The revolution inside the Outdoor Industry has started. It’s within the walls of the castle and started by the new media young people. We are still talking with ourselves, but the big difference now is that the public is listening, and in the early stages of responding.

To refresh, Channel Signal presented #orwinter as part of a twitter presentation on the floor of the Winter Outdoor Retailer Show. Along with the feed, we also presented the top 10 Brands being talked about and the top 10 Influencers who were the most active on #orwinter.

Channel Signal analysts David Sweeney and James Mills are sorting through the data. Some interesting patterns are emerging. First day of the show the Influencers completely took charge, tweeting and delivering as much personal and business information as possible. Second day, the socially media savvy brands caught on and were using #orwinter to drive traffic to their booths. Third day, it was a good mix of brands and influencers working with the communication channel to attract attention and deliver information to floor attendees and their followers in the public.

This is the first time that the public was able to get a glimpse of the OR Winter Show…in real time. And it appears from the videos that have been viewed, and the stats that we are seeing, that they liked it.

Again,this is just the beginning to building a communication pipe from the Show to the public. A pipe where products, marketing campaigns and  environmental causes can be delivered, and the public can react.

Awareness breeds demand. Awareness used to be created by broadcasting the message with the microphone. Now, it’s a two-way conversation. Of course, the real challenge will be…can we still use the microphone and now train ourselves to hear the response?

If so, our businesses will grow…because the public will be even more invested.

The Channel Signal Report on the twitter program will be out in just a few days.

All. Please go here to a video feed of Day 3. Channel Signal analysts David Sweeney and James Mills chime in on what is going on.

Please go here for Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3: Channel Signal Facebook Page

Thanks.

Every afternoon of the Outdoor Retailer Show, Channel Signal will video a conversation between our two analysts, David Sweeney and James Mills…and me about the hot topics being discussed on the show floor. We will post that conversation here on this blog. You’ll be able to see it that night or take a look at it in the morning.

We will also have guests that are influencing the conversation. Could be a person from a progressive brand, a public relations maven, or an Influencer with a big Twitter following.

Again, this is all to give context to the amount of information that will flow throughout the show.

Take a look and tell us what you think.

Also remember to sign up for the “Boots on the Ground” panel discussion about social media in the Outdoor Industry. Sign up here:

Boots on the Ground

Look forward to seeing many friends at the Show.

Channel Signal is broadcasting a Twitter Feed at the Winter Outdoor Retailer Show, which is #ORWinter.

Monitors around the Show will be presenting the on-going Twitter conversations. Which products are catching fire. What brands are being talked about. The events that are causing the buzz. And all the attendees have to do is address the company you are talking about [@the brand's twitter name], write your comment and the hashtag #orwinter. This will allow Channel Signal to track the brand’s being talked about and present those real-time results.

This is a great opportunity for those at the Show to express opinions about what they are seeing. What buyers like. What the new media Influencers are seeing. What programs are catching fire. What events were great.

It will also be mind-boggling to those who still live on the Dark Side of the Moon. And these are the brands at Outdoor Retailer that still think they can control the conversation…without engaging in it.

This will be a wake up call. Kind of like when police chief Roy Scheider was chumming for the killer white shark, and then it  surfaced in the movie, Jaws.

It’s time for the Influencers, the men and women who have been constructively and actively blogging and tweeting…and building followings…to show many of these brands how to connect. How to talk to the consumer. How to have a personality. And how to continually do it.

The segmented twitter feed will be their broadcast center. And watch how they use it. It should be a thing of beauty.

For decades, consumers have been talking about our products. Recommending them to friends. Becoming excited about a new sport and chatting about it to anyone who will listen. Well that is still happening but now it is going online, being published for all to read.

Here’s the latest research from eMarketer. It shows that people who are online writing about products and brands are also the people off-line reaching out to others and talking about them.

So, creating buzz is good. Offline feeds online. And visa versa.

And how many people will be following the Outdoor Retailer Show who are not attending the Show? Plenty. So  #ORWinter will be captured and presented on the Show Floor, but it also goes onto the world wide web. Again, many impressions. And reach.

Time to show those who live on the dark side of the moon the new emerging world.

Time to show the brands how they can connect directly into that wonderful, powerful world-wide consumer conversation.

Time for many of us to walk into the Light.

In 2010 the whole world will be talking. Discussing everything on many different platforms. And now that new media has shifted to real- time the speed of those discussions accelerate…greatly.

In the middle of December Google announced that real time results will be displayed from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. This means that you, literally, can follow an event or issue on a minute-by-minute basis.

Let’s go back and look at the Motrin situation. In about 24 hours after that television commercial broke, mommy bloggers were aggregating in mass. And over that weekend while the Motrin execs were on the golf course, the mommy bloggers were scaling the walls of the corporate castle. On Monday morning, the execs were being greeted with a crisis. The great unwashed were inside the castle walls.

Again, that happened in 24 hours. That will be nothin’ compared to what will happen in real time. Take 24 hours and bring it down to 2. Here’s an fictitious example:

Let’s say that an outdoor company makes baby clothing and a Mom sees that a rash has developed on the back of her child. After a couple of minutes of investigation she determines that it is the baby shirt that is causing the problem. Onto Twitter she goes.

Tweed: My baby has a rash on her back. Has anybody seen this? Think it could be the BRAND shirt.

( 1 minute later.) Response Tweet: OMG! I had that same think happen two days ago. And my baby wore that brand.

( 90 seconds after the first Tweet) Another Response Tweet: Me too. My child has a rash and we have the same shirt!

In the real-time world…right here is where the BRAND needs to both catch the conversation, and react to it. The BRAND can not wait until somebody sees it on Google Alert because Google Alert may wait an hour before posting. And then it gets circulated within the company, and perhaps a day passes before action is considered, or taken.

Ian Capstick writing in Media Style Blog writes . “Don’t get me wrong. I use Alerts. They are useful. Helpful even.  But it’s important to note the system is unrefined, often missing data and is only one part of a comprehensive listening program you should be undertaking. If Google Alerts are your primary online listening tool; you are missing information.”

Back to the rash incident. So, a whole day goes by while a BRAND gathers information, that info is distributed, decision-makers engage and action is finally taken. The Rash Incident may have grown into an Issue…or even a Crisis. And if a Crisis…a recall may be the result.

Why? Because in two hours…a hundred Moms might be tuned into and engaging in the conversation. And within 3 hours a thousand Moms might be in the conversation. 24 hours…well. I just don’t know how big it could get.

Andy Beal writing in his blog, Seeking Alpha, believes…

“Twitter serves as a real-time information network powered by people around the world discovering what’s happening and sharing the news…In the new year, Twitter will begin supporting a billion search queries a day. It will be delivering several billion tweets per hour to users around the world.”

Several billion tweets per hour.

And Google and Bing? Well, Google is handling around 300,000 to 500,000 million searches a day.

Google and Bing can not keep up with the volume of Twitter. Beal further reports, “and that is why Google ‘alerts’ for breaking news items show up 10 – 45 minutes earlier on Twitter or monitoring packages/systems.”

So, there is new velocity in social media.

With real-time search…brands have even less time.

The search must be thorough. The response quick. And a strategy in place to handle Incidents so they do not become Issues.

All in, almost, real-time.