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How addicted is Britain to Social Media?

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The usage of Social Media is increasing more and more by every year. But to what extent are Brits succumbing to it?

A new survey from BT has revealed just how addicted to social media the UK is, showing that the average Brit spends two hours and 12 minutes on social media every day, usually across three social media accounts.

In fact, BT thinks social media has made us “social needier” – Brits are expecting more and more validation through our social media, and putting a lot of time in to what we post on there… and it’s men who seem needier than women.

Men said they expected 40 likes on a post on average to “feel happy” about it, while for women that figure was 28. That’s much lower, but still pretty high. When we get those likes, the survey says, we feel happy (44%), recognised (29%), and popular (27%).

Then again, given how much time we spend crafting posts in the first place, maybe it’s not totally unreasonable to want something back: we spend an average of nine minutes composing a post (10 minutes for men and eight for women), or eleven minutes to take a picture and share it.

And then, when it’s finally up, men check a post for interaction every minute for a whopping 19 minutes, while women check every minute for 15.

Psychologist Dr Becky Spelman said it was “not surprising” that men show more dependence on social networks than women, since “they often have less well-developed social networks and fewer emotional ties in the real world”… a claim which could probably benefit from a little empirical evidence.

Overall, 68 of survey respondents said that being recognised on social media is “important”, and more than half said they felt envious of people whose posts garnered more likes, shares, and responses.

“Superficial interactions such as ‘liking’ someone’s post are harmless in themselves,” Spelman continued, “but people need to be careful that when they interact with social media they don’t forget real life relationships with friends and family members.”

 

– Kim Stables

Original Source: BT

Ofcom and BT Rivalry: Plans for Openreach Independence

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BT Group’s plans to give Openreach greater independence share some common ground with Ofcom’s recommendations, but will this be enough to ease its rivals’ anti-competitive concerns?

Ofcom has waded in with its take on what BT must do to allow its infrastructure division, Openreach, to operate as an independent company and in a less anti-competitive way.

The communications regulator has published an eight-point plan, detailing what needs to change at Openreach to diminish BT’s hold over the organisation, and ensure a fairer deal for competitors that rely on its network to deliver services to their customers.

However, if these changes fail to deliver on these fronts, Ofcom said a formal split between BT Group and Openreach is still a possibility.

“BT retains influence over significant Openreach decisions,” said Ofcom, in a statement.

“BT has an incentive to make these decisions in the interests of its own retail businesses, rather than BT’s competitors, which can lead to competition problems.”

To rectify this, Ofcom is calling for Openreach to be established as a distinct, legal entity inside the wider BT Group, with its own branding and whose actions would be overseen by an independent board of directors, with no prior affiliations to its parent company.

The CEO of Openreach would be appointed by this board, and be held to account by them, with no input from BT Group.

The company should own the network it operates, which – in turn – would better position it to make investment decisions involving Openreach assets, Ofcom said.

Furthermore, Openreach should have the freedom to develop its own strategy and annual operating plans, based on the budget handed to it by BT Group.

“This model would provide Openreach with the greatest degree of independence from BT Group that is possible without incurring the costs and disruption – to industry and consumers – associated with separating the companies entirely,” the Ofcom statement said.

“It is designed to ensure that Openreach acts more independently from BT Group, and takes decisions for the good of the wider telecoms industry and its customers.”

“If it cannot achieve this, Ofcom will reconsider whether BT and Openreach should be split into two entirely separate companies, under different ownership,” it added.

Ofcom said it is seeking feedback on its proposals, and has invited interested parties to have their say until 4 October 2016.

Meanwhile, BT has published details of its own plans to shake-up the corporate governance of Openreach. These cover many of the areas outlined by Ofcom’s proposals, including establishing an independent board of directors and allowing the organisation to operate with a greater degree of autonomy.

Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT Group, said the organisation is doing all it can to respond to industry concerns about how Openreach operates.

“These changes will make Opereach more independent and transparent than it is today, something both Ofcom and industry have requested,” said Patterson.

“Our proposals can form the basis for a fair and sustainable regulatory settlement and they can also enable Ofcom to bring its review to a speedier conclusion.”

Calls for Openreach independence grow

Ofcom’s proposals follow on from the publication of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s report into Openreach on 19 July 2016, which called for the subsidiary to be given greater autonomy when it comes to making spending and strategy decisions.

Matthew Howett, telecoms, media and technology analyst at market watcher Ovum, said the operating model being put forward by BT and Ofcom could be implemented in months, allowing all parties to focus on ensuring the UK has the broadband capacity it needs for the years ahead.

However, while Ofcom and BT might be broadly in agreeance with how Openreach should operate in future, Howett conceded the telco’s competitors may not be so enamoured with their proposals.

“For some, only full structural separation will be enough and it is important to note that Ofcom have kept this option on the table should its proposed model not deliver,” he said.

“Given the enormous costs and uncertainties, coupled with the weight of evidence, for Ofcom to proceed with structural separation now would be a disproportionate response, even if practically delivered.”

– Caroline Donelly

BT & EE Collaborate on New Sports App

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BT and EE join forces for first time as they look to promote ‘innovation and customer experience’

Following BT’s acquisition of EE earlier this year, the two firms are to work together for the first time to launch a sports app offer that will only be available to EE mobile customers.

The app offer is aimed at new and existing EE customers and will provide them with access to sports updates and BT Sport content. BT Sport has rights to show Premier League football, the FA Cup, Champions League, Moto GP, Aviva Premiership rugby and sailing competition The America’s Cup. It will also provide customers with access to the full line-up of BT Sport channels.

To promote the partnership the app will be pushed out in-store, the first time a BT service will be sold by EE staff, and with a multi-million pound TV ad campaign at the end of the month starring Kevin Bacon alongside footballers Harry Redknapp and Rio Ferdinand. EE will also make use of video MMS for the first time as part of a direct marketing campaign that will send customers personal direct messages including video.

Max Taylor, EE’s managing director for digital, communications and innovation, believes the launch will offer a real benefit to customers. “It’s the first customer benefit as a result of the acquisition of EE by BT and offers a great customer experience.”

Although BT and EE are collaborating on the sports app, EE is still responsible for its own brand and that the two companies remain quite separate, although they are finding ways to work together.

“We have regular meetings, we are working together with the group brand and marketing roles and continue to share resources. However, we bring things to market slightly differently and to slightly different audiences,” Taylor said.

“EE’s target audience is ‘metro-techno’, which is typically late 20’s and a single user, whereas BT is slightly more focused around families and household, with a slightly older demographic.”

Yet in spite of those differences, Taylor believes EE and BT have a lot in common. “We both come from very innovative backgrounds and both have a deep passion for the customer. There is one thing that we want to focus on even more and that is to deliver and make dramatic improvement to the customer experience.”

The takeover has already led to changes in the EE marketing department. Its former CMO Pippa Dunn and brand director Spencer McHugh have both left, while former marketer Marc Allera has taken over as CEO. Yet Taylor said while their departures were “unfortunate” there is still a “long list of experienced marketers” working at EE. That includes Taylor, who has been there for 15 years.

The main difference between pre-takeover and now is the focus on digital: “We are looking to dial up our digital communications and our focus on the customer, particularly our base communications – the opportunity to deliver service and the proposition messages to our customers.”

Going forward, priorities include investing in EE’s network, with the aim to increase EE 4G coverage geographically to 95% by 2020. The brand also sees video as the future and will programme its content services to deliver this.

“Our world class network is our bedrock, it is the number one thing our customers look for and is where we invest our money,” Taylor said. “We will be looking to bring content services to market that really exploit a great network and are built around video.”

The brand also aims to double ‘My EE’ users from five million customers to 10 million by the end of this financial year, allowing customers to view and “interrogate” their bills themselves. “More personalisation, optimisation, campaign integration and innovation will be at the heart of the brand moving forward,” Taylor added.

– Rachel Gee

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