Web Ink Now

Social media drove the Egyptian revolution but can it bring back the tourists?

This week I delivered a full-day Digital Marketing Masterclass for 250 people in Cairo organized by my friends at Digital Marketing Arts.

I was particularly excited to visit Egypt to speak with people about the role of Facebook and Twitter in the Revolution the culminated on January 25, 2011. On the plane over, I read Wael Ghonim’s @Ghonim excellent memoir Revolution 2.0: The power of the people is greater than the people in power (more on the book below).

Social media drove the Egyptian revolution but can it bring back the tourists?

I arrived wondering if social media was used more in business in Egypt in other places now that the power of these tools was obvious to all. But I learned an important fact as I was talking to people about social media. Many people I spoke with told me how the country is suffering because tourists are scared to come because of what they read and see in the media. People think Egypt is dangerous for foreigners. Tourism is a very important industry in Egypt and a critical source of foreign currency investment and the numbers of visitors is way down.

So at my Masterclass, I asked why not use social media to get the word out that Egypt is open for business and now is a great time to visit? I filmed a short video, including interviews with some social media leaders in the country.

Direct link to YouTube: Social media drove the Egyptian revolution but can it bring back the tourists?

Revolution 2.0: The power of the people is greater than the people in power

Wael Ghonim's memoir tells the fascinating story of how he became the anonymous admin of a Facebook page Kullena Khaled Said, which turned into a critical social media communication point for political change.

Khaled Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian, was tortured to death by the police. He became the symbol for many Egyptians who wanted to see an end to the Mubarak regime that perpetrated such violence, conducted under the 30-year-old long emergency martial law.

Ghonim was an ordinary middle class Egyptian citizen who was living in Dubai and working for Google. Many of his Facebook posts (which because they were done under the "admin" role were anonymous) captured the sentiments of young people eager for change. When the Tunisian government fell under similar circumstances, the time was right. "I feel that very soon we will turn the page, claim our pen, and begin writing our future with our own hands," Ghonim wrote on the page. (6,317 Likes 2,077 Comments 1,244,267 Views).

Ghonim was eventually arrested and spent more than a week in prison. His book reads like a spy novel as he describes the ways he hid his identity and had people help him with the page even when he was unable to.

The culmination was the massive protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and central locations in many other cities. "Message to the regime: The people on the streets raise the level of their demands with every passing hour. The current demand that needs to be fulfilled as fast as possible is for the president to step down and leave Egypt." (5,514 Likes 5,030 Comments 1,013,841 Views).

Ghonim doesn't claim credit for the revolution nor did anybody I spoke with say that he should. He says there are other more outspoken and more courageous people than him. But there is no doubt that his social networking and marketing skills led to a new "Revolution 2.0" model for political change.

The lessons can be applied to any communications. Let's hope social media can help bring the tourists back to Egypt.

SEC action against Netflix CEO over Facebook post is completely wrong

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is considering taking action against Netflix and its CEO Reed Hastings because of a Facebook post.

The agency says that the update to Hastings' 200,000+ subscribers where he said "members had enjoyed over 1 billion hours in June" violated the SEC Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) rule.

The SEC is charged with making securities trading fair and since Netflix is a publicly traded company, the SEC has oversight. RegFD is the SEC rule that says when a company discloses something of material importance (something that might affect the stock price) that the information needs to be sent to everybody at once.

According to the SEC: "Regulation FD provides that when an issuer discloses material nonpublic information to certain individuals or entities—generally, securities market professionals, such as stock analysts, or holders of the issuer's securities who may well trade on the basis of the information—the issuer must make public disclosure of that information."

The SEC is completely wrong

The issue is not with Netflix. It is with the dinosaurs at the SEC. This is not a stock story. It is a real-time communications story.

The post that Hastings sent out was to his Facebook PUBLIC followers list which currently numbers 245,000 people. Anybody can subscribe to the list and anybody can access the content at any time without subscribing. I do not subscribe and it took me less than five seconds to access it – go to Facebook and type 'Reed Hastings' in the search bar. Bingo.

Any journalist or securities analyst who has any brains at all would be following what Hastings is saying on his public Facebook posts.

Here's the important point -- by posting to Facebook, Hastings is getting the news out fairly to anyone who wants to see it.

The SEC considers press releases to be the acceptable way to comply with RegFD.

Press releases are fine, but in 2012 saying that only press releases qualify for fair disclosure is like saying the only way to watch movies is in a theater. In fact, when I looked for press releases from Netflix it took me much longer than five seconds to find the relevant pages.

Time to re-think fair disclosure

There is no question, based on my extensive previous experiences - 1) working in the real-time news business for a decade; 2) as head of corporate communications for two public companies and 3) as VP marketing for Fair Disclosure Financial Network - that the SEC is wrong.

The SEC needs to develop new rules on what disclosure is in our world of instant communications.

If anyone from the SEC reads this, I'd be happy to come down to Washington and educate you on the new tools of real-time communications. But since this is not a press release, I doubt we'll hear from the lawyers down in D.C.

Facebookjacking: When a company does not respond others win

Here's a fun Friday story that comes to us via Mark Copeman.

A 26-year-old named Thomas Cook posted a lighthearted message on the Thomas Cook UK Facebook page: "Seeing as I share the exact same name as your huge company, and because of this I have been ridiculed for as long as I can remember, I think it's only fair that you help compensate for this by giving me one of your lovely holidays."

When the big, famous travel agency (143,000+ Facebook likes) replied back to say "no" to the request, quick-thinking competitor lowcostholidays.com (81,000+ likes) jumped in to offer Thomas Cook (the person) a free trip to Paris.

"Here at lowcostholidays.com we completely sympathise with your suffering and if your name was “lowcostholidays.com” we would certainly have accepted your request to be sent away on a weekend in Paris,” Charlotte Hunt from lowcostholidays.com wrote. "...So how about we send you on that weekend in Paris?"

Thomas Cook (the person) took up lowcostholidays.com on the offer and then posted his experience. Media outlets in the UK including the Mirror picked up the story within the past 24 hours.

lowcostholidays.com has cleverly kept the meme alive with additional Facebook posts like After all this talk about Paris we thought we’d tell you a little more about why this city is so great...

Shall we call this Facebookjacking?

What Thomas Cook (the person) did was have some lighthearted fun on the Thomas Cook UK (travel company) Facebook page. In my opinion it was not a "demand" but just a way to poke some fun. Thomas Cook UK responded (which is good, they could have ignored it), but they failed to see the social media potential of the situation.

Kudos to lowcostholidays.com for monitoring the competitor's Facebook page and jumping in to seize the opportunity, thereby controlling the emerging meme. Maybe this should be called Facebookjacking?

When to respond. How to respond.

The challenge for companies in this new world is to figure out when to respond (and when to ignore). The number of people who request (or demand) stuff from you will increase as these sorts of stories go viral.

The basic rule to consider: Is this request thoughtful? How can we benefit from this? Or is the person making the request a bully or someone just out to score free goods or services?

If the person is thoughtful, they deserve a response.

But remember, you don’t always have to give someone exactly what they want. Thomas Cook UK could have sympathized with the person who shared a name with them and offered something else (even just a T-shirt) because that would show they cared.

When Dave Carroll posted United Breaks Guitars, United rightly didn't offer compensation (that would have opened up opportunities for thousands of people to demand similar treatment). But United missed a huge opportunity because they did not respond at all. Had they, for example, created their own video response (perhaps highlighting how bags are handled at O’Hare) they would have been seen as human and shared in Dave Carroll's triumph rather than being seen as the bad guys.

So if a situation like this happens to you, consider the request. Is it thoughtful? If so, respond! But respond with something equally clever.

Images via Imgur

Penn State University Football: Social media and crisis management lessons learned

The jury reached a verdict in the high-profile Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse trial. Sandusky, a former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach was found guilty on 45 of 48 charges. Sandusky faces potentially hundreds of years in prison for molesting 10 boys over 15 years.

The story has been at the forefront of the news cycle many days since it broke in November 2011. There are many parts of this difficult story that have been analyzed for months in the media.

I wanted to take a look at a part of the story that has not gotten much attention - the social media aspects.

Imagine you are responsible for social media within an organization faced with a major crisis like this one. How would you handle it? How would the senior executives handle it?

The right approach is to be honest and forthright. Communicate the facts quickly and don’t hide. Assign a visible spokesperson. Silence and “no comment” are the enemy.

I spoke with Kelly Burns, a recent Penn State MBA graduate. While a student, Kelly interned with Penn State Football Marketing & Promotions from May 2009 through April 2012, and for the past three summers (2009-2011) she ran the Penn State Football Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“I was very lucky to have the opportunity to assist in developing the Penn State Football Facebook page back when it first launched in summer 2009,” Kelly says. She posted content (information, photos, videos, and the like) that fans enjoyed. “Having the opportunity to interact with Penn State Football fans was incredible because Penn State Football has a history rich in tradition and 'Success with Honor,' and its fans literally wear their pride on their sleeves.”

The Penn State Football Facebook page, currently with nearly 350,000 likes, targeted students, recruits to the football program, alumni, and Penn State football fans in the community. Kelly also developed the @PennStateFball Twitter feed. She read each tweet and Facebook comment and responded personally to many. In her role she frequently put in 40 hours per week on a voluntary basis (!!).

Then the story broke

The grand jury investigation was initiated in the spring of 2008 but had been kept quiet. In the summer of 2011 Kelly was told to remove photos of Sandusky from the Facebook page.

On November 4, 2011 Sandusky was indicted and the next day he was arrested and charged and the story went worldwide instantly. “Our Facebook and Twitter lit up but that was difficult because initially we were not allowed to post,” Kelly says. “We were not permitted to post anything about the scandal, nor were any other people working for the University. We were told to wait until Old Main [Penn State's administrative center on campus which includes the university president's office] made a statement before we could say anything. So we went completely dark.”

On November 11, the social media team was permitted to post about The Blue Ribbon Campaign against child abuse and then on November 16 they were allowed to post some simple messages about football but still nothing about the crisis itself was allowed. Even today, nothing about the scandal has ever been talked about on Penn State social media.

Fan engagement and trolls

“Penn State Football fans were never permitted to post directly onto the Facebook wall, but during this period fans were engaged on Facebook by commenting on posts that were already there, including the Blue Ribbon post. There were as many as 500 comments on some posts that I moderated. Many people aired their opinions whether positive or negative.”

While the majority of people were thoughtful, some were not. “We patrolled for foul language, rude jokes, and other disturbing comments and removed them,” Kelly says. Negativity was fine but with such a sensitive issue, inappropriate language was not allowed. “In several cases we needed to block individuals who insisted on continuing to make fun of Penn State in very inappropriate ways,” she says.

What should have happened

Kelly says that the scandal was discussed in several of her MBA classes, including crisis management discussions with MBA marketing professor, Dr. Ralph Oliva in her brand management class. The class went though classic crisis management steps: Gather facts, report facts (even if the fact is that they don’t know anything), put a name to a spokesperson, say that the incident is isolated and does not reflect the football program as a whole, and acknowledge the deep emotions tied to Penn State Football that fans have, and communicate regularly.

These steps were not taken at Penn State Football. Kelly says it took days before the Board of Trustees issued responses and put a face to leadership.

“We should have done a better job providing a way to communicate with the fans,” Kelly says. “That's not something critical about Penn State Football because it goes up to Old Main, who decided what was allowed to be said. I think in our day and age of social media, that silence was not the right response. Keeping information private is not the way to go when people are talking 24x7 on social media and need reassurance.”

A surprising aspect of the situation

Kelly told me how fans of Penn State competitors (such as the Ohio State Buckeyes) also used social media and the Penn State Football Facebook page to show their support and understanding for the victims, the PSU Football players, PSU students, alumni, and fans.

She shared one of the best examples of a positive fan post from what is usually considered the enemy, Ohio State. “In this situation the fan laid aside the on-field rivalry to support a much greater cause (to say the least),” Kelly says. Robert Benson, a Buckeye fan, posted in the Nov. 11 comment thread:

"When people are so quick to make sick references to Penn St. I am disgusted. How can anyone label an entire group of people in a negative way and feel good about it? Taking advantage of people who are down, weakened and heartbroken for your own sick pleasure. Does that remind you of someone?

What I see is a community shell shocked and hurt, trying to find their way through all of this. A horrible situation for them. Surely, among them are kids attending Penn St. who themselves have been victims. Your negative comments about Penn St. must hurt them more than anyone would ever know. They want their university to stand for something better than this.

The whole world is watching Penn St. You will find your way and will come out on the other side to represent something good, and maybe something much bigger and important than before.

Keep your chin up Penn St. When we meet you next week, win or lose, we want you at your best.

A Buckeye fan"

Advice from Kelly about crisis management for other organizations

Interestingly, Kelly says that Penn State Football social media, even today, is not back to “business as usual” like it was before the scandal broke. Currently the football accounts are being updated infrequently by Penn State athletics staff only with innocuous press release type content and the fan engagement is minimal as a result.

“At Penn State, there was no crisis management plan in place whatsoever," Kelly says. "I think it’s crucial for organizations to have crisis management plans with a social media component. Set up timetables to issue responses and statements. You need a plan so that people know how to communicate.”

Kelly’s internship ended several months ago. She says that the crisis experience was terrible in many ways and was certainly *not* fun in the time since the scandal broke. But it was a tremendous learning experience. “I just wish things had turned out differently. Even today they are not communicating openly. It remains to be seen if Penn State Football will address the verdict and engage with fans again now.”

Here is the official statement released by Penn State University immediately following the verdict.

What's next for Kelly

Kelly is now looking for a full-time position in the general fields of marketing, PR, and social media. Having spent time speaking with her, I’d highly recommend her for any communications position. If you’re looking for a social media savvy entry-level employee with extensive crisis communications skills, you need to speak to Kelly. Here are Kelly's social coordinates: blog, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Thank you Kelly for sharing your story with us.
And good luck in your career.

Will Facebook destroy Instagram?

I've talked before about why I love Instagram.

Instagram is a photo sharing application that makes it easy and fun to manipulate a photo with various filters and turn it into instant art. Then with a few clicks, you can share your photo with a caption via Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks.

For example, a few days ago in Krakow, Poland I shot a mundane photo of some telephone booths with my iPhone and used Instagram to turn it into instant art.

Yesterday, Facebook announced a USD $1 billion acquisition of Instagram.

You can read the Facebook statement here.

I hope Facebook will not destroy Instagram

But I'm worried they will.

It seems to me that the big social players – Google, Facebook, and Twitter – are building walled gardens around their users in the exact same way that portals like Lycos, Excite, AOL, and Yahoo did a decade ago.

They hoard users and don't like to have hooks into each others' services.

Yes, I do understand that companies need to make money. I get that. Instagram's founders, employees, and investors deserve a payday.

How are Lycos, Excite, AOL, and Yahoo faring today??!!

Building walled gardens of Portal 2.0 is bad for users and ultimately leads to failure.

Here's more on this idea: Portal 2.0 take social backwards to the 1990s.

While the Zuck's statement says things won't change, I'm pessimistic.

• I can imagine a day in the near future when you can no longer post Instagram directly to Twitter.


• I'm also seeing a future where we are forced into the Facebook mobile app to use Instagram.


• Or perhaps, just like Google not playing nice with Twitter, you won't be able to access Instagram from other social sites.

Read the Zuck's statement. Has he earned your trust? Do you believe him? Or if you are an Instagram fanboy like me are you worried too?

My friend Ann Handley introduced me to Instagram. So went over to Ann's Twitter to see her take. "I love what she said: For many fans of Instagram, the news that Facebook is acquiring the photo-sharing mobile platform is a little like hearing that your best friend is engaged to that jerk. She might be thrilled. But you can’t help but feel a sense of doom about the whole arrangement." Here is Ann's thoughtful post.

What do you think? Are you worried like me and Ann? Or are we missing something?

Photo: Shot by David Meerman Scott near Krakow, Poland on an iPhone 4S and tweaked with Instagram. CC

Summer music series: How brands engage with live music fans

I've enjoyed creating this week of blog posts centering around live music, a passion of mine.

Today we talk about how brands engage with live music fans. I've had several conversations about this with my friend Jay Blakesberg.

Jay is a well-known rock photographer who has shot rock royalty for more than 30 years. His photographs have appeared on numerous album covers, in Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He also produces video and other content for brands and bands.

Jay's photos appear in my book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History which I co-wrote with Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot.

People like me are passionate about music. We make live music an important part of our lives. Being the geek that I am, I have a database with a listing of 436 live gigs I've caught since 1976.

The challenge for companies is to tap into this passion. There's a music lifestyle for brands to engage with, if they are clever about it. Music can connect a brand through mobile, the web and social media.

In this video, I speak with Jay about his ideas for social media engagement, especially with Facebook. It's simple really – if you create some great content, fans will share it. Better yet, the bands will share it with their fans! Some artists have 100,000 or even 1,000,000 Facebook fans.

The power of the Facebook share worked for me just this week. On Tuesday, I posted as part of this summer music series: Do what you love which included my video interview with Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. Well, Mickey shared my video on Twitter and on Facebook (where more than 60 people "liked" it in just one day). This drove a bunch of views to the video and gave people I didn’t know yet exposure to my book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. How cool is that?

Direct link to Jay Blakesberg on how brands engage with live music fans on YouTube.

Summer Music Series

• Monday: What YOU can learn from the music business. People are passionate about music. How can you tap into that passion?
• Tuesday: Do what you love. I interview Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart to learn what has kept him pushing his work forward for more than 50 years.
• Wednesday: How music fans support nonprofits and causes. Draws on an interview with Andy Bernstein, executive director of HeadCount.
• Thursday: Always move forward. I write about the Gathering of the Vibes music festival and how it moves music forward. Includes an article I wrote for Huffington Post and a video with quotes from Perry Farrel, Elvis Costello, Wavy Gravy, and Ken Hays.
• Friday: How brands engage with live music fans. I interview rock photographer Jay Blakesberg and we explore how to tap into music fans and the bands themselves to promote your work.

Photograph shot at Gathering of the Vibes 2011. Copyright David Meerman Scott

Portal 2.0: Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter take social backwards to the 1990s

Have you used AOL, Lycos, Excite, MSN, or Yahoo! recently?

It seems we are entering Portal 2.0 as the major social sites have been jockeying for position this past week to win the minds of consumers much like the portals did more than a decade ago. These companies appear to be creating islands by erecting the same sorts of barriers as the portals did in the late 1990s.

At that time, the portals fought with each other and consumers were left out of the discussion. So while the analysts talked up the merits of this portal vs. that as if that’s all there was, a little search engine called Google figured out a better way to organize information on the Web.

Read my article just published in the Huffington Post
Are Google, Facebook, and Twitter Taking Social Backwards?

As I was playing around with Google+ this weekend, I noticed much discussion about Google+ vs. Facebook. People were talking about which is better and which they would use more. That's exactly the talk that played out in 1998 regarding portals.

This weekend the social services responded with a round of blocking access to their services from each other. Google discontinued its excellent real-time search feature - powered mainly by Twitter - that had been active since December 2009.

And Facebook blocked a contact-exporting tool used to let people save the email addresses and other information of their Facebook friends as a file or to import them into Gmail.

Ugh. Not again! It's Portal 2.0

I worked in the portal world in the late 1990s. I was with NewsEdge, a real-time news provider that sold information feeds to the portals. It was an exciting time. But as the portals fought with each other by spending their investors money, information users were increasingly bewildered by choice. Where to find quality content? Enter the Google search engine.

Sure, I understand that Google, Facebook, and Twitter need to make money. Their investors are counting on that. But in their scramble to erect moats around their services and as they try to keep users, are they potentially driving them to consider a more nimble way to communicate?

I'm sure there is a smart company waiting in the wings ready to swoop in with a better way to organize social contacts that doesn't rely on a Portal 2.0 mentality. I have no doubt there is a company out there solving this problem just like Google solved search a decade ago. I look forward to the day when my social services and personal contacts are not housed in separate islands dotting the ocean of the social Web.

Island image: Shutterstock / R McIntyre

How GM Holden uses Facebook to connect with fans in Australia

I just wrapped up a 12-gig speaking tour of Australia that brought me to Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. It was an excellent opportunity to connect with marketers to learn about their success in reaching buyers.

While in Melbourne, I interviewed Andrea Matthews, the social media & digital communications manager at GM Holden. She discussed how they use the Holden Australia Facebook page to interact with customers and build the brand.

Direct link to video here.

The 183,000+ Holden Facebook fans are an important way for Holden to communicate new products and other information as well as answer questions and provide first level customer support.

Blocking Facebook and Corporate Regime Change

I'm wondering when will companies that block employee access to social networks go through the same sort of revolution as Egypt?

I think it will be soon. These companies are ripe for uprising.

I was fascinated by Sunday's 60 Minutes piece on Wael Ghonim, Google's regional marketing manager for the Middle East. He talked about how Egyptian people came together via Facebook.

Watch the interview with Wael Ghonim and Egypt's New Age Revolution.

Here's a Ghonim quote that interested me the most:
"One of the strategic mistakes of [the Mubarak] regime was blocking Facebook. One of the reasons why they are no longer in power now is that they blocked Facebook. Why? Because they have told four million people that they are scared like hell from the revolution."

Does this apply at your company?

Of course, I do understand that countries and companies are different. There is no doubt that when life and death are involved, the matters of a country are infinitely more important than a mere company.

Yet, to backwards CEOs I would say: I hope you've got some money squirreled away like Mubarak apparently does. Because at some point, you're going to get run out of town.

If you work under an authoritarian regime, please share this (perhaps anonymously) with the HR people. Better yet, send it to the CEO.

I wrote more on this topic in an article published yesterday by the Huffington Post.

Not all music artists are big fat lip-synching social media babies

A few weeks ago I spoke at the San Francisco MusicTech Summit, an event that brings together smart people at the intersection of music and technology.

I spoke on a panel called Engaging Your Community. And later in the day I sat in the Artists Panel to see what they had to say.

I was amazed at how utterly different the discussions about social media were at these two panels. The artists were so resistant. In fact, I asked a question of the artists, which began: "With respect, the vibe here is of a bunch of big babies..."

It seemed to me that the artists pined for the good old days where radio, Billboard Magazine, major labels, and CDs were the rule and "stealing music" on the Web wasn't yet a pain in the ass.

I got news for artists. We're not going back to the good old days.

But why complain in the first place? My gosh, for the first time in history it is easy to reach fans. My sense is that artists are okay with that. But many of the artists I spoke with with were so damned egotistical. The fact that fans can reach them is an issue!

I was amazed that many on the artist panel advocated ghost written social media entries. Well, okay. They must lip-synch at their live shows.

As I looked around the standing-room and sitting-on-the floor only audience, my sense was that many were not agreeing with these artists.

In a stunning twist, the entire Summit is available for free audio download on Archive.org. It's amazing to me that what so many artists hate (free downloads) are exactly what they want in an event like this! Kudos to Brian Zisk, Summit Executive Producer, for making the content available.

Engaging Your Community

My panel included:
Meredith Chin - Facebook
David Meerman Scott – Marketing Strategist
Mike More - Headliner.fm
Chris Vinson - Bandzoogle
Moderator: Brenden Mulligan – Sonicbids

We talked about what an exciting time it is to be an artists. Now you can reach fans directly. Full audio of the Engaging Your Community panel is available.

Here is a video I did with Meredith Chin about how artists can use Facebook to build a fan base. Meredith works with many artists. She cites Joe Purdy and Javier Dunn as two non-superstar artists who have done a good job on Facebook.

Joe and Javier are not big fat lip-synching social media babies.

See? Artists like Joe Purdy and Javier Dunn engage with fans.

The big babies speak

The artist panel included:

Del The Funky Homosapien - Hip Hop Artist
Evan Lowenstein - Evan and Jaron / StageIt
Raul Malo - Recording Artist
Dan Lebowitz - Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO)
Moderator: Tamara Conniff - The Comet

Full audio of the Artist Panel is available.

The tone was set for the panel by the moderator, Tamara Conniff, who was formerly the chief editor of Billboard. Her first question was: "What's too much? The artist used to be shrouded in mystery. But some of that has been lost with too much engagement in social media. How do you keep the artist to fan romance alive."

I reject the entire question! But I wasn't on the panel, so I couldn't say that.

This is the sort of big media "woe is us" kind of question that people who worked at a place like Billboard ask about social media. All this pesky interaction! All those bloggers who are not real journalists! All the time it takes to be on Twitter!

The recurring theme on the panel was: "Who cares what I had for breakfast." This lament came up so often from the big babies.

Most of the artists seemed to miss the point that social media is much more than Twitter and breakfast. Now you can reach your fans directly without your label babysitting you!! Facebook, YouTube, and blogs and other forms of media are good, aren’t they?

Lip-synching your way into social media

I was disappointed that many on the panel advocate that artists use third party people and companies to handle social media. Ugh.

Isn't ghost writing your Twitter feed the same as lip-synching at your live show?

Here are some choice (paraphrased) comments I wrote down:

Dan Lebowitz (Lebo) - Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO)

I want to focus on writing music. I could spend my entire week on social media.

Raul Malo – solo artist.

Social media has opened up some negatives. There should be a certain mystery. I don’t want to know everything that my wife does. There should be a fine line. An artist should communicate through the music and the live show. We need to maintain a balance.

Del The Funky Homosapien

You need other people to handle things like Twitter.

Evan Lowenstein - Evan and Jaron / StageIt

We need to pull back like Colonel Tom Parker did with Elvis and help the artist leave the audience wanting more. There is a romance that needs to be between fans and the artist. Getting too close can make the romance sour. Artists should not be talking about the weather. We create experiences for fans.

I ask my question at 48:20 – With respect, the vibe here is a bunch of big babies. Since 1995 we have the Web to communicate. There are three billion people on the Web and a half a billion on Facebook alone. Do you listen to people?

Got a few whoops from the audience. The answers were interesting.

Special commentary for any artists reading this

I had some side conversations with artists who said: "You don’t understand!"

Oh, but I do.

We're in the same fundamental business, you music artists and me. We make our living in the exact same way. You create content and do live gigs for a living. I create content and do live gigs for a living.

You create music content and choose to self-publish or publish with indie or major labels.
I create text content and choose to self-publish or publish with indie or major publishers.

You can choose to open your music up and make it free (or clamp down and say "no").
I can choose to open my content up and make it free (or clamp down and say "no").

You can tour and play your music live.
I can tour and give live speeches.

You can choose to engage your fans in social media (or not).
I can choose to engage in social media (or not).

By the way, that crap about Twitter and breakfast? Amanda Palmer made $11,000 on Twitter in 2 hours.

Amanda Palmer is not a big fat lip-synching social media baby.

We're lucky to be able to engage. Why does it seem such a problem?

Bonus for Grateful Dead fans

At the Summit, I connected with my friend Jay Blakesberg who did the photos for my book with Brian Halligan Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.

I also met Betty Cantor, the Dead's live recording engineer for many years (of "Betty Board" fame). It was a particular thrill to meet John Meyer, CEO of Meyer Sound Laboratories, who worked on the Dead's stunning live sound system during the band's heyday. Here I am with John (who is holding our book).

PS > If you are an artist, you must read Bob Lefsetz, the best music writer on the planet.