Sorry this has taken me so long to get posted, got back to the day job and all hell broke loose. I'm debating about posting on some of these struggles as they may not be seen in a favorable light but damn it these topics need to discussed. It’s like seeing someone drowning in the hotel pool from your 16th floor window but no one will listener or even go look. But I digress back to this post, the NAB.
First things first, damn we are behind the times as Americans, from 3DHD TV to holography or interactive TV in Brazil; simply put the world is blowing by us. Personally I blame our TV’s; American's are in love with their TV's and will watch about anything (the automobile has been replaced IMHO). Meanwhile the rest of the world is learning to program in C++ and building the technology of tomorrow. We have to begin to close this gap or the consequences could be far reaching.
Second, walking the aisles of the convention floor you were struck by those clinging to the past and those building for the future. My favorite example was this one intersection where on one corner you had a clock booth, across from this was a booth that could construct a radio or TV tower for you, which was across from a booth that was building canned streaming content which was across from a light manufacture for towers. I stood there and was stuck by the thought that for sure 2 of 4 will not be there in 10 years and the clock guy might even be in trouble (the content booth could also see its end quickly as the content was crappy at best). The difference was stark and real. But I would say this is not much different than our industry; unfortunately there are too many more clinging and not enough building!
My next observation from the NAB was more about the conversation going on around me; everyone was talking about the economy. Many who have attended the NAB year after year said this was one of the least attended shows they had been to. There was space on the floor and many only came for a day or two if they did attend. While I understand this is economics I also find it a referendum on broadcast media once again. Why at the time when broadcast media needs to be the most nibble and engaged in new technology is the major show for this exact purpose not being attended? For the cost travel savings of a grand or getting 32 more hours logged at the office....... No, the truth is most are not engaged and many are only nibble in the boardroom. The NAB was another example of how reinvention is a much bantered line in the industry but rarely followed business principal. I thought major newspapers folding up around the country would have set off warning sirens but it’s clear now that the industry players will either have to get damn lucky or go the way of the dinosaurs which personally pains me to no end.
My final observations are quick bullet points and tips:
-Don't ever stay at Paris in Vegas if you are on business or just in general. Service was very French (can we please drop the act when it comes to service), they were running jamming within the hotel so my wireless card would not work (which also jammed my cell phone unless dancing in the window while touch my nose to the ceiling), and Avon was holding their convention at the same time. Don't know what is older than a cougar but know I got hit on by a couple. Overall FAIL for you Paris Vegas, I'll never be back!
-Just because you get on the Vegas monorail 45 minutes before you are suppose to be anywhere doesn't mean you won't be late. Got stuck (think packed, standing room only tram car) for more than 45 minutes and the guys from Christie Technology had their presentation at 9AM and where stuck with me till 9:20. Luckily I was standing with one of the funniest dudes on the planet. This guy was riot but in the mad scramble when we were finally freed I never got a card. So if the guy who had the Zoolander laptop from Japan reads this, please get in contact!
-Vegas has got to be where coffee lovers go to die. Trying to find a good cup of joe around there is next to impossible.
-Special shout out to Small Plate Radio, if you have not checked Doug and Kyle's project out please do. These guys are bringing radio back to the foundation it was built on; damn good content. It was great to rap with them on their radio show and meet the rest of their team. You need content or a show idea, please get in touch with them.
-Technologies that caught my eye while there in no order in particular, AstroTV- Brazilian interactive TV, MediaFlo- more interactive TV by Qualcomm, NiCT- 3D HD, 3D Audio & holography and MobiClip- make your video consumable on mobile devices.
-One of my show favorites was talking with Jenni of JenniRadio. She is a 9 year old girl who has her own radio show and interviews Tween and Teen stars like crazy. The kid is amazing and I look forward to hearing about her career in the years to come.
I also spoke on a panel about text messaging for our provider Hip Cricket (this is actually how I got to go to the show, if it wasn’t for this I would have been logging the hours). It was a blast to speak on this subject. Hip Cricket setup a text to screen application so people could text their questions. The hilarious part about this is that it become very clear quickly those who were believers and those who were the naysayers. My favorite question was “Can we afford text messaging, I hear its expensive”, my answer, can you afford not to. Seriously text messaging is a win/win for broadcast media and should have been adopted 3 years ago in my opinion. The team from Hip Cricket is a buttoned down team of who were great to interact with, my thanks to them for having me.
Well that is my recap, hope you found it helpful. Next year I will make sure that I have my video camera so I can share this more real time (I took it this year but long story about why it did not hold juice). If you have questions or comments please feel free, love to get some more interaction going on here.
Summary of NAB Show - Vegas 09
Twitter in plain english
Found this on SportsIn140.com and thought it would fill in some gaps for those of you still trying to find a place for Twitter. You'll notice the date was from over a year ago and I think there are some new best practices for how to use Twitter. I've posted some of these and given some of my own thoughts on this subject recently. Still I felt this was a good piece on Twitter's origin and place in daily life.
Fish Where The Twits Are
Sorry to have not posted in a few weeks, I’ve been bit by the Twitter bug. Let me tell you how amazing a rabbit hole this new micro blogging sensation is. It won’t make sense right away but give it time and you’ll soon realize the amazing power of Twitter. Here are a few best Twitter practices to get you started:
1) It’s a community, you have to follow people and give relevant information to the community in order to earn followers. It will start slow but if you stay with it you’ll begin to see accelerated follower growth.
2) Have a plan, be known for a few focused topics that make you but be careful, constant self promotion will not keep followers. A 1 to 5 ratio of self promo versus topical focus is a nice balance.
3) Check out some of the services that are out there:
a. Highly recommend Tweet Deck, will change Twitter forever for you!
b. Use an auto responder to be more instant for new followers, make the message interesting. I use Tweet Later but only for the auto respond option.
c. Use a tiny URL service that allows you to track link clicks, I personally love bit.ly.
d. Put it on your phone, awesome if you take public transit. I have a BB and use TwitterBerry. My buddy @clybecker (that’s Charlie’s Twitter handle or address in non-Tweet terms) has an iPhone and really enjoys TwitterPhone.
4) Finally check this article and the video I posted before. This will help covers some of the basic.
You’re saying great but what does this have to do with the radio industry; did you see Lily Allen’s Twitter fun on her West Coast US swing?
Now imagine this in radio land then think about tastefully tying in a sponsor with a clickable link?!? What is the value to a brand of being pushed in front of a passionate audience in an interactive manner today? Personal devices are becoming more important than any other possession. Radio needs to learn to stay on, interactive, and engaging on these new personal devices, it’s critical in my opinion.
If you make the leap to Twitter please search me out, my handle is @joshdirks.
TFF = Twitter Friend Friday
Count me on the ever growing bandwagon called Twitter. It’s fantastic, informative and made sense to me from the get go vs other social sites. Now I will admit there is some stupid s*$#t on Twitter at times. But search some topics that apply to your job, life, and/or passion. Find a few tweets you think are interesting or you identify with, follow these Tweeters. If you’ve done it right you’ll find out all kinds of things you used to only hear about if you researched or sought out. There are also a few lists of does and don’t out there which I think are helpful to those starting your Twitter existence. I think the most important point made is to share stuff that benefits the community, including other Tweeters you found useful. This brings me to TFF or Twitter Friend Friday.
Twitter Friend Friday (TFF) is not my idea but unfortunately in the large amount of reading I have done I have lost the source. If you find the original ninja of TFF please tweet me. Until then this was my interpretation of TFF: On Friday’s, tweet three Tweeters you have found useful/funny/helpful/enlightening….. you get my point, that week. This gives others that follow you a chance to discover new Tweeters they can also follow. It’s also a nice way of recognizing those Tweeters that are giving useful information to the community. It what I like to call our own user driven Twit-dora (OK I know that was super cheese, could not resist).
So this next Friday put a reminder in your calendar to tweet those that made your Twitter week exceptional. (Hint: RT this ASAP)
New Emerging Pricing Metric- PCPM
Today on Twitter @nelson_meg asked my thoughts on PCPM. For those not in the know, PCPM is a new term coined about this time last year which stands for Performance Cost Per Thousand. Loosely defined it is how one person’s social influence can affect 1,000 page views by that influencer’s followers. If this just flew over your head don’t feel bad, it’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around the first time out. Here is a simple example as it has been put to me: I like Band A and so I begin to talk about them on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and/or LinkedIn plus probably on my personal blog if I have one. The portion of my social sphere that identifies with my music tastes will take this in recommendation to the memory bank. Then as these followers are surfing the web they are served an ad of some sort for Band A and are more likely to click because of my past influence. Now those of you that know me in real life know that music discovery is not my strong suite but it’s an example I think we can all relate to (if you want a great music ear check out Ask the MD). What PCPM means to advertisers is that they would pay social influences for the direct impact their referrals bring the client, in other words virtual word of mouth that is compensated. Simply PCPM is the pricing metric that may someday replace CPM.
Meg’s next question was how do you calculate the price? Great question Meg, if I had this figured out I’d be rolling in my loot Indecent Proposal style. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this metric is developed over the next few years. I suspect that the influencer's will have to opt in for privacy reasons. Those that opt in will then be tracked to quantify their social influence ranking which would lead to some level of compensation. Additionally I think there are some further legal hurdles that need to be figured out. What if I refer a product that hurts and/or kills someone; can I be held liable for this? The platform will also have to be mammoth but in these tough times there might be the brains in a garage somewhere to figure out all the moving parts sooner than later.
I do agree that online marketing needs a new metric for pricing but until someone comes up with something better than CPM we’ll stick with it. CPA in my opinion is to far skewed to the advertiser and does not take into account the branding that is taking place as eyeballs consume a page. Additionally just selling a portion of inventory is toggled too far to the publisher and does not force them to continue to grow page views. CPM is the fairest way of selling online media currently and holds everyone accountable with the tools we currently have. If you want something to change, change the way you buy your online media. Stop buying on millions, start buying your core demo group on hyper local sites that have social aspects and high page per visit counts(in a way you are doing PCPM if you find fans mixed with new minds on these types of sites). Second, care about your creative; if your creative is free the results will probably be similarly cheap or non-effective. Pay for good creative, it’s essential and really does not cost that much. Finally localize the content, nothings worse than seeing an ad I’d see in TX here in Seattle. That’s what I’d change if I was buying media today and wait for a new metric to emerge for pricing in the future.
How Fast We Are Really Moving
Sorry that it has been so long since I posted a blog. I have a ton of topics and articles I hope to share with you this weekend. However I saw this the other day and was blown away. Think it is worth the watch for anyone in any field but especially those in the online media world. Enjoy!
SEO and Traditional Media Roundtable
Just wanted to announce that I will be hosting on behalf of Entercom Seattle our second monthly digital lunch. See the invite below and RSVP to me if you are interested in joining us.