:
- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network/> - 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good/> - 10 Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online/> - How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy/> - 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty
Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson
For more Social Good coverage:
class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad
At long last, we've got some honest-to-goodness competitive NHL hockey to look forward to this week as the 2010-11 season opens Thursday evening.
Robert Edwards receives prize for work that led to 4 million births.
Microsoft has officially announced the promotion of Don Mattrick to president of the Interactive Entertainment division,...
eric seiger eric seiger The End of TV
by Martha Randolph Carr
There’s a cultural shift taking place that may mean the end to another icon, the television set, that we thought was here to stay. First, it was the newspapers that lost a large part of their circulation as more and more people got their news from their laptops and phones
Now, the television industry, which in this case means the cable industry is seeing the same trend unfold right before their eyes and may not be able to stop the exit, either.
More Americans are spending less time with their television every year according to several new studies. We’ve replaced the TV set with a computer.
There were 800,000 fewer Americans watching a TV at all by the end of 2009, according to the Convergence Consulting Group, www.convergenceonline.com, and that number is expected to double to 1.6 million fewer TV viewers by the end of 2011. That’s a small percentage of the entire viewing audience but already 17 percent of all viewers, both traditional and computer-only, are watching some episodes of their favorite shows like Gossip Girl, Third Rock or the cooking show, Aarti’s Party on their computer. That last one is my favorite.
Most networks delay the airing of an episode for at least a day after the original broadcast on television-only but apparently more and more viewers don’t see that as a problem and are willing to wait. Several factors could be the economy and not wanting to pay an extra bill to a cable company, a lot fewer ads when the show is viewed online or being able to watch the show when it’s convenient.
The fact that the reasons to permanently switch are starting to pile up is another bellwether of a new TV-less age.
The marketing research company, Morpace, www.morpace.com found in a July survey that 52 percent of Americans are watching video of some kind on their computer or phone, rather than on their TV. The evolution of phones has even resulted in 17 percent of those viewers using their phone rather than a laptop to watch a program or a movie. If that keeps up there could be even fewer cable customers as Americans opt to access the internet over their phone, saving even more money, than on their computers.
A new twist may also be regular programming offered on Facebook, according to Morpace. A survey in May noted that not only is one in every three hours on the internet spent at the Facebook site, but among 18 to 34 year olds it was a whopping 38 percent. Also, those with an income of $100,000 or greater spent 39 percent of their internet time exclusively at Facebook.
Advertisers, who are spending less and less on TV ads, will go where the faces with expendable income are sitting still for a few hours. If Facebook starts to offer free episodic or movie content with a few ads sprinkled in then Americans will start to click and watch in greater numbers.
We’ve already shown that we love convenience and cheap stuff. It’s why we have a plethora of drive-up windows to get married, bank or buy dinner, food that needs to be fast that we didn’t make and giant Wal-Mart’s that have yellow happy face stickers announcing even they rolled back their prices.
The trend toward the internet for our viewing entertainment is good news for actors, producers and even writers, for once, because there isn’t the expense of setting up a channel or the limit on the number of web sites, which means more content. There are already episodic shows, called webisodes that air only on the internet and have devoted large audiences.
But this could forecast a change in the way on-air news is packaged. Just like newspapers, which offered a wide variety of topics, only to watch readers run to the internet where they could find content packaged specifically for their interests, traditional on-air news shows may find that viewers are tuning them out in favor of internet news shows that exclude topics they don’t like, such as politics or crime or even how-to segments.
It could become more difficult to reach a diverse audience in large numbers with new ideas that are more niche or dispense information we could use but would rather not hear, like weight loss or saving money. However, if it means that we can avoid political ads altogether then it might just be worth it. More adventures to follow.
Martha’s latest book is the memoir, A Place to Call Home. www.MarthaRandolphCarr.com. ©2010 Martha Randolph Carr. Martha’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate. Her column is licensed to run on TMV in full.
Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank, helps non-profits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus on making an impact and achieving their missions. Find Frank on Twitter @franswaa.
Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media. A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace Inc. 500 businesses and higher education institutions in their familiarity, use and monitoring of social media.
In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social good.
But what about the little guys? The social web can give smaller players a big voice if they know how to leverage it. Here are three inspiring success stories of small non-profits who met or exceeded their goals with the help of social media.
1. Create a Video, Start a Movement
Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project will inspire you. Suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Darius and 11 of his best friends decided to head out on a cross country road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where Darius hoped to have his wheelchair spiffed up by MTV’s Pimp my Ride. Though his wheelchair did not get pimped by MTV on that trip, there was a far better outcome that even Darius couldn’t have imagined.
The 25-day trip resulted in memories, experiences and 300 hours of video which were turned into a documentary that has impacted thousands of people around the world. That very same documentary has now raised over $2 million for DMD research.
According to the Darius Goes West team, “We had offers from distributors, but, in the end, we decided to self-distribute our film. By opting to self-distribute, we bear the responsibility for marketing, but we also have the power to devote $8 of every DVD sale to promising DMD research.”
It’s apparent that social media has played and continues to play a significant roll in helping to raise both awareness and money for DMD research through Darius and his friends. Here’s a snap shot of their social media footprint:
They’ve accrued close to 700,000 views on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, collected more than 14,000 Facebook fans, obtained roughly 2,000 Twitter followers, and raised almost $45,000 through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.
2. Empower Your Supporters to be Free Agent Fundraisers
Well known cycling blogger Elden Nelson did something incredible a few months ago — he raise more than $135,000 in less than 10 days for LIVESTRONG and World Bicycle Relief using his blog, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Friends Asking Friends.
It all started when Nelson sent Lance Armstrong’s racing team manager, Johan Bruyneel, an open cover letter as if he were applying for a job.
Nelson, who dreamed of becoming a pro cyclist, reached out to Bruyneel, with low expectations on its return. But through the power of social media, Bruyneel did see it, and he challenged Nelson via Twitter and his blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog to raise $50,000 for LIVESTRONG and $50,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Nelson took on that challenge and completed it in less than two days.
Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his network using social media, this wouldn’t have been possible in such a shot amount of time. Nelson tweeted numerous times as the story unfolded, as did Bruyneel, @livestrong, @livestrongceo and @lancearmstrong. Those three accounts combined have over 3.5 million Twitter followers. Add to that the numerous blog posts, Facebook status updates and YouTube videos, and you get a social media-fueled fundraising phenomenon like we’ve never seen.
3. Raise Funds by Creating a “Heartspace”
Mothers Day 2010 brought about quite a few online fundraising initiatives, but none were more impressive than the To Mama with Love campaign created by the passionate folks at Epic Change and a host of great volunteers. The goal was simple — raise money to support Mama Lucy in her efforts to educate children in Tanzania.
Mama Lucy is a change agent who saved her own income and used it to start a primary school in Tanzania, believing that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. Over the last six years, Mama Lucy has grown the school from one classroom with fewer than 10 students, to a school that now serves more than 300 children at eight grade levels.
The initiative was simple but powerful. Supporters were encouraged honor their own mothers by making a donation and then creating a virtual scrapbook or “heartspace” on the site, including photos, videos, notes, and artwork. They could then share their “heartspace” with their mother, friends and family via Twitter and Facebook, or via a customized e-card.
Using social media as the primary communication and engagement mechanism, Epic Change was able to raise close to $17,000 and provide a safe home for 17 children in Tanzania, while also encouraging more than 300 mothers along the way. They did all of this in about a week’s time with a staff of two.
So you see, social media has truly enabled non-profits both large and small to reach out and make some real change. Tell us about the social cause campaigns you’ve donated to in the past in the comments below.
More Social Good Resources from Mashable:
- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network/> - 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good/> - 10 Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online/> - How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy/> - 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty
Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson
For more Social Good coverage:
class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad
At long last, we've got some honest-to-goodness competitive NHL hockey to look forward to this week as the 2010-11 season opens Thursday evening.
Robert Edwards receives prize for work that led to 4 million births.
Microsoft has officially announced the promotion of Don Mattrick to president of the Interactive Entertainment division,...
eric seiger eric seiger
