How Long Is A Minute?

Have you ever wondered how your brain functions? How one thought leads to another then another? How long does it take for all the information to process? 13 milliseconds! In that case, how much can happen in a minute of one’s time? And how much DOES happen in this one internet minute!

Every minute, 639,800GB of global IP data is transferred. If your link doesn’t show up within 0.30 seconds of a Google Search, it’s not worth it! Google’s little spiders are constantly busy collecting data and indexing it to update the algorithms.

Observe the next time you see a post on Facebook or Twitter from say Mark Zuckerberg or Gary Vaynerchuk. How many likes, shares, retweets, does it get in one minute? If you are a data person, dig in to see just the number of impressions the post earned. You’ll be amazed at the number and all in under 60 seconds!

It probably took “the dress” about 60 seconds to go viral on Buzzfeed and all then all over news and social media. This brings me to my next line of thought. How much does this one minute mean for all those newsjacking junkies observing, monitoring, planning their next move around what’s trending! When Kate Middleton gave birth to her newborn, brands all across were ready to leverage this media attention with their own royal baby versions.

Seconds after gay marriage was legalized in United States, we saw brands changing their logos to rainbow colors to show support. #lovewins was viral all across the internet. Facebook went one step ahead unveiling a feature that allows you to apply a rainbow color filter to you profile picture to show your support in this celebration.

These were not coincidences, or smart thinking as in the case of the case of Oreo’s #dunkinthedark tweet. Brand nowadays are staying ahead of the game by preparing for popular scenarios on trending topics. This in turn is a well-conceived strategy to engage customers in generating content.

In today’s digital era, where speed is everything, 5 hours later is stale, and our attention span shrinking to less than a goldfish, the crucial essence of all this use of digital technology is time. Where social media is always volatile and a careless mistake can cause serious damage within milliseconds, brands need to invest in some serious planning activities, to be the first ones to maximize this internet minute. Ironically, the internet is the only place where one minute is too long, and still not long enough!