Facebook usage statistics - March 2010 (with 12 month increase figures)

I have been publishing Facebook usage statistics by quarter for a while now. Total number of Facebook users has now passed 400m and it still seems to be growing almost everywhere. The table below shows the top 30 countries by number of active Facebook users (leave a comment if you want to know statistics for other countries.)

New - 31st Dec 2011 Facebook usage statistics by country click here

Here are the Top 30 countries with highest number of Facebook users (31st March 2010 - data from Facebook):

Rank	Country	Number of Facebook users March 2009	Number of Facebook users 31st March 2010	12 month growth %
1	USA	56,796,060	114,190,780	101%
2	UK	17,866,140	24,378,040	36.5%
3	Indonesia	2,325,840	20,775,320	793%
4	Turkey	9,759,780	20,538,740	110%
5	France	8,946,140	17,317,460	93.6%
6	Italy	8,260,300	15,486,480	87.5%
7	Canada	11,597,420	13,952,740	20.3%
8	Philippines	1,026,300	11,561,740	1027%
9	Spain	4,228,220	9,292,380	120%
10	Mexico	2,142,080	9,208,560	330%
11	Columbia	4,838,760	8,681,500	79.4%
12	Argentina	3,406,520	8,580,180	152%
13	Germany	1,955,240	8,454,240	332%
14	Australia	5,327,260	7,922,140	48.7%
15	India	1,561,000	7,809,800	400%
16	Chile	4,397,300	6,273,000	42.7%
17	Taiwan	205,500	6,107,100	2872%
18	Venezuela	2,658,140	5,765,240	117%
19	Malaysia	1,197,560	5,552,660	364%
20	Brazil	395,940	3,602,100	810%
21	Sweden	2,052,080	3,422,680	67%
22	Belgium	2,125,600	3,239,980	52.4%
23	Thailand	284,340	2,895,320	918%
24	Hong Kong	1,686,020	2,865,700	70%
25	Egypt	1,252,100	2,816,480	125%
26	Greece	1,306,600	2,611,420	100%
27	Israel	1,030,200	2,608,420	153.2%
28	South Africa	1,385,340	2,485,960	79.5%
29	Czech Rep	444,120	2,421,720	446%
30	Denmark	2,028,760	2,341,900	15.4%

[*figures are taken from Facebook and then compared to Facebook usage statistics lists that I have previously compiled (allowing the 12 month comparisons.)]

As always, if you want to know the latest Facebook usage statistics for another country, leave a comment in the post below and I will post the relevant Facebook user statistics data.

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The Age Of Conversation 3 (#aoc3) - 300+ authors, one book

The third installment of The Age Of Conversation is now complete and is based on the work of over 300 authors including me!



"Following on the success of the first two editions, Age of Conversation III: It’s Time to Get Busy! again kick-starts the discussion about how the global marketing landscape is changing. With over 300 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators contributing chapters, this collaborative work investigates the roles that community, conversation, experimentation, engagement, and collaboration play in shaping the 21st century’s economy of ideas. As businesses, public and private organizations, and individuals realize that there’s much more to social media and its impacts than first meets the eye, Age of Conversation III shows which platforms, tools, and approaches truly work."

The book is broken into a number of sections:

* At the coalface
* Conversational branding
* Influence
* Getting to work
* Corporate conversations
* Measurement
* In the boardroom
* Pitching social media
* Innovation and execution
* Identities, friends and trusted strangers

This third book in the Age of Conversation series is crowdsourced, bringing together hundreds of authors from across the world. The diverse perspectives and innovative approaches reflects the global, changing nature of business today. All profits from the sale of the book are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Congratulations to Gavin Heaton and Drew McClellan for pulling everything together. Check out the authors and their blogs from the list below and buy the book here!

Age Of Conversation 3 - author list (with links):

Adam Joseph
Priyanka Sachar
Mark Earls
Cory Coley-Christakos
Stefan Erschwendner
Paul Hebert
Jeff De Cagna
Thomas Clifford
Phil Gerbyshak
Jon Burg
Toby Bloomberg
Shambhu Neil Vineberg
Joseph Jaffe
Uwe Hook
Steve Roesler
Michael E. Rubin
anibal casso
Steve Woodruff
Steve Sponder
Becky Carroll
Tim Tyler
Chris Wilson
Beth Harte
Tinu Abayomi-Paul
Dan Schawbel
Carol Bodensteiner
Trey Pennington
David Weinfeld
Dan Sitter
Vanessa DiMauro
Ed Brenegar
David Zinger
Brett T. T. Macfarlane
Efrain Mendicuti
Deb Brown
Brian Reich
Gaurav Mishra
Dennis Deery
C.B. Whittemore
Gordon Whitehead
Heather Rast
Cam Beck
Hajj E. Flemings
Joan Endicott
Cathryn Hrudicka
Jeroen Verkroost
Karen D. Swim
Christopher Morris
Joe Pulizzi
Leah Otto
Corentin Monot
Karalee Evans
Leigh Durst
David Berkowitz
Kevin Jessop
Lesley Lambert
Duane Brown
Peter Korchnak
Mark Price
Dustin Jacobsen
Piet Wulleman
Mike Maddaloni
Ernie Mosteller
Scott Townsend
Nick Burcher
Frank Stiefler
Steve Olenski
Rich Nadworny
John Rosen
Tim Jackson
Suzanne Hull
Len Kendall
Amber Naslund
Wayne Buckhanan
Mark McGuinness
Caroline Melberg
Andy Drish
Oleksandr Skorokhod
Claire Grinton
Angela Maiers
Paul Williams
Gary Cohen
Armando Alves
Sam Ismail
Gautam Ramdurai
B.J. Smith
Tamera Kremer
Eaon Pritchard
Brendan Tripp
Adelino de Almeida
Jacob Morgan
Casey Hibbard
Andy Hunter
Julian Cole
Debra Helwig
Anjali Ramachandran
Jye Smith
Drew McLellan
Craig Wilson
Karin Hermans
Emily Reed
David Petherick
Katie Harris
Gavin Heaton
Dennis Price
Mark Levy
George Jenkins
Doug Mitchell
Mark W. Schaefer
Helge Tenno
Douglas Hanna
Marshall Sponder
James Stevens
Ian Lurie
Ryan Hanser
Jenny Meade
Jeff Larche
Sacha Tueni and Katherine Maher
David Svet
Jessica Hagy
Simon Payn
Joanne Austin-Olsen
Mark Avnet
Stanley Johnson
Marilyn Pratt
Mark Hancock
Steve Kellogg
Michelle Beckham-Corbin
Michelle Chmielewski
Amy Mengel
Veronique Rabuteau
Peter Komendowski
Andrea Vascellari
Timothy L Johnson
Phil Osborne
Beth Wampler
Amy Jussel
Rick Liebling
Eric Brody
Arun Rajagopal
Dr Letitia Wright
Hugh de Winton
David Koopmans
Aki Spicer
Jeff Wallace
Don Frederiksen
Charles Sipe
Katie McIntyre
James G Lindberg & Sandra Renshaw
David Reich
Lynae Johnson
Jasmin Tragas
Deborah Chaddock Brown
Mike O'Toole
Jeanne Dininni
Iqbal Mohammed
Morriss M. Partee
Katie Chatfield
Jeff Cutler
Pete Jones
Riku Vassinen
Jeff Garrison
Kevin Dugan
Tiphereth Gloria
Mike Sansone
Lori Magno
Valerie Simon
Nettie Hartsock
Mark Goren
Peter Salvitti

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Earth Hour 2010 - lights off tonight #earthhour

Tonight is Earth Hour night. People, businesses and iconic buildings all around the world are switching off their lights for an hour at 8.30pm local time to draw attention to the environment and climate change.

Last year saw hundreds of millions of people across 3,000 cities and towns in 83 countries participate and the hope is that this year's event can be even bigger.


Earth Hour is organised by the WWF and they have produced a number of resources to help people get involved:

- sign-up to the Earth Hour campaign here: https://support.wwf.org.uk/earth_hour/index.php?type=individual&pc=

- visit the Earth Hour YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/earthhour

- get an Earth Hour blog widget here: http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/get_involved/take_part/resources22/website_lightswitch/

- for other ways to get involved in Earth Hour see the link here: http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/get_involved/take_part

The WWF are also encouraging people to tweet about their Earth Hour experience using the hashtag #earthhour as well as uploading photos and videos to other social channels.

Exciting to see if the Earth Hour event can be even bigger than last year!

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Grazia Augmented Reality - is 3D / interactive the future for magazines?

This week's UK edition of Grazia is an 'amazing 3D issue.' Augmented reality has been used at various points in the magazine and readers can make 'cover girl Florence Welch sing, dance and spin around.' Furthermore readers can 'interact' with Grazia's fashion editors, view the items on this week's 'fashion charts from every angle' and watch a makeup 'video masterclass.'

Grazia Augmented Reality cover

Grazia readers access this content by holding the relevant pages up to a webcam. Once the webcam sees the black and white symbol on the page, the onscreen image is then augmented with the 3D Augmented Reality content. (Alternatively downloading the Grazia iPhone app will allow the iPhone's camera to interpret the Augmented Reality content.)

Grazia Augmented Reality fashion charts

Grazia Augmented Reality Florence Welch spread

Clearly a lot of time and effort has gone into producing this issue (the Grazia editor talks of months of planning) and whilst this is slickly executed and has novelty appeal it definitely adds something to the issue - see for yourself at www.graziadaily.co.uk/3d. So is this a future direction for print / magazines?

In the short term I think it is difficult to envisage Augmented Reality print executions delivering reach. It takes effort, AR is still slightly cumbersome (printing off a symbol or holding a magazine up to a webcam) and webcams are still not great (eg our built in Compaq webcam shows everything upside down.)

However, I think the idea of turning a magazine / printed publication from the traditional self-contained product into a multi-dimensional platform is interesting. Print becomes the jumping off point for further exploration. Each page can be brought to life through digital interactivity, effectively Augmented Reality can enable each page to 'host' a multi-media content experience.

It's not a big leap to think of printed TV listings having embedded codes that show you a trailer on your computer / phone, recipe sections that use AR video to show you how to make things or the editor 'speaking' to you from the page.

We are also seeing advertisers exploring the possibilities of AR embedded in ad executions. Mini ran AR in Germany on their Cabrio ads and Calvin Klein have just launched an AR ad in this month's GQ (another Conde Nast title):

Calvin Klein Augmented Reality ad in GQ

I'm still not sure that Augmented Reality could really be described as mainstream, but it has come a long way in a short space of time and could offer some really interesting possibilities if it continues to be integrated into traditional areas like print. The new magazine formating being developed for iPad and E-readers also presents some interesting opportunities.

Nice work Conde Nast!

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3D mobile Augmented Reality and touchable holography

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#cashgordon, UK election + social media = still not Barack Obama

Gordon Brown and the Labour Party have close ties with the Unite trade union. Unite have donated heavily to the Labour Party in recent years, (many) Labour MPs are Unite members, Unite political director Charlie Whelan is a close ally of Gordon Brown, whilst Unite are behind the current British Airways cabin crew strike. In the run up to an election it should surely be easy for the Conservatives to make political capital from this (?)

Social media could be used to highlight the links between Gordon / Labour and the unions. A Twitter hashtag like #cashgordon and an integrated Facebook campaign could work really well - and aggregating all the tweets into an official campaign site would be even better!

Except it wasn't and all went horribly wrong in a very short space of time - the Guardian gives a full report here. Particularly interesting was the speed with which people realised that tweeting code / links would make pictures appear on the official site.

Bloggerheads / Tim Ireland gives an illustration - tweeting that this:


produced this on the official #cashgordon site:

As the Guardian note, things quickly deteriorated with everything from Rick Astley to obscene images and swearing being featured.

Meg Pickard plotted the life of the Cashgordon Twitter aggregator site and uploaded it to Flickr:

Every time the Conservative party run any 'advertising,' it seems to get hijacked by subversive internet users - however in this case it might actually help as the #cashgordon hashtag is still being used regularly on Twitter.

If internet users are going to mash up / ridicule everything you do then maybe negative / attack messages work better in social spaces? As they point fun they also reinforce the point you are trying to make - some are for, some are against, but the #cashgordon message is being repeated by both Labour and Conservative supporters alike.

On the surface this may seem like a #fail, but it is succeeding in amplifying the message that the Tories wanted to get out there. The #fail element may therefore actually result in greater coverage of the key issue.

Is this a sign of things to come?

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Wispa newspaper ads drive traffic to Wispa Facebook Fan Page

This morning's Metro newspaper featured 4 individual ads for (Cadbury chocolate bar) Wispa on the corners of a double page spread:

Metro spread with 4 Wispa ads (click for larger image)

Each of the ads had a slightly different creative, but on closer inspection there was a common theme - they all promoted Wispa's Facebook page.

Ad 1 - Chocolatetatious features the caption 'SEAN - join him and the 810,820 others at facebook.com/wispa':

Metro Wispa ad 1 (click for larger image)

Ad 2 - Yumtastic - 'Michelle - join her and the 810,820 others at facebook.com/wispa'

Metro Wispa ad 2 (click for larger image)

Ad 3 - Wisperific - 'Sam - join her and the 810,820 others at facebook.com/wispa'

Metro Wispa ad 3 (click for larger image)

Ad 4 - Wonderbubble - 'Ashleigh - join her and the 810,820 others at facebook.com/wispa'

Metro Wispa ad 4 (click for larger image)

* The ads also note that 'We checked our fan numbers on 05/03/2010'

This is another example of a brand using paid media to drive traffic to their 'Owned media' Destination. We have seen Smirnoff, Tropicana and TGI Fridays using TV to drive their Facebook pages whilst Malibu and Lynx promoted their Facebook pages through outdoor and Dance Flick used Search.

This is the first time though that I can recall a brand using newspapers to promote a Facebook account - interesting to see if it works, but promotion of a Fan Page through paid traditional advertising is definitely a trend that seems to be becoming more prominent.

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IKEA Paris Metro furniture - sofas on the platform!

IKEA are displaying furniture on the platforms of the Paris Metro between 10th March and 24th March.

Last year in France IKEA placed chairs and footrests on the concourse at Gare de Lyon. The latest IKEA campaign is in central Paris and sees the platforms of lines 8, 12 and 13 at Saint-Lazare, Champs Elysées Clemenceau, Opéra and Concorde displaying IKEA prints / images alongside IKEA sofas and lamps.

IKEA display on the platform of the Paris Metro subway

IKEA display on the platform of the Paris Metro subway

IKEA have a history of eyecatching outdoor stunts such as IKEA Crazy Golf, the IKEA reconstruction of the Oval Office and (in 2008) taking over Japanese subway trains where standard seats were replaced with IKEA furniture - this is another quirky example to add to the list!

[hat tip Freshome]

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Heineken - AC Milan v Real Madrid classical music / poetry stunt

Heineken ran a stunt event around the AC Milan v Real Madrid Champions League match - aiming to highlight that 'the most sacred moment guys have left is watching football with friends' before stating that 'as time goes by, that moment is increasingly at risk.'

So Heineken decided to remind people of this on the night of a key Champions League match by creating a fake poetry / classical music event - at the same time as the game. 200 accomplices (including girlfriends, professors etc) were recruited by Heineken to secretly persuade / cajole over 1000 AC Milan fans to attend the event rather than watch the football.

The Heineken poetry / classical music concert then starts and..... see for yourself on the video below:

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New Blogger Templates launched (#newbloggertemplate)

One of the frustrations with using Blogger as a blogging platform has been the limited number of blog design templates available. Various designers have offered different versions independently but the core options contained within Blogger have traditionally been limited - hence the huge number of similar blog backdrops.

WordPress, Typepad etc have allowed for more options and design customisation, resulting in many (especially 'professional blogs') choosing them as blog platforms of choice. However, new Blogger Templates have now (finally) been launched, bringing the same kind of design options to Blogger too. With Blogger as the dominant blogging platform, these changes should start to encourage more diversity in blog design.

The stock Blogger templates now give options for:

- 15 new, highly customisable templates split into 4 categories - Simple, Picture Window, Awesome Inc and Watermark
- One, two, and three column layouts with easily adjustable column widths
- 'hundreds of background images and patterns' available through iStock Photo

More information is at www.blogger.com/templates and through the official launch post here.

For the time being to access the new designs you have to login to http://draft.blogger.com instead of Blogger.com. The new designs are available under 'Layout' and then 'Template Designer.'

Bloggers are being encouraged to tweet about their new layouts with the hashtag #newbloggertemplate (see here).

I'm determined to update the layout of this blog soon (suggestions welcome), but feel free to leave links to your redesigned blogs in the comments here too.

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Cyriak - 'Cycles', Worthing and Teddy Bears - the makings of a viral hit?

This week everyone seems to have been talking about the new YouTube video from OK Go for 'This Too Shall Pass' . This follows the original OK Go video that featured performing on treadmills and continues the trend of 'video that causes Conversation = attention and hit potential.'

Then today I stumbled across something else that follows this kind of principle, but takes it to another level.

To promote the new track 'Cycles' Cyriak has used Adobe After Effects software to produce a video that features Worthing Sea Front, rampaging teddy bears and lots of cars:

The track used is also called 'Cycles' and is available to download on this link http://www.beatsdigital.com/track/683463

So will this go viral and help Cyriak score a hit or is it just too random?

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Nick Burcher - Swedish Hero!

In the UK the BBC is kept ad free as it has a public service remit that is funded by a licence fee that everyone has to pay. In Sweden the same situation applies with public service broadcasting - Sveriges Television, Sveriges Radio and Sveriges Utbildningsradio are kept ad free and paid for by a public licence fee.

Radiotjänst is the body entrusted to collect these fees and to encourage people to pay, the Swedish Hero viral film was created. This was fully personalisable (if this word doesn't exist then it should), integrated with Facebook / Twitter etc and was simple to adapt and pass on. As a result it gained 14 million unique visits in 8 weeks (the total population of Sweden is 9.2m people......)

[film only has to load once and on completion viewers are presented with a range of options, to forward on or create your own film]

Sweden point out the positives that come out of paying the licence fee and say 'thank you' to those that have paid, British TV licensing take a different approach - 'Evaders will pay......'

Swedish carrot or UK stick?

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Lego Star Wars stop motion - 'The Force Unleashed'

Lego stop motion films seem to be getting more common and more spectacular. We've seen Michael Jackson 'Thriller in Lego', a Visit Denmark Lego film, the '8 bit trip' Lego stop animation film and 'Lego Does The Matrix.'

Now 'fancypants' has uploaded a Lego Star Wars film to YouTube in responseto a Lego stop motion challenge on bricksinmotion.com - the aim to use stop motion filming to make 'the coolest lightsaber duel possible' (blaster / lightsaber effects were then added with photoshop.)

The result is this spectacular Lego Star Wars film, 'The Force Unleashed', which is starting to attract large numbers of views on YouTube:

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Chicane try viral - 'Come Back & Stay' on YouTube - music video or 'branded content?'

Chicane have produced some epic dance tracks over the last 10 years, a kind of chilled trance sound with accompanying moody videos such as:

'Poppiholla' from 2009 (note preceded by a 40 second promotional ad)


and 1999 hit 'Saltwater' (sampling Clannad and subsequently used in ads for Visit Ireland):

However, for new release 'Come Back & Stay' Chicane have taken a different approach to their video - rather than black & white and arty, Chicane have gone for humour and viral. The video can be embedded and seems tailored to the YouTube generation - the sound is unmistakably Chicane, but the video execution shows how times have changed!

Based on the Paul Young 80's hit, the new Chicane video is headlined 'Hi Babes..... Please COME BACK & STAY xXx' whilst the description explains 'It broke my heart when we split up. So, I've made you this video to show how much I love you and I want you to come back & stay!!'

Music video sales pitch or branded content awareness driver? With the official release of 'Come Back & Stay' not until 12th April, it will be interesting to see how many views this gets / if this approach delivers a bigger hit than the previous tracks that have been backed with the traditional Chicane approach to videos?

[Hat tip Digital Examples]

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Tropicana bring the Sun to Arctic Canada - and drive people to their Facebook Page

In Canada Tropicana have been running activity to promote Tropicana Essentials, its new juice with added calcium and Vitamin D. The hook has been that Tropicana is 'Canada's National Provider of Brighter Mornings.'

Tropicana also used a stunt to get people talking.

Inuvik is a Canadian town of around 3,500 people situated 200km north of the Arctic Circle. This location means that in the depth of winter Inuvik lies in perpetual darkness for several weeks, however, in keeping with the idea of providing 'brighter mornings', Tropicana decided to brighten up Inuvik's day.

On January 8th 2010 Tropicana floated a 36 foot wide helium balloon above Inuvik and then lit it up so that it produced 100,000 lumens of light. This giant, man-made sun brought Inuvik a brighter morning and provided the basis for the current Tropicana Essentials TV ad:

The ad is the latest to drive viewers to a Facebook page rather than a website address - facebook.com/tropicanacanada:

Tropicana TV ad / video tagged with Facebook Page address

The Tropicana Canada Facebook page has a separate tab for 'The Arctic Sun' which displays the thinking behind the campaign, 3 HD videos (including behind the scenes footage) and promises 'What you'll find here in the coming days is an account of everything that went into bringing a brighter morning to the tiny arctic town of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories' with Tropicana also encouraging Facebook users to post 'your thoughts, pictures and videos letting us know what makes your mornings bright!'

Furthermore, Tropicana are supporting community based programs (Sir Alexander Mackenzie School, Tot Spot Daycare and the Inuvik Food Bank) and distributed 1,200 free cartons of Tropicana juice to local residents around the Arctic Sun stunt.

Traditional campaign + stunt + social amplification + ongoing discussion at Tropicana Canada Facebook Page = engaging activity across the consumer journey, though it hasn't stopped one Facebook user commenting on the Tropicana wall that 'the Arctic Sun' campaign reminds him of this previous TV ad for Nestle D'Onofrio.......

(hat tip Cream Global)

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Chatroulette French Connection Challenge - FCUK jump in to the Chatroulette hype

The hottest thing on the internet right now is Chatroulette. Created by 17 year old Moscow student Andrey Ternovskiy towards the end of 2009, Chatroulette allows webcam users to randomly connect and chat with other webcam users from across the world. You just plug in your webcam and microphone, go to the Chatroulette site and click 'Play' - you are then connected to another Chatroulette webcam user who you can see on screen (and if you don't like them you can click 'Next' and be instantly connected to someone else.)

Mainstream news services don't seem to be fans - Fox News calling Chatroulette a 'Predators Paradise', the Daily Mail saying 'the experience of being beamed into a stranger's bedroom [via Chatroulette] feels intrusive and unsettling and has worrying implications for teenagers' and the Times likening the Chatroulette experience to 'being trapped in a darkened Tube carriage for an hour with a bunch of exhibitionist nonentities who were either painfully amused with themselves, or exposing their genitals, or staring back in ominous, glazed fashion.'

Whilst there are concerns, Chatroulette is what people (especially younger audiences) seem to be doing, with 543,000 images returned for a Google Image Search on "Chatroulette" and Alexa traffic stats showing a traffic increase of +174,000% across the last 3 months, with Chatroulette.com now ranked within the top 4000 websites in the world:

Chatroulette traffic statistics from Alexa (click for larger image)

Furthermore, celebrities now appear to be taking to Chatroulette with Fox News reporting on Chris Brown, Rihanna, Jessica Alba and Ashton Kutcher using Chatroulette, whilst the Jonas Brothers also logged on to Chatroulette recently causing surprise and delight to the crowd of girls gathered on the linking Webcam:

Celebrity endorsement drove Twitter reach and with the hype (and growing usage) that Chatroulette is getting it was inevitable that a brand would jump in - and through their MANIFESTO blog French Connection have launched 'CHALLENGE: CHAT ROULETTE.'

Under the strapline 'Going where no manly man has gone before' French Connection have challenged fans - 'Can you prove yourself by venturing into the most terrifying terrain on the internet to seduce a woman?'

French Connection describe Chatroulette as 'a world of middle-aged exhibitionists' and point out that the challenge they have set is one of 'fiendish difficulty' as in their experience it can 'take an hour plus to find an actual, real life woman' - the following graphic is used to illustrate the difficulty (!):

French Connection Chatroulette challenge graphic

However, successful French Connection Chatroulette participants, who copy and paste the chat log as proof, will be given 'a token for a real life date-winning outfit: A French Connection voucher for £250' and will have their efforts showcased on the French Connection Manifesto blog. (This competition has also just been opened up to women - but they will still have to 'seduce a lady.')

Promoted via blog with vouchers as the prize and Conversation as the driver, this is a low cost way of capitalising on Chatroulette buzz and is in line with the edgy / FCUK type positioning of French Connection (the word 'Connection' also seems to work well in this context.) Interesting to see what happens.......

(hat tip Rax Rax Rax)

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Severn Bore surfing on one of the world's longest waves - with help from social media

The River Severn in South West England has the second largest tide in the world and the 'Severn Bore' is one of the world's longest waves - attracting large numbers of surfers who attempt to ride it.

The Severn Bore is a natural phenomenon that occurs around the spring and autumn equinoxes when tidal forces push a wave of up two metres in height along the Severn Estuary at up to 16km an hour.

The UK's Environment agency publishes predictions of wave size and times here, and whilst initally predicted to be '4 star', today's Severn Bore was the first '5 star' Severn Bore for 8 years with a huge wave rolling along the River Severn.

Some TV news featured the wave, but the age of self-publishing / citizen journalism means there is far more coverage of the Severn Bore online with some incredible photos and stunning footage being shared through social platforms.

This year's big Severn Bore wave (and surfer's attempts to ride it) have been immortalised through social channels with some great stuff on Flickr and YouTube:

Severn Bore on Flickr:

Severn Bore 2nd March 2010 from Dive Sally on Flickr


Severn Bore 2nd March 2010 from keehotee on Flickr


Severn Bore 2nd March 2010 from Aaron A. Aardvark on Flickr

Severn Bore on YouTube:


Severn Bore Surf cam!


'Chasing the Severn Bore by Paramotor 2/3/2010'

If it's good enough it will bring people together and they will want to talk about it and share it. This morning it was a force of nature that got the Conversation going followed by social channels amplifying the Conversation and allowing it to be shared with a larger audience - the Severn Bore is a local event, but social media globalises it.

There are endless potential puns about waves, ripples and undercurrents here, but I think there is a lesson - if the content / event is compelling enough then people will get involved in a variety of ways - either directly interacting, in this case surfing and chasing it in boats, or spectating, from a variety of vantage points (on the bank, from above etc.) The same content is viewed through a variety of lenses creating a different experience for different groups (surfers vs local family day trip?) which can then be shared through different channels.

This isn't about messages, it's about experiences that bring people together and make them want to share........

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