RonAmok!

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to visit a college class and talk about social media. Before class began, I met with the professor at a local Starbucks to get a better understanding of my audience. While we talked, I noticed that the professor exhibited similar tendencies as many of the executives that I meet for the first time–the fact that he totally dismissed the “social” part of social media for business.

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.

On March 29th, David Meerman Scott wrote a blog post called “Brand Journalism,” where he discussed the communications skills companies must acquire in order to excel in the online world. The post reminded me of one that I wrote about Mike Santarini, a displaced trade journalist hired by FPGA manufacturer Xilinx. David’s post prompted me to follow-up with Mike to learn what it has been like being an embedded journalist for the past two years.

Mike The Journalist

Mike Santarini spent 13-years writing for trade magazines such as EETimes and EDN before being laid off in February 2008. At first glance, his story sounds cliche–experienced journalist caught in the cross hairs of a decimated print industry–but that’s where Mike’s story takes an unexpected turn. Instead of finding a job with another struggling publication, he accepted one with an electronics company that he covered as a trade journalist. One week after his unceremonious ejection from EDN, Xilinx hired Mike to take over the manufacturer’s 21 year old publication called Xcell Journal.

Mike The Embedded Journalist

During its 21 years, Xcell Journal grew from a simple company newsletter into a quarterly “engingeering-practical” magazine with a readership of approximately 40,000. Although that circulation sounds envious, as a trade journalist, Mike understood that the quality of that number was very important and so, after a little investigating, he found that the Xcell Journal mailing list “…wasn’t being scrubbed, and it was being sent to dead mailboxes at the four corners of the earth.” After some vetting, today, the magazine has tightened its circulation to approximately 25,000 (~20K online and ~5K print).

I found it curious that, in the age of online content, Xilinx would still print hard copies of the magazine.

Mike explained that Xcell Journal is designed as a magazine that engineers can retain for reference. By printing Xcell Journal on high quality, “heavy cardboardish” stock, the print version delivers a rich reading experience.

The comment reminded me of Seth Godin’s concept that “books are souvenirs,” which Mike validated when he said, “Xcell is a treasured commodity. Engineers are known to keep a library of past issues that they use for reference.”

But if only 20% of the readership receive copies of the print version, how does Xilinx qualify these special recipients?

“Through the sales department,” Mike explained. “It’s a great model because we’re getting ROI on the print versions and getting them into the hands of our customers/potential customers.”

Journalist vs. Embedded Journalist

Moving from traditional journalist to embedded journalist has been educational. “There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t know about the company,” he said. “I now have respect for the humongous effort it takes to get a chip conceived, roadmapped, designed and brought to market.” This revelation surprised him because, as a journalist who covered Xilinx, he expected to know more.  However, by being embedded within a company, Mike had access to stories that he never could have as an external journalist.

Embedded Journalism as a Career

I asked Mike if he would recommend this line of work for other journalists.

“Yes. Right now there are lots of opportunities for good journalism in industries.” He also added a few caveats.

“You have to make sure before you take the job that the company is creating technology that you truly think is innovative. I got lucky because I joined a company that invented the FPGA and is the leader in the biz and has a very bright future. I’m not sure if I was in a position where I had to promote a third-place me-too technology and constantly perfume the pig that I’d take the job. I think there are a lot of great technologies and companies out there and thus a lot of great opportunities out there for embedded journalists. There are a ton of great stories that aren’t getting told and sometimes companies don’t realize they have a great story or realize it isn’t being told to the outside world.”

A New World

At the end of the phone call, I asked Mike if his experience as an embedded journalist has been favorable. “Yes,” he answered, before adding something more interesting.

“In a way, I can’t go back because of it.”

Photos Courtesy of Xilinx

A few days ago, I got an email from The Toll Roads, asking me to consider switching from paper-based statements to electronic ones. As I read the email, a sentence jumped out at me:

“Last year our paper statements consumed 190 trees.”

The sentence sounded familiar to me, so I performed a search of my email for the term “190 trees.”  Thirteen instances were revealed, with the oldest being sent to me on December 13, 2008.

As I dug into each email, I saw that the same sentence had been repeated in all of the emails that were sent in 2008, 2009, and 2010:

“Last year our paper statements consumed 190 trees.”

I found it hard to believe that The Toll Roads consumed exactly 190 trees annually over the past three years, but what else could I conclude? Here are three possibilities:

1. The email marketing campaign is a complete failure because the Toll Roads hasn’t put a dent in their annual tree consumption rate.
2. The campaign is a total success because the Toll Roads converted all new customers to paperless statements, thus maintaining the 190 tree per year consumption rate.
3. The company is simply cutting and pasting the same email independently of how many trees are being consumed on an annual basis.

I still don’t know which one it is. I requested a clarification from The Toll Roads two days ago and am waiting for a response. But in the mean time, as an executive, you need to understand that everything your organization publishes becomes part of a database that can be mined. It doesn’t matter if it comes from marketing, PR, or sales–to your customer, it only comes from one place…your company.

So, is your company sending mixed messages to its customers?