Micro Persuasion

Ethical Social Media Marketing

Later this afternoon I will be speaking at Search Engine Marketing Expo on Ethical Social Media Marketing. Below is the full text of my planned remarks. I look forward to hearing your feedback on this important topic.

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Thank you very much for inviting me here today. The field of social media marketing is emerging and it's of course very relevant to search. In addition, it's highly likely that the space has already changed since this great panel we have assembled here started speaking.

I know I only have a few minutes and that I am last to speak so I quickly want to discuss three themes today that are relevant to the topic at hand - social media ethics.

First, I want to talk about the Collaboration Imperative. I see this as an easy way for everyone to remain ethical if it's something we truly decide to embrace everyday.

Second, there's the intersection of search, social media and public relations. There are number of ethical considerations here that all of us need to watch out for.

Finally, I want to touch on the global economic climate and its impact on social media marketing. We're going to see some important changes over the next 12-18 months that will make ethical behavior more critical than ever.

So let's get into it with the first topic - what I am calling the Collaboration Imperative.

Social media marketing is actually a term I loath, though I recognize it's sticking. First, all things social are media and all things media are now social - so I am not sure what "social media" is any more.

More importantly, social media marketing also implies that social networks, blogs and other like channels are advertising venues. They're not. They're public spaces just like our great National Parks. We must respect them as such. Otherwise we're going to pollute the environment and make them less enjoyable for everyone - especially the citizens who thrive there, just like the amazing ecosystem that thrives in places like Yellowstone.

Now, to be clear, I am extremely bullish about the marketing potential these emerging venues offer. However, I am disheartened how many companies and brands approach them. Lots of brands seem to think that consumers want to be marketed to in these spaces. They don't. Gartner is coming out with a report next week that says that 50% of social media programs fail. The key reason is they ignore the Collaboration Imperative.

People who participate on social networks, blogs and other similar venues are there for a reason - and that's to connect around shared areas of interest and passion, often with an outcome in mind. This is why advertising, to date, hasn't been a home run here. Most of it doesn't add value to what people are looking to accomplish on these sites.

Social media marketing works best when it's integrated into the experience and takes a "win-win" approach. It's action oriented, transparent and built on something we talk a lot about at Edelman - Public Engagement.

To succeed in this new world, brands need to move from taking tried and true marketing tactics and retro-fitting them for the new environment. We need to stop thinking about talk and buzz. Instead, there is an imperative that marketers engage publicly by collaborating with their audience towards a shared desired outcome. Follow that path. Be action-oriented toward a win-win outcome and transparent in the process and ethics won't be an issue.

Second, I want to talk about the intersection of search, social media and public relations and their ethical implications.

Over the last few years we have all watched the remarkable rise of Google. It's such a force in our lives. I have family members who aren't Internet addicts like us and whenever I start talking about Google the remark how they could never live without it. It's quite amazing for a site was hardly on people's radar even just five years ago.

We live in a world of die-hard Googlers. And what we've seen over the last five years or so is that search engines increasingly favor what some call socially-connected, high-quality content. The great rewards of visibility go to those who create quality content that legitimately earns links - and do so daily.

There are three categories of high quality content producers: brands, media and ordinary citizens.  What's interesting is that if you were to analyze all this information, a lot of it in some way can be linked to public relations professionals, just like the newspaper clippings of old. PR pros help content producers tell stories and sometimes even advise brands on how to go direct to audience to do the same.

This is incredibly exciting but it's also fraught with ethical considerations - especially as PR people recognize that they must actually become public participants themselves if they hope to build lasting relationships that are meaningful. So there's a clear watch-out here.

Micro Persuasion, my blog, is a microcosm. It has over 50,00 subscribers, 5,000 pages of content and a Google Page Rank of seven. Let's say that I were to to start blogging about a negative experience I had with a company that competes with one of my clients. This could influence their search results negatively and in the process seem to elevate my client. This would be highly unethical. Subtleties like this one are becoming the norm.

Thus, I need to bring my ethical A-game online every day and it's something all of us in marketing, SEO or PR need to consider, even if you don't have an issue this dramatic.

Finally, there's the current global economic environment. We all know it's not pretty. However, I remain very optimistic about the prospects of the PR industry and view it as a safe haven in this environment - if we, once again, come to the table with our public engagement A-game. Ethical behavior is key here. Ethics create trust and trust is king.

Unlike previous recessions and depressions, we now live in an era of great transparency. It's very hard to hide in a world where everyone has a camera-phone, a Facebook page or a blog. Accounts of corporations doing good and doing bad will  surface quickly online thanks to an intricate global network that includes social media, traditional media and search engines.

The transparency and trust trend-lines - which are directly linked - remain evergreen. I believe that public relations professionals are best equipped to help companies navigate this environment, especially in a downturn. We will be called upon to help brands build closer, more open relationships with consumers that - once the rain stops - will truly blossom into long-term profits.

Still, we have a long way to go in addressing ROI in a measurable way. But relationships and trust can be tracked over time and it's directly linked with public engagement, action, transparency. Further, it's also hooked into search since, for billions of us, Google is our window on the world.

Before I conclude I want to offer a message about collaboration of my own. Lots of us in this room, in some way or another, compete with each other - either for dollars or attention. If we can collaborate to set ethics and measurement guidelines when it comes to social media, search and PR - we all will win. Hopefully this panel is the beginning of a dialogue toward that end.

Thank you for your time today.

Trends That Will Help Define the Future of PR and Marketing

In June Edelman, my employer, and PRWeek held a two-day summit on the changing media landscape and its affect on business and education. More than 90 people participated. Recently we published a paper chock full of with actionable insights for businesses. You can download it here (PDF). Here's the conclusion I wrote.

Trends That Will Help Define the Future

The best way to think about new media, I have learned, is to look at the recent past and at the trends that are here now and seemingly have staying power. Apple CEO Steve Jobs once famously said "you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards." He’s right. With that in mind, there are three trends that are likely to shape things over the next four years.

The Attention Crash

Though the current global financial crisis grabs all the headlines, there's another storm quietly brewing - a crisis of attention scarcity. The inputs we have into our lives - that which we allow and those that are forced upon us - are exceeding what we are capable of managing.

The Attention Crash is here and it will only get worse. There will always be more content vying for consideration. In fact, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "By the year 2019, it's going to be possible to have an iPod-like device that will have 85 years of video on it. So you will be dead before you watch the whole [thing]."

Generation Y seems to be able to better manage this new environment, having grown up with a mouse in hand. But marketers who are a little more gray will need to adapt by creating and earning media that can break through the clutter and “stick.” This requires they keep things short, simple and visual.

Brands, media and individuals will have a role in mitigating the Attention Crash. Every high–interest niche will be met by digital curators who can separate art from junk online and present it in a very digestible form.

Already, some are jumping in. Intel partnered with PopURLs.com to create a news tracker for IT professionals. The site also features Intel white papers and blogs. The New York Times too is transforming into a digital curator. On the newspaper’s technology site reporters cull through blog conversations that have bubbled up during the day and highlight and link to the most notable posts.

Social Networks Become “Like Air”

Social networking is here to stay - but it’s changing. As my fellow panelist Charlene Li says, it’s becoming “like air” on the Web. In essence, social networking is nothing new, really. It’s simply a digital, global and scalable manifestation of our desire to communicate with other humans. The technology makes it easy for like-minded individuals to connect and collaborate around the topics they care about. This can range from personal to professional interests. A lot of it revolves around social causes.

Today we have three big social network hubs - LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace (an Edelman client). In addition, we have an expanding constellation of smaller social networks such as Beebo, Twitter, YouTube and the hundreds of thousands of vertical communities that comprise Ning - a do-it-yourself platform. There will be room for all of them to thrive, but consumers soon won’t need to visit these destinations to connect with their network.

Social circles are becoming portable so they can follow the consumer to any site they want to visit. Facebook and Google, for example, each have competing technology platforms that Web site owners can integrate to allow consumers and their social circle to connect in new experiences without having to sign up for another network.

Brand marketers that may be tempted to build their own social networks need to consider that there may not be room in people’s lives for more than one or two. They will need to plug into the social “air” supply that the large networks are building across the Web so that consumers can stay connected to their existing networks.

Google: The Reputation Engine

The third trend that also will continue its current trajectory is the rising influence of search, particularly Google. The search engine, as of this writing, has 70 percent market share in the U.S. and is even higher in other countries - but not all.

Google is much more than a search engine. It’s media.

Every day people make purchasing and life decisions based on what they find on the Web. Patients visit their doctor’s office armed with reams of information they found on Google, some of it right, some wrong. Consumers are accessing Google from their cell phones to compare prices when shopping. And Wikipedia, a site that no one controls, tends to dominate many high–profile search results.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others are increasingly tweaking their algorithms to stop spammers and other “black-hat” types. Today most search engine result pages tend to favor high–quality content produced by media, brands and individuals.

Communicators will need to know how to create and earn content that is not only findable, but worthy of discussion so that it earns and maintains visibility in Google - which often makes judgments based on quality.

What the future looks like in four years know one knows. However, if businesses follow these trends, at least directionally, they will be prepared to navigate the new environment.

A Fireside Chat Guy Kawasaki at Blogworld

Next month I am going to the Blogworld Expo in Conference in Las Vegas. I was slated to be the lunchtime keynote on Friday, September 19 but, happily, there's been a change in plans. I am now going to participate in a fireside chat with Guy Kawasaki, one of my heroes. Hopefully it will be as fun as the last time he appeared on stage with a Steve (see video below). Hope to see you in Vegas. The full event schedule is here.

Ad Trade Associations to Set Digital Measurement Guidelines

The following is also my column in this week's AdAge.

Every conversation about digital marketing invariably raises the "M word" -- measurement. Everyone knows the Internet is the most addressable medium. However, there is no single standard that clients and agencies can use to benchmark their programs against each other.

The industry is crying out for a standard, but don't wait around for a single number. It's not coming anytime soon. The current alternative is chaos as every agency and marketer scrambles to concoct its own recipe. Some of those -- like page views and uniques -- are based on outdated models.

The lack of a standard is a big problem. It's creating confusion and an aversion to spending. According to Booz Allen Hamilton, 98% of media executives say this deficiency is inhibiting marketers from spending more on digital.

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (e.g. the 4 A's) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) are about to try to change that. The leaders of the two trade organizations announced at last week's Forbes Online Brand Forum in St. Maarten that they are working together on an initiative to identify the "metrics that matter." Four A's President-CEO Nancy Hill said their intent is "to develop a common language" for digital-marketing metrics.

"We are further than nowhere, less than somewhere (on measurement)," said Randall Rothenberg, president-CEO of the IAB. "Everyone is hoping for a magic metric -- a [gross-rating point] equivalent. That's not going to happen."

During a panel that also included ANA CEO Bob Liodice, all three execs stressed the need for uniformity. Rothenberg and Hill said they have convened a small working group that will take the first step in establishing a set of metrics that aims to be relevant 80% of the time for 80% of marketers. The ANA has not joined the initiative yet but may at some point.

The Four A's and IAB plan to open up the process to a larger group for input as the plans progress. Ultimately, however, for this initiative to be successful, it's entirely up to the agencies to embrace their recommendations. Hopefully they will, because standards that span both reach and engagement are the quickest path to getting clients more comfortable in investing more.

Spring Conference Line-Up

Spring is around the corner and so is the peak conference season. Here's a run down of events at which I will be speaking. Here's hoping that I get to meet some of you at these.

Euroblog 2008 (March 13-15 in Brussels)

This symposium features communication academics and professionals for a discussion of social media and the future of public relations. Edelman is co-sponsoring the event. I will be participating on a few panels. You can register here.

AdAge Digital Conference (March 18-19 in New York)

Great line up of speakers and case studies. This includes a keynote by Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal. I will be moderating a panel on "the next new thing."

PSFK Conference (March 27 in New York)

A day-long event dedicated to trends, ideas and inspiration. This includes a In a 'new guns' versus 'marketing gurus' debate on how the social web will change in 2008 and how companies can best leverage digital.

Next08 (May 15 in Hamburg)

Features entrepreneurs, marketing professionals, consultants, founders, bloggers and venture capitalists and 1,000 participants talking about the future of the web. I will be a keynote speaker.

Mediabistro Circus (May 20-21 in New York)

A two-day summit about the digital platforms and trends that are changing media.

The IABC International Conference (June 22-25 in New York)

Features a great line up of speakers, including Nicholas Negroponte and Seth Godin.

Content That Finds You (Part I)

For pretty much as long as the Internet has been part of our lives, pundits have been talking about smart technology that's able to surface content that interest you. This was one of the ideas behind General Magic in the 1990s. (Historians, please correct me if this is wrong.)

That early vision is now closer to a reality. It was one of the big themes to emerge from last week's International Council conference, hosted by the Paley Center for Media.

This is the first of two posts on the subject. The first covers the four underlying pillars of content that finds you. The second will cover the impact of this major change in how we interact with media and the impact on marketing. In addition, Part II will address how content that finds you might even mitigate The Attention Crash by helping us focus more, perhaps to a fault of exclusion.

As I mentioned, several underlying forces are coming together in a powerful way that will very soon help everyone find content that they care about more easily.

The first underlying technology is search. Specifically, I am referring to what John Battelle describes in his great book, The Search, as databases of intention. Search tools are gathering so much data that they are able to show you related content, such as advertising, just at the moment you need it.

The second building block is personalization. Today consumers are balancing the benefit they get from personalizing services against the downside risks of privacy. This will become less prevalent as the Net Generation ages. They live their whole life online already. I personalized my Google News page for example, and now it recommends news stories that are relevant to my interests.

The third is Web 2.0 people-powered services, such as del.icio.us, Flickr, digg and others. For example, Flickr Interestingness consistently surfaces incredible photos based on the activities that the community generates through comments, clicks and favorites. Similarly, Techmeme taps the global brain that is the blogopshere to show us what's hot in the tech news sphere today.

The fourth and final building block, perhaps the most critical, is RSS. Feeds by their nature bring us content that we care about to our desktops. However, today consumers need to preselect the content. We need to tell Google Reader or Newsgator that we want the Sports section New York Times. However, soon that will change and the readers will get smarter. Check out Newsgator Buzz for a glimpse of the future.

So how will this change how we consume media and the PR/marketing business? Stay tuned for part II.

Silicon Valley's Valley

Last week, I had the privilege of representing Edelman at a fascinating three-day, off-the record meeting attended by about 75-100 marketing, media, entertainment and tech company CEOs. The event was organized by The World Economic Forum and the Paley Center, in conjunction with Google, Yahoo and Sun - who hosted us on their campuses one day each.

The meeting marked one of the final public appearances for Terry Semel as Yahoo's CEO. He resigned today, just days after I met him. Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke on the record, as did Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Chad Hurley from YouTube and incoming Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang participated too. A straw-man agenda is posted here.

While unfortunately I can't blog about the specifics of what was said during the closed-door event, I can certainly provide broader perspectives now that I am back. This is exactly what I plan to do over the next several days. (It was difficult to blog thoughtfully during the event since it was literally going morning, noon and night.)

I was one of only a handful of marketing executives in the room and the most junior overall. The execs flew in from around the world. At times I was a bit star-struck by who I got to know. I will join this select club - one day (at least that's the current plan!).

What became clear almost from the get-go, however, is that there is a big disconnect - a valley if you will. On the one side of the valley is, um, the Valley (go with me) - e.g. the tech industry. On the other side lies the media-industrial complex. This is the giant yarn-ball that includes marketers/agencies, media and entertainment companies.

How do I know? I work in the marketing industry but know many leaders in the tech and media business since I blog about the convergence of these industries.

Silicon Valley (e.g. the tech/Internet businesses that dot its landscape) created many of the popular Web 2.0 communities we live in. They revolutionized our lives. The Internet today is the life bloodstream for some one billion Internet users worldwide. There's no putting the genie back. Our lives are changed forever as the Flat Earth communes online.

However, for it to continue to thrive economically, Silicon Valley must break bread with the media-industrial complex. The challenge is there is a vast chasm in the culture and ethos between the two sides. Scoble alludes to this in discussing Yahoo's challenge in finding the right CEO who can address all of these very different constituents.

Tech and Internet companies develop their products in the open. As I mentioned last week, beta (e.g. unfinished products) is viewed as a good thing. A beta brings valuable feedback that makes version 1.0 even stronger. Further, many Valley companies happily share and open kimono to all - competitors too. Take Yahoo's Hack Day for example, which is now underway in London.

This is very different in the media-industrial complex, where secrecy rules. He/she who dies with the most information is king/queen. This is why leaks are constant, more so than in tech. Washington DC operates in a similar way, though it's even more complicated there.

However, technology is changing all of us. We are all becoming more and more Valley every day, whether we like or not. We live online in the Valley's creations. Business recognizes that to thrive, it must embrace technology because that's what we do as consumers.

Very slowly, media, marketing and entertainment companies are changing their cultures to become more like their counterparts in Silicon Valley. Take business casual attire, for example. It started in the tech industry and now most of us have it at least part time.

The changes go deeper, however. Media companies like the BBC, WeatherBug, The Economist, The New York Times and Reuters have lab sites (these liks go to the lab pages). These are sandboxes where consumers can play with and give feedback on betas.

Marketers are joining the club too. American Express just launched a beta program where you can test new concepts. Everyone is beginning to recognize that the principles of Wikinomics that were pioneered in the Valley - openness, peering, sharing and acting globally - are good business overall. It's like the end of communism in the 1980s. The changes were gradual at first, then dramatic.

Last week's event certainly was a step in the right direction to closing Silicon Valley's Valley. Progress was made. But we still have more to go. However, it's clear that the Valley and the media-industrial complex are committed to closing the gulf and that is very exciting.

Discounted Tickets for WOMMA Conference

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is hosting their Basic Training conference in New Orleans April 17-18. If you'd like to go, use the code guestofedelman and you will get a $75 discount. David Weinberger is keynoting and there are lots of other great sessions. (Edelman is a governing member of WOMMA)

Our Sixty Minutes with Bill Gates

 

A group of bloggers and online influencers, myself included, got to sit down today with Bill Gates as part of Microsoft's special Mix n' Mash 07 event. The day's participants included an eclectic group of individuals. Some were bloggers, others are key movers and shakers in the web development community. There were 14 of us in all. Participants included Jeremy Zawody, Michael Arrington (Techcrunch), Liz Gannes (Gigaom), Niall Kennedy, Chris Pirillo, Molly Holzschlag,  Evan Williams, Shaun Inman and others. (photo)

This has been on my calendar for over a month now and I had plenty of time to process it mentally before Gates arrived. Still, it's a rush once the world's richest man and one of the most influential people in business and world affairs sits right down across a table from you. A bunch of us were overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the moment. I have never met a President of the United States but this sure felt like it for me. (Also note that Microsoft is one of our firm's key clients but I was invited as a blogger.)

We had an hour with Bill. He was incredibly affable during the entire time. He opened up with a brief rundown of where he feels Microsoft is today. He was bullish about Microsoft's big launches in 2007. He said that the company likes to roll out a super strong product then see how it connects to other things.  A lot of these products will require strong services.

Gates also talked about his transition to becoming a full-time philanthropist. Most product reviews will transition to Ray Ozzie, with other initiatives falling under Craig Mundie. A big topic of conversation Gates says he has with Ray Ozzie relates to the next versions of Windows and Office and "how much "Liveness" we get into these products." These decisions will be made in the next six months.

Then Gates turned it over to his audience to ask questions. As you'll soon see, everything was open to discussion - even Bill's Christmas wishlist! I wasn't able to capture everything verbatim, but I got the highlights. Here's a rundown of what we asked. Please note these are all paraphrases of his comments, not direct quotes.

Last but not least, I want to reiterate my travel was paid for and like Michael Arrington, I too received a Zune and a USB stick for participating.

Q) What applications do you see running inside the browser or outside?
A) This is a technical distinction over time.... There are tasks you want to do that require information off the Web. Most of the interesting applications will span that boundary.

Q) Do you despair at the number of Macs in the room?
A) We're happy about it. We sell a lot of software for the Mac!

Q) Is digital rights management (DRM) sustainable over the next 10 years?
A) DRM is not where it should be. In the end of the day incentive systems (for artists) make a difference. But we don't have the right thing here in terms of simplicity or interoperability.

Q) What is the most important thing we can do as tech leaders re. education/healthcare?
A) Get involved in the school where your children go...For healthcare (and developing nations), distance is an issue. Sometimes the most we can do is vote for certain political candidates. (Gates said he and Bono discussed this over dinner last night - specifically what they can do to surface these two issues in the upcoming Presidential campaign.)

Q) What would you be looking at today if you were an independent entrepreneur?
A) Something dramatic like artificial intelligence. Biology. Energy.

Q) What's on your Zune? (This was my question)
All of the U2 stuff plus a lot more musicals than you might expect - for example, Wicked.

Q) Microsoft has fully embraced blogging in its communications. You have met with bloggers on a few occasions too. Why do you think other execs have not given bloggers the same level of access Microsoft has? (This was also my Q)
A) It's natural we would put more energy into working with bloggers. We're just an R&D company ... We need lots of feedback. We need to be very transparent in what we're doing. It's a more intimate relationship than most companies have. Other CEOs may be afraid they will be too stuffy or confrontational. It's not as critical for them. Some should do it more. Its just a choice.

Q) What did you want to be when you grew up?
A) A lawyer. I admired the work that (my father) did. When I got enthralled with math, I thought I would go into mathematics. Then computers came along. I became confused but eventually, it all became crystal clear in my freshman year. I also thought about being an economist.

Q) Are there things on the horizon that will bring more transparency to government?
A) It should be interesting to watch online video in upcoming presidential election. People will try to outdo each other to be the online hip guy.

The internet has made it difficult to run a regime that runs on secrecy. Government is already benefiting. Government isn't open to competitive forces. All things good or bad will come more slowly to govt.

Q) What's on your Christmas list?
A) I am always hard to buy for; www.teach12.com has great lectures on science topics. I didn't buy the last DVDs of (the TV series) 24. I try not to purchase these so I can receive them as gifts.

Q) Will the $100 laptop be a success and are you behind it? Will it help developing countries?
A) There are people who think PCs solve the world's problems. PCs have a role to play...you need to pick the right places, it's easy to be overblown.

Q) Did you ever reach a point where you weren't interested in computers?
A) Not as long as Moore's Law is around.

Q) Will entertainment drive computing or vice versa?
A) What will be the transport where TV comes into the household? It will be over the Internet. A broadcast infrastructure is a stupid thing. And we'll create a new infrastructure that is more sophisticated. Some will interact with ads. TV has been living under many limitations. Now we can fill in for everyone and try new things along the spectrum like educational shows. All the genres will get the magic of software.

Q) What does the OS look like in 3-4 years? Where does consumer Windows fit in?
A) In three to four years it won't change dramatically, but it will evolve faster. It will be more user centric as you move from machine to machine. It will replicate trivial stuff up to the cloud and back, cross-PC and cross-device.

I want to thank Bill for his time and the entire evangelism team for inviting us. This was definitely a once in a lifetime event and the entire day got me thinking more broadly about technology.

::Later: Liz Gannes from Gigaom has her run-down of the day as does Niall.

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates, Microsoft, MxnMash2006

Meeting Bill Gates Today

I am in Seattle today joining an esteemed group of my blogging colleagues for a day-long meeting with Microsoft. On the docket is Microsoft's upcoming MixO7 conference and of course Web 2.0. The list of attendees includes Michael Arrington from TechCrunch, Jeremy Zawodny from Yahoo, Chris Pirillo, Ryan Stewart and about a dozen or so more of us. The day will conclude with an hour-long Q&A with Bill Gates!

There are a couple of initial observations I already have about the event, having attended a mixer last night. The bloggers that were invited to this event are not all "the usual suspects" per se but a mix of influencers down the Long Tail. For me, I am not only excited to get the chance to meet Bill. This is a great way to observe up close how the amazing Microsoft evangelism team empowers bloggers to play a role in shaping a key event and in granting access to their execs.

Microsoft is an Edelman client (we work on Xbox, Zune and Windows Vista), but I was invited as a blogger - not as a PR consultant. The company paid my travel expenses to come to Redmond today. It is my intent to provide feedback that will help them create a great event next year and build bridges with advertising and marketing bloggers (as well as all Long Tail influencers). More to come tonight.

FT Chat on PR and Blogs

Richard Edelman, my CEO, is participating in a web chat on blogs and PR. The questions they put forward: "Does the public relations industry understand blogs? Are the two even compatible?"

Ad Exec: The Nice and Funny Finish First

Linda Kaplan Thaler from The Kaplan Thaler Group and co-author of the new book, The Power of Nice, is speaking now at the ANA Annual Conference. Kaplan Thaler is the creative force behind the Aflac duck. She showed a lot of great satire videos that basically paint the :30 second spot as dead. (Linda, please post these on YouTube!)

Beyond beating a drum that has been loud for some time now, Kaplan Thaler made a really key point. If the 30-second spot dies, we'll miss it. "We live in a world that is addicted to entertainment. You make it funny enough, consumers will follow it wherever you stick it," she said. That's probably one reason why video sharing sites are growing like mad. It's entertainment on demand. Never underestimate the power of funny.

Finally, Kaplan Thaler made another awesome point: play nice. Answer your emails because if you don't that one person could really create havoc online. "There's no delete in Cyberspace," she said.

ANA CEO: Advertising is 2.5% of the US Economy

Bob Liodice, CEO of the ANA, is up first at the ANA Annual Conference. He talked a lot about how technology is reinventing marketing. However, the big nugget was this: according to an ANA study, advertising accounts for 2.5% of the US economy. It influences 21M jobs (15% of the US total).

Wow. That's a heckuva lot of money. The question that popped up in my mind is to what lengths will the ad industry go to protect that huge pile of money when the effectiveness of TV advertising is eroding. Further, how much of it is going to divert from traditional media into the citzen's media. Small dollars for marketers is big dollars for individuals who are creating content.

Live Blogging the ANA

I am blogging the ANA Annual Conference today from Orlando, Florida. This is the big conference that the brand managers/CMO types attend. It am most eager to hear what CMOs will say about the impact of Web 2.0, blogs and communities on marketing and advertising. Pretty much the who's who of the advertising industry is here. The ANA has also enlisted several folks from Schwab, the NFL and Home Depot to blog the event. (Schwab is an Edelman client.)

Where to Find Me

I will be out and about at several conferences over the next few months. Here's where to find me. Be sure to stop me and say hi. I love putting faces with names.

ANA Annual Conference (Attending October 5-8, Orlando, FL)
BDI Communications 2.0 - The Future of PR (Speaking October 11, NYC)
AdAge Idea Conference (Attending November 2, NYC)
Blog Law Conference (Speaking November 16, NYC)
Healthcare Blogging Conference (Speaking December 11, Washington, DC)
AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC (Speaking January 31, NYC)
SIIA Conference (Speaking January 31, NYC)

Sen. Edwards: Next President Will Be Conversationalist

Senator John Edwards is on stage at Gnomedex. He's not giving a speech. He says he's here to learn and engage in a conversation. And boy did he. Here's a sample of what what he said...

* "What bloggers doing is important for the country, the political process...it will change democracy. Instead of leaders speaking out at people, we will engage in dialogue."

* On spin vs. speaking in a human voice: "We're so conditioned over a long period of time that being normal, real and authentic requires shedding this condition...Most politicians stay in their safe zone. My own view the next President is likely to be the single candidate who does not sound like a candidate."

Spoken like a blogger. Kudos to the Senator.

Meshin'

I participated in a fireside chat with Stuart MacDonald at Mesh today. We covered a range of topics about blogs, social media, marketing and PR. Connie Crosby live blogged it as did Tris Hussey. Joseph Tonrley did too. A big hoo ha erupted about character blogs. I still maintain the same position on this I did a year ago...unless they're for kids.

Technorati Tags: mesh06

Om on Media at Mesh

Mark Evans from the National Post is grilling Om Malik on the future of media at Mesh Conference here in Toronto. Om is a reporter with Business 2.0 and one of the most influential bloggers in the world. Here are some of the highlights from his talk at Mesh. Stowe Boyd, who's sitting/blogging next to me, has more rich notes (or will soon) on his blog.

Mark: Can the old media world can survive?
Om: "There's an old way for delivering information and a new way... Globally there's no way you can replace a Washington Post or New York Times."

Mark: "How are newspapers going to be able to embrace blogs and podcasts?"
Om: "There's a whole new generation of readers who only consume their news online. Figuring out the business plan that will all be relative." Om cites Forbes.com as exemplary because they put more resources towards the web. "I'd be glad to see a lot of newspapers go away... Blogs are killing off the trade press."

Mark: How does someone establish credibility as a blogger?
Om: " Credibility comes from the content you create. People recognized what's good and what's bad. Getting discovered is another matter."

Audience: How do we deal with the fact that online you can tune out all the ads using Firefox?
Om: "Two words - Internet Explorer, 85% market share. That audience has not figured out how to block ads."

Technorati Tags: mesh 06, mesh 06 oldmedia, Om Malik, Media

Big Conference Week Next Week

Next week is the first of several big Web 2.0 conference weeks this spring. I will be at the Mesh Web 2.0 conference in Toronto on Monday and Tuesday and Syndicate on Wednesday. John Moore runs through some other great events that unfortunately I won't be able to make. The other big conference weeks are in June with Bloggercon, Gnomedex, Where 2.0, Vloggercon and Supernova. I will be at Gnomedex I am also planning to attend Blogher and the Always On Innovation Summit at Stanford in July.

I'll Be Gnomedexing, Will You?

I have signed on to be a Gnomedex 6.0 discussion leader. WIll you be there?

Technorati Tags: Gnomedex