Banyan Branch

By Orion Gousie, Influencer Relations

There’s talk the Seattle SuperSonics may be returning to Seattle, albeit in the form of another city’s basketball team. Relocation is what took the Sonics from the city in 2008, and it’s what could signal their return if the stars align in the next few months.

It’s an exciting time for many Seattle sports fans. But it’s also a polarizing subject, as many fans still feel the sting of losing the Sonics. Likewise, many Seattleites don’t feel the need to have a professional basketball team at all, believing civic responsibilities should lie elsewhere, like fixing a budget shortfall and alleviating the city’s preposterous traffic situation.

Conversation volume (i.e. the number of people talking about the Sonics on social media) has exploded by more than 5,000% since news broke just before Valentine’s Day that a wealthy Bay Area-hedge fund manager was stepping up to back a new arena proposal. The issue of an arena was the main reason the Sonics left town in 2008, with ownership claiming KeyArena was inadequate for pro sports.

Four Decades of History

The Sonics reigned in Seattle for 41 years, but for many the NBA died the day it left Seattle. Watching the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team that used to be the Sonics, is like watching an ex-girlfriend with her new man. The break-up wasn’t mutual, and it certainly wasn’t pretty. When Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett bought the team from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in 2006, he was prepared to walk out on four decades of history. And that’s exactly what he did.

Circumstances led former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to accept a $45 million settlement from Bennett in exchange for letting the Sonics leave. To get another NBA team in Seattle someday, Nickels knew the city would have to build a better arena—a long shot at best. The new plans to build an arena and bring the NBA (and possibly even the NHL) back to the Emerald City have energized Seattle sports fans.

Chris Hansen, the hedge fund manager and a lifelong Sonics fan, met with The Seattle Times on Feb. 15 to discuss his proposal. Then, on Feb. 16, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and King County Executive Dow Constantine held a press conference to publically announce the arena proposal for the first time. “On first look, this is an exciting proposal, and it could mean big things for our community,” McGinn said. “It could mean the Seattle SuperSonics play in Seattle again.”

Building Buzz for a New Arena

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In social media marketing, the term “going where your audience is” is often used when figuring out where brands should spend their time.

This infographic by Statista & MediaBistro on Visual.ly shows which sites have the attention of users now – and which don’t.

Interestingly, Pinterest is already seeing much more time on average than Twitter and LinkedIn. For marketers who aren’t taking Pinterest seriously just yet – now is definitely the time.

Here’s your weekly roundup of major news points from the social sphere:

• Twitter beefs up security & makes HTTPS its default for Twitter.com.

• Apple released OS x Mountain Lion this week.

• Mark Zuckerberg joins Pinterest!

• Twitter rolls out self-serve ads (to American Express users.)

• Klout acquires Blockboard to take its influence meters mobile.

• Could we finally see Facebook Timeline for brands?

• Facebook launched verified accounts this week.

• Google+ rolled out its “What’s Hot?” Volume Slider this week.

• YouTube updates its Annotations and adds more social features.

• LinkedIn blows past its revenue goals and analyst expectations.

• World leaders Nikolas Sarkozy and Mayor Bloomberg join social media, with Sarkozy tweeting and NY Government embracing Facebook.

• Take a look at some of the latest stats on Pinterest activity.

• Microsoft launches msnNOW with integrated Facebook data.

• We analyzed the Twitter buzz on Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood.

• Looking to ramp up your social media strategy this year? Check out our list of suggestions for balancing your social media diet, and Soshable’s reading list.

• Need to refresh your Twitter background? We’ve updated our handy guide to creating backgrounds for Twitter.com to reflect the new profile layout!

• We took a look at LinkedIn for brands in our latest “What’s the Hype?” post. Get your company page up to speed with these latest features.

Have a great weekend!

Written by Megan Fleming & Allison O’Connor with infographics by Adam Cornille.

There’s no denying the power of social media in social movements these days.

Take the controversy surrounding Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision last week (which leaked on January 31^st) to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving further funding.  As you probably saw, public outcry erupted almost immediately on all forms of social media. From online petitions and heated blog posts to emotional Facebook and Twitter messages, the number of mentions for both Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen Foundation skyrocketed. Within a matter of days Komen decided to overturn their ill-fated decision and multiple key figures at the foundation resigned.

Let’s take a look at the conversation breakdown:

Twitter mentions rose swiftly immediately after the news broke on the 31^st. Both Komen and Planned Parenthood saw a dramatic increase in twitter mentions, but Komen was the focus of most conversation, with a 62%/38% ratio between Komen/Planned Parenthood mentions.

Total conversation peaked on February 2^nd (159,999 tweets), when Komen announced their decision to overturn the controversial new policy, but continued to spike as news of high-profile resignations went public. Komen, which usually gets an average of 1,399 mentions per day on Twitter, saw a 32,731% increase (that’s an average of 457,301 mentions a day from January 31^st until February 7^th, when Karen Handel resigned).

The style of interaction on social channels also changed during the Komen/Planned Parenthood controversy. An average post on Susan G. Komen’s Facebook wall before the crisis usually saw an average of 52.4 likes and 17.5 comments (with an average of 1.7 likes on users’ comments). During the time between Komen’s decision and its reversal however, comments increased by 31,417% (5,515.4 per post), likes decreased by 99% (0.3 likes per comment) and likes on user comments increased by 288% (6.6 per comment).  These numbers have neutralized a little since the reversal was announced, but the average number of comments per post continues to be 23,176% higher than normal.

When Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced that they were reversing their original decision on February 3^rd, it was no secret that they did it in large part (if not solely) because of the outpouring of criticism and threats of funding withdrawal they were suddenly faced with. If the initial decision was a political move, as many are alleging, it failed horribly. Planned Parenthood came out of the controversy with more supporters than ever and at least enough new funding to offset the (temporary) loss of Komen’s support.

Regardless of where your opinion lies on the controversy itself, it’s hard to deny the integral role social media played in the whole process.  Can you imagine it playing out like this if we didn’t have platforms like Facebook and Twitter spreading the news in minutes?

Email marketing remains as one of the most commonly-used forms of communication for brands, despite the rise of social media. What’s the worth of combining them? Surely more than keeping them separate, but the stats from GetResponse give us some interesting insight.

While most email marketers include Facebook (links and icon) more than any other network, LinkedIn users are the most likely to click through email marketing content shared there. It’s interesting that only 18% of email marketers include sharing links in their content. Will that change with the ease of the +1 and Facebook like buttons?

Check out all the facts below:

 Infographic by GetResponse via AllFacebook

Here’s your weekly roundup of major news points from the social sphere:

• Facebook officially signed papers for an IPO, possibly coming in May. See reactions to Facebook’s IPO here. Can the social network keep growing?

• Pinterest is now on par with Twitter and Google for referral traffic.

• Facebook debuts a Timeline Movie Maker for its new profile layout.

• Twitter updated its policies on censorship in various countries. Founder Biz Stone explains how here.

• How many of your tweets are actually worth reading?

• Facebook‘s profile changes have boosted visits to its partner sites.

• Twitter rolls out branded pages to more companies, including NBC and Al Jazeera.

• President Obama hosted the first-ever presidential Google+ Hangout, fielding questions from YouTube, G+ and more.

• What did Seattleites tweet about during the snow & ice storm last month? KIRO TV included our snowpocalypse analysis here.

• Best Buy trades in celebrities for tech innovators from Instagram and Square for this year’s Super Bowl commercial.

• Which Super Bowl team is winning in social? ESPN breaks it down, with a little help from us!

• Bill Gates hosted a live webcast yesterday, fielding questions on the Gates Foundation’s latest efforts:

A Conversation with Bill Gates: Global Development Opportunities from The Gates Notes on Vimeo.

• While Apple gains in the smartphone market, Android still dominates.

• Microsoft lays off a part of its marketing staff in a restructuring of its marketing efforts.

• Google updates its privacy policy, and Microsoft takes the opportunity to show its advantages over the updates.

• YouTube looks at subscription-based services for its channels.

• Tumblr looks to hire writers and editors to talk about…Tumblr.

• Twitter and ExactTarget set up camp at the Super Bowl as a real-time hub for marketers during the big game.

• Looking to ramp up your social media strategy this year? Check out our list of suggestions for balancing your social media diet, and Soshable’s reading list.

• Need to refresh your Twitter background? We’ve updated our handy guide to creating backgrounds for Twitter.com to reflect the new profile layout!

• We took a look at LinkedIn for brands in our latest “What’s the Hype?” post. Get your company page up to speed with these latest features.

Have a great weekend!

Written by Derek Belt, senior content manager

The Super Bowl has long been an exciting part of our national identity, and thanks to social media the past few years have really kicked off a new level of fan interaction with the game.

Last year, the Super Bowl truly went social. From the more than 4 million tweets shared during the game to the advertisers who pre-released their multi-million dollar spots before the game on YouTube and Facebook, 2011 ushered in a new era of Super Bowl marketing. And we, the fans, are better off because of it.

What’s in store for this year’s game? To fully understand what the 2012 Super Bowl has to offer, let’s take a quick look back at what took place last year. Then, we’ll explore just how fans can get the most out of Super Bowl XLVI, featuring the New England Patriots and New York Giants.

Year in Review—Twitter Gives Ads a Boost

Online conversation surrounding the 2011 Super Bowl was up 9% over the previous year, which isn’t a surprise considering how vocal football fans are. This group is one of the most active on social networks—see the record-setting tweets about Tim Tebow (9,420 tweets per second) and the fact that in 2011 the Green Bay Packers’ win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV was the second most-popular Facebook status update in the world behind the death of Osama bin Laden.

The 2011 game saw more than 4.5 million total tweets and roughly 4,000 tweets per second at its peak, as many viewers took to their mobile devices to talk extensively about the commercials, Christina Aguilera’s botched rendition of the national anthem, the wild halftime performance by the Black Eyed Peas, and, of course, the football game itself.

Best Buy, Doritos and Paramount’s teaser for Transformers 3 all garnered nearly 50,000 mentions on Twitter in the six-hour period surrounding the game, while Pepsi Max got the greatest lift from its spot and boosted its social media shares by 3,000%. Many of these brands released their marketing spots before the game even started, building significant buzz in advance of the big day.

Social Media Warms Up the Crowd

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Written by Katy Balatero, research analyst, with infographics by Adam Cornille.

Two weeks ago on January 18th, Seattle suffered a blizzard of epic proportions received 4-7 inches of snow, followed by a day of freezing rain that paralyzed the city.

In Seattle we love our coffee strong, our beer bitter, our indie rock bands bearded — and we absolutely love to talk about snow on the rare occasion that it occurs. I took a look at over 10,000 tweets about snow in Seattle from January 11-January 22, 2011, to see what the buzz was all about.

Not surprisingly for a hilly city that becomes treacherous with only a couple of inches of snow and ice, transportation was a major topic of conversation. Out of total tweets about driving a car, bussing, biking, or walking, driving a car was by far the most popular topic, boosted partly by Twitter users who were angry at an LA Times article that criticized “wimpy” Seattle drivers. A few intrepid Seattleites shared information about making DIY studded snow tires … for bikes!

*Percentages are out of total tweets mentioning driving, bussing, biking, or walking

People playing hookey from work or school took to the outdoors en masse; “snow day” was mentioned in 3% of total tweets. Here at Banyan Branch we worked from wherever we could find an Internet connection – social media continues despite acts of weather, of course – with occasional breaks to play in the snow. Below are graphs showing snow sports and other popular snow activities ranked by volume of tweets, with sledding and building snowmen/women getting the most attention.

*Percentages are out of total tweets mentioning these sports.

*Percentages are out of total tweets mentioning these activities.

Seattle is a collection of neighborhoods, each with distinct characteristics. I was curious which ‘hoods were tweeted about the most during the snowy week.

*Percentages are out of total tweets mentioning these neighborhoods.

Popular sledding neighborhood Capitol Hill was mentioned in twice as many tweets as Queen Anne Hill – both are home to some of the steepest sections of street in Seattle. Creative sledders grabbed whatever they could find, from pieces of cardboard boxes to kayaks, sofas, and even wheelchairs.

After a long day of braving the elements, what could be better than finding somewhere warm and cozy and drinking a tasty beverage? Below were the most popular beverages in Twitter discussion:

*Percentages are out of total tweets mentioning these beverages.

Perhaps not surprisingly, coffee was the drink of choice. As Twitter user @NickGravelyn put it:

Here’s your weekly roundup of major news points from the social sphere:

• President Obama adds Google+ Hangouts and Quora to his social media mix, taking questions on both platforms for his State of the Union address earlier this week.

• Could we see the Facebook IPO next week? Maybe!

• Facebook Timeline finally rolls out to all users. Need help figuring out the different features? Check out our guide.

• ExactTarget does away with CoTweet and replaces it with SocialEngage.

• Facebook and our home state, Washington, sue an alleged “Click-jacker“

• SoundCloud reaches over 10 million registered users.

• Research in Motion (RIM) replaced its co-CEOs this week.

• Vimeo shifts its focus on sharing content in its redesign.

• Over 100,000 visitors came to Reddit on Monday, setting a new record for the site.

• FormSpring comes to Android phones.

• Twitter translation comes to right-to-left languages.

• Apple announces an astounding $46 billion quarter.

• How exactly has Google profiled you? Check it out in your Ads Preferences.

• Google launched a new privacy policy this week. What’s changed?

• Looking to ramp up your social media strategy this year? Check out our list of suggestions for balancing your social media diet, and Soshable’s reading list.

• Need to refresh your Twitter background? We’ve updated our handy guide to creating backgrounds for Twitter.com to reflect the new profile layout!

• We took a look at LinkedIn for brands in our latest “What’s the Hype?” post. Get your company page up to speed with these latest features.

Have a great weekend!

We’re delighted to be a partner in the Seattle Metro Chamber’s IN-NW 2012 conference! Seattle may be known as a hotbed for coffee, tech and retailers like Nordstrom and Costco, but the region is also home to a strong community moving the needle in social media.

The Seattle Metro Chamber and 206Inc have created IN-NW 2012, a not-so-traditional conference, taking place on Wednesday, February 15th from 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. at Showbox SoDo.

IN-NW 2012 will take a look at exactly what’s happening in the world of social engagement today, and what will help influence what will be in the future. IN-NW 2012 will:

INSPIRE creativity and thought leadership
INFORM participants with best practices
INSTIGATE action throughout everyone’s respective online communities

People are talking, tweeting, posting, pinning and tumblr-ing about what’s happening right now – let’s look towards what will be next.

For full details, current speaker lineup and registration, visit the Seattle Metro Chamber event page.

Follow IN-NW on Facebook and Twitter.

See you there!