The events of Gezi Parki last June saw the Turkish government to take hard line positions against the “anti-government propaganda” on social media, leading to multiple arrests in several cities in addition to Istanbul, the center of the protests. The Government tried also to obtain, with little success , information from Twitter and Facebook users’ profiles (see “Twitter says NO to the turkish government ” ) and proposed draft legislation aimed at implementing a greater control over the social channels usage. Something , however, has changed in recent months . In September, the Turkish media broke the news that the ruling moderate Islamic party (AKP) has created a team of 6,000 experts in order to set the agenda, lead the trending topic and check the criticism on social media. In his article for Al -Monitor , the Turkish journalist Emre Kizilkaya , who is also the chairman at the Turkish National Committee of the International Press Institute in Vienna, reports the results of the investigation he conducted (see AKP ‘s social meda wars ). As measured by Kizilkaya , at present the task force commissioned by the AKP would actually moving only in its infancy and the numbers of the “experts ” would be much lower than stated . Despite the Anatolian Agency overs the presence of 4 groups of pro -government activists , there are few true influencer pro-government . One of these is the group Wake Up Attack who runs a Facebook page with 5,000 fans and four Twitter accounts in four different languages with more than 12,000 followers . Through their own accounts, Wake Up Attack spreads infographics that “(target) those who criticize the government labeling them as (foreign) agents or terrorists.” From an operational point of view , the groups use the hashtag # AK ( abbreviation of the party) and # ekip (a turkish term to indicate team) to aggregate and connect the tweet. The investigation shows also a close relationship between the account and the party organs which , although not confirmed , it seems to be the direct promoter of these initiatives. It seems, therefore , that Erdoğan and the AKP are preparing to occupy not only the traditional media , but also social media on which , in view of the elections of 2014 , could play a leading role. *originally edited in Italian and published on Pionero.it
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Ecco in anteprima il mio post in uscita oggi su Pionero.IT *** In un report che pubblicai qualche mese fa, evidenziai come la Turchia – a differenza di altri paesi – avesse una infrastruttura di servizi di rete molto più sviluppata rispetto alla reale domanda presente sul territorio. Sebbene, infatti, secondo i dati di Internet World Stats il tasso di penetrazione di Internet è pari al 45,7% della popolazione (in Italia è il 58% circa), il paese sta incrementando notevolmente gli investimenti nel digitale ed in particolare nel settore dell’e-commerce. Nonostante i recenti dati evidenzino che solo il 4% degli utenti internet sia cliente di siti e-commerce, nel 2011 il settore ha registrato un giro di affari pari a 12, 7 miliardi di dollari, con un incremento del 50% rispetto il precedente anno ed è previsto che raggiunga i 140 miliardi di dollari nell’arco dei prossimi 3 anni. Secondo calcoli basati su dati raccolti e riportati da Reuters, i Turchi hanno speso on-line 450 milioni di dollari in vestiti e accessori, 395 milioni in alimentari e 2,1 miliardi in tecnologia. In Turchia ci sono oltre 10.000 imprese di e-commerce e negli ultimi due anni le start-up internet hanno attratto investimenti esteri per un ammontare di circa 750 milioni di dollari. Una situazione molto frammentata che sta saturando il mercato interno e che potrebbe limitare l’afflusso di capitali esteri. Infatti, benché l’infrastruttura bancaria e logistica del paese costituisca una grande attrattività per gli investitori, il problema di fondo che si evidenzia è la mancanza di un target. Soprattutto i brand più piccoli, a fronte di una crescente competizione, stanno riscontrando enormi difficoltà nella profittabilità del business. Secondo molti analisti, nei prossimi anni si assisterà ad una ristrutturazione del settore attraverso acquisizioni, fusioni ed anche fallimenti di imprese. Nel frattempo il governo si appresta ad attuare il nuovo Codice del Commercio Elettronico con il quale si conta di dare maggiore impulso alla domanda, alla creazione di nuove nicchie e, quindi, all’appetibilità per ulteriori investimenti. Alcuni degli e-commerce piu’ popolari. Hepsiburada.com è il più grande e importante dei siti di e-commerce in Turchia. Specializzato principalmente nell’elettronica, il sito nel 2012 ha registrato ricavi per 300 milioni di dollari. Yemeksepeti.com è un e-commerce di ristorazione, attraverso cui è possibile prenotare e farsi recapitare a domicilio pietanze da diversi ristoranti presenti in zona. Il modello di business prevede tempi medi di consegna che variano tra i 10 e i 45 minuti e pagamento alla consegna. Di recente l’azienda ha annunciato di volersi espandere in altri tre paesi attraverso acquisizioni mirate. Markafoni.com è un e-commerce attivo nel settore moda. Nato nel 2008 in un piccolo ufficio ad Istanbul, oggi conta 600 dipendenti e una rete ampia di siti di e-commerce collegati, con una crescente presenza anche in altri 8 paesi tra cui le recenti Ucraina e Polonia, grazie…
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Among the most fortunate mass communication theories, the Katz & Lazarsfeld’s “Two steps flow of communication” during the 40s described a model where a message broadcasted by a source is captured by an opinion leader who, because his/her reputation among the society, is able to influence the audience’s behavior. Basing on this research, marketing and public relations payed a lot of attention to choose testimonial to be used in above or below the line campaigns. When in the early 2000s came out the “Web 2.0”, it seemed that model was intended to disappear. Observers and researchers welcomed with a great passion this collaborative circumstance, highlighting the direct access to information, the decentralization of content production, the disintermediation between producer and consumer, the possibility to directly engage with the source. All connected people would have been able to access the information, to elaborate them and share the results. The opinion leader’s role appeared to be definitely got discussed. From opinion leader to hub Actually some changes happened, but only on a exterior level. First of all new personalities came to light. They, missing the web, probably wouldn’t ever get visible. Second, we paid more and more attention to conversation generated on-line and contents themselves became often mainstream. The basic communication flow, anyway, has been almost unchanged, but transforming the “two-step flow” into “multi-step flow”. A proof of that is the fast growing development of reputation and influence measurement tools such as Klout and Kred. Supposing that every internet user is potentially an hub of a subnet, composed by its contacts, the communication flows from a source is captured by the “hub” that broadcasts to the subnet. Message’s viral degree, that is the message’s ability to be propagated, depends on hub’s reputation and the ability to influence the subnet. From hub to influencer If initially it seems that the individual centrality in message propagation has been improved, recalling the Katz & Lazarsfeld theory, the only true difference relies more on the number of required steps to reach the influence, than on the social dynamics themselves. In the sociologists’ theory, indeed, an opinion leader’s main characteristics were the most access to media, a more literate understanding of media content, the ability to explain and diffuse the content to others. If the access to media problem appears to be solved, the ability to understand and to broadcast media content is still today the common feature between mass and social media. Katz & Lazardfel, furthermore, concluded their researches highlighting that personal influence (set by interpersonal relationship) is more important than the mass media. Starting from these observations, also today, enterprises plan word-of-mouth marketing, viral marketing campaigns and PR Tatics. Features such as Retweets, Sharing, Comments (that is all the features releated to…
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Internet and the connected society is deeply changing the worldwide scenario. Modifying business models, changing the way to build and manage relationships, introducing new ways to produce and to “consume” information, Internet is forging a complex world that have to be analized and to be understood. It’s a cross-life revolution that some times is difficult to recognize because it involves all the moments in day-by-day life. Due to this complexity, the information about this changement often focuses separately on specific topics such as marketing, business, technology, economy, governement. We often miss a global vision and a wide range overview about the impact of internet in the world. This is the main reason why I accepted to give my little contribution in the project Pionero. Pionero is an Italian Web Project of Maggioli Editore aimed to inform and to spread culture about internet and connected society in order to give a 360 degree overview about how tecnology is forging the connected society. Main topics are Web Marketing, Digital Agenda, Smart Cities, Apps and mobile. As authors, we are asked to go beyond the latest technology or product to give a well formed understanding of the digital world. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, Pionero hosts different professionals coming form Journalism, Marketing and Communication, Governement, Education and IT, all internet pioneers with a strong experience in the digital world. What do you think about this idea?
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