Below the Fold

We Are the Firemen

In May 1993 – the exact date and time escape me – my inner world, the one where thoughts are born, developed and processed, lost its ability to be silent. I since have lived with constant noise, the result of a tumor that, in an ironic nod to God’s comic grace, left me deaf in one ear yet covered in a perpetual blanket of ringing static.

Sometimes it’s not too bad, other times it’s so loud it sounds like there’s a KISS concert in my cranium. But it is always there, never fully abated, never completely quiet. It will never be quiet, and it has been so long I have forgotten what quiet is, what silence sounds like, what kinds of thoughts stillness brings. How much smarter, how less painful the headaches and seizures, how more aware of my environment would I be if only I could hear more – and then, like most people, dial down the volume and hear nothing but thinking.

Rather than go insane, I did the next best thing – I went into marketing. Turns out my decision was less pathos than it was prescience, as I watch my former trade of journalism in some cases melt away, in others morph into a new kind of socially-driven journalism enabled (if not always ennobled) by modern technology.

THE DESCENT OF PRINT alone is not a problem for a our society. But the descent of thought is. And this death of reasonable thinking and discourse has given rise to a ringing in all our ears, a cacophony of “social media” for its own sake rather than the sake of the consumer.

Don’t get me wrong (though I guarantee someone will) – I love technology and Web 2.0. I believe in the power of conversation and the promise of connecting people to each other with authentic communications. But in this new silicon rush we far too often discount what’s gone before, throwing judgment into the intellectual pyre like so many worn newspapers.

In other words, in our well-meant effort to broaden and share our knowledge, are we also destroying the very knowledge and reasoned discussion we so boldly claim to seek?

Because we can connect with people like ourselves, we do. And then we act as if other opinions don't exist -- or if they do, then don't matter. We do this within our social networks, the pseudo social media intelligentsia do it at conferences and on their blogs, and the news media does it by giving us news tuned to whatever ideological frequency we desire.

We jump to conclusions and applaud hyperbole until the slightest chance of digesting an idea is gone. That idea is destroyed forever, lost in the echo chamber of self-important consultants and rash Twitter feeds.

Never before in human history has so much information been available so readily to so many. Yet although we are creating and writing more, we are saying less.

IN FAHRENHEIT 451, RAY BRADBURY’S seminal novel about censorship and intellectual intolerance, a “fireman” was someone who burned books. Well, we don’t burn books per se, but we burn discourse. We don't destroy newspapers, but our actions are killing them off just the same. We are the firemen.

So this is my warning and my plea: don’t get caught up in the social media panacea. Instead, experiment and decide what works for you and your company. Focus on the customer first and the technology second. It’s okay to take small steps, to do what’s best for your business, to embrace new tools at your own pace even if it goes against the “purists” who argue that there’s only one way move forward.

And above all, take time to think, to plan, to discuss and learn. Embrace the unknown and reject those who insist they know it all. Find some silence and make decisions without being surrounded by so much noise.

I would give anything for just a few seconds of mental peace and quiet. Don’t squander yours.

Stop Measuring Social Media

Think about your most important relationships. They might be your spouse, your kids, your parents and your friends. Maybe it’s that teacher from high school who inspired you, or the co-worker who took you under his or her wing.

Now try to put a numerical value on those relationships. Seriously, see if you can. Then take that value and calculate the relationship ROI.

I know, it sounds ridiculous. Yet that’s exactly what companies expect from their social media engagement efforts.

Social media needs to be quantified, so the argument goes, or else it has little value. Everything needs a number.

This is, after all, how it was always done online. A company built a web site, people went to the web site. A brand put up banner ads, and people clicked on the banner ads. Action and reaction in near perfect symbiosis, with results easily exported into an Excel spreadsheet. Moreover, each action began with the company’s goal in mind, and with the expectation (even determination) that the customer would change his or her behavior to fit the company’s needs.

Today, these same companies are trying to do the same thing in a social web context – but an ROI rooted in conversations rather than clicks does not export well into Excel. Actions and reactions are chaotic, not symbiotic. And today, each action begins with the consumers’ goals, their desires and behaviors. Companies need to change their behaviors to befit the modern consumer or be damned.

Of course (contrary to popular belief) companies still have a large amount of control – it’s just that their influence is tempered by the rise of consumer involvement and greater share of voice. Marketing 2.0 is a team sport.

Overall, the web is a now a far more qualitative environment – yes, there are still plenty of numbers to compile, from page views to time spent interacting with content, widget downloads, video views and blog posts, and on and on. But this is only a small part of the value equation. The real value lies in the depth of these interactions and conversations, in the connections that are made between customer and brand. A customer isn’t just someone who clicks on a web site and orders a product, but someone who can tell others about the product and start a fan page, or come to a brand’s defense.

Social media is only “social” if people participate – otherwise it’s just technology with no soul. People are the real “killer app” of Web 2.0, and people don’t have numbers, they have names and voices. And now they can be heard.

So do yourself a favor – don’t measure social media, at least in the traditional sense of measurement. Put away the spreadsheets, the projections, the metrics and the cost-benefit analyses. Don’t count how many friends you have, but rather take a hard look at the value and extent of those friendships.

Just listen. Just participate. And just for once, don’t measure anything except how the experience makes you feel. That’s the first step – and the most important metric of all.

Facebook is the New Corporate Intranet (and Other Things I Want to Mention but Would Rather Not Discuss)

Glenn Beck is an Insensitive Prick – Beck told his national radio audience that “a handful of people who hate America are losing their homes in a forest fire today,” referring to the wildfires that started in Malibu. First of all, one of those people, Steve Dark, is a conservative who loves America and goes to church every week – or at least he did until his church burned to the ground.

So what does that mean, Glenn? Does God hate America, too? Steve and his Malibu neighbors are looking forward to your answer.

Facebook is the New Corporate Intranet – Why not? Create a Facebook Group, set it up as “Secret” – so it’s not visible to search, only invited members can participate and the group is invisible on members’ profiles – and voila, instant Intranet. Members can post, discuss and share information, even upload photos or host audio or video podcasts (and don’t forget the ability to create custom applications.) Simple to be sure, but for some companies simple is good enough. Goodbye HTML, hello FBML.

Social Media is Not Just About a Set of Tools – Will someone please tell this to Ragan and PRSA? Please, before they hurt somebody? It’s often those who profess to know the future that turn out to be the most shortsighted.

Twit This: Twitter is Good for Something – I know, hard to believe, but San Diego PBS station KPBS used the popular micro-blogging tool to keep residents in touch with the latest wildfire news via their mobile phones. If you do crisis communications, Twitter is a great way to spread the word.

I Gave it an Honest Try, and "Cavemen" is Just Not Funny – I wanted to believe, ABC, I really did. But…damn.

The Audience is Still Smarter Than Us (and Generous) – I don’t know if professional photographer Alex Miroschnichenko’s decision to brave the Santiago Fire in Orange County and distribute his images for free was simply a random act of citizen journalism, but it was a significant act of citizenship.

New Glasses Don’t Make You Any Less Bald – Hey, it was worth a shot. At least I still have time to grow a beard and dress up as Phil Gomes for Halloween (sorry, I know I shouldn’t make fun of a guy about to get married, that’s supposed to happen after the wedding.)

 

 

 

Looking Ahead: Content is Where You Are

AS BOTH A CHILD OF and practitioner in the modern “we’ve got you surrounded” age of media, nothing should surprise me. I’m used to message bombardment, from traditional sources like television and radio to more non-traditional sources like shopping cart handles, airport security trays and strategically placed tattoos. Even O.J. Simpson getting arrested again isn’t enough to make me blink.

But as the picture here demonstrates, there is always a new way to reach consumers who long ago either tuned out traditional media, or are so inundated by advertising that they tune it all out.

Advertising paradise has been paved and put into a parking lot. It’s as clear as the lines on the asphalt asking us to watch Desperate Housewives on ABC – these are desperate times for television as well.

But this isn’t about TV or anything else being “dead.” It’s about media companies continuing to change and adjust to a modern world that isn’t going away. It’s about embracing people’s busy lives and reaching them where they are, rather than making an appointment and hoping people show up. Unlike its much older media colleague – newspapers – TV is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

ABC has been especially adept at understanding the New Web Order, that your web presence is more important than your web site. As one ABC exec put it, “ABC.com is a platform – and that platform can be distributed anywhere.”

And it is, on mobile phones and iPods (we’re waiting for the inevitable Facebook app, too.) ABC also cracked the code of co-creation, using its Lost message boards to help develop plotlines with the audience.

This is in contrast to NBC’s latest move to remove its shows from Apple’s dominant iTunes store, opting instead to make shows available for free on its web site. The catch? The free shows have commercials while the iTunes shows you pay for are commercial free.

No question NBC’s decision has more to do with money than content distribution. And plenty of people will go to NBC and watch shows for free rather than pay a few dollars not to see car ad after car ad.

I just wonder how long this can last. Ultimately people don’t want to be on your web site, they want to be on their web site, blog, social network, phone, iPod or PDA. The web site is a creature of the ‘90s and is quickly becoming an endangered species, but that’s a topic for another day.

More and more, content today is wherever people are – not where anyone else, including the TV networks, wants them to be.

Coming to Terms with the Empty Page

It happens more often than I like, this last time being the worst in recent memory.

In the old days – you know, back in the 1990s – we called it writer’s block. Today it’s “blog fade.” But whatever the terminology the effect is the same: deep feelings of guilt, embarrassment, and failure.

For a writer pages are never blank. Pages are full of expectation and excitement. They stare back at you with the longing of a stray puppy looking for a home, begging to be embraced, fed and cared for. Blank pages aren’t empty, but rather filled with words and ideas yet to be discovered.

So how hard can it be to bring out what’s already there? That’s easier said than typed. Ideas are at odds with the blank page, they resent it. Ideas have their own sense of time and urgency. So the page waits as the ideas move at their deliberate and often unnerving pace.

I could blame my work schedule for the lack of blog posts. However, that would not only be an excuse, but pretty sad as I work for a company that embraces new media. The boss isn’t keeping me down, my brain is.

I could blame the news, but again, that would be inane. If you can’t think of anything to say after Rupert Murdoch buys the Wall Street Journal, you’ve got a serious problem.

And I could blame my personal life, but that would be difficult seeing as I don’t really have one. I admit my new plasma TV has been a distraction, but the high definition service doesn’t get installed until later this month, so again, this excuse falls as flat as my new screen.

All that’s left is to do this: write a post about how I can’t write a post. They say to write what you know, and lately what I know is I can’t muster the energy to write.

But I have decided one thing. I’ve decided not to blame anything or anyone, including myself. Blame doesn’t get you anywhere but back where you started. I’ll write when I can, when I have something to say, when the blank page reveals itself and the ideas flow. There is too much going on in the new world of journalism and media in general, and once in a while my voice will rise and, hopefully, add to the common discourse.

Today is not that day. Tomorrow may not be, either. But you will hear from me again – the blank page is calling.

Where Have All the (Marketing) Leaders Gone?

“There’s not a compelling reason to stay.” – Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that “launched” in Second Life.

 
I’ve always said that there are two kinds of companies: Those that read case studies, and those that write them. Most want to be the latter but fall back on the former – they are willing to take risks as long as others have taken them first.

Reading case studies and doing your homework is fine. But more and more, at least in terms of exploring and investing in new media, companies are either holding back or getting out too soon.

I’ve seen it again and again in my professional life. Some companies want to be perceived as “hip” without actually having to be hip. They want to “do social media” as long as they can “do it” the same way they’ve always done traditional PR. They want “one of those viral videos,” as if putting a clip on YouTube is an automatic Golden Ticket to word-of-mouth nirvana.

Even those companies that take the leap – that are willing to write the case studies for our new media world – do so without a clear strategy or get out because there wasn’t any “immediate” return.

For example, American Apparel and Starwood Hotels, two of the earliest innovators in the virtual world of Second Life, are either closing shop or letting their simulations languish. Others simply wanted to write a press release about being in Second Life more than they wanted to be in Second Life. Now corporate marketing executives want to know what’s next so they can look cool to their kids (some friendly advice: You will never look cool to your kids.)

You can’t experiment with a bleeding edge social network and expect immediate results, yet this is the message these companies send when they fold their tents. And if more companies go, who will be left to move the medium forward? Social media allows innovation to come from the bottom up, this is true, but great innovation also needs stewards at the top.

Corporate America is scared. Things are changing too fast, consumers are too powerful and marketing is too fragmented. The One Corporate Voice now has to speak with multiple messages for infinite desires stretched across psychographic lines on varied platforms.

Marketing today is better because of the ability to have real conversations and relationships with consumers. It’s also a lot easier to find the people you want to reach.

But marketing today is also harder. It requires patience, some prescience and lots of participation. It demands new metrics of measurement. And yes, it calls for risk and a long-term view.

Running in place will keep you fit for a while, but it won’t get you anywhere. And if they continue to be too careful, American marketers will find themselves on the sidelines and out of the race for good.

Richard and Me

I work for Edelman, which means I work, ultimately, for company CEO Richard Edelman. So it’s not too much to expect that we would at least meet, have a handshake and share a few words.

Yet after four months of happy employment, this meeting still eludes Richard and me. That’s not to say there haven’t been a few close calls; I got within a few feet of him at one point. But that handshake, that look in the eye, that exchange of professional pleasantries between colleagues remains a goal unfulfilled.

As I said, I’ve gotten close, including:

At the office in Los Angeles. Richard was in town for a Trust Barometer event, and he met earlier in the day with employees. I was on a call and arrived a bit late, sitting in the back of the kitchen by the vending machines. I didn’t mind, however, as my seat was more comfortable than the desk and glass partition that passes for my office. Richard was very personable and connected well with the staff, but before I could ask a question or meet him, I had to run off to another meeting. By the time I was done Richard was long gone. Was he really there, I wondered? Or was this just a dream induced by the handful of Red Vines I had for lunch?

At a Senior Management Meeting. I was brought in to help facilitate a workshop, which was not only a great assignment from a visibility perspective, but it also afforded the opportunity to meet and work with the likes of Steve Rubel, Michael Wiley, Rick Murray and Phil Gomes.

Before we began the workshops, each facilitator stood in front of the room and introduced themselves. Richard was in the first row center – here was my chance, I thought. This time he would hear my name and we would say hello, maybe kick back later at the bar and discuss the future of PR. But alas, it again wasn’t meant to be for Richard and me. After the introductions I looked around and Richard was gone – how could he leave a room so fast? Was he really there in the front row, or was that just a hologram? Maybe that wasn’t Richard at all, but a decoy – a bodyguard who looks just like Richard, so the real Richard Edelman can walk among the people and learn their ways. You know, like Queen Amidala did in The Phantom Menace, only without that annoying Jar Jar Binks.

In New York. I was at the Javitz Convention Center for the New York Auto Show. It was a busy day and I had to leave in the afternoon to catch a flight to Chicago. My flight time meant I needed to leave for JFK around 3 PM – the same time Richard was due to stop by the show. It was going to be close, but how long does a handshake need to take, really? This was my best chance yet and I wasn’t going to blow it.

I didn’t count on the rain, however. Rain in New York makes two things disappear: Civility and taxis. I didn’t care about the former, but the latter meant I need to leave before 3 PM if I hoped to get a ride to JFK and make it through traffic in time.

So I left without seeing Richard. And to make matters worse, when I got to the airport I discovered my flight was going to be delayed at least two hours (jetBlue, what’s happened to you?) Not only could I have stayed at the auto show and met Richard, we could have hung out. We could have met as colleagues and left as old friends.

Maybe it's just not meant to be. After four months I still can't even get my blog feed put on the Edelman blog landing page, so what makes me think I'm worthy enough to meet the CEO?

Nevertheless, I’m sure we will meet one day, some way. But until then I will keep hoping and praying that when we do finally meet it goes well. After all, I love my job – and if keeping it means never meeting Richard Edelman, then well, I guess I’m okay with that.

 

Beware the Flying Cars of Progress

"If you invest more in the newsroom, do you make more money? The answer is yes. If you lower the amount of money spent in the newsroom, then pretty soon the news product becomes so bad that you begin to lose money." -- Esther Thorson, Director of Research, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, which for me is especially disturbing since I only post a few times a month anyway. This would be worse, of course, if I actually had readers – so no harm, no foul.

Nevertheless, the guilt of these blogless days weighed heavy upon my soul. So many stories have come and gone, passing me by faster than Sanjaya Malakar’s fame. Yet the demands of Powerpoint presentations, conference calls, travel and listening to Gomes go on and on about Linux left no time for me to add another grain of digital sand on the endless of beach of Person Created Content (PCP for short – hmmm, on second thought, that’s perhaps not the best acronym.)

I thought about writing a long essay about the future of journalism, or a 140 character Haiku about Twitter, or a witty satire about a social media something. But the first option would take too long, the second required too much creativity, and the last almost certainly would have been taken too seriously by Shel Holtz. In the end, I decided to write about flying cars.

When my sister was young – a long, long, long time ago – a teacher told her that by time she was old enough to drive, everyone would have a flying car. She did get a Ford Cobra II, but every time she tried to fly the California Highway Patrol brought her back to Earth.

I heard the same thing when I was young, but my Chevy Cavalier often never moved, much less flew. And just the other day, a friend’s eight-year-old daughter echoed the generational promise: “When I get older, everyone will have a flying car.”

There’s nothing wrong with dreams – but if your head is always in the clouds it become hard to see the way forward. Put another way, I’m all for chasing the next new thing, whether it’s viral video, micro blogging, widget mania or any number of technological advances that are the “flying cars” of the social media age. But none of these tools replace the need for intelligent storytelling, critical thinking or core communications skills.

For example, in many newsrooms today, reporters are now required to shoot video or maintain blogs as part of their reporting duties. Yet shooting video alone doesn’t necessarily make for better journalism. In fact, a study out of the University of Missouri shows that investing in well-trained journalists increases newspaper circulation – I’m not sure the same would be true for investing in DV cams.

So beware the flying cars of progress. Don’t let the promises of the future betray your responsibilities to the present. Technology can’t help you if you don’t have anything to say.

Some Interesting Things About the New Communications Forum

Kevin Smith and Chris Heuer, seperated at birth...

• I got to sit on a Viral Marketing panel with the guy who directed Clerks and Chasing Amy (oh wait, sorry, that was Kevin Smith, not Chris Heuer)

• I learned how to pronounce Kami Watson Huyse’s name. It’s “Wat-Son.” So simple!

• Phil Gomes wore a tie. More significantly, it wasn’t a clip-on.

• There were lots of monologues about the importance of conversations.

• Being “engaged” is also very important. Unfortunately I’m already married, which interestingly also kills conversations (at least the kinds of conversations I can win.)

• Lots of people were blogging or twittering or IRC-ing or texting during the sessions. I’m convinced they were just trying to make us losers with pens and paper look bad.

• Best sound bite: “The attempt to be infallible drives out authority and humanity.” – David Weinberger

• Worst sound bite: “Wikis are dead.” – Some Guy on Some Panel. Saying that something is “dead” just makes you sound ignorant, narcissistic or both.

• Susan Getgood is smart. Linda Zimmer is scary smart. The image of Shel Israel in the shower reaching for shampoo is just plain scary (long story, please don’t make me repeat it.)

A final thought: New Comm was okay, but next year, I’ll take an invitation to Ted instead.

Redefining the Social Network and Social Media

“I don’t think it is easy for MySpace and Facebook to adapt and bend to the needs of individual brands.” – Alexander Mouldovan, Founder, Crowd Factory

They had names like Compuserve, The Well, Tribe and Usenet. One of them, a little regarded place called America Online, became a behemoth, though the others fell either into history or obscurity. The Internet turned into the World Wide Web,  into the entomology of modern life.

Now there is Web 2.0 and “social” media technology – enabling an Internet created by individuals as well as corporations. But this is not, as some people and media reports would have you believe, a new Internet – rather, it is a decades-old promise finally coming true.

More than a year ago I said that 2006 would be the year that blogging passes from novelty into utility, and it did – blogs are not only mainstream media themselves, but they are a staple of traditional media news sites. The same shift is now happening with social networks, albeit with a significant difference.

Blogs were something new, a powerful self-publishing tool that opened the door to a “read-write” web. Moreover, blogs will always be a part of the web, not the web in its entirety.

But social networks – or to be more exact, technologies that allow people to interact and share ideas and content instantaneously – are becoming the Web. Eventually, the Internet itself will be one, giant, global social network, created by and for individuals.

The First Wave – Gated Communities
You can’t scratch the Internet today without finding the word “social.” Instead of building static web sites, corporations are now building their own “social networks.” Cisco Systems, which owns a social network development company, is purchasing Tribe.Net’s technology so it can build networks for corporate customers.

Nike has a social network. So do Carnival Cruises and Sheraton hotels. There are hundreds of social networks with more going online all the time – and while acting as separate membership communities, almost all have the same “social” features like blogs, audio and video sharing, messaging and friends lists.

These types of social networks – led by the likes of powerhouses MySpace and Facebook, Bebo and Gather – represent the first wave. They give members freedom but within certain parameters and interfaces. They are not so much closed communities but “gated” ones, where members must act and express themselves in certain ways or discuss defined topics. Think of it as being part of a homeowner’s association that allows everyone to have a garage as long as it’s painted one of five pre-approved colors (sounds strange, but I live in Orange County, Calif., where this really happens.)

The Second Wave – An Internet Built With Bridges
But if Internet users hate anything, they hate constraint. A second wave of social networks promises to remove all constraint – in effect, to disband the homeowner’s association and let people paint their garages whatever color they want.

These networks – networks like Second Life and Ning, the latest brainchild from Netscape founder Marc Andreessen – aim to turn the Internet into a tabula rasa where customization is king. According to a recent New York Times article, Ning allows “anyone to set up a community on any topic…Ning users choose the features they want to include, like videos, photos, discussion forums or blogs. Their sites can appear like MySpace, YouTube or the photo sharing site Flickr – or something singular.”

Furthermore, standards like OpenID hope to make identity transferable from community to community. Just think – an Internet of true imagination, entire worlds that people build themselves. An Internet built not with walls or gates, but with bridges.

People Make It Social, Not Technology
For this to happen we need to do our part, too:

• We need to change our thinking of the Internet as something that includes social networks to something that is a social network.

• Technology allows media to be shared, but technology alone doesn’t make blogs or RSS feeds or tagging “social.” Only people can do that. In other words, a blog is “sharable” media – media that is easily shared with others anywhere, that can be updated quickly and with which we can interact – but it’s how people engage with the blog that determines whether it is also “social" media.

Nevertheless, the next wave is here. Social networks and social media are disappearing into the fabric of the Web. The promise of Compuserve and “Web 1.0” sites is here.

And as for what comes next? Well, that responsibility now appears to lie with us.