Greg Verdino

Tomorrow is gone too: social media RIP

Friend, look-alike, PR man and Now Is Gone author Geoff Livingston is stirring the pot today, with a pretty provocative proclamation -- "social media is dead."

Tucked away in a post about why the next Blog Potomac conference -- slated for October 2009 and featuring fellow crayonista Jane Quigley -- will be the last, lies Geoff's eulogy for a form of media and marketing that many still consider the latest shiny object in the marketing practitioner's box of baubles.

The technology adoption cycle has been maturing for social media (and social media, web 2.0 whatever you want to call it is definitely inspired by technology) for some time. Widespread corporate adoption is happening as we speak, albeit with many stumbles. Based on conversations I’m having, even the most conservative organizations are adapting now.

The time when social media as a special or unique or “shiny and new” type of communication is rapidly ending. Does that mean it’s going away? Hardly.

But from an innovators standpoint, as someone who lives on the edge, who wants to be where new frontiers are being created, we’re at the end. For me, social media is dead… That means it’s future forward.

While my experience with conservative organizations leads me to suspect that Geoff thinks we're further along the Technology Adoption Lifecycle (or more precisely the "marketing adoption cycle" - I don't think we can debate that the technology itself is mainstream) than we really are, I'm not sure that Geoff is wrong.  At least not entirely.

If we're talking about social media as a category, as something special, unique or new, then it probably is (or should be, anyway) dead or dying.  The notion of social media as a silo and as something that warrants specialized expertise is nothing more than a point of inflection between a new media landscape that is entirely, seamlessly social and an old media landscape that was always social anyway (even if we didn't know it.)

Then again, I'm not sure the death of social media matters a whole lot to anyone but the "next new thing" innovation junkies.  Is Geoff arguing in favor of shiny object syndrome at a time when, frankly, most marketers are still not making the best use of the last big thing?  Hey, I'm an innovator too (or at least, I like to think I am) and I'm also keen to identify and understand whatever lies around the next bend, but I also know that tomorrow's toys don't amount to a hill of beans to an in-the-trenches marketer who is (let's be honest) at best dabbling in social and still thinks they've had a coup if they convince their agency creative director to display the corporate URL at the end of the new 30-second spot.

So on the one hand we have a small band of serial innovators already seeking out greener pastures.  On the other, we have the rest of the herd who are just beginning to suspect that the ground might be shifting right beneath their hooves.

So whether social media is dead or not, it surely seems to be trapped in limbo.

What are your thoughts?  Is social media dead or is Livingston burying it alive?

Storytelling at the brink of the future?

Although the odds are pretty good you'll never read a fiction review on this blog, I can't help but tell y'all about J.C. Hutchins' forthcoming novel Personal Effects: Dark Art.  It's a supernatural thriller that pits an art therapist at a psychiatric institute against a blind serial killer/patient -- it may or may not be your cup of tea, and the actual content of the book isn't why I'm telling you about it.

The thing that probably will interest you is the way (ways plural, really) J.C. has taken what he has learned through years of social media self-publishing to create a work that goes well beyond the printed page, encompassing digital, mobile and the physical world to create a fully participatory multimedia narrative.  In many ways, Personal Effects is a novel custom-designed for digital natives (although J.C. and his publisher may not think of it that way) and it just might offer a glimpse at the future of storytelling.

 And the future of storytelling should matter to you no matter what products your company produces or promotes because, as marketers, our success often rides on both our ability to tell compelling stories and our customers' willingness and ability to spread their own stories about their experiences with our brands.

 Of course, everything begins with the book itself.  Let's assume it's good -- I haven't read it yet, but look forward to digging into the advance copy I received over the weekend (thanks J.C.)

But Personal Effects really gets interesting when it gets innovative.  If you aren't familiar with J.C. Hutchins (frankly, I only knew of him through some mutual contacts and from hearing his name bandied about in social media circles), he is a good example of what I have called a "whatever expert" -- someone who is good at what he does and has found a way to succeed at it through smart, effective use of social media.  Although Personal Effects is his first published novel, he has been writing for years, releasing his work as free audiobooks and using the web and social media to build a loyal audience.

J.C. isn't a marketer by training or trade, but the digital and multimedia components of his project offer a practical blueprint for any marketer looking to transform their brand storytelling into an active, participatory experience that is fueled by community and optimized for customer-to-consumer word of mouth.  Readers can enter the world of Personal Effects in a variety of ways:

• Technology-Fueled Calls-to-Action: Clues peppered throughout the novel and in the killer's personal effects packaged with the novel (e.g., a drivers license, photos, hospital paperwork) drive readers to companion websites, forums, onto email lists, into mobile phone voicemail systems and opt-in text messaging programs and more where they can find and explore additional layers of narrative.

• A Distributed, Online Experience: Readers can get inside the heads of key characters through their social network profiles, personal blogs and Twitter streams.

• Original, Distributable Content: Tapping into his heritage as a popular and well-established podcaster, J.C. has produced an exclusive audio-only novella prequel, as well as a series of YouTube-friendly video promos featuring well known horror personalities.

• Seamless Integration with Relevant Third Party Sites: One of the characters (yes, a fictional character from the book) has written columns for Suicide Girls, a site (some content NSFW) whose readership seems to be well aligned with J.C.'s audience, and there is a planned deep integration that brings Suicide Girl models into the novel's fictional world and provides readers with an additional web-only subplot.

• A Fan Community: Readers can 'commit themselves to the Brink' (aka Brinkvale Psychiatric, where the novel takes place), submit their own artwork for display in the community gallery (a logical tie-in with the fact that the book's protagonist is an art therapist at the Brink) and receive personalized intake paperwork.  In other words, readers don't just consume the story; they become part of it.

• Creative, Innovative Influencer Outreach: This is how I became aware of the book in the first place and may bear some of the most relevant lessons for social media marketers.  Over the weekend, the mailman delivered an unexpected package, a good-sized box that contained materials that immediately piqued my interest, earned my attention and (true to the spirit of Personal Effects) drew me directly into the fictional world of Brinkvale Psychiatric.  Containing not only a reviewer's copy of the book and the obligatory media kit, the package was filled with my personal effects from my own stay at the Brink.  Everything was hyper-personalized and it was impossible not to dive in (and just as impossible not to tell others about it -- and last time I checked, that's what influencer outreach is all about.)  Here are a couple of photos and you can check out more on Flickr -- but be warned, you're bound to dismiss your run-of-the-mill blogger outreach emails as downright asinine...

 

 

So what's the bottom line?  J.C. is tapping into the power of digital and the potential of social to turn the lay-back (and some might say dying) act of reading a novel into a fully immersive lean-forward experience.  It's equal parts fiction and alternate reality game, powered by a healthy dose of practical Web 2.0 know-how. Followers of pop culture may draw parallels between Personal Effects and the similarly rich multimedia storytelling approaches used to fuel films like Blair Witch Project, television shows like Lost, video games like Halo 2 and even a recent album release by Nine Inch Nails.  Brands have occassionally tapped into this form of multimedia storytelling to do cool and interesting things -- see Audi's Art of the Heist, for example.  But to my knowledge, this is the first time an author has undertaken something so ambitious in association with a novel -- and it just might get digital natives to pick up a plain old printed book. 

Am I gushing?  Sorry.  It's pretty cool and makes me want to curl up with Personal Effects, my laptop and my iPhone right now.

Barring that though (damn you, workload, damn you), I'd love to hear from you.  Which of J.C.'s approaches do you think you can apply to get your customers involved in your brand's story?

Want to get the most from social media? Look inside...

    Regular readers know that I've sometimes criticized companies for dressing up their marketing plan with a superficial layer of social media without first understanding how the very same tools and technologies, when applied inside their own organizations, can have truly transformational impact.

Needless to say, I like what Pitney Bowes' emerging media manager Aneta Hall has to say in her latest blog post:

"Don’t forget that social media is not limited to your customers and external stakeholders. Through Enterprise 2.0 tools including wikis, blogs, instant messaging, internal social networks and microblogging apps, social media can help improve your employee communications and help them collaborate with one another regardless of office location, business unit association or position on the corporate ladder. At my workplace we are exploring several social media applications to help us share information in real time and be  more productive which, in today’s economic environment, is no longer an option, but a requirement."

Smart advice -- and even smarter actions for a corporate giant like Pitney Bowes.  This is just one of five insights Aneta offers, so give her post a read if you want to get her take on how any company can tap into social to listen, learn, love and live.

Aneta is one of the panelists participating in my "What Will Social Media Do For My Business?" session at the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum on June 9th.  We'll be tackling this question with a clear focus on what social means to marketers working in the B2B sector specifically, and delivering straight talk from actual client-side marketers who are doing social today.

If this sounds interesting, there's still time to register.  Use this link to register and receive a $200 speaker's guest discount.

[Image: Rob Howe]

Best Buy CMO on digital and social marketing

The importance of listening, and engaging with customers directly in an open and honest way.  The growing importance of the mobile web and the ways it can empower consumers throughout the buying process.  The fact that everything is going digital and what this means for the products and services companies offer.  The realizations that a great customer experience is the best marketing money can't buy, and that brands are inherently social.

Heard it all before?  Of course.  But somehow it sounds more credible when spoken by the CMO of a large corporation, even more so when that CMO works for a company that actually practices what he preaches.

Check out this video of Best Buy CMO Barry Judge, talking about the future of marketing.  Judge offers a nice overview of how Best Buy's marketing approach has evolved from old school tell-n-sell, where it is now, and where it's headed tomorrow.

[Feed and email readers, click through to the blog for the video.]

This is your brain. This is your brain on Twitter.

It might be an overstatement to say that Twitter would blow your mind, but I think it might be fair to say that the work of University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral candidate Adam Wilson will.  Adam and a network of others have been working on a brain-computer interface that will allow people to, among other things, tweet hands-free using nothing but brain waves to type and transmit 140-character messages.

Here's how it all works:

The interface consists, essentially, of a keyboard displayed on a computer screen. "The way this works is that all the letters come up, and each one of them flashes individually," says UW Assistant Professor Justin Williams. "And what your brain does is, if you're looking at the 'R' on the screen and all the other letters are flashing, nothing happens. But when the 'R' flashes, your brain says, 'Hey, wait a minute. Something's different about what I was just paying attention to.' And you see a momentary change in brain activity."

Wilson, who used the interface to post the Twitter update, likens it to texting on a cell phone. "You have to press a button four times to get the character you want," he says of texting. "So this is kind of a slow process at first."

However, as with texting, users improve as they practice using the interface. "I've seen people do up to eight characters per minute," says Adam Wilson.

Sounds impressive, but you've really gotta see it in action.  Watch:

[Feed and email readers, click through to the blog to watch.]

Total, geeked-out coolness but -- more importantly -- tremendously useful for individuals whose brains work well but whose bodies don't.  Nice counterpoint to last week's celebrity-twit chatter, dontcha think?

You can get all the details about the brain-tweet work coming out of UW here or you can follow Adam (and Adam's brain) on Twitter.  He's @uwbci and you can distinguish his brain-tweets from his regular tweets by the fact that the brain-computer interface transmits in ALL CAPS (ooh, just like Oprah.)

Obama's marketing man spits the truth

As regular readers may recall, I spoke at the American Marketing Association's Mplanet conference.  One of the event's keynoters was Larry Grisolano, a senior member of the marketing team for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  Given that lots of industry publications and pundits have lauded the Obama campaign as the marketing story of the year, I thought you might be interested in taking a look at the AMA's lengthy video interview with Larry in which he talks about how Team Obama leveraged new marketing channels and engaged young voters, and then goes on to answer some questions submitted by a handful of bloggers. 

AMA Mplanet 2009 - Interview with Larry Grisolano from AMA Mplanet 2009 on Vimeo.

[Feed and email readers, click through to watch the video.]

Microsoft shows us 2019 in under two minutes

Love 'em or hate 'em in the present, you've gotta admit that Microsoft does a pretty good job of envisioning the future.  At last week's Wharton Business Technology Conference, Microsoft Business Division president Stephen Elop presented a video demonstration of how we might be interacting with technology (and one another) ten years from now.  As you might guess, we can expect lots of cool touch-interactive surfaces, digital paper and plenty of seamless connectivity.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&quot;http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;from=shared&quot; target=&quot;_new&quot; title=&quot;Future Vision Montage&quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Video: Future Vision Montage&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

[Click through to watch the video.]

More coverage at PSFK and I Started Something.

Panasonic, plasmas and people

Unless you're new 'round these parts, you know that I've been working the CES beat on behalf of Panasonic (a crayon client.)  I had intended to do lots of blogging and share lots of multimedia, but I was so busy over the past few days that -- other than a post on my first day in Vegas -- I haven't had a chance to write anything except tweets.  I did upload a bunch of photos and a few videos -- so check those out.  But moving along...

Tomorrow, I head back to New York, so I thought I'd at least take some time now to give you a sense of how I spent my time and reflect on some of my experiences at and around the show.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that it's a long post.  Bear with me.

Panasonic showed off plenty of shiny, new gear -- from the world's thinnest television, a sweet portable Blu-Ray player, and a 150-inch HD flat panel to (arguably the booth's biggest draw) 3D HD televisions that could hit American homes as early as 2010.  They also announced some great services designed to help Panasonic consumers make the most of a fully integrated, digital home -- services like a new Amazon partnership that will allow people to download on-demand video content directly to Viera Cast-enabled televisions.

But, truth be told, all of the latest gear (no matter how impressive) pales in comparison to the human side of CES -- and the human side of Panasonic's CES experience was the thing that kept me so busy. 

As anyone who has attended CES (or any conference for that matter) knows, so much of the value lies in connecting with interesting people.  Historically, CES has always about buyers connecting with sellers, and mainstream media reporters connecting with their manufacturer-side counterparts.  All of that still goes on but, moreso than any previous year, the people to meet, greet and get to know were the social media movers and shakers.  If you were a blogger, vlogger, podcaster, Twitterer or virtually any other type of prosumer ccontent creator, you were never more than a tweet away from getting together with other members of your community.  Social media makers were everywhere, and you had your pick of parties on any given night.

OK.  So what does this have to do with the price of sleaze in Nevada?

I was at CES as a marketer, but also as a blogger and -- more importantly -- as the host of six awesome social media content creators that joined us in Las Vegas as guests of Panasonic.  My main role was to help our guests connect with one another, the Panasonic executive team and some other very special guests of our client.

Steve Garfield, Chris Brogan, Stacy DeBroff, Melissa Pierce, Ponzi Pirillo and Vicki Rellas hit the show floor each day armed with Panasonic cameras and just did their thing.  They documented their experiences and told their stories -- some of their content has already hit the web, but there will be plenty more to come.  I can't wait to see what they've created.

We also gave them (we hope) compelling Panasonic stories to tell.  Of course, we made sure that they got a first hand look at all of Panasonic's latest innovations.  But more importantly, we gave them a look at the human side of Panasonic -- an electronics company that prides itself on having a distinctly human heart.  Listen to the Panasonic team and you'll hear, time and time again, that it isn't enough to make technologically superior products; it's vital that the technology improves people's lives, helps them live better, gives them new ways to spend their time, new means to create, save and share memories, and (increasingly) provides smarter, easier ways to create their own content.

Who better to deliver this vision to our social media dream team than the Chairman of Panasonic Corporation of North America.  Think about it -- that's a pretty cool thing (if I don't say so myself.)  The Chairman of one of the world's largest consumer electronics companies made the time to not only meet our influencers, but to engage each and every one of them in a meaningful dialogue.  Yoshi Yamada described his vision for the company, answered questions, and spend some of our session getting to know the bloggers better.

And of course the entire thing was on the record.  Some of the influencers' photos are already on Flickr and everyone in the room shot video.  Here are just a couple of my own shots.  The first shows the entire team flanking Mr. Yamada.

And how about this?  Mr. Yamada watching one of Steve's videos -- a clip shot with a Panasonic HD camcorder that was yesterday's most watched vdeo on CNN iReport. 

But wait, there's more. :-)

The human story behind Panasonic runs much deeper than corporate executives talking to content creators in the hope of garnering some good will and positive buzz.  Those were key objectives of this initiative, but Panasonic is committed to engaging directly with consumers in a more profound way.

Over the course of the past year and a half, Panasonic has been driving a key initiative called Living in High Definition.  They have been selecting real families from across the United States and equipping them with a full suite of HD products.  Why?  To demonstrate just how much impact new Panasonic technologies really do have on how families spend their time and make memories, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to gain better insights into what real people want and how they use it once they have it.  We've been working with Panasonic to evolve the Living in HD program and the families involved with it into the seeds of an online community focused around digital consumer lifestyles, but that's another blog post for another time.  For now, it's enough to say that Living in HD is important to Panasonic; even moreso in 2009.

Given the strategic importance of Living in HD, CES also provided a fantastic opportunity to celebrate a couple of real HD families, let them experience CES and let them tell attendees just how their lives have changed because of their involvement with Panasonic.  We marketing geeks wring our hands over how to best convince social media insiders to spread word of mouth online.  Panasonic is taking it one giant step further and tapping into passionate (but at the end of the day, normal) consumers to tell the Panasonic story to buyers and reporters at the country's largest consumer electronics conference.  I love this approach (and while Panasonic is a crayon client, involving real families in the CES booth presence was the client's idea.)

And so, finally, we used CES as an opportunity to take this another step further by creating opportunities for the families and the influencers to meet, connect and forge new (hopefully) lasting friendships, like the one that is burgeoning between the Calandros of San Luis Obispo and MomCentral CEO (and newly minted Calandro fan) Stacy DeBroff.

CES day zero

Today is the first day of CES, but yesterday was a solid twenty four hours of travel, check-in, prep work and Panasonic.  I've captured it all with my Lumix G1 (courtesy of Panasonic) and the photos are on Flickr.

For our first official task, Jaffe and I joined two of our guest content creators -- Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield -- at the Panasonic press conference, where our client talked about their latest initiatives and products.

I'll blog about some of their shinier objects over the next couple of days, as I get a chance to take a closer look at them in the booth.  But if the press conference presentations are any indicator, the folks at Panasonic have a lot of really cool stuff hitting the market in the next year or two.  (Yeah yeah yeah - I know Panasonic's a crayon client so what else would I say?  But really, this stuff looks very cool.)

Here's a taste... Steve G. captured the unveiling of Panasonic's thinnest Viera HDTV flat screen.  How thin is it?  One third of an inch.  That's about as thin as iPhone or (as you'll see in the video) Jaffe's index finger.

[Feedies and emailies, click through to watch.]

After the press event, we headed back to the Planet Hollywood Resort and joined the rest of our guest content creators, some Panasonic executives and one of Panasonic's Living in HD Families for a private dinner (including a six year old's birthday party - you probably don't see that too often at tech conferences.) 

We talked, learned, laughed, shot lots of video (I'll upload the best clips once I've had a chance to edit them into something watchable) and topped off the night by equipping our guests with a stack of cameras that they can use to document their own CES experiences.

As I've blogged before, this is all part of a program we've coordinated to help Panasonic engage with social media influencers, provide them with a great way to experience Panasonic and their products first hand, and to let them share what they've learned with their own communities.

Stay tuned for more CES coverage over the next couple of days.  And for those of you who are attending CES, please be sure to join us in the Panasonic booth tonight at 6:30 for a sponsored cocktail party.  Get the details and let us know if you're coming.

What happens at CES, happens courtesy of Panasonic

For the first time in a dozen or so years, I'll be making a pilgrimage to the International Consumer Electronics Show, happening in Las Vegas on January 8th - January 11th.  This time around, I'm going courtesy of crayon client Panasonic and I'll be blogging, vlogging, photologging and Tweeting about my experience the whole time.

Exciting for me but that's not the real story.  The real story is that I will be joined by five social media guests (plus my doppelganger Jaffe) that Panasonic has invited to document and share their own CES experiences with their communities. This program is one of several things that we've been working on for Panasonic -- look for more programs to go live in the coming weeks -- and it's a worthy experiment in how large companies can partner with citizen journalists, if I don't say so myself (which I must since I had a hand in putting the program together.)

Here's the low down:

What We're Doing
Panasonic has invited a handful of guest content creators, culled from the social media rank and file, to join them at CES 2009.  They're flying them out and giving them front row seats at press conferences, new product announcements, exhibit hall presentations and more.  They're putting some of the latest and greatest Panasonic gear -- digital cameras, standard- and high definition camcorders, and more -- in their hands.  They're setting them loose to document their CES experiences.

In marketing speak, this no doubt sounds something like influencer outreach meets product sampling meets branded infotainment.  But it's really more than that.   It's just one of several things crayon is doing with Panasonic to put real people at the center of the company's "Ideas From Life.  Ideas For Life." positioning.  In other words, Panasonic is a consumer electronics company with a decidedly human focus -- to not just make great products but to make products that help people live better.  So who better to tell that story than - you know -- actual people.  And what are so-called influencers but people who like to tell stories to their own loyal communities.

OK. OK. So Who's Going?

We've assembled a veritable content creation dream team that includes a top blogger, a well known vlogger, a professional podcaster, an author and social media CEO, and a documentary film maker.  I think we can look forward to diverse perspectives and content to suit just about any appetite.  You may recognize some familiar faces in a montage below-- but even if you don't, I've laid out their details below.

Stacy DeBroff
Stacy is CEO of MomCentral, and a nationally recognized parenting expert, author and television personality.
Web: http://www/momcentral.com
Twitter: @momcentral

Cliff Ravenscraft
Cliff is a full-time podcaster, whose GSPN network produces nearly two dozen podcasts including series devoted to Hanna Montana, LOST, Heroes and other popular television shows.
Web: http://www.gspn.tv
Twitter: @gspn

Steve Garfield
Steve is a video blogging pioneer and citizen journalist who produces several personal vlogs and contributes to media outlets such as CNN iReport and Rocketboom.
Web: http://stevegarfield.com
Twitter: @stevegarfield

Chris Brogan
Chris is a well known social media veteran whose blog ranks in Technorati’s Top 100, a co-founder of the PodCamp “unconference” movement and a frequent conference speaker.
Web: http://www.chrisbrogan.com
Twitter: @chrisbrogan

Melissa Pierce
Melissa is a creative coach and documentary filmmaker, currently working on her own independent film Life In Perpetual Beta. Web (Life In Perpetual Beta): http://lifeinperpetualbeta.com
Web (personal blog): http://www.melissapierce.com
Twitter: @melissapierce

Fellow crayonista Joseph Jaffe (@jaffejuice) and I will join Stacy, Cliff, Steve, Chris and Melissa. 

And What Do You Get?
Well, what happens in Vegas certainly won't stay there this time. We've asked our guests to create lots of content and share it with their communities -- so if you can't be at CES in January, you'll still get to witness the sights and sounds of the show through the eyes of our guests. Be sure to follow the gang on Twitter and subscribe to their feeds, because I'm sure they'll be blogging, vlogging, podcasting and Tweeting like nobody's business.

If you do plan to be at CES, we're also organizing a Thursday night Tweet Up on Panasonic's behalf (January 8) where you can hang with our guests, each other and all your newfound CES buddies.  Stay tuned to this blog and my tweets for the details, as we make them available.

For my part, I'll be sharing my thoughts on this blog of course, but also plan to set up a dedicated lifestream-like object so that you can see everything as I upload it throughout the show.  I hope to share lotsa cool stuff in January and hope I'll have the chance to meet some of you at CES.  Let me know if you plan to be there.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available.