Only Dead Fish

A Presentation About Community, By The Community

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Late last year I did a presentation to the AOP UK conference on The Power Of Online Communities. One of the things I said was that I believed that almost all of the important learnings I have gained about how online communities work have come through being a part of one, and in order to illustrate how productive the community can be I crowdsourced some opinion, which I featured in my talk. I got some great input, which I duly included in the presentation with everyone's feedback on one slide, explaining to the audience that what I was showing them was equivalent to thousands of pounds worth of consultancy, freely given, and that that alone was a more powerful demonstration of the power of online community than all the words (including mine) they were going to hear on the subject.

Well. I'm due to present next week at another conference on the same subject. So after a bit of twitter banter about it today, Mark happened to suggest the idea of people donating one slide each. In a short space of time I had several other people saying they'd contribute a slide. So I got to thinking about how the idea of compiling a presentation about community, by a community, is a really interesting one. Four people (thanks Mark, Will, Willem, Faris) are already contributing a slide each so I'm already some of the way there, but I'm rather intrigued how this could turn out, so I'm expanding the experiment. And I'd like to invite you to contribute. In order to have a minor degree of control over the outcome I setting some basic guidelines (I am going to have to present this in front of whole bunch of people after all ;-)):

• If you'd like to participate send me one powerpoint slide on The Power of Online Communities to the e-mail address on the link top right. One slide only please.
• The slide can be a quote you think captures the power of online communities. Or it might just reflect your view in some other way
• I don't want to be too prescriptive about style and I'm keen to represent the everyone's individual styles as well as their thinking, but please don't make it too text heavy (you can see the kind of presentations I prefer doing in the sidebar on the right). Not keen on templates. Big visuals are good (but please make sure you attribute the source)
• I need your slide by monday (sorry folks - but the idea has only just arisen and I've been given a deadline)
• To avoid allegations of complete laziness and to give it some degree of structure I'll front it with a few of my own slides - but then I'm turning it over to the community
• I will credit each slide in my talk and stick the whole presentation up here (crediting and linking to those who've contributed) and on slideshare when I'm done so include your name and URL on the e-mail if it's not obvious
• I can't guarantee I will use all the slides I'm afraid - I say this because I have a time limit to speak and so if I get a lot, I'll have to be selective - but I will say that I will make all efforts to include as many as I can and will try and use my best judgement if I have to edit. If there are way too many, I will try my best to compile and post them up here anyway
• If there is some context necessary to the slide, please let me know in the note you send me but please, keep it simple.

That's it. I have to say I'm a little nervous about presenting a presentation that is only partly mine, but if it comes off it will be an amazing demonstration of just how productive and powerful communities can be. So send me your slide. And thanks to Mark for the original thought. This could be fun (I hope).

Blunt Instruments

This very funny trailer for last years BBC 3 show The Wall brilliantly captures how (in spite of all the excitement around the new possibilities facilitated by social networks) relatively unsophisticated the tools and our understanding of their potential remain.

My issue with all those folks who talk about 'influencers' in networks is that too often the judgement is based substantially on numbers of friends or followers which at best remains a blunt instrument. Things will get way more interesting when the sophistication of how we qualify relationships within networks develops our understanding even further. Even then though, the one aspect of thinking that is likely to need more attention is the continuous fluidity of our networks, how they ebb and flow, how connections change, become stronger or weaker over time. Anyway, don't let my waffling on distract you from watching a brilliantly observed sketch. Enjoy.
HT to John for the link.

I Care

Because it's important to Marcus, and because I do. Backstory here.

The Goatee Saver

Ash kindly pointed me at this priceless post over on John Dodds' blog. Something for all those dodgy goatee wearers out there. Cursing the fact that christmas has just been and gone...

Being Social

When the IPA published their report on Social Media Futures recently, they caused quite a bit of kerfuffle (I love the word kerfuffle) by publishing it in a distinctly non-social way and by running an event which failed to connect with many of the assembled social-media-savvy digerati. The IPA could have ignored the bad reviews, the critical tweets, but they didn't. Nigel Gwilliam immediately engaged with the fall out by commenting on posts, and inviting people to meet up with him to share their views in person. So I went along. Mostly because they seemed to be making a genuine effort to engage and understand. So respect to Nigel.

John, Graeme, Graeme and a few others had shipped up too. I seem to remember that at the meeting I said that if they were serious about wanting to engage social-media-types in marketing and advertising (is there a collective name?) then they should start a blog, get on twitter, stick the presentation up on slideshare and generally get stuck in. So Nigel has started a blog, got on twitter, and stuck the presentation up on Slideshare. So respect to Nigel.

The original intention of the report was to develop a wider understanding of "social media in a brand communications and broader business context" amongst the IPA's members and audience. This is no bad thing. And who knows, having the badge of the IPA on it may just help make change happen quicker. So Nigel is now inviting contributions from the community and has posted a brief on his blog for creating "a space where the social media agency community can create what follows (or supersedes) the IPA Social Media Report in people's learning". Go take a look.

This Is Japan

There's a million and one ways now in which people can construct their own narratives. Here's a rather charming example featuring the story of a trip to Japan:

This is Japan! from Eric Testroete on Vimeo.
If you're interested, there's a rather neat tool called Animoto that you can use to create something very similar.
HT to

Come On BBC

I'm sorry, but the decision by the BBC not to broadcast the appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee to help relieve the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unbelievable. After an 18 month blockade and three weeks of heavy shelling, 1.1 million people are now dependent upon aid to survive, around 500,000 people are without running water, and 75% of the area is without electricity (upon which the water and sewage systems survive).

BBC Chief Operating Officer Caroline Thomson said: "If we lose the trust of the audience by appearing...to support one side rather than another, then we will have lost it for the charities themselves as well as everyone else."

When I heard her on the radio, she seemed to be suggesting that there might be some confusion amongst the BBC's audience between what was reported on the news and a charity appeal. In my mind, whatever your politics, the most important thing is the relief of immense human suffering. And I believe that the British public can distinguish between a simple appeal for humanitarian aid and perceived partiality in a conflict.

You can hear Caroline Thomson defending the decision on the Today programme and Tony Benn rightly being very stubborn in response here. If you'd like to donate to the DEC Gaza appeal, you can do so here.

Push And Pull

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Rob left an insightful comment on my post about the future of newspapers.

"DO STUFF PEOPLE WANT...I say this because there's this attitude today that you have to 'chase down' the customers whereas if you create things with intrigue, interest, values, soul and - for want of a better word - love, you may attract rather than have to continually chase."

This chimes with my own views about the power of what you might call 'generosity' in a networked, connected world - how postivity, altruism, generous ideas are attractive, and so spread quickly and easily and become a powerful form of marketing in their own right (if you want to call it marketing that is - perhaps it's not marketing at all).

Pull, not push. It's not a new idea. But as Rob says, it's perhaps a risky financial strategy. Let's face it, it's way more of a challenge to get people to come to you than it is to pump out a message. It also entirely invalidates the model on which 99% of the current advertising industry is based.

But it's a delightfully appealing idea. And the increasing socialisation of media makes it more possible than ever. And if Mark is right, then it aligns far better with the way in which things spread, which is far more 'pull' (people listen to their peers, react to what they see around them, respond to what other people are doing):

"Our attempts to exert 'exogenous' (extra-system) influence is always going to be much less important than the 'endogenous' (intra-system) factors that shape the propagation of an idea or behaviour through a population."

And if that's right, then strategic thinking comes from a totally different place, and:

"...needs to be rooted more in how the underlying mechanics of propagation works (human-human emulation within a given system etc) than in why individual folk do what they do... put another way: forget doing stuff TO folk; do stuff WITH them."

It all reminds me of something I saw ages ago over at Paul's place from Duncan Marshall, Creative Director of Droga 5:

"The really smart advertising and marketing people are the ones who figure out how to get people to come to them."

So, my question is this - do we think it possible that, one day, it will all work like this?

Note To Self

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From the Far Side Reenactments Flickr Pool

A Bridge Too Far

Amongst all the precitions for 2009 there was not a lot of positivity for media. In fact, if you believe what seems to be the common theme amongst many of them, 2009 is going to be a world of pain. Newspapers are at the sharp end, facing the perfect storm of a cyclical decline in the form of a tanking economy, and a structural decline in the form of the economic pressures that the internet has long put on their business model. Their own columns have been home to some pretty dire predictions, and headlines feature bail -outs and worse. Meanwhile Twitter breaks the news, and does so with an associated contextual humanity that leaves reported news feeling, well, somewhat cold.

So what to do? Seth Godin is right when he says "When in pain, the answer is not to pander to the masses and undo the very things that made you special". Those that produce great content should concentrate on producing the best content they ever produced. Those that have unique understanding of their audiences need to apply that understanding by fulfilling customer needs better than they ever have. This might mean new markets, new technologies, new structures, new ways to distribute. It should mean a different kind of relationship with their audience. It will mean huge change.

But of-course there's more to it than that. To quote Michael: "Perhaps challenging the status quo is easier when the status quo is concentrating on just staying 'status'". Change isn't just happening, the pace of change is accelerating. Meaning that the end game is impossible to see. Meaning that the required transformation could well be bigger than you think. Meaning that the longer you stay still, the further and further away your answer will get. Until, just maybe, it's just a bridge too far.

I don't think there is an answer to this. Instead, I think there are lots of answers. Whatever the future holds for newspapers my belief is that any future will need to involve a blend of multiple models that feed off each other, support and perpetuate each other. It's a little like the music industry. Music wants to be free. Information and news also wants to be free. Music is still a massive cultural currency - there is more music around now than there has ever been. People want music. And people still want news. The thing that the record companies have singularly failed to do is place themselves at the centre of the new equation. Where their product is the facilitator. So it is with content. That's the job that newspapers now have to do.

The real difference of-course is in mindset. There's still plenty of old thinking around. Thinking defined by scarcity - the availability of space for news reporting, the limited options people had for getting news. So the question to ask is have you gone far enough? The average ad revenue per digital user is typically a fraction of the average ad revenue per reader or viewer in traditional media - what Scott Karp calls 'The 10% problem'. But perhaps instead of presenting a problem, this presents an opportunity. The opportunity to originate ideas with what I would call exceptional leverage. The real game-changers. 

What makes leverage? Portability, share-ability, talk-ability. Ideas that spread. Finding new ways to visualise whats going on in the world. New journalism. Link journalism. Quality journalism. Doing what you do best, and linking to the rest. Journalism as a service, not a product. Aggregating. Blog networks. The kind of thinking that would have seen a radio station launch Last FM.

The key thing is that in order to make any of this work you need to create a platform. The success of the Apple App store has surpassed all expectations by a country mile. But the really smart thing about the app store is that Apple take a slice of every transaction. They have created a platform, a marketplace. It's arguably what Facebook should have done with their apps but never did, leaving the developers to take 100% of the benefit of their idea, despite the fact that they are using Facebook's platform.

So here, for free, are my 5 golden rules:

1. Think distributed not destination.
2. Think networked not linear
3. Think community not audience
4. Think people not technology
5. Above all, create value for both you and your community. Be the enabler.

Sticking to what you know ain't gonna do it. If you're sat in a media owner right now, this is your challenge. Question is, what are you doing about it?