Social Media

Josh and Charlene named “Visionaries” for Groundswell

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Congratulations to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff on being named ‘visionaries of the year‘ by SNCR, the Society for New Communications Research (whose founders are the who’s who of social media.)

By many standards, Groundswell is the most imortant book of the year that answers the Why and How of social media. It’s hard for me to stop talking about it –my upcoming article in IABC’s Communication World is about it.

The authors have demystified the social media hype and given every practitioner something substantial to turn to: case studies, ROI calculations the online Social Technographics tool etc.

Quotes for the week ending 25 October, 2008

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“YouTube is a clip culture … But we saw that there was a demand for longer form.”

YouTube’s director of content partnerships, Jordan Hoffner, on its move to allow videos longer than  10-minutes.

“Start iterating– fast.”

Robert Scoble on what newspapers can learn from the technology industry.

“he displayed … intellectual vigor”

Colin Powell, on endorsing Barack Obama.

“What reality are you in?”

Alec Baldwin, responding to those who thought it was a mistake to put Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, because it might sway voters.

“It is an acceptance mark.”

Antonio Lucio, the new CMO of Visa, on what the brand stands for, and his plans for moving a piece of plastic into the digital age. Quoted in Advertising Age.

“… we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around cell phones and the internet.”

Tracy Kennedy of the University of Toronto, commenting on the Pew Internet and American Life study on Networked Families, just out.

Wal-Mart is not afraid of negative reviews from customers.”

Josh Bernoff, on how Walmart has turned the supertanker around and is embracing social media.

“Be flexible, consider part-time work, take a paycut, work hard”

Annie Waite, at Internal Comms Hub, the Melcrum blog, quoting Lynn Hazan, about strategies for communicators to survive the down turn.

Concepting: Amusing look at agency ideation

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In a discussion with Rohit Bhargava last evening, the conversation turned to how everyone is an expert when it comes to design. I couldn’t help thinking back to the old agency days I left behind, when there was no shortage of experts on the client side when it came to typography, white space, logos and even media buys.

If you’ve ever watched a client excuse himself from the room to ask the rest of the office what they thought of a concept, you’ll know what I mean. The copy and the layout come back with all kinds of inane comments that makes you want to jump out of the window and do a George Lois. (“You make the Matzo. I’m make the ads.”)

So this vignette of the creative process by “Dave” and his team at an agency is hilarious but telling. Dave’s ‘baby’ is subject to all kinds of tweaks.

Don’t laugh too hard. You may catch yourself saying some of these things:

  • “Let’s get this idea cleaned up and ready” – code for, ‘this is embarrassing, let’s dress it up a bit.”
  • “Make it more edgy” – as in, “it should offend someone, dude!”
  • “You don’t mind (that we mangled the original idea) do you?”

Meanwhile, Creatives are supposed to keep compromising, bite their tongue and move on to the next big idea. So watch this video one more time and think twice before bullying your creative talent into  concept-producing machines.

Rohit Bhargava in Scottsdale

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Rohit Bhargava, author of Personality Not Included (he is VP of strategy at Ogilvy PR’s Digital 360 group) will be doing a book signing in Scottsdale, Arizona this week.

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008
Time: 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Location: Borders – Waterfront Street. 7135 E. Camelback Rd., Scottsdale, AZ

Drinks afterward at: 7.30 pm Bungalow Grill in Scottsdale. Tel: 480-994-1888

The book is about brand authenticity, and how to move away from the faceless, personality-free corporate image, and using social media to give employees a voice.

The book is about brand authenticity, and how to move away from the faceless, personality-free corporate image, and using social media to give employees a voice.

Are your “Message-force multipliers” working for you?

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A ‘message-force multiplier’ is a fancy way of describing a person who is highly influential, especially within the media. They have been employed by the Department of Defense, which has practically embedded these influentials to get a certain narrative across.

It is shocking to think that this happens in the normal course of the news media, but it isn’t. Like product placement, the branding tactic to get favorable impressions through a medium, this happens all the time.

Let’s sidestep the political and ethical implications of this for a moment and see what we could learn from this. Who are your message-force multipliers? Could they be already ’embedded’ and ready that all we need to do is empower them, without having to resort to cloak-and-dagger tactics?

Networked audience. At the university where I work, students, not Communicators, are the real voices. They are highly networked in both analog and digital realms. Their channels (dorm room discussions, text messaging, study groups etc) carry our brand personality further and faster than any advertisement or press release; they ‘multiply’ the impact of the message.

Motivated audience. Not everyone who’s connected and networked is highly motivated. Walmart has a group of Mommy Bloggers who are passionate about the brand. These ElevenMoms, have their own ‘beats’ as it were –frugal living, product reviews etc. One is “a suburban subversive, plotting to reinvent the way we stay-at-home-moms think about keeping up with the Joneses.” Customers who ‘plot’ on your behalf? That’s worth a lot.

Peer-to-Peer. Dell’s Digital Nomads group (see my comments earlier) is an amazing place where the brand is very low profile, and the members basically help each other. It’s not just a web site. Members reach out to each other via a Facebook group, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a YouTube channel.

Slogan about drilling gets a grilling

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It is time someone started analyzing the lame slogans that get passed around as a stand-in for policy. As a declared independent voter, I can afford to look at both sides, and see why people are so misinformed.

Slogans, like taglines, have overstayed their time. Bumper stickers may tell you something about the driver of the vehicle, but it hardly gets you to download the policy and read between the lines.

Drill, baby drill: And, so it irritates me when I hear slogans like ‘drill baby drill” as if it was our answer to the mother-of-all crisis facing this country, of which energy is but one component. For those supporters of governor Palin, and her ‘energy expertise’ claim, Thomas Friedman put it this way:

“At least the king of Saudi Arabia, in advocating “drill baby drill,” is serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil. My problem with Palin is that she is also serving his country’s interests — by prolonging America’s dependence on oil.”

Change we can believe In. Obama may be the new Great Communicator, but I can’t relate to this. It does not say exactly what he plans to do as Mr. change agent. It also states the obvious. Change is something you do because you believe in it, not because you want to have a fling with. You don’t change your job because you doubt it could make you better off.

My point: these slogans shortchange the electorate. People start thinking small, and start repeating this small-mindedness all the way to the polling booth. OK, so that’s a political strategy, to get your candidate voted, but after that, what? Will we need slogans to energize the electorate for every piece of legislature that needs to be passed?

In one way I am glad there is someone like governor Palin pushing slogans. It shows how hollow they really are.

Sidebar: There is no shortage of slogans.
An early one for Palin: “Hottest governor. Coldest state.”
More recently: “Lipstick Republican”

You’d never think we are in such an economic crisis!

Too much social networking?

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Terrible story from England about a Facebook-related murder. It reads like a National Inquirer headline, but it’s too tragic to be that, even. A man killed his wife because she changed her Facebook profile.

It tells us something about how obsessed we could be with social networks, spending an inordinate amount of time nurturing these second lives, and communicating with people, while failing miserably in the face-to-face side of the equation.

Get off the grid. Go play with your kids. Argue, debate, mud-wrestle if you have to. Invite someone to coffee. Make friends over a beer. These build stronger bonds, and they sure beat the value of ‘status updates.’

Quotes for the week ending 18 October, 2008

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“But let me tell you one thing straight away — I’m envious of plumbers.”

John Brown, of Georgetown University, in his Public Diplomacy and PR blog.

“social capitalists”

What NBC calls the target audience for its local ‘TV web destinations’ as reported by Mike Walsh, at Online Media Daily

“a mortadella sandwich”

Fabio Betti Salgado, an IABC member and blogger from Sao Paolo, quoting Brazil’s presidentLuis Inácio Lula da Silva on his definition of the financial crisis.

“If you look at it holistically, marketing is social media. It’s a two way exchange – value exchange.”

Mike Kujawski on the TwistImage podcast.

“Our little brains were never in a position to handle that much infomation.”

Fabrice Florin, or News Trust, quoted in a New York Times article on rumor in the digital age.

“This is a Google cache link, because the picture of the disgusting T-shirt…”

Article on misogyny aimed at Sarah Palin frm an Obama-Biden campaign web site.

“Oh wait. This is advertising. Reality is irrelevant. All that matters is cool art direction and great photography.”

AdRants, commenting on a inane Pepsi ad that involves a lifeguard and a woman on the beach.

“Copyright law is a mess …Complain to Dub-ya who signed another bill this week on copyright law.”

Steve Jones, commenting on Larry Lessig’s blog post about McCain-Palin campaign complaining to YouTube about meritless copyright claims that have a chilling effect on free speech.

“You don’t ask a cosmetic surgeon how many hours it will take. You don’t really care about the cost. It’s an abstraction, but your face is not …As a writer, you’re a sort of surgeon yourself-a word surgeon.”

Art Spikol, at Writers Digest, on Flat Fees vs Hourly Rates.

“The idea of online cannibalizing print is not just wrong, it’s the opposite”

John Ridding, CEO of Financial Times, whose newsstand sales rose 30 percent in the US, and 20 percent in Europe.

“True enough, it is a special rule. But isn’t it appropriate?”

Lawrence Lessig, on the McCain-Palin campaign asking YouTube to   give special consideration to video take-down complaints. Critics believe the politicians should stick by the free-market model!

“Bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium.”

Ingredients found in brand-name bottled water, which, it turns out to show is no more pure than tap water!