Picking up from my post, Social Media Enthusiasts, let’s address the challenges of explaining social media to business people who are new to the concept. Our problems stem from the word media.

Media and Sausages

The definition of the word media has been generally accepted as a substitute for ”print,” “broadcast,” or “the press.”  But as we’ve added new communications technologies, instead of addressing their vastly different traits, we’ve lumped them together into one media category. Within a very short period of time, we’ve crammed the following into the word media:

• the medium of the Web
• the medium of the blog
• the medium of the podcast
• the medium of online video
• the medium of Twitter
• the medium of Facebook
• the medium of the mobile app

As a result, we refer to media the same way we refer to sausages, describing the sausage casing rather than the sausage contents. By squeezing these vastly different technologies into one media casing, we’ve made it difficult to discuss them individually.  And then we’ve made it even worse by adding an adjective (social) before media, essentially coining a phrase (social media) that’s devoid of any meaning whatsoever.  No wonder why business execs are having such a hard time grasping social media…the term is woefully inadequate.

We need a word that recognizes the diversity of the individual media components. We need a word that can help us describe the ingredients of the media sausage instead of the media casing.

Grammar RonAmok!

I’ve found that a simple, grammatically incorrect word substitution does the trick. By replacing the word media with mediums, I’ve been able to dramatically reduce the time it takes to explain social media to those new to the game. This simple substitution breaks a seemingly overwhelming concept (the media sausage) into bite-sized concepts.

Give it a try. The next time someone asks about social media, change the rules and talk about social mediums. The substitution has made my job so much easier. I bet it’ll work for you too.

Photo Credit Cobalt123

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with Google Docs to help illustrate how Social Media activities can be measured, tracked, and analyzed. By combining Google Spreadsheets, Google Gadgets, and a little HTML, my Social Media Dashboard offers an at-a-glance view of my client’s social media efforts. Here’ s a screen-shot of what my dashboard should look like:

Unfortunately, it hasn’t looked that way since last Tuesday morning, when I noticed that Google Gadgets stopped working. Today, my dashboard now looks like this:

I first noticed the problem while calling it up live in front of a business prospect. Having just talked-up the use of these great tools, I felt a bit red-faced, but shrugged it off as a minor hiccup in technology. Software breaks and I figured that Google would have my dashboard back up and running within a few hours. Unfortunately, 96 hours 120 hours six-days one-week ten-days later and the problem still persists.

I’m not the only person affected by outage. The following thread on the Google Docs Help Forum shows four examples–just from last Tuesday:

“I was going to do a training which included motion charts tomorrow morning.”
(newbopke)

A part form the disruptions this problem is creating to my website, what I find amazing is that after 24 hours Google doesn’t come out with a solution, and none even says “well, we will find a solution in 48 hours, and we will do this and that” or so.
(Jorge from Burgos)

I’ve been using “Gantt Chart” to follow projects progress of an ONG I’m working with. Gadget stopped working yesterday! Please! Jules: Help me, Help US!
(sosa.0991)

Is google working on this? I too have a presentation tomorrow using motion gadgets. Very stressed! Any alternative motion chart options out there for the computer illiterate?
(wmkay87)

I believe in cloud computing. I also understand the risks involved with new technologies. But if cloud computing is going to be a viable option for companies, downtime will need to be measured in hours not days.

Tags: Google Spreadsheets Gadgets Cloud Computing Broken Ron Ploof Orange County Social Media Social Media Dashboard

The Orange County traffic gods must have been smiling upon me that day because I arrived early and found myself seated next to three women who were all part of a local professional networking group. All were experienced professional communicators eager to learn how to incorporate social media into their day-to-day business communications activities.

It didn’t take long for them to figure out what I do for a living and that’s when the question floodgates opened. They peppered me with questions about LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. We talked about blogs and online video. Energized by how passionate they were about their craft and their clients, I answered happily. Their flow of questions were temporarily interrupted by the event, yet resumed during the intermission. Heck, I didn’t even have a chance leave my chair before the next panelist session started!

We exchanged business cards; I went home; and they went to dinner to discuss the event. All three contacted me separately during the next week and it was through these little conversations that I heard about the dinner conversation.

One of women summarized the discussion in an email to me:

The panel consisted of “enthusiasts” and “experts.” More of the first, if you ask me…I think it’s those “enthusiasts” who give social media it’s bad rap or negative connotations.

Their assessment is one of the largest inhibitors to corporate social media adoption. If professional business owners feel that social media is tied more to “enthusiasts” than business “practitioners,” they’ll be slow to consider social media adoption.

Are you a social media enthusiast or a practitioner? Do you play/dabble with social media, or are you seeking better ways of communicating with your customers?

There really isn’t a right or wrong answer. Enthusiasts play. Practitioners work.

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon

Tags: Social Media Day Social Media Enthusiasts Ron Ploof Orange County Public Relations Marketing Social Media

The emergence of social media technologies has happened so quickly that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The same executives struggling to keep their organizations afloat during this economic downturn are simultaneously trying to make sense out of a radical communications revolution. But, when seeking advice on business uses for these new communications channels, execs are frequently left wading through cliche-infested social media waters, wrestling with terms such as conversation, community, and transparency.

The problem with these colloquial explanations is that they focus more on the social aspects than they do the media ones.  The approach is backwards, because social change didn’t drive the revolution, massive advances in the triple-threat of media production, storage, and distribution did. Therefore, the best way to understand social media is to study changes in media technology first, and then apply those changes to what society is choosing to do with them.

1977 Media

I produced a movie in 1977 called The Bionic Girl. It wasn’t a blockbuster or anything; rather, it was a silent film, funded with the money that I made on my paper route. The movie’s cast consisted of friends and family. I wrote, filmed, edited, and produced it. And after completion, I presented it to an audience seated on folding chairs in my parent’s basement.

I chose Super-8 film as my “medium.” Super-8 film came in a cartridge containing fifty feet of coiled celluloid, which limited its capacity to three-minutes twenty-seconds of moving imagery. Since The Bionic Girl lasted about twelve minutes, I needed to purchase four of them! Each fresh cartridge was inserted into a Super-8 movie camera that I had purchased at a local yard sale for $6. Unlike today’s mediums such as magnetic tape, hard drives, or solid state memories, once a cartridge finished running through the camera, it required lab processing after exposure. If my memory is correct, each cartridge cost $3.00 to purchase and another $3.00 to process and the total turn-around time from exposure-to-developed-reel averaged one week.

But the expense didn’t stop there. The four processed reels also needed to be manually spliced together then re-spooled onto its own, much bigger take-up reel. That’s when I learned the business lesson of “total cost of ownership.” Realizing that I had a film yet no way to present it to an audience, I was forced to allocate $99 of budget to purchase a Super-8 film projector!

Finally, since I had chosen the medium of film, I only had three options for distributing The Bionic Girl:

1. Use my $99 projector to share it with family and friends
2. Send the original film via the post office to folks who had access to their own Super-8 movie projectors
3. Send the original to a processing facility for duplication, and then send those copies to people with access to Super-8 movie projectors

2010 Media

Now let’s compare and contrast the my 1977 medium choices with those available today–to everyone, from teenagers to the largest corporations. Today’s cell phones not only contain the ability to create and store text, audio, and video, but a resident ability to distribute that same content to an audience instantaneously. There is no delay for such things as film processing. Consumption of the content doesn’t require special devices like film projectors.

Individuals and corporations can embed their videos onto their blogs and Facebook pages, both which are designed to notify friends/fans/followers/subscribers automatically. If the content is good enough, that first connection of people can in turn forward it to their connections. In 2010, advances in communications technologies allow anyone to capture, store, and deliver their content creations around the world for the nominal cost of internet connectivity.

The barriers to entry for creating and delivering one’s messages around the world have been eliminated. The revolution has created the proverbial level playing field. And therein lies the rub.

Most business owners don’t consider the revolution from the “media” side. Instead, they’re thrown a head fake by the word “social.”  They’re urged to use Twitter and Facebook for “social” reasons, without considering the business advantages and responsibilities associated with such channels. Without understanding that these communications technologies offer new ways for the creation, storage, and distribution of content, business owners will never be ready to learn about the “social nuances” required to use them successfully. But, by understanding the media benefits first, then they can address the social implications of their choices.

Tags: Distribution Super-8 Ron Ploof Orange County Public Relations Marketing Social Media

Photo Credits: Svet (film), TheDoctor856 (splicing), and rwhitesi (projector)

As I listened to the anti-Facebook rant, I remembered something from a college philosophy class: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

Allegory of The Old Media Cave

The Allegory of the Cave is a mythical story about a group of people who are chained inside of a cave. Rather than being able to see directly outside, their vantage point only offers shadows that are cast onto the cave walls as things pass by the entrance. Limited to only moving silhouettes, cave-prisoners can only make assumptions about what is happening outside of the cave.

The story offers a perfect analogy for people with opinions about things that they’ve never tried. You know the type. They’ll tell you that they don’t like a particular food before trying it, will critique a book without reading it, or claim that they know how you feel without ever walking a mile in your shoes. And with regards to New Media, they’ll expound upon the value (or lack thereof) without ever participating in one of the channels.

Try Before You Cry

Whenever future clients ask me about using New Media for their business, I ask the following question, “Do you use the tools?” If they want to blog, I ask them to start reading some first. If they want to produce a podcast, I’ll make them subscribe to a few before forming an opinion. I dare them to spend one-hour per day for five-days using Twitter search. I push them to upload videos to YouTube, update their resume on LinkedIn, and to participate in at least two user forums.

Until people use the tools, they won’t be able to grasp the nuances of each channel. Until Old Media cave-dwellers actually peer outside, they’ll never be able to understand about the online relationships, camaraderie, and creative outlets that these channels offer to active participants.

Photo Credit: Pupil of Ganesha

Tags: Allegory of the Cave Plato Ron Ploof Orange County Public Relations Marketing Social Media

According to strict interpretations of copyright law, mashups like these are considered illegal. Therefore, it’s probably only a matter of time before Myren the Beancounter launches a cease and desist letter, claiming that the robots are hurting Beyoncé financially.

As someone who wears two hats–content creator who supports artist compensation and businessman who supports the bottom line–I’m left with the following question: ”Is Beyoncé being harmed financially or benefitting from said video?”

On one hand, she’s not receiving direct revenue from each time the video is played. On the other, she’s benefitted from 41,000 new earworm opportunities to send fans to iTunes.

Content creation and distribution technologies are changing the way we do business. They cause us to question fundamental assumptions that formed the cornerstones of entire industries. Ten years from now, we’ll probably look back on these issues and laugh. Until then, we’ll sit on the sidelines watching Myren protect the top line while ignoring the bottom line.

What sayeth you?

Tags: fair use copyright Ron Ploof Orange County Public Relations Marketing Social Media

In 2010, I face another problem, as many execs look at these popular channels with the same lip-smacking anticipation as 1850s prospectors looked at California during the Gold Rush.

Telltale signs of this new phenomenon include:

• “I need to be on Facebook.”
• “How do I get on Twitter?”

It’s 1995 All Over Again

The “getting on” strategy isn’t new. As the Web outgrew the confines of universities and geeks, 1995 companies saw the Web page as a cheap alternative to distributing their paper-based brochures. All they needed to do was hire a “webmaster,” create content, and have that person put that content “on the Web.”

Unfortunately, these same companies failed to understand the differences between a paper-page and a Web page–the simple fact that the Web opened a new inbound communications channel to the corporation. For example, one of the first Web mistakes companies made was adding contact information to the bottom of the Web page. The prevailing wisdom of the time was to use webmaster@yourcompany.com. More likely than not, this mail address remained unmonitored, creating a black hole for customer complaints to sit and fester.

Companies are making the same mistakes today as they clamor to “be on” social networks, yet still don’t understand the time requirements and ramifications of being “social” and “networking.” Just as the prospectors of the 1850s needed to do more than just move to California, like actually sticking a pan into a stream, companies need to do more than move onto social networks.

Social Media is just the pan. You need to get wet to find the gold

Before deciding to open up powerful communications channels, have the answer to these specific questions:

• What is the unique purpose of this channel?
• How does it differ from my other channels (broadcast, print, etc…)
• What type of content will I be developing?
• What is the release frequency of such content?
• How much time am I willing to invest into monitoring and responding to fans and foes?
• Who is responsible for these channels, a serious business person or Skippy the Intern?
• Does each channel do something different or am I just repeating the same things in each channel? (blog, Twitter, Facebook, print, broadcast, trade shows, keynote speeches, etc…)?

Until companies see new/social media as a serious media choice, until they can look beyond what’s immediately in it for them as opposed to a more intimate way of communicating with constituents, all corporate new/social media efforts will fail.

Don’t make the same mistakes that your Web 1.0 predecessors did. Put social media into your brand as opposed to putting your brand on social media.

Photo Credit: Library of Congress on Flickr.

Tags: executive marketing public relations orange county social media

During the presentation, I said, “Online, people have the attention spans of gnats. Keep it short.”

Then, I wrapped-up the presentation with a couple of questions. “What’s the most important skill that an online content creator should develop? “What’s the most important skill that any company considering to be an online publisher should acquire?”

A few people took a stab at the answer before I let them off the hook.

“The ability to tell stories,” I said.

That’s when a woman in the back of the room raised her hand and asked a brilliant question:

“So, can we use storytelling to extend the attention span of the gnat?”

“Yes!” I answered instinctively, having never really thought about it that way before.

Story extends attention span. That’s why we’ll spend $10 to sit willingly in a darkened movie theater with strangers. We enjoy watching characters in conflict. We love our heroes and love to hate our villains. We wait anxiously for them battle out a resolution. We love to be entertained. We love to be taught.

The best online content creators combine the power of storytelling with education to tap into a reservoir of dormant attention.

Extend attention spans. Be a storyteller.

Photo Credit: Macten

The Referral

A couple weeks ago, one of my clients lamented about how hard it was to find a wedding photographer.  “I can recommend one,” I said, before adding an unusual qualifier. “But you need to know that I’ve never met her, I’ve never met anyone who has used her services, and I have no idea what she charges. However, with all of that said, she’s the best wedding photographer in Orange County.”

So, how can I offer such a ringing endorsement for someone I’ve never met? It’s easy. I read her blog.

Social Media Perfectly Played

I think I found Kate Noelle Photography about two years ago while searching for Twitter users in Orange County. I came across a local photographer whose profile linked to her blog. The first thing that I noticed was the quality of the photography. Kate has a very distinctive artistic style–one that she herself calls “contrasty.” The overall look of her work is so unique, that I’m confident I could easily identify it even if it were intermixed with that of a dozen other wedding photographers.

During the past two years, Kate’s blog has bubbled its way to the top of my reading list, which is really quite an accomplishment considering the fact that I read blogs of such influential people as Mark Cuban, Chris Brogan, John Batelle, Avinash Kaushik, and Matt Cutts. And although I may skip a post or two of theirs, I never miss a one of Kate’s posts. Why? Because Kate’s blog is a brilliant example of social media perfectly played.

Small business blog blurs personal with professional

Small business owners frequently have a difficult time separating their personal lives from their professional ones because the two are so intertwined. Traditional marketing doesn’t accommodate such a mixture, and therefore, small business owners frequently keep the two separate. Kate doesn’t, as explained in her bio:

If I’ve learned one thing in my crazy adventures over the past few years, it’s how much people desire connection. Hopefully in reading about my experiences, my shoots, my stories, and my pictures, you will get a glimpse of something real. My goal with this blog is to give brides & grooms, photographers & photography seekers, friends & family, and everyone else an opportunity to grow with me through this photographic journey I’m on.

Kate doesn’t draw a line between personal and professional. The blog is about her “adventures,” whether she shares her love for God, family, her boyfriend, the trials and tribulations of starting her own wedding photography business, or describing her latest photo shoot…it’s all in there.

The business of storytelling

While other wedding photographers demonstrate their services visually through beautiful online galleries, Kate augments her craft with stories. Whether she’s posting pictures from an engagement shoot, a wedding, or even documenting her vacation to the Holy Lands, Kate ties all of her photographs together through describing the stories behind the photographs.

For example, when posting pictures from an engagement shoot, she describe some of the little things happened. She tells us of the rustic locations, the angle of the sun, what experiments worked, and what didn’t. She offers a glimpse of her clients, noting how the couples interact while being photographed. By adding these details, those who read her blog get to know something about the couple, which gets really interesting when Kate follows-up with photos from their wedding, offering us a continuation of the story.

Over the course of a few months, a reader gets to know the story of a young couple in love. We get to see them before and on their wedding day. Instead of seeing beautiful pictures of perfect strangers getting married, subscribers to the Kate Noelle blog have an interest in the couple. We root for them. We wish them the best of luck.

Three Simple Rules

Small business owners can learn so much from Kate and her blog. Just follow three simple rules:

• Be yourself
• Show off your work
• Tell a story

If done right, you just might get a referral from someone you’ve never met, too.

Photo courtesy Kate Noelle Photography

Tags: Orange County Social Media Public Relations Marketing Ron Ploof Kate Noelle Small Business Photography

I get it. Business has had 300 years to understand its relationship with with mass media, yet has only had a few short years to contemplate its relationship with social media. So, I decided to tell him a little story.

A social media story

The Ploof family has a birthday tradition whereby the birthday girl or boy gets to choose where the family eats dinner. A few weeks ago, my daughter Stephanie chose an Italian chain-restaurant known for its festive atmosphere and belt loosening portions.

Later that week, my son Bryan told his girlfriend Ina about the family celebration, but for some reason, he couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant.  It frustrated him, because he and Ina had eaten there before, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t remember the establishment’s name. That’s when a race began. Who would be the first person to solve the mystery?

Bryan and Ina took different routes to finding their answers. Bryan typed keywords into Google. Ina took a more personal route by sending Stephanie a text message. Ina won the challenge when Stephanie answered with a text message of her own: “Buca di Beppo.”

This little story encapsulates the whole “business/social media” thing in a nutshell. Think of Bryan and Ina as two prospects. Both have a problem that your company can solve through its products and services.

Of the many “mediums” available (newspapers, magazines, yellow pages, search engines, television, radio, blogs, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, SMS…), Bryan chose to use “online media.” Ina chose to ask a friend. Both paths had their advantages and disadvantages. For example, had Stephanie’s cell phone not been with her (highly unlikely!), Bryan would have won the race.

What’s your customer’s medium of choice?

In the past, your prospects informational choices were limited by the trappings of traditional marketing, advertising, journalism and public relations. Today, these same prospects have access to a myriad of other sources–multiple “mediums” if you will–that connect your prospects with other sources of information, ranging from your content to knowledgeable friends.

Your job is to secure a presence in the prospect’s “medium of choice” before they go looking.