RonAmok!

Had an idea for a post that somehow became a video:-)

Here is a link to the video Social is a Head Fake

Script for the video above:

There’s an offensive tactic in basketball called the “head fake.” It’s used when a player with the ball wants to get around a defender. The head fake requires the offensive player to pretend movement one way or another. If the defender bites on the head fake, the offensive player simply cuts in the opposite direction, leaving the defender in the dust.

Most inexperienced players bite on the head fake.

A countermeasure to the head fake is to “watch the belly button.” You see, no matter how many gyrations offensive players make with their heads and shoulders, the core is last thing to move. By focusing on the belly button, a defender has the best indication of when the offensive player will make their move.

I’ve been speaking with executives about Social Media for the past five years and I’ve learned something. The word “Social” as in “Social Media” and “Social Networking” is a head fake. The belly button that senior execs, business owners, and yes so-called Social Media experts frequently miss can be found in the terms Media and Networking.

Business owners know what “the Media” are: print and broadcast (radio and television). Senior Execs  know what “the Networks” are–they have names like ABC, NBC, CBS, and Westwood One

When looking at communications technologies, we’ve always understood that mediums are for carrying messages. Networks aggregate audiences for those messages. This isn’t rocket science.

Today we’re witnessing one of the largest revolutions in communications technologies. We’ve seen an explosion in the number of mediums that businesses have access to. Many of those mediums have built in networks, which can deliver corporate messages to the precise audiences that they were intended for. And here’s an important difference between these new networks and the old ones…the new networks allow the audience to talk back.

So, before you get all hung up on Social Media, take a step back and simply look at the communications options that you didn’t have just few years ago. Now ask yourself a question:

Over the past few years, are you happy with the return you’ve gotten from your investments in “the Media” and their “Networks.” If the answer is “yes,” great, continue doing what you are doing.

But, if you’re like most businesses, whose advertising dollars just don’t reach the audiences that they used to, whose PR folks have access to less journalists to cover your stories, just consider the fact that there is an alternative. You now have the ability to reach exactly the audiences that you need through your using your own mediums and your own networks.

The trick is to not go for the head fake. Keep your eye on the belly button.

In their book, Content Rules, Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman recommend 11 rules for creating great content. I particularly like Rule #2: Insight Inspires Originality.

Insight. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for? Wouldn’t it be great to have a crystal ball that guides us to make all of the right decisions? Well, when it comes to the development of online content, we actually do. Let’s take a look at two insight generators: Facebook Insights and YouTube Insights.

Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights offers a broad view of a company’s Facebook fans (audience), ranging from traditional demographics such as “age,” “location,” and “page views,” to unique Facebook measurements such as “active users,” “likes,” and “unlikes.” If you have admin privileges to a Facebook page, give it a try. Download your entire historical data into a spreadsheet and take a look. Such insight is gold when determining the type of content that satisfies audiences.

Like most analytics packages, Facebook Insights collects its information at the content-level, such as a wall post, a video, or a picture. At the content-level, we learn how many people liked a particular wall post or clicked on an individual photo or a video. But what about data at the sub-content level? Is there a way to find out what piece of the content that people liked best?

YouTube Insights

Youtube has determined a way to subdivide the data that it collects on individual videos. Therefore, in addition to gathering aggregate data at the content-level such as “discovery,” “demographics, “total views,” “comments,” and “responses,” its YouTube Hotspots feature offers insight into what viewers are interested in at various times throughout an individual video. Here’s YouTube’s description of its Hotspots feature:

Youtube Hotspots: The ups-and-downs of viewership at each moment in your video, compared to videos of similar length. The higher the graph, the hotter your video: fewer viewers are leaving your video and they may also be rewinding to watch that point in the video again. Audience attention is an overall measure of your video’s ability to retain its audience.

I’ve chosen an iconic example that many people (well at least those over 40) can relate with to demonstrate the power of Hotspots.  The example, courtesy of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library (client), is a video of President Reagan speaking before the Republican National Convention on August 15, 1988. To put the clip into context, this is the convention that nominated then Vice President George Bush as the Republican nominee to run against Massachusetts governor and Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.

Below is the Hotspots data for this 46 minute video.

The user interface for Hotspots is an interactive graph/video combo. The graph shows viewer-interest over time. If you want to see what part of the video corresponds to a particular measurement on the graph, simply drag the triangle pointer at the bottom of the graph and the video will advance to that spot…much like a video scrubber.

Now let’s look at the data. From left-to-right, we can see the ebb and flow of the viewership’s attention:

• it starts low then builds during the first third of the video
• then it plateaus in the middle
• before it spikes at about the three-quarter point
• and then finally wanes.

Understanding the content of the actual video puts the data into context.

The first third of the video consists predominantly of introductory formalities, such as the President thanking the hosts, the chair, the delegates, etc… Attention then starts building as he hits his speech points, peaking at the 3/4th mark, and then declining as he wraps up.

So, what exactly is happening at that peak? Why does audience interest spike at that time and then diminish as quickly as it rose?

Wouldn’t it be useful for you to learn what part of your content resonates with your audience? How valuable would it be for you to know exactly what your audience is “vibing” on? Wouldn’t such information give you great insight into the type of new content that your company should focus on?

The peak in audience attention comes from one of Ronald Reagan’s most memorable lines. To set it up, here is a transcript of what leads up to and culminates int the exact peak:

“George, I’m in your corner. I’m ready to volunteer a little advice now and then and offer a pointer or two on strategy–if asked. I’ll help keep the facts straight or just stand back and cheer. But George, just one personal request: go out there and win one for the Gipper.”

What is your company using to gather insights into its content?

Photo Credit: C.C.Chapman

YouTube HotSpots Data Courtesy Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library

When Dwayne’s Photo, a film processor located in Parsons, Kansas developed the last roll of Kodachrome film on December 30, 2010, it marked the end of an eighty-five year old era. The event initiate a torrent of commentary that consisted mostly of nostalgic reminiscing and lamenting. Such accounts have identified the obsolescence of Kodachrome as ranging from the death of photography to the devaluation of the photos that digital cameras produce.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Kodachrome film. Heck, in 2007 I produced a story about it called Kodachrome Memories on my podcast Griddlecakes Radio in 2007. But I find the hand-wringing and gnashing-of-teeth over the event dumbfounding.

Loss Comes with Opportunity

Kodachrome is a medium. Period. It’s one of many technologies that humans have developed over the years to capture still images. Like all mediums, Kodachrome has unique traits and those traits determine its value. As long any medium’s value remains in line with its associated costs, the medium will survive.

But recent advances in read-write technologies have altered the cost-to-benefit ratio of read-only mediums like Kodachrome. Consumable resources like photographic film must be purchased over and over again. They are expensive to manufacture, distribute, purchase and ultimately process. And, in a begrudging nod to my good friend Mike Kilroy over at the Green Asteroid blog, the chemicals used to manufacture and process film probably aren’t the best for the environment either.

Now, compare and contrast the economics of consumable film to recent advances in read-write, reusable digital photography. During the past few years, advances in digital cameras, storage, and pixel manipulation software have created more choices for people who want to capture images. These advances have not only lowered the barrier to entry costs, but have eliminated the recurring costs that have provided a constant stream of business for companies like Kodak, Fuji Film, Agfa and Ilford.

But the cost savings don’t stop at the actual medium. Digital photographs are cheaper to distribute to end-audiences. Whether we are uploading them onto our favorite photo sharing services like Flickr, publishing them onto our Facebook wall, or printing them directly onto Grandma’s internet-enabled printer, the cost of delivering photographs has almost been eliminated.

Whether we like it or not, communications technologies are advancing. The only thing that we have control over is how we react to the changes. But in this case, lamenting the loss Kodachrome film is like pining for the Pony Express, the telegraph, the IBM Selectric Typewriter, 8mm movie film, Betamax, VHS, vinyl records, and 8-track tapes.

How will You React?

Kodachrome film is analogous to your job as a professional communicator. If you are a publisher, a journalist, an advertiser, a marketing professional, a public relations professional, or a photographer, ask yourself one question:

What advances in communications technology are making my job obsolete?

Only an honest answer and a willingness to change will save you from extinction.

Photo Credit: Roadsidepictures