Who doesn’t like being a fly on the wall, right?

It took me a few minutes to lock-on to the conversation, but I finally understood that they were discussing the development of a new reality television show. You gotta love LA!

I sat there like a mute, listening intently. One volunteered to write the treatment. Another would scour his contacts to find the right people to pitch. As they wrapped up, one of the gentlemen looked to me and asked, “What do you think, Ron?”

Uh-oh. There’s nothing worse than being asked a question by a perfect stranger who has no idea who you are. Add the fact that you’re a guest at the table, and the complexity of the social situation compounds itself exponentially. I looked to my friend for guidance. If he had given me the waive-off signal, I would have bit my tongue. Instead, he smiled and gave me the green light.

“Why do you need them?” I asked.

“Need who?”

“Whoever you’re pitching the show to. Why do you need them?”

He looked at me as if I had two heads.

I explained that if they truly believed in the project–if they wanted to maintain control of their own destiny, why not consider producing the show themselves and releasing it online?  I offered a litany of benefits to consider, including creative control and the ability to find the right audience as opposed to the biggest one.

They listened politely, asked a few more questions, and then wrapped up their own conversation.

I don’t think that they’ll change their plans, but online publication should at least be a consideration. Our networked world has opened all sorts of possibilities for indie producers.

What story have you always wanted to tell? What’s stopping you?

Photo Credit: Library of Congress on Flickr

As an executive, think about this for a minute. Here is a brand new venture that flipped a switch and opened a revenue stream of $1.128 million–instantly. Add the fact that it did so without spending a dime on traditional marketing or advertising and we have an interesting case study for our theory that Audience is an Asset.

Over the past five years, Chris has built an audience that consists of 47,000 blog subscribers, 125,00 Twitter followers, TBD Web visitors, and TBD email newsletter subscribers.  By asking it to participate in Third Tribe Marketing, this aggregated audience responded by producing 2000 subscribers paying $47 per month.

Put another way, Chris has built a financial asset that can distribute a $1.128 million annual dividend. Therefore, if we use a multiple of 10 times earnings, can we assume his audience is worth $11.28 million? Not even close. It’s worth much more because this audience pays more than one dividend.

Consider Trust Agents, the book that he co-authored with Julien Smith, that rumbled its way to the New York Times Best Seller List simply because he asked his audience to buy it? Or what about the business and speaking revenue his asset generates for his company New Marketing Labs? By adding up all of these revenue sources and multiplying the result by whatever multiple you’re comfortable with, we can calculate a real and tangible financial value for an online audience.

The value of your social media investments is calculated through the dividends your audience asset can distribute to you.

And for those fixated on ROI justifications:

Assuming that Chris worked 80 hours per week for five years creating valuable content (a number that I believe is conservative), he invested 20,000 Brogan hours into building this asset. Does the investment justify the return? I think so.

Photo Credit: C.C. Chapman

Here’s how the item is described in the report:

FCC broadcast licenses are granted for maximum terms of eight years and are subject to renewal upon application to the FCC. The terms of several of the Company’s FCC licenses have expired, however the licenses remain in effect until action on the renewal applications has been completed. The Company filed all of its applications for renewal in a timely manner prior to the applicable expiration dates and expects its applications will be approved as the FCC works through its backlog. The Company’s network affiliation agreement intangible assets are due for renewal in a weighted-average period of three years. The Company currently expects that it will renew each network affiliation agreement prior to its expiration date. Costs associated with renewing or extending intangible assets are insignificant and are expensed as incurred.

Let’s think about this for a minute. Media General is a company that owns 18 television stations, 21 daily newspapers, and publishes over 200 specialty publications. It’s broadcast business unit is required to purchase licenses from the Federal Communications Commission in order to transmit programming. FCC licenses are scarce resources, meaning that if Media General owns one, its competitors can’t, creating a competitive advantage that Media General has assigned a real financial value to through its balance sheet.

Compare and contrast Media General’s broadcast business with those of us who publish content online. We have no such restrictions. We don’t need to purchase FCC licenses and therefore are not subject to their trappings, such language restrictions, geographic limitations, public service announcements, and bidding wars that translate into hefty operating costs. Add the cost of broadcast equipment and radio towers, and we, the digital content producers, have a huge competitive advantage over traditional broadcast companies just by comparing our respective distribution costs.

Historically, traditional media companies have made their money by investing in two things: building their audiences and owning the distribution channels to those audiences. In the past, the combined value of these pieces was large enough to sustain a profit through renting access to them through advertising. Unfortunately, the value of today’s broadcast assets may have dropped to a point where the rent (advertising) won’t cover the mortgage (distribution costs) anymore.

And lastly, let’s revisit the question asked earlier: “Where did that $426 million go?” Did it just vaporize into thin air? Maybe not. I contend that its value was absorbed into the digital distribution channel, where it sits, waiting for smart companies to take advantage of it…companies that believe that Audience is an Asset.

Tags:Audience is an Asset Ron Ploof ronamok FCC licenses

I don’t blame them for their confusion. It seems that whenever they ask about social media, the explanation involves unfamiliar terms (blogging, podcasting, twittering, Facebook wall entries) rather than the long term objectives that these activities support. C-Suites want to invest time and money into social media, but won’t until someone can explain the business case using terms that are more than ten years old.

Recently, I’ve been searching for a tall thin concept that helps C-Suites understand the role that social media plays within their organizations. If I’m successful, it will answer all of the lingering questions, including those such as ROI, objective, strategy, goals, and tactics.

My research has oriented me toward Audience is an Asset–a concept that an audience built through social media channels is a corporate asset with real financial value.

Over the next few posts I’ll be sharing with you some of the insights that I’ve been gathering while studying the balance sheets of traditional media companies.

In the mean time, I’d love your thoughts.

Photo Credit: a r b o

Tags: audience is an asset audience as an asset ron ploof executive executives c-suite financial balance sheet

Yesterday, I stumbled upon yet another sad example to prove my point. For the seventh day in a row, I had been notified that “Scott Morris” was following me on Twitter:

The picture above indicates one of two things: either “Scott” suffers from TIFS (twitchy index finger syndrome) or he’s using an automated bot to scam-up his follower count–a strategy commonly used by pornographers and Viagra dealers.

But “Scott’s” profile didn’t contain the sleaziness I was expecting. Instead, it contained a link to a SoCal-based online medical community. Something just didn’t add up.

That’s when it hit me. Had I just found yet another example of a corporate social media strategy left in the hands of an intern or a drunk at the party? So, I called the company to find out.

My call went immediately to voicemail, so I left a message, asking Scott Morris to return my call.  A few minutes later, the president of the company, a physician, called instead.

“Thank you for calling,” I said, “but I was looking for Scott Morris.”

The doctor explained that he didn’t know a Scott Morris.

“Well, someone by that name is Twittering on your company’s behalf,” I said.

“I don’t know how to use Twitter,” he admitted, explaining that someone else does it for him. He then began asking questions about his company’s Twitter activities. As I explained my suspicions, I could hear the concern in his voice.  He thanked me for bringing the matter to his attention and promised to look into it.

About a half hour later, he called with an update.

“I checked and discovered that one of my marketing people was doing this. I told them to stop.” He also decided to take over the twittering from now on–a decision that I applauded him for.

The lesson of this story cannot be understated. When it comes to corporate reputations, Social Media channels are quickly becoming more powerful than traditional media. Until C-levels understand the true impact of social media responsibilities, they’ll continue to blindly put their online reputation into the hands of the unprepared.

Tags: Ron Ploof Orange County Executive Read This First Online Reputation

Businesses can learn from the US census, because it’s important to step back and consider where we came from in order to determine where we must go. And so, that got me to thinking. What if we performed our own census–from a business communications perspective? What if we studied the differences between how our customers got their business information in 2000 and how they get it now? What if we offered a New Media Census?

In 2000, our customers went to the Yellow Pages to find a local business. They read newspapers, trade magazines, and in some cases, they even read direct mail. “On demand” movies came from one of two places: the cinema or the video rental store. And if our customers wanted to time-shift their television content, they needed either a degree in computer science or a middle-schooler to program their VCR.

In 2000, our customers didn’t have smartphones, therefore couldn’t read email, connect to the Web, or run apps while away from the office. They didn’t have iTunes to manage their music collections or to help them listen to our company’s audio and video podcasts. YouTube hadn’t been invented yet, so the only way they had access to our demonstration videos was to request a DVD.

They had no access to communities, such as LinkedIn for business professionals, or a Facebook fan page for “business casual.” If a customer wanted independent reviews of local businesses, they created a poll at the office water cooler. Today, they go to Yelp. And the only way for customers in the year 2000 to get “real-time” information was to have CNN running in the background. Today, Twitter seems to have taken that spot.

In just ten years, it’s clear that our customers are migrating from physical media to a plethora of other online choices.

Unfortunately, most marketing and public relations professionals are still stuck in 2000. Most believe that the only way to deliver corporate messages is through advertising, staffing trade show booths, building micro sites or pummeling an ever-dwindling number of journalists with press releases.

Does your company understand the mass migratory patterns of its customers? If not, consider tapping your social network for a job, because your company probably won’t be around for the 2020 census.

Photo credit: Library of Congress on Flickr

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that in the age of ubiquitous access to digital content distribution methods such as blogs, podcasts, online video and social networking, that all Media are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Let these Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• Traditional Media is expensive to maintain due to print costs, radio towers, and FCC licenses.
• Advances in Internet, Web, and mobile technologies combined with free products/services such as Wordpress (blogging), iTunes (podcasting), and YouTube (online video), have lowered the barriers to delivering content to audiences.
• Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, have become the modern matchmakers,  helping to match consumers with the businesses that can satisfy their needs–a method consumers prefer over being assaulted with non-relevant, commercial interruptions.
• Consumers are turning away from content delivered on physical media, preferring digital forms.
• Consumers are changing their content consumption habits, consuming content on their schedule–not that of the broadcast networks. They’re choosing to use real-time sources such as Twitter and time-shifting technologies such as DVRs and RSS.
• In this new digital world, consumers have also become publishers, creating Facebook pages, blogs, podcasts, and online video. As a result, their “user-generated-content” is competing for the same eyeballs that were once under the monopolistic control of traditional Media.
• Businesses are no longer beholden to the third party message-delivery offerings of traditional Media. Instead of renting other people’s audiences (advertising) or begging journalists to write about them (public relations), businesses now have a third alternative: to communicate directly with their own audiences.

Therefore, We the New Media, solemnly publish and declare, that we are absolved from all allegiance to print, broadcast, and physical media; and that as Free and Independent members of our digital world, have full power to create and publish our own content, consume it on our own schedules, build our own audiences, and do all other Acts and Things which we may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Photo Credit: The National Archives

So, you’re an executive who is considering adding social media into your communications mix. Now the big question: who do you turn to for advice? Your first impulse will be to call the traditional PR and marketing folks that you’ve worked with for years. It’s a good first step, but you need to be careful. Social media and traditional media are different species, requiring very different skills for success. You must determine whether the vendor really understands the fundamental differences between the two, or has simply added social media garnish to their plateful of traditional same-old same-old.

Thankfully, a simple language test exists to determine whether or not your vendor is trying to pull an Iron-Chef move on you. It’s called The Drunk at the Party test.

The Drunk At the Party

You know who I’m talking about, right? He’s the guy who rolls into a party with an agenda. He backs unsuspecting people into a corner, then pummels them with message points. He’s the one making value propositions such as, “Hey baby, are your legs tired? Because they’ve been running through my mind all evening.”

The drunk at the party has one agenda: to spew his messages, oblivious of the social impact that he’s having on the people around him.

Now, let’s compare and contrast “Mr. Value Proposition” with the other guy at the party–ya know, the one with the crowd gathering around him willingly. Instead of backing them into a corner, the crowd has playfully backed him into one, attracted by what he has to say as opposed to being repelled by it.

When choosing your social media advisor, keep these garnish words in mind:

• Social media is not about making propositions. It’s about helping people.
• Social media is not about crafting impactful messages; it’s about listening and responding accordingly.
• Social media is not about preaching to your customers, its about having faith in them. Take care of your customers and they’ll take care of you.

Instead of hiring someone to examine their navel while molding the perfect social media value statement, consider using these wonderful new media tools to reach out and talk with real live customers. A conversation controlled isn’t a conversation at all. It’s a monologue.

Oh, and if your vendor only responds to 1990s phrases such as best practices, suggest these and see if he reaches for his lampshade:

• listen more than you speak
• deliver more than you promise
• and give more than you take…

…or risk being the drunk at the party.

Photo Credit: WillamBrawley

I was in a foul mood last Thursday morning. I had just read a series of blog posts from a former client who was using the ideas I taught his company to build its social media business. Normally, I’d be ecstatic about such an event, but the fact that the company owes me a considerable sum of money tempered my enthusiasm. I felt as if someone had stolen from me.

My first testosterone-fueled-caveman-impulse was to write about it, to expose the company’s business practices to the online world. But that’s when a more sane idea emerged. What would my social network say about the situation? So, I posted the following question to Twitter:

“If a former client was using your work to expand their business, yet they’ve owed you money for six months, when would you blog about it?”

Within 11 minutes, five people who I really respect (and their collective 35,000 followers respect them too) offered their advice.

My mood changed instantly upon reading these rapid responses. I loved how each person cared about one of two things: 1) me and my reputation and 2) the poor soul who may fall prey to the company in the future.

In eleven minutes, I had a totally different perspective on the problem. Had I taken the caveman route, I may have done something stupid that limited my options. Instead, subsequent conversations have yielded plenty of them to choose from. Presently, I’m weighing those options.

I am so grateful to my social network board of advisors who care enough about me to offer such good and timely advice. Thank you Kirsten, Shel, Eric, C.C., and Adrianne.

So, who’s on your board of advisors?

For example, take a look at the graph above that depicts our “interest” (Google Insights) in three recent social media stories: Motrin (for the “Motrin Moms” story), “Dominos Youtube” (for the pizza tampering story), and “United Breaks Guitars” (for the customer support story). Note how our interest in these stories peaks, then evaporates almost as quickly as it originally condensed.

This frenetic behavior makes us very good at transient analysis, studying things as they are happening, but it also comes with a cost. If we are in a state of constant motion, jumping from story to story, we’ll never gather enough data to see trends. And without the ability to see trends, we are blind to potential lessons. Put another way, if we are not mining the data, we’re guaranteed to never strike business gold.

That’s why I have a personal goal to release an e-book every six months. The goal gives me “permission” to take the time necessary to really sink my teeth into a story. It gives me an excuse to enjoy my guilty pleasure of wading through data, playing with spreadsheets, and creating cool-looking charts and graphs:-) But more importantly, it gives me the opportunity to create a piece of timeless content that can help not only those who read it today, but also those who read it tomorrow, next week, or next year.

The story that I decided to sink my teeth into for this e-book was the “United Breaks Guitars” story, where a Canadian musician took on one of the world’s largest airlines and proved that “the song in mightier than corporate red tape.” The Musician and the Manufacturer is a story about two businesses, bound together by their creative uses of online video. Instead of focusing on the sensational public relations aspects of the story (which has been written about extensively) I wanted to learn how online video effected each business. I wanted to understand their decision processes, what they expected, and what actually happened. During my research, I found some things that I could explain, discovered others that I couldn’t, yet still came away with 10 lessons that any business should consider before hitting that red button on their video recorder.

Please feel free to download The Musician and the Manufacturer (no registration required) and pass it along to anyone who is considering using online video.

Tags: The Musician and the Manufacturer Video whitepaper Ron Ploof Read This First business Dave Carroll e-book ebook analysis Leo Laporte monkey-see, monkey-do Online video Orange County