Grassroots Mobilization

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Arc 3 Communications

December 19, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Thank you to our clients, friends and colleagues who have helped to make Arc 3’s 2nd year a great success. We set out to do ambitious and interesting work in 2013, and our clients have entrusted us to do just that.

Over the last year, we have done innovative work in the area of content marketing, digital and social media for clients in the political, public affairs and government space. It has been our passion to help trade associations, right-center campaigns and local and state governments evolve their communications and marketing strategies to fit the digital age.

Content and measurable data are both important to us. Arc 3 has helped clients to develop and implement effective strategies and campaigns that help them to achieve their organizational goals in a complex media and public affairs landscape. Content marketing and digital and social media only work if they help an organization to reach those real world objectives that result in a return on their investment.

The golden age of mass media communications through print, television and radio has begun to fade, and a new multi-platform and digital age has begun. The digital age has resulted in new ways in which people – especially millenials – are processing issue and policy information.

Over the last several years, businesses have been going through a transition from traditional marketing to content marketing out of necessity in order to reach consumers. Our civic institutions, campaigns and trade associations will have to change as well in order to sustain their key roles in the public square.

As our agency grows and evolves in the dynamic landscape in media and public affairs, we look forward to another year of fun, interesting and purposeful work.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Patrick L. Burns, Founder and President, Arc 3 Communications

Are Governors or College Football Coaches More Social Media Savvy?

September 28, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

In the Southeast, college football is venerated and beloved. The head coaches of the football programs of a state’s flagship institutions are arguably the most influential people in a state. In 7 of the 10 Southeastern states, the highest paid public employee is the football coach at a public university.

The head football coach at a Southeastern public university has a very high profile. The coach is either praised or vilified depending on the outcome of a Saturday game. Successful football coaches in the South have enormous political capital that could translate to public office. However, many such as former UGA head football coach Vince Dooley, who considered a bid for U.S. Senate in 1986, decline to pursue a career in politics.

In today’s age of ESPN and round the clock media coverage of Southeastern football, many across the country can name a Southeastern state’s football coach, while not knowing the state’s Governor. For example, Nick Saban, the head football coach at the University of Alabama has high name recognition across the nation. Yet, how many can name the State of Alabama’s, current Governor, Robert Bentley?

However, in today’s new media environment, social media can level the playing field. Does the notoriety, celebrity and wealth of Southeastern football coaches translate into the social media space? Or are there Governors who are social media savvy enough to outpace the head football coaches in their state? Arc 3 performed an analysis of the Klout Scores and number of Twitter and Facebook followers for 10 Southeastern Governors and the head coaches of the collegiate football programs in their state. Here are a couple of Southeastern Governors whose social media prowess outpaces their football programs:

1. Governor Rick Scott (Klout Score 84): The first term Governor of Florida has over 40k followers on Twitter and 85k likes on Facebook. A successful entrepreneur before becoming Governor, he is credited with reducing the state’s unemployment rate from 11 percent to 7 percent. In the social media sphere he outpaces University of Florida Head Football Coach Bill Muschamp (Klout Score 65), Florida State University Head Football Coach Jimbo Fisher (Klout Score 27) and University of Miami Head Football Coach Al Golden (Klout Score 64). According to PeekAnalytics, Governor Scott has 156 times the social pull on Twitter as the average user. Social pull is a good measure of how influential an account’s audience is compared to the average Twitter user. Governor Scott’s social media prominence will be an asset as he runs for re-election in 2014 in the very competitive state of Florida.

2. Governor Pat McCory (Klout score 69): The recently elected Governor of North Carolina is social media savvy with over 18k followers on Twitter and over 47k likes on Facebook. A former Mayor of Charlotte, the pragmatic Governor has made economic development a focal point of his administration with some notable results. Forbes Magazine recently recognized North Carolina as having the nation’s 4th best business climate. As an excellent marketer for his state, he outpaces socially the head football coaches for both the University of North Carolina, Larry Fedora (Klout Score 62) and North Carolina State University, David Doreen (Klout Score 62). According to PeekAnalytics, on average, each of Governor McCory’s twitter followers has 631 connections across all social media platforms to make for a strong audience reach.

3. Governor Nikki Haley (Klout Score 84): With over 64k Twitter followers and 54k likes on Facebook, Governor Haley is a social media powerhouse. The daughter of Indian immigrants, the Governor was a speaker at the 2012 RNC Convention and is one of her party’s rising stars. The Governor’s social media prowess outpaces her state’s football program accounts, Clemson Football (Klout Score 66) and University of South Carolina Football (Klout Score 68). The head of the football programs for the respective schools, Dabo Swinney of Clemson and Steve Spurrier of South Carolina, have both demurred from Twitter usage, but their chief assistants have taken up the mantle. Governor Haley outpaces these top assistants, Chad Morris (Klout Score 51) and Jeff Scott (Klout Score 58) of Clemson and Steve Spurrier, Jr. (Klout Score 82) and G.A. Mangus (Klout Score 49) of South Carolina. Running for re-election in 2014, Governor Haley has 200 times the social pull on Twitter as the average user according to PeekAnalytics. In addition, each of Governor Haley’s twitter followers has 1,578 connections across all social media platforms, which makes her audience reach 3.8 times the average twitter user.

The majority of head football coaches in the Southeast outranked their Governors in social media prowess. A head football coach’s success is largely based on his ability to recruit key players, and social media has become an important part of the recruiting process. Today’s players are now the first generation to have been born into the internet age. Social media is a vital way to reach and persuade them. The Governors of the states of Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina have recognized the power of social to recruit voters and market their states. It is no coincidence that these three Governors are also rising stars in their party. These Governors understand and appreciate the power of social media to build loyalty and create fans in the dynamic new media environment of today.

7 Ways to Use Facebook Hashtags in Politics

September 6, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

With the introduction of hashtags and graph search by Facebook, hashtags have grown in their effectiveness as an advocacy and mobilization tool. Hashtags have long been an effective tool on Twitter, helping to organize people by shared interest. Facebook, which has organized people by shared connection, had an inability to mobilize people by shared interest. With hashtags, Facebook allows users the ability to connect by interest in an expansive way.

With over 1 billion users, Facebook has a dynamic network in which a campaign or organization can utilize hashtags to reach extended, adjacent and far-off networks of people with similar interests. Once only great to organize people online and offline after you make a connection, Facebook with hashtags is an effective tool in organizing people of a shared interest, value or belief who are not yet socially connected.

Here are some tips for incorporating hashtags into Facebook page posts to promote your political content and connect with those of a shared interest.

1) Ideology: One of the easiest ways to promote your organization’s content is to reach those of a like ideological mind. The most popular ideology hashtags are #tcot, ‘top conservatives on twitter” and #p2, “progressives who prioritize diversity and empowerment” and #tlot, “top libertarians on twitter”.

2) Party affiliation: Although there is a close correlation between ideology and party identification, in order to ensure that you reach all of those with a shared party affiliation, include a reference to your local, state or national party. The most popular hashtags are those associated with the respective state parties. For example in Georgia, the Republican Party hashtag is #gagop and the Democratic Party hashtag is #gadems.

3) Issue: In the promotion of a issue or policy, utilization of a hashtag to build support for the issue is an effective tool. Providing quality insights and updates on timely issues is a way to build supporters and followers. The Google QDF rule (quality deserves freshness) applies to search on social media networks by hashtag. People hunger for meaningful content on timely issues and will search to find it. For example, #Syria, is one of the most popular hashtags on social media, due to it being a timely and relevant issue as the U.S. considers military intervention there.

4) Location: Geolocation is critical in social media. As social, location and mobile merge together, the ability to connect with those in your immediate vicinity is important in the promotion of a post. Placing a hashtag that indicates your location can not only build credibility in your posts, but can draw the interest of those in your local area. People hunger for local news around them, and the power of connecting with people in your local area on social media cannot be underestimated. For example, state and local specific hashtags such as #gapol and #atl ensure that you are reaching people in your local area. If you are attending a place, event or conference see if there are hashtags that have been developed for that specific site. For example, at the national party conventions last year, #gop2012 and #dnc2012 were the respective hashtags for these events.

5) Social TV: There is a strong correlation between live television and social media. People love to share insights on TV programs on their 2nd screen and watch alongside others online to see their feedback. During last year, some of Twitter’s most trafficked moments occurred during the Presidential debates between President Obama and Governor Romney that aired on live TV. Utilizing hashtags for specific events that air on television is way to connect with followers and audiences and promote your posts. During the first Presidential debate, the Obama-Biden campaign utilized #ForwardNotBack effectively in promoting their candidate.

6) Look to the Past: History and sentimentality about the past is a fundamental part of the human experience. People love to remember and are drawn to content that reminds them of the “way things were”. Our civic institutions and political parties have a rich history in which content can be pulled. One of the fundamental parts of being a candidate is telling your biography and life experience. Utilizing a hashtag such as #TBT (Throwback Thursday) or #FBF (Flashback Friday) can be very effective in gaining followers as they are some of the most popular hashtags on social media.

7) Humor: Humor disarms and is a powerful weapon to articulate a point of view to someone who may or may not agree with you. Use of humorous hashtags can enlist followers and supporters for your cause in more subtle way. For example in the 2012 Presidential election, the Obama campaign utilized the #Romnesia hashtag to describe Governor Romney’s inconsistent policy stances over the years. Many hashtags or slogans that are started in earnest by a campaign or group can become hijacked by the opposite side who use the hashtags in a humorous way. In the 2012 campaign, the Obama-Biden team had put out the hashtag #forward, a key campaign slogan. The RNC quickly utilized the #forward hashtag to describe moving “forward” to $491 billion in higher taxes for Obamacare; deficits over $1 trillion; and $1.9 trillion in higher taxes.

With the continued integration of search and social, hashtags are becoming an increasingly important part of content and social advertising strategies for Facebook. The use of hashtags can connect your organization in a timely manner with the audience you are trying to reach and promote your content. So don’t forget the #hashtag in your next post.

Social Data and the Future of Politics

May 31, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Arc 3 Communications recently participated in Big Data Week in Atlanta. The goal of Big Data Week was to hold community events focusing on the social, political, technological and commercial impacts of Big Data. One of the many discussion items of the week among data scientists, marketers and social media experts was the impact of social data, primarily in the examination of consumer behavior and the ability to predict sales and craft marketing messages.

However, social data is also a powerful tool for understanding the American voter, and like traditional phone surveys can help in the understanding of voters’ opinions on an issue and their intensity. Social data which consists of the analysis of tweets, posts and discussion items on social media channels, forums and blogs, may also be a future indicator in predicting voting behavior. A recent study by social scientists at Indiana University of 800 competitive Congressional races in 2010 and 2012 revealed that getting more tweet mentions relative to your opponent meant higher vote margins. The social scientists found that the frequency with which a Republican is named correlates with the Republican vote margin in the subsequent election, independently of other factors such as incumbency, media coverage, partisanship and demographics.

While the ability of tweets to predict the vote is a topic of much discussion, the use of social data as a tool in understanding the opinions of voters and how to develop targeted messaging to them is well established after the last election cycle. The Obama 2012 campaign through its 200 digital and 50 analytics team members was able to utilize social data to develop effective message development and targeting strategies while also identifying advocates for the campaign.

In the area of advocacy, the Obama campaign developed an algorithm to score over 5oK accounts by political id on Twitter. This identification of accounts favorable to the President utilized the text of the tweets and did not look at @mentions. The analysts at the Obama campaign discovered that @mentions referencing the President were largely negative. However through text analysis of tweets, the Obama campaign was able to identify Twitter users favorable to the President. The Obama campaign also looked at Twitter influence (number of tweets and followers) to score and identify favorable accounts. The Obama campaign then sent a direct message on Twitter from President Obama to the scored accounts asking them to advocate for the campaign, which in turn many of them ended up doing.

Another powerful use of social data for advocacy by the Obama campaign was the development of a Facebook App that enabled supporters to match their Facebook friends with the Obama campaign’s various lists and then send a message to undecided voters in key swing states asking them to take action such as sharing viral content, signing up for the campaign or voting on Election Day. This tactic known as Facebook targeted sharing, was developed by the Obama team to offset the 50% drop in landline usage among 18 to 29 year olds. Despite being difficult to reach by phone, 85% of this same group were friends with an Obama 2012 Facebook App user. Through the Facebook targeted sharing app over 600,000 Obama supporters were able to reach over 5 million people by Election Day. 20% of the 5 million reached took some action, such as registering to vote. Hundred of thousands used the tool in the days leading up to the election. The Obama campaign’s Facebook targeting app represented a significant advancement in voter contact – overlaying traditional voter file data with social graph information and relationships.

The supplementation of a voter file with social data will become the norm by the 2016 election cycle and innovative campaigns are already taking this task on for 2014. One of those chief innovators on the Republican side is U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky whose campaign is creating a statewide voter file that adds social data so that the campaign can track and target individual voters based on what they’re saying online. According to Senator McConnell’s campaign, it has already matched the voting records of close to 40 percent of Kentuckians – more than 1 million voters – with their online persona. Senator McConnell’s campaign plans to monitor in real time the social and online outputs of voters in Kentucky in order to understand voter perceptions about issues and the candidate. Through this process, the campaign will be able to measure voter sentiment and the level of engagement on various issues.

Social data is the future of campaigns and a powerful new tool that can help a candidate understand voter opinions on key issues and serve as an advocacy tool. In time, social data may be able to accurately predict voting behavior in a race. As campaigns begin to experiment with social data, it will be critical that the proper metrics and algorithms are established. Campaigns will need to ensure that they connect their social media and social data operations to their off-line grassroots and get-out-the-vote operations in a meaningful way that translates into supporters and votes. This will become an increasing challenge for national and statewide campaigns in the immediate future.

The Effectiveness of Political Social Advertising

March 30, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Political advertising in national and statewide races has historically been dominated by large media buys on television. Of the billions spent on election ads, a small percentage has been spent on social media advertising, but that is about to change. Voters have gone off the grid.

In election 2012, over 40% of likely voters preferred other video sources to live TV, including laptop or PC and streaming devices such as DVD and DVR. The majority of live TV watching was sports related. The average time spent watching video was still high at almost 20 hours a week, but nearly half of that time was not spent on live TV. Also, nearly half of likely voters owned a smartphone and 32% of likely voters owned a tablet.

We are moving to a new advertising paradigm in politics, and social advertising is a key part of it. With candidates using Twitter and Facebook to stay connected with voters, keep up on news and contrast themselves with opponents, paid social is a natural fit for politicians. Social advertising is powerful as voters spend on average 10 hours per week on social apps and interest graph targeting helps candidates zero in on key voters. In the time that it takes to create 1 political 30-second spot, 15 paid social campaigns can be launched. These social ads can be created from breaking news and events in real time.

While Tumblr and LinkedIn offer ads, the overwhelming majority of social advertising is on Twitter and Facebook. Both Twitter and Facebook ads have proven to be effective in the area of politics.

Facebook messages have been shown to be an effective tool in get-out-the-vote efforts. In the prestigious journal, Nature, political scientist Dr. James Fowler found that a single get-out-the-vote message could produce a 2.2 % bump in voter turnout. More importantly, 80% of the impact came from friends sharing the message with others. This is the first definitive proof that social networks, as opposed to television or radio, have uniquely powerful political benefits. As Facebook bleeds into older demographics, campaign messages could have a much larger impact than the study found. Another key finding of the study was that candidates need users to voluntarily share the ads and messages with their friends for maximum effectiveness.

Many campaigns initially used basic Facebook Marketplace type ads, with a 25 character title, and a 90 character body, a 100 x 72 pixel image, which are the least ideal message delivery vehicles on Facebook. However a growing number of campaigns have found greater success at using ad units such as “Like” ads and sponsored stories, which encourage both current and potential fans to interact with page content. Facebook has also recently allowed ads to be placed directly into Newsfeed which has resulted in better results.

Mitt Romney’s campaign for President utilized Facebook mobile ads last election cycle. These ads, which showed up in a Facebook user’s news feed, linked to Governor Romney’s page and indicated which friends were fans of the candidate. Zac Moffatt, digital director of Governor Romney’s campaign, claimed a remarkable click rate of 10% among people who viewed the ads.

Twitter ads have been proven effective to drive get-out-the-vote messages and target voters. Political campaigns are spending on the “promoted tweet,” which looks like a regular Twitter post and which advertisers pay to have show up at the top of a stream of tweets, or to people who might not see the tweet otherwise. Other political Twitter ads that may be placed are for Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends. Like business ads on Twitter, political ads are clearly labeled as promoted with a purple promoted icon and information about who has purchased the ad. Based on demand from political campaigns, Twitter has allowed advertisers to tailor paid messages to people by state or region.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who faced Milwaukee’s Mayor Tom Barrett in an historic recall election in 2012, used Twitter political ads successfully. Governor Walker’s campaign utilized Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts to drive a get-out-the-vote message to targeted voters and influencers. The Walker campaign’s use of Promoted Tweets drove voters to landing pages with details on the Governor’s stance on key issues and strong calls to action to pledge to vote. A week before the election, Governor Walker’s campaign also used Promoted Accounts to grow followers among targeted influencers who could help spread the campaign message through retweets. Governor Walker’s Promoted Tweets campaign garnered an average engagement rate of 6%. In addition, the Governor increased his followers from 16,600 to over 23,000 with his Promoted Accounts campaign. Overall his Twitter ad campaign reached 946,000 potential voters. Governor Walker’s effective use of social advertising was a key component in mobilizing voters in his defeat of a recall.

The use of social advertising by political campaigns will continue to increase. Social ads are an attractive selling point to campaigns looking for a way to maximize their impact for little cost. However, these ads should only be run as a part of a larger digital strategy that promotes great content such as a video, an image or interactive experience. Great content and socials ads to promote it is a winning combination for candidates that have a need to get their message out in a cost effective way.

Metro Atlanta Regional T-SPLOST Vote: A Choice Between NPR and Fox News?

August 12, 2012 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Was the Metro Atlanta Regional T-SPLOST referendum vote a choice between NPR and Fox News? In a recent social data study by Arc 3 Communications of supporters and opponents of the Metro Atlana Regional T-SPLOST referendum utilizing Facebook’s Wisdom app, it was revealed that a cultural divide existed between the most ardent supporters for and against the Metro Atlanta Regional T-SPLOST referendum.

Many traditional polls had been taken showing a partisan divide among voters for the regional T-SPLOST referendum. However, through the use of Facebook social data, Arc 3 was able to identify not only a partisan divide, but a cultural divide as well among the most ardent supporters for and against the referendum. This data shows a significant cultural divide on regional policy issues.

For the study, Arc 3 Communications examined the Facebook pages of the two most prominent pro and against T-SPLOST campaigns, Untie Atlanta (Citizens for Transportation Mobility) and Traffic Truth (Transportation Leadership Coalition) utilizing Facebook Wisdom app’s detailed demographic profile data and breakdown of page likes. Arc 3 analyzed Facebook Wisdom Network data on basic demographics; political party identification and interests; sources for news; interests in music, movies and authors; sports favorites; and consumer choices. Among the key findings in each category:

Supporters and opponents of the T-SPLOST referendum were evenly divided along gender lines with variation among age and education level. Significantly more of the opponents of the T-SPLOST were married than the supporters of the T-SPLOST.
Consistent with polling data, the T-SPLOST groups broke out along partisan lines with pro-SPLOST forces showing Democratic leanings and opponents of the T-SPLOST being Republican.
Supporters and opponents of the T-SPLOST relied on very different news sources. T-SPLOST supporters’ favorite news source was National Public Radio, while opponents preferred Fox News.
In area of entertainment tastes, T-SPLOST supporters and opponents differed in television, movies and tastes in book authors. T-SPLOST supporters’ favorite program was The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, while opponents program of choice was House on the Fox Network.
While a dichotomy existed in preference for sports leagues – supporters of T-SPLOST were NFL fans, while opponents were NASCAR fans- both groups agreed that the Atlanta Braves was their favorite sports team.
Both sides tended to agree in the area of prominent consumer choices, with both groups most favorite food and beverage product having been Chick-Fil-a, and favorite retailer having been Target.

The partisan divide between advocates and opponents of the T-SPLOST was clearly evident in this Facebook study as it had been in traditional polling. However the social data reveals a much deeper story showing the cultural preferences that were identifiers not only of partisanship but also attitudes toward regionalism and policymaking. T-SPLOST opponents clearly had cultural preferences indicative of more suburban living, while the T-SPLOST supporters had more urban cultural preferences. This may have been at the heart of the transportation policy debate over what the Atlanta region should look like.

Arc 3 Facebook Social Data Study Tables

Basic Demographics

	Untie Atlanta	Traffic Truth
Male	60%	58%
Female	40%	42%
Married	49%	76%
Single	34%	20%
Average Age	36	49
College Education	58%	69%

Political Interests (Most Likes)

	Untie Atlanta	Traffic Truth
Political Party	Democratic Party of Georgia	Republican National Committee
Political Official	Barack Obama	Mitt Romney
Public Figure	John Lewis	Herman Cain

News Sources (Most Likes)

	Untie Atlanta	Traffic Truth
Media/News/Publishing	NPR	Fox News
Magazine	The New Yorker	Weekly Standard
News/Media	Yahoo!News	NewsBusters.org

Entertainment Interests (Most Likes)

	Untie Atlanta	Traffic Truth
Television Shows	The Daily Show	House
Movies	The Hangover	Atlas Shrugged The Movie
Favorite Author	Maya Angelou	Ayn Rand

Sports Interests (Most Likes)

	Untie Atlanta	Traffic Truth
Sports League	NFL	NASCAR
Sports Team	Atlanta Braves	Atlanta Braves
Athlete	Michael Jordan	Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Consumer Interests (Most Likes)

	Untie Atlanta	TrafficTruth
Food/Beverage	Chick-Fil-a	Chick-Fil-a
Retail and Consumer Merchandise	Target	Target
Hotel	St. Regis Atlanta	Chateau Elan Winery and Resort

Note: Untie Atlanta Facebook page analysis included analysis of Untie Clayton, Untie Cobb, Untie Cherokee, Untie Dekalb, Untie Douglas, Untie Gwinnett, Untie Fayette, Untie Fulton, Untie Henry, and Untie Rockdale Facebook pages

SXSW 2012: The Year of the Ambient Social Location App

March 27, 2012 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

At this year’s SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas from March 9^th to 13^th, one of the most popular apps was the ambient social location app, Highlight.

SXSW is one of the most innovative and trendiest shows of the year in the tech community. Often referred to as spring break for geeks, it has been the place for the launch of some of the most notable platforms in social media. Twitter was launched at SXSW in 2007 and Foursquare was launched there in 2009. Often what is launched successfully at SXSW becomes a household name in the tech community overnight as it is adopted in mass by tech early adopters. These early adopters then set the stage for introduction into the general consumer audiences.

In the midst of discussions ranging from the speed of change in interactive to reinventing the agency to social ROI, the most talked about trend at SXSW was the ambient social location app. This form of mobile app shows the user people that are around them using the app and what their interests and social profiles are. The ambient social app identifies your location and alerts you to the people around you, showing their social profiles such as Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. The most well-known ambient-social location apps are Highlight, Glancee, Banjo and Sonar.

These ambient social location apps all competed for attention at SXSW. The most talked about app at SXSW was Highlight, started by Paul Davison of Silicon Valley. Davison was able to explain clearly and concisely what his product did and make a big splash at SXSW. His public relations team’s effort was a good example of how despite all of the flashy digital tools for the dissemination of information, messaging still matters. Influential tech journalist, Robert Scoble was so impressed with the Highlight team’s message and product that he became an advocate for Highlight during his week at SXSW. Scoble befriended 900 people on Highlight and defended the app when it began to receive criticism from some SXSW attendees. Twitter and Foursquare received similar criticism in earlier SXSW shows, but have certainly met success since their launches. Twitter currently has 465 million users and will reach 500 million users this month. Foursquare currently has 15 million users.

Highlight is a mobile app available on the i-phone market only. Upon downloading, the app tracks your location in the background and sends you a push notification when someone else using the app comes within 50 yards of you. You then have the opportunity to say hello and talk about shared interests and a recording of that meeting is saved on your Highlight account. Highlight often identifies people of shared interests at a geo-location and promotes networking and connectivity.

The other apps in the ambient social location space are Glancee, Banjo and Sonar. Like Highlight, these social discovery apps alert you to others of shared interests at your geo-location upon their arrival.

Glancee tracks your location in the background and links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. It will show people who are using the app and their shared social graph interests and Facebook picture.

Banjo also tracks your location in the background, but aggregates geo-location data from Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook and Twitter to provide a map of people near you. The user is able to see on a map, pictures of others near them and their respective social profile data.

Sonar uses Foursquare to show you people nearby and utilizes a ranking system to give weight to people who most share your interests. Sonar also has the ability to integrate with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and provide contextual data.

Ambient social location apps are following in the footsteps of Foursquare in their geo-social nature. However, unlike Foursquare they are leveraging the ambient nature of human interaction encouraging greater connectivity and social discovery based on location and shared interests. These apps accelerate individuals desire to discover who at the cocktail party is worth getting to know and most apt to share their interests and goals.

Like Foursquare, ambient social location apps will be adopted by the tech-savvy early adopters in metropolitan areas, university towns, and high tech areas. However these apps may be slow to reach a broad consumer audience. It may be years before they reach the type of adoption numbers that Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have reached with consumers.

However, just as elite influencers such as reporters, congressional staff, technologists, marketing and public relations professionals were early adopters of Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, the power of these ambient social location apps will lead to their quick adoption by this group of people. It will enable elite influencers to better network at events and locations and share ideas and learnings. They will be better able to network and meet the people they need to know.

As tool for a campaign, marketing or public relations professional trying to organize an event and drum up last minute attendance, an ambient social location app alerts them to individuals in the area and allows for them to invite these folks to the event via notifications. For a reporter doing a story who is looking for individuals to interview in the area, these apps alert them to potential sources for their story and allows them to contact them.

Though ambient social location apps will not garner quick and immediate consumer success, they should be considered as an important platform to influence elite opinion and organize grassroots efforts. In 2012 and beyond they will have an increasingly important role in molding and shaping elite opinion and those that influence the public and consumers.

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