Recent Social Network Demographic Data

Today's eMarketer update has recent demographics regarding social networks. It aligns with Pew's research, released this month, which shows rapid adoption of social networks among adults.

Take Aways: eMarketer has great updates, and Pew is a great resource for research regarding internet impact in the U.S.

Digital Reputation Management Event

Tonight was another great educational event put on by the fine folks at MIMA. One of the things I'll miss about moving out of the Twin Cities will be access to these events. The topic of the evening was Digital Reputation Management. The discussion reminds me that the principles and theories of good communication and constituent relations haven't changed because of the internet or Web 2.0, as much as they have been accelerated. Great conversation with Ward about this topic as well. Anyway, if you're not doing so already here are three tools you can use immediately to try and "listen" to what people are saying about your business:

1. Spy - http://spy.appspot.com/
2. Google Alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts
3. Twitter Search - http://search.twitter.com/

Other advice from the panel included embracing transparency, being honest and human...and not creepy. That's pretty good advice regardless of setting.

TED - Ideas Worth Spreading

I was recently turned onto TED by a coworker. TED stands for technology, entertainment, design. There's a lot of good, in depth content. In this nerd's opinion, Wow! What a great site. As a sampling, here's a video of Larry Lessig (Stanford prof and digital copyright authority). "TEDTalks" are also available via podcasts.

Compact Disc (1982 – 2007)

R.I.P. Compact Disc. From today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Once praised for its clear, crisp audio quality but panned for its susceptibility to scratches and smudges, the compact disc passed away in 2007 after a quick but painful illness. It was 25 years old.

You can read the entire obit here.

I’m guessing that the AP has the obit for appointment television already prepared.

(Thanks to Bret for the article.)

David Byrne on the music industry

Happy New Year. Death and rebirth. The blog is dead, long live the blog. As many of you know, my original blog (co-authored with some great co-conspirators) ran its course and was officially put to rest today. Now I will continue to blog here. For any new readers, this blog is mostly about business trends, marketing ideas, pop culture, communication, and other nerd fest things that interest me and that I’d like to share.

My admittedly nerdish love of music and fascination with the music industry have led to more than a few music related posts here on Notes from the Field. To kick off the new year, I’d like to share this great article from Wired. David Byrne writes about the music industry (death) and where it is going (possible rebirth).

What is called the music business today, however, is not the business of producing music. At some point it became the business of selling CDs in plastic cases, and that business will soon be over. But that's not bad news for music, and it's certainly not bad news for musicians. Indeed, with all the ways to reach an audience, there have never been more opportunities for artists.

You may ask yourself where is my bloated record company? Where is my beautiful margin?

There’s also a nice exchange in a related article between Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) and David Byrne.

Buzzes like a fridge

As I anxiously await my download of "In Rainbows", I'm reading reactions to Radiohead's approach to album sales. On Green Plastic, we learn other bands are going to allow more free music. Note the jumps in Radiohead searches in the post. I still thought we'd hear more about the free and preview items Wilco has done in advance of their past few albums. Bob Mould has some interesting thoughts about this topic on his blog.

UPDATE - 10/16/07
Looks like Radiohead has sold over 1.2 million copies of the album through digital download alone and made $8-$10 Million alread on the record...and those figures don't include the sales for the deluxe box set available later this year. More here.

Hotel Chevalier

Honorary field agent Colin sent me a very interesting article about Wes Anderson’s new films. Yes, plural. Anderson, the director of some of my favorite movies including Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tennenbaums, is releasing The Darjeeling Limited in theatres and its 13-minute prequel, Hotel Chevalier, on iTunes later this week. The article does a fine job of explaining both films and their interdependencies, so I won’t give a synopsis here. In the name of balance, earlier industry reports said that the short was included in the festival release, but will not be part of the mainstream release.

I’m interested on multiple levels. First, as a fan of film in general Anderson specifically, I’m intrigued and would like to see it. I’m fairly certain that it won’t be some Guns & Roses Use Your Illusion I & II garbage, that was thrust at fans to make money and fulfill some contractual obligation. Two of crap is still crap – you could have boiled it down to one decent album, but instead…oh I digress. No, I believe Chevalier / Darjeeling will be another example of director as auteur... wait let me put out my Gallois and take off the black turtleneck. There much better. We can see more of Anderson’s vision which helps fans further appreciate what’s been done and what’s yet to come.

Secondly, as someone interested in new media and advertising, I find this as a novel way to bring online and offline together in a constructive way. From a brand perspective, Anderson never tries to be all things to all people. If so, he might be signing up Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in Game Plan II: Cinnamon’s Revenge. While Anderson’s approach with the internet short might not be appealing to everyone, it should play to the base and could help expand to new fans interested in the buzz or compelled by the 13-minute story.

Finally, I’m interested in witnessing the continued progression online/new media is making as it knocks off the kings of the mass media hill. Newspapers who missed the net train are dying on the vine. Radio and the music industry are still trying to make sense of easy to access, on demand, digital music. Television becomes more fragmented and continues to lose viewers, especially among echo boomers. Now, movies are seeing their business change through technology – slowly through video, then DVD and now the Internet. I believe that the movie industry has been able to leverage the online channel in a positive way through the availability of trailers, intriguing promotional sites, and some great viral/guerilla campaigns. Done, right “old” and new media can work together to deliver an excellent customer experience.

Best of luck to Wes and his crew.

Be Authentic

Greetings. It’s been a while since the last “Notes from the Field” post. No excuses worth posting – just wanted to acknowledge the fact.

Earlier in the month I was at a First Tuesday luncheon at the Carlson School. Lynn Casey, CEO of PSB, was the speaker. In the name of disclosure, I'm also working with some PSB employees on a web redevelopment effort for a client. Lynn spoke about how internet-enabled technology is (re-)defining PR. It was a good talk. I’m paraphrasing here, but the speed of the Internet is further forcing authenticity -- if one is going to ground and maintain a unique symbolic identity, they have to be authentic. The Internet, and consumer generated content, are Toto (the dog, not the band) to the digital image curtain.

A couple of take-aways:
1) Gen Xrs & Echo Boomers are now spending more time on the internet than watching TV. Does your marketing spend and/or understanding of media match this?

2) Be authentic if you want to protect your brand/symbolic ID.

TMZ to take on politics

This was on Good Morning America this morning. TMZ is going to direct its citizen-submitted, pseudo-paparazzi lens on politicians. Expanding its gaze from Hollywood’s celebs to DC hopefuls, TMZ represents how the new media age is changing the coverage of politics and politicians. Not only will more mishaps be caught on film, but those mishaps can be posted, tagged, and shared in seconds.

From a rhetorical standpoint, we used to have more of a “shared” coverage and frame of politics. Will the fantasy themes of tomorrow have the same ability to catch us up in a drama? If the Imus case is an example, then the answer is yes.

The brand takeaway: Be authentic. It’s easier to maintain and ground you identity if it is truly authentic -- and you won't have to worry if you're being caught on film or not.