Open The Dialogue

On Friday I had the tremendous opportunity to attend the PSFK Conference here in New York.  While I only made it to the afternoon sessions, I was simply blown away by the creativity, innovation and excitement coming from this year’s presentations.  The talks that I most responded to fell within the heading of “Changemaking” and challenged us to think beyond our current definition of progress, to challenge the openness of government, to push for simple solutions, and to re-think the way art and digital collide.  A couple of themes from these talks included:

Small is the new big: From No Impact Man’s lessons from taking a year to step off the grid and appreciate the little things (community, togetherness, diaper duty), to John Dimatos sharing simple digital solutions that can significantly expedite disaster relief for Unicef, it is clear that the economy and the environment are both creating a greater need for simplicity in everything we do.

The innovation being driven by that necessity is exciting, and there is a lesson to be learned for brands as well.  Often times stripping down products, programs and services to their essentials can lead to better experiences, enhanced offerings and more creative thinking.

DIWO (Do It With Others) is the new DIY: This phrase, coined during Zach Lieberman’s inspiring talk about art and technology, spoke to the recurring theme of collaboration and community (a theme that was reinforced by the collective energy of the PSFK community).

By outlining the changes implemented in just the past year to new York State Senate web site, Andew Hoppin made a strong case for a more direct, more participatory government, enabled and empowered via social media.  Taking a page from the White House, the NY Senate is providing a way for Senators to have direct contact with the people they represent, and gives constituents a louder voice through social network integration, commenting, rating and response all within nysenate.gov.

And I’ll leave you with this video – one of my favorites from Zach Lieberman that demonstrates the power that comes with creating amazing, truly extraordinary experiences.  His demos had everyone open-mouthed.  You can see more  at http://openframewords.cc.  Enjoy.

night lights from thesystemis on Vimeo.

For more videos from the conference, check out PSFK here.  To stay in the loop with PSFK if you’re not already, follow them on Twitter, or subscribe via RSS.

It seems every where we look, or read, or Tweet there is something said about the iPad. But who can resist? It may be my bias, because I happen to really enjoy Apple and all of their marketing and their iMac and iPods and iPhones, but I think that Apple has upped the ante again.

Yes, the Kindle and the Nook connect to the Internet, and for $259 I could own either of them and read my books. I could download a new book if I felt like it.

But can I read the New York Times (in color) on either of those? Can I play the latest John Madden game? Can I Tweet, blog, or Facebook?

The iPad offers users some unique features, driving every company, brand, and blogger to develop “an app for that.” With so many platforms available literally at a users fingertips, I posture that this is going to change the ball game.

We are undoubtedly going to see the birth of new social media applications that are specific to the iPad and the way users interact with their new toy. The iPad is going to drive the expectation for every comparable gadget that comes out. It is also going to drive upgrades for already established readers such as the Kindle and Nook to get up to speed and feature applications. As Bob Dylan said, “times they are a changin’.”

The iPad may also be the saving grace for print media.  Users can obtain the tactile satisfaction of turning pages without inking up their fingers from a newspaper. If the price point is lower for electronic versions of Vogue, Elle, and The New York Times, I would most certainly load them all on my iPad. I don’t have to remember to pick the newest magazine up at the store, or wait for it to come in the mail. I don’t have to go out in the rain to pick up the paper at the bottom of the driveway, hoping it isn’t soggy. And I don’t have to waste paper ordering subscriptions, mailing in payments, or throwing editions away.

Only time will really tell the impact the iPad will have, and it won’t take much longer than a few weeks to start feeling it’s influence. With its release tomorrow, my next post just might come from my lap.

South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual meeting of professionals and passionate fans of social media, music and film, began March 12 and concluded this past weekend in Austin, Texas.  In my first year at SXSW and attending on behalf of Nikon, I enjoyed a week full of learning, collaboration and inspiration.  The hype is true.  It’s an excellent opportunity to build strong relationships and create unique brand engagements for your client.

For those unfamiliar with SXSW, the first five days are dedicated to all things “Interactive,” including panels, parties and power-bloggers roaming the halls of the Austin Convention Center discussing what’s next.  The Music and Film portion of the Festival follows and the city swells to more than 30,000 filling the streets of downtown Austin.

This year,  attendees for the Interactive portion doubled with not only bloggers and social media “experts,” but corporate representatives and hundreds of PR, advertising and digital agency representatives, including a team from @mwwgroup.  As Jenna Wortham of the New York Times wrote, “the high concentration of tech savants supplies a rare opportunity for companies to woo the eyes and clicks of early adopters and influential Twitter users and bloggers capable of elevating their sites and services out of obscurity.”

Of course, not all content enlightened attendees.  There was a great deal of noise and panels with intriguing titles that didn’t deliver anything more than what is already covered within Mashable. As AdRants put it, “Some of the content was good. Some of the content was truly terrible.”

Here are a few takeaways from what we learned throughout the 10-day Festival…

#1.  Geeks like to karaoke and party.  A lot.

Interactive included five days of cookouts, kickball and Foursquare matches along with lunchtime happy hours, cocktail hours and after-after-after parties. This might seem like all fun and games, but in practice, it was a Festival of networking and idea generation for brands as large as Microsoft and as small as FoodSpotting, and a great celebration of the important role of technology and entrepreneurism of the past year.

#2. “Just watch American Idol.”

The legendary Smokey Robinson gave the keynote address to the SXSW Music attendees.  He spoke of his award-winning history in the music business and how some of his greatest hits were created by accident.  When asked what advice he would give to rising stars, he paused for a moment and said, “You are not the first to be in showbiz, you will not be the last.  Just watch the crowds at an American Idol audition.”  Knowing always where you’ve come from, what you stand for and appreciating the breaks you’ve been given along the way is key to success, according to Smokey.  It’s advice all businesses and practitioners should follow.

#3. Business in the Bathroom Line.

An incredible thing about SXSW was that everyone was someone worth getting to know.  Everyone had similar interests, passions, and desires to collaborate just waiting for a connection to be made. Everyone had an idea worth pursuing or a friend-of-a-friend you “just need to meet!”  Even standing in the 50-person bathroom queue at Stubb’s BBQ, you might meet the lead singer of a cool band, the CMO of a brilliant startup, or even a filmmaker debuting at SXSW in need of PR representation.  And, just like that, a relationship or a deal can be made.

#4. The Necessity of Official Sponsorships
The usual suspects sponsored the SXSW Festival, including Pepsi Refresh, AOL, Chevy, Miller Lite and more.  Their presence was big, splashy, and ever-present among a sea of Convention Center visitors.  We realized, though, that impact can be made without a step-and-repeat banner and pricey sponsorhips. Nikon (MWW client) partnered with the largest photo and video uploading service for Twitter, called yfrog.  Knowing there was no official aggregator for images and video at SXSW, this service pulled in content using the Twitter hashtags #SXSW and #SXSWpics to form an online gallery.  In addition to public content gathered, Nikon also sponsored several top bloggers, including Chris Brogan, Pop17 and Jeff Pulver, to hit the streets of Austin with their Nikon cameras to capture the scene.  The Nikon Gallery had hundreds of professional photos and thousands of public images.  The openness of social media, and collaborators like yfrog, allowed Nikon to have a unique brand presence without official SXSW sponsorship, although the right official sponsorships can work too.

#5 The Next Big Thing

Our minds are spinning with thoughts of what could be next for Interactive.  Of course, the talk of the town was FourSquare, Gowalla and more location-based social media networking.  The “celebrities” included Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk), iJustine (@iJustine), Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) and many more who will continue to drive the thought leadership in this space. We also heard great buzz for Food Spotting, Twitter’s @Anywhere platform, and countless analytics tools and opinions about ROI.  It remains to be seen what the next “big thing” will be, because the SXSW community is full of early adopters and it takes time to create mainstream adoption, but we’re confident one of the 15,000 brains at SXSW will be responsible.

Austin featured a great cast of characters, living up to its motto “Keep Austin Weird.”  And, we can’t wait to return for the weirdness, creativity and rockin’ music at #SXSW2011.

Last week, CNN President Jon Klein, said during an interview with BusinessWeek that he is “more worried about the 500 million or so people on Facebook versus the 2 million on Fox.” And he has cause for worry.

We have entered an era that puts demands on our news sources to get with the times or get out. In 2009 we witnessed the collapse of some of our most beloved magazines, and newspapers are now an endangered species. Instead of buying the paper, we get our information on the Internet, where we can readily access the exact article that appeared on today’s front page of the New York Times print edition. We can get our information 24 hours a day, and as new information comes in, we get that too, before it ever hits the print edition. When you’re sipping your coffee and reading the headlines, all the while getting your hands covered in ink, I’ve already read the headlines at three a.m. when the news broke.

So are we training ourselves for the potential extinction of network news, too? All our favorite sources are online now – CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, and CNBC.  Maybe we’re training ourselves not for broadcast network news, but for the extinction of the network news’ websites.

What happens when we expect all our information to be packaged in 140 increments and we rely on social media platforms like Twitter to get our fix? People like CNN President Jon Klein start to worry that we won’t go to their website anymore, or watch their video or read the full article. But, hey, if you can’t make your point in 140 characters, what good are you?

And then there is Reuters, who last week released a social media policy telling its journalists they shouldn’t break news on their Twitter feeds (versus BBC who’s Director mandated their journalists to use social media or get out).  We can appreciate Reuters trying to stay true to its journalistic routes, and break news ‘over the wire.’ It’s nice in a sort of nostalgic-good for you-I’ll-get-my-news-somewhere-else-if-you-aren’t-telling-me-first. Reuters should be more worried about Facebook users than CNN. At least I can follow @cnnbrk for the latest.

How can any news source position themselves as the most trusted network, or the place to go for breaking news, if they aren’t part of the conversation?

What is important is that instead of fighting these changes, our news sources need to integrate themselves with the changes. Get on Facebook. Let your journalists break news on Twitter. If a journalist I’ve been reading for years is breaking his/her news on Twitter, I’ll go there first. If I’m friends with CNN, Reuters, BBC, and they are giving me the news then I’ll listen to them. I’ll read what they have to say (in 140 characters or less) and maybe I’ll click on their link and read the rest of the article. Maybe I’ll stay tuned for more information on a story that is just coming ‘over the wire.’

If these news sources thought of Twitter as a wire service and their followers as their journalists who disseminate the information, they wouldn’t have to worry about the 500 million Facebook users. Instead, these sources would be part of it. The information would start with them and their followers distribute it.

Twitter users, for example, don’t just rely on their friends and followers for their information, but they go back to the traditional news source in a non-traditional way. And instead of being on the sidelines, everyone gets in the game – 24 hours a day.

Pew Internet and American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism released “Understanding the Participatory News Consumer,” on Monday and it has received a ton of attention around the key findings.  Notably, the majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get their daily news, and more than half (59%) are getting news from both online and offline sources on a typical day.

The degree to which Americans are personalizing and filtering this content is especially noteworthy, with highlights collected by MediaBistro including:

• 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
• 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
• 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
• 51% of social networking site users who are also online news consumers say that on a typical day they get news items from people they follow.
• 23% of this cohort follow news organizations or individual journalists on social networking sites.

This fits with the recent Cision report (pdf), which showed how media are using social platforms to publish, promote and distribute what they write (64% use blogs, 60% social networks, and 57% Twitter).  Additionally, a full 89% of media are turning to blogs for their online research, making this process truly cyclical.

With 70% of Americans noting that the amount of news and information available from different sources is overwhelming, I think we will see more and more trends pointing to users testing multiple news sources and filtering for perceived noise.  From a PR perspective, this points to the importance of brands telling a cohesive story over multiple platforms, providing a range of consumer touch points, and as always, creating content that is truly valuable for media and consumers.