In researching a new presentation on the next generation of digital media users — now dubbed Generation Z (Goodness Gracious!) — it became apparent that the generational discussion fails to hit the truth. The era should not be defined by generations, but more simply the ever-present factual reality of being online.

Forcing online behavior into a box — albeit the millenial or X or Z one — doesn’t seem to make sense. Go to any tweet-up and you will see members from multiple generations ignoring their fellows as they pour their brains into a ubiquitously present iPhone (Transparent screen image by Edan).

Gartner recognized this when it dubbed the generational phenomena Generation V. I have become a believer in this description, in particular the three main characteristics of Generation V, originally proposed by Adam Sarner, a principal analyst at Gartner (Forbes):

1) We don’t necessarily get the underpinnings of technology, it’s just what we use. I see this increasingly throughout my work and personal life. People don’t get technology or software coding, it’s just gotten easy enough that almost any person can use it.

2) Overwhelming desire to participate in online communities, more importantly, global communities. This occurs through user generated personae that so many of us have embraced. New media content creation enables interaction and avatars, but most importantly, true two-way interaction.

3) Meritocratic environment: Collaboration, “we” is more powerful and valuable than “me,” yet me seems to be pretty important to recognize.

This last phrase was added by me, as we continue to deal with the rise of Internet fame and parasocial behavior. The reality of this particular matter seems to be that while there’s a collaborative spirit to online conversational media, there’s also a pretty strong self centered part to it, too. Me is important, and if others aren’t recognized for their participation they seem to leave the conversation pretty quickly.

When your digital persona is so integrated into your life, online and “reality” blur. They form a common reality. Thus it seems to me that much of the persona we see in digital media demonstrates a truer glimpse into the fragile, beautiful and oft self-absorbed soul. That is why relationships have become paramount in social media marketing. People feel a need to be recognized.

Friday’s Buzz Bin post will discuss the impact of generational demographic studies on corporate social media.

Confederate: United in a league, alliance, or conspiracy (image by Geoff Livingston).

Creating social media strategies for large organizations can be unwieldy. Disparate divisions, brands, product launches, autonomous departments, budgets and line items can give corporate communicators a tough time as they bridge their companies into the social era.

Some organizations can manage their organizations well enough to federate their social media efforts under one roof. Now some very basic best practices are arising. According to the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki, 62 of the country’s largest companies are already engaged. But others cannot, and they must look to create a different model, one we have started calling the confederate model.

There are many organizations that simply cannot get all of their parts to agree on a unified strategy. For example, consider national non-profits that have local autonomous chapters. Other corporate structures where this problem can arise include partnerships like large law firms, franchise models that feature local owners and undefined marketing structures, and automobile dealerships (Star Alliance image by Nergiz).

For all intents and purposes, these loosely organized bodies can do what they like. This creates enormous challenges online, in large part because of the disparate efforts can confuse customers, as well as fracture brand conversations. Indeed, a communicator needs to acknowledge that there will always be a healthy majority of internal stakeholders who will never engage in the larger social media stratey.

Building a Confederated Model

Instead of trying to control the social media effort under one roof, confederated models try to empower individual stakeholders in the larger organization. A confederated model for a company or non-profit assumes and includes the following:

In addition to building the actual framework, a great deal of the effort involves internal alliance building and communications. Local stakeholders need to be made aware of and convinced about the effectiveness of the social media tool sets.

Of course, what would a proposed stategic model be without a case study? One needs to go no further than the Obama campaign’s social media efforts. This is an ongoing effort.

Partisan politics aside, Obama’s campaign communications involves intense grassroots activities using social media tools. Tens of thousands of Obama campaigners, advocates and even casual voters are enabled to spread the message.

At the heart of the effort is activism on more than a dozen social networks, as well as the Obama campaign’s web site. Bloggers using the Obama platform have even posted negatively against policies or Obama actions.

Not your average political campaign, but one that does fit into the confederated model. The Obama campaign is less concerned about individual flare outs and control, and much more oriented towards word of mouth and viral grass roots activism. The results have been self-evident.

At almost every event or discussion on social media, there’s a naysayer that only millenials, those under 30 consume social media. They dismiss this conversational form as something that their target market doesn’t use. Ironically, they are missing the boat as older generations are using social media.

Perhaps the best example of this is who is creating content. Technorati released the first part of its State of the Blogosphere report yesterday. It’s so funny to see their statistics, which prominently feature the millenial stats. Yet, when you delve into the numbers you can see some interesting breakdowns favoring Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Consider that 50% of bloggers are 35 and older, and 42% are between the ages of 35-54. Those are some pretty strong statistics demonstrating that millenial bloggers are getting outpaced by older generations.

In the U.S., 34% of bloggers are 25-34, and 37% are 35-49. So the older trend is even more pervasive in the United States.

The Technorati report is just the harbinger of a growing trend that usage statistics and surveys will continue confirming. Generation X and increasingly Baby Boomers are online. Communicators who dismiss these powerful media consumers as traditional media only do so at their own peril.

Breaking news from the Web 2.0 Expo: What’s new? Nothing really! Social media continues to mature, and that means the market for social media services will become more crowded and shift.

We’re not seeing any new game changing evolution in social media this year. What’s new is the new Facebook, the more stabilized Twitter, and the solidification of top bloggers as influencers.

The biggest change this year is the increasingly competitive nature of social media. Consider Twitter’s pitched battle with microblog networks like FriendFeed, and increased video competition for YouTube. Or the attempts of the many to unseat top influentials. But in my mind this represents a maturation of the market. Nothing is really new.

And social media is maturing on the corporate side, too. Most companies are not doing social media well, but their toes are in the water. Now the latest studies show that enterprises are willing to let employees use social media at work 70% of the time. Fear fades as adoption increases.

As a result, we’re seeing more focus on verticalized market penetration rather than the novelty of social media. Consider recent articles on Banking 2.0 and Government 2.0.

For those seeking to enter social media, it’s harder to make a big difference. Verticalization such as government or auto industry expertise seems like the next natural course.

Impact on Our Profession

A friend of mine is trying to reinvent his career, and thought about social media as a possible industry. His logic, “It’s so hot right now.”

I actually told him not to do it, to focus on an area where there’s more of an opportunity to seize early leadership position. In my opinion, it’s very hard to establish a leadership position as a top social media marketer these days. For every Jason Falls there are hundreds who are setting up shops, twitter profiles and blogs that never rise off the the echo chamber floor.

There has been a veritable flood of social media experts hitting the market. Then there are all of the PR and ad agencies claiming to have a social media practice. We get multiple calls from these folks every week seeking to partner in some fashion. From a competitive standpoint, we refuse to sub and give away our core competency.

The reality is the sprint to the finish line is on. The leaders have been established, for the most part. To seize positioning requires strong market savoir faire, differentiation, and of course, the time commitment to prove your salt.

The rest of the industry is late to the game, playing catch up. Consolidation, acquisition, and yes, crash and burn scenarios are likely in the next 12 months.

That’s just my $.02. What do you think?

It’s a time for the individual. Social media has unleashed personality, and delivered the power of opinion and voice. We can each become individual superstars in our own right. But great leaders will see social media as an opportunity to do more than become well known.

Frank Gruber, Aaron Brazell, Brian Solis, myself, Nick O’Neill, and Rohit Bhargava. Image taken by our own Qui Diaz.

See, it’s somewhat difficult to be well known in the community, but in reality, many people are doing it. That person — the influential — can be found within two to three percent in any given market segment. Some can just be considered internet famous, others are true thought leaders.

But how many of those leaders are creating the next generation of thought leaders? Or do they prefer to shine on their own?

Lee Iacocca was a man who turned around Chrysler. But once his fame distracted him and he eventually left the company, Chrysler collapsed. There was a leadership void. Lou Gerstner turned around IBM, and groomed another generation of leaders to supersede him. Like him or hate him, Jack Welch also developed a corps of leaders at GE.

Bill Walsh not only coached the 49ers to three Super Bowl victories, he mentored ten head coaches who won or led their teams to Super Bowls (totaling 7 additional victories, collectively).

I believe that you have to pass on your skills. Nothing that I have, nothing that is in my head is really, truly mine. Mentors, influencers, and authors have all directly or indirectly passed their wisdom on to me, giving me the tools that I needed to succeed.

It’s my personal belief that I am obligated to give away what was so freely given to me. Great leaders know they are a product of others, that they are there to be of service to their organization, and as such, act as trusted servants.

At Livingston Communications and publicly on the Buzz Bin we live this ethos. That’s why you see other people like Qui (recently featured on BlogHer) and Larissa Fair delivering quality content on the blog, and making a name for themselves in social media. Newer bloggers Marinel Mones and Mike Nelson are learning how to deliver quality content to you every week.

In my opinion, the greatest result of this company can achieve is not the societal change we can affect for our social cause clients. Nor will it be the results-oriented marketing campaigns we create for companies. These — while worthy results — cannot compare to enabling the next generation of great communicators.

It’s hard to make it, and then make a difference in your profession. But it’s even harder and more worthwhile to build heroes who can affect more change. There is great satisfaction in helping others succeed and achieve results that benefit society. It’s my great hope that we can deliver meaningful growth and actionable experiences to our team members.

This week’s lipstick incident demonstrates The GOP has brought back the smear in earnest, a tactic reminiscent of the Bush campaigns from 2000 and 2004 (image by Mae Li). Personally, this kind of abusive use of communication powers — while effective — should be condemned.

This kind of manipulation should not be a surprise given these recent events:

Using our powers for good remains one of the consistent things we talk about at LComm. In reality, great communication prowess can be used for good or evil. Society has demonstrated that it is susceptible to misinformation. That’s why it was great to see the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) stand up against the manipulative communications tactics used recently.

In a letter to Robert Gibbs (Obama for America) and a letter to Jill Hazelbaker (John McCain 2008), PRSA Chair & CEO Jeffrey Julin, on behalf of the PRSA Board of Directors, asks the campaigns to sign a formal pledge obligating them to abide by the PRSA Code of Ethics in all communications, stating that:

The use of innuendo, incomplete information, surrogate messaging and character attacks, whether in political discourse or other forms of commercial free speech, raises serious concerns for our organization and its 32,000 members, each of whom signs a pledge to the PRSA Code of Ethics. In fact, ethical practice is the most important obligation of PRSA membership, and we maintain that our obligations extend not only to those we represent, but also to the publics they serve.

Many will question the effectiveness of PRSA’s message. Five generations of Livingstons ago, in 1913 my Great, Great, Great Uncle Sigmund Livingston took a similar step, starting the Anti-Defamation League. The League’s purpose is stop the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to end unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens. Says the ADL:

Founded on one man’s iron will to achieve social justice and to eradicate hatred, ADL has invested nearly a century in influencing, educating and effecting reform.

A generation later Nazi Germany arose, and from a communications perspective, smeer tactics and hatred were deployed by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels is often credited with creating Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht program. The end result: A country drunk enough to allow the genocidal extermination of six million Jews. This country helped liberate those left standing, and in an outcry against anti-semitism, became a champion of Israel, in large part because people like Uncle Ziggy (as he is known amongst the older relatives) beat the drum.

I’m not saying McCain is Goebbels, but the GOP’s use of smeer inspires fear in my heart about what could be. We must stand-up against abusive use of communication powers.

If anything, the past eight years has demonstrated that this country will vote with religious zeal rather than informed decision. Education, and the resulting intelligent decisions that it often inspires, has fallen to the wayside. Our population has become susceptible to manipulation.

As a result, communicators — particularly those in political campaigns — have a moral obligation to use their powers for good. And we as communicators with a voice need to start standing up and saying, “No, this is not right!” I tip my hat to the PRSA for a good action.

This weekend, I had the great privilege of giving five, highly interactive unconference sessions at PodCamp/SearchCamp Philly. For me the biggest takeaway was the need to train social media marketers about traditional communications theory.

It reminded me of a Jim Collins quote in Good to Great, “Good is the Enemy of Great.” There are many good social media experts out there. They have proven they can build personal brands, but they are not great.

The social media expert’s inability or unwillingness to learn traditional PR and marketing strategy and skills causes them to frequently fail. In essence, their security lies in their good community skills, but their lack of formal marketing and PR training (and real PR, not media relations) makes them painfully inadequate for business-oriented social media.

Yes, networking skills are paramount to messaging skills. Yet without understanding a businesses’ core objectives, and how those create a value proposition for the marketplace, social media initiatives often fail to deliver measurable ROI, much less a tangible affect on a company’s communications effort. As Jonny Goldstein noted, you need both bleeding edge social media savoir fair AND “old school chops” to build a program that works.

In one session on business blogging, we ended up spending more than 30 minutes alone on how to build a value proposition, and then how to map it to a social media effort. For those social media engaged who are struggling with this problem, I created a social media content process on the Now Is Gone blog which should enable a basic content strategy. However, I will caution that publishing content does not yield eyeballs, rather it keeps them coming back after you’ve engaged them. Community participation is paramount to delivering content.

Exciting 2008 Brands: Barack Obama and the 3G iPhone

On Saturday night my wife and I bought an Obama stand-up photo and walked around the mall with the Democratic Nominee. The effect was stunning. Entire stores turned around and applauded us, people stopped to get their photos taken, and the Apple store turned into something like the FAO Schwartz scene from “Big.” Barack Obama has superseded your average candidate to become an uber-hip brand, partly because of his intelligent communications strategy and partly a product of the time.

It’s hard to argue how powerful the Barack brand has become. A Democratic nominee who struggled to get non-urban, lower-middle class white party members to support him has stormed the nomination. He has struck a chord, igniting a wave of fervor surrounding the need to Change. The strong fervor caused the opposition to try and co-opt the candidate of change meme with moves like the Sarah Palin nomination.

At the heart of the Barack Effect is a deep seated dissatisfaction with the current administration and the state of the nation. Obama’s young, exciting style, minority voice, and message of change serves as a lightening rod for the left and those most down affected by current policies.

But great brands rarely fly without brilliant marketing and communications. And Obama’s campaign gets word of mouth. From the traditional community meetings to cutting-edge social media, Obama’s campaign utilizes viral principles to create change evangelists and a resulting pop appeal… The Barack Effect.

For those of us on Communications Edge, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this phenomena has been the first successful mass usage of 2.0 tools. As the Wall Street Journal notes, the Obama campaign has used social networking technology to ignite his supporters. The resulting wav of support and micro-donations has created a powerhouse campaign that triggers word of mouth with direct messages, RSS feeds, text messages and emails. Conversely, McCain has suffered through stops and starts.

A presidential campaign has many dynamics that cannot be oversimplified: Religious right versus the liberally educated, conservative radio versus free social networks, female veep candidate versus minority presidential candidate, mavericks versus agents of change, support versus ending the Iraqi war, etc., etc. It’s a wide open battle that will shape the United States’ future.

Yet one must wonder if intangibles like the Barack Effect will carry the day. In his monograph, “Good to Great for Social Sectors,” Jim Collins said:

…a key link in the social sectors is brand reputation — built upon tangible results and emotional share of heart — so that potential supporters believe not only in your mission, but in your capacity to deliver on that mission.

One candidate has long-term legislative experience, the other emotional mindshare. Neither has delivered a turn-around. Inspiring faith in the ability to deliver that change we so desperately desire may be the secret sauce to attain the White House.

P.S. As a company, Livingston Communications will not openly endorse either Obama or McCain. Individually, I felt compelled to endorse Obama on my personal blog. This is an important election, and we all need to openly discuss the issues that matter to us. Don’t turn a blind eye in 2008!

The controversial Sarah Lacy spoke at Gnomedex. Yours truly argued with Lacy and Robert Scoble about business blogging, in what became a very public discussion (see extensive CNET coverage, image from said article). The usual, beaten to death PR Sucks meme arose (snore), but our specific argument arose over the feasibility of Lacy’s claims that bloggers can really monetize their business.

I believe most content generators a) don’t create for business/marketing purposes and b) won’t ever be in a position to successfully become superstars to the extent that the content itself will create enough opportunities to be self supporting. The era of turning on a blog and it being “special” ended last year (per last week’s Content Creation post).

CNET got my point right on the nose:

Lacy, Charlene Li [who is absolutely brilliant], Scoble and others, were “people who already have influential positions… Why should the average Joe Metroblogger care,” Livingston asked.

Both Lacy and Li came out of positions where their professional day jobs — BusinessWeek and Forrester — afforded them a much quicker ride to success. In the case of Scoble, he had to scrap his way to the top, but still had some special sauce as one of the first major corporate bloggers vis a vis Microsoft.

To really make it without these advantages, you need an unusual combination of skills to rise to prominence. You must be a natural. Scrapping your way to success through content creation today requires these four elements:

Not as simple as the wave of a hand from a former BusinessWeek reporter who had a easier path to prominence. By the way, Lacy’s journalistic past was something she needed to remind Gnomedexers of more than a dozen times. Most Gnomedexers seemed to feel Lacy’s laurels had worn thin, as demonstrated by the worst speaker rating of the event.

Breaking It Down

(Robert Redford starred as the Natural in 1984)

This discussion, while interesting to Lacy et al, is not a new discussion, but relevant in that so many individuals and businesses are trying to create blogs for business purposes. Technically “blogging” is not the right term; it should be content creation. A blog is a publishing mechanism for a variety of content from the printed word and podcasts to photos and video. Anyway…

Can an individual — and to some extent a new business effort — successfully leverage content for leading edge value? Yes, in our own business consider Valeria Maltoni’s rise to prominence last year, and this year’s Jason Falls success story. A rise to the top for business purposes can be done. Business value usually comes in the form of intangibles like more web site transactions through integrated marketing calls to action, personal or corporate branding, speaking opps, networking contacts, etc.

But let’s examine content creators by type:

1) The Naturals - Folks who would blog if they were stuck in Alaska, alone with no hopes for any commerce.
2) Business people and entrepreneurs - From consultant to corporation, these folks are seeking to achieve financial reward.

The two are not exclusive. But most bloggers fall under the category of one, naturally creative. Doubt me? Check out DC Blogs, a list of thousands upon thousands of local bloggers who create for the sake fulfilling their inner Picasso. Most have no aspiration for monetization.

Also, consider how many people create content versus those that simply listen or comment. The actual blogger is a rare person, one in 20 to 25, depending on your source.

In the case, of business types who do blog, unless they are also naturally creative, they rarely post with the necessary frequency, long-term tenacity and substance to succeed. If an entrepreneur’s natural creativity cannot be brought to bear in this sense, it’s going to be very hard for them. A corporation can better weather this deficiency by deploying several voices guided by an editorial mission and calendar.

In addition to creative fire to achieve success, you must have something to say. You have to have subject matter expertise. Creativity and subject matter expertise do not mutually co-exist. Further, is there enough of both, to deliver targeted content excellence over a sustained Stakeholders must find the content relevant consistently or they will stop following a creator.

Last, but not least comes, community networking skills. This represents more than half of the battle. Content is not king of much>Unless you already have notoriety, generating a community network becomes an organic process. Developing enough Groundswell to successfully compel communities to generate word of mouth and propel content, requires strong networking skills - a skill set completely different from content creation.

Networking requires a sustained participatory commitment from the individual on top of content creation. Much of Now Is Gone focuses on participation within communities, and that’s because it is the community that drives adoption, not publishing or even subject matter expertise. Those are pre-requisites. Instead, the community adapts, and they only do so when they believe you are credible, and there is clear value for them.

Applied to the Gnomedex Conversation

The Lacys, Lis, and Scobles of the world have an unfair advantage compared to the average blogger. Their credibility with the community — in the form of BusinessWeek, Forrester and Microsoft — was already established. Their communities were much more willing to embrace them than the average unknown.

To their credit, Li and Scoble are clearly positioned for long term success. In addition to their notoriety, they network, create content, and deliver substance over time. I am far from ready to don Lacy a champion due to perceived weaknesses in her thought leadership and community skills. That being said, she is undoubtably a Natural. Journalists and authors have to be content creators in their heart. But how much longer will the BusinessWeek cache carry her?

Those of us who have had to earn or are trying to develop business success through content creation know the road is not easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it. Much like publishing a book (according to Li there are only 50,000 published authors in the United States), for “the unfamous” the dream requires an incredible amount of perseverance and dedication. Trust me, I know. Because I’ve walked this talk from ground zero.

“Our mission is to break the world’s oil addiction.”

Compliments of September’s Wired cover story, I learned of Shai Agassi’s phenomenal start-up Better Place. An admirable mission as Green is my number one current cause. And social causes have rapidly become critical professional matters for those of us writing on the Buzz Bin.

Shai (see his blog here) abandoned a promising career at software giant SAP to fulfill his quest to end oil dependence. His vision of all electric cars is so ambitious it makes your mouth drop. Forget GM’s broken Volt model. Instead, envision battery power readily accessible through a networked grid everywhere. And the cost? One third of the gas-guzzling fuel costs the average American spends.

Impossible you say? Yet he has Renault, Daimler, the Israeli and Danish governments, powerful investors, and talented individuals across the globe getting in line behind him. He is attracting the world’s most incredible minds, and breaking so called rules left and right. And he is likely to break current paradigms for hybrid and electric cars.

Why? Because he was tasked by fellow entrepreneurs to change the world, to make a difference for the environment. In his relentless passion to achieve what he sees as the world’s biggest environmental challenge — oil addiction - he has turned the heads of many, and may become one of our generation’s greatest heros. I hope so.

Many times on my personal blog (this piece is cross-posted there), I’ve stated a definitive intent to use my communication “powers” for good.

At Gnomedex this weekend, I will have the great pleasure of meeting Beth Kanter, one of the leading change bloggers out there. Beth’s work is so prolific we felt compelled to interview her yesterday. Voices like hers, like la Marguerite, like EcoGeek, speak to me every time I open my reader. It’s dedicated, 110% committed people like these change bloggers, like Agassi, that let you know the impossible can be achieved.

Inevitably my mind returns to our internal mission: Building a significant social cause practice, and using our social media skills for good. In the past week, we’ve made several steps that have put us in position to kick some real butt on behalf of organizations trying to relieve poverty, end genocide, educate America, and more.

We live once. No one will remember us for marketing body armor, wireless networks, cars, software, etc., etc. What will your legacy be?

Yes, we have to pay the bills. Not everyone can direct corporate strategy in this way. Or maybe you can just quit like Agassi — like me — and start your own company. But all of us, every single one of us can do more. As communicators we have the ability to help in ways most people cannot. We can use social media and traditional channels to heighten public awareness, help fundraise, and build better companies. And it’s hard to imagine that there isn’t some cause that every person holds dear to their heart.

2008 is 66% over. What are you doing to make Earth a better place this year?