The Blog Posts I haven’t Written

I have lots of ideas for blog posts.  Every day an idea will pop into my head, sometimes it is many times during the day.  But I rarely get a chance to sit and actually post.  Something else gets in the way - work, life, something.  What are some of the posts I wanted to write, but never did?

- Dear Marketer: Just ask me what I want, I will tell you

- What I learned while traveling through an airport in rural Kentucky.

- 3 things my 1-month old son taught me.

- 4 things my 3-month old son taught me.
- 11 things my 5-month old son taught me.
- What the hell happened to CNN?

- Dear Marketer:  Be honest, do you think I am that stupid?

- I finished the New York Times Crossword Puzzle (on a Wednesday!)

- “All Hat and No Cattle” (or, Why I support Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary)

- Why Cut and Paste functionality is so important to me.

- Media Rules! at the National Press Club.

- My experience at the Genius Bar

- Dear Marketer: Please help.  I don’t understand.
- The Politics of Investing

- Opening Day at Nationals Park

- When you only hear part of the conversation…
Those are just the ideas I can remember, or find references to in my notes (I have a pocket full of notecards, ideas scribbled on a piece of paper or in the margins of a book).  I am sure there are more, many more.  I haven’t figured out a good system yet for keeping track, or converting those ideas into actual posts.  But I want to.  I am open to suggestions.
My new plan is to Twitter (twitter.com/brianreich) my ideas for blog posts, and then go back and use that listing as a reference.  We’ll see how that goes.  I also just need to find more time to sit and write, to spill my thoughts and organize my writing.  I am open to suggestions on how to do that as well.

Age of Conversation - Bum Rush

Last year I had the honor and pleasure of contributing to a collaborative book effort that both highlighted, and represented, the power of social media. 103 bloggers came together for the project, entitled ‘Age of Conversation.’ We sold thousands of copies, with proceeds going to a couple of childrens charities. And, it was such a success, we are getting the band back together (plus some other contributors) to do it again this year.

Before we dive into the new project, however, we are trying an experiment. Today, the authors and community around Age of Conversation are launching a ‘bum rush’ — a one-day push to help raise the Amazon sales ranking of Age of Conversation. The more books we sell, the higher the ranking goes today and the more money goes to some very worth childrens charities.

So, please, go buy the book (use this link so we can track it):

And tell your friends to buy the book. Write about it on your blog. Make it your activity update on your Facebook profile. Hit your your Twitter account up with a post. Whatever you use to spread the word, please help us with this incredible effort.

Thank you.

The Politics/Technology Discussion Is Going In The Wrong Direction

(This is cross posted on the EchoDitto SXSW blog) 

I have been in politics all my life. For most of that time I have been very optimistic about the potential for politics to have a positive impact on the world. And that optimism increased as I saw the potential for using technology to educate, engage, and mobilize audiences increase and become more integrated. It’s a fairly simple equation in my mind. Better politics help better people get elected and better people do a better job running the country (at whatever level they were elected - local, state, federal, etc.). And technology can help facilitate that on many different levels.

Of late, however, I have been down on politics — I am frustrated that the media and various other people talk about all the innovation and evolution in our political process, but the reality is far from that. I am saddened by the fact that our government fails to serve most of our population well, and some people not at all - and that tools are available to help expand the reach of government, but those in power don’t seem interested in using them in any meaningful way. I’m cranky about the fact that so many people look at technology as the solution, when there are obviously so many more more important factors.

Politics is exciting to watch and occasionally fun to participate in, but its not fulfilling its role in our society right now. Worse than that, our democracy is broken. And the rate at which change is occurring so that technology can play a meaningful role in fixing these problems is painfully slow.

What made me so frustrated today?
I was at a panel discussion this morning with a group of very smart political operatives from the internet space (several of whom are friends of mine). They were talking all about Facebook (one of the panelists was from Facebook) and user-generated videos that appeared on YouTube, list building and GOTV. Frankly, there wasn’t any new ground broken in the discussion.

So, I stepped up and asked the panel if they felt the shifting nature of politics, which increasingly recognizes the role of the community and gives some (though still not very much) voice to the grassroots community will spill over into better functioning of government, greater access for citizens, and an increased likelihood of real solutions being found for the problems facing our society. I think it was a good question.

The responses were not very good. Panelist answer ranged from “government doesn’t understand technology and has no interest in using it that way” to “the campaigns haven’t really achieved anything of significance, so there isn’t a model to transfer over to the operation of government anyway.” (Those aren’t direct quotes, FYI…)

So, I’m frustrated on a couple levels. First, I’m frustrated that the media (and people at a panel like the one this morning) obsess over the ‘paradigm shift’ happening in politics, when really very little, if anything, has changed at all. Second, I’m frustrated that nobody in the political space seems to look past the end of the campaign cycle to the job that ultimately their candidate/party will have to do when elected. I was in the political space for a long time (and am not that far outside of it now) so I understand the mentality, but I got into politics with the goal of helping improve our society and I feel as if the industry is just navel gazing far too much about this technology stuff. And lastly, I’m frustrated that you can get so many smart people together on a panel, or at a conference like SXSW for that matter, and not even begin to scratch the surface of the serious issues that need addressing.

I’ll keep hoping to find a panel, or a group of political professionals, who want to realize the true world changing opportunities that technology offers and how to actually improve our society.

SXSW: The Discussion About Metrics That Never Happened

(This is cross-posted at the EchoDitto SXSW blog)

The last panel discussion of the day promised a discussion of social marketing strategy and metrics.  It featured some heavy hitters - Rohit Bhargava from Ogilvy, Brian Magierski from BSG — and others.  The moderator said the discussion would be at the ‘intermediate’ level, meaning they were going to skip past the basic stuff.  The room was packed and buzzing about the possibility of solving this vexing challenge once and for all.

Big let down.  Same old discussion.  No new ground broken.

I won’t quote from the panel, it really isn’t worth the effort.  But I will share a few quick insights that I gained while listening from the back of the room.

1) People are looking for a simple solution.  There isn’t one.  One panelist suggested the problem was that we knew there was an ROI for social media but we couldn’t demonstrate it to our boss/client.  Their solution? If someone could just create a tool, a piece of technology, that could measure all the different elements of social media conversation then we could demonstrate the value.  Um, no, that’s not the right answer.  A piece of technology will not solve this problem.  We can measure most everything that happens online.  But people haven’t spent the time to figure out what it means, how it relates to their goals and the work they are doing.

Why is that?

2) People are lazy.  The benefit of the online world is that everything (or nearly everything) is measurable.  The drawback of course, is the same thing - that everything (or nearly everything) is measurable.  And when you measure everything, reams and reams of data are produced — data about every person on the web, what they are doing, the content they are promoting, and everything else.  But nobody, it seems, reads all that data, they just look at the summaries.  Nobody it seems, is asking the tough questions about what the data says, instead of just passing along the numbers and suggesting they represent the answer.  Nobody, it seems, is wiling to take a stand on what something means, for fear that they will be wrong.

What is missing is analysis, opinion, perspective, insight.  If we are so smart about how people use technology to communicate, how people use the web, what works and what doesn’t, and we truly understand the people we are talking with online (or are even representative of those people ourselves), then we should be able to look at the numbers and understand what they mean.  We should be able to offer opinions and insights that inform real actions.

Why don’t we?

I think I do (and I demand that the people I work with do the same).  I love numbers as much as anyone.  I geek out over the crosstabs when I do polling; The summary memo isn’t nearly as interesting to me.   I wade into the comments when my client has a blog or similar and listen to what people are saying; counting how many people are commenting is not enough.

So, I challenge my fellow marketers to embrace the data and spend the time learning what it means.  I challenge my fellow marketers to provide their opinions, their informed insights drawn from years and years of experience communicating online, about what to do and how to do it.  I challenge my fellow marketers to use their brain, to trust their gut, to take a stand, and to use the process of measuring and analyzing to try something every day until we feel good about what we know.

Then we can come back and have a better discussion about this issue and what we have all learned in the process.

SXSW: What Teens Want Online & On Their Phone

(I am at the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, TX. I will be posting updates from here over the next few days.  I will cross post to the EchoDitto SXSW Blog as well).

The first panel of the day was ‘What Teens Want Online and On Their Phones.” It was moderated/hosted by Anastasia Goodstein, editor of YPulse (a blog that tracks teen culture), and featured seven local Austin teenagers sharing their personal reflections on technology.

The discussion started with the obvious things:

- What are your favorite sites (A: MySpace, various music sites, etc.)?
- Why do you like them (A: because I can build my own lists, I can see what’s cool)?
- Do you still use email (A: “I created my email so I could get on MySpace”)?
- What kind of cell phone do you have (A: LG, Blackberry Pearl, Sony Excursion - slide phone, Verizon LG Camera Phone)?
- What do you do with your phone (A: play Tetris and PacMan or other ‘emergency games’ if I get really bored, get ‘official SAT question of the day’, ringtones, send/receive text messages, take pictures, ‘just slide my phone - when I am bored or nervous’, listen to music)?
- Do you hang out on virtual worlds (A: Zwiki, Gaia, various MMOs, but overall not too much)

Then we got into audience questions.

Here are my observations/insights.

First of all, this was a good panel By having a group of actual users talk about what they want/expect from the internet and mobile phones, we got an honest assessment of whether the web, mobile, and other related industries actually do a good job. The consensus seems to be - sort of. There is a lot more understanding the people who create technology, and content, geared towards teens could do to attract greater interest and participation.

- Money is clearly an issue. These kids did not seem to be rich or poor, so probably pretty middle of the road in terms of the money they have (or the money their families have). With limited funds, they have to make choices. They don’t want ‘pay to play’ (with games for example). Only some of the kids have phones, and those who do have limitations on their text messaging and none use the internet (”because its too expensive”)

- Content and News. There is some tracking of news (the war in Iraq, presidential elections) but its not universal. For those who are tracking news, they aren’t using mainstream sources — instead, focusing on Digg, YouTube political news, Wikipedia, the Onion (which they know is a spoof newspaper), etc. There is a desire for opinion and perspective - just reporting what is going on, not providing anything but basic facts is considered boring, even depressing.

- Causes: While involvement in causes wasn’t high, there was definitely some awareness. One of the kids is signed up for the Human Rights Campaign Fund — she said “I’m not gay, and I’m not saying its bad — just that if you can get over people being gay, people being a different color, you can get over anything” - so HRC is an important group. One participated in the Grain of Rice game (because you hid the cause in a game), another is doing a project at school that benefits Heifer. Interestingly, none wanted to take real offline action - instead, one said that she thought her friends wanted to feel like they were having an impact without having to actually do anything (”they are looking for the easy out”).

- TV and Movies: There is plenty of TV and movie watching — those who do watch regular TV use a DVR. There is also a lot of watching online, through Veoh or directly to a something like the Disney Channel online (which hosts special episodes of Hannah Montana for example). There are a few shows that they have to watch in real-time — mostly the shows that if you miss something by not watching on time, you’ll be totally out of the discussion. One added that she ‘has to watch wrestling when it is actually on.”

- Advertising: Someone asked if the kids would participate in an anti-marketing effort, to try and keep ads away from kids. Nobody seemed all that interested. They seem resigned to the fact that advertising was a part of the online experience. More importantly, they want better advertising… stuff that relates to the content on the site. And, advertising should stay on the sites where you are trying to buy things (and not be on the entertainment sites, or the social networks - when it distracts from the experience).

- Games. They like games — play on AddictiveGames.com, NewGrounds, BlackSheep, for example, but don’t really play the advertising-driven flash games. There is some mobile game playing as well (see above). Flash (or flash games) seem to be blocked at school, so they either look for the games that aren’t blocked or they figure out how to get around it (set up proxies, etc)

- Other activities: A teen stepped up and asked everyone, including the panel, if anyone goes outside — experiences real stuff, puts their laptop down. One of the kids is on a basketball team. One has a job at Sonic (”which is a carhop, so I have to go outside.’) Another was surprised that they weren’t obese (because they love to play on the computer. In terms of making plans to go out with friends, most of it is done via text message (though they meet up in real life) and they talk to each other. Nobody uses Facebook or MySpace because its not direct or personal enough.

- Marketing: What don’t marketers get about the web? And if you could have a greater say in how marketers appear on the web, what would you want? The kids don’t seem to like advertisements, mostly because they aren’t in context, aren’t directed enough. They don’t like ‘free’ offers that require you to fill out lots of forms and such.

Good discussion, very interesting..

Panel: (Lack of) Innovation in Politics

I moderated a terrific discussion today at the WeMedia conference in Miami about innovation in politics — or more to the point, about what I believe is a lack of true innovation in the use of technology for politics (both electoral and more generally organizationally, including nonprofits and government).
The discussion was as good as it was because I was joined by an excellent group of experts, including:

• Ellen Miller from the Sunlight Foundation
• Catherine Geanuracos from Live Earth
• Michael Silberman from EchoDitto (where I am a Principal)
• Amy Schatz from the Wall Street Journal
• Carolyn Washburn from the Des Moines Register
• John Della Volpe from SocialSphere; and
• Anthony Wojtkowiak, on of the street team reporters for MTV

I won’t give you a recap of the discussion, you can get that here and here.

What I do want to do, quickly, is outline some of my thinking on this subject.
First, from where I sit, it is clear that the web is playing a big role in the presidential campaign and generating a lot of attention for some candidates.  But, there is very little evidence of technology playing a meaningful role in driving greater participation in the political process or resulting in significant change in how campaigns are waged.  Certainly, the advancements this year are nothing compared to what we saw in 2004 and 2006, with the rise of the blogosphere, the Dean revolution, and similar.  And the same is true for many non-profit organizations and social change groups, where success is measured in the size of an email list or the number of names on a petition and not in real, meaningful, measurable change in our society.

Second, beyond a couple of one-off examples — Ron Paul and his open source fundraising or Senator Obama’s mobile messaging efforts for example — I can’t find many examples of campaigns and organizations using technology in new and different ways  Shouldn’t groups be doing more to serve the large and interested audience and encourage true, impactful engagement (i.e. not just continually tap the audience to raise money or elevate turnout)?
The discussion made clear to me that the 2008 campaigns have perfected some existing tactics and ideas… and technology is at a place now where some campaigns are able to operate more professionally and efficiently than ever before (the distribution of voter files to allow for de-centralized phone banking by campaign supporters for example).  But what has worked mostly this year have been the same old things.  Literally hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on so-called traditional campaign activities, while barely a fraction of that has gone towards new media campaigning.

I have high hopes for where this discussion can lead — into an exploration of the democratizing effects of technology, towards a conversation about accountability and how to increase participation in the daily operations of our government, and even into a look at the global implications of these issues.  And I am committed to pursuing this further, with the panelists and others who show an interest in really moving the ball forward.
More on this later.

At WeMedia

I am at the WeMedia conference in Miami (www.wemediamiami.org) today and tomorrow.

Its a terrific event - a gathering of media, technology, innovation, and thought leaders talking about some of the most challenging and interesting topics imaginable.  This year, we are exploring the potential for technology and media to converge around a wide array of issues and opportunities and bring about real change.
This year, I am leading two conversations — one about innovation in the use of technology around politics (or, more to the point, the lack of true innovation on that front) and the opportunities for using technology to bring about meaningful, measurable change in our society.  The politics discussion will take the form of a panel.  The other discussion will morph into a ‘Manifesto’ and a series of conversations that come together over several months.  I am very excited.

I will post a few times over the next few days to share some thoughts, keep you posted on how things are going.  Stay tuned.

Getting started again…

It has been a while since I posted regularly here.  But, I am starting again.  I am committed to posting more often.  I am going to try to post at least twice a week, and eventually every day (when I get organized again).  My posts will be shorter and more focused, which I hope makes it easier for me to stay on track.  I am excited.  Stay tuned.

What’s In Your Attic (From Fast Company Experts)

My lastest post on Fast Company Experts is online — it’s the (tragic) story of having to move my fax machine to the attic, an end of a communications era.

My SXSW Coverage in ClickZ

I wrote an article for ClickZ…

Mobile Was the Message at South-by-Southwest Fest
By Brian Reich
ClickZ
March 23, 2007

Mobile was the medium everyone was buzzing about at the South-by-Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in Austin, Texas last week. Panelists speculated about the changes that the mobile platform would bring to movies, television, and video games. Meanwhile, vendors promoted functionality in hopes of getting their big ideas funded.

Much of the innovation discussed at SXSW was focused on the 1,400 bands, and online services supporting them, that were descending on Austin for the SXSW Music Festival, which followed the interactive event. The highest profile of those services was Mozes, which lets users create and manage text message-based mobile campaigns so brands, bands and fans can be connected. Fans can send messages to artists through Mozes, creating an interactive mobile community for each artist.
You can read the whole thing here.