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An excellent blog today 
from Scott Hanson, our friend and colleague is Phoenix, presents the social cast — new media phenomena courtesy of social media.
The social cast has:
Check out Scott’s post directly or through his firm’s site: http://www.hmapr.com/
With all that’s being written about the economy and the current struggle of mainstream media, the plight of what we’re looking at really hit home this week.
Part of our business has long been to help clients find their way into articles in the media. During the past week, among many clients with stories to be placed in the media is Birchez Associates, an affordable home developer. They held a ground breaking ceremony attended by a host of community leaders from Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) to our new, and first, county administrator Mike Hein. The event was well attended, covered by two local media reporters, a pre-event radio talk show and a post-event radio/print news interview on the Mid Hudson News network. All good and more reports being developed.
During all this our inveterate media director Sandy Frinton fed back some sad news. A regional weekly and magazine publisher, the Taconic Press was rumored to be closing down. It did! A regional television network said it was no longer covering stories across the region. Word came down that one of our daily newspapers and a regional business journal (not the same ownership) are close to being shuttered.
For all the complaints any of us may have about the local-regional media, even worse is the prospect of having none!
I think Carl and Geddy may be on to something.
Carl Frankel today announced that he’s passing his “Carl’s List” enterprise of the past five years to Geddy Sveikauskas, owner of Ulster PublishingCompany here in New York State. Geddy publishes The Woodstock Times and several other robust weekly community newspapers.
I have known both men since I moved to the area in 1995. They are definitely not representative of what so many call “the old boy’ network,” which in other times we called the “establishment” or the “power structure.” They both are also people of ideas and of action.
Carl has been involved in developing the list — a localized Craigs List– hooked to a business model and a vision of local businesses ratcheting one success by emphasizing local commerce with one another at a price advantage for members. Geddy’s publishing is inquisitive, well-written (sometimes very well written) and increasingly meaty. All that, as the local daily paper, like so many other, struggles in this Web 2.0 era.
What’s up? I am not 100 percent certain, but I suspect it is significant, and that it may well contribute to the reshaping of communications. Consider this, we have very local weekly papers now aligning themselves with a bottom-up, on-line model. Both have a great deal of integrity, local involvement, and easy access. You can walk into Geddy’s office. You can call him or any of his people. You can post, pay, or play on various area’s of Carl’s List, and if you wish even find Carl over coffee in uptown Kingston.
What emerges may well be more than a local Craigs List - this being local, trustworthy, and digital. It may be a sign of a new model of communications emerging — something between institutional mainstream media and all those disembodied social media connections.
For one, I am keen on seeing where this new fusion goes. Also, good luck to Carl with his new writing gig at Matter Network.
The purpose of this blog is to share insights on the power of communications to drive results — success for commercial enterprise and results when we speak of the public good. Danah Boyd, who writes Apophenia, one of the most insightful blogs in the communications zone, yesterday submitted her resignation from mainstream media (MSM) because of how they are covering the presidential primaries. Her main complaint is the media’s penchant fo
r stories with conflict and drama to “sell papers.”
Having been both a reporter for and, as a public relations guy, a supplier to the MSM, I would counter that it’s less an institutional bias than it is the DNA of reporters, editors, news producers and the like to scoop the competition with a dramatic story that gains attention. Sure, if you work there selling papers is of acknowledged importance, but for the individual journalists it’s not the main driver. Having the best story of the day is.
That being said, media remains important to the candidates marketing themselves as well as to companies selling products. But media are no longer the only brokers of opinion.
My take: a media outlet and its news and analysis are less the principal sources of information than they are as platforms for discussions. Bloggers are critical to the formation of opinion and (I submit) to the catalysis of behavior. Bloggers like Dana Boyd are being referred about and quoted in conversations among people (not just in the media).
They provide the insight and perspective that we are paying attention to.
What does the above mean for anyone in business marketing? Blogs and other social media will speak with individuals comprising communities of interest. Therefore any plan for communications must now address the bloggers and other Web 2.0 technologies as means of relating with these communities.
I recently spent a pleasant afternoon with an entrepreneurial team here in the New York’s Hudson Valley. They are about to launch a revolutionary health care practice. As in the past, I found myself talking about how important it is to use a variety of media vehicles tuned to audience segments and buying habits.
I heard myself imploring this team. “You cannot rely on publicity alone! You need to have a mix that will reach your prospective patients, touch what they’re interested in, and do this over time.
The same day, in a story about two recent research reports, eMarketer newsletter said essentially the same thing. The newsletter covers Vertis-commissioned “Retail 2008: Media” study, conducted by Marshall Marketing & Communications. It also covers the BIGresearch study the media that influence purchases.
“Depending on who is being targeted, when, and at which stage of the consumer buying process, a range of media could be considered most effective. The popularity and influence of different media can also change over time. A few recent studies illustrate this point.”
Continues eMarketer “…it is easy to lapse into complacency when considering the best media for a campaign. Given that the ‘best media’ change both over time and depending on the types of goods being marketed, it is important to keep current on those media.”
This is sound advice, whether you’re working with top-tier ad and communications budgets or if you’re an entrepreneur planning to bootstrap your new big idea.
That means selecting among print, radio, television, Web 2.0, direct, outdoor, event marketing as well as other vehicles. I fact it’s a lot like what I told the team with which I was meeting. Indeed, it was a great conversation.
“So what you want to do is, in a nutshell, ‘ Get ready, aim, and fire using strategically selected media, I said triumphantly.
“We just want to fire,” said the host.
Must be why this message of using a range of media gets repeated so often.
My intent in this blog is perhaps a slight bit different than that of many other in the PR and Marketing Communications world. The aim here is to present information mainly for the generalist manager and business owner, identifying the power and potential of communications as a tool that can leverage everything else they are doing and, in turn, help drive success. In other words it is not intended to be another resource for professional PR, advertising and kindred professionals.
But I step aside from the generalist perspective to salute Ogilvy PR for developing a code of ethics designed to guide those of us who are professional communicators in our dealings with bloggers. I noticed the alert this evening in a post by Ed Cotton at InfluxInsights, who relays a post by Karl Long at Experience Curve. The original was posted Thursday on Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influemce Blog. The Ogilvy tenets are a Beta list for discussion and subsequent refinement.
It arrives at the right time. Ed Cotton’s asksthe ad community, “Who is going after the bloggers first - media planners or PR?” The important point is not that PR may be leading advertising this time around, but rather that bloggers may well find themselves even more overwhelmed as the entire communications infrastructure reaches to them. Does anyone else remember the noise that erupted with CB radio?
The long-tail value of micro-segments than are becoming attractive market targets can mean an increase in the caucaphony of of voices pitching the bloggers who serve these micro communities of interest, It is not jst just publicists but potentially media buyers and maybe even others of us who working in the “markeing mix.” Bloggers are clearly a very tempting SPAM target.
PR people have some level of etiquette training. For how many years now have journalists, appearing as panelists at innumerable conferences advised (pleaded?) with the forever refreshed crop of PR pratitioners to “please read the publication [see the TV show, hear the radio program, etc...],” to “understand” what it is we cover! Please don’t think casting bread upon the water will see your item miracuously appear?” Today we’d call that spamming the media. It doesn’t work with the media nor with bloggers for the same reason.
What I like about PR driving the bus versus advertising is that — when we practice what we have learned –we can keep our relations with bloggers personal, that is aimed to meet their needs. What I like about Ogilvy PR’s Outreach Code of Ethics is that we can keep the process respectful.