Znetlady: Modern Media

Have Tool. Will Visualize

Ooooh.  We love visualization.  It is, after all, one of the six mega trends* we encourage our clients to live by.   As you might expect, we spend a fair amount of time on ManyEyes. 

ManyEyes allows the entire Internet to upload all kinds of data and turn it into beautiful, elegant and sometimes surprisingly insightful pattern pictures.  Lots of different kinds of patterns available to you as well and all from our friends at IBM. ManyEyes goes one step beyond great visualizations turning them into social media through its rating and discussion features.  The home page at ManyEyes has an up-to-the-minute gallery of visualizations – check them out.

We encourage you to start thinking about how to visualize your stuff – make it more meaningful and you might even surprise yourself about the insight you might see inside your data.  So, to help you get your visualization ideas flowing, here are a few other favorite visualization tools.

Newsmap – visualizing the Google news aggregator.

Amaztype – a typographic visual search of Amazon 

We Feel Fine – a somewhat addictive set of visualizations of feelings from all over the web.

Have tool. Will visualize.

*all six mega trends are: connectivity, personalization, mobility, sharable media, visualization, virtualization.

Original Post: The Modohood: http://modohood.marcominteractive.com/2008/11/have-tool-will.html

Backchanneling MTV

MTV has clearly elevated the concept of socializing while watching television to an artfully modern parlor game. It’s called Backchannel. 

Here’s the nutshell.  Micro-blog funny or snarky comments in real time with others online while watching The Hills on MTV (you probably already do that). To play, log into a specialized MTV Backchannel game “chat room” while you are tuned into the tv show.  Viewers make comments (called tags) about what is happening in the show to the 100 other people or so in that room. Other people click on the comments floating around that they like - a la an arcade game.  Players get points as both a clicker and tagger with the goal of becoming a Backchannel superstar.  It is all timed and limited pretty ingeniously so the tagging and clicking isn’t overwhelming.  It’s way more compelling than it might sound, trust me.

The commenting goes on right through the commercials – yes, I hear the ad-people gears turning on the potential advertising metrics on that one…. Advertisers, are you ready to hear what people think of you?

Social media concepts personified.  MTV connects the audience to each other (one of our well-worn mantras here), and makes their TV shows interactive, more fun and socially powered. But just think about the insight MTV is gathering from the audience on the content of the show – not to mention a new value they can offer their advertisers.

MTV has mashed up TV with Twitter with gaming with social networking – they’ve done equally interesting things with virtual worlds, but that's another story.

I tell you. MTV are ones to follow (even if their programming may not always be).

Original Post: The Modohood: http://modohood.marcominteractive.com/2008/10/backchanneling.html

Think of Modern Media as a Product

One of my mantra’s to clients is to “look sideways” to find opportunity.

There is so much modern media that hasn’t made it to the drawing board (or has yet to be discovered) for most organizations.  Based on our modern media presentations and client discussions, many organizations are still in the stage of learning about blogs, podcasts mobile media, social networks and the rest (trust me on this).  You, like so many we talk to, might be seriously considering how to use these tools for your PR or marketing; or you might be one of those organizations that for a whole host of business reasons and hurdles can’t move forward any time soon with the “conversation model.”

Serving your audiences with modern media doesn’t have to be about putting yourself “out there.” Just look sideways and you can find audiences and serve them with modern media - or even create new services within your existing PR or marketing initiatives.  Yes, you can be modern without blogging or putting videos up on YouTube.

A few examples of using an iPod for something besides creating a corporate podcast might better illustrate what I mean by “looking sideways.”

• The recently opened 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky asks guest about their music preferences during the reservation process and a custom music selection is downloaded into each guests’ in-room iPod before they arrive.

• The Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, in partnership with Samsung Electronics and Talpa, recently installed kiosks called “Fuel for Travel” that lets travelers load up their MP3 devices with music, t.v. shows, movies, guides and audio books before boarding their flight.

• Nordiska Kompaniet in cooperation with Ridderheims (fine meat and delicatessen products distributor) has put the iFood terminal in Nordiska Kompaniet’s upscale food hall in Stockholm.  The terminals let visitors purchase and download audio recipes to their iPods.  They purchase the recipes – and of course all the ingredients – while in that all-important “frame of mind” moment.

All three of these put a modern medium to use to extend the brand, engage the modern customer, and  provide a valuable service/solution.  And, it can even be a new revenue stream. 

Try looking at new media as a product.  It might help your organization side-step the hurdles or fears of going ”conversational.” And, it just might wind up changing other perspectives too.

Virtual Business Gets a Real Magazine: Business Magazine for Second Life Launches

Second Life, one of the growing virtual worlds, has a new magazine dedicated to real world issues surrounding doing business in Second Life.  SL Business Magazine launched yesterday.  And true to modern media it is available in both ”real world” formats, like PDF and hard-copy, as well as “virtual formats,” like in-world note cards, and a full-color “prim” version (a prim is an in-world virtual object).

The premier issue is very nicely designed.  The content of the issue is geared to those fairly new to business in Second Life but the magazine’s goal is to cover topics such as Law, Building, the rich music scene and success stories. And, it contains both Second Life (SL) and real life (RL) advertisers. 

Second Life has had a couple of news publications for quite a while (in online time), but the SL Business Magazine hopes to focus on issues of both doing business “in world” and the intersection of RL and SL business.

While the reviews of the first issue are mixed, I’m hoping that SL Business Magazine will tell the story of the evolving business side of Second Life without the “novelty” factor given most mainstream media coverage of SL.  Some very serious work is going on in Second Life as both a media channel and a business environment. 

I hope as it matures the magazine will serve to affirm that very real business is being conducted in virtual worlds. Some believe SL is about escapism, however the facts are that some visionary companies are grabbing onto SL to leapfrog their real world businesses.  American Express, Intel and Wal-Mart, for example, are part of a consortium exploring using SL for training.  American Apparel has opened up a virtual retail outlet. The University of Southern California has built a Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds Center to explore how virtual worlds can be used in diplomatic endeavors.  The American Cancer Society raised over $40,000 last week in an in-world relay. And, then there are the Second Life Library and the International Space Museum which both regularly hold discussions, presentations and lectures in world - not to mention their amazingly rich exhibits.

Check out the new magazine, and if you are interested in exploring SL business implications with other business people, please join the SL Business Communicators group in SL.  We'll be holding the first meeting in mid-August.

Stop Conversational Marketing

I dislike the term “conversational marketing,” If your new media consultant is using it, please find a new consultant.  If you read it in a trade publication, assume the author is repeating something he/she thought was cool (and then take what they say with a grain of “buzz” salt).

If you are exploring the world of modern media for your public relations or marketing,   I sincerely hope you won’t use “conversational marketing”, or worse, shape your thinking or strategies around it.  In using the term you may sound very “Web 2.0” but you’ll be seriously damaging your thinking, your public relationships, and your efforts toward perfecting a new media strategy.

I’m not putting anybody down here.  I admit we are all searching for words to describe the indescribable - this massive expansion in the reach, methods and pervasiveness of human connectedness and how we successfully respond to it in our businesses.  But this term is just wrong.

It is being used all over the place today to describe a marketing methodology/campaign by which a customer can “talk back” or “participate” with a company.  Mircosoft used the term in 2001 or 2002 to describe their “speech server” which automated and “improved” companies’ telephone customer service through voice recognition.  We all know how well that is going. But, I digress.

Conversational Marketing is an oxymoron.  It implies we are manufacturing human interaction.  It screams a hierarchy in communications. It practically ensures one of us is going to be manipulated in the “conversation.”  And, if your customers hear you refer to your “New PR” or “New Marketing” programs or campaigns as “conversational marketing,” it’s over. 

“Conversational Marketing” is not the way to success with your new media initiatives!

Conversation - Absolutely.  Conversational Marketing - No!

Your modern marketing and communications is about connecting people to each other.  That doesn’t exclude you, but it definitely doesn’t put you or the brand at the center, either.

Friends, your publics don’t need you to structure the “the conversation” nor do they need a contrived invitation from you to “talk back.”   They are doing it all over the place.  The bigger question is are they doing it with you or without you in the conversation?

If you want to get your thinking around the role conversation plays in marketing, read this article published by Accenture, written by Brain A. Johnson and Paul Nunes.  It uses that dreaded term (unfortunately), but in the context of the person engaging in customer conversations rather than as a tactic.  While this article is rooted in 2002 and can’t specifically address the much deeper opportunities (or technologies) we have just 4 years later, its key concept is vital in approaching today’s new(er) media and connected customer: “discussions with customers are in the end “polyogues” - complex sequences of monologues and dialogues among numerous relevant parties.“

A couple of other key concepts from that article:

…”technology enables companies to interact intelligently with customers across time.” (my emphasis)

--“Gaining an understanding of the mechanics of good conversation can help business become more than just good companies - they can also become good company.”

…“ good communication is based on reciprocity.” (emphasis mine)

By way of offering an olive branch to those I may have offended, I do understand that the “conversational marketing”  term is used to attempt to encapsulate all those prophetic truths about marketing and PR found in Cluetrain Manifesto.  But, words shape our thinking as much as our thinking shapes our words.  This term is wrong and the thinking is dangerous. 

Defecting from Google: New Search Tools for Relevant Searches

I’ve had this uneasy feeling for several months now – feeling like something is missing from my relationship with Google.  I admit I’ve been going around Google for quite some time, frequenting other search engines, indeed non-search engines - to find much more relevant results.  Last week I became so disillusioned with Google, I was shocked to find myself making another web site my Firefox home page.

Have you noticed Google isn’t giving us the “best” results anymore, meaning the most relevant to you (they are certainly search-friendly results!)?  Are you left feeling a bit frustrated or empty after trying to locate a really good resource on some topic? 

Or maybe you are frustrated that you are a really good resource on a topic and that Google just doesn’t see you that way?

It seems the most important Thing anyone writes for on the web is Google – not the People who are, in fact, their audience.  And with everyone chasing Google’s secret algorithms, I do wonder if it is the content or Google’s results that are becoming less relevant to me.

Klaus’ post at ConceptBakery  got me to thinking about how I find relevant information, but more importantly, just how many better methods I have for finding what I’m looking for on the Web.  To start, I use specialized wikis, and Wikipedia, the grand dame of wikis.  I create RSS feeds for keywords, search terms or concepts I need to follow.  I subscribe to reliable bloggers.   I use del.icio.us and Blogmarks tag clouds.  I use news aggregators and dedicated news search engines.  I use IceRocket and Technorati (among others) to find blogs on particular subjects.   I frequently use the tags or categories on prolific blogs like Gizmodo and Micropersuasion because I can find and browse posts on a particular topic that point me to sources.  I even use “blog rolls” (lists of other blogs that a blog author reads) to find topic-specific blogs. 

The point is, ‘social search’ is becoming an extremely valuable way to find “human relevant” content.  Of course I still use Google, but other tools are become far more important to me.

I know that there are many people who don’t know how to use the search tools I mentioned and that I can breezily take flight to.  I can leave Google without worrying I’m missing something, but not everyone has the tools or even the knowledge that these tools exist.

Since the primers I post here are among the most read, I have decided to do a few posts on how to use these important - and relevant - tools for search.  Maybe they will help you get unglued from Google as a primary source of search – and discover tools and a whole new world of relevant content.  If you have a great new way to find relevant information, chime in and point us in that direction.

Forrester Research: Social Computing Report

Grab the opportunities.

Forrester Research says we are in an “era of social computing” in a report released last month titled, Social Computing: How Networks Erode Institutional Power and What To Do About It, by  Chris Charron, Jaap Favier and Charlene Li.  The thesis of the report is that today institutions - corporations, media, governing bodies, etc. – have less influence over us and individuals have more. 

A quote from the report via Steve Rubel:

“Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies. To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.”

Yes. And no.

The “yes” part is what companies have to do to thrive in today’s business environment:  weave in communities, socialize their marketing, and equalize communications rather than sermonize.

The “no” part is individuals have always had more influence on us than institutions, it just wasn’t as visible to us as business people, and the individual’s reach wasn’t wide. 

The significance for business today is that we can hear the influence, see it, follow it, measure it.  And, individuals have access to lots and lots more individuals they can influence due to their ability to communicate and publish via networks.

The significance of social computing is business opportunities, innovation opportunities, marketing opportunities.

Without networks business was largely working in a vacuum, making products and spending enormous amounts of money creating markets for them.  Now, we make products and services that answer market needs and cost less because we have access to markets and to their behaviors.

Access your markets by letting them access you.  “Social computing” are the tools.  Grab the opportunities.

I encourage reading the report, or at least the executive summary if you don’t want to spend the $299 for the full report. In it Forrester pulls together trends in behaviors that have been evolving over the last 15 years and that are now reaching critical mass.

New Media Training Launched

It has been a little quiet here on my blog in recent weeks.  I have missed posting, but we’ve been working diligently on creating a training program for marketing and communications pros on using new media tools.  We are calling it the Modern Mediasphere™ Training Series

These are actual hands-on classes in how to use tools like blogs, tags, social networking, RSS and more.  I found after asking “what is it?” most professionals can see the opportunities. They just don’t have the time to dig around and discover how to use the tools.  So, we are offering classes to bring people up to speed quickly by guiding them through the tools and giving them tips on getting the most from them.

We are offering the training in 11 cities in the U.S.  If you want more information start here.  Yes, we are still offering our seminars, as well.

Now that we’ve launched our training program, I will be back to more regular postings.  Thanks for staying tuned!

New Blog for Communications Professionals: Modern Mediasphere

I've launched a second blog called Modern Mediasphere.  I hope it will act as a companion to this one, and I'd appreciate your comments. 

This is an excerpt from my first post over at Modern Mediasphere that I hope explains what the new blog is:

There are lots of great blogs about new media technologies. Most of these give us pointers to new tools, but they lack context. There are lots of extremely valuable discussions going on about the big picture and shifting models, but most of those are focused on generalities.

I find what many professionals who are closest to the everyday media decisions and "transactions" need is solid examples of how modern media is being used, and specific ideas about how to put it to work for themselves.

So, I started this blog with the goal of helping people new to modern media (new media) find out what new and emerging media mean - practically - to them, their business, their practices, and the people who touch those businesses.  I want to help answer the question "what is [insert new media here] good for?"

Let me know what you think!

And if you are one of those searching for what new media is good for, I’d welcome hearing the questions you'd like answered.