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This has been a-mullin’ and a-musin’ around in what some laughably call my brain for a little while now.

My friend and colleague-in-arms Trevor Cook wrote an op-ed piece for the ABC’s ‘Unleashed’ site about the seeming death of social media in Australia. Robert X. Cringely argued that Social Media is just CB Radio by another name.

Trevor argues that the Australian blogosphere, or the larger ‘Social Media’ environment in Australia, is not so much dying for a lack of trying but that it is exhausted from burning too many candles at both ends and starving to death from a lack of income.

As a meme this is nothing new — we’ve been around this particular park before. But Trevor makes some compelling points in his piece:

"In those heady days, American online gurus Shel Israel and Robert Scoble rallied the believers with "Naked Conversations", a dewy-eyed book-length version of the geek vision-splendid. But last week, Israel blogged a more sobering update:

"There seems to be a growing sense that social media just ain’t what it used to be that it too, is starting to emerge as yet another wasteland for product pushers and shameless self promoters."

"As social networks get bigger they lose their cosy clubbiness and can feel more like a business networking function where ‘product pushers’ keep crashing your conversations or snubbing you in favour of more popular attendees."

Very true.

Trevor goes on to quote arguably Australia’s most successful blogger, Darren Rowse:

"…when I first started blogging (it’ll be six years ago later in the year) there was a real community spirit among bloggers and the idea of bloggers helping bloggers was something most people seemed to embrace.

The blogosphere is a different place now in many ways. For starters there are a lot more blogs. There is almost a bigger focus upon blogging as a business tool and the idea of making money online in general."

But whilst I agree with Darren and Trevor that the communitarian spirit of blogging is potentially slipping away due to a lack of time available to focus on it, I think Darren is also being gently ambidextrous; after all, B5media (the blogging network he helped form) was created entirely to make money ("blogging for benjamins" as my main man Jenkins so eruditely puts it), and Darren has no shortage of adverts on his site (nor do I, either — we both need to eat).

And let us not forget that my own research is based on the premise that it is the solo entrepreneurs who define any new communication space and find ways of making money out of it.

But back to the issue of Aussie Social Media’s death…

Steven Lewis highlights what I and Allan Jenkins found over eighteen months ago — that podcasting is hard work. Goodness knows how Shel and Neville still manage to do it!

Time was when I had plenty of time to read my feeds of a morning and keep up a daily conversation with Trevor via our blogs. These days I’m so busy I barely have time to read my favourite authors (and he is one) more than once or twice a week. I haven’t listened to a single podcast in well over three months.

Josh Hallett wrote about the lack of time almost exactly a year ago:

"I used to blog quite a bit in what could loosely be termed the ‘thought leadership’ vein….that was commentary on this evolving world of social media. It was great for business development, but then I ended up getting busy, too busy to blog :-)"

One of his commenters agreed:

"Completely empathize with you. I had dinner tonight with an old blogging friend and we talked about how tired we are of "blogs" being this term of wonderment. We can hardly find time to read our favorite blogs, let alone update ours anymore, because we are scanning facebook, checking our Twitter and working like crazy. We reminisced about the old days of Diaryland. Those were the first blogs, where we had our first glimpse at what life was like for someone else just like us, but across the country or around the world. It was so excited to read the daily life of someone in Canada or Sweden! Now, it’s all old hat…Now, it’s our work!"

I find this dilemma in my own professional/academic life.

I am taking time out to re-skill in what I believe will be an important development or ‘next stage’ of the internet: the 3d virtual web. I am supposed to be blogging intensely about my research as part of my research (I know that’s a tautology, but I’m using a method that I have named autoethnetnography).

But to keep the biggest wolves from the door I still have to earn some money, and consulting work is the most lucrative and where I derive the most self-actualising ‘kicks’. However, to maintain a ‘profile’ within the Australian social media space I need to continue posting on this blog, otherwise my readership goes down and with it my Technorati authority.

Okay, we shall leave aside all discussions on which metric is ‘best’ for the moment. Let us assume that ‘less blogging = less exposure’ amongst conference organisers and seminar/workshop designers.

As an example of this, there will shortly be a major Marketing Conference here in Adelaide where some of the sessions are on areas that I believe I have much to contribute (perhaps more than the actual speaker). But I was not even on the radar of the organisers, despite thinking (perhaps delusionally*) that I sit in the Marcomms space.

Conversely, a roadshow conference for senior HR managers and directors approached me to talk about social media — I never would have thought I’d be on the radar of HR people! And judging by the one big burning question that delegates to my seminars and workshops always have, there’s seemingly no shortage of interest in the perennial question of how to get Social Media onto the radar of CEOs and the ROI issue past the CFOs and bean counters.

Thus the paradox: to ensure that I can continue to research and study I need to earn occasional dollars, of which consulting in ‘Social Media’ is the most enjoyable, both for me and my audiences (judging by the feedback I receive).

But to earn those dollars I need to continue blogging, which takes time and effort (particularly time). If, as Trevor suggests, we are merely muttering in an echo chamber, then should I not bother anymore and instead devote my time to my studies?

Trevor, who like me is also conducting doctoral research, still finds time to think and write (but then again I still had plenty of time on my hands in my first year; it’s the second year of the program that really sucks your time up, according to colleagues further along the research track than I).

There is also the research that shows that blogging can help those afflicted with depression.

If I stopped blogging here except for the occasional post, would anyone miss me? Would I be forgotten? Allan Jenkins hasn’t posted anything in months, but does my desire to read him diminish over time? Certainly not. His is still the first of the feeds I check when I eventually *do* get to read my feeds.

Would I be better off focusing on my research and repositioning myself for the next wave of internet communication (with my hopes pinned on the coat-tails of the Web3D Consortium)?

I have noticed an increase in interest (albeit small) in Second Life again — I’m getting more emails from SME organisations wanting to know more about it and interesting requests to present about it.

I don’t know what the answer is; I don’t know if the answer will remain the same in twelve months’ time as it might be now. Trevor and I arguably set the agenda for PR practitioners and agencies in Australia and perhaps now is an apt time to hand the reins over to a new generation of PR-focused bloggers while we busy ourselves with pursuits of a slightly different nature. Your thoughts, Trev?

Note: this post, including the images, took over four hours to research, write and edit.

And the reference to the ShinyWeb2.0Desk™ in the image at the top of this post is a homage to the wonderful huh?corp and duhcorp satirical sites.

——————-

*The teenage child of a dear friend has just been diagnosed as schizophrenic, so I have been reading up on the condition. One of the effects is delusions — perhaps of grandeur, perhaps of paranoia. Maybe *I* am schizophrenic? And "No", I am most definitely NOT belittling the condition!

Filed under: PR, Second Life, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, academic research, blogging, marketing, micro-blogging, podcasting, public speaking, videoblog
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A brilliant take-off of Lee Lefever’s superb CommonCraft show!

A tip of the Akubra to Paul McKeon

Filed under: humour, micro-blogging, miscellaneous, tools
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My good friend the Divine Miss M, aka Heidi Miller, recently pointed out that there is a potential hierarchy of communication skills required in social media.

Referencing an article by the big bad bald man in black Mitch Joel, Heidi agreed with Mitch’s argument that blogging as an entity will not be killed off by Twitter-like micro-blogging.

I agree, and for additional reasons to the ones that Heidi & Mitch give.

For me (here and here Heidi is spot on, albeit that the latter is from a later post), the ‘passion’ is the key to whatever vehicle you choose to use. Those of us who feel natural behind a keyboard and ‘at home’ with long-form text will continue to compose to suit the blogging format. Especially those who love including “offbeat 50s images” in their posts [ a loving tip of the Akubra to you, Miss Heidi ].

Those, like Heidi, whose preferred communication style is to talk, will continue to excel at podcasting and vidcasting.

Those, like @JJProjects, who prefer the rapid machine-gun rapport of micro-blogging will continue to Twitter and show their mastery of their weapon of choice.

The important point for us is that we use the tool that most suits us and our style.

Just as there’s no point trying to get a non-communicative CEO to start blogging, there’s no point trying to use a tool and channel that uses skills not ordinarily part of your personal repertoire.

Naturally, there is nothing wrong with stretching, growing, developing, and adopting new skills. But be honest with yourself — if you don’t have the time and the self-esteem to vidblog (bearing in mind that video blogging can take ages to get right, far longer than text blogging or audio podcasting) then don’t commit yourself to it and your audience to expect it.

As one of the signs I have hanging on the walls here at BetterComms Towers says, “You don’t know what you can’t do until you try”, but be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses when you first attempt to enter this brave new communication landscape.

Once you feel comfortable with one tool/channel, then branch out and try something new. Okay? And let me know how you get on…

Filed under: blogging, ethics, micro-blogging, podcasting, tools, videoblog
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The NAB PR fiasco that I blogged about earlier in the week has still got ‘legs’, as they say in the football world (allegedly).

My good friend Gerry McCusker was finally granted an interview with the PR agency responsible (Cox Inall, who “coxed it up good an’ proper-like”).

As I have been banging on for a good few years now:

The communication landscape has changed!

As Hewlett Packard have just found out (tip of the battered Akubra to Gerry), ’social media’ means that your ‘little old audience’ is potentially no longer little. Nor silent. Nor acquiescent.

For goodness sake, put your egos aside and think about what is best in the long term for your business or your client’s business. If you or your agency doesn’t have the expertise involved do not be afraid to call in an expert. That’s what Clarity Communications in Perth has done with me, and I applaud their foresightedness and ethical responsibility to their clients.

As Gerry points out, it is now YOUR responsibility to check if we are recording our interviews with you, and in what form we may or may not publish them.

I strongly recommend you read Text100’s excellent survey on the blogosphere and how blogger relations should now be a definitive part of your strategy, be you client or agency.

Take note:

• The Social Media News Release [video introduction to SMNR] is key to gaining our respect. Use it, or lose it
• We want to be treated professionally, not just as an electronic deposit box for your endless releases
• We want to build up a long-term relationship with you, Mr/Ms Agency, therefore please start a conversation with us before you hammer our inboxes
• Be a part of the blogging community that you wish to engage with. If you don’t know who and what the key players and key issues are, we won’t take you seriously. And that goes for Twitter, too, as Nic Hac quite rightly points out

Several years ago Seth Godin wrote Permission Marketing. It was a book that I devoured and tried to encourage clients of mine to read — none of them could be bothered.

Please don’t make that mistake yourself. Nip down to Dymocks, or order it at Amazon. Read. Inhale. Or hire me, or Trevor Cook, or Laurel Papworth, or Stephen Collins or Gerry McCusker.

Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers: Seth Godin

Filed under: PR, blogging, customer service, ethics, marketing, micro-blogging, tools
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One of my favourite academics is Manuel Castells. He’s currently a professor of communication and the first Wallis Annenberg endowed Chair of Communication and Technology at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (’USC’ as you Americans probably know it better).

His three-volume set is considered the most important works on communication and social dynamics/economics of this era.

No less a figure than Anthony Giddens wrote:

It would not be fanciful to compare the work to Max Weber’s "Economy and Society."

• Volume 1: The Rise of the Network Society, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, and Malden, MA), 1996.
• Volume 2: The Power of Identity, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, and Malden, MA), 1997.
• Volume 3: End of Millennium, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, and Malden, MA), 1998.

Another reviewer wrote:

may be the most important analysis of the interaction between the technology, economics, politics, and religion ever produced

So it was with delight that I read a passage in Clay Shirky’s latest opus, Here Comes Everybody, which reflected a passage I often quote from one of Castells’ articles.

Castells wrote:

The emergence of mass self-communication offers an extraordinary medium for social movements and rebellious individuals to build their autonomy and confront the institutions of society in their own terms and around their own projects. Naturally, social movements are not originated by technology, they use technology. But technology is not simply a tool, it is a medium, it is a social construction, with its own implications. Furthermore, the development of the technology of self-communication is also the product of our culture, a culture that emphasizes individual autonomy, and the self-construction of the project of the social actor.
(2007:249)

This ties in nicely with a passage in Shirky’s book:

Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. The invention of a tool doesn’t create change; it has to have been around long enough that most of society is using it. It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming.
(2008:105)

Agree with me? The two tie together nicely. And I would have agreed with Clay, until recently.

But a generation of ‘yoof’ who you would think would ‘get it’ have shown me that they don’t (although that may be a cultural artifact).

Undergrads involved in a 2008 web design and multimedia course were split roughly 30:30:40 over their ‘enjoyment/take-it-or-leave-it/definitely leave it’ of web2.0 and 3D virtual worlds.

This tallies with a surprise finding of mine in 2007 when addressing a class of final year undergrads here in Adelaide: most had never heard of a ‘blog’, had heard of YouTube but had never posted a video themselves, had never heard of a podcast or listened to one, and ALL got their news from the one local newspaper, several co-owned radio stations and the four terrestrial television stations.

These were the famed ‘digital natives’: those for whom this new technology is supposed to be genetically embedded and who should know how to redesign a WordPress blog in their sleep.

Some of we oldies (aka ‘digital immigrants’), meanwhile, DO know how to wrangle with this new technology (given enough time, a good set of instructions and plenty of pure malt).

At a conference I presented at on the weekend we discussed this ‘digital native/digital immigrant’ nonsense and hopefully helped some of the delegates realise that age is irrelevant in this new communication landscape — attitude is what is important.

Perhaps the reason why some of we ‘immigrants’ are able to grasp and appreciate this new technology is because we have been around the block enough times to recognise something fundamentally ground-shifting when it comes along.

Radio found its ground shifted by television; television was ground-shifted by the ‘phase one’ internet. Perhaps ‘phase two’ and its ground-shifting power can only be recognised by those who have a little bit of history under their paunches belts.

———————

Castells, M. 2007, Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society, International Journal of Communication, 1 (2007), 238-266

Shirky, C. 2008, Here Comes Everybody. Camberwell, Vic: Allen

Filed under: PR, blogging, micro-blogging, miscellaneous, podcasting, tools
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As my final paragraph says: you only have yourself to blame.

Shel Holtz recently reported on a presentation he sat through.

Well, perhaps ‘sat through’ is the wrong term; ‘sat riveted and spell-bound’ might be closer to the truth.

I have seen the future. Advertisers and marketers should be afraid. Very afraid.

I spent today with a client. It was an interactive session with members of the company’s communications team, but during the last couple hours, the group watched a presentation by students from Emerson College, finalists in this year’s National Student Advertising Competition, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation.

The presentation I saw—one of several trial runs before the students head to the finals in Atlanta on June 8 and 9—was one of the best I’ve seen in years. These kids—who have already made it through several rounds of competition—put on a 20-minute pitch that rivals the best I’ve seen from polished professionals with years of experience. From their personal delivery to their presentation support materials, to the written plan, their work could compete—and win—against any agency out there.

All of which is beside the point. The point is their organic understanding of the way social media and traditional communication have integrated. They’re not gushing enthusiasts proclaiming social media this and social media that. Social media is just part of their lives and they understand the way they—and the target demographic established for them by the competition rules—use these tools as day-to-day vehicles for communication.

And these kids nailed it. Sure, there were some quibbles and ideas for improvement here and there, but they nailed it. If I could package these students up and bring them with me, I’d put them in front of every communication leadership team I meet and say, “See? This is what I’m talking about.”

Some agencies will be very lucky to hire these kids. A smart one would hire them as a team, but I doubt there are any quite that smart.

There are two possible outcomes of the competition next week. The Emerson team could win, and I suspect they have an excellent chance. Or, they could lose, which has even more significant implications. If they lose, it means the Emerson team isn’t a fluke, a rare combination of raw talent guided by a savvy professor. It means there are a lot of advertising and marketing students poised to assume positions in agencies and companies where they can bring their organic understanding of the new media world to bear. They can work on campaigns based on their innate understanding of new communication models.

For all those communicators putting off learning about social media, hesitating, resisting, this is very bad news. You could quickly become expendable as agencies populate their ranks with those who (and I really do hate using this phrase) “get it.” [emphasis is mine - Lee]

That last paragraph sums it up for me. I’ve been saying this for a long time, but perhaps you will listen if someone else says it: if YOU don’t get up to speed with these new technologies and this new communication landscape, then those coming in underneath you will. They will take your job from under you.

If, as a business communicator, you are irrelevant to your company then why should you continue to receive your salary? Say goodbye to your nice house, your nice car, your kids’ private educations, your wine cellar, your holidays on Hamilton Island.

You only have yourself to blame.

Filed under: PR, Second Life, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, blogging, customer service, ethics, internal communications, marketing, micro-blogging, podcasting, public speaking, tools, videoblog
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Sure, it’s teenage humour, but it still made me smile.

Part one:

Part two:

Filed under: humour, micro-blogging, videoblog
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There is a mighty force for good in the North American arm of the business communications social media empire, and his name be Chris Brogan.

If you’ve never heard of Chris, well now you have. He has been an unsung hero for many of us for quite a little while. I strongly encourage you to subscribe to his news feed and get his insights because the man is a towering giant of social media goodness.

He’s got a full-time gig as a new media consultant and to those of us who Twitter he seems permanently online. Some of us have wondered if he’s a vampire, as he never seems to need sleep.

Businesses approach Chris (and yours truly) for a better understanding of how they might use social media tools like blogging, video, and social networks to improve sales, build community, empower customer service, and move from “putting out a message” into “starting a meaningful conversation.”

Some of this information is easily found on his existing website, but if you want an even deeper dive, consider subscribing for free to his newsletter. It’s an absolute belter (Aussie slang meaning ‘exceptionally good’) and, unlike our Better Social Media Communication Results newsletter, comes with no damage to the hip pocket. You don’t get our graphics and ‘place it on your coffee table with pride’ design like ours, but what you DO get is similarly and absolutely crucial information about social media and its impacts on real world businesses.

Here’s some of the conversation starters from his latest fortnightly newsletter:

• Brevity
• A Paradox About Social Networks
• Build a Social Media Lab
• Five Tools to Check Out
• Editorial: 1:51AM

THE SOUL OF WIT

Here’s a strange paradox: now that we have infinite shelf space, free or cheap media making capabilities, and free storage and distribution, it’s more important than ever that we adopt a practice of brevity. Why? Because it’s the new black, that’s why. Here’s more.

• Brevity means people can take your ideas with them, chew on them, and do something with them.
• Structuring your information into chunks means that you can reconfigure them in lots of ways. You can mix and match them to people’s needs. People will only chew off what they need.
• Brevity tells people that you’ve distilled the essence of what you’re telling them.

Make sense?

Blimey - judging by the length of this post I must still be wearing my grey flannel suit!

Filed under: blogging, book review, micro-blogging, social media newsletter, tools
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