Tuesday, May 05, 2009
HC+T Update: May 2009
The monthly email email newsletter from Holtz Communication + Technology
HC+T Update
April 2009
- I Don’t Care If You Were On Twitter Before Oprah
- Cluetrain Thesis #4: A Decade Later
- Next Webinar: The New Employee Communications
- The Serendipity of the Package
- Rock Tour Leads To Evolution Of Print
- Site Of The month
- HC+T Update
- Boilerplate and subscription information
I haven’t hadmuch time for blogging. I know it’s early in the month and I could wait until later, but I’m leaving town and won’t have much time to produce the issue later in the month, so I decided to put one out that’s a little lighter on content than usual rather than miss it altogether. You can find the blog at http://blog.holtz.com. And don’t forget, you should seriously consider switching from the email subscription to the RSS feed. Just add the following URL to your RSS news reader: http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/update/rss_2.0/.
1. I Don’t Care If You Were On Twitter Before Oprah
If you stick around long enough, you get to see history repeat itself. Since history repeats itself when nobody learned from it the first time around, it’s usually not a pretty sight.
The latest example of this is all the righteous indignation by users of Twitter over the surge of newcomers to the service joining in order to follow celebrities like Shaq, Ashton Kutcher, and Oprah Winfrey. With her media power, Oprah has motivated more than 1.5 million people, by some estimates, to sign onto Twitter just since she mentioned on her TV show that she has started to use the service, all before she sent her first tweet. The day she referenced Twitter on the show, 37% of visits to Twitter.com were from first-time visitors and overall traffic surged 43%, according to a USA Today article.
Buzzfeed actually proclaimed that all dates after April 17 shall forever be known as TAO—Twitter After Oprah. Somehow, I doubt that. But of all the ego-boosting nonsense surrounding the objection to the mainstream public joining Twitter, the “Here Before Oprah” website is the most pathetic. Seriously, just how desperately do you need to stand out? (Besides, why isn’t the same crowd whining about Sony’s use of Twitter as the platform for a game in support of its new “Terminator” movie? Could it be because they’re all playing the game?)
Incidentally, you can also use the “Here Before Oprah” site to see if your Twitter account predates anybody else you know, which might, I suppose, possibly have some minor uses.
I do not care who was here before Oprah. I do not care whom I beat to Twitter, or who beat me. It does not matter. The only thing that matters is whether your tweets are interesting or valuable. If they’re not—at least to me—I will not follow you. If they are, I will. Whether you were here on the day of Twitter’s launch or joined yesterday is irrelevant. Only the quality of your content matters. Period.
(Please don’t be offended if I’m not following you. I’m about 1,500 new followers behind in my should-I-or-shouldn’t-I assessment, and I don’t foresee catching up any time soon.)
I can’t possibly be the only person who remembers the same angst-ridden chest-thumping that took place when AOL users began migrating to the Web. “It’s all over,” the early adopters sobbed. “The unwashed masses will forever ruin our pristine geek clubhouse.”
Of course, what the influx of all those AOL newbies really did was create the critical mass that enabled the growth of ecommerce, online communication, and even (dare I say it?) social media. But even that wasn’t the first time the early adopters resisted opening the doors of their cherished private domain to outsiders. When Canadian online expert Michael Strangelove began publishing his (print) “Internet Business Journal” back around 1990, he actually received death threats. That’s right, people would rather send death threats than acknowledge that the Internet might someday play host to anything so base and undignified as business.
These are history lessons from which today’s generation of early adopters clearly have learned nothing. While nobody will ever commemorate the day the first banner ad appeared, business and the mainstream public both proved to be boons for the Net. Many of the online innovations we take for granted were developed to support business’ efforts to reach consumers, after all.
So here’s my advice to everyone wringing their hands over the intrusion by Joe Beercan into the Twitterspace: If you don’t like it, don’t follow them. Other than that, take a deep breath and crack open a history book. Maybe you’ll learn something.
2. Clutrain Thesis #4: A Decade Later
Ten years ago today, The Cluetrain Manifesto was unveiled. Since then, it has been held up by many as truth writ large. Others dismiss it is impractical, unrealistic, unworkable. In the middle are those who find wisdom in the Manifesto but wonder what all the fuss is about.
Lost in the debate about The Cluetrain Manifesto’s value, though, are the 95 theses that comprise it, beginning with the notion that “markets are conversations.” Certainly, it was a bold concept, given that a market, at its core, is a complex environment in which people and institutions exchange goods and services.
Each of the subsequent 94 theses, though, stands or falls on its own merit. And how they were interpreted a decade ago, while of some historical interest, isn’t very relevant in the vastly changed world in which we live today.
Keith MacArthur, a journalist-turned-communicator (currently senior director of social media and digital communication for Canadian megacompany Rogers Communciations), has undertaken an impressive project to explore each of the theses on their collective 10th birthday. I was particularly pleased when Keith reached out to me to offer my thoughts on thesis number four:
Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
Understanding thesis number four requires, as a prerequisite, an agreement with the preceding thesis, which proposes that “conversations among human beings sound human; they are conducted in a human voice.”
The premise here is simple: Conversation is natural, while the function we have come to know as “communication” grew increasingly wordsmithed. It wouldn’t be pretty if an executive spoke to his wife the same way he talks to shareholders about company strategy:
“Life partner, I’m pleased to report that the meal we just concluded conformed to requirements, and the meat loaf exceeded requirements. Now we should shift our competencies from the dining facility to the recreation venue where we can leverage our discretionary time in order to consume some best-in-class entertainment from a wide range of options.”
Fortunately, even the most formal CEO probably tells his wife, “That was a great meal, honey. Let’s go to the living room and find something to watch on TV, unless you’d rather listen to some music and read.”
The growth of social media in the last decade is largely responsible for more and more organizations talking in a human voice. Or, more accurately, the people in organizations have increasingly been talking for themselves, a departure from the carefully crafted statement of record.
- At Ernst & Young, a Facebook-based recruiting effort invited employees to converse with prospects in discussion groups, a far cry from the display ads and job descriptions that usually kick off a recruitment drive.
- Employees from throughout Embarq, a Fortune 500 telco, have conversations with customers over Twitter and other channels, led by @Embarq_Joey who inaugurates conversations with unhappy customers with language like, “Sorry your DSL is messed up. Can I help? Send me a DM with your DSL # and I can check it out for you.” “Messed up” is hardly corporatese, is it? On the same account, he tweets non-work-related messages, like “Home at last!!! Such much to catch up with on the DVR, man!”
- Dave Neeleman, former CEO of JetBlue, spoke from the heart when he recorded YouTube video apologizing for the 2007 Valentine’s Day freeze at New York’s Kennedy Airport. Clearly, no lawyers were involved in prepping Neeleman’s statement.
- Alan Mullaly, Ford Motor Company’s CEO, sat and chatted with participants in a blogger dinner, with no handlers in sight, allowing the conversation to be videotaped, an informal chat most CEOs 10 years ago would have seen as undignified and unprofessional. Today, it’s viewed as authentic and real.
- Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott tells his stories in his own unedited voice on his blog.
These are just a few examples. Others appear in blog posts and comments, podcasts, videos, and other channels that permeate the Web. It’s a good thing, too. People are sick to death of hearing stilted language churned out by communicators and lawyers that sound like anything but the conversations they want to have. And because leaders are recognizing that their markets are conversations, they are increasingly recognizing the need to participate like real people—and for their employees to engage, as well.
Revisiting the thesis affords an opportunity to see how smart companies are showing their humanity in each of the ways described:
Delivering information — PepsiCo podcasts have featured executives delivering performance results as though they were sitting across the cafeteria table from frontline employees.
Delivering opinions—Michael Hyatt, CEO at Thomas Nelson Publishers, blogs routinely about what he thinks, such as this post about why he believes every traditional publisher should be blogging.
Delivering perspectives—Beth Israel Deconness CEO Paul Levy uses his blog to offer perspectives on healthcare in some of the most forthright posts imaginable.
Delivering dissenting arguments—GM’s Bob Lutz spoke candidly on the Fastlane blog about his own views on global warming. Like them or not, it’s hard to deny that his words were genuine.
(We’ll let the humorous asides go. I’ve never heard one in delivered in corporatese.)
What characterizes each of these examples—and the list that preceds them—is the human voice—open, natural, and uncontrived. Of course, there are plenty of organizations still caught up in the inhuman, forced language of business from a bygone era, but the change is upon us and accelerating; there is no turning back.
None of this would matter if business didn’t benefit from the effort. A recent Heyman Associates study, however, indicated that genuine two-way communication is a more credible way to deliver information. Credibility is a pillar of trust, and trust drives business.
To all those who are weary of shifting paradigms and outside-the-box thinking, nothing could be more welcome.
What examples of authentic human voices from organization employees and leaders impressed you?
3. Next Webinar: The New Employee Communications
The New Employee Communications
with Shel Holtz and Steve Crescenzo
Beginning Monday, May 18
Webinar Cost is US $195
This Webinar was so popular when it ran over a year ago that I’ve decided it’s time to offer it again for those who may have missed it. Plus, it’ll be updated to include the latest information.
The employee communications profession is in turmoil. A function that has thrived on the careful crafting of messages in order to build engagement and support business goals, internal communications is now faced with the infiltration of Web 2.0 tools into the enterprise. Is the job now one of cruise director instead of drill sergeant? And what about the eroding line between internal and external communications as employees increasingly are participating in World Wide Web-based social networks like Facebook? Does employee communications have a role to play in addressing customer service issues that arise in blogs? Should communication to new-hires take place in external social networks? What about employees about to join the company?
In this incisive Webinar, online communication authority Shel Holtz and employee communications guru Steve Crescenzo will explore the various dimensions of internal communications in a dramatically changed world. You’ll learn from Steve, Shel, and from each other…
- How to draw the line between formal and informal communication
- Where internal communications should participate in online knowledge sharing activities
- How to integrate social media into an internal communication strategy
- How to prepare employees to serve as brand ambassadors in social networks
- Why most traditional internal communication tools are still valid, and how to use them in this new environment
This Webinar will include a variety of multimedia elements (including conversations between Shel and Steve on the lecture topics, videos, and screencasts), along with text.
As with all Shel Holtz Webinars, you’ll have access to a treasure trove of online resources and downloadable handouts. The new interface makes participating in the conversation simpler than ever, and voting in each lecture’s poll has become a lot easier, too.
If you have not participated in one of Shel’s webinars before, visit the site at http://www.shelholtzwebinars.com and watch the introductory video. Webinars consist of five lectures, with a new lecture posted each Monday for five weeks. Lectures consist of a mix of text, audio, and sometimes video…but you don’t need anything more than your web browser. Webinars are asynchronous —- that is, they do not take place in real time. That means you can drop in whenever it’s convenient for you —- there’s no place you have to be on any particular day or time.
Webinar cost is U.S. $195.
Register here: http://tinyurl.com/d3nt92
4. The Serendipity of the Package
The “print is dead” meme is based on a couple simple assumptions. First, the digital world can do anything print can do, only better. And second, the economics of print—from turning trees into pulp into paper, then managing the distribution channels—just won’t cut it.
The evidence supporting the meme just keeps pouring in, like word today that The New York Times Company plans to shut down The Boston Globe (only to offer a reprieve shortly after the announcement). Layoffs and spending cuts haven’t produced the savings required to keep the paper afloat, so the Times announced it plans to shutter the paper in 60 days after failing to win concessions from the Newspaper Guild.
A lot of people predict the death of the newspaper industry. Steve Rubel has gone so far as to predict the death in the next decade of all tangible media.
As regular readers know, I have a $100 bet with Jose Leal that, in 2018, I’ll be able to buy a newspaper from a rack on the street.
The terms of the bet include nothing about what newspaper I’ll be able to buy. I never asserted it would be a newspaper publishing today. It could well be that somebody starts a print newspaper that captures the public’s attention and imagination after the one-time juggernauts of journalism have faded from the scene.
Ultimately, though, there’s nothing wrong with print. In fact, the best way to revitalize the print business is to recognize print’s strengths over online delivery and be bold in executing them.
The real power of print is in the package.
For all the astounding content on the Web, a hyperlink-mediated environment can actually discourage the serendipitous discovery of content. Consider a visit to a news aggregation site. Your eyes skim over the hyperlinked headlines, but you click only on the items that interest you. While you may have absorbed some information from the headlines you dismissed, you’ll never see the additional links to content that might have been compelling on the pages you opted not to view.
Print, on the other hand, can be the source of endless serendipity, when done well. Turning a page should be an adventure: You have no idea what you’ll find, such as a design that delights you, a photo that wows you, a story that captivates you—none of which you would have searched for or clicked to. Quality printing also provides benefits you can’t get on-screen.
Sadly, as print media retrenches, publishers have gone exactly the opposite direction, embracing timidity instead of boldness. I can’t remember the last time the design of a newspaper page struck me as enticing and the stories are the same ones I read everywhere else, AP and Reuters filler that’s just as easily found in 10,000 online sites, not to mention other newspapers.
Whether the publishers of any surviving newspapers figure this out remains to be seen, but somebody will embrace the idea of the serendipity of the package. Once readers can’t wait to flip through an issue to see what unexpected delights they’ll discover, advertisers will follow. At that point, the fact that putting ink onto paper is an expensive proposition will be incidental—people will pay for products in which they find value.
I’m not suggesting, by the way, that print can regain its market share over digital content, only that print will find a place. But I recall talking to a communicator whose company had dispensed with print, taking its internal communications online. Only rarely—when she needed to make sure something stood out from the rest of the company’s communications—did she produce a printed publication for distribution to employees. When such a publication landed on employees’ desks, their response was, “Wow, it’s in print. It must be important.”
Like I say, it’s all in how well content producers understand the importance of the package.
5. Rock Tour Leads To Evolution Of Print
Print’s not dead. Regardless of what the digital purists say, there are plenty of uses for print. As I’ve noted before, I don’t foresee the complete migration from print to digital for graphic novels and comic books, baseball cards, direct mail pieces, or the brochures they give you when you walk into Disneyland or that you find in racks in front of tourist attractions. I even think you’ll still find paper newspapers 10 years from now and beyond.
Print is evolving, however, and nothing characterizes that evolution quite like print-on-demand (POD). There is no shortage of dunderheads out there who think POD is a new synonym for vanity press, but the two have little in common. Vanity presses did large press runs for wannabe authors who couldn’t find a publisher, while POD lets anyone produce just the number of copies they want, when they want them, of just about anything. The possibilities are unlimited.
Take, for example, the deal that Blurb just inked with The Dead, the current iteration of the The Grateful Dead, featuring all four surviving members of the iconic Bay Area jam band along with a couple friends to fill in the gaps.
The Dead is touring this spring, and the band will produce a book of photography for each of the tour’s 17 stops. The photography will be provided by longtime Grateful Dead photography Jay Blakesberg. And fans will be able to replace the cover image with their own photo. Each book will be available within 72 hours of the end of the show.
Blurb developed the Personal Cover option just for this offering, although undoubtedly it will be extended to other products down the road.
From the press release:
“The band wanted to enable the Dead Heads to visually experience the show in a totally new way,” said Jay Blakesberg, photographer for the upcoming DEAD tour. “Extending the concert experience via personalized, professional-quality photography books, available within days following each show, is unlike any band merchandising I’ve ever seen. The speed of Blurb’s publishing platform meant we could create books with unique content for every tour stop. By also allowing fans to add their own magic to the cover, The DEAD are once again breaking the rules with this awesome new technology!”
“Working with The DEAD presents an exciting opportunity for Blurb to help a band create a new, cool type of merchandise item,” said Robin Goldberg, SVP of Marketing and Business Development, Blurb. “This partnership was attractive to The DEAD and to Blurb because we’ve been able to allow Dead Heads to work with licensed content but still add their own personal touch to each book.”
Since I’ll be at the show in Mountain View on May 14, I’ll just have to bring a camera so I can personalize a cover and order my own copy. It’ll most likely sit on my coffee table, where a digital version could never replace the tactile pleasure of flipping through a book of high-end printed images on high-quality paper.
Now, put on your thinking cap. For your company or clients, to what uses could this kind of near-instant printing, with the personalized touch, be put? The company holiday party? Images from trade shows or product launches? What ideas pop into your mind?
6. Site of the Month
Twitterfall
http://www.twitterfall.com
If you need to see how fast a meme is spreading through Twitter, nothing helps you visualize it like Twitterfall. Rather than relying on a refresh of the page, Twitterfall grabs tweets that match keywords and drops them as fast as it can from the top of the page.
I demo’d this using the #swineflu hashtag, and within minutes had over 30,000 tweets in the queue—even dropping at one every half-second couldn’t clear them. It’s an indicator for you—and management—that a topic is building a head of steme and can help determine whether—and how—you’ll address it.
7. HC+T update
- I’m off to Brazil this week to conduct workshops for Petrobras and ABERJE, Brazil’s communications association.
- I’m presenting the keynote at Blog Potomac in Washington D.C. next month, right after the IABC conference.
- Speaking of IABC, I’ll be presenting in the All-Star track, focused on the Social Media News Release.
8. Boilerplate and subscription information
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