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Social Media Marketing- Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show

The main theme I took away from the reading for this week was that celebrities have the power to become marketers. The instant they create any social media account they gain hundreds of thousands of followers in minutes. People want to follow their favorite actors or singers and hear what they have to say. That is a very big power that celebrities hold and this has been realized by the industry. Jimmy Fallon and his social media team at The Tonight Show have mastered the use of social media to promote the show. For one, they created a very popular Youtube account where they upload clips from the show of fun games Jimmy Fallon plays with his guests. These clips get circulated around, constantly getting tweeted and retweeted until people that do not normally watch the show are intrigued to watch. The Tonight Show’s Youtube account has 8,728,497 subscribers. 

The show is also on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, and Facebook. Although it may be on many sites, his staff controls each site very well. The Twitter account follows and engages with fans during live tweets every single week night. The Snapchat notifies fans of each night’s guests and where they can meet an intern on Thursday’s to win free tickets. They reveal a location where an intern is waiting and whoever meets the intern first wins two tickets to that night’s show. This information is only released on Snapchat, giving fans an incentive to follow the account. The Tumblr and Facebook accounts function in similar ways, posting videos from the show and behind-the-scenes extras. 

Jimmy Fallon himself also has a Twitter and an Instagram account which he controls himself and links to his show and the Tonight Show social media sites. Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show are excellent at Social Media Marketing and that is one major reason why his show is so popular among millennials who are constantly on social media. 

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China is known to maintain a strict censorship of internet and media usage in general throughout its country. It was no shock when an environmental documentary film titled Under the Dome was released in the country, it only took about a few days for the video to begin disappearing online. The documentary exposes how the Chinese government and big state-backed companies are driving deadly levels of air pollution. After conducting research behind the censorship surrounding the documentary, Matt Auer found a few patterns. For one, digital images surrounding citizens protesting the state’s role in pollution were taken down shortly after they were posted. Other posts that were removed quickly were ones that were ones of  “condemnatory nature that mentioned the state.” The government even removed posts that were “merely sarcastic and mildly critical” of the government. It is crazy how in control they are capable of controlling millions and millions of people’s presence on social media. The expanse of internet is so vast with people posting something new every second. However, the fact that they allowed this video to go forward in the first place is surprising and unlike the Chinese government. This opens up the possibility to reach Chinese individuals living in China through social media and start a conversation about environmentalism and climate change. 

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Clay Shirky is one of the most trusted and well-respected names in the Social Media discussion of the modern day. He is a writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. In my Intro to New Media class last semester we read his book Cognitive Surplus. One of the chapters that relates most to the readings for tomorrow’s class was the one centered on how social media creates communities that, in turn, create social change. An example he uses was the “Grobanites for Charity” organization that was created by hardcore fans of the singer Josh Groban. They were trying to figure out what they could possibly give the singer for his birthday that he did not already have. They decided to raise money for a cause that was near and dear to Josh Groban’s heart, The David Foster Foundation. They ended up raising $75,000 for the organization through the spread of word over various social media sites, mostly twitter. Josh Groban was so thankful that he began his own foundation, The Josh Groban Foundation,  for his fans to run and it continues to successfully raise money to this day. This is just one small example of how social media connects groups of people with similar interests and allows them to make a change or help a cause. 

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Journalism and Social Media have always gone hand in hand for me. I’ve had my twitter account since 2008 (I guess you can call me an OG tweeter). Ever since the creation of my account, I have been following various news organization’s twitter accounts. I receive most of my information through scrolling through my twitter timeline. I can always count on breaking news to be at the very top, reported by the various accounts I follow. Once the breaking news has been read, I continue scrolling through the more blogpost-type news articles. Buzzfeed has become huge and that is due mostly to the fact that it is a hybrid between Social Media and Journalism. Although it is trying to become a more sophisticated news source, it began with blog styled articles that are mostly targeted to millennials who have shorter attention spans and cannot get through long NYT articles. However, reading this article for class, I was not aware of how much work goes into verifying news produced by the audience such as tweets and pictures sent out through various news organization websites. This process proves that news analysts are just as important now as they were in the past. More and more news content is produced every day and analysts are needed now more than ever to sort through it all. One of the pictures I provided in this post is from Snapchat’s fairly new “Discover” feature which includes various news organizations that are trying to reach younger, active social media users. The first picture I included is from Apple’s new application called “News” which allows you to pick your favorite news sources and ultimately, the app learns your preferences and caters the news towards your interests. Social Media and Journalism, although a threatening combination at first, is a very opportunistic combination to both news organzations and the audience. Journalism will continue to be extremely important as long as it evolves and changes with the advancing times we live in. 

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Clay Shirky is fascinated with the power of groups in modern day society. Technological advancements have changed the definition of groups and their capabilities. From the opening story about the stolen cell phone to the countless examples of organizations and the effectiveness of hierarchal structures, Shirky clearly understand the implications of what technology means to organizations. The example he provided regarding Flickr illuminates the possibilities technology has brought to all citizens to become journalists and has shifted the entire Journalism field. The examples he provided took place in 2005, before Instagram and Twitter and all the other, newer social media platforms. With these platforms at everyone’s fingertips, the world is in constant connection and communication with each other, which is something truly amazing that we often take for granted. A major point that Shirky makes is that organizations are groups that are organized through a hierarchal structure. In the article I provided above, Jacob Morgan argues that the hierarchy is an outdated method of organization for businesses and is mostly used in organizations “where no brain power is required and where the people who work there are treated like expendable cog.” He explains how in modern day, corporations and organizations are looking for successful alternatives to the hierarchy in order to run more creative and communicative businesses.  

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After reading the first and second article for class, I was automatically reminded of a new Instagram blog that has become super popular as of recently. The name of the account is socalitybarbie. This Instagram account follows a Barbie (Yes, you read it right. A Barbie) on her fake adventures. The account is run by an anonymous person who isn't doing this to gain attention but rather to bring attention to this new phenomena of Instagram fame following the lives of people doing and posting the same pictures. Examples include posting pictures wearing pretty work out clothes and posing at the top of a mountain or arranging your coffee cup and magazine just right on your bed as you angle your pretty sock-clad feet around them. The creator of this account is showing that nothing seems to be real anymore, everything is staged to fit a particular blogs "brand" and she mocks this in a playful way. An article in Wired entitled "Hipster Barbie Is So Much Better at Instagram Than You" states, "Instagram has become an endless barrage of pensive selfies in exotic locales, artsy snapshots of coffee, and just the right filter on everything." The creator of the account finds that the homogeneity of the accounts garnering attention today demand satirization. Everything being posted today is definitely pretty to look at but it all seems so dishonest and the same.

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The selfie is a part of our modern culture whether we like it or not. Many look at it as an expression of vanity and negative attention seeking while others, including James Franco, find it to be a representation of who we are. It describes where we are, what we're doing, and how we choose to present ourselves. It is intimate and opens up a little bit about ourselves to our followers. I happen to agree with bits and pieces of both sides of the argument. A selfie here and there is harmless. I agree it adds a more personal flare to ones social media accounts. If I'm scrolling through a new follower's Instagram, I'll be more inclined to click on a selfie than a picture of their brunch. Too many selfies, however, is a big turn-off. That is when the vanity aspect of the argument kicks in. Five selfies in a row sets off an alarm that the person is searching for attention and likes pertaining to their appearance solely and that, to me, is neither attractive not positive. The selfie is fine. It is a personal expression on an intimate level. It is not the end of society as so many claim. It just needs to be contained to a certain limit. So with that, here is one selfie I've posted in the past. What does it say about me?

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#canyonofclouds #windowrambling #flying #planes #windows #clouds #pretend #makebelieve #keepthewonder

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#waltwhitman #bladeofgrass #leavesofgrass #grass #lawn #newyork #nyc #centralpark #cosmos #soulelectric #skyscrapers #buildings #trees #breeze #starfilled #journey #writing #writinglife #beard #windowwriting #windowramblings window wondering about Walt today. 🌱 (at Sheep’s Meadow)

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#windowramblings #windowwriting #windowwritings #writing #beach# beachlife #waves #surf #turf #capemay #lovecapemay #sand #ocean #water #blue 🌊 (at Ocean Club Hotel - Cape May, NJ)

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Kitten by milo.thoretton on Flickr.