Airfoil Public Relations

Does speed trump accuracy in media wars?

Or did traditional media take too much time in the news-gathering process? Because if you were waiting for the day when you could finally start writing that case study titled, “The Day New Media Made Old Media Look Slow and Decrepit,” it would have been the day Michael Jackson died.

While news of the King of Pop’s passing originated on celebrity gossip site TMZ.com and spread like wildfire on Twitter, CNN was reporting only that Jackson had been rushed to the hospital.

Even though CNN, understandably, did not want to report on the death until their sources confirmed the story – especially after the Steve Jobs/iReport debacle last year -- they came away looking slow and behind-the-times.

Meanwhile, most outlets (including the local sports talk station I was listening to on my way home from work) were citing TMZ.com.

You can chalk it up to luck, or a case of not having a reputation to uphold, but TMZ was the clear winner.  It wasn’t until nearly two hours after the first reports of Jackson’s death surfaced that CNN finally called it.

But at that point, they were regurgitating what was already known rather than breaking news.

It begs the question: Does new media stand for speed and traditional media equate to accuracy?

As an aside, the contrast between the two anchors reporting the news – Dax Holt on TMZ and Wolf Blitzer on CNN – was almost laughable if it weren’t such an accurate representation of new and old media colliding.  By all accounts, Blitzer is an accomplished and accurate reporter of news, but his presence on the air as the story developed only served to reinforce the image of old media, albeit unintentionally.

Score one for new media.

-- Brad Marley

 

Where Have All the LPs Gone?

I’m determined that, some day, I’ll find the time to put together the coffee-table book that has been percolating in my head for a decade or so.  It’ll be called “Where’d It Go?” or “Whatever Happened to Baby Ruth?” or some similar title that reflects the silent, rapid, baffling disappearance of those objects that once formed the foundation of our daily personal and business lives.

Certainly the book will include full-color pages on carbon paper, wooden clothes pins, Coke bottles, typewriters, Wite-Out, rooftop TV antennas, ¾-inch tape machines, record players, answering machines, carburetors and goose horns.  But the longer I delay publishing the book, the longer and heavier the book becomes, for now I must consider adding first- and second-generation technology that is being replaced by subsequent generations.  So I’m also reserving pages for:

• Videotape

• Telephone keypads

• Phone booths

• Toner cartridges

• File cabinets

• Offices with doors

Beyond the never-ending obsolescing of our favorite products, however, I’m running into another nagging issue.  None of these items has really totally disappeared.  Many businesses in cold climates still prefer carbon paper because carbonless systems don’t work well there.  Camera crews use wooden clothes pin every day to clip gels over powerful lights—the wood doesn’t absorb the heat.  The occasional columnist still literally pounds out his wares, and vinyl is becoming a prestige medium for music.

The fact that so many of these now useless devices have continued to draw so many users has made me reluctant to add print newspapers and magazines  to my ready-to-die list.  No matter how convenient the Web, no matter how uneconomical the alternatives, I have a strong feeling that the world holds a niche for the morning paper and the weekly mag, just as it does for mp3 and flash drives.

To update General MacArthur, newsprint doesn’t die; it just slowly fades away—but it grows on trees and will always be revived  by those who, lounging in their yard on a July 4^th weekend,  would rather fall asleep with the funnies covering their face than with a mobile phone in their eye.

And as for my coffee-table opus, on further reflection I’ve come to realize that my list of practically obsolete products has failed to include two other items that are ready to bite the dust (except for the nostalgic few of us) coffee tables … and coffee-table books.

--Steve Friedman

 

Productivity, fewer meetings become hot topics at Midwest Technology Leaders Conference

Lance Perry, vice president of IT Customer Strategy for Cisco, is my new productivity hero. A key theme of his keynote remarks at last week’s Midwest Technology Conference at the amazing MGM Grand Detroit Hotel was how to do more with less.  He spoke of Cisco’s and his own personal commitment to manage the amount of time spent on and in meetings.  How is Cisco going about this? It begins at the top: The CIO and CEO are asking employees to rely more on technology (Cisco technology that is) to spend less time in person and more time on line.  According to Lance, more is getting done and travel costs are plummeting.  Cisco took a first step in this mission to beat down the meeting by providing employees with computer-top cameras and technology that virtually connects them with their peers and customers. 

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is on a similar meeting theme, according to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal, in which Ballmer describes his new meeting management style:  gone are the long, drawn-out PowerPoint presentations; instead, he asks that PowerPoint decks be provided in advance of meetings, which are reserved for dialogue and feedback.  The result: tighter meeting agendas, better decision making, and more productivity.

Speaking of productivity, it was a major theme across the conference.  Specifically, how to use technology to promote productivity in a down economy.  Here again, Perry had good common sense to offer as he described the five things Cisco is doing to prepare for the economic turnaround: 1. Save to invest. 2. Unlock employee potential (let employees have a voice in technology purchases and usage; top down IT decision making is a thing of the past). 3. Drive customer intimacy (Cisco managers are encouraged to visit customers in person at least quarterly). 4. Outpace the competition. 5. Transition to a borderless enterprise.

The attendance and quality of speakers/content at the Midwest Technology Leaders Conference helped to invigorate and refresh my interest and enthusiasm for technology innovation – right here in Detroit.  Perhaps it is a sign of better things ahead.

-- Lisa Vallee Smith

 

Doctors Talking to Doctors: The Best Medicine for HIT Marketers

I’ve been immersed in the world of healthcare information technology (HIT) for the past few years, and I’m amazed at the sheer volume of information about HIT tools and their value coming from every direction, due in large part to HIT provisions in the ARRA. From healthcare trade publications to consumer media to technology-focused television advertising, it’s clear HIT’s heyday is here.

More hospitals, health systems and physician practices than ever are giving serious consideration to HIT investment, but the myriad volume of news and commentary about what to think about, when to think about it and what tools to leverage can leave the average CIO, practice manager and physician scratching their heads.

So how can those who market HIT stand out from the countless offerings on the market and become more than just another voice in a crowded room?  The answer is deceptively simple, no matter what’s being said in Washington: When doctors talk to doctors, HIT marketers should be there – and should do far more listening than talking.  It may surprise you to learn the process begins and ends with listening.

In my work representing an electronic medical records (EMR) software provider, I have heard and absorbed doctors’ concerns about using EMR technology. EMR had to be intuitive and require little to no staff training. It had to offer local service and support, since doctors who can’t access data can’t practice. Most importantly, it had to be an enabler to better patient care rather than a detractor from it by conforming to the way doctors practice medicine.

With these requirements, my job was clear: Spend time listening to doctors talk about how EMR should bring value to their practices, and then talk about how my client’s product met and exceeded those value expectations, with firsthand feedback from the doctors themselves. An aggressive healthcare trade campaign, several product demos and a battery of case studies later, we showed we cared about what doctors need, adding value to their operations, adding value to my client’s brand and growing the sales pipeline.

The HIT marketer’s world is fraught with a variety of pressures, and it’s incredibly easy for even the most experienced among us to focus on the tactical rather than the strategic.  In reality, the prescription for success is simple:

• LISTEN. What do my end-users really want?

• RESPOND. Does my product address those needs? Does it require improvement?

• COMMUNICATE. How can I demonstrate my product addresses my end-users’ needs?

• SELL. Let doctors “try before they buy.”

• LISTEN AGAIN. Has my product hit the mark? What have I done well? What do I need to improve?

-- Brian Barthelmes

 

Innovation at Telematics Detroit overshadowed by major automotive industry news

You have to give it to the automakers, despite bankruptcies, government control, slumping sales and a perception that innovation is lacking, they continue to move forward. This was evident at the Telematics Detroit show held in Novi this week, where you could find representatives of all the major automakers actively engaged in conversations to find the latest telematics innovations for the vehicle.

Look at how Ford Sync, powered by Microsoft, has been a major factor in its emergence and clearly consumers’ expectations for vehicle technology innovation is high.

Airfoil client UIE Automotive showcased its new mobile technology platform, myCar™ , at the show. UIE Automotive’s myCar™ platform connects vehicles with owners on their mobile devices, showcasing connected services on the iPhone from Apple and RIM’s Blackberry Bold. WWJ’s Matt Roush called it “the coolest thing I saw,” and many other attendees reacted similarly. Innovations like myCar™ will be what fuels the comeback of GM and Chrysler.

There’s no doubt attendance was down, but that’s nothing new. While tradeshow attendance and exhibition may be down, the quality of conversations at these events for those still willing to make the investment is high.

So despite GM’s bankruptcy announcement, life went on this week for the auto industry and if you can have a little faith, there’s a sunny day down the road once the clouds clear.

-- Tim Wieland

 

HIT marketers need to follow SMB tech marketers’ example for success

As I become more of a healthcare tech geek, each experience at my own physician’s office turns into a discovery mission. My most recent visit to the doctor was a healthy visit last week. My poor physician had no idea he was heading into an interview when he entered my room.

“Are you using EMR? How far into the adoption process are you? What system are you using? What factors are influencing that decision? Have you seen any financial or clinical benefits from adoption?

Luckily, he was happy to talk. He’s not in charge of his practice's EMR adoption but his partner is and had attended HIMSS (http://www.himssconference.org/). My doctor has some serious reservations.

His first was patient relationships. His wife went to her doctor for a visit last month and the doctor only made eye contact with her once during a 20-minute visit. The rest of the time, her doctor was busy entering data into a computer. Yikes. I understand why my physician has reservations. The clinical data proposition is powerful to many doctors but if it is at the expense of the patient relationship that drives patient loyalty and perceived visit value, it isn’t worth it to them.

His second was his affiliated health system’s “solution” does not work for his practice for many reasons.  Physicians desire customized solutions, which carry a heavy price tag.  Based on this, the subscription-based models likely have the most growth opportunity with this market. They are easy to implement, many times can “talk” to any number of the existing major HIT systems, and physicians can see faster ROI.

My doctor is a small business owner. His customers (READ: patients) are his lifeblood and any investment must be heavily weighed against time-to-ROI.  It makes sense that he’s not jumping on the bandwagon or, perhaps, off the bridge, in this case.

HIT providers desire to market to the big dogs – the hospitals and health systems – but these networks will not function properly until our local physicians are active participants.  To get them ingrained, HIT marketers must provide the “what’s in it for me” for individual practices and physician groups.  HIT marketers should take a cue from small business tech marketers and make the value proposition clear and easily achievable.

(Warning: shameless plug) I do know some marketing experts in SMB tech and healthcare if anyone is looking…

-- Elin Nozewski

 

Tweet Me Up, Scotty

Man has once again caught up with machine, now that astronaut Mike Massimino, on his way to help repair the Hubble Space Telescope, has tweeted, “Launch was awesome!” The impact of those words may be somewhat less than that of, “Watson, come here—I need you,” but they do represent a milestone.

NASA has issued tweets from the Phoenix Mars Lander (or its PR account exec) and other space machines, but now a human is sending 140 characters at a time from an onboard computer to NASA, which feeds them to Massimino’s Twitter account.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the flight of the suborbital flight of monkeys Able and Baker, the first living beings to survive a mission into space and return to Earth. Man didn’t catch up with them for another two years (to the month), when astronaut Alan Shephard became the first human to perform the same feat in a Mercury capsule.

With social media, it’s déjà vu all over again, as Yogi once pondered. Through the Internet, the machines on our desktops and in our laps have been talking with the machines in corporate server farms or piling up messages in electronic inboxes. Machines on the Internet were followed, not by animals, but by avatars to mimic the human experience. But now social media enable us to connect on a truly human level with each other. Even the granddaddy of social media—instant messaging—which once sent words and sometimes video or files between machines, has evolved in the Web 2.0 world to allow us to speak to each other in real time video phone calls integrated into IM.

Now the question is, how much do we have to say to each other, once we get past, “Launch was awesome”? With luck, we’ll launch a more global conversation on the issues that all of us who are socially connected must face together. What a terrific fan page our leaders could build if President Obama were tweeting with President Sarkozy and President Medvedev. What advances we might gain if stem cell researchers in Britain were tweeting with colleagues in the U.S. and Canada.

Right now, we have an astronaut dutifully declaring to his followers, “The adventure of a lifetime has begun!" Let’s work to make social media less about random adventure and more about improving lives—in our lifetime. Then perhaps social media will reach their apogee—as “societal” media—where issues can be resolved by the characters who really could launch a better world.

-- Steve Friedman

Why do I know so much?

I’m writing during the wrap-up of quite a 72-hour news cycle—Chrysler’s bankruptcy, Arlen Specter’s switching parties, Justice Souter’s planned departure, the continuing expansion of the swine-flu threat, President Obama’s 100-days news conference, and the premature death of Las Vegas super-impressionist Danny Gans (a favorite of mine from days gone by).

Ten or 15 years ago, keeping up with such a news deluge would have been a strain, but I’ve found it surprisingly easy to stay atop all that has been happening the past couple days. What I might have missed at my usual online news sources I’ve picked up from Twitter and Facebook friends who have posted tweets, repeats and feats at the speed of news.  CNN has sent me what must have been a record number of “Breaking News” alerts over the past two days, and I’ve been able to watch live online coverage of President Obama, Congress and the World Health Organization as they’ve reported the latest developments around the world.

If nothing else, the transformation and democratization of news reporting is making us more informed, and we’re learning about crucial events much more rapidly.  The news “report” eventually may go the way of newsprint as—with a little help from our friends—we tune in real-time to our neighborhoods and our nation.

--Steve Friedman

Investigative journalism: power of the keyboard

Many are mourning the loss of the fourth estate and watchdog journalism during this media consolidation. However, funeral preparations are premature.

Just as citizen journalists are breaking news, writing and sharing content online, individuals are also becoming watchdogs and spreading concerns and transgressions faster than traditional media can report about them.

From the Kryptonite lock example in 2004 during the infancy of the social Web, individuals having been taking companies to task and exposing issues in the social media environment.

In the past week alone, Amazon’s change in classifying gay materials snowballed from a Twitter meme called #AmazonFail into a quick apology from the company, and a video by two employees at a Domino’s Pizza franchise, tracked down by Consumerist readers, has resulted in their immediate firing as well as pending criminal charges after first spreading online and then going mainstream.

Paid Content’s Tameka Kee breaks it down for business: It’s a testament to how social media can force major corporations to act much faster than they might otherwise in an effort to do damage control.

With sites such as The Drudge Report and The Consumerist, green blogs that test and track chemicals in a variety of products and political blogs that monitor politician’s comings and goings, investigative journalism is alive and well online.

-- Tonja Deegan

… all the kings horses and all the kings men! Measure twice … and measure again

The present chatter about the death of the newspaper, the demise of media, etc., is tragically overblown. Certainly, change is taking place in the media industry, but the fundamentals of public relations are not changing all that much.

Are local newspapers failing and closing?  You bet.  Are local newspapers disappearing completely?  I seriously doubt it.  People value trusted sources of information and will gravitate toward those that best serve their personal or professional interests. 

And believe it or not, I think people are willing to pay for traditional journalism as we know it today.  The newspapers that figure it out soon are likely to remain the information authority in their markets.  Elsewhere, the laws of supply and demand will usher in new brands in different packages, but selling the same old stuff: the news.

Regardless of the results of the latest shakeout, the challenge for PR will remain the same: reach your target audience and articulate your product’s or service’s value proposition through the filter of a third party.  The rules of engagement and relative levels of risk may change slightly, but the goal basically remains the same.  

What is changing is measurement -- moving beyond column inches, advertising equivalency, impressions and all of the other approximations that have become the standard fare of PR reporting.

The silver lining of this upheaval will be better methods to demonstrate the ROI of PR programs.  What we are able to infer and measure through the tools that have sprouted up around social platforms are just the tip of the iceberg. To finally connect PR’s impact or influence on sales could revolutionize the profession.  If you’re worth your salt, this should not scare you.

Practically speaking, this won’t happen overnight. The industry needs to evolve methods of measurement and educate stakeholders over time.  

One of the first steps is a move toward using qualitative measures as a means for making quantitative measures more meaningful.  With the rise of multimedia, we can track and compare the various elements that result from PR efforts.  Consider some of the information in a recent Wired blog regarding the rise of video content on media sites:

• Video increases audience engagement or the length of time spent on a Web page – greater exposure to a message is equated with greater influence

• Online video increases click through rates – an effective call to action

PR professionals should start to value programs or placements that contain multimedia elements more than one-dimensional elements.  Likewise, programming efforts should recognize the increased value of these outcomes and fund the resources that drive and support them.  

This is the general direction of things to come.  The interconnected nature of online properties and their potential to integrate with related communications and marketing initiatives will make PR’s role ever more important and complex.  Likewise, those in the profession that can keep pace with the change will become measurements of success.

-- Kevin Sangsland