Mitch Joel

"One in five teen girls (22%), nearly as many teen boys (18%) and one-third (33%) of young adults say they have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude photographic or video images of themselves."

That was the scary and raw research delivered by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com in a study entitled, Sex & Tech. You can expect this news to makes its way through the regular mass media channels as a call to arms on the dangers of the online channels, privacy, mobile devices, the Internet and the new reality that younger people are more connected than ever and may not understand the long term implications of being able to publish anything at anytime to one another (and the world).

If we move beyond the images and videos, the numbers get just as raw and unnerving. Here's what was reported today on Marketing Charts for the news item titled, One in Five Teens Sends Sexually Explicit Images:

"On the receiving end of the messages, 48% of teens and 64% of young adults (56% total) say they have gotten a sexually suggestive message from someone else. Among young teen girls (age 13-16), one-third have received such messages. The research also finds that sexually suggestive images are frequently passed around and shown to friends: One-third (33%) of teen boys and one-fourth(25%) of teen girls say they have had nude/semi-nude images–originally intended to be private–shared with them. What teens and young adults are doing electronically seems to have an effect on what they do in real life, the survey found. Nearly one-quarter of teens (22%) say that technology makes them personally more forward and aggressive. Moreover, more than one-third of teens (38%) say exchanging sexy content makes dating or hooking up with others more likely, and nearly one-third of teens (29%) believe those exchanging sexy content are 'expected' to date or hook up."

Even if this content is going from one person to another, we've seen enough hijacked Sidekicks to know that the general rule of thumb must be: if you email it, you have to expect that it will be made public. Which is sad.

One of the more fascinating areas of these new digital channels is privacy and how it is changing. Young people - who have never known a world where everything they say and do is not posted on a Wall or tweeted - are going to define privacy in a very different way than we do. Digital Natives see things dramatically different (for further proof of this, check out the article from New York Magazine, Say Everything). All of this is going to make do-not-call registries and the like seem very rudimentary.

The bigger question: is this going to make people recoil and seek a much higher level privacy, or are we going to continue down this path where all of our lives become open books in online social networks and the like? 

Tags: cosmogirl digital native internet culture marketing charts mass media national campaign to prevent teen and unplanned pregnancy new york magazine news privacy say everything sex sidekick tech technology young people

Whether you are creating any form of content online (text, audio, images or video) or are simply consuming it, there is a huge cost to all of this free goodness.

On December 23rd, 2008 I posted a Blog entry titled, Breaking News On The Internet, where the question came up:

"Who is going to pay for all of this content that we are all now consuming online?"

That question could well be the crux of the problem most Marketers have with trying to figure out either how to monetize the Social Media channels or how to connect with consumers within it. The business behind most content has always been:

1. Advertising supported to make the content free.
2. Advertising supported to subsidize the cost.
3. Advertising-free with a cost.

Free without any form of advertising is only a business model if you can either sell and profit from the content (like a book) or if the media is being supported in another way (like government funding or private support). It's the way it has always been, so exploring new business models (see: Trading Analog Dollars For Digital Pennies) is a huge challenge for most companies. The other side of the coin is forgoing the idea of getting into these channels via advertising, and engaging in the concept of creating your own content and building your own community. Nothing builds loyalty like providing high quality content in a constant flow. These digital channels (be it a Blog, Podcast or online community) enable people to publish for free, but there is a huge cost. It's not just from the design, implementation, maintenance and hosting of the online channels (after all, if you don't want full control over the final product, there are many places that will give you the tools and the space to do it for free), but it's the creation, ideation and ongoing curating that is expensive.

Anybody can Blog, doesn't mean anybody should Blog.

Yes, the best part of these tools is that they are free and easy to use, but we all know the saying, "just because you can, does not mean that you should." On the personal or hobby side of things, Blog away, post away, tweet away. From a professional perspective, you need to have the content creators and a semi-well thought out plan in place if you really want to use these channels and tools to create a viable media property surrounding your brand, products and services. It's not as simple as freelancing the video out and it's way harder than hiring a writer to be your in-house Blogger.

There's probably a decent argument here that being able to publish for free has made the value of great content that much more valuable.

If everyone is publishing content across all platforms, who stands out? Clearly, the ones who are really being different, unique, creative and relevant. Finding the right people who "get it" and understand how the conversations flow, and how to keep them going is priceless. Figuring out how to take that channel and make it work - in terms of pure ROI and alignment with your overall business strategy - can't be cheap (or free)... and it shouldn't be.

What do you think: is content really free?

Tags: advertising blog business model business strategy consumer behaviour content digital marketing marketing monetization online community podcast publishing social media

Welcome to episode #137 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. Podcasting is not dead. In fact, it can't be dead because it hasn't even developed its own two, full lungs yet. If you have had a hard time understanding what all of this audio and video content is and how it can be used in Marketing and Communications, this episode is exactly what you'll need. Actually, it's not really *my* Podcast at all. Joseph Jaffe, author of Life After The 30-Second Spot and Join The Conversation plus Blogger and Podcaster over at Jaffe Juice gathered a bunch of Podcasters to discuss the media channel. This is the conversation. Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #137 - Host: Mitch Joel.

• Running time: 1:39.13.
• Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
• Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
• Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
• Subscribe over at iTunes.
• Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
• or you can connect on LinkedIn.
• ...or on twitter.
• Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
• In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
• The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
• Retweet or Cross Post of Jaffe Juice #121.
• Live record of a conversation with almost 100 people on the topic of Podcasting.
• Is Podcasting Dead?
• Podcasting Is Not Even On Life Support.
• The conversation is almost 90 minutes, but well worth the listen.
• Guests include:
• Joseph Jaffe – Jaffe Juice.
• Adam Curry – Podfather – Daily Source Code – Mevio.
• Cliff Ravenscraft - GSPN.TV.
• Shel Holtz - For Immediate Release - The Hobson and Holtz Report.
• Mignon Fogarty - Grammar Girl.
• Terry Fallis - Inside PR.
• Lee Hopkins.
• Jay Berkowitz - Ten Golden Rules.
• Dave Guerra.
• Jay Moonah - Media Driving.
• ... and many more.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #137 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: adam curry advertising blog blogging business cliff ravenscraft daily source code dave guerra digital marketing facebook facebook group for immediate release foreword thinking google grammar girl gspn inside pr is podcasting dead itunes jaffe juice jay berkowitz jay moonah joseph jaffe lee hopkins marketing media driving mevio mignon fogarty motivational books online social network podcast podcasting shel holtz six pixels of separation social media marketing ten golden rules terry fallis twist image twitter web 20

There are many places online to speak your mind in a quick, off-the-cuff and immediate fashion. This makes it one of the most fascinating media channels to come along. With it comes many challenges, like the legacy you leave behind in the heat of the moment...

This is nothing new. We all know that Google has a very long tail. We all know that anything we say, can and will be accessible forever. When it was mostly Blogs and Podcasts, there were enough incidents where people would write and say stuff that they later regretted or was challenged by others. Sometimes things got ugly, sometimes these incidents just came and went. Whatever the case, they are indexed and accessible by doing a very simple search.

Twitter ranks high in Google.

Have you been paying attention to the type of language and tone of voice that certain people use when they are on Twitter? People who consider themselves Communications, Marketing and Public Relations "professionals" using some very bad language and acting more like a high school sophomore than someone whose opinion is to be revered and respected. One of the basic rules given at any etiquette course is to never discuss religion or politics at a dinner party. If we kept with that line of thought, there would be some very empty spaces online. While we may have evolved from that line of thinking, the sentiment still stands strong: be mindful of what you say as you never know who will be offended, but worse, you never really know who you are talking to and who is listening in on that conversation. In public forums, this is both amplified and multiplied. It's not just who you're talking to (or about), it's everybody else in the world that is able to see it, read it and make their own judgement call about it.

How would you feel if you didn't score that client you were working on because they discovered an online conversation that you did not deal with in the most professional manner?

Some have been bold enough to say that it doesn't bother them one bit because that potential client obviously would not be the right match personality-wise. Based on some of the content I have seen passing through these channels, it has little to do with personality and much more to do with how that client feels their company would be represented in terms of reputation and credibility.

Bottom line advice would be to watch your language. Consider the perception one would have of you if they had never met you and only had your Twitter feed as a point of personal and professional reference. Take a look back on your Digital Footprint. How would you feel if - in the future - your children looked back on these conversations to see what their parent was really all about?

Following through is also a part of this conversation.

Many people criticize and comment but when responded to, they do not take the time or check back to see how it ended. All too often, I've come across Blog postings where someone left a comment that was responded to, but they never returned or never bothered to finish the dialogue. Even though their point may have been made, the public perception of how that conversation ended is not in their favour. Don't just criticize, provide a solution or a different perspective that can stand on its own.

Sometimes being able to publish every whim that scans across your brain is the best thing in the world. Sometimes, it can become a real problem. The killer is this: when it is a problem, you're usually the last to know and the damage is done.

Tags: blog commenting communications conversations digital footprint google internet culture language listening long tail media online community podcast public perception public relations etiquette publishing twitter

The news cycle has changed so much in the past five years. This has had a direct effect on Marketing and Advertising. It's about to change again and - as usual - Marketers are not prepared. And, from the looks of it, the general mass population might not be ready either.

There's that old saying that you have to know where you have been to know where you are going. The news used to be controlled by the major news outlets. Companies would launch their press releases in the morning on any given weekday (preferably Monday to Thursday) in hopes that it would be picked up by the television stations for the six o'clock news and then it would hit the newspapers the following morning. A good piece of news had legs and could linger for two - three days (if it was able to make it to the magazines, you would be looking at weeks and months). Then, TV stations like CNN launched and the mass public's appetite for news was turned on its head. We suddenly ushered in the era of the twenty-four hour news cycle. News was available at any given moment, and in an effort to fill that air time, news makers had to up their game to ensure that they were the ones breaking exclusive stories and having the scoops.

The Internet changed everything.

As more and more people got interested in the Internet it also became a secondary channel for these news companies to get the word out. Very few of these companies saw the potential threat that it would become to their empires, but as the speed of communications shifted again, many individuals began using the Web to broadcast their own news, as it happened. There were even moments where traditional news companies were breaking the news on their websites first in order to not get scooped by he competition. From there, Blogging platforms took hold and now we have micro-blogging spaces (like Twitter and FriendFeed) and the ability to comment and create content from our mobile devices.

Die! 24 Hour News Cycle! Die! Die!

On May 23rd, 2007, there was this Blog post, TNN - Twitter News Network Or How I Found Out About The Google - Feedburner Acquisition, from Six Pixels of Separation:

"Traditional media outlets would spend huge budgets to have correspondents placed in different parts of the world to file stories and get 'on the ground' insights that the average individual would never have access to. Now, at any given time, my fairly small friends list (it's fewer than one hundred and fifty) spans the globe and constantly feeds personal, local, national and global insights at a non-stop pace... In a world where we trust what our peers say at a much higher multiple than anything pumped out by the media, Twitter is perhaps beginning to demonstrate her true power."

Fast forward to now and Twitter has matured. It's not uncommon to not only learn about late breaking news way before the major news outlets get the chance to update their websites from places like Twitter, but more and more of these major news outlets are now trolling Twitter and FriendFeed for information, perspective and insight.

What does this all mean?

We no longer have a twenty-four news cycle. Something happens in the world (Mumbai, Gaza, or that someone was involved in a plane crash) and somebody, somewhere is informing the world through text, images, audio and even video within sixty seconds. What does the news and media industry look like now? Media empires are going to look very different in the coming months and years as we quickly shift into this Sixty Second News Cycle. It's no longer about which outlet breaks the new or how fast, it's going to be about how well they can report on something that everybody has already seen. By the time it takes a news outlet to produce a TV news segment, record some audio for radio or draft up a newspaper article, that news item has not only moved on, but it has already been replaced - countless times - by more and more news. Publishing online is fast and free.

We are inches away from the real-time news cycle.

The flow of the news is only increasing. It is hyper-local and global at the same time. News from your backyard is at your fingertips at the exact same speed as news from across the globe. How advertising is bought, sold and displayed is going to have to adjust. The longer, more thought-out and verified stories are going to have to mingle with the 140 character blasts. It's not going to stop. It's only going to increase.

How ready are we - really - for the Sixty Second News Cycle?

Tags: advertising blog cnn content friendfeed gaza hyper-local internet culture marketing mass media media micro blogging mumbai news newspaper publishing radio real-time news cycle sixty second news cycle television twenty four hour news cycle twitter

If you look at many of the profiles found on Blogs and people's ultra-short/sharp bios on Twitter, you will notice something very interesting: almost everybody says that they are either a New Media Strategist or a Social Media Strategist. What, exactly, does that mean and how can you better understand just how good they are at online strategy?

There is no doubt that when you get back to the office on Monday, everyone is going to be looking for areas to cut costs and get more efficient. Although we would like to think otherwise, Marketing is usually the first place to get hit... and hit hard. As part of whatever cost saving strategies will be implemented in your company, one question will be, "how can we better use some of these new media channels to gain efficiencies?" While this can be a slew of Blog posts on their own, most people will go online, do some generic searches or post a quick question on FriendFeed or Twitter asking their community who they should be speaking to. The reality is that when something is this new, everybody and anybody can claim to be an expert... or, at least, a "strategist."

Results speak louder than words.

Bios, Twitter feeds, Blog postings, etc... can all be great, interesting and meaty, but nothing will help you decide more than by looking at who they have worked for, what they have done and the results they have achieved. This is not about the size of the brands or the companies, sometimes the best Social Media and New Media stories are about how the local retailer was able to expand their business, create a global footprint, engage in a conversation with their customers and find some kind of fascinating business-to-business opportunity that was created specifically because they had engaged in these social channels. There's also something to be said for the individual who was able to take a not-for-profit or industry association and help them optimize the conversation between them and their constituents with little-to-no budget. If the Strategist can't show you real platforms and demonstrate how they changed, added value or affected the business goals of their clients directly, move on.

Do some snooping around on your own.

Doing simple searches on Technorati, Google Blog Search, Twitter Search, FriendFeed or creating a Google Alerts about the company that the Strategist has worked for is another very easy and simple way to see if the work they had done has had any effect. Without question, speaking directly to the client is an important part of deciding if you are going to move forward, but keep in mind that because these channels are so new, the clients may not even know (or be able to verbalize) exactly what the Strategist really did beyond regurgitating what they may have seen in a status report or heard anecdotally through someone else. One of the best ways to make the right decision on who you are going to work with is to empower yourself to use the many free tools available at your fingertips that will only take a few minutes to figure out, and pull results from them. Even doing a generic search on the client should pull some information to see if the needle has moved.

Go beyond the results to see the cross-channel effect.

It's not just about whether the Strategist helped the client start a Blog, get on Twitter or create a Facebook Fan Page. Telling someone what they should do is not understanding the client's business goals, seeing how these social channels fit into the mix, choosing the right channel, building the platform effectively and ensuring that there is ongoing nurturing to the community and beyond. On top of really developing and executing this New Media strategy, any great Strategist worth their weight should also have some kind of significant experience in Marketing, Communications, Advertising, Public Relations, etc... Because any strong New Media strategy needs to fit in perfectly with the overall Marketing and Communications strategy. Nothing works in a silo. Nor should it. Every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to build, share and grow the relationship. If all of these touchpoints are not connected, all is lost. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

How good is their own self-promotion?

One of the best parts of these social channels is that anyone can take part and be published. How great is the Strategist in using these same channels to build their own business and reputation? Adding friends on Twitter and Facebook is easy. It's just a simple click. Anyone can be following or friending anybody. The real question is this: who is following them and is a friend of theirs? But even that is superficial. Some of the biggest names out there will add anybody and everybody to build their own network, community and audience. The bigger question is this: how well respected, how much authority and who looks to this Strategist for insight and information? It's not enough to have the occasional Blog comment from an a-list Blogger. Dig deeper. Check out where the Strategist ranks on Technorati for their Blog and see who links to their spaces. Google never lies. In a world of transparency, it's pretty simple to see just how good someone really is. Some might argue this point by saying that the Strategist's platforms might still be very new or that you don't, necessarily, have to have your own, successful, Blog to help a client build one. Agreed, but in that case...

Nothing beats experience and history.

As new as these social media and new media channels are, a great Marketing and Communications professional with experience and a track record of helping to facilitate communications and build community is pretty easy to identify. In a world of over 130 million Blogs (according to Technorati), even the brand new ones get a ton of attention if they are, truly, remarkable by adding something new to the conversation or simply being published by someone who is respected because of the work they do. If a seasoned professional can't get their own insights and platforms any form of attention, how do you really think they will be able to perform for you?

Remember, anybody can create a Blog or say some pithy stuff on Twitter. All of these channels lack any formal process of ranking authority, so the amateur and the twenty-year veteran both have equal footing, This is the best (and worst) part of these social channels.

Tags: advertising blog business strategy communications consulting cross channel marketing facebook friendfeed google alert google blog search marketing new media new media strategist online community public relations self-promotion social channel social media social media strategist technorati twitter twitter search

Everyone knows the big, major a-list Bloggers who get all of the attention. Blogs are shifting away from being personal journals to being full-fledged media properties. It is increasingly difficult to stand out in the crowd. With hundreds of millions of Blogs out there (over 130 million at Technorati's last count), how do you know who to follow (and who to trust) anymore?

Before we stick a final fork in 2008 and look forward to 2009, let's take this brief moment to thank the following nine Blogs for getting us to think differently. My hopes are that in the New Year, these new media properties continue to pump out the killer content and, in the process, pick up a couple of new community members. As you sip on your last few days of vacation before the madness of the office kicks in, do yourself a favour and check out one (or all) of the following Blogs.

Here are 09 Blogs for you to watch in 09 (in alphabetical order):

From Where I Sit by Michael S. Hyatt.
Hyatt is the the President and Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers, "the largest Christian publishing company in the world and the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S." He has been with the company for over a decade and is embracing anything and everything to do with new media. His Blog is very personal and offers amazing marketing and business strategy insights from someone in the middle of an industry in flux.

HughMcguire.net by Hugh McGuire (also check out The Book Oven Blog).
One of the smartest people I know (and a personal friend), McGuire is the brains behind LibriVox. His personal Blog dances between posts about the media, the open source movement, the economy and politics. He's been Blogging for a long while, but deserves much more attention and traffic. His new start-up, The Book Oven (still in stealth mode), also has an amazing Blog that focuses on the publishing industry. Full disclosure: I sit on the board of advisors for The Book Oven.

MediaShift by PBS (multi-authored).
There's almost too much great content on MediaShift. This PBS Blog curated by multiple authors focuses on all things Digital Media. If you are thinking that you only have time to visit one Blog in your busy and hectic schedule, this might be the one.

One Mann's Opinion by Kneale Mann.
Mann is a former radio guy with a long history in the music and entertainment industry. Understanding the radical changes that those industries are facing, he started playing around with Social Media and the Digital Marketing channels. One of the results is this, his personal Blog. His insights are poignant, fresh, but more importantly, well-structured and well-written. He is a pleasure to read and mixes humour and rawness with the experience of someone who has seen it and done it all. It's great to see industry veterans digging in deep and playing with the space.

The Praized Blog by Sebastien Provencher.
More people need to reading Sebastien Provencher. This former Yellow Pages Group executive cut loose into his own start-up a few years back, Praized, and brings deep publishing insights to the Blogosphere. The Praized Blog doesn't just look and comment on what's happening, it breaks down the core pieces and discusses what it really means to the average business person... and why they need to care.

PressThink by Jay Rosen.
Jay Rosen might be considered an a-lister in the journalism world, but I'm not sure if enough people are really connecting to everything he is doing. This NYU Journalism Professor is dropping insane amounts of media knowledge, challenging the status quo of the newspaper industry and sharing everything along the way. PressThink is a great place to get a feel for his high-brow thinking, but it's just the beginning. His stuff on Twitter is amazing and his latest project, NewAssignement.net, looks equally compelling.

Publishing 2.0 by Scott Karp.
This Blog about "how technology is transforming media" is constantly filled with challenges and opportunities for how the traditional news makers can get better and smarter by using the Web. Karp is known for coining the term, 'Link Journalism', and the Blog is constantly filled with a steady stream of creative and practical solutions that have real muscle behind them. You will be especially fond of his, "I Am The Future of Journalism Contest" that he is currently running (hey, if they aren't going to teach this stuff in Journalism school, why not have a place like Publishing 2.0 to do it.)

Technocite by Roberto Rocha. 
Rocha is a Business Reporter for the Montreal Gazette who focuses on technology. He's not just a journalist with a beat, he is a passionate technology guy. Some of the words he writes, or the stories that he is privy to don't always make it into the print edition, so he's been Blogging up a storm over at Technocite. With a heavy focus on technology, business and a slant towards the start-ups, Rocha's journalistic acumen and precision makes the Blog a pleasure to read if you need to better understand how technology is changing the very fabric of business. Full disclosure: I also write a business column for the Montreal Gazette.

Twitterrati by Mark Evans.
Mark Evans was the technology reporter for many national news organizations before heading off into the start-up world. He is the co-founder of the very popular Web 2.0 conference, Mesh, and is also a passionate Blogger. Just recently, he launched Twitterrati a brand new Blog focused on Twitter, "the growing number of tools to use it, and the microblogging market, including players such as Tumblr, Jaiku, Identi.ca, Yammer, et al." Let's face it, Twitter is hot and everyone is interested in all things Twitter, so having someone with a professional background in Journalism scoping out the platforms is something extremely interesting to read and follow.

Side note: almost all of the people listed above are also well worth checking out on Twitter too. Most of them have content that is just as interesting bursting out of their 140 character limit.

Who are your unsung Blog heroes and who else should we be watching (and reading) in 2009?

Tags: blog blogger blogging book oven book publishing business content digital marketing digital media from where i sit hugh mcguire indentica jaiku jay rosen journalism kneale mann librivox link journalism mark evans media property mediashift mesh conference michael s hyatt microblog montreal gazette new media newassignment nyu journalism one manns thoughts online community pbs praized praized blog pressthink publishing publishing 20 roberto rocha scott karp sebastien provencher social media start-up technocite technology technorati thomas nelson publishers trend tumblr twitter twitterrati yammer yellow pages group

It is not just about the music industry. Television is feeling it. Radio is feeling it. Magazines are feeling it. Newspapers are feeling it. Movies are feeling it. Books are feeling it. Even websites and Blogs that act like mass media are feeling it too. What are they feeling?

The end (as they have known it to be).

There were four extremely powerful Blogs posts and articles that hit varying perspectives on various mass media enterprises that have come out over the past few days. All of which will be listed below and all of which are worthy reads. The net result is that nothing looks all that hopeful for them and their future (if they keep on keeping on as they have been for years). It was four very tough pieces of content to digest considering the time of year. Instead of looking forward to a brand new year of hope and opportunity, it looks like mass media is about to face mass destruction. Not from a content or audience perspective, but from a need to really look into their own mirror and decide who, exactly, they want to be in a world where the term "media fragmentation" is passed around far too easily without bearing the serious consequence of those two simple words, and advertising dollars are going to have to be divided amongst many more players than any of them ever imagined.

Audiences seem to be everywhere and nowhere.

Advertisers seem to be leery of what mass media can do for their brands and even more skeptical of online marketing.

Content Piece #1 - The Wall Street Journal - All I Wanted for Christmas Was a Newspaper by Paul Mulshine (hat tip - Matthew Ingram):

"This highlights the real flaw in the thinking of those who herald the era of citizen journalism. They assume newspapers are going out of business because we aren't doing what we in fact do amazingly well, which is to quickly analyze and report on complex public issues. The real reason they're under pressure is much more mundane. The Internet can carry ads more cheaply, particularly help-wanted and automotive ads.

So if you want a car or a job, go to the Internet. But don't expect that Web site to hire somebody to sit through town-council meetings and explain to you why your taxes will be going up. Soon, newspapers won't be able to do it either."

So, great Journalism and the future of newspapers would have been secured if help wanted and automotive ads had not worked more effectively online? The new reality is this: before people didn't have a choice where they could go if they were looking for a job. It's not the advertisers fault that they found a more effective way to get their advertising to work. It's the newspaper's fault for not figuring out a better business model and delivering something more than a shell to surround those types of ads. People did not stop reading newspapers because those ads shifted online, they stopped reading newspapers because the content was not relevant to them anymore. The sooner newspapers become relevant to people, the sooner they will discover their future. The reality is that it may not be the same amount of mad money as it was when they were the only game in town - and that's the real and mundane reality.

Content Piece #2 - Mssv - The Long Decline of Reading by Adrian Hon:

"The closer you look at the statistics, the more depressing it gets. In the US, only 47% of adults read a work of literature - and I don’t mean Shakespeare, I mean any novel, short story, play or poem - in 2006. If that doesn’t sound too bad, consider that it’s declined by 7% in only ten years. It doesn’t matter whether you look at men or women, kids, teenagers, young adults or the middle-aged; everyone is reading less literature, and fewer books... But it’s not just bad, it’s awful. Reading skills for all levels of educational attainment are declining, up to and including people with Masters and PhDs. Reading is strongly correlated with all sorts of good things, such as voting, volunteering, civic responsibility, and even exercise. Furthermore, reading skill at a young age is a very good predictor of future educational success and earnings. Correlation is not causation, but it’s a fact that employers are demanding people with better reading and writing skills."

You would think that with Blogs, mobile text messages, Facebook, etc... that young people are reading a lot more than when the only choices were books or TV. I would argue that people, in general, are probably reading a lot more than they realize (think about email, etc...), but there is a bigger issue here: Snackable content is easily digested and just as easily forgotten. Let's not forget about the different types of learning we get from the different types of reading. This is one of the primary reasons why picking up a book is such an important part of your personal development. Speaking of which...

Content Piece #3 - TomDispatch.com - The Time of the Book by Tom Engelhardt (hat tip - Hugh McGuire):

"A friend (and author) called me recently after visiting a large bookstore in Northern California and, his voice suitably hushed, told me that, on a weekday, he had been the only customer in sight. That's typical of the nightmarish tales about traffic in bookstores and book sales now ripping through my world as 2008 ends... Publishing houses are certainly bleeding and those that haven't yet started to take staff and books out to the woodshed, axe in hand, are going after end-of-the-year bonuses, raises, and who knows what else, while management girds its loins for 'the inevitable.' After all, in malls across America, the chain bookstores are getting mauled (just like other retailers). Traffic at many bookstores nationwide has evidently slowed to a trickle. Book orders have reportedly fallen off a cliff. It's now being said that, in this Christmas season, no popular book is selling so well as to be unavailable. In other words, if you want it, it's going to be at your local Barnes & Noble. For publishing, that's like an obituary."

This non-ad supported media is also feeling the digital pinch in a big way. If you think e-books and the Amazon Kindle is going to be this industry's salvation, take a look at the amount of publishers, authors and book-sellers and compare that with the amount of people who not only buy books, but actually read them and buy some more.

Content Piece #4 - TechCrunch - Content Sites Bracing For 50% Revenue Slowdown by Michael Arrington:

"Display advertising revenue is going to fall of a cliff in January according to a number of content sites I’ve spoken with who rely on advertising for revenue. 'Sales through December were mostly strong as advertisers used up their marketing budgets,' said one sales exec. But, he added, 'there are few buyers for this next fiscal quarter, and those few that are buying are looking for steep discounts.'

Just how bad will it be? I’ve heard estimates of 30%-80% revenue drops over the next three months from companies that serve a variety of content (games sites, tech news, celebrity news, political news, etc.). The median pessimism point is around 50%. The people I’ve spoken with work at large public companies and small one-person blog shops. Absolutely no one I spoke with said they expect an up quarter."

A New Year's Resolution.

Start thinking right now about the business you're in. Start thinking right now about your clients and how they connect to their consumers. Start making resolutions around strategy, business development and relationship building. The challenges are not going to pass us by like ships in the night. Starting out of the gates in 2009 next week, we are all going to be faced with one of the most challenging years the marketing, advertising and media business has ever seen - from all angles.

How are you going to change and evolve in 2009?

Tags: adrian hon advertising all I wanted for christmas was a newspaper amazon kindle article audience barnes and noble blog book industry bookstore business model citizen journalism content content sites bracing for fifty percent revenue slowdown display advertising ebook facebook hugh mcguire journalism literature marketing mass media matthew ingram media media fragmentation michael arrington mssv new year resolution newspaper industry online marketing paul mulshine publishing reading snackable content techcrunch the long decline of reading the time of the book tom engelhardt tomdispatch wall street journal

This post would have been called, Podcasting Is Not Dead, if that had not already been the title of a Blog posting here on September 20th. There was recently news that Podango - some kind of Podcasting related company - might be filing for bankruptcy. Any time something like this happens, the "Podcasting is dead" Blog postings and media attention quickly follows. Here's the newsflash: Podcasting is not dead. Podcasting is not even on life support. Podcasting hasn't even begun to breathe with its own two lungs yet.

There are many companies that looked at Podcasting as a mass media channel. They felt - be it with the audio or video versions of Podcasting - that the opportunity would be in creating either channels or stations where all of this varied and niche content could reside, and once it is aggregated it would be appealing to the media and advertising community. It was not a bad play, but it may simply have been too early to make it work efficiently from an advertising perspective. I don't know anything about Podango, but by the looks of their website, that's what they were banking on.

Podcasting is not a mass media. Podcasting is all about small audiences built around very niche content. The mass media adaptation of their content for the Podcasting channel is already being monetized through their existing advertising deals.

Upon hearing the news about Podango, Chris Brogan had a great Blog posting titled, Podcasting Isn’t Exactly Dead, where one of his more salient points was, "I’ve been trashed a few times by the old guard of podcasting for saying similar things. The thing is, podcasting isn’t exactly dead - it’s different than we all planned." This is where the music industry analogy kicks in. Indie music artists are always pissed off at the major labels for ruining "their thing" with all the bubble gum pop and cookie-cutter bands they sign and market. Sadly, this is the type of music that breaks through and is accepted by the masses. This does not diminish the power, value and creativity of indie artists. This is the same for Podcasting. Just because For Immediate Release - The Hobson and Holtz Report Podcast does not attract the advertising clout of McDonalds does not make it any less valuable to those interested in the best insights you can get on public relations and marketing.

What is the reality of Podcasting?

The reality is that most Podcasts fall into three categories:

1. Independently produced content (like For Immediate Release and the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast).
2. Mass media re-produced content (like CBC's Search Engine or BusinessWeek's Cover Stories).
3. High quality - highly targeted content (like when companies develop Podcasts. See GE On Demand or Whirlpool's The American Family).

None of these should be considered mass media content that would be of immediate value to advertisers who deal mostly in the mainstream TV, Radio, Print and Out-of-home world. That all being said, there is no slow down of sales for iPods and the integration of portable digital media players and the mobile channels (just look at what you can do with an iPhone or BlackBerry Bold) is still very nascent. As excited as people still are about Blogs, there will be (and to a certain degree, there already is) a very similar feeling about grabbing audio and video content in this on-demand and time-shifted fashion.

Are you still excited about Podcasting or are you ready to put one of the nails in the coffin?

Bonus: on Wednesday, December 31st at 12:30 pm EST, Joseph Jaffe will be recording his audio Podcast, Jaffe Juice, live where the debate about Podcasting will continue. Jaffe has reached out to fellow Podcasters Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, Adam Curry, Cliff Ravenscraft, David Jones, Terry Fallis, John Wall, Christopher S. Penn, Lee Hopkins, and your truly to join him. You can take part too by going here: Jaffe Juice via Talkshoe or you can read more about it here: One more thing before the ball drops: Is Podcasting dead or not?

Tags: adam curry advertising audio blackberry bold blog businessweek cbc chris brogan christopher s penn cliff ravenscraft content david jones for immediate release the hobson and holtz report ge on demand iphone ipod jaffe juice john wall joseph jaffe lee hopkins marketing mass media mcdonalds media media channel music industry neville hobson podango podcast podcasting public relations search engine shel holtz talkshoe terry fallis the american family video whirlpool

Welcome to episode #136 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. Christopher S. Penn scares me (in the best possible way). He may be the Chief Technology Office over at the Student Loan Network, but he really is one of the smartest and most powerful online marketers I know. He has his now-famous, The Financial Aid Podcast, he is the co-host of the amazing Podcast, Marketing Over Coffee, he is the co-founder of PodCamp and now the author of the free ebook, The Twitter Power Guide. Take a listen to this discussion about Twitter and what it means to business and marketing. Enjoy the conversation...

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #136 - Host: Mitch Joel.

• Running time: 41:00.
• Audio comment line - please send in a comment and add your voice to the audio community: +1 206-666-6056.
• Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com.
• Hello from Beautiful Montreal.
• Subscribe over at iTunes.
• Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
• Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
• or you can connect on LinkedIn.
• ...or on twitter.
• Facebook Group - Six Pixels of Separation Podcast Society.
• In a perfect world, connect with me, directly, through Facebook.
• Check out the other Podcast, Foreword Thinking - The Business And Motivational Book Review Podcast.
• Foreword Thinking - Episode #11 featuring Michael Gerber - E-Myth Revisited and Awakening The Entrepreneur Within.
• The Road to Six Pixels of Separation – The Book – coming soon.
• In Conversation with Christopher S. Penn all about Twitter.
• The Financial Aid Podcast.
• Marketing Over Coffee.
• Christopher S. Penn Blog.
• Chris on Twitter.
• The Twitter Power Guide eBook.
• co-founder of PodCamp.
• Music from the Podsafe Music Network:
• Caledonix - ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

Please join the conversation by sending in questions, feedback and ways to improve Six Pixels Of Separation. Please let me know what you think or leave an audio comment at: +1 206-666-6056.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #136 - Host: Mitch Joel.

Tags: advertising blog blogging business caledonix christopher s penn digital marketing facebook facebook group financial aid podcast foreword thinking google itunes marketing marketing over coffee motivational books online social network podcamp podcast podcasting podsafe music network six pixels of separation social media marketing student loan network twist image twitter twitter power guide ebook web 20

Twitter is hailed as micro-Blogging, but it's much more like rapid fire Blogging. Even if you only follow a handful of friends, it can quickly get unwieldy, hard to manage and confusing to follow any semblance of a conversation. There are many (including me) who have said that following Twitter is a little bit like drinking from the fire hose.

The bigger question is: how do you get more out of the fire hose than the occasional dribble? The answer is that you can't (unless you're willing to give up your life to stare at the screen all day). Over the past few days, one of the better ways for me to interface with Twitter has been through an iPod Touch with the paid application, Tweetie (hat tip to Eden Spodek). Everything from the overall usability and navigation felt much more intuitive than the web-based version of Twitter (which was very surprising, as most mobile applications usually pale in comparison to the Web versions).

Then, Dave Winer over at Scripting News posted this Blog item: Tweetree. It turns out that Tweetree is a brand new web-based tool that looks exactly like your regular Twitter page, but does a whole lot more including certain threading to replies, and sucking in cool stuff like images, videos and web pages that are described in the Tweets. It makes the whole experience of Twitter that much more manageable. It's not perfect (what is?), but it does make things just a little bit cleaner and better flowing.

If you're going to be using the Twitter interface and have yet to be swayed over to TweetDeck (more on that here: TweetDeck - How Tweet It Is), you should definitely check out Tweetree. Besides, Tweetree seems brand new, and who doesn't like being the cool kid on the block with the latest shiny object to play with?

What do you use to manage Twitter? Do you prefer web-based or mobile applications?

Tags: dave winer eden spodek internet culture iphone app ipod touch micro blog mobile application scripting news shiny objects tweetdeck tweetie tweetree twitter web

Almost any and every news article is now at your fingertips. Most of them are completely free. We take this new flow of information for granted.

In under a decade we went from having to get newspapers from anywhere but the city we were located in either specially delivered or specially ordered. It cost a lot more money and it usually took longer for those editions to arrive. Now, everything is everywhere and the challenge is not in the delivery. The challenge is in finding these articles and retaining the information. Some might even argue that the biggest challenge is in organizing it. In all of this mass content from the mass media, there is one article about the Internet that stands out as "the best" in 2008. It is:

The Charms of Wikipedia from Volume 55, Number 4 · March 20, 2008 of The New York Review of Books by Nicholson Baker. The article is actually a book review of Wikipedia - The Missing Manual by John Broughton (Pogue Press/O'Reilly).

"More people use Wikipedia than Amazon or eBay — in fact it's up there in the top-ten Alexa rankings with those moneyed funhouses MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. Why? Because it has 2.2 million articles, and because it's very often the first hit in a Google search, and because it just feels good to find something there — even, or especially, when the article you find is maybe a little clumsily written. Any inelegance, or typo, or relic of vandalism reminds you that this gigantic encyclopedia isn't a commercial product. There are no banners for E*Trade or Classmates.com, no side sprinklings of AdSense.

It was constructed, in less than eight years, by strangers who disagreed about all kinds of things but who were drawn to a shared, not-for-profit purpose. They were drawn because for a work of reference Wikipedia seemed unusually humble. It asked for help, and when it did, it used a particularly affecting word: 'stub.' At the bottom of a short article about something, it would say, 'This article about X is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.' And you'd think: That poor sad stub: I will help. Not right now, because I'm writing a book, but someday, yes, I will try to help."

The book review is so rich in terms of writing, content and insight, that you will forget it is a book review. The article also houses one of the best quotes I have ever read about the Internet:

"This is a reference book that can suddenly go nasty on you. Who knows whether, when you look up Harvard's one-time warrior-president, James Bryant Conant, you're going to get a bland, evenhanded article about him, or whether the whole page will read (as it did for seventeen minutes on April 26, 2006): 'HES A BIG STUPID HEAD.' James Conant was, after all, in some important ways, a big stupid head. He was studiously anti-Semitic, a strong believer in wonder-weapons—a man who was quite as happy figuring out new ways to kill people as he was administering a great university. Without the kooks and the insulters and the spray-can taggers, Wikipedia would just be the most useful encyclopedia ever made. Instead it's a fast-paced game of paintball.

Not only does Wikipedia need its vandals—up to a point—the vandals need an orderly Wikipedia, too. Without order, their culture-jamming lacks a context. If Wikipedia were rendered entirely chaotic and obscene, there would be no joy in [it]."

Every sentence glows and each paragraph flows into the next and, before you know it, the article is finished where both these immense feelings of knowing something you wished everybody else knew collides with a sadness that it is over as you hunt for the next piece that will stir you this much.

Check it out for yourself: The New York Book Review of Books - The Charms of Wikipedia - Nicholson Baker.

What was your most memorable article about the Internet in 2008?

(side bar: if you love this article as much as I did, you can also listen to an audio conversation I had with the book author, John Broughton, here: SPOS #123 - Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - +1 (206) 666-6056 - Unravelling The Mystery Of Wikipedia With John Broughton).

Tags: adsense alexa ranking amazon article best 2008 book review charms of wikipedia classmates culture jamming ebay encyclopedia etrade facebook google internet article internet culture james bryant conant john broughton journalism mass collaboration myspace new york review of books newspaper nicholson baker not for profit oreilly paintball pogue press reference book wikipedia wikipedia the missing manual writing youtube

The struggle for traditional media to survive gets ever-more complicated. The slowing down of the holiday season, a worsening economy and the need to satisfy shareholders with quarterly earnings creates a lose-lose scenario for them. But, it's not too late. Here's a cheap and easy way to build a media empire...

...and the best part is that anybody can do it (yes, even you).

What kind of news are people really looking for on a day-to-day basis?

There are three major buckets:

1. Local news.
2. International news.
3. Quality journalism and opinion.

With the staggering growth of the Internet and mobile services, the best international news is available from multiple sources in a variety of ways. Just the other day, USA Today launched an impressive iPhone app and ABC News did the same. Let's all agree that any quality newspaper can simply embrace the idea of link journalism and move on from covering the international perspective. If you still don't believe that this is a solution, take a quick glance at Google News and how they aggregate content from all over the world.

Think local and think quality.

There are way too many places to get hyper-local news content, and there's even more places where you can find some of the best quality journalism and opinion online (Blogs and beyond), the challenge for any publishing organization is to get those two segments from one journalist or online editor. Here's the opportunity for any media organization (or even you):

Create an online platform similar to that of The Huffington Post (essentially, a Blog platform for multiple authors with some added functionality). Hire 3-5 amazing journalists from the city that you serve (some of the best have already been let go from the big publishers), pay them well and hook them up with a laptop, Flip Video camera, a M-Audio MicroTrack recorder, the fastest Internet connection you can find, and then let them do what they do best: create local stories with a high level of quality and opinion. There is no need for office space. They can meet (if that's even required) at a local coffee shop, the library or some place that rents boardrooms by the hour. They can also simply have a Skype conference chat daily (or as required) and work with a tool like Google Docs for their editorial calendar. While you're at it, let anyone in the community also create content. Keep in mind that content is not just text - we're talking audio, video and images as well. Allow everything to be open to comment. Create areas that are based on a wiki platform, and let everyone in the community mass collaborate (areas might include: school closings, events calendar, announcements, etc...).

Leave them alone for a couple of years.

Yes, you read that right. Leave them alone for a couple of years. Don't worry about advertising or how you are going to monetize the space... yet. Hustling for banner ads is not going to generate the revenue that you were hoping for, and by focusing on this - instead of the quality and relevance of the content - it is only going to cause you to be distracted. Give these journalists the time and breathing room to find their groove, and give the community the time to adjust, adapt and embrace this new world of publishing.

Where and when will the money follow?

To be honest, nobody knows. But, looking at the infrastructure above, all you really need to invest in this is the Blogging platform, the 3-5 editorial staff salary and maybe a couple of Webmasters and online editors to keep the flow going. No offices, no printing presses, no unions, etc... The cost to try this type of experiment can't even be close to the burn rate presently happening for any publisher on a weekly basis.

The outcome will be a better understanding of what news and media really clicks with your community. You'll better understand how they like their news and when to deliver it (and on what platforms). From there, you can figure out how to replicate this model in other geographical regions or by vertical. By building community and getting all of the people within the community to rally around something so powerful, you will be able to attract the best kinds of advertisers, affiliates, sponsors and even distribution partners. From there, new business models will unfold and define themselves.

You can't change an industry by simply cutting costs. You can't grow an industry unless you're look at revenue generation. You can't do anything unless you start by doing something radical.

Tags: abc news advertising blog blogger blogging flip video camera google docs google news huffington post hyper local international news iphone app journalism journalist link journalism local news m-audio media media empire microtrack news newspaper industry online community publishing skype traditional media usa today

Regardless of what holidays you celebrate, Christmas Eve is the perfect time to reflect on the year that passed and the year that is coming up. If you read this Blog, there is no doubt that you are a Marketer who cares and wants to make a difference. Many people have no idea where to start. Here is a list of very little things each and every one of us can do to make the world a better place.

Think about doing one (or many) of these things:

- Take one of your older computers (laptop or desktop) and give it to a sick children's hospital. You don't need it. You're never going to open any of those old files. The kids can use it to be online and escape their day to day stress.

- Make a donation to Wikipedia. "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge," says Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a not-for-profit that is run through the Wikimedia Foundation. How many times a day do you use Wikipedia? How amazing is it to have that wealth of knowledge that is constantly being edited and curated by all of us at your fingertips? Make sure to check out this amazing article: The New York Review of Books - The Charms of Wikipedia. This idea was inspired by Ari Herzog's Blog post, Why I Donate to Wikipedia.

- Call up a local charity that means something in your life and offer to go in and give them a presentation on how they can use social media tools to get the word out, increase awareness, raise funds and get more people to volunteer. Just showing them the basics of RSS, Blogs, Facebook and Twitter will go a long way.

- Take three books off of your bookshelf that you have read (and loved). Write a short note on the inside about why they meant so much to you, and give them to someone who you know would appreciate the messages inside.

- Call your local university and ask if you can mentor someone in the Marketing and Communications department. This is not meant to be a long-term/formal process. Many young people in university are not aware of the many amazing career opportunities there are in Digital Marketing. Help them make the right career choice.

- Choose three lesser-known Marketing Blogs that you follow and make a commitment to leave a regular comment/contribution. It's nice that the big Blogs get all of the traffic, but let's ensure that all Blogs get some form of recognition. Without comments and feedback, it is hard for a Blogger to know if they are making a difference and adding value.

- Read at least one item (Blog, article, book, etc...) that has nothing to do with Marketing, Communications, Advertising or Public Relations. Make it something about science, literature, the environment, politics, whatever. Opening your own mind to different ideas and concepts will give you a different perspective on the world. It will keep you curious and others will feed off of that energy.

- Respond to those emails that you have been putting off. You know the ones.

- Get involved in some kind of unconference or meet-up. It could be a BarCamp or PodCamp a Pecha Kucha or a Geek Dinner. Be one of the lead volunteers. The time involvement will be less than you think, but the relationship, connections and overall community development that you will be a part of will change everything you thought you knew about community.

- Volunteer for one of the many industry associations. Yes, there are dues to pay, meetings to attend a general feeling like nothing ever really gets done, but that's not the point. The point of being a part of your industry association is be an active member of your community. And, don't believe the nay-sayers - you can make a difference.

Now, it's your turn: what are some of the other small things we, as Marketers, can do to make a difference?

Tags: ari herzog barcamp blog charity charms of wikipedia communication digital marketing donation facebook geek dinner jimmy wales making a difference marketer marketing marketing blog new york review of books pecha kucha podcamp presentation rss twitter unconference volunteer wikimedia foundation wikipedia