RonAmok!

Sometimes little ideas sit dormant until it’s time for them to awaken. Such an event happened this weekend while I was forced to endure an anti-Social Media diatribe. Although the target of the rant was Facebook, it could have been any New Media channel such as blogging, podcasting, online video, Twitter, Foursquare, or Google Wave. It’s not that I have a problem with critical views–heck, I have enough of my own–but I do have a problem with opinions that are prefaced with something like: “I don’t use Facebook, but…”

As I listened to the anti-Facebook rant, I remembered something from a college philosophy class: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

Allegory of The Old Media Cave

The Allegory of the Cave is a mythical story about a group of people who are chained inside of a cave. Rather than being able to see directly outside, their vantage point only offers shadows that are cast onto the cave walls as things pass by the entrance. Limited to only moving silhouettes, cave-prisoners can only make assumptions about what is happening outside of the cave.

The story offers a perfect analogy for people with opinions about things that they’ve never tried. You know the type. They’ll tell you that they don’t like a particular food before trying it, will critique a book without reading it, or claim that they know how you feel without ever walking a mile in your shoes. And with regards to New Media, they’ll expound upon the value (or lack thereof) without ever participating in one of the channels.

Try Before You Cry

Whenever future clients ask me about using New Media for their business, I ask the following question, “Do you use the tools?” If they want to blog, I ask them to start reading some first. If they want to produce a podcast, I’ll make them subscribe to a few before forming an opinion. I dare them to spend one-hour per day for five-days using Twitter search. I push them to upload videos to YouTube, update their resume on LinkedIn, and to participate in at least two user forums.

Until people use the tools, they won’t be able to grasp the nuances of each channel. Until Old Media cave-dwellers actually peer outside, they’ll never be able to understand about the online relationships, camaraderie, and creative outlets that these channels offer to active participants.

Photo Credit: Pupil of Ganesha

Tags: Allegory of the Cave Plato Ron Ploof Orange County Public Relations Marketing Social Media

Earlier this week, someone sent me a music video of 20 Robots dancing to Beyoncé Knowles’s popular song, Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It). The video has been seen 41,000 times since its release just seven days ago. Check it out.

According to strict interpretations of copyright law, mashups like these are considered illegal. Therefore, it’s probably only a matter of time before Myren the Beancounter launches a cease and desist letter, claiming that the robots are hurting Beyoncé financially.

As someone who wears two hats–content creator who supports artist compensation and businessman who supports the bottom line–I’m left with the following question: ”Is Beyoncé being harmed financially or benefitting from said video?”

On one hand, she’s not receiving direct revenue from each time the video is played. On the other, she’s benefitted from 41,000 new earworm opportunities to send fans to iTunes.

Content creation and distribution technologies are changing the way we do business. They cause us to question fundamental assumptions that formed the cornerstones of entire industries. Ten years from now, we’ll probably look back on these issues and laugh. Until then, we’ll sit on the sidelines watching Myren protect the top line while ignoring the bottom line.

What sayeth you?

Tags: fair use copyright Ron Ploof Orange County Public Relations Marketing Social Media

Times have changed. Or have they? Two years ago, while discussing new and social media with executives, I’d frequently recognize a glimmer of understanding, followed by, “Yeah, but that stuff won’t work in my industry.” Instead of seeing new media as a fundamental shift in how all companies can communicate with their constituents, execs in 2008 considered new/social channels as simple novelty items reserved for Gen-Yers. Read This First: The Executive’s Guide to New Media was written to help execs shift their perception from one of novelty to one of necessity due to massive shifts in how consumers find and consume information.

In 2010, I face another problem, as many execs look at these popular channels with the same lip-smacking anticipation as 1850s prospectors looked at California during the Gold Rush.

Telltale signs of this new phenomenon include:

• “I need to be on Facebook.”
• “How do I get on Twitter?”

It’s 1995 All Over Again

The “getting on” strategy isn’t new. As the Web outgrew the confines of universities and geeks, 1995 companies saw the Web page as a cheap alternative to distributing their paper-based brochures. All they needed to do was hire a “webmaster,” create content, and have that person put that content “on the Web.”

Unfortunately, these same companies failed to understand the differences between a paper-page and a Web page–the simple fact that the Web opened a new inbound communications channel to the corporation. For example, one of the first Web mistakes companies made was adding contact information to the bottom of the Web page. The prevailing wisdom of the time was to use webmaster@yourcompany.com. More likely than not, this mail address remained unmonitored, creating a black hole for customer complaints to sit and fester.

Companies are making the same mistakes today as they clamor to “be on” social networks, yet still don’t understand the time requirements and ramifications of being “social” and “networking.” Just as the prospectors of the 1850s needed to do more than just move to California, like actually sticking a pan into a stream, companies need to do more than move onto social networks.

Social Media is just the pan. You need to get wet to find the gold

Before deciding to open up powerful communications channels, have the answer to these specific questions:

• What is the unique purpose of this channel?
• How does it differ from my other channels (broadcast, print, etc…)
• What type of content will I be developing?
• What is the release frequency of such content?
• How much time am I willing to invest into monitoring and responding to fans and foes?
• Who is responsible for these channels, a serious business person or Skippy the Intern?
• Does each channel do something different or am I just repeating the same things in each channel? (blog, Twitter, Facebook, print, broadcast, trade shows, keynote speeches, etc…)?

Until companies see new/social media as a serious media choice, until they can look beyond what’s immediately in it for them as opposed to a more intimate way of communicating with constituents, all corporate new/social media efforts will fail.

Don’t make the same mistakes that your Web 1.0 predecessors did. Put social media into your brand as opposed to putting your brand on social media.

Photo Credit: Library of Congress on Flickr.

Tags: executive marketing public relations orange county social media