Learning to Swim at Broadband Speed

I was just reading "High Speed for the Sparsely Wired" in @NYTimes this week about the portion of the government stimulus program that allocates $7.2 billion for extending high-speed Internet access. I have to say, I'm pretty fascinated by both the possibilities facing rural communities about to get transported to the web 2.0 community via the economic stimulus plan...and by the perspectives of people in and out of those in dial-up-speed land.

Think about it: if you're reading this blog, chances are you didn't have to wait a half hour for the page to load. (And if you did, and think I'm THAT worth it, bless your heart.) That means you likely live in an area where broadband means PDQ* access to the world wide web. It means traversing global villages and accessing the knowledge of the crowd on literally any topic you can imagine. It means you can, like view images of Mars or play web chess with someone in the Czech Republic...or try the impossible of keeping up with every damn article on social media marketing, staying up every night til 2AM....

The comments on this news story are inspiring, as many in rural areas talk about gaining the ability to work virtually, or post resumes, or set up online storefronts -- helping to open up new commerce opportunities. And imagine this: expanded health care options, too! For example,

"doctors in Anchorage, 400 miles to the east, can see patients via videoconference."

It's a whole new frontier for many, down to learning how to build a skyscraper ad right in their own backyard. Of course it also means closer examinations of the less illustrious and the downright icky. Or, as "Mike" commented on this topic in a NY Times story:

"How can you not look at that [article] and think, "Hi, JokrBoy. I'm HotBlonde. What r u wearing?"

Access to the vain or glorious aside, it means a whole new part of the country will be exposed to social media tools that some 500,000,000 Facebook users take for granted. We're not talking total social media virgins, as patience, or satellite and cellular services have certainly enabled access for many. But from an almost anthropological perspective, it will be interesting to observe how superfast, 24/7 entry to Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Digg impacts life as they knew it. I can already hear the cries of "and WHY do I want to 'tweet'!?" or "What a time suck!" Oh the stories I could tell...the caveats...the techniques... Don't use all CAPS! Don't "sell!" Do remember my social coaching mantra of "Look. Listen. Learn. Participate. Lead!"

Unless our rural friends stay up nights studying Mashable and Brogan, Ochman to Owyang til all hours, they will have to learn it all the hard way. They will be jumping into the deep end that most of us had the chance to hold hands and wade into more slowly back in the day, last year or so.

*Now it will even be easy to figure out obscure references like "PDQ."

Staying the Course is Key

MSNBC had a great article last week about Tech Fatigue. I think one of the most astute lines was:

"We have reached a tech bump in the road, augmented by news-at-the-speed-of Internet, which leads to immediate inflation and deflation of new products even before, or just as, they're released."

Here's what I wrote in response to the some of the other comments on that good article:

"Most commenters are really missing the big picture of the story. It's not just about your iPad or iPod or whatever. It's about those and ALL the gadgets, sites, platforms and tools being thrown at us. This is the best takeaway quote from the story: "we have reached a tech bump in the road, augmented by news-at-the-speed-of Internet, which leads to immediate inflation and deflation of new products even before, or just as, they're released."

The author did a great job in summing up the challenge companies are facing if they don't take advantage of 2.0 customer input and build a trusted brand in this era of information overload and consumer fatigue. Personally, I'm exhausted, not just from trying to figure out my new Droid or now Google Buzz or next Mobile TV (MDTV?), but as a social media marketer, I can't shut down or I'll get shut out."

That's why it's essential for companies to get in and stay in the game. Think of the shelf life of a Tweet. If you catch people reading their newsflow at the time you tweet, they might catch your comment...then it's gone from the top of the newsflow pile. Unless you repost it there, and elsewhere, and catch more attention, but it's like collecting water in a coffee filter. And that's why there's a twofold challenge to keeping your brand present and relevant: being present at right time... and grappling with consumers' information overload.

Hence the point of the MSNBC story: We're ALL on overload. We are drilling down as fast as we can, or trying to learn the latest gadget or gizmo when all of a sudden, WHAM!, the next one comes along. So where do we turn, what do we do?
Some may throw up their hands in frustration and catch a boat to the closest desert island. (Sounds good to me.) But lots of us will just pray for a single easy platform (which is what FriendFeed tried to be, and now GoogleBuzz, or GoogleWave or whatever, hopes to deliver) to come along and just make life and info easier to manage.

But who do we trust? Everyone is promising to be THE panacea.

And THAT's what brings me back the importance of staying the course.

Now more than ever companies have to be present and maintain. Be the rock. The redeemer. Suck up the negative and course correct as possible. Show gratitude and leverage the positive. But stay in the newsflow. Show us you're not going away like a flash drive in the pan. Help me find you wherever I am hanging out so I don't have to do a big search to find that solution or tool I read about on some platform that I meant to bookmark that was going to make my life so easy.

Adjust your Set

I was skimming CSRWire.com - an interesting media platform for social responsiblity content - and came across a post by their CEO, Joe Sibilia, in their terrific TalkBack blog section. Only Joe was writing not about social responsibility but about social media. He wonders if Boomers will adjust to it. He shares examples of those who have adapted and prevailed personally and in business, and others who question the value of sharing...yeah, yeah...the old "what I had for breakfast" content, and dismiss social media with those kinds of digs about it. (I'm so done with that, by the way. See my "Facebook Off" post. Reminds me of that old "Jennifer Anniston's sweater" line.)

Anyway, it was thoughtful post, but with one mistep, I think. He quoted a Social Media Examiner article that suggested a Twitter plan with "up to 20 tweets a day" to grow your business. And those still harping on breakfast commentary content could easily use that as more fuel to justify throwing their hands in the air and stepping away from the keyboard. "I barely have time to email..!" It's not like I have to DEFEND the pervasiveness and benefit of social media (though, that's sort of what I do when I coach executives in it), but I do feel like we are in the middle of a huge sociological shift that we should enjoy observing and being a part of, and not fight the phenomenon.

Here's my comment to Joe's post:

As a boomer who is a social media professional, I can tell you that it IS hard to embrace this world as nimbly and naturally as, say, my teenage nephew or 20-something niece. But as a marketer I see the imperative to keep up with the way the world is going. Debating the very question of "whether we'll adjust" is sort of moot as I think we'll have little choice within the next couple of years. We ARE adjusting, in our own ways. Why, I actually know some boomers with touch-tone telephones! Ha. (or LOL, if you prefer.) There will always be Luddites among us - as there have been for every advancement - but there will always be those like my 80-year old aunt who sends me daily jokes via her WebTV. FYI, the latest research from Comscore shows use of Facebook by boomers up 106% year to year 10/08 to 10/09. And it's sort of a trite research point already that next to teenage boys, moms are the second biggest demographic playing mobile games.

The one thing that I take exception to in your post is that the "be prepared to tweet 20 x a day" was taken a bit out of context from the Social Media Examiners article. They end that article with the reminder that:
"...Although a tweet plan [to schedule and auto-release up to 20 tweets/day] is useful when your schedule gets busy, it’s not a way to avoid real-time tweeting. ...But there are different opinions about scheduling posts. Many people feel scheduling tools take away from the value of real-time interaction on Twitter. And they are right.

You must find a balance to make this work for your business. And you can only find this balance by jumping in, listening to your audience and tweaking the content you share on Twitter to get the best results."

Twitter is just one tactic. But don't forget that you received 20 comments and counting on this blog -- which is another tactic of 2-ways communication. We just each will find the platforms and ways to reach out and find and engage in communities in our own ways. We are a tad starved for human contact, and sadly a lot of us will rely on digital versions of it...boomer or GenXer. The good news is that we are ALSO finding ways, like Tweet-ups and Meet-ups to take our interactions OFFline, too. But we arrange those in-person meetings through...you got it: social media.

Legally Blog: The challenges of coralling the conversation

I don't have the answer yet. I don't know that anyone really does, as social media is like an octopus, regrowing tentacles and mushing and morphing its way through the communal media ocean. But one of the biggest questions I hear from my client and prospects about entering that ocean is how to "control their employees." And of course the immediate answer to THAT is: "you dont."

Clearly, participating in social networking is about being yourself and communing as best we can in our face-time starved society. I always think about Tim Sanders and his book from '02, Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends His premise is that sharing information is a loving, giving thing and that we all need to open our "rolodexes" and give a little to get a little. The Dilbert society of cubicles has starved us for companionship. Even love ain't gonna drive us offline so easily any more. We even FIND love online these days. We will keeping trying to find virtual places to hang out and talk.

So, for a company to ask us to stay nicely in our cubbies and not chat is not practical. But there are WAYS to chat...and as has always been the case there's that little thing most employees sign about not blabbing trade secrets to the press or even friends.

The internet is one big mouthpiece (and I LOVE Brian Madison's song "What Happens in Vegas Stays on the Internet" it should be sung after the Pledge of Allegiance every day in school, if kids still do the pledge, these days.)

Blogger beware.
Employees have to have the dots connected for them that badmouthing a bad boss on Twitter or posting a gripe in a chat room about co-worker is the same as broadcasting to the world. Forever.

So, for here's a good legal blog to read, even if it will sort of strike fear in the hearts of some employees and employers.
The battle of the blog: Legal implications of your employees blogging about the workplace :: WRAL.com

FYI: (No employees were harmed in the making of this blog.)


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Lessons in Sponsor Engagement from Wondering what's Up with Chuck

If Twitter moms can get a Motrin ad pulled, can Facebook friends save Chuck?

Will the roar of the social media crowd be able to influence programming? We're always hearing from programming execs that they just "give the people what they want." (I'm not sure if that was entirely accurate when striking writers helped spark the plethora of reality shows.)

Compare the story about the social media pressure mounting to save NBC's "Chuck" in the Observer, with the LA Times blog talking about NBC's new fall season. The blog quotes Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, talking about the network's effort to speak to advertisers on a more 1:1 basis, than at the usual party-riffic dog-and-pony upfronts: “We’re not interested in just screaming out to 5,000 people and then walking off to some VIP corridor. We’re here to talk to you and speak to you and connect with our client base and allow them to ask questions in small settings.”


That's GREAT to get the feedback of the people footing a lot of the bill. Though it sounds a little like "IF I were to ask you to marry me, what would you say?"...instead of being confident in your value and just jumping in and proposing. After all, they're buying your brand, your track record...oh, wait, NBC was fourth in line this year. What about the opinion of the people passionate about a program, though? Well, programmers do what programmers have to do, and they have tough choices to make, based on eyeballs, network brand decisions, trends, etc.


But the thing that really gets me thinking is that the social media crowds were actually trying to drive more REVENUE to Subway, one of the show sponsors, as an additional incentive to keep Chuck on the air. This to me is the embodiment of how the consumer is in control now. (Well, maybe except when programmers are involved.) But THIS is the opportunity to court the consumer AND offer a deeper opportunity for advertiser engagement with the viewer on multiple platforms. How has Subway leveraged that viewer passion? What did Subway say to Silverman in those 1:1 discussions? Did they "friend" HIM?


It's really time for media executives -- especially those in ad sales -- to apply best social media practices. This is a chance to do the old "consultancy sell" and do more than push "spots and dots" in a numbers guy of ad sales. Instead:

• Listen to what people controlling the purse strings and the remotes are saying
• Learn more about what they want and what they like about your programs and about your advertisers
• Share that information with your sponsors and prospective sponsors in order to educate them
• Find ways to facilitate a dialogue between your sponsors and your program's biggest fans. (Shameless plug: Did I mention I am an excellent promotion/ad sales marketer with social media chops?)
  

Give ALL the people what they want. Advertisers and Twitterers are people too.

Networking with networks about networking

My blog has always reflected my cross-section of marketing and green work experiences with some personal passions thrown in. More and more those experiences have included social media as I ramp up both my presence and that of my clients in that space. A cross-section -- or lack of -- was never more apparent than at The Cable Show (see #CS09 at search.twitter.com) this year.

It's easy to feel "eco-centric," as I describe my environmental focus, and think that, say EVERYONE knows the meaning of the word "sustainability" these days. But it ain't necessarily so. And when you focus on media and spend time in the SOCIAL network space, it's easy to believe that PROGRAMMING networks would know their way around a Tweetdeck or a follower, too. But you know what they say about the word "ASSUME."

(Reminder - This is a key time to ramp up your knowledge and your efforts since it takes time to build a presence. Give us a call now about letting Sheryl and me (@mossappeal) help. And I must say my overview workshop on Social Media Marketing for Business has gotten rave reviews!)

So I was impressed when Moss Appeal alliance partner, "Marketing Maven" Sheryl Victor, wrote a post today that did a great job summing up our experience at the Cable Show, and probably that of many others who were not tied to a booth. You should read her take on Broadband Nation for good first hand objective observations -- especially as a returning CS alumni after some years away. But her paragraph about Social Media awareness in the cable arena particular really has me jazzed, since we talked to a lot of folks there about tapping our expertise in the Social Media space:

"Social Media is very much in its embryonic stage in most of the Cable industry. Which actually, I was a little surprised at. From a B2B perspective, a colleague and myself were in a panel about 360 Degree marketing. Ann Cowan from CTAM was moderating the panel. When the panelists were asked if they were using Social Networks or Media, you could hear a pin drop…except from the folks at A&E. Mark Garner spoke to their program around the show Hammer, with MC Hammer. Hallmark spoke to how they were dipping their toe, and TV Guide wasn’t using Social Media at all. Then Ann asked if anyone in the audience was tweeting….and out of close to 200 people, only 2 hands went up. Mine and my colleague’s. It actually was incredibly surprising to me. This room was filled with Marketers listening to Marketers. It was just a testament to me how the space is still very much new and uncharted, but is ripe with opportunity!"Sheryl Victor under, Savvy Strategy - Business Development, Marketing and Social Media

You Might be a SM S-head If... (SM Swelled Head)

The whole strategy of tapping social media for business marketing is to listen to what the world is saying about you or your company. Then, by being smart, or funny, or a good resource when you participate in online conversations, earning a good reputation. Just like the popular kid in school. I hate to say it's like the George Burns quote, but it IS sort of like what he said about acting:

"it's all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

You work on creating a well rounded perception of your brand, your brilliant thought leadership, your trustworthiness, etc. and you hope you get people to talk TO you and ABOUT you (hopefully in a good way!) -- drive digital word of mouth.

All that is great and helps add some soul to a CEO or more lifeblood to a business. We've seen the success stories of the Zappos customer service, Dell's course correction, and Obama central become over-Tweeted parables of bar-raising expectations.

Where I start to get concerned, and believe me I'm no exception, is when we start confusing our personal value and when we're always thinking or promoting our value as a "brand." We start to measure our own worth by the number of followers, friends and alerts, and turn what should be our more personal dialogues into crafted multilogues.

When did even my personal pages or Tweets become a race to be the first to post the cool link? I mean, heaven-forbid you DON'T include some valuable nugget these days?? Who needs that kind of pressure on, say, Facebook? Can't I just hang out by a wall?

But the world is a great big sheet of cellophane now, so poster beware. (And yes, I WILL stop taking your feeds if you think I am titillated about your lunch choice today.) It's a fine line between being more professional in our personal life online, and starting to drink your own Kool-Aid, believing tons of people are really listening as we try to come across more personally in our professional life.


It's easy to confuse hitting the first few hundred or the thousand mark on Twitter (@mossappeal, ya'all) with real people who will hang on your every word at an actual cocktail party. I've heard lots of stories of groups with hundreds of fans on LinkedIn or friends on FaceBook using it exclusively to post an invite to an event...only to have lots of leftover pigs in a blanket because of no-shows.

It takes time and it also takes a little humility to promote yourself on every platform and remember to find that balance between your personal and professional brand.

So I offer these Warning Signs.

You might be an S-Head on Social Media (Swelled Head, that is) IF:

1. You think you can stop Dating and start D@ing. Worse, you try to set up a first date via a D@.
2. You think your friends want to know your opinion on the state of crude and your followers want to know a crude joke, and you blast all the same feeds to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn .
3. You try to get a reservation at a hot restaurant by assuming they, too, think 1000 followers makes you A-list.
4. You're incensed when no one Diggs you, man.
5. You truly believe your last 23 Q&A answers deserved "Best Expert" status.
6. You are stunned that Mrs. Kutcher isn't following you.

...And the 7th sign you may have a SM S-head?
Your blogs are way too long because you enjoy expounding and are sure that since there are a billion people online now, at least a million will hang on your every word. ...whoops.

And by the way, I hope you tweet this blog or link it to your profile, because I'm -- I mean, it -- is really smart and funny and resourceful, don't you think?

Socially Transmitted Dis-Ease

I've been putting together a How-to deck on participating in social media at the request of a client. I feel like the guy on that commercial whose wife comes downstairs in the morning to find him up all night, sitting slack-jawed and messy-haired. He tells her that he just got to the end of the internet.

Only we, of course, never do.

It's an addiction. A compulsion. A necessity. As an advisor or resource, staying one, or preferably three, steps ahead of the average guy's knowledge is like being in a constant race to a never approaching finish line. So over the next few days or weeks, I'll try to share some of the elements I'm going to share with my client as I pull together reframe some of the basics for them.

Overarching Rules for Social Networking Participation Part 1:

• If you don’t know anyone, but want them to know you, blog
• If you don’t know them, don’t friend them on Facebook
• If you don’t know them, but wish you did, try to connect with them on LinkedIn
• If you don’t know them, but they are a good resource, do follow them on Twitter (@mossappeal )
• If you don't know what they're saying about you and want to know (which we all need to know before diving in for business reasons), by all means, ask. And I do mean "by all means," like Google yourself, set Google alerts, Monitorr yourself, and pose some questions!
  

Have at it.

Keeping Up

I try to keep up. Maybe I'm better than the average Joe(ette) with techno gizmos and social media stuff. But sometimes I feel woefully left behind. Thanks to new friend and followee on Twitter, Iyna, I learned about Google Alerts the other day. Where have I been!?
Since she's a PR maven, I told her how I'd been interviewed a couple of times recently and never knew if my comments made the cut. She showed me how to track alerts about me. So today, I check in...and voila! There was something about "branding by consultant E.B. Moss". Whaa?? Another brand marketer named E.B.? Hmmm...
I click on the alert link and...
Ce's t moi!

A few months ago, I spoke on branding, quite eloquently I thought, at the Alliance for Community Media International conference in D.C. I knew someone was taping it for their internal review, but didn't catch her name.
Well, someone -- whether the woman shooting it or someone who downloaded it -- created two clips of me. Not so pretty clips. But a couple of my smarter comments, I must say! Now, I know I can be verbose, but I'm sad to say my brilliant 35-minute branding presentation got summarized pretty well in two thirty-five second clips!

(But speaking of clips, who did my hair and makeup that day?)

If you want me to come do the long or short version on the basics of branding (OR my Appealing Shade of Green marketing schpiel) at YOUR next seminar or company meeting, let me know. (I'll get my blow-dryer ready.)

Where Social Media Gets Unsocial

1/17 Update: Just had to add these links:
http://hub.tm/?RHCDB
which sums it all up...
And this from David Pogue:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/twittering-tips-for-beginners/
(er, note: his article was written days after my entry appeared! Maybe I have a future?... Then again, we're all frustrated and expounding on tech-headaches.)

Just I'd love to wish you (all two of my faithful readers) a Happy New Year. But I'm not sure if you'll ever see this because I haven't really figured out how to enable my blog to be fed for greater consumption. I just can't digest all the new social media bites and bytes. And I'm hungry for more scoop. There's definitely a food theme going on here that I have to stop.

Anyway, a funny thing happened to a friend of mine on the way to my apartment. I'd sent an evite to a few folks for some holiday fare. (yes, more food.) Now, Cecilia is a making social media her career choice. She has uncovered all kinds of cool tools and sites and is starting to tweet, twitter, blog, maybe vlog, who knows. But she called me two minutes before my soiree and said she couldn't find my apartment because she'd lost my evite.

Today, I tried to RSVP to HER holiday party, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out which application/platform/email address she'd sent her party non-Evite invitation to, so I couldn't find the invite. NON-e-vite because she discovered the not-your-grandfathers-electronic-invitation-service dejour and used THAT service and I can't remember the name of it. Purple something. Wait - I looked in my Web history and found it!! Purple Trail.

Remember the days when using email we were nostalgic about snail mail and phones? Now I'm nostalgic about email! I guess I'll just pick up the phone and actually call her.

So, if you're reading this that means I'm still alive and writing and you're alive and reading, so I wish you all the very best for a wonderful 2009 filled with lots of happy moments when we all reach out and touch people.

Post Script: I have NO idea if those on the alert for my latest postings received multiple alerts about this one, but in the spirit of full disclosure since social media is notorious for transparency and crowdsourcing critics I revised this twice to keep the crowds happy. Sorry for the repeat blast. But real live friends are more...or at least as...important as the virtual ones.