Boomerang

Alicia Keys invited vocalists to audition to be her backup singer via video submission to MySpace. It sounds like a fantastic opportunity to leverage social networks in a new way – Keys can reach a global audience of hopefuls and can gauge, by video, the talent, appeal, and “shake-it” ability of each candidate on her own time.  

But what about that “certain something” that makes a top performer? Stage presence – a necessary ingredient for the thrill of live performance – is a quality not easily captured by video. Can the confidence and poise required for an onstage performance with a powerhouse songstress like Alicia Keys be encapsulated in a 30-second video? Maybe… maybe not. 

The Internet levels the playing field when it comes to intangibles like stage presence, charisma, interpersonal chemistry and overall people skills. MySpace and other social networks allow people to connect to opportunities that, before social media, might never have come their way.  Dancers from all over the globe can audition with Alicia Keys in the comfort of their own home – no pressure for stage presence required. 

Filmmakers can enter their work for the chance to be part of Paulho Coelho’s new social media-enabled film project – no interpersonal chemistry between collaborators necessary. Match.com members can establish clearly defined profiles designed to attract those that might not be interested if the pair were to initially meet in person – no pressure about a first impression since it’s done over e-mail! 

Social networks not only connect people to people, they connect people to opportunities. As we use online media to supplement (and often replace) what goes on in the offline world, I wonder how we will develop a virtual equivalent of physical chemistry and personal interaction – the magic of the human-to-human experience. I guess we can post a comment to Alicia’s MySpace page and get her insights once her auditions are over…

(Photograph by Chris Buck,  which appeared in New York Magazine in October 2006)

Ever see an unknown musician at a club and predict that he or she is “going to be huge” and it turned out you were 100 percent right?  When I saw Dave Grohl at the 9:30 Club back in 1989 – he was brutally abusing his drum set for Scream – I turned to my friend and said, “The band is average, but he’s one of the most entertaining drummers I’ve ever seen.”  A year or so later, Dave was in Nirvana.  Now, he’s “all that” for the Foos.   

In my 10-plus years in tech PR and journalism, I’ve had the chance to “call it” early and accurately on things like Napster going legit and using tiny TVs to sell airline tickets.  But only rarely have I had the chance to be “in on the ground floor” of a publication, be it online or in print, and accurately predict its future.  When Business 2.0, Brill’s Content, and The Industry Standard hit the scene, many of us (me included) thought they’d be around for a long time.  Oops.   

I got this one right though: I was one of the first people to make HuffingtonPost my primary stop for snarky political opinion and news.  I was initially led to the site just days after HuffPo went live by then radio commentator and current Senatorial candidate Al Franken, who mentioned on his Air America Radio show a post he did. I went, I read, I returned (daily). I told all my politically active friends: “This is the site we’ve been waiting for.”   

The formula for keeping me coming back every day is simple.  The content – from the minds of Christie Hefner, Harry Shearer, Hilary Rosen, Bill Press, and John Zogby even in the earliest days – was as plentiful as it was wonderful. It’s only gotten better; now the site boasts more than 1,800 bloggers (all of whom are unpaid) writing on an ever-expanding universe of topics.   

HuffPo last week celebrated its third year online and is now a force of nature (consistently top-ranked by both Technorati and Alexa), but back when I first discovered the site it was a tiny little island of ideology.  Most posts had just a handful of comments; nowadays, just about every post has hundreds (sometimes thousands) of comments.  The publication’s new tag line “The Internet Newspaper: News Blogs Video Community” is the perfect descriptor. There’s something there for just about everyone.  

Arianna Huffington, one of the most powerful people on the Internet (and in American political discourse) is seemingly everywhere, selling her new book The Right is Wrong, and spreading her particular, peculiar brand of independent political thinking.  To wit, Arianna will speak on May 19^th at the Commonwealth Club here in San Francisco and you can bet I’ll be there, with the same excitement I had when I first saw Dave Grohl play that little stage at 930 F Street.