Monday, August 28, 2006

Social Media Trends: An Interview

I recently helped lead a discussion of the Atlanta Media Bloggers, a group of bloggers and aspiring bloggers who meet once a month at a local pizza place in Atlanta.  The topic stemmed from an article that I had written for iMedia Connection about social media lessons that EarthLink has learned.

To get a different perspective on social media’s impact, I recently exchanged IMs with iMedia's executive editor, Brad Berens. 

Dan Greenfield: What is imediaconnection.com and what unique need does it meet?

Brad Berens: iMedia Connection is a daily email newsletter and website that covers new media (the web, email, mobile games, podcasts, etc.) with a particular interest in how those media affect marketing and advertising. Our readership is largely composed of the marketing folks at brands who work in or with interactive media, and the interactive ad agency folks. 

Greenfield: What interesting trends are you seeing in social media?

Berens: Right now, we're in the early stages of a big transition that is paying, or might pay, off what the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto were talking about at the turn of the millennium: markets are conversations. Brands like EarthLink, Microsoft and many others are moving from a univocal "this is the brand voice" model to the many-voiced model.

That’s a big deal because it entails more work on everybody's part. Indeed, if I had to point out one particular trend, it's that as media explodes into more varied channels with more and more and more content getting stuffed into those channels, the citizen who consumes media has to work harder and harder and harder to make sense of the world, and the media creator has to work harder as well.

Greenfield: How are companies adopting to social media?

Berens: Slowly.  Some big companies are allowing their employees to blog, but I think that a lot of companies are not sufficiently listening to the conversation that is happening about their brands and products.  Increasingly, traditional media properties get many of their leads from blogs, which means that ignoring a blogger with a decent readership can be perilous.  

On the creative side, things are happier, I think.  Subaru had a student competition for its new campaign. Bazooka gum has a consumer video contest.  Honda, a year or two ago, had an impressive "People Who Look Like Their Cars" campaign that took off. 

Greenfield: Who is not doing it well?  

Berens: Wal-Mart's attempt to rip off MySpace and control the conversation is, I think, not going to work out.  The Mazda’s fake auto manufacturer blog was a big mistake.  In essence, any time that marketers try to use a new media approach but wrap it up in old style control, it's a time bomb.  

Greenfield: Playing off the column from Wired Magazine, what are “wired,” “tired,” and “expired” in the social media world?

Berens: Starting with "expired," the belief that the marketer controls the brand image and that the brand can sit apart from the conversation taking place, hiding up in an ivory tower.  If you saw the Diet Coke / Mentos viral video a few weeks back, it was illuminating to see how Coca Cola and Mentos reacted differently to the video. In essence, Mentos completely embraced the video while Coke stuffily responded by saying, "we'd rather have people drink our products."  Mentos seemed like the cool brand on the block. Coke lost face. The brand is now in play on multiple fronts.

Under "tired" I'd list all forms of interruptive advertising. Online, that would mean, of course, pop-ups, but also anything with audio that is not user-initiated.  The most interesting thing about social media is that there are thousands upon thousands of practitioners out there who create things and then give them away rather than selling them. We've returned to a partial gift economy.

As for "wired," I'd say that the opportunities for marketers and advertisers to sponsor content, bring new content to viewers, brand entertainment and generally help people to achieve their goals... this is just beginning.

Greenfield: how does PR fit into the marketing mix?

Berens: The job of the PR person just got a LOT harder.  There is so much more to keep track of now.  Technology can help -- free Google alerts, Technorati, etc. -- but it's a tooth-and-nail fight to keep from being merely reactive.

Talented PR people will be in hot demand, I think, as the sheer size of the media river grows and grows and grows.  For all media consumers and creators, PR, creative, editorial, users, the real challenge now is to know when to UNPLUG.  What to take seriously and what not to take seriously.  These are judgment calls, and judgment comes with experience. 

Another thing that is interesting -- and this is both a global media thing and a PR thing -- is how time and place shifting will impact everything.  Back in the day, back before the internet, if you had a PR gaffe, and I mean something really horrible, you sucked it up dealt with it and, eventually, it was over.  But nowadays the indelibility of the internet means that some things never die.

The best thing that people in your role can do is to manage UP, to educate CEOs, CMOs and COOs about how much chatter is going on.  The PR folks need to integrate closely with marketing, as closely as they currently do with legal.  That's on the internal side.

On the external side, you might enjoy this "how to track your buzz" tutorial that has been picked up by different folks. It's a good indicator of just how much work there is for PR.  

Greenfield: Finally, how can marketers successfully navigate in the new world of social media given that many don't know what social media is, let alone how to use it?

Berens: I think to that to call what’s happening now “web 2.0 is just ridiculous. At best, we’re somewhere around web 1.01…The point of all this is that enabling the social media conversation is different than forcing it on people.  More people simply WANT information than want to CREATE information.  Successful companies will be careful not to get in the way of basic information acquisition, while making the path to engaging the community well-lit and easy to tread.

Greenfield:  Thank you for your thoughts.

Berens: Always a pleasure.

-------

My interview with Brad is one of many I plan to do with other opinion makers in upcoming postings.  Where I can, I will focus on how social media is blurring the line between traditional marketing and PR -- especially as PR professionals rely less on mainstream media journalists to deliver their message. 

Let me get back to you.

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 07:31:59 | Permanent Link | Comments (4) |

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Photojournalism from Iwo Jima to Lebanon

The image is iconic.  Five Marines and a Navy corpsman hoisting an American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.

This photograph was taken by Joe Rosenthal who died this past week at 94. 

Much has been written about this most enduring of American war photographs.  Postage stamps have been issued, movies have been made and statues erected to honor this seemingly small event in the course of the Second World War.  

More than a document of a moment in time, the photograph is transcendent, capturing the aspirations of a nation at war.

Despite its power and beauty, suspicions have persisted over the years that Rosenthal’s photograph was staged, undermining its journalistic integrity and its rightful place as a work of art.  Motion picture film shot at the event tends to support Rosenthal’s claim that the image was genuine.  And as Rosenthal pointed out, if he had really wanted to stage the event, he would have revealed the faces of the US military men.

Rosenthal’s picture was questioned because it was so perfectly composed.  Contrast that to Adnan Hajj, the Reuters freelance photographer, who was recently fired for doctoring a digital photograph of an Israeli attack in Lebanon.  

The story made front page news around the world. 

His actions were deplorable, and Reuters was justified in how it handled the situation.  Fortunately, Adnan Hajj’s poor Photoshop skills exposed what he had done.

We consumers of media have an odd relationship to the photograph. Everyday we are bombarded with images -- manipulated, cropped and air brushed.  We celebrate the artifice and buy the lie.  But when it comes to journalism, we demand a higher standard.  The image must be genuine.  Otherwise we feel robbed, cheated or lied to.

As a photographer myself, I believe that at a certain level all photographs are lies. What I shoot, how I shoot it, and how I print it are subjective decisions that distort objective reality.  Cropping the image, darkening some portions of the frame and lightening others are considered acceptable practices for any photographer, but they don’t give you a full picture of what actually occurred.  

In a digital world where millions of photographs are taken and distributed over the Internet on a constant, daily basis, it is a testament to the power of photography that a single image can still stir such passion and generate such controversy.

Let me get back to you.

 

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 07:56:08 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, August 21, 2006

Nothing Personal; This Is Business

Jerry Grasso is the director of corporate communications here at EarthLink.  He is also a husband and father of two including a son with autism.  I mention this as his blog is literally his diary about being a husband and father of two including a son with autism.  

Jerry and I started our respective blogs at roughly the same time, but the similarities end there.  His is personal; mine is professional.  His is a journal.  Mine reads like a column.  His is therapeutic and plays to the heart.  Mine is for professional growth and works the brain.  His serves as a forum for parents of autistic children.  Mine is meant as a platform to spark debate among PR practitioners.

Ours are two blogs among millions with very different audiences, very different purposes, but very much extensions of ourselves that we nurture and protect.

Six months ago we were blogging newbies; now we are veterans with some war stories to tell.

When we are not advancing the cause of EarthLink or getting on with our lives, we blog or talk about blogging.   We laugh at how far we have come, contemplate how far we want to go.  We wonder if we should extend our blogs by hosting our own sites, podcasting and posting interviews.

On occasion, conversations turn personal – as in how personal should blogs be and how much personal information should be revealed.  We both recognize that our blogs are for very different audiences, but I concede my personal blog reveals very little about my personal life. 

It makes me think of that classic line from one of the Godfather movies – “It’s nothing personal; this is business.”   Well when it comes to blogging and social media, the personal is part of business.  

In fact, some of the strongest blogs are personal.  They avoid corporate speak, divulge private information and engage readers in an informal conversation.  Blogs like the workplace itself reflect the more casual nature of the professional environment -- from the clothes we wear in the office to the way we collaborate with colleagues. 

If the personal is the goal, is there a limit to what you should post – especially now that employers are reviewing personal blogs before making hiring decisions?   And for employees whose blogs discuss work related and non-work related matters, where do you draw the line between work life and your private life?  What is appropriate?  Is that standard changing?  Are you doing a disservice by avoiding one and emphasizing another?

Social media is redefining the rules of public and private, personal and professional.  I have not reached any conclusions in part because the playbook for blogs continues to change .  I think that best we can do is rely on our instincts to determine how much disclosure is appropriate.      

Let me get back you.
 

Posted by Dan Greenfield at 08:00:31 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Five Considerations for Better Press Releases

There is a scene from a movie about Vince Lombardi the famed Green Bay Packer coach that has stuck with me over the years.  Lombardi had been brought in to turn around a losing football team.  In one of his first meetings with the players, he holds up a football and tells the locker room filled with seasoned veterans, “Gentleman, let’s get back to basics. This is a football.”  One of the players then raises his hand and asks, “Coach, can you go a little slower?”

Recently my corporate communications team got down to some basics with a writing coach to discuss our department’s written materials.  Now I know that folks like Todd Defren have been leading the charge to embrace a social media press release.  I think his format offers great promise, but I am moving a little more slowly and am not quite ready to make the switch. 

The session was very instructive and well worth the modest investment.  We spent much of the time on our press releases -- what they said, how we wrote them and equally important how they were read and by whom.  I sat back rather sheepishly as our coach pointed out areas for improvement.  I knew he was right.

For me, press releases serve three objectives – 1) announce news, 2) serve as the company’s official record for a news announcement and 3) function as an internal vehicle to shape messaging and recognize key employees.  To achieve these objectives more effectively, I submit five points for your consideration:

Your audience – Who is your audience?  The media is still your number one target followed by investors and consumers who can now read your announcements online.  Project managers and executives are another audience.  Tread carefully here.  They are most familiar with the announcement at hand, but their perspective may color your descriptions and lead you down jargon filled paths that keep you from more reader-friendly language.  Your challenge is to avoid this trap and push back with alternative phrases and terms that keep the media and public in mind.

Your voice – A lot of time and money is put into the tone of your ads.  Is the same amount of time devoted to your releases?  Beyond the AP style book, can you differentiate your releases from those of another company?  Clearly the news in a release takes priority, but you should not neglect the voice of the release.  While the brand must stay consistent, a voice may vary. It should reflect the gravity or lightness of the news being announced.  In my department, there is no pride of ownership when it comes to a release.  Our clients get the last word so to speak, and I am learning to be more accepting of individual styles of the folks in my department. 

 Your style – How often do you see a release begin with company X “announces?”  Reviewing our releases and those of other companies, more often than I realized.  Note to self: STOP.  There are times when “announce” is the exact verb to use, but not every time.  Be selective.  And speaking of verbs – they power your release.  As our writing coach told us, don’t let adjectives tell the story for you. 

Your format -- Normally our draft releases are written and formatted in Microsoft Word and circulated as email attachments.  Yet releases are often not formatted when they are distributed over the wire.  Reading online is very different than reading from a piece of paper.  Our eyes move differently when looking at a screen. We process information differently.  Even the best woven string of paragraphs needs some visual breaks with sub headlines and bullets.  Take a cue from newspapers, use pull quotes.  Consider stats and pictures.  And where you can, incorporate hyperlinks to bios of quoted spokespersons, studies that are cited, and products that are highlighted.

Your purpose -- With the advent of social media, are press releases your only option to deliver or dare I say announce news? Blogs and viral PR are fair game in the battle to capture attention.  Releases are becoming less impactful as the blogosphere can generate buzz long before the release hits PR newswire.  Sometimes the news doesn't warrant a release.  Here a blog posting may be more appropriate. Clearly releases are here to stay.  Only now they are but one variable in a news equation.  The informality and individuality of social media may also free us to be more creative in how we write and present our company’s news.
  

In the end, I know the coverage is far more important than the release.  Even the most beautifully written and well formatted press release won’t get coverage if there is no news.  And I would take a badly written release and great coverage any day, but that seldom happens.  So willing to try most anything once, I am going back to basics, embracing verbs and seeing if my coverage benefits.

Let me get back to you.

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 07:23:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Monday, August 14, 2006

Building Bonds

I am taking a few days off and visiting my dad in Vermont.  There is more than a nip in the air at night that brings back memories of college in New England.  But to be honest, I was thinking about college earlier last week after reading a Wall Street Journal story by Emily Steel about campus newspapers. 

It is no secret that the under 30 crowd doesn’t read newspapers – especially hard copies -- as the latest Pew Research Center for the People and the Press points out.  But don’t tell that to students at universities and colleges where campus newspapers are thriving.

The best I can tell, campus newspapers make news relevant.  They are a mouth piece for the college community and create a shared sense of identity that city and national papers don’t provide.  (In many cities, and I won’t name names, readers have been known to have some choice words for their local newspaper.)  Students have a relationship to their newspaper that most of us lack with our local paper.  That’s because the newspaper is about them and written by them.

Of course that connection doesn’t last.  Unlike the guy (that many of us can recall) who lingers on campus long after his graduation to avoid the real world, you move on after four years and form new relationships, discover new interests, and gravitate toward new sources of information.

Newspapers, though, should take note of that connection.  If campus newspapers are any indication, the issue isn't  reading or a lack of interest in news; rather newspapers must compete for the readers’ attention.  Campus newspapers on the other hand are sometimes the only source about college life.

For newspapers to be successful, they need to replicate that sense of community and establish a bond with the reader that campus newspapers clearly have.  Reader blogs, sites to post pictures and videos, and local news coverage at the micro level are some ways that have been suggested to keep readers engaged.

How to do that is a question for another day.  Instead I am going to do some bonding with my dad and take a walk with him and the dog.

Let me get back to you.

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 00:08:58 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Disclaimers 101

OK – you have done your homework, read Naked Conversations, gotten management to adopt a corporate blogging policy and now you are ready to embrace social media.  

You have ceded some of your control to enable employees to blog and now you brace yourself for the candor, personalization and transparency you have been advocating.

Easier said than done. When implementing a company blogging policy, forbidding the disclosure of proprietary and confidential information is a no brainer, but another key consideration is disclaimers. 

Employees wishing to discuss their company need to include a disclaimer stating that the views expressed on their personal blogs do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the company.  But what about posting online commentary on other sites?  What disclaimer guidelines should an employee follow when discussing a company, its products or its competitors when he or she is not a designated spokesperson?  Here a few options:

 

Option 1: Avoid the issue and post anonymously (that doesn’t make it legal or appropriate to violate a company’s disclosure policy on proprietary and confidential information.)  This is not ideal because it limits visibility, but it does permit more latitude to speak more openly. Of course some blogs don’t allow anonymous comments.

Option 2:  Require employees to state somewhere in a posting that the expressed views don’t necessarily reflect the views of the company.  This gives the blogger and the company more opportunities to get credit for the information.  This is always odd because it is hard to ignore the connection between the blogger and the company.

Option 3: Authorize a group of trusted, media-trained employees to comment as official spokespersons whose views do reflect those of the company.  This group does not need to use disclaimers.

Commenting, when appropriately done (respectfully and on topic) is an ideal way to extend a company’s message, correct factual inaccuracies, and provide useful information.  It is not a forum for employees to inflame and create controversy nor is it an invitation to disregard company policies or codes of behavior.  Looking for a comprehensive list of commenting do's and don'ts, I came across this posting by Gina Trapani -- Commenting Rules. It is very helpful.


This discussion is rather amazing for corporate communications department heads who in the past had exerted total control over the communications process.  It’s particularly challenging as the distinction between old media and blogs disappears. Many newspapers have blogs, and many blog postings make it onto news sites.  Often postings on blogs make their way into mainstream media.  

 

Still, I would never let a spokesperson talk to a reporter by him or herself let alone without talking points.  But in the interest of time management and personal expression, I won't object to employees expressing their views in the blogosphere.

I think the key to a successful blogging policy is flexibility – knowing you can’t anticipate every scenario. As long as an employee is acting in good faith, understands the rules of engagement and has an employer who has embraced social media as a tool for advocacy, then the blogging policy will be a success.  Lastly and more importantly, employees need to remember that when talking about their companies -- with or without permission -- they are agents of their companies and need to put the interests of their companies first.

I would be interested in hearing about how other companies address online commenting and disclaimers.

Let me get back to you.

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 01:14:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (4) |

Monday, August 07, 2006

I Want My Eons.com

This past week marked the 25th anniversary of MTV. It also marked the debut of eons.com, the Web portal aimed at Baby Boomers 50 and over.  

MTV was a milestone -- a cable television network devoted to youth culture through music videos.  Eons.com is also a milestone of sorts; an online social network designed for the needs of a particular subset of Boomers. 

At 43, I am ineligible for eons – a distinction I will covet for seven more years.  It’s not the first time I seemed to miss a generational cut off.  In 1969, it was Sesame Street, in 1981 MTV, and today it is mySpace.  All three have impacted peoples’ lives in untold ways, but none has been particularly relevant to my day to day life. 

To be honest, I am not sure how many Boomers will want to be part of a club geared to the AARP set. And sneaking onto the eons site is very different than a “tweener” pretending to be 14 to join mySpace.  

I applaud the attempt by eons, though. I think 50+ Boomers are greatly underserved.  Every technology conference I attend seems to skew discussions to an under 30 generation, leaving many an older boomer out in the cold, far reaches of cyberspace.

But challenges and opportunities abound.  How can we reach older Boomers and introduce them to products, services and information that they may find useful?  Do we market the same products differently or create new applications and environments specifically for those born between 1946 and 1964? Or is it a combination of both? 

Research suggests that a majority of seniors over 60 avoid the Internet and gadgets.  These seniors see fewer advantages from technology – finding it more intimidating and less likely to make their lives easier.  It is not surprising that they worry more about computers’ impact on their lives.

On the other hand, it is estimated that adults over 50 have $2 trillion in annual spending power, make up 13 percent of the population and are more likely to go online for health and financial information.

So why then is eons greeted as a novelty and with so much fanfare?  Putting aside its extensive archive of obituaries and longevity calculator, eons reflects the importance of the growing online needs of older Americans and how to reach them. 

 It is hard to market to the Boomer generation because many Boomers are conflicted and do not want to identify with their age.  Many companies market to this group, but don’t publicize their commitment.  No one wants to be perceived as “too old.”  Consequently, many business ventures serving this group can’t get financial backing or have folded due to a lack of advertising support.

Boomers, in fact, are not a monolithic group.  Younger Boomers have had enough experience with the Internet in the workplace to have a higher comfort level.  Regardless of age, there is always going to be an early adapter sub group who tries new things and embraces the latest gadget.

For me, eons strikes a responsive chord.  More than a reminder of my growing number of grey hairs, it is a recognition that we Boomers need to embrace social media in order to reap its benefits and stay relevant.  And that is tough when we have jobs and families to focus on.  Who over 30 has time to update their myspace page, go to work and take the kids to soccer practice?   For us, social networking is not integrated into our daily lives the way it is for younger generations.

In part my interest in social media reflects my need to keep pace with the next generation entering the workforce.  I stay current because I need to.  I spend time wondering what impact the mySpace and facebook generation will have on what is and what will be expected of me.  I can’t afford to disengage or wait and find out.  The crush of the technological imperative forces my participation.   

Let me get back to you.   

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 00:21:21 | Permanent Link | Comments (4) |

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Fostering A New(s) Generation

A couple points of interest this week in the news about news that may spark the under 30 crowd to pick up a newspaper or visit an online news site.

First, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press published its biennial news consumption survey.  Second, it was announced that several newspapers including the Washington Post and The Daily Oklahoman have contracted with Inform.com, an online news aggregator to compete with news search engines and aggregators like Google and Yahoo.  Third, CNN launched  I-Report, a site that allows people to submit audio, photos, videos and other news items for possible inclusion on the web.

The Pew study revealed that traditional news outlets continued to decline as a source of frequent information for the public.  Of particular interest was the finding that the online news market is dominated by a few players including – MSNBC, Yahoo, CNN and Google.  

All of which makes the Inform.com announcement very interesting.  Bob Tedeschi in The New York Times calls it a “counterattack by publishers against Google and Yahoo who have stolen readers and advertisers in recent years.” 

So the thinking appears to be two can play at that game.  Newspapers are going to try to replicate the success of search engines and aggregators and attempt to compete head on to attract and retain readers.

I wonder if replicating a news aggregation strategy is the answer to what ails the newspaper industry.  I read newspapers in print and online regularly.  Having the ability to link to another article isn’t what keeps me coming back for more.

I think the posting, "Newspapers Adopt Blog Linking Strategy" on Blogger’s blog got it right:

“This [aggregation strategy] will be a bonus for online newspaper readers because it will allow them to easily find more news stories covering the same topic.  However, blogs go one step beyond this in that the links bloggers provide are hand-picked by people and not automatically generated from algorithms.” 

For me, the power of new media isn’t only the ability to aggregate news.  It is not about the links. (Too many links in one story can be overwhelming or distracting.)  It’s about the human touch, personalization and conversation.   The challenge is to create an open platform for sharing news along with the ability to provide editorial insight, perspective and discussion.

That’s important as newspapers face the even bigger issue of appealing to readers -- especially younger ones. 

According to the Pew study, "the growth of the online news audience has slowed considerably, particularly among the very young, who are now somewhat less likely to go online than are people in their 40s."  The study goes on to say that newspapers continue to attract "anemic numbers of young readers."

At the same time, the Pew study found that blogs that discuss news events have become a destination for a significant number of young people, especially those 18-24 -- the same group that is reading newspapers less often. 

Looking toward the future, it seems newspapers have an opportunity to reach young readers if they can determine how best to incorporate the social interactive aspects of blogging into their coverage and overall editorial content.  More than letters to the editor, social media has to be a platform for engagement and interactivity. 

Which brings me back to I-Report. CNN may be on to something as it gives an opportunity for citizens to actively participate and feel like they are part of the news process even if as reported, contributors won't get paid for their submissions.  If the success of YouTube.com is any indication, I-Report and formats like it may fuel a passion for news in a whole new generation of Americans.  

Let me get back to you.

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Posted by Dan Greenfield at 00:41:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |