Web Ink Now

Time Magazine vs Facebook

Time Magazine just announced Mark Zuckerberg as Person of the Year for 2010.

Excellent choice in my opinion.

Zuckerberg built a company from scratch that now serves a half billion people worldwide.

But what really got me thinking is how the two media properties - Time Magazine and Facebook – are so different.

One is in decline. The other is on top of the world.

When I was growing up, Time Magazine was relevant. We subscribed at home and I read it every week from the age of about 9. People talked about Time Magazine articles at school and at work. I even cut out the cover of each issue for about a decade and saved them. The magazine was thick and meaty with tons of ads.

Where is Time Magazine now?

As media tied to rigid production cycles decline—morning papers, evening newscasts, and weekly newsmagazines—real-time media grow audiences and profits.

What's more, at a time when news outlets across the United States were shrinking dramatically, upstart media companies focused on real-time like TMZ grow from zero to $25 million in revenues between 2005 and 2008.

Why do upstarts like TMZ, Politico, and Bloomberg now beat the likes of Time Magazine, People magazine, and the Washington Post? At a time when Americans are consuming unprecedented volumes of news and information online, why did more than 15,000 people across the United States lose their newspaper jobs in 2009?

I would argue that focusing on real time is critical to achieving a sustainable business model in media.

Facebook understands real time.

Zuckerberg built Facebook on instant status updates. You can see what's going on with your friends right now.

So why can't incumbent media companies like Time make the jump to real time?

My own view is that these organizations are burdened by cultural habits deeply ingrained by their manufacturing processes, by the news cycles they follow. For newspapers it's the daily print deadline. For TV news, it's the prime time broadcast. For the weeklies like Time, production cycles are even longer.

When the opportunity to move online arose, for these organizations it was an afterthought. And because online was an afterthought it did not force the core culture to reinvent itself.

Huge advantage flows from delivering in real-time content that satisfies intensely focused public curiosity.

Meanwhile, companies that started from scratch with a real-time mind-set (like Facebook) continue to grow.

It's not just the media business.

Across the economy, people are finding success by understanding the power of now. The power of real time is at work in your business, too.

Are you operating in real-time like Facebook? Or slowly plodding along like Time Magazine?

Much more on this topic here.

I do not friend logos

Facebook is a great way to connect.

It's about friends and associates.

(And faces too.)

In recent months, many people want to friend me on Facebook with a company logo as their photo.

I say no to these requests.

I'm fine with using Facebook for business purposes. We all have personal lives, family lives, and professional lives and these are appropriate ways to use Facebook.

But if you're tempted to use your logo as your Facebook image, I'd suggest that you re-think this.

Instead, create a personal profile with a photo of you. Here are ways to do your photo.

Then create a Facebook page for your business. Facebook Pages is the way that brands (with logos) should engage.

Twitter

It's different with Twitter because there is no difference between Twitter feeds. I do follow feeds with logos on Twitter if I recognize the brand.

What about you? What do you do with friend requests from logos?

The emerging importance of Facebook for U.S. Army communications

While at The Pentagon on Friday, I had a chance to see the five-acre inner courtyard at the center of the building. It is a remarkably tranquil park where people meet, take a break, or grab lunch.

I interviewed Lieutenant Colonel Kevin V. Arata, U.S. Army, Director, Online and Social Media Division in the courtyard. We discussed social media in the Army and especially the growing importance of Facebook for communications today. In just six months, the US Army Facebook page has 65,000 fans and there is a very active Wall.

Direct link to the video here.

Here are some of the Army's sites:
U.S. Army web presence
ArmyLive blog
U.S. Army on Facebook
U.S. Army on Twitter
U.S. Army on Flickr
U.S. Army on YouTube
U.S. Army on Vimeo
U.S. Army on iReport
U.S. Army on NowPublic
U.S. Army on Delicious

If you have been following this blog, you know that I have been blogging all week about what I learned during my day with the DoD. If you missed it, here are the other posts.

Discussion with Roxie Merritt, Director of New Media Operations at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of Defense.

Interview with Brian Natwick, The Pentagon Channel merging television and Web-based content

Armed with Science: Brand journalism in the U.S. Military humanizes a huge organization

I hope you enjoyed these five blog posts about communications within the U.S. Department of Defense. I'd like to thank LT Jennifer Cragg, New Media Directorate, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Defense Media Activity who set up all the interviews for me and educated me about the inner workings of public affairs at the DoD. She even drove me to the various locations during terrible traffic -- we were never late. Thank you LT Cragg.

Selective Twitter Status Updates to Facebook: A tutorial

For several months, I was sending all of my tweets to update my Facebook status using the Twitter application on Facebook. Yes it saved time, but I found this approach was annoying to many people. (Thank you to those who clued me in to my obnoxious behavior).

Because I might tweet ten or twenty times some days, my Twitter stream was too large for most of my Facebook friends. Worse, I was confusing people on Facebook when they would see a reply or a re-tweet that made no sense out of context. And for my Facebook friends who are not on Twitter, I sounded like a lunatic. Here is an example of the sort of tweet that does not belong on Facebook @jadecraven Looking forward to meeting you too. I'm at LAX now -- will be in Sydney Monday morning.

So I was excited when Michael J. Russell turned me on to a Facebook application called Selective Twitter Status. This simple applications allows you to update your Facebook status from Twitter, but you can choose which tweets you want by ending a tweet with #fb when you want to post it as your Facebook status.

Selective Twitter Status is a free application by Andy Young. Andy accepts donations and I was thrilled to send him a few bucks because I like this application so much.

Here's how to set it up.

1) Go to Facebook, search for the Selective Twitter Status application in the search bar on the right and click on it.

2) When you get to page, click on the application

3) It is so easy to configure. It takes just one step – enter your Twitter user name. Note that if you have another Twitter status application you will need to disable it first.

4) Now, when you update Twitter, all you need to do is add #fb to the end of each tweet that you want to show on your Facebook status. Really, it's that easy. And it works in other Twitter clients like Tweetdeck and Twitpic.

I love this application so much that I wanted to share here.

However, I am not an expert. Please direct any questions or support issues to the help page.

ZeroTrash shows how to create a social media grassroots movement

I had an opportunity to connect with Chip McDermott, founder of ZeroTrash who I originally met at the Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco. I haver become fascinated with the online grassroots movement Chip started that's gathering momentum and is now instrumental in ridding the streets and beaches of Laguna Beach, CA of trash.

Chip started ZeroTrash Laguna as a nonprofit organization in November 2007 with the support of XS Energy Drinks, Hobie Sports & Thalia Surf Shop. Though population and tourism had exploded, the city had not kept up in providing a sufficient infrastructure for public trash and recycling.

Social media to influence people

"The spark of the idea was that trash was becoming commonplace on the streets and the sidewalks of Laguna Beach," Chip says. "We started with a Facebook fan page for ZeroTrash Laguna that now has hundreds of members."

People use the Facebook page to organize events and connect local storeowners and residents. Before and after photos of trash on the streets incite people to action.

"We met with store owners to get our first Saturday movement going," Chip says. "We meet at a couple of stores and got volunteers to walk the city and pick up trash on the first Saturday of each month."

The storeowners love it because they people support local stores and the shopping areas remain clean. Chip has tapped storeowners as sponsors who fund the purchase of supplies and tools like trash pickers, t-shirts, trash bags, and gloves.

Chip has also started a ZeroTrash blog and is on Twitter as @ZeroTrash. The social media sites serve to keep people updated. For example, on the first Saturday of May, 2009, the Laguna Beach community helped to remove another 590 lbs. of trash and 375 lbs. of recyclables from the streets.

He has high hopes for the organization and ambitions to spread the movement beyond Laguna Beach.

"We want people to take individual ownership of each new local ZeroTrash community," he says. "How can they get people with a passion to take control and start in their own communities? The obvious answer is to use social media to influence people."

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are a great place to start (or extend) a movement. If you work at a nonprofit, are you tapping these resources to reach your supporters?

Do it Right Now: Set your Facebook username

Starting today (four hours ago as I write this), you can set your Facebook username.

Do it now!

Previously, Facebook URLs were a series of random numbers. Now you can have a username and provide friends an easy to remember URL. This is an important component of personal branding.

I set my Facebook username to be the same as my Twitter username. So now I just tell people to go to Facebook.com/dmscott and Twitter.com/dmscott

Here is the URL to get your username.

Here is more information from Facebook.

Stop reading this damn blog and get your username! Do it right now! Today!

If you don't do it, you'll end up with some AOL-like name like SmithJohn4562

Image credit: Shutterstock

New Zealand All Blacks: Experimenting with social media to reach global fans

Early today I had an opportunity to visit the Wellington headquarters of the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU), at the invitation of David Barton-Ginger who serves as the online manager. The New Zealand Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby in New Zealand, administering all parts of the game in NZ from grass roots, Air New Zealand Cup, Rebel Sport Super 14 and the All Blacks (the national team).

David has a challenge and he would like your help.

While he has gotten started with social media (see below for details), David is in the middle of a process to convince the managers of NZRU to "lose control" and jump feet first into the swirling waters of social media.

His goals are to inform existing fans from around the world and to bring new fans to the All Blacks who may purchase shirts, caps and other items and may buy tickets to attend games.

David has a big meeting coming up in a few days and he needs to know, from you, why a sports team with fans all over the world should pay close attention to social media.

What in particular should David be doing? Please leave a comment here if you can help.

All Blacks and social media

During the season when the All Blacks are playing, the site gets more than a half million unique visitors per month. Interestingly, 80% of web visitors are from overseas.

David knows that he needs to use social media to reach fans. Several weeks ago he started a Twitter feed @NZRU and an All Blacks Facebook page and he also has a YouTube channel. These are all new initiatives.

David also administers The Direct Line on the All Blacks site. Each month NZRU selects five questions submitted by fans and put them to NZRU CEO Steve Tew to answer via video (which David films). For example, in a recent video Tew gives a brief explanation why players tend to not swap their jerseys on the field after a game anymore.

David has been with the team for five years. Like many people who gravitate to building content-rich Web sites and experimenting with social media, he came to his work by accident. "I was a foreign exchange trader with Westpac and then went to live in London for a few years and worked in banking there too. But I was looking for something more creative. I came back to New Zealand and on a whim attended a Web design course. I really enjoyed it so I started doing some Web project management in the banking industry."

Then the opportunity with the New Zealand Rugby Union came up and David grabbed it. "It was a three-month temporary assignment, but I'm still here after five years," he says.

David says while he is a big All Blacks fan, he tries to put his role first and look at things from a web perspective. He thinks that if he were much more passionate about the team, it would sometimes be more difficult to do his job.

OK, David here’s my idea.

I really think you need to play up the Haka more on the site and in social media. I suggest you consider creating a microsite with photos and video of the All Blacks and the Haka. For many new rugby fans, the Haka is the first thing that separates the All Blacks from other teams.

FYI, in case you don't know, the Haka is a traditional war dance of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, perform a Haka war chant prior to each match. In the rugby world, the All Blacks performing the Haka is definitely a World Wide Rave. I've seen this at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens and can confirm that it intimidates the other teams.

Check out the All Blacks version of the Haka here.

How about you?

What would you suggest David does to promote the All Blacks via social media?

The U.S. Air Force and social media: A discussion with Colonel Michael Caldwell

On Wednesday I delivered a presentation at the United States Air Force World Wide Public Affairs Professional Development Conference. The Worldwide as they call it, is a chance for everyone who works in public affairs (PA) to get together to share ideas and learn what others have been doing by discussing communication techniques that run from traditional media relations, to partnerships, to Combat Camera and Defense Visual Information.

A big focus this year was New Media Tactics and you can see some of the discussions on Twitter.

Prior to my gig, I had a chance to sit down with Colonel Michael G. Caldwell, acting director of public affairs for the United States Air Force to discuss social media. Colonel Caldwell blogs at From an Air Force Colonel.

I was impressed with how deeply the smart people at the Air Force have thought about social media and how quickly they have jumped in. I hope that people from all organizations, particularly executives in large corporations who are often fearful and dismissive of social media, can learn from Colonel Caldwell and the examples here.

Colonel Michael G. Caldwell, David Meerman Scott, Capt. David Faggard

"We want 330,000 people to be in Public Affairs," says Colonel Caldwell. "Everyone has friends and peers and family and they are communicating with them online. But it is a major cultural change for the U.S. Air Force and I don't want us to get left behind. The game is changing."

Colonel Caldwell says that two years ago they weren't thinking about social media. Now social media is very much on the minds of all 350 or so public affairs officers in the Air Force.

"So far, this is much of a fact-finding exercise," Colonel Caldwell says. "We know these are a valid communication tools, but how do break in? We want to learn and understand the culture before we can really propagate."

The Air Force faces communications challenges that the vast majority of organizations don't have to think about. National security for example. And life and death. The Air Force has 15,000 networks and seven million IT devices (such as computers) and all need to be protected because national security is at stake.

Interestingly, Colonel Caldwell shared that some of the most efficient sensitive communication is in secure Twitter-like chatrooms with short messages on private channels. "You can't communicate with a fighter pilot using lots of wordy language," he says. "Airmen are already used to the sort of short communications popular in social media."

Some interesting data:
70% of Airmen use YouTube
50% of Airmen use Facebook
75% of Airmen use MySpace

What I find particularly interesting about the Air Force is the amazing possibilities for creating valuable information online. Hey, we’re talking about fast jets here! A good example is BlueTube.

Colonel Caldwell agrees: "We want to inspire leadership at all levels to embrace change and be a part of the solution," he says. "I want our guys going out there and talking about how their day went, either bad or good. The fact that young people in the Air Force are involved in multi-million dollar equipment is mind-blowing to people outside of the Air Force. And when people talk about what they are involved in on places like Facebook, it is more effective than a slick over-produced video."

Thank you Colonel Caldwell

I also had an opportunity to spend time with my friend Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology. Alert readers of this blog may recall that I interviewed Capt. Faggard late last year on this blog. I popped into Capt. Faggard's New Media Tactics and Assessment session, which was held in the "Twitter and Blogging Zone."

At his session, Capt. Faggard released a new book and video his team created, both entitled New Media and the Air Force.

The book's introduction reads: "This guide changes the way the Air Force employs social media and Web 2.0 technology, and positions the Air Force well to communicate transparently with online audiences. PA professionals can help change the way the Air Force uses these quickly developing, and evolving, trends."

A personal note:
I have been volunteering my time to work with the United States Air Force. I did not serve in the military when I was younger but have always admired those who do serve.

I am thrilled that my specialized knowledge can be put to use to help the Air Force and our country and I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with such talented and enthusiastic communicators and consider this opportunity to be an important highlight of my social media work.

Chet the dog: blogging and on Twitter to sell books

There are more than a hundred thousand books released in the English language each year. How the hell do you stand out?

Well, you can follow the lead of Lisa Genova, who used social media to turn a self-published book into a NY Times bestseller.

Or you can use social media and have fun with your characters at the same time, like Spencer Quinn has done with his new book released last week called Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery.

Quinn started a blog and Twitter feed in the voice of his main character. But, get this, the main character is a dog. Meet Chet, the wise and lovable canine narrator of Dog on It, who works alongside Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private investigator. Chet might have flunked out of police school ("I'd been the best leaper in K-9 class, which had led to all the trouble in a way I couldn't remember exactly, although blood was involved"), but he's a detective through and through.

I just love Chet's blog and Twitter feed. Quinn speaks dog language amazingly well. Great stuff.

Example tweet: "Love surprises myself. Finding a forgotten chew strip, for example. What beats that? Not much."

From Chet's blog: CONGRATULATIONS STUMP!

"Way to go, Stump, winner of the Westminster Show last night. The ears on that old guy - maybe the best I've ever seen. And the whole show - is there anything better on TV? Not that I know of. I didn't catch quite all of it, on account of when the dogs run around the circle I get a bit excited. Did you see how many treats they got? Watch how the handlers are always reaching into their pockets - that's for treats! Can't tell you what kind because there’s no smell on TV, one of the big drawbacks. Are they working on fixing that? Also, TV has sound but it’s not quite right. Bernie never seems bothered by that. Maybe humans don’t notice. Humans are full of surprises, but I've liked just about every one I’ve ever met, even some of the perps we've taken down."

There is also a Chet Appreciation Society on Facebook where one discussion centers around who (as in which canine actor) should play Chet in a movie version of the book.

This is a fantastic example of smart marketing! And considering that this is Quinn's first book and it is selling briskly, the marketing is working amazingly well.

How an active Facebook group drove 15,000 people to the Singapore Tattoo Show

I speak at dozens of conferences a year all over the world. Since organizers usually book me many months in advance, I have some visibility into how they promote the events. It tends to be the same old methods: Send an email and a direct mail to everyone who attended last year, buy some email and postal mailing lists and send some more promotions. Most shows build good Web sites and most have decent SEO. But that's usually it.

What if you're charged with promoting a brand new show?

Because there's no previous attendees to draw from the work is much more difficult.

Or is it? When a show is new, the “old rules” of promotion don’t apply. You can do something new and untested.

The 1st Annual Singapore Tattoo Show, held January 9-11, 2009, was endorsed and supported by Singapore Tourism Board and included Show Ambassador Chris Garver of Miami Ink. The goal was to get 5,000 visitors to the show where over 120 artists from around the globe representing all the various modern tattoo styles ticked away with their machines. All sorts of fun and funky exhibitors were there and Emcee & Show DJ Shawn Lee pumping awesome sounds throughout the hall.

Andrew Peters is the brains behind the social media promotions leading up to the Singapore Tattoo Show, working on both traditional and social media publicity.

What I find fascinating as a show promotional tool was the Facebook Group called Tattoo Artistry that was started three months prior to the event. This is important for all show organizers to study.

Andrew used Facebook as a way for people to connect well before the physical event and the Tattoo Artistry Facebook Group quickly gained 3,000 members, securing a place as the center of this artwork for the region. In a sense, the physical show started with a virtual group. The is new marketing for conferences and events.

The passion of the members of the Tattoo Artistry Facebook group for "their event" meant promoting to their friends. The online community included people eager to attend the live event. Instead of relying on buying expensive advertising, Andrew built a community of passionate fans who built anticipation and buzz for the event.

With more than 15,000 people attending, the event brought three times the expected number of attendees!

The Tattoo Artistry Facebook group is now Asia's largest social network for the tattoo industry, tattoo enthusiasts, and fans. The group will continue to grow as an online destination to connect and plans are already underway for the 2nd Singapore Tattoo Show in 2010.

Alas, no, I was not at the show in person. But with my participation in the Tattoo Artistry Facebook group and one of my World Wide Rave posters appearing in photos I feel like I was there in spirit.