Author: Angelo Fernando

Cult of the amateur: provocative idea, wrong lens

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

If you loved Wikinomics, you’ve got to read Andrew Sheen’s “The cult of the amateur.” It forces your brain to take a compare the seductive arguments about knowledge democratization, and the decline of social values as a result of user-generated content.

On the face of it Sheen is a cross between Vincent Bryan Key (Subliminal Seduction) and Neil Postman (Amusing ourselves to death) both warning about the dangerous trends in advertising (in 1974), and television culture (in 1986) respectively.

He sees the internet as the slippery slope of literary, moral and cultural standards, and seems to try hard to relate it to amateurism. Indeed, the struggle between old media and its receptacles, versus new media and the infinite pores out of which this new content is flowing is easy to cast as one between the good guys and the baddies.

But it’s not, and I discuss why, here in my detailed review of the book, at ValleyPRblog.

Social Media Resume –its about time

/ Angelo Fernando / 4 Comments

Today’s jobs find job seekers because of the profiles and filters they set up long before the job search begins. For HR managers, Google searches and the ability to look at social media profiles of potential candidates short circuit the time between making a short list and making a decision.

I recently had a great discussion with Mike McClary about the rising importance of a social media profile, and the declining returns of a resume. I had written about this for a student newsletter, and it was waiting to be expanded on. Mike, a podcaster, blogger and writer is deep into this stuff. We started calling this resume 2.0 phenomenon the “Social Media Resume” or SMR. (I know it’s gonna compete with the Social Media Press Release.)

The structure of a boring, chronological resume is trapped in the old media world, swirling with ‘resume words’ rather than key words, using chronology, rather than highlights, depending on hype rather than hyperlinks. Isn’t that really odd? It’s the equivalent of sending someone a fax of a print out of he storyboard of your award-winning video, when you could easily send her the URL on YouTube.

The SMR could be enhanced to include links, and new media element. But it’s not even about the layout. Your SMR could be a dynamic thing, a collective impression based on the digital tracks you leave behind. These could be comments on a blog, trackbacks to yours, a Twitter or Jaiku comment, a paper published in college, announcements in a hometown paper about your recent appointment to a board, a lawsuit (in your favor, hopefully), being named on a top ten list, or a book review on Amazon. I just stumbled on the fact that my technology column is picked up by Amazon, and appears in edocs. Amazing!

The old media resume doesn’t allow for this adaptation. Like branding in the 1.0 world, it was all about push, looking cool, and impressive. Personal branding in the web 2.0 world is all about the pull, and about the web of influence you have built around yourself through feedback, activism, networking and participation.

The resume has not been pronounced dead, but it is on life support. The SMR will soon fill its place.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking it in my social media resume…

Taste testing ‘Meatball Sundae’

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The Church of the customer’s Jackie Huba put Meatball Sundae into practice. Meaning actually building the disgusting mashup of meatballs, ice cream and toppings –and tasting it.

Watch the video clip here.

If you haven’t read Seth Godin’s book, here’s a summary: Loading new media (the toppings) on top of a commodity (meatballs) tastes yuck, has an awful texture, and terrible results. Seth, as always, has the recipe for creating a better menu item.

For the taste test, Huba smothered the following toppings on meatballs:

  • Chocolate syrup –representing blogs
  • Whipped Cream –representing Facebook and MySpace
  • Sprinkles –representing YouTube

You can expect what it tasted like…

Marketing in the midst of turbulence

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There are disruptive winds blowing across Asia too.

In Sri Lanka, Thayalan Bartlett, CEO of JWT writes about how an agency has to adapt its marketing and advertising when facing up to the ripple effects of climate change and the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S.

Turbulent times, he says, are studded with opportunities, and need to be factored into marketing plans.

Encouraging words from an “agency.”

Full disclosure: Being a former employee, I have been asked to contribute to the JWT blog.

Quotes for the week ending 19 Jan, 2008

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“I am particularly glad that The Future of Ideas is now freely licensed.  … I’m glad it now has a chance to flow a bit more freely.”

Larry Lessig, on news that his book (published by Random House in September last year), is now available as a free download under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

“I know you are supposed to put the “5 W’s” in the first paragraph of a release, but if it was me, I’d want to see this right off the top.”

Charlote Risch, at ValleyPRBlog, on an announcement of a partnership between CBS Radio and North Central News, a local newspaper in Phoenix.

“We call them lifeaholics.”

Hillary Benjamin, senior marketing director at Equinox Fitness Club, on the provocative ad campaign it launched through Fallon Worldwide, aimed an a professional, urban audience with high household income.

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

The new definition of marketing, as defined by the American Marketing Association.

“… they followed the rules of the game – but the game had changed. It went from billiards to soccer.”

Jeremy Pepper, on POP! PR Jots on “truth versus blogosphere truth,” commenting on the often misrepresented case about Kryptonite’s PR, and how bloggers rush to contribute to the echo chamber without checking their facts.

“This is a chance for writers to do what they do best–be original and tell stories.”

Writers Guild of America, quoted in MediaPost, on an online site StrikeTV, to be launched in February.

“We are at a huge crossroads in this industry, and they know it. They want to take our entire body of work, and give us this (makes gesture) give us zero for it.”

Luisa Leschin, via video, who worked on all 120 episodes of The George Lopez Show, and was co-exec producer.

“Flickr Commons” needs your help

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This should have been included in my previous post.

Flickr has partnered with the Library of Congress in something called the Flickr Commons. The LOC has team allowed the photo sharing site to use 1,500 of its photographs (from its 1 million page catalog) on Flickr.

The more important part of this is the fact that the LOC is asking for your collaboration –to tag the photos.

This particular photograph is from a series from the Bain News Service, from 1910-1912.

Thanks for Hyperbio for this.

Rewriting your job description?

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The new media will rewrite your job description before your boss does. That’s the reality of many professions, particularly those connected to or dependent on information industries –and which aren’t?

Change is hard, and threatening. Digital culture is fraught with problems as I noted in my assessment of The Cult of the Amateur, but that does not mean we ought to fear or reject it.

Jeff Jarvis, a professor in journalism makes an interesting point (Fighting the future) about naive and dangerous thinking within J-schools right now, about the kind of experimentation newsrooms in print and electronic media need to indulge in to participate in the era of democratized content.

Most jobs today require collaboration and sharing, but digital culture is making us do it in newer ways. Almost every meeting I sit in includes a discussion about setting up a wiki. Photo sharing isn’t just for amateurs or for building albums to share with grandma. Many of the Pros are on to this. I found this picture (on the left) covering the recent California fires. It’s from a collection of images by Alex Miroshnichenko, a freelance photographer based in Southern California, who’s made them available on Flickr. In case you cannot recognize it, it’s a melted stop sign.

Speaking of sharing, Christopher Sessums director of the office of distance education at the University of Florida is someone who blogs on EduSpaces, a social networking site around education. His job description goes as: “Coordinating resources for faculty & administrators to produce online degree programs & courses.” But he refers to himself by two words: “change agent.” His thinking is indeed all about adapting to change, writing on topics such as the future of knowledge portals – how library web sites need to be a cross between Wikipedia and Amazon.

“Imagine a space where librarians upload mp3s, pictures (png, jpg), text (links to texts, outside sources/links), movies (mpg, mov, wmv). Associated with each file “pile” is a place for users/librarians to add comments, additional links, photos, user feedback/conversation.”

More like chief disruptor.

What does your job title say about you? Seat warmer or change agent?

“I have good news, and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

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We’re all too familiar with the “give me the bad news first” scenario.

Kathy Kerchner’s post about Wells Fargo is worth looking at from a communications standpoint. As Kerchner observed, “never underestimate the media’s desire to focus on ‘what’s wrong,’ not on ‘what’s right.’ ” Wells Fargo essentially had a good news story that got upstaged by a bad news scenario framed by a loaded reference (to the Great Depression.) We communicators always push people in the organization to use colorful examples –stripped of insider jargon– when speaking to the media. But how they use the quote is never within our control.

If I am to switch hats for a moment, as a writer I always look for those colorful quotes because they tell me something about the problem of opportunity, often the back story. A metaphor sometimes humanizes a very complex topic. (For an example of this, see my weekly roundup of quotes for the week, that I pick because they succinctly describe in a few words the issue.) It is very tempting to lead with a negative statement, and follow it up with a positive one. This does not necessarily mean the writer is obsessed with bad news, just that he/she is seeing the story in a problem/solution format.

Here’s a story from NPR yesterday about “dozens of bald eagles” that died when they dove into a truck loaded with fish guts, and got into a feeding frenzy. Terrible story, but guess what? Although 20 eagles died in the mishap, 30 were rescued. Was this a good news or a bad news story? The headline was “20 eagles die, 30 recovering after feeding frenzy.” It could have been worse, in the Wells Fargo story approach: “Alaska cannery blamed for death of 20 bald eagles.”

Quotes for the week ending 12 Jan, 2008

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“information overload makes it difficult for anyone to separate essential air from smog.”

Steve Rubel, on the value of curators who distill information for others.

“I’m past the age when I can claim the noun ‘kid,’ no matter what adjective precedes it. But tonight…

John McCain, addressing a New Hampshire crowd on Tuesday, on his comeback.

“But to have access to the electoral marketplace, he has to pass the Halle Berry test.”

Bob Garfield, ad critic in Advertising Age, on Barack Obama’s ‘acceptably black’ marketability.

“Social media does not mean shameless social mountaineering, and I can bet you are not going to make yourself very popular as a communicator by sending out stuff like this.”

A member of Melcrum’s Communicators Network, annoyed at the spam-like New Year’s greeting sent by another member to hundreds of others.

“Marketing is low-hanging fruit for politicians.”

Alam Khan advising mobile marketers about the need for self-regulation, to avoid political intervention.

“Email blows away all other social networks.”

Max Kalehoff, on Online Media Spin, on why plain vanilla email is still king of the hill.

“We are always cultivating our media, who are not just our vehicles but in fact they are our primary audiences.”

Madhavi Mukherjee, at India PR Blog, on the ‘stalagmite theory‘ of how PR cultivates its audience over time.

“It takes an industry to raise a child”

Paraphrase of Intel’s response with regard to pulling out of Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child project, and launching it’s own rival People’s PC.