Below the Fold

Innovation and the Meaning of Nowhere

It’s easy to let your mind to wander while driving along the Blue Highways of Mid-Missouri, especially in the Winter. To the naked eye there is little with which to occupy your thoughts -- just gray two-lane roads and thin, sleeping trees. All around it’s tombstone quiet, the rumbling of the tires competing only with the beating of your heart.

There are no skyscrapers, shopping malls or sushi joints. And good luck finding high-speed Internet service, wi-fi, 4G or 3G (yes, Virginia, thankfully there’s still GPRS.)

But there definitely is something here, something more important than post-modern technology yet just as critical to its success.

This place -- and countless other “nowheres” like it -- oozes with infinite possibility. The expanse is exhilarating, empowering. It makes you believe that you can do anything you want, armed with nothing more than a dream and the desire to realize it.

Where some see desolation others see a canvas. Where some see miles of nothing, others see paths to innovation. From the quiet can emerge a cacophony of new ideas and creative sparks.

My point is simply this: Sometimes there is more to learn from shutting down Twitter and not reading Mashable. Sometimes, what we think is real, what we think is a trend, what we think is epiphany, is nothing more than the reverberation of the voices outside our heads giving us a Groupthink version of reality.

Sometimes you need to forget everything you thought you knew and start over. This is how the Internet thrives, how new technologies are discovered and how culture is transformed. These are the pleasures that perspective brings.

The value of Nowhere should not be underestimated. Find yours, and you will find innovation not far behind.

Eleven Things That Won't Happen in 2011

Tis the season for predictions, prognostications, suppositions and, let’s be honest, some downright guessing about what’s in store for next year. Rather than join the fray, following are 11 things that I boldly predict will not happen in 2011:

-- Print won’t disappear

-- Rupert Murdoch won’t get less creepy

-- Social media won’t cure cancer, though it will be discussed as if it could

-- Coming up with new ways to say the same things won’t make those things new again

-- No one will “own” social media but everyone will try

-- Cable companies won’t go away (but damn a lot of us will try to make them)

-- Steve Jobs won’t wear a jacket, much to the chagrin Jewish mothers everywhere

-- The New York Mets won’t win. Anything. EVER.

-- No one will be “the next MySpace,” not even MySpace

-- Yahoo! won’t change it’s name from “Yahoo!” to “Big Deal, Yeah, Whatever...”

-- I won’t shamelessly plug my book (The Last Newspaper, http://amzn.to/ijf6eS). That would be, well, just plain silly.

Social Media Technology is History in Motion

I’m a technology evolutionist. Granted I just made that up, but it fits.

I don’t believe new technology is just created -- I believe it evolves, with each innovation building on the other. No printing press, no iPad. These technologies are from different centuries yet share the same DNA.

And like technology, content evolves too:

-- Radio started with low-quality programming — but better content (and a world war) drove mass adoption

-- Television started with little original programming, mostly re-purposing radio serials — but better content and Madison Avenue made TV must-see

-- Then came the Internet, which began with grainy postage-stamp sized video and the Star Wars Kid. Now we have Old Spice, “amateurs” making HD-quality videos and former presidents doing live Q&As on Facebook

Media is about sociology and not technology. As the stories we tell get better, the mediums we use will adapt and interfaces will morph to meet modern cultural demands. Better content will drive scale.

I know it’s cliche, but the technology “revolution” is just an evolution. What we are experiencing today is nothing less than history in motion.

Legos, Airplanes and the Future of the Web

IN THE UNITED STATES we have a two-party system -- well, technically. There’s the Democrats, the Republicans, and then the dozens of mini parties within and outside the main Parties, not to mention the multitudes of non-affiliated, disenfranchised and disillusioned.

But for all its failings, Democracy is an open system which, for the most part, works. It beats the opposite, that being a closed system akin to oligarchy or monarchy. We can do better with our current form of Democracy, but I’d rather let everyone have a voice even if I disagree, rather than have no voice at all.

The Internet now faces a similar choice -- stay open, as World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee intended, or revert to a more closed system of apps and pay walls, akin to the ‘80s when CompuServe, Prodigy and AOL reigned.

I admit, this is an over-simplification of a complex issue. Like the two major political parties, the truth rarely lies at the extremes but rather somewhere in the middle.

Nevertheless, in our desire to bring order to our virtual universe, we are in danger of losing our ability to innovate.

As with an election, we have a choice here, too: we can either play with Legos or build model airplanes.

Legos -- the real kind, before they came pre-packaged with directions on how to build an Imperial Cruiser -- left everything to the imagination. Legos are open, endless, iterative and collaborative. Legos are a doorway to innovation.

Model airplanes, however, require deliberateness and order (not to mention a lot of rubber cement and a cool temper.) If you stray from the model or the approved directions, the plane won’t fly. Model airplanes are finite; they have rules and are largely solitary endeavors.

The Web is the ultimate Lego set, a digital tapestry of zeros and ones capable of endless discovery. Yet all this potential is tempered by the sheer volume of information, and it’s this overload which, in part, has prompted the rise of apps and walled-off social gardens.

I believe both Legos and model airplanes can co-exist -- neither needs to spell the death of the Web or stem innovation.

You can have the Apple approach where all apps for the iPhone, iPad and soon Mac store need to meet certain stands and approvals, both technical and societal -- and you can also have apps for the Android mobile platform and Mozilla app store, where developers have more freedom to play with their digital Legos and create without constraint.

The Internet needs the Web, as do the millions in developing countries who still rely on the open Web for information and education. Not everyone has an iTunes account and a credit card.

The Web’s beauty is in its simplicity -- a universal digital language that crosses borders with the ease of sunlight. And its strength is in its freedom, in the unknown potential of what it is and yet could be.

I know if I follow the directions, my model airplane will fly on the first try. But given the choice, I’d rather have the freedom to experiment and learn from the crash.

Be a Social Media DJ

WITH MORE THAN 12 MILLION fans, it’s safe to say that Oreo must be doing something very right with its Facebook presence. Sure, it helps that your product is also a cultural icon and Shaq is one of your spokespeople, but you still need to do the work.

Beth Reilly, who oversees the Kraft team responsible for the Oreo page, said at the recent BlogWell conference that a key part of her strategy is treating Facebook more like TV and less like the Web:

“Facebook is the new TV,” she said. “Facebook is our new background noise — it’s always on. And where a brand URL was once the place to go for brand communications, fans more and more look to Facebook as the de facto place to find information about the brands they love.”

It’s a fair point. But as she goes on to explain, the Oreo Facebook strategy is also built around providing information and entertainment to fans, not so much sales and promotions.

In other words, the site has a “voice” -- and that voice is more akin to radio than television.

Like TV, radio can be enjoyed as “background noise.” But radio was at its emotional best when DJ’s ruled the airwaves. DJs understood the needs of the audience and did their best to inform and entertain them.

Isn’t this what a good social media manager does?

A television program director fills the funnel and keeps the engine running -- he is beholden to the content providers. A DJ is beholden to the audience, engaging in dialogue while letting the fans also drive the show.

So don’t treat your social channels like television or static “background noise.” Have a voice and get involved.

Be a social media DJ.

Digital Storytelling and the Rise of “Layered Narrative”

(Cross-posted from http://velocidi.posterous.com/)

MERCEDES-BENZ BRINGS US the story of a baby named “Crash,” a miracle to his parents for surviving a collision that, by the looks of the car his mom was driving, should have been impossible. It’s a chilling video piece, dramatic yet real; produced, yet personal.

But that’s just part of the story. There are also copies of the accident report; a freeway map to show where the accident occurred; and another video of the baby’s post-accident first steps. Another story about an aspiring athlete nearly killed by a drunken driver connects to pictures of the totaled vehicle and a live highway video feed.

Each of these narratives continue beyond the microsite. Web and iAds show us the storytellers but this time emphasize safety features. A slogan underscores the safety message and links to more information about Mercedes cars.

This is not the first experiment in telling a story differently based on the medium in which it’s told, with each line of narrative adding new information rather than repackaging. The Living Stories project tried it with journalism, and NBC’s “Heroes” did it with original webisodes and digital comic books.

Life is linear but living is not -- and neither should be our storytelling.

As traditional online and social channels multiply, the way we tell and consume stories needs to change. We can’t express the same story the same way across media platforms -- new distribution methods, from blogs and Twitter to tablets and smart phones, require that we tell distinct elements of a single narrative depending on the channel.

Each story layer contributes to the whole -- the layers rely on each other, held together by the connective tissue of human emotion.

Welcome to the Age of the Layered Narrative.

Our Brains, Rewired
Today, right now, should be a new golden age for storytelling. We have all the information we could ever want at our fingertips. And that is the problem.

This blessing of plenty is also a curse. There is so much, coming at us so fast, that our brains can’t handle it. So in a desperate attempt at cognitive self-defense, we create more distance. Stories are now “content,” and words like “post” and “engagement” are the cold lingua franca for the Always On generation.

Our species craves stories; to us, stories are the intellectual fuel that drive us and bind us to each other. Thousands of years wired our brains for narratives, but a couple decades of e-mail and the Internet ripped our circuits and rewired our synapses, turning our minds into short attention span theaters.

Nevertheless, time is an arrow and technology is a bullet train -- we can’t turn back nor should we. Our brains have adapted to a world of social media, 140 character bursts and life at light speed.

Fortunately, while our world can’t change, the way in which we approach storytelling can.

The solution: The Layered Narrative
If stories bring us together, then we need to make stories -- narratives -- the universal DNA of digital communication.

People have shared stories for centuries -- from cave carvings to campfires and books to television, this is how culture passes through the generations. We tell stories, embellish them and create our own. Storytelling is as universal as breathing.

Many brands, however, haven't done this very well. The “early days” of social media marketing -- you know, 2005 or so -- saw brands simply putting their commercials on YouTube or posting press releases on their blogs. The "stories" were meant to be consumed, not shared. Narrative became lecture and story became content. The digital world expanded but how brands approached this new reality did not.

Layered narratives allow more space for interaction, sharing, collaboration and contribution. Every unique layer makes the source material stronger and the story more engaging. And because our involvement is essential to the story, we allow the story to transcend technology. We become the “social objects.” 

Research tells us that people need to be exposed to information multiple times before they remember or, more importantly, before they trust it. Layered narratives fulfill this need for a variety of touch points, giving people room both to consume and explore a story as well as inject their own layers.

And if people can find and assemble these layers, so should search. Smarter algorithms and social data will put the river of content into context, giving preferential treatment to layered storytelling. The parts will gel and rise together.

Layered narratives help ensure that marketing is not just integrated but that it also cohesive. It’s time to clear the way for a new generation of brand storytellers who abhor silos, crave interaction and embrace leaps of function and format as well as faith.

Multiple layers, varied content -- but in the end, one powerful story.

Out of Edelman, Back Into the Fire

ON JUNE 27, 1990, I was having dinner by the beach in Santa Barbara when I looked up and noticed the city was on fire. Within minutes we heard the sirens and my fellow restaurant patrons headed for the door and out of town, away from danger. I, however, slapped on my press pass and hurled toward the raging inferno.

 

Gay Talese, in The Kingdom and the Power, called journalists “restless voyeurs,” and he was right. We are also incredibly stupid, such as when I arrived at the fire line and realized I forgot to put my window back up after talking to a California Highway Patrol officer (important safety tip: if the fire doesn’t kill you, the smoke will.)

 

Nevertheless, we are indeed fascinated by the unknown, the dangerous. We are determined to get the story that no one else has, and are motivated by the satisfaction of doing something few others would dare to try. We drive into fires not because we aren’t afraid to die, but because we are afraid to die without first having lived.

 

Shortly after the fire I left daily journalism to interview inmates on Death Rows throughout the United States for a book I was writing about the death penalty. Then it was back to the newspaper before my next leap, this time to run political campaigns. I did pretty well, despite having the audacity to run a Democratic candidate against a Republican from Texas whose last name was Huffington. He was an empty suit but his (now ex) wife was always nice to me and very smart. I hear she now runs a blog, hope it’s doing okay. 

 

From there I entered the world of PR, another jump into a strange environment. Thankfully I was 1) a total geek and 2) captivated by this tool called a “Web Browser,” which led to my creation of a digital PR practice long before anyone, including myself, knew what that was. I then started my own digital marketing agency with a great partner – just as the Internet bubble burst. I'm blessed with good intentions but less than ideal timing.

 

Finally, almost four years ago, I came to Edelman to help build a digital practice on the West Coast. I was the only digital employee in California and one of only a handful in the entire time zone. Today Edelman Digital West is more than 65 strong, with great clients and a reputation to envy.

 

I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished; my last four years have easily been my greatest professional triumph. I did what I came here to do.

 

NOW ANOTHER CHALLENGE IS calling. I’m leaving Edelman to join an exciting digital agency with offices in New York and San Francisco. I will miss Edelman terribly, but It’s time for me to build once more.

 

Before I left Edelman, I told the team how proud I was of them. I told them to keep pushing their clients to tell stories and not just “create content.” I told them to remember that what they do is rooted in sociology and emotion, not technology and tools.

 

Most of all, I urged them to support each other; learn from each other; and continue to forge paths where others fear to tread. Good advice for all of us to follow.

 

So, at last, here it is. The road is open.

 

Here I go.

 

Into the fire, once again.

Freedom From the Press Should Empower Today's Journalists

Journalists have more on their minds these days than the mere transformation of their profession. They are struggling with being just like everyone else.

Journalists are used to being special. They are the only professionals with their own line in the U.S. Constitution -- "Freedom of the press." That meant anyone could be a reporter, although the reality was you could only practice "freedom of the press" if you could afford the means of production and distribution.

Now "Freedom of the press" has become freedom from the press. We all have the means to be reporters, to produce and distribute news and exercise our freedoms of speech and of press. We can use services like Paper.Li to make our own automated "newspapers" like mine or that of my employer.

What my former brethren need to focus on is that just because everyone can do a thing doesn't mean everyone should, nor does it mean they will do it well.

You didn't lose your Constitutional rights to report the news. Social media didn't strip you of your obligation to the public trust.

We need professional, quality journalism more than ever. Remember that the next time you feel sorry for yourself or write a misleading headline just to earn more page views. 

A Social Media Sanity Check: Six Ways to Slow Down

I’ve had to take things a little slower lately, which for me means going from working about 70 hours a week to only 60 hours.

Nevertheless, there’s great value in slow. Going slower makes you think faster. Slowing down can make you more productive. Slow works but doesn’t get enough credit.

My colleague Steve Rubel reminded me about being slow when he wrote about favoring “old school technology like newsletters in an age of too much.” And this from a guy who consumes more information in a week than all of humanity produced from Year Zero to 1900.

If Steve Rubel can slow down, then so can I. Here are six ways to help you put on the mental brakes:

• Stop following people who update Twitter with banal observations about the music they’re listening to “right now,” or with where they checked in, or with “inside tweets” to fellow ego-driven douchebags of the socal mediasphere. Not that I feel strongly about this or anything...

• E-mail is not a medium designed for urgency, so stop checking your Blackberry every nanosecond. If something is truly urgent, go to your mobile device of choice and try out the “phone” App.

• Do as Steve suggests and subscribe to newsletter “digest” versions of your favorite blogs. An earthquake in Haiti is important and necessitates real-time coverage – Google Buzz or the latest eMarketer chart does not.

• Read a newspaper while you still can. In fact, take a day, turn off your feeds and consume news only from print and radio. Then see if you feel less informed or more aware of actual news that matters.

• Write something longer than 140 characters or even a few paragraphs. Give it a premise and a beginning, middle and end. And when you’re done put it aside and come back to it a day or so later, and then edit the hell out of it. Finally, don’t post it anywhere. Not everything needs to be shared.

• Most of all, don’t believe blindly in the future. Believe in the past and trust your experience to make the future manageable, tolerable and, hopefully, more worthwhile.

A Social Media Prayer

Our user profiles, who art online,

hallowed be our names.

Thy check-ins done,

thy badges won,

on Earth as they are on FourSquare.

Give us this day our Facebook updates.

And forgive us our overuse of emoticons and exclamation points,

as we forgive those who tag us in old high school photos.

And lead us not into print,

but deliver us from Google, er, evil.

For thine is the Twitter, the blog post, and the lifestream, for ever and ever -- at least until the next damn thing comes along.

Amen.