SXSW: Playing Together, Apart, For Success
Had the pleasure of attending yesterday’s panel on parody Twitter accounts including @fakeapstlyebook, @bpglobalpr and @mayoremanuel.
They found that being able to write replies was just as — if not more — important to growing fans than the declarative jokes they posted.
What struck me while watching were the similarities in ad-hoc writing team both AP and BP created to manage their accounts.
Both teams created Google groups so that no matter where or when the writers were available, they could quickly iterate on Twitter posts to generate the best content (or decision not to post). This isn’t any different than the old-school writers room…
Except that it was asynchronous. The key element in being responsive was that the writers didn’t have to be in the same room together. Wherever they were, and whatever time they had, they all still were able to help each other to achieve the goal of improving the account.
It rang a bell because Brian Reynolds from Zynga said that asynchronous game play was crucial to Zynga’s success. If you are playing Frontierville with your friends, you don’t all have to be playing at the same time to play together.
This concept of working through systems that allows us to play apart and together is clearly a dynamic driving successful social creation, and an excellent model for brands looking for ways to keep up with today’s connected consumer.
