Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

The clamor for information rages on, but where will we get it? Traditional media are dying a slow death – an AP article last Sunday said newspapers are now in survival mode. Staff cuts are hitting hard at the Hartford Courant, the Baltimore Sun, and the Daytona Beach-Journal. The venerable Tribune Co. is looking to sell Newsday. Closer to home, the News & Observer announced last Friday that its Business section would be integrated into the same section as local news, a reflection of cutbacks. McClatchy Co., N&O’s parent, said more staff cuts are coming.

So what’s going to take the place of newspapers? Will it be a new breed of media company? At Web Content 2008, Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 declared that online content marketing is the future of media and expressed his condolences to anyone working in traditional media. Pointing to shrinking media company budgets and the myriad technologies that allow the smallest companies to deliver targeted content, Pulizzi and Junta42 are banking on custom publishing. This company helps match marketers with branded content providers, content advertising agencies, direct marketing and PR firms, integrated marketing firms and post-advertising agencies — at no charge.

And content delivery goes beyond blogs and e-newsletters. Junta42 lists – you guessed it – 42 ways to deliver your content, including virtual tradeshows, online games, e-books, vodcasts, and digital magazines.

What's missing here is any type of objective reporting. I understand the power of customized content, but I’m not sure it will totally replace the role of the fourth estate – or if it should. Maybe instead of journalism empires like the Tribune or McClatchy, we’ll just have journalists for hire, building personal brands as trusted, impartial sources of news. Or maybe product marketers will draw crowds by providing news articles even if it doesn't tie into their products.

Sure, the line has blurred between news and entertainment, and I'm all for online content marketing. But shouldn't news and marketing still be separate?

What's news to me may not be news to my super-smart coworkers in the Interactive department here at Capstrat. But what's news to me is likely news to my cohorts in the client services and government relations departments. (Not to mention definitely news to my friends who don't have a clue what it is we do here at Capstrat and barely grasp the concept of the web.)

So, with that, I'm going to provide a snapshot of my favorite findings from the Web Content 2008 Conference in Chicago. (My format = Presentation title, Presenter, Best things I learned.) If you're interested in something particular and would like me to dive into further detail, give me a shout out. I'm happy to oblige.

The Next Content Wave: Hypersyndication by Dick Costolo of Google

• There's a new travel site out there, for addicted web travel researchers like me. Build your trip ideas from sites all across the web and publish them in one place, at www.offbeatguides.com . Dick tells us this site is still very early in their beta program, but that it's going to be a huge success. They'll mail you a pocket-sized guide of your destination - including your specific accommodations - or you can print to a PDF version. Either way, it would be a relief to hit the road with something other than my manila folder with a stack of print-outs from various sites. I've signed up for an invitation to the beta version. No luck yet. 

• Interesting remark from Dick: Those who comment across the web (even without association with a company or personal Web site) will be their own brands. And not too far off in the future. Think about that before posting a rash reaction to your friend's latest round of uploaded party photos or worse, getting fired up in a string of comments on a highly publicized news story. Yep, your own brand. I kind of like that.

• One more thing: www.getsatisfaction.com is the future of customer service. Dick recommends a third party customer service organization as a means to participate in conversation with your customers. Whole Foods does it. Food for thought.

The Many-Armed Starfish: Today and Tomorrow in Social Media by Darren Barefoot of Capulet Communications (Voted most popular presenter in unofficial poll.)

• Your brand is what people say your brand is. Case in point - www.brandtags.net (I'm not sure why people would associate Disney with ‘evil', but hey, not everyone is a fan like me I suppose.) The idea of this site is that a brand only exists in our heads. I'd recommend checking out your clients on the site. Go contribute yourself. Could be an eye-opener. Maybe it will lend itself to an argument that they should relinquish control, embrace social media and it'll all be ok Depending on what you find, obviously, you may be doing damage control.

• Dogster . Catster . What about Hamsterer? A quick online hunt reveals Hamsterer really did exist, but does no longer. Shame.

• His five lessons:

•     Relinquish control. Think about pulling your Google results as your bio.
•     Users will help each other.
•     Empower your most passionate customers, perhaps as advocates or private beta users.
•     Think outside the page.
•     Go where your customers are! Don't start your own social network. Try starting a broad discussion online and lightly sponsor it. Check out www.babycenter.com . (All my pregnant friends love it!)

At the Web Content 08 [WC08] last week, I had a syntactical epiphany: the noun is making a comeback. For decades now, verbs were the darling of writers — think more action! — while nouns have been dismissed as stodgy and murky, the equivalent of sludge in a conversation’s engine. Who needs ’em?

Well, turns out we all do. Jerome Nadel, Chief Experience Officer of Human Factors International, pointed out that Web sites often err in putting verbs first, pushing visitors to act before they can even choose the object of their visit. He says that users need to find a starting place. They’re looking for the product they want to buy, the topic they’re researching, or the person they want to learn about. But they have to find that before they can buy, research or learn.

Even before they reach a site, they’re usually thinking nouns when they search on Google or scan tags on del.icio.us [with a few verbs and adjectives thrown in too]. It's like the Dewey decimal system on steroids.

So what? It signals the way we’re categorizing the world. Whenever we choose search terms or tags, we try to make sense of our thoughts and the thought process of others. When we create site navigation or keywords, we succeed only when we make it easier and more intuitive to find our sites and our information. And getting into users’ heads, into the way they’re classifying and interacting with their world – usability – should be the foundation of every Web project.

Nadel claims that businesses don’t have to relinquish control of their brands – not if they understand their audience and craft social Web experiences that deliver unique value and build relationships. That’s how sites can truly engage visitors and deliver greater ROI.

The next time a user experience designer presses to interview more stakeholders or a copywriter questions a keyword, just consider it time well spent. And show a noun some appreciation.

How can something as cutting edge as social media be considered old school? Because it goes to the heart of communicating. That’s the upshot of a couple of talks Darren Barefoot gave at a Web Content Conference [WC08] put on by Duo Consulting in Chicago. This totally engaging Canadian started his presentation quoting from Shakespeare’s Henry V and a drawing of the theater used in Elizabethan England – not exactly what you’d expect for a presentation on the many facets of social media. Barefoot pointed out that someone drew the theater after hearing about it, then copied it and published it. It underscored for me that social media isn’t suddenly working because of the power of Web 2.0 tools. These tools simply give people who are hungry to communicate an easier way to do it.

At his second talk, Barefoot used a decidedly low-tech approach – he hung 29 cards naming social media tools on a clothesline of sorts. Borrowing from Theatre Skam's 29 Plays in 59 Minutes concept, he asked the audience to call out a social media technology. He’d rip it off the line and riff for several minutes [of course, some kept falling off the line early, providing even more comic relief]. He covered everything from the ubiquitous Wikipedia to emerging surprises like Kyte.tv and Ustream. For the last two, he even admitted to the dreaded feeling of “Kids seem to like these but I don’t know why….” Made me feel a little better for not even knowing about them yet. 29 tools in an hour and a half. Not bad.

When John Lovett of Jupiterresearch took the podium at the end of the first day of the conference, I thought, "This better be good." By 4pm, we were all on major information overload.

Working on several Web projects that require dynamic content, I was curious to see what John was going to share with us. What perhaps stood out the most to me was his acknowledgment of the challenge of creating dynamic content for business-to-business sites. He also showed examples of dynamic content and reassured us that it could be as simple as adding an image gallery to introduce the concept to a nervous client.

My favorite example was Hotels.com going from a community of 'experts' who post their opinion of hotels to a community of hotel-goers like you and me. He had us raise our hand if we went online to check user reviews of our hotel for this trip, and most of us lifted a hand. It's perfect. Hotels.com has dynamic content, we're providing it for them (thus cutting back on their internal resources) and it's what we want to read anyway.

I take back hotels.com as my favorite example now. It had to be the Target example. Think of the last product search you did on their site - let's say for a blender. The actual content of the product information is maybe two or three paragraphs. The rest is star ratings from users, comments from purchasers, recommendations of other products bought by blender buyers, and the list goes on. Target has dynamic content nailed. At least for now.

The trick is business-to-business. Like John said, that's a tougher nut to crack. I will now (thanks to John) look at my online Target and travel experiences to come up with ideas to address my client's needs dynamically.