Feb 8 2010

Fragmented Branding – The 21st Century Reality

February 8, 2010 – 4:05 am

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by Geoff Livingston

We live in a world where anyone can hijack a brand and put it on the Internet with their own views, positive or negative (image by Brent Nelson). Brand control no longer exists, in large part because of widespread fragmentation of traditional and citizen-created media. The resulting brand distortion creates a situation where communicators attempt to paint the abstract.

The abstract takes pieces and puts them together to create a larger picture. Sometimes the pieces are clear, other times they are not. In the case of fragmented branding, some pieces are issued by corporate, others are the expressions of stakeholders, positive and negative.

There’s no greater example than the current Pepsi Refresh campaign. A brief recap of the initial Buzz Bin post: Pepsi has opted out of the Super Bowl in favor of a $20+ million integrated campaign that features crowdsourced charitable giving, a contest form of corporate social responsibility.

Ironically, given the quality of this year’s ads, this may have been an incredibly brilliant coup. Both Richard Laermer and I dubbed the campaign an instant success on our podcast, simply because of the many conversations it has created. See Richard’s breakdown above in this video.

The conversations aren’t all positive. In fact, the nonprofit community has doubts and questions, many of which are legitimate concerns about the viability of the contests and the sustainability of the program choices. Pepsi acknowledges these criticisms and has engaged in dialogue. I like that they aren’t running, in spite of valid criticism.

And why should they? In spite of cause-based and marketing critiques, to the common American this is a huge investment in society and a big statement. The abstract brand picture, even with the smudges, is a pretty strong one for Pepsi. In fact, without the criticism one could argue that the conversation would be less believable and loud. Brand fragmentation in the form of generosity and community contribution works.

It should be noted that Pepsi did not just launch a social media campaign. The Super Bowl ads are missing, but the company has not left the abstract painting strictly in the hands of folk artists. There’s been serious PR as evidenced by stories like the CNN piece appearing in every major media outlet, as well as substantial advertising to notify citizens of Pepsi’s Refresh America attempts.

Welcome to the fragmented brand marketing of the 21st century: A combination of mass campaigns featuring traditional advertising and PR mixed with corporate social responsibility efforts as well as authentic social media that enables both good and bad conversations. There’s no call to action beyond doing good, because Pepsi simply wants to refresh its brand. And in this case, it’s a win. I guarantee you that people — as in the people who walk into Safeway with a grocery list — will think about Pepsi again, and in a new light. Fragmented branding measures the composite view — not the individual wins or Monday morning quarterback complaints — to determine success.

Three Additional Musings for Those About to Experiment

1) Pepsi is relatively early in the crowdsourced social philanthropy game, but not the first. What was notable in this project was the size of the purse, as well as the opt out of the Super Bowl. Copy cat marketing efforts are sure to arise, and less successfully so. Less money + me, too copycat = a yawn.

2) Corporate social philanthropy needs to be authentic to the core of the company. Customer-centric efforts with crowdsourcing efforts are cool, but ultimately represent a novelty especially for niche brands that are not serving mass markets. They will be better served building programs around the corporate culture or strategy. For example, if one is a software company, one might focus on digital freedom, transparency, developing programming jobs in the U.S., as well as technical education in high schools and universities.

3) Contest fatigue is setting in. And criticism of cause-based contests is also on the rise. Make sure this is the right tactic as opposed to engaging your community in a different, more sustainable way.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Branding, Case Study, Internet Marketing, communications, social cause, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (6)
Feb 5 2010

Toyota Took Risks. Did PR Know?

February 5, 2010 – 12:22 am

The recent massive recall at Toyota, aside from breathing new life into a moribund General Motors (an Obama conspiracy?), raises an interesting question for public relations folks. If your management makes a conscious decision to take more risks in manufacturing, is it also obligated to communicate this strategy’s potential impact to stakeholders, particularly customers and investors?

Toyota Taking its Lumps

Toyota Taking its Lumps

The Lean Manufacturing approach at Toyota puts standard parts into a wide variety of vehicles in their lineup, and by doing so raises the risk that failures will cause havoc to the company’s public relations, or worse, harm to its customers. So, how do you balance the additional profit per vehicle with the increased risk that if something goes wrong, it goes wrong big-time?

As Daisuke Wakabayashi reported in The Wall Street Journal last week, the Lean Manufacturing technique is seen as risky even by its promoters. David Meier, co-author of “The Toyota Way Fieldbook” and a consultant on the approach, was quoted in the Journal: “The cost may be decreased in the short term, but the risk is increased.”

Some experts say that Toyota’s perceived quality score could fall 20%, leading to a 4% drop in the residual value of its cars. The company could face difficulty borrowing for its operations (Fidgety Fitch put the company on negative watch recently).  Some analysts predict impact on sales of over $1 billion. Add to that the lawyers’ fees, the increased advertising and incentive costs, and you have the makings of a true corporate crisis.

Now, Consumer Reports has a dedicated page of blogs on Toyota issues.

Another overlooked-but-important question, then, is “How much is this going to cost me when I sell or trade my Tundra pickup?” Toyota had about 17% of the 10.7 million car and truck sales in 2009, according to WardsAuto.com. In recent years alone, their huge share increases mean that they’ve put millions of us at risk of experiencing a drop in the value of our vehicles. 

Does a company engaging in this risky business of Lean Manufacturing have an obligation to tell customers and investors of the risk? Or, is it caveat emptor? Toyota lists 10 risks of doing business in its 2009 annual report’s automotive section. Lean Manufacturing didn’t make the list. While it may not be material to Toyota in an accounting way, what about reputation and brand risks based upon exposing Toyota owners (both of their vehicles and of their shares) to such significant costs?

Roger Vincent and Ken Bensinger, reporting in The Los Angeles Times this week, focused on the “public relations blitz” begun last Sunday, quoting some PR professionals saying that the recent communications represent a “too little; too late” approach. In their reporting, Vincent and Bensinger characterize CTS Corp., manufacturer of the pedals, as apparently “taken by surprise” by the recall.

Was the Toyota PR team surprised, also?

Regardless of what happens to Toyota sales, it is important for the company to look at this incident with its legendary attention to detail. While the recall certainly has an impact on the seven wastes that are so high on the Toyota Production System radar screen, there is an even better reason to analyze and address the circumstances that led to this foulup.

The confidence of consumers can be a fragile thing. The discipline of disclosing risks to consumers and investors has to include revealing risks like the one coming from Lean Manufacturing practices. This means that a very deep look into operations should be married with a propensity to overdisclose; both to the company’s public relations, risk and sustainability professionals, and other, external stakeholders.

Toyota will survive and even thrive. The bigger opportunity here is to rewrite the book on how a manufacturer tells the rest of us about our risks due to its way of doing business. Toyota is in a great position to change the rules in favor of such transparency.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Blogging, Branding, Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (9)
Feb 4 2010

The End of Social Media Fiefdoms?

February 4, 2010 – 7:00 am

By Jenn Riggle

Photo courtesy of antaldaniel

Photo courtesy of antaldaniel

Like the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, we’re seeing the barriers between the different social media platforms begin to topple. I guess this isn’t surprising, as we see social media become more and more a part of our every day lives.

The good news is that this makes it easier to maintain your different social media accounts and integrate their information. The bad news is that it’s also easier to maintain your various social media personalities and become a “Social Media Sybil” (okay, I’m really dating myself here).

Probably the example that we’re all most familiar with is TweetDeck, which allows people to simultaneously update their Facebook and Twitter status or view Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace updates from a single dashboard. By the same token, LinkedIn has shown a blending of platforms, recently adding Twitter feeds to its profiles. I always felt that in many ways, LinkedIn was a network of resumes. By adding Twitter feeds, profiles become much more dynamic and you really get a sense of what people are like by seeing what they’re reading (through links) and saying online. By the same token, since finding a job is a lot like dating, online dating services like eHarmony should consider adding Twitter feeds to their profiles as well.

But probably the thing that hammered this idea home for me was that job search sites like Simply Hired released new features that expand its integration with social networks liked LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. This makes it easier for people to connect with recruiters and hiring managers online. It also offers a “Share” feature that allows you to share job listings with friends on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – as well as through e-mail. This can help you determine if you know anyone who works at that company and enlist their help to get you an interview.

Meanwhile, Facebook is positioning itself to become your online identity through Facebook Connect, which allows you to access multiple Web sites with your Facebook information. More than 60 million people use Facebook Connect to access Web sites every month, many without even knowing it. And you can find it almost anywhere, including thousands of news sites, social media services, and now, even MySpace. Not to be outdone, rumor has it that Twitter is developing a “Twitter Connect” service that will allow you to sign on to other sites with your Twitter information, pull data and then publish it on Twitter.

But it would appear that the real game changer here is Posterous, which allows you to post things online using e-mail. For example you can e-mail a video to Posterous and it can simultaneously post it to your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, blog site and YouTube accounts.  Mashable recently did a comparison of Tumblr and Posterous and ranked the latter as setting the bar for ease of integration and “rolling out features faster than humanly possible.”

Would love to hear your thoughts about how this convergence is impacting you. But one thing is for certain, this is only the beginning and we’ll continue to see more social media integration as people try to be everywhere at once.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (3)
Feb 2 2010

Rapid Brand Deceleration

February 2, 2010 – 1:02 am

 By Mike Mulvihill

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Ten days. In today’s social media fueled world, a crisis can begin – and even end – in hours, if not minutes. Ten days. That’s how long it took Toyota to announce a fix to the rapid acceleration (faulty gas pedal) problem that prompted a recall of 4.2 million cars worldwide and 2.3 million in the United States, including some of Toyota’s best-selling models, such as the Camry and Corolla. To make matters worse, millions more had been recalled earlier because of floor mats that could catch the gas pedal causing a similar sudden acceleration issue as the current recall.

Ten days. Even 10 years ago, that would be considered an awfully long time to leave Japan’s number one brand name and one of the most powerful brands in the world in limbo.

Jim Lentz president and COO of Toyota USA made the rounds of the morning news shows on Monday to be the face of the company’s mea culpa and announce the fix – a small piece of metal about the size of a postage stamp – then held a press conference later that morning. Toyota released b-roll containing Lentz apologizing, “I know that we have let you down.”

In a related event, AutoBlog UK reports that PSA Peugeot Citroen has recalled nearly 100,000 Peugeot 107s and Citroen C1s built between 2005 and August 2009 at the facility it shares with Toyota in the Czech Republic for the same faulty accelerator problem. The cars were built alongside the Aygo, one of eight Toyota models that make up the Japanese manufacturer’s 1.8m vehicle recall in Europe.

How long does it take to lose $20 billion in market value (a one-week stock price decline of 16 percent), to irrevocably harm a brand that for years has embodied the Japanese auto industry’s hallmark of quality and reliability? Less than 10 days. Far less than the 10 days that have indelibly sullied the once omnipotent Toyota brand.

(For the record, I have owned many cars in my lifetime, including two Toyota’s – a 1999 Avalon that we drove for, oddly enough, 10 years, and a late model RAV4,  not part of the recall, that my college-age daughter currently drives.)

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Branding, Case Study, communications | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)
Feb 1 2010

Five Tips for Aspiring Internet Communicators

February 1, 2010 – 12:06 am

Patagonia: The Road to the Perite Moreno Glacier

This post is for the youth who aspire to become Internet communicators. In an era when fame and follower counts are overemphasized, it seemed apropos to offer what I consider the best assets of an Internet communicator. Guides to attain optimal personal brands and the most amount of Twitter listings represent red herring pursuits as compared to the cultivation of these skills. I would suggest focusing on where it matters most; the development of timeless strengths that transcend media. Here are the five tips:

1) Become a Great Writer: Writing well still represents the most important skill set of a communicator. The two paths to great writing (in my opinion): The ability to creatively convey great ideas and crisp grammatically-correct prose (I know I’m one and not the other!). Whether you prefer Dostoyevsky (ideas) or Turgenev (prose), you need to be a master of one and/or the other online.

Great writing also necessitates storytelling. Without writing excellence it will be hard for people to consider your content worthwhile. Even videos and games require scripts… Master writing and you master the essential cornerstone of communications. In that sense, I value an English or Literature degree as much if not more so than a Communications degree.

2) Subject Matter Expertise: This represents my greatest hope for younger communicators. One must develop substantial experience in a communications area or vertical market segment to truly become a master. The great bloggers and influentials out there not only know how to communicate, but they also possess subject matter expertise. That’s how they rise above the pack. Their experience clearly distinguishes them.

For me, over the past 16 years I’ve cultivated experiences in the technology/telecom vertical market, the nonprofit vertical market and the communications profession. I don’t stray beyond those areas of conversation, because frankly I don’t have substantial experience to draw upon, and could only wage a mediocre conversation at best.

3) Passionate Creativity: While creative skill with words can be intermingled, one still needs a muse. Passion inspires creativity. If you love what you write/talk about then it will ring through like a red shirt in a sea of grey.

When one has passion, brilliant metaphors, unique perspectives and emotion all interweave themselves into communications. You can see this from 140 characters to long form. Passion manifested in creative expression exudes itself attracting interest and conversation.

4) Other-Centric Thinking: Beyond all of the Cluetrain rhetoric about no market for messages, etc., truly great Internet commmunicators serve their stakeholders. One could debate whether this is intentional or an act of natural instinct. Regardless, the great ones know their stakeholders and give them what they want regularly.

5) Develop Consistency: Whether you are simply a conversationalist or a content creator, you must offer a consistent presence. There are plenty of self-proclaimed experts and there are others who demonstrate flashes of brilliance, but they rarely stand the test of time. The great ones deliver regularly and frequently over time.

Leading Internet voices become known for their consistency over the years, and build reputations around it. A word of caution though: Regularity doesn’t equate to brilliance. This skill is listed last for a reason. In the words of Emerson, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Internet Marketing, communications | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (27)
Jan 29 2010

Showing Love Increases PR Influence

January 29, 2010 – 12:30 am

We were sitting in an agency board meeting the other day, and our chairman posed an important question. To paraphrase: ”Are showing our clients enough love?”

hello-my-name-is-stickerWe counsel on employee and community engagement. We work for Satmetrix, a great customer experience and relationship company. Yet, in trying to help bring success to our clients, we may be allowing ourselves to focus so much on the “what” and the “how” that we miss out on the “who” in our business. How about you?

Life’s pace doesn’t help. We live in a world of text messaging, status updates, Tweeting and doing more with less. In her post of an interview with Seth Godin, Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, asked about connection in a world where technology is giving us unprecedented access to one another. Godin’s take was interesting: “I think that ‘connection’ is a very loaded term online. There are certainly a lot more friendlies online. Friendlies are people you have a modicum of permission with, the ability to show up without appearing to be a stranger. But that’s different from being missed when you don’t return. If you’re not missed, you really haven’t made a connection with leverage.”

So, if we only have this true connection with a few dozen, as Godin also suggested (and let’s assume some will be family), how much do we invest in our business life, and how? Robert Cialdini, PhD., a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, focuses on the “how” in his principles of persuasion. He was recently quoted about one of his classic six principles of influence — the principle of liking. “We like people who like us,” he said to AdvisorToday.com. “We say ‘yes’ to people we like. People want a counselor who likes them,” he adds. “That’s where they feel safe.”

Strong social ties are a key to happiness or satisfaction. Relationships in business aren’t likely to be equal to those with family and friends, but most of us could do better at building our social “liking” network by using a few simple approaches:

Be a group member. Better yet, set one up.  LinkedIn, for instance, offers the virtual group. It’s also good to see if your colleagues, customers and clients want to join together on everything from industry issues to a monthly book club. Or, try Plaxo or Flickr or any of a number of others.

Use social media. The pace issue is real. It tends to keep us apart. There is no excuse, though, in an age of such technological marvels as Facebook, to be out of personal touch with business connections, former colleagues or friends.

Go there. Whether it’s the PRSA meeting across town or the client office three hours away, go! Be with somone you like (or might like) and who likes you. It makes for better business.

Be ambiently aware. It’s OK. Transferring liking into the relationship with customers can feel strained. “I only have a handful of good friends,” some argue when I bring this up. But social media and sporadic personal contact contribute to what sociologists have called “ambient awareness” of those in your network. Look it up. It’s OK; maybe even useful.

Fun is a good thing, too. Cultivate liking with business associates based on your mutual interests. I am a consistently mediocre golfer. It has served me well. There is always a way to get together for fun. Just do it!

Write notes (the analog kind). I took some time to write personal notes a few months ago. It made my day. Make an effort to do one each week, even if the note says only “I was thinking of you, and hope we can talk in person soon.”

Allow people to be people. Particularly challenging in business is the occasional client or customer (or boss) who will get on your nerves. As a friend of mine likes to say, though, ”behind every face there is a soul,” and we owe even our most casual acquaintances the benefit of the doubt from time to time. Chill!

So, there they are. One for each day of the week. How about some comments on other ways to increase liking in your business?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (7)
Jan 28 2010

Is Social Media the “Road to Nowhere” for Hospitals?

January 28, 2010 – 8:00 am

By Jenn Riggle

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Hynek

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Hynek

It can be if you don’t know where you’re going.

And according to new research from Greystone.Net, this seems to be the case — only 1 in 3 hospitals have a social media plan.

I’m not quite convinced of the accuracy of this research, which reports that 9 in 10 hospitals/health systems are currently using some form of social media. While I love the idea that so many hospitals are using social media, Greystone.Net’s percentage of engaged hospitals seems overly optimistic. According to Ed Bennett, whose blog provides an ongoing list of hospitals engaged in social media, 540 hospitals, or 10 percent of the nation’s 5,010 community hospitals, are currently using social media in some form or another.

However, the fact that only 33 percent of hospitals (and again, I think this number is high) have a social media plan is problematic, since these efforts are not tied to strategy or to hospital marketing and business plans. In fact, I hazard to guess that many hospitals are simply setting up Twitter accounts, posting videos on YouTube and creating Facebook pages without thinking how they can use these tools to support their service lines and improve communication with the community they serve.

To take the analogy further (with the help of Former Vice President Al Gore) hospitals are simply traveling down the information superhighway without a road map. Not knowing where they’re going, it’s highly unlikely they’ll arrive at their destination. Chances are, they’ll get lost.

Greystone.Net’s research also shows that hospitals have not budgeted for social media projects or hired employees to manage these programs. This could be a recipe for failure, since social media efforts are time intensive efforts that require research and engagement – and without resources, these duties fall on the health system’s PR and Marketing Team, who are already strapped dealing with the day-to-day activities of the hospital.

So I thought I’d take a quick look at two health systems of different sizes and resources which have taken systematic approaches to harnessing social media and have had tremendous results:

1.  Aurora Health Care, a 13-hospital integrated delivery network in Milwaukee, Wis., has mastered Twitter. The health system has more than 6,000 Twitter followers (@Aurora_Health), when many other hospitals have hundreds. One reason Aurora Health has been so successful is that it understands that social media is not a broadcasting tool, but instead, is about conversation. Research shows that nearly 20 percent of Aurora’s tweets or posts are conversational in nature.

In addition, Aurora Health “live-tweeted” during a double-knee replacement surgery to help promote its orthopedics service line. As a result, not only did the number of its followers increase from 900 to 2,000 and it generated a national media placement on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” but it also received 20 inquiries about knee surgery, 14 who actually had the surgery performed.

2.  On the other end of the spectrum, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, a small Florida health system, doesn’t have a huge marketing team, but it has done a great job with social media. John Domansky, a healthcare consultant and blogger from Iowa, ranked the hospital as a “Best Practice” social hospital for its engaging Twitter account, easy to navigate Web site and active Facebook page. In fact, according to an article in the Tampa Bay Medical News, Facebook drives 4,000 people, or 5 percent, of Sarasota Memorial’s monthly Web traffic. This comes just after the Web site address and search engine traffic.

Social media holds great promise, but hospitals need to allocate resources and integrate social media efforts with their existing marketing and business plans.

Two-thirds of hospitals don’t have a social media plan. The question they need to ask themselves: Do we feel lucky?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (28)
Jan 26 2010

Gird Your Loins – The Lawyers Are Coming

January 26, 2010 – 2:25 am

untitledBy Mike Mulvihill

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Photo courtesy of PadiProductions

Yes, prepare to defend yourself.

Social media isn’t exactly the place where people have tended to be careful about what they say. It’s Wild West, say what comes to mind in much of the social media world. But you’d best start being careful what you say lest you get slapped with a law suit.

Just this week, Clorox announced it is looking to hire a Social Media Lawyer to help police social media about the Clorox and Brita brands.  Citizen Media Law Projects posted just this week about appeals courts in Maryland and New Jersey reversing jury verdicts because of social media use by jurors during trial. And several libel and defamation lawsuits were spotlighted during 2009 — in fact a libel suit was just dismissed in favor of a Chicago tenant who Tweeted about her moldy apartment.

All this adds up to the simple acknowledgement that social media is here to stay and is getting bigger all the time.  A January 21 post by Andrew Kipsman on comScore.com reported that, “In the past year alone, Facebook more than doubled its U.S. audience from 54.5 million visitors in December 2008 to 111.9 million visitors in December 2009. It went from being the #11 ranked property to the #4 ranked property. It now accounts for 7 percent of all time spent online in the U.S.”

And it also points out that there is risk and liability a plenty for individuals who post foolish words and photos – just as there should be. But more importantly, organizations recognize that they have risk.  And where there is risk, there are lawyers there to do exactly what they are trained to do and do well – mitigate, preferably eliminate, risk.

Mark Greenfield’s recent blog regarding a webcast from the University of Florida  sponsored by The Levin College of Law and University of Florida Strategic Communications Planning Committee called  Social Media: Promises, Pitfalls & Perils, puts the age old dichotomy between legal advice and marketing/communications advice in context.  To quote his blog, “Overall, I felt there was too much emphasis on the risk and not enough said about the reward. While it was billed as a seminar on the safe and effective use of social media, one could have easily drawn the conclusion that safe and effective are mutually exclusive.”

I’ve blogged about it before – as have many others. Control is not something that works well in social media conversations.  Companies are afraid that an offhand remark about using a product like Clorox could lead to lawsuits, especially if made by an employee. Granted, these are valid concerns. But it’s going to be real interesting to see how much bad social media will be created by lawyer tinkering.  Or how many draconian social media policies will be created that basically stifle any meaningful use of social media by organizations with much to give and much to gain.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Internet Marketing | Comments (5)
Jan 25 2010

Get Mobile Now

January 25, 2010 – 2:54 am

This morning I am speaking at the first ever Social Media Breakfast in Washington, DC. The featured topic is, “What trends or predictions do you believe will prevail? How can we be visionaries in a space as dynamic as social media?” The answer? Get mobile now.

From the incredible outpouring of donations for Haiti to the ongoing Android/Apple wars, this is the year of mobile. Fifty-five percent of Americans connect to the Internet wirelessly, says the Pew Internet & American Life Project. If you want to be a visionary, a leader in this space, then own mobile media.

In my mind, we’re at a similar place of adoption as social media in 2006 or 2007. Rather than trying to establish visionary leadership in an overcrowded market, it makes sense to become a master of this next generation of portable Internet media. It’s much easier to lead in a greenfield space than to overcome very strong leaders in the existing social media marketplace.

This means more than the iPhone, too. Intelligence in this market requires understanding the market dynamics between Android (see my review here), Apple and Blackberry, as well as the four major carriers in the United States and their network technology. If you are outside of the United States, you’d better understand Symbian, too.

It means understanding what makes a great application from the end user’s point of view (as opposed to publishing junk for the sake of appearing cool). Owning this space necessitates understanding which platforms to build applications on, too, and why (See our post on the topic last summer). You have to be up to date on the latest, and be willing to experiment on your own — without paying clients.

Start this week with the anticipated Apple tabloid and iPhone announcements and don’t look back. Keep abreast of the latest mobile news, own it, lead in it, then share what you learned. That’s how to become an Internet visionary in 2010.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in mobile | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (8)
Jan 22 2010

Conan Interruptus – Socializing Old Media

January 22, 2010 – 12:15 am

There is nothing like a PR disaster to get the ol’ buzz rolling, and the ongoing mess surrounding NBC’s evening lineup has added some fun for those of us who don’t have to deal with it from the inside or for any of the sparring camps representing the hosts.  The move to push Conan O’Brien off the air is particularly interesting in that it represents yet another example of the new age in broadcast – Socialization of Old Media.

The celebrities in charge of these shows often call attention to the failings of their networks, but this “conversation” about the juggling of the lineup got authentic awfully quickly. In  the old days firings were handled offline and quietly. In this case, the offended parties took their feeling directly to the small communities that surround late night programming on NBC and the Jay Leno Show. And Conan provided his supporters with some bits that showed his comic smarts in much the same way as his antics during an earlier interruption of his show (see clip here). Conan Interruptus

About the fight, Conan quipped he could go “star in a Lifetime original movie about a woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her network.”

All the one-liners zinging back and forth resembled nothing so much as a video Tweetfest.  I’m hoping that this fracas represents an evolving balance between the legalistic corporate speak of old and a new transparency in the world of television.

It was refreshing to see the fallen heroes of late night speak their piece in such an open manner. Radar online’s report on the Charlie Rose interview with NBC top dog Jeff Zucker this week sported a comment about Zucker being “what’s wrong with NBC.” Zucker tried not to cry over the $40 million + out of pocket for O’Brien and team, but did succumb to some strained explanations of the situation.

What’s also interesting is the way these studio matters have had an outsized influence on traditional and social media. Variations of The Tonight Show search became a trending topic on Twitter in recent weeks  – ironic, perhaps, for the anti-Twitter O’Brien. What’s not interesting is the debate in some circles about what the network did to Conan. Puhleese! He’ll survive and thrive, paraphrasing Jerry Seinfeld from a story by Sheila Marikar of ABC.

For PR people, the opportunity to observe such a crisis closely and to see the entertainers be so true to themselves was both a little refreshing and a little alarming. It’s a brave new world when such conflicts can’t be sanitized and controlled. I like it better for now, but many companies aren’t particularly well equipped to deal with similar crises scaled to their situations.

As for our late night TV “crisis?” David Carr reported this week in The New York Times that NBC didn’t kill these shows. We did. We have some affection for them, of course, but in a world where we get plenty of news fed to us all day, with the ability to see the reruns on a variety of channels the next day and where our friends are at work to keep us in the loop, well…we just don’t need late night TV like we used to.

I’m kinda glad the recent NBC conflict  spread in such a social way, aided by the principal players being themselves. It reminded me that TV can still be fun.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing, Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (4)