Come Meerkat

Got bit again. Someone new, something to try out. I'm like a crow finding a shiny bauble glinting in the grass. I can't resist. Neophile.

Meerkat is an iOS app which allows you to stream live video that viewers can watch on Twitter.

It turned out to be the hot app at SXSW, when Twitter decided to prevent access to its social graph, which didn't stave off burgeoning interest.

Mashable reports the early numbers:

"Cooley would not specify how many Meerkat users there currently are, but the app reportedly had 120,000 users when the Twitter crackdown occurred. That means at least another 36,000 people have signed up for Meerkat since then, based on back-of-the-envelope math — an impressive stat, however you look at it."

Hype leads to buzz leads to news leads to noise. The it gets picked up by CNN Money. They all generate numbers: users, faves, retweets, followers, etc., but to what lasting effect? What can be learned, it anything at all?

I was watching Jeremy, a UNO Professor whom I've met in the past at a local seminar, demo'ing Meerkat at an airport (perhaps it was Eppley Airfield, Omaha's almost-an-airport), when I decided to see if he had posted any thoughts about this on the Web. He did:

Social Media Lessons Learned from Meerkat

The takeaway...

Meerkat is barely three weeks old now, but there are some key lessons:

• Think mobile and social first because these devices are ubiquitous and always with us.

• Start with influencers, thought leaders and celebrities to gain traction.

• Engagement happens around events because social media is about being social and interesting. Audience size is no longer as important as social network structure and long-term relationships. [my emphasis]

• Entertainment drives interest. Music, comedy and engaging conversation all may attract audiences, but watch for video privacy and ethics issues.

• Social media works best in real-time with unique personalities and content. Interactive micro-broadcasting video has a future in building engagement. [my em]

So how do you measure engagement and how it translates into long-term relationships? This is a quant blog after all.

Influencer Vaynerchuk emphasizes the need for a narrative. You can jab, jab with blinky, tweety stuff to attract eyeballs, but you have to finish with memorable knockout blow. It has to be a coherent story, must be remarkable, must be worth engaging. It can't be like watching yet another Liam Neeson Taken movie when you know that he's just trying to extend his franchise as much as possible until he's stuck with the only other offer being a role in the next Expendables sequel.

He's pitching micro-content, but how do you know how well it works? But before that, what are the qualities that make this content really interesting?

The trouble I see with Meerkat is that it's too spontaneous. Could even say gratuitous, in the boring sense.

I jumped on a Meerkat stream by Jim Gaffigan. And he was serving his phone over something that look liked jelly shmeared on bread, chanting "carbs." I'm going to get to his latest audiobook when I have the chance, which I'm sure is more engaging than his Meerkats (meeks?)

Good and engaging content has to be scripted to some extent, and could be career ending if you're not careful. It's open season on journalists who try to be edgy impromptu, seeking attention with a jaded audience who has too many screens to watch.

Even catching trout requires some effort in advance. Tying flies. Trying to fool fish.

What numbers reflect the media that do engage? Data can be structured, can social networks also? Cathedral vs. the bazaar? Hierarchies or the open market?

Anyone up for PowerPoint karaoke? Maybe just once.