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When Kings Get Stuck in Their Own Kingly Story . . . MSM, Blogging, and Social Media

July 4, 2008 by Liz

Step Away from Your Thinking

The Living Web

In a conversation yesterday about the decline of print newspapers, my husband asked a simple question . . .

My Husband: They report the news. It’s their business. Why didn’t they see it?

ME: Some did. But mainstream media kings believed in the power of the monarchy.

When kings reign over a silent audience, they might believe they have the only voice. The sound of other voices could become unconceivable. It’s easy to see how they might get stuck in their own story.

Another Kingdom that Wasn’t Listening

Two hundred years ago, a king thought he had the only voice that mattered . . .

In 1775 relations were souring between England and the American colonies. Colonists felt overtaxed and treated unfairly. Still looking to save the union, the colonists extended an Olive Branch Petition to King George III.

We your Majesty’s faithful subjects of the colonies of New-hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, . . . in behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in general Congress, entreat your Majesty’s gracious attention to this our humble petition.

The union between our Mother Country and these colonies, and the energy of mild and just government, produced benefits so remarkably important, and afforded such an assurance of their permanency and increase, that the wonder and envy of other Nations were excited, while they beheld Great Britain riseing to a power the most extraordinary the world had ever known.

George III refused it. He issued a Proclamation of Rebellion. He called them traitors

Whereas many of our subjects in divers parts of our Colonies and Plantations in North America, misled by dangerous and ill designing men, and forgetting the allegiance which they owe to the power that has protected and supported them; after various disorderly acts committed in disturbance of the publick peace, to the obstruction of lawful commerce, and to the oppression of our loyal subjects carrying on the same; have at length proceeded to open and avowed rebellion, by arraying themselves in a hostile manner, to withstand the execution of the law, and traitorously preparing, ordering and levying war against us: . . .

A year later the colonies signed, The Declaration of Independence.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Each year on July 4, the United States of America celebrates the independence won in the war this document declared. Suppose George III had listened?

When Kings Get Stuck in Their Own Kingly Story

Kings, contrarians, politicians . . . celebrities, bloggers, CEOs . . . preachers, teachers, all of us . . . when we start believing our own kingly stories, we stop listening to the people around us.

We start sorting their voices as we would have them. We stop thinking. We stop remembering that we don’t get to pick how other folks will be.

When the MSM media might have listened, they were selling their own story. Citizen journalist became less than a compliment — it was term to spin their story. What if they’d put down their kingly story?

Now the MSM castle is undergoing expensive renovation.
No kingly group is immune from narrow vision.
Even the most wonderful story can’t control the conversation.

What sort of listening strategy will keep us from getting stuck in our own story?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Buy the ebook and get your best voice in the conversation.

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: American Independence, bc, blogging, MSM, social-media

Net Neutrality 10-17-2006

October 17, 2006 by Liz

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

A Merger of Mixed Blessings

America is at a time where it needs change from the status quo.

Meanwhile, in terms of YouTube, not much has changed since the merger with Google despite the woe and dispair we’ve been told about this merger but Mergers between AT&T and BellSouth get good press despite being a very bad thing.

I’m come to realize that everything that we are told by the media is wrong. The Media can tell us the sky is green because you don’t send Jesus money when we all know that the sky is blue because of the refraction of light particles in the atmosphere.

And since this is not the first time that AT&T has tried to merge with Bellsouth (anyone remember the break up of AT&T in 1984 should know why AT&T is a malevolent entity) this is deja vu all over again. Yet the YouTube/Google merger is consider a bad thing? This coming from a failing mass media regime that tells us “Net Neutrality is bad”, “Net Neutrality is a bunch of mumbo jumbo”, “The Internet is a series of tubes”, and “If you support Net Neutrality, we’ll slow down your internet access and block pro-Net Neutrality websites” (that one wasn’t written down, but Comcast subscribers know exactly what I’m talking about conisering they couldn’t access Google).

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Filed Under: Business Life, Community, SOB Business, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: AT+T, bc, BellSouth, Comcast, Google, MSM, Net-Neutrality, YouTube

The Headline’s NOT the Story

April 9, 2006 by Liz

Newspapers Need to Change Metrics

For years, publishers have relied — often to their detriment — upon the metric of paid circulation. But circulation for the core product has been on a long, steady decline, causing some to suggest that print is on its way out.

The industry has touted the notion of readership — a metric that takes into account how many people read the paper whether they buy it or not — for years, but has often taken halfhearted steps toward giving it true legitimacy.

Then there’s the confounding, if promising, online angle. If you count Web traffic, newspapers are actually more popular than ever.
Jennifer Saba, associate editor, Editor and Publisher, Dispelling the Myth of Readership Decline

Surveys Say Move Online–Really?

I came across For Future Readers, Papers Should Look Online earlier this week. It was written by staff writer, Sara Kehaulani Goo, in the Washington Post. I read it and set it aside as not much, but it nagged at me. At first, I was puzzled. Why was the Washington Post writing about this? They were ahead of most at knowing where the readers are. This couldn’t be news to them or their readers. The piece itself didn’t offer much depth. It almost seemed to be filler.

The point of the article was that two surveys–one by the Newspaper Association of America and a second by marketing firm, Scarborough Research–point to the fact that 18-24 year-olds want news, but not newsprint. The point was supported by data and some compelling quotes. I’m guessing this one quote will be all over the Internet.

“People who are not necessarily engaged with the print product are increasingly using the newspaper Web site for news and information in their local market,” said Randy Bennett, senior vice president of audience and business development at the newspaper association. “Blogs, video and other multimedia content beyond what appears in the newspaper are all having an impact on usage of newspaper Web sites.”

Done But Not Over

This morning I decided to use the Washington Post article to inform an article I was writing on my personal business blog, Lizstrauss.com that came to be called WashingtonPost Now to Editor and Publisher Then. While I was doing further research, I found a more serious analysis of the newspaper readership issue written up last November by Jennifer Saba, associate editor of Editor and Publisher. Ms. Saba’s four page article not only cited and quoted the same sources, but laid out the challenges and the potential of what lies ahead for print newspapers. I finished my writing a short while ago, yet the Washington Post article was still in my head–puzzling me. I was done with what I had set out to do, but it seemed my job was not over yet.

The REAL Story

I went back to the Washingtonpost.com article one more time to figure out what it was that was bothering me. Then I found it. It was a quote. This quote I suspect everyone will overlook. It’s the only new information in the article. It says volumes about how the MSM looks at the Internet. This quote is the real story. How I wish Ms. Kehaulani Goo had started her article here.

“But if you continue to grow 30 percent or more a year, within five years, for example, online classified revenue will equal what you’ll get from your print model,” [John] Morton [newspaper analyst] said. “My concern is how newspaper managers treat this online profit. If they treat it as ‘found’ money and don’t use it to shore up the economic model of the declining newsprint model, it’s going to spell bad news for newsrooms.”

Do You Hear It?

Mr. Morton is worried that the newpaper managers won’t take the online readership and profits seriously. He understands that they need it to make the economics of a 21st-century newspaper work. Why wouldn’t managers see the way he does? Do they know something he doesn’t? Do they have their heads in the sand? Perhaps they are preparing to teach citizen readers too.

God bless the mainstream media! They are so generous.

And here I thought I was the nice one.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
Who’s a Citizen Journalist?
Edelman Aces PR, NY Times Fails Research
Saving the Net–Doc Searls & Walter Cronkite

Filed Under: Business Life, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: bc, editor_and_publisher, Jennifer_Saba, John_Morton, Mainstream_media, MSM, Newspaper_Association_of_America, Sara_Kehaulani_Goo, Scarborough_Research, Trends, Washington_Post

Great Find: Top Ten Desktop Diversions of 2006

April 1, 2006 by Liz

What’s most interesting about this list is that sites once unknown outside of the blogosphere are included. Wouldn’t expect to find Technorati here. Would you?

Great Find: Top Ten Desktop Diversions by Liz Ryan of BusinessWeekonline
Type of Article: List of online sites, with commentary
Permalink: http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/mar2006/ca20060327_414798.htm?campaign_id=nws_insdr_mar31&link_position=link18
Target Audience: Anyone looking for an online diversion from work

Content: Liz Ryan writes this list as a follow up to a piece BW did last year called Top Ten Time Wasters. ( I searched but couldn’t find us a link.) The premise here is to offer informational and interactive sites that provide a break and diversion from work. Included in this list are links to sites where you can

  • estimate the value of your home
  • send an email to a monk
  • make a map of any number of things
  • publish your ideas
  • check your popularity on the Internet
  • catch a flick
  • make fun of pop culture
  • get groceries
  • get the 30,000 foot view

My guess is that you will know 3-5 sites on this list already. I’d be interested, if the answer for you is less or more than that many. Certainly bloggers are more Internet aware than the average magazine reader, but this is BusinessWeekonline after all. To read the article, click the screenshot.

Top Ten Desktop Diversions, 2006 Screenshot Link

A year ago, the information flow was one way only–bloggers getting ideas from the mainstream media. Have they started getting ideas from us? I think we’re seeing a trend that is growing.

Technorati? Interesting. Really.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles
Great Find: 50 Coolest Websites
Great Find: Blogs about Blogging
Great Find: How to Back Up Your Blog
Why MSM Are Afraid of Blogs–and Should Be

Filed Under: Business Life, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: bc, blogging, blogging_as_mainstream_media, BusinessWeekonline, diversions, MSM, Technorati, Trends, ZZZ-FUN

The “Got Milk?” Man, Chartreuse, & Liz Singing in Harmony

March 29, 2006 by Liz

Where We Live and Breathe

BusinessWeekonline Logo

Advertising has a responsibility to act like a thing that is going to be unavoidably in the environment, where we live and breathe. And we have a responsibility to make that work in such a way that it is welcomed and not scorned.

–Jeff Goodby, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, of “Got Milk?” fame as quoted in BusinessWeekonline, Advertising Advice from the “Got Milk” Man

When a guy knows what he’s talking about, almost everything he says is worth quoting. That’s how I felt reading BusinessWeekonline Managing Editor, David Kiley’s interview with Jeff Goodby, the guy behind such famous advertising as the “Got Milk?” slogan. I wished that Mr. Goodby was required reading for every designer that I ever met or would meet. But then all of the good ones already subscribe to what Jeff Goodby was saying.

Mr. Goodby was talking about how the audience gets to pick what’s good.

I suppose it’s crystal clear already that he and I agree completely, but that’s not what this article is about. This article is about a three-way conversation that’s been happening on three different subjects, in three different places, the same thing has been being said.

The “Got Milk?” Man, Chartreuse, and Liz

Jeff Goodby, Chartreuse, BETA, and Liz Strauss. What do we three have in common? A clear vision of how to reach and keep one. On three slightly different notes, we three each say things that sound a lot alike. Heck if we were on a street corner, we’d be doing some great harmony and collecting some serious cash.

Jeff Goodby said

Our job is to come up with more advertising that people actually seek out. It’s the same way with successful design. When you design something right, people don’t just accept it, they seek it out. And then they tell their friends about it or show it off.

Chartreuse said

Look at Overture (now Yahoo Search Marketing).

These are the most profitable advertising business models around, because consumers tell advertisers what they’re looking for first, rather than advertisers telling consumers what they should buy and hoping for the best.

I said

Everett knew that being who you are is a bond with the community. It the basis on which all relationships are forged. Being any less and you’re only a bad facsimile of what you could be. Your personal brand can be the strongest advantage you bring to your business life.

Be brand YOU and you’re the only one. No one can compete with that.

Three separate takes on the same subject–Henry Ford you had a great idea, but your work is done. Rest in peace. The assembly line has lost its promise, and one-size-fits-all now fits no one.

Analysis–What Are We Saying?

Content is king, but the king reports to the Emperor. The Audience-Emperor knows damn well whether we’re wearing clothes and which designer made them too. We already decide what is relevant content to us and we tell advertisers by the way we use search engines. We already decide what ads work by the products we spend our money on. Jeff Goodby gets that, that’s why he respects us and voices a responsibility to keeping our environment filled with advertising we enjoy. He realizes he is one of us.

Advertising we seek out. There’s a concept–a simple wonder, a basic what if. The advertisers who get it will be the ones who are us, not the ones who think, “They versus us.”

Strategy–To Promote Your Business

None of us are partners in a fabulous San Francisco Advertising firm. Though I’d love to work for Mr. Goodby, I don’t suppose he’ll be offering me a job soon. I’m guessing you’re probably in the same place as I am. So how might we push this analysis into strategy for our brand and our businesses?

  • Be authentic, practical, and nice. Don’t promote your business on its glorious, high falutin’ intangible values. Do needs-benefits selling. Know me and what I need and show me how you provide it better, with more-invested, gentler service than the other guy ever could.
  • Make it fun to work with you. No matter what you’re involved in, it should be something that adds to the world of enjoyment. Fun is magnetic and always feels free. It’s hard enough to find these days. Jeff Goodby says it has to be simple and interesting to the consumer in the way the cowabduction spoof he did for Milk Producers was, if you want folks to seek it out. If you offer that kind of creativity to me, you can bet, I’ll not only seek it out, I’ll forgive the occasional slip.
  • Let me be who I am. Don’t try to change the way I do things. Trust that I know my needs better than you do. Show me how I can do what I already do more easily. That will win my loyalty. That will get me to talk about what a good relationship you have with your customers.
  • Let me be smarter than you are. and sweeter too. Chartreuse says, “Treat the smart girls like they are pretty and the pretty girls like they are smart.” Believe me, it works for boys too. That is the key to customer relationships and to building customer evangelists. That is the intangible value-added, making the customer the center of all you do.
  • Know the upside-down nature of the Internet. Understand that it will move out into the real-world environment, not the other way around. Make something so good that folks will seek you out to find it. We find what works well and stick with it. We will keep looking until the one worth sticking with is found.
  • Offer a product or a service that fills an actual need I have. I put this last on purpose. The changes in the world are happening so fast that needs are opening at an unprecedented rate of explosion. Some will close right back up again by getting filled or expiring. Think through the product or service you offer. Make certain it has staying power, be sure that I am willing and able to pay what it will cost you to make it available. Then add that you include the unique BIG IDEA of your brand so that I will only want YOU to do the work for me.
  • The power base has slowly shifted to the audience-consumer. A busines without customers is not a business. I have that tatooed where you cannot look.

    More MSM Unhappiness

    Until now control of the distribution channels and advertising markets, limited what the consumer could access, but with the WWW shopping mall, I can search the world over to find that little store that has the “just right” item I am looking for. I no longer need to settle for one-size fits all.

    Chartreuse and I know this. We see it in our friends and ourselves. Smart advertisers, such as Jeff Goodby, are well aware of this too. Those who cannot see it–the telcos, Internet providers and the Mainstream Media–will fight to save the old world way of doing business. They want to keep those advertising dollars that Jeff Goodby sees turning into entertaining Internet websites that advertise as well as delight.

    There is significant money involved and significant changes to life styles should Jeff Goodby’s vision of advertising–one that Chartreuse and I also see–become the future. Were I the Mainstream Media, I don’t think I would want to lose control.

    Everyday the world gets smaller. At the moment, you and I get larger and more powerful. Some folks don’t like that idea.

    Personally, I do.

    It would be hard to break out into a chorus of “Blue Moon” under a streetlight in Chicago with Chartreuse and Jeff Goodby, if someone else were around telling us what to do.

    –ME “Liz” Strauss

    Related articles
    Advertising Advice from the “Got Milk” Man by David Kiley
    Audience is Your Destination
    GAWKER Design: Curb Appeal as Customer-Centered Promotion
    Business, Blogs, and Niche-Brand Marketing
    Blog Promotion Basics [for Everyone]

Filed Under: Design, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Personal Branding, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: advertising, audience, bc, blog_promotion, Design, Mainstream_media, MSM, new_economy, personal-branding, readers

Saving the Net–Doc Searls & Walter Cronkite

March 18, 2006 by Liz

Y2K and the Media

If you’re reading this, you’re old enough to remember the media coverage of the Y2K “catastrophe.” The Y2K problem was a computer issue based in a design flaw in then-current programming, which caused certain date-related processes to operate incorrectly for dates after January 1, 2000.

The total cost of the work done in preparation for Y2K was $US 300 billion. [10] There are two ways to view the events of 2000 from the perspective of its aftermath:

The vast majority of problems had been fixed correctly, and the money was well spent. The lack of problems at the date change reflect the completeness of the project.
There were no critical problems to begin with, and correcting the few minor mistakes as they occured would have been the most efficient way to solve the problem. This view was bolstered by the lack of Y2K-related problems in the Third World, which in general had not devoted the programming resources to remediation that the industrialized West had marshalled.
—Wikipedia, Year 2000 problem, Was the expenditure worth the effort?

The media made sure we knew about this problem–every day, any place we were.
The media moved our businesses to check our systems and upgrade.
The media also made the Y2K problem larger by over-reporting on actions of fanatics.

I see no evil intent in this. I do, however, see an incredibly unfortunate result of the Y2K media coverage, and the coverage of events like it, on where we are today.

When it comes to the media, I don’t know who or what to believe.

Where’s Walter Cronkite when you need him?

The Smoke Screen

Now the media is dancing around on the subject of blogs and bloggers. “We like you. Stay in your place. We respect citizen journalists. We’ need to be in control. Let us help you. You’ll be out of the way soon enough.” The message is incredibly unclear.

At first I thought media folks were talking down to me. Now, the more I read, the more I realize how much this sounds like Y2K again.

Something is happening, but no one is saying exactly what it is. The story is replete with opinion and conjecture intertwined with the facts. Examples aren’t representative. Words are filled with subtext and connotations. Reporters and bloggers spend as much time discussing each other as they do what’s happening.

I think that all of the talk in the media about blogging is just a smoke screen.

Doc Searls’ Three Scenarios

Brian Clark pointed me to Doc Searls article Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes. It’s not new. Doc Searls wrote it last November. Every blogger should read it to be able to speak about the future of the Internet with fluency. Doc Searls outlines three scenarios in compelling detail–any one of which is plausible.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Life, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog, Trends Tagged With: bc, Bell_companies, Doc_Searls, GoogleNet, information_highway, internet_carriers, media, MSM, telcos, Walter_Cronkite, Y2K

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