Zeno Group Blog

Here are some articles the Zeno team has been reading from November 27th through January 5th:

• ChicagoTribune.com: New York Times puts an ad out front: Old gray lady ain’t what she used to be
• NYTimes.com Dot Earth Blog: Science Journalism Implosion, CNN and Beyond
• ChicagoTribune.com: More older users dipping toes into social networking

The Social 7 is a weekly video podcast hosted by Zeno Group’s Digital Lifestyle Team (Nick Mendoza, Alex Miller, and Andrea Nowack) that recaps the week’s top seven stories in social media and marketing.  You can view past episodes at http://www.thesocial7.com or follow us on Twitter (@thesocial7).

Welcome to the fourth episode of The Social 7, a conversation on the Top 7 Stories in social media and marketing. We have a great line up for you today, including the brand new viral video of the week, detailed in the show notes below. Quick note - due to the holidays we will not issue an episode next week, however, we’ll be back the following week (Jan. 5) with a brand new episode. Happy holidays, and see you in 2009!

More details on all the stories, plus Tweet of the Week, Social Shutterbug, and Viral Video of the Week, after the jump…

More…

I was struck recently regarding the similarities between the just completed presidential campaign and election and how PR agencies participate in competitive new business assignments. During an election and a pitch for new business, there are bold visions and differences in approach. Chemistry is important: Do I like the candidate? Do we share the same values? Can I imaging working with the team? There are promises and emotion. There is energy and hard work. After the election and the new business win, there are congratulations and smiles. As the work begins to take shape, there is a move towards a core program (likely included in every one of the agency pitches.) And the broad vision is tailored to the more immediate situation and getting the job done.

It’s hardly news that traditional media is on the way out. Media observers have been predicting the eventual demise of tangible media for years, with newspapers being the first to go. Technology evangelists have taken to tracking the “downfall” of traditional media as a hobby - one can find numerous blog posts each week documenting new signs of the “mainstream media’s” irrelevance; there is even a Twitter feed (@themediaisdying) that tracks nothing but media layoffs and outlet closures.

What is news though, are the recent signs that those in the industry have finally come to terms with reality and now understand that the age of mass-printed dailies is coming to an end. There have been several developments in the past week - some big, some small - that have convinced me that many inside the newspaper media have finally accepted the inevitable:

1. Online news outlets are now eligible to win Pulitzer Prizes: While, as Seth Godin points out, you or I certainly aren’t going to win one anytime soon for our personal blog posts, professional online outlets now can.
2. The LA Times consolidates its local blogs: Last week, the LA Times decided to consolidate its multiple blogs about LA into its “LA Now” blog and dramatically increase the posting frequency: While not a story of major significance to most people, this is likely a direct response to the LA Times realizing the popularity of local LA blogs like LAist and trying to stay competitive. The LA Times is being forced to change their strategy and approach because of these new media outlets (as my colleague Andrea Nowack wrote about yesterday).
3. The Tribune Company filing for bankruptcy: This is the one story of the three that has some major direct consequence, but the symbolism is also dramatic: one of the largest media operations, which owns two of the nation’s most popular newspapers (The LA Times and Chicago Tribune), is no longer economically feasible and is filing for bankruptcy.

As I said above, the importance of these stories lies not in their direct consequences (most of the outlets that win Pulitzer Prizes will still have offline operations, the local blog scene in LA will not be revolutionized by the LA Times switch, and the Chicago Tribune will continue to be published), but rather what they represent: that members of the traditional media are finally accepting, en masse, that the age of influence for newspapers is coming to an end. This is not to say that all newspapers will simply disappear in the next year. Some papers, especially those targeted towards niche markets (such as the Wall Street Journal) will continue their publication much longer; however, ultimately, these recent developments are recognition that newspapers are on their way out. I predict that over the next few years we will see a sharp increase in the number of small and midsize papers (and some major ones) that move their operations solely online as the print industry finally adapts to the changing world.

A few months ago, Los Angeles Magazine announced that downtown LA was named the “third bloggiest neighborhood” in the US. That’s a pretty cool claim to fame, if you ask me, but I have noticed that as local dailies die out, readers are turning to local blogs to get their news (or perhaps local dailies are dying out because people find more value in local blogs.)

Whatever the case, I moved to LA not too long ago and one of my favorite things about this city is the number of great local blogs. (I mean, West Linn, OR = cool, but newsworthy? Not so much, unless you count the occasional “a couple was caught being intimate on the baseball field” type stories – yes, that really was printed in the West Linn Tidings, and a friend of mine has the clipping hanging on her fridge if you’d like proof.) From LA Observed to LAist and a bunch of others, it is not hard to see why both print-affiliated and citizen journalists alike in LA are trading in their pens for Apples.

In fact, our dependence on local blogs has forced local dailies to hop on the blogging bandwagon as well, with most local papers having at least one (if not, several) affiliate blogs. This is smart for a number of different reasons:

1. Local blogs are rapidly growing in both readership and sheer numbers;
2. Blogs foster a two-way dialogue, whereas print publications are only one-sided;
3. Blogs support the ‘eco-friendly’ direction our society is headed (aka, green is trendy);
4. Blogs enable the 24-hour news cycle our now ‘always on’ society craves, especially during times of crisis (check out LA Now’s 24/7 coverage of the LA fires, for example);
5. Blogs allow local dailies to push out their content in a variety of different ways (RSS, e-mail and Twitter, for example) instead of just via subscription.

A few weeks ago, Steve Rubel predicted that by 2014, we will see the end of tangible media as we know it. And that’s a modest prediction in comparison to MediaWeek, who foresees the fall of many local dailies by 2010. My first though was, “No way! Where would our credible news come from?!” But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that, yeah, maybe tangible media will die out in theory, but the big (smart) dailies will never go away; they will simply switch their focus online.

Alpha moms aka helicopter parents scare and intimidate me. Unlike the more low key soccer moms, the Alphas attack parenting with the same zeal and organizational prowess that they did in the board room. Blackberries are whipped out at school carpool lines to schedule play dates. Parent meetings, previously and wonderfully laid back, have taken on the air of city council meetings.

As a slacker mom or beta mom I have struggled over the years with the raised eyebrows or shall we say, pregnant pauses, that I seem to evoke when admitting that I didn’t make an open house meeting or could not for the life of me remember the names of the kids, let alone the parents, in my children’s classes. And recently the quintessential slacker versus helicopter moment in my 18-year history arrived. I was at a party where we were discussing the college application process. I asked an Alpha mom how her daughter was handling the stress of college admissions. She laughed and responded with utter candor, “my daughter wouldn’t know, I have written all of her applications.” Instead of the group of moms reeling in horror, bobbing heads went around the room as mom after mom shared what they were doing to “help” their kid get into college. All eyes were on me when the woman asked me how my daughter’s applications were going. A moment of truth in Slackermommia (my new word) – do I or don’t I reveal that my daughter filled out all her applications without my husband or I ever laying eyes on them? Part of me felt horror at these parents who have difficulty allowing their kids to make it on their own. Another part of me felt like the slacker mom I am – it never even occurred to write my daughter’s applications.

When it comes to marketing to moms, conventional wisdom dictates that companies should market to Alpha moms and the Betas will follow. I disagree - from recommended products to parenting, I follow the advice and trends of other betas. While we may not lead the way in hyper-parenting, we certainly have our own and valued opinions about how we raise our children and the products we consume and companies would be wise to speak and market to us differently.

The National Hockey League rarely gains mainstream attention. Unfortunately for the league, the phrase “sloppy seconds” has propelled the sport into the spotlight this week. But the crass comments of one NHL villain have lead to conflicting views on free speech and bad publicity.

To recap, noted hockey bad boy Sean Avery was in Calgary Tuesday, where his Dallas Stars were facing the Flames. Avery’s ex-girlfriend, actress Elisha Cuthbert (you may remember her hooking up with Luke Wilson after Mitch-a-palooza in “Old School”), is currently dating Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf. After confirming that TV cameras were present at the morning practice, Avery delivered some premeditated remarks in which he referred to Cuthbert and another ex-girlfriend, model Rachel Hunter, as “sloppy seconds.” Obviously this was a calculated move on Avery’s part to stir the pot before the game, and not entirely shocking coming from a player who is always begging for attention.

The NHL wasted no time in suspending Avery indefinitely, ruling him out of that night’s game with Calgary. Avery will face a disciplinary hearing Thursday morning. The incident has sparked debate on whether or not the league was justified in suspending a player over a crass comment. Did he exhibit a complete lack of class? No doubt. But is classlessness really a suspendable offense?

Some have argued that the NHL should be grateful for the publicity. I don’t agree with that stance, but I also don’t agree that a suspension was warranted. The league should have left the matter in the hands of Avery’s employer. Given that Dallas Stars’ owner Tom Hicks said “We hold our team to a higher standard and will continue to do so,” Avery would have received an appropriate hand-slapping from the team without league intervention. Now that the NHL is handing out punishments based on who’s crass and who’s class, they’ve set a murky standard that will be debated anytime a player’s comments border on the objectionable.

The Technology of Politics

Last Saturday, my colleague Alex and I had the opportunity to attend the Election 2008 conference at the University of Southern California. The two panels we sat in on were entitled “Challenges for the New Administration and the Two Parties: POLITICO Editors and Reporters Look to the Future” and “Technology in Politics: How Campaigns Use the Internet to Talk to Voters.” Though the first was extremely interesting from a political perspective, the latter (and its focus on digital media) is what interested me most.

Over the past year, it was evident that online technology and social media played an integral role in the 2008 Presidential election, with some even claiming that the Internet won Barack Obama the election. Though I don’t personally agree with that bold claim, Obama’s use of the Internet and social media to mobilize and directly connect with supporters certainly helped.

What Obama Did Right

During the 2008 Election, Obama used social media in ways no other candidate ever has. Obama had a Facebook fan page with more than 3.2 million fans (Michelle also has her very own fan page), and a Facebook application with 164,551 subscribers. He had a MySpace page with more than 1 million friends. He even created his own social network, MyBarackObama.com. Some 3.2 million supporters donated to the Obama campaign through an excellent, well-maintained Web site. He had a Twitter account and tweeted frequently, ultimately becoming the single most followed entity on Twitter. His campaign launched an iPhone application (something that panelist Becki Donatelli admitted the McCain campaign was quite jealous of). He even announced his pick of Vice President via text message. Yes, now President-elect Barack Obama has made social media part of his everyday life (even post-election, when he took his weekly address online.)

It is clearly evident that times are changing - not only in Presidential campaigning, but in our overall media consumption habits as well. I credit Obama for thinking a few steps ahead of the rest, being the first Presidential candidate to launch a truly integrated campaign (and get it right). As one of the panelists on the above mentioned Election 2008 technology panel stated - Obama didn’t invent the technology; he simply perfected it.

What McCain Missed

Though some attribute McCain’s loss to his lack of engagement with technology, personally I don’t think it was his lack of using the technology (he did, after all, have a Facebook fan page, a MySpace page, and a Twitter account, to name a few); it was more a matter of his objective (which, unlike Obama seemed to be a means to an end instead an end itself). We heard it in nearly every public speech and interview made - “McCain has the experience” - and along with his experience in office, he also has more experience campaigning, even being directly involved in the 2000 race for the Republican Presidential nomination against George W. Bush. Though he lost the race, he did learn a lot about campaigning in the process, taking those lessons and applying them to the race in 2008. However, McCain seemed to have taken the wrong lesson out of 2000, focusing more on the end result (ie, media relations and generating positive press coverage) and not enough on connecting directly with supporters.

Obama, on the other hand, brought excitement to the grassroots approach. To him, it was important to go straight to the people, not the media, and the Internet served as a key player in helping him do so.

Will TV ads (and traditional media) become obsolete?

The recent hype around Obama’s use of online and social technologies makes this question seem more real then ever - will TV ads become obsolete in future elections, being replaced solely by online initiatives? While some think yes, a few of the panelists surfaced an interesting perspective - offline ads help drive people online.

Take a look at the sheer numbers - TV ads are not becoming irrelevant anytime soon, and candidates are still focusing heavily on paid advertising (in addition to his online initiatives, Obama also bought half-hour primetime segments on CBS and NBC less than a week before the general election, for example). TV ads may be diminishing in importance, but it will be a long time before they completely go away. However, the panelists pointed out that now, we are seeing more of an online/offline plan. Online and social technology and traditional media serve completely different purposes - the Internet is used to activate the base and raise funds, then the money raised is being used to get people sitting at home on their couches to go online. It is now vital to synchronize both and integrate into one solid campaign.

Looking ahead to 2012/16

During the conference, one panelist made the bold claim that by 2016, campaigns will no longer exist in brick and mortar buildings; instead, they will exist solely online. Though traditional advertising will still play a dire role in campaigns, social media will become increasingly important to candidates seeking election as it becomes more mainstream. Due to both advances in technology and a growing number of media outlets for people to choose from, it will become vital for candidates to have a short, buttoned-up message.

Moving forward, Presidential candidates won’t be the only ones to use social media in campaigns; candidates at the local level will begin to jump on board as well. Campaigning via social media is cheaper, more effective, and easier to mobilize a core group of constituents to act.

Last, technological advances like TiVo and XM Radio have empowered consumers to choose what information they want to receive. Often, the casual constituent (or as Joel Benenson calls them, the “Up-for-Grabs” voter) doesn’t hear political messages via TV and radio ads; they hear about them through YouTube videos or e-mails and SMS videos forwarded by their friends. It is now important for candidates to broadcast their message across as many different channels, in as many different ways as possible to reach that casual constituent.

Anyone who has spent any time reading blogs, news sites and forums knows how often the conversations on these sites degrade into name-calling, insults, accusations, and generally uncivil discourse. The cause of this incivility is widely written and pondered about; I personally believe that the combination of anonymity and the platform provided by the Internet causes people to ignore the decency “filters” they use in everyday life. Real-life social settings carry the threat of repercussion or scorn by your peers if one says something distasteful - not so on the Internet.

I spoke to Jonathan Martin of Politico.com about this at the Politico 2008 Election Conference last Saturday and he mentioned that the Politico editorial staff was confronting this exact issue. As the political fervor increased during the 2008 election, the quality of the comments on Politico’s blogs dropped sharply; readers started attacking the candidates, impugning the writers, and insulting each other’s intelligence. The editors were left wondering; what balance should they strike between allowing the community members to speak their minds and preserving the civility of the conversations.

Politico is not the only publisher facing this issue. Sites have taken various steps to combat the problem: some have banned posting of comments, some require registration and identity confirmation (on the hope that writers will be more civil if it can be tied back to them), and some, like Politico, have no restrictions and let people write what they will. The decision to restrict commenting is especially difficult for journalistic sites, since they exist to disseminate information and foster discussion - not to stifle it.

However, this problem also presents an issue for any company that provides an online forum for its customers. Are you a technology company with an online support forum, a social networking site, or a blog? How do you decide what should be allowed and what “crosses the line”. What do you do when someone writes something negative about your company, in a negative tone (as opposed to a legitimate negative review/experience)? Do you remove it and risk being attacked for censoring criticism, or do you leave it up and allow the quality of the forum to degrade.

There are no simple answers to any of these questions, and the best way to protect yourself and your company from an awkward situation or public relations crisis is to formulate a comprehensive policy before the issues arise. Create a registration process and lay out exactly what you expect from forum members; continually monitor the forums and moderate comments or posts that violate the decency rules; and finally, apply the rules fairly and firmly across the entire community - this consistency will help reinforce the standards across the community and protect you from being accused of censoring posts later on.

As for Politico; they have decided, after much internal debate, to leave the comments unmoderated.

Here are some articles the Zeno team has been reading from November 20th through November 25th:

• ESPN: General Motors Corp. ends nine-year endorsement deal with Tiger Woods
• New York Magazine- Daily Intel: Sarah Palin’s PR Strategy Gets Weirder
• Medill Reports: Entrepreneurs: Tighten your bootstraps for a rough 2009