Boomerang

If anyone can turn a social media experiment into a cinematic mosaic of imagination, it’s Paulo Coelho. Arguably best known for his novel The Alchemist, Coelho is an internationally acclaimed author and lyricist who has sold over 100 million books. He may not have the most experience in film making and music composition, but plenty of his fans do. That idea sets the stage for The Experimental Witch Competition, a collaborative film project announced by the beloved Brazilian author last June.  

Coelho’s last novel, The Witch of Portobello, was told from the viewpoint of 15 different characters. For his film competition, Coelho asked filmmakers to choose a character from the book and shoot all of the scenes told from that character’s perspective. Filmmakers are asked to submit their movies via YouTube, while music composers will submit their contributions/theme songs through MySpace. Coelho will work with a professional editor to sew 15 winning films together to recreate the book, and will show the final version in film festivals throughout the world. He communicates this all through his blog. The Experimental Witch is, in essence, an experiment in social media. 

With his unique storytelling style and his passion for the Internet, Coelho is a huge advocate of social media - just check out his website, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube activity! He is also the first best-selling author to support free distribution of his own work online. Some say this makes him an advocate for piracy, but really it’s just about being “with the times” and giving readers what they want. Besides, distributing his work without cost has actually boosted his book sales.  

At the very least, the film will provide contributors, viewers and fans with a new experience and a screen capture of the plurality of interpretations on one of Coelho’s novels. The project, if pulled off successfully, has the potential to illustrate how the countless interpretations of an idea can be seamlessly woven together to illustrate fifteen visions and one story simultaneously. As Coelho states on his blog, it will be a bit of “cinematographic history” – in addition to being a social media experiment on the grandest scale. I just hope it’s as good as the book.    

Recently a client asked me what he could do to increase his knowledge of social media and to be perceived as a “web-savvy executive.” While he’s already pretty sophisticated in terms of understanding the evolving online ecosystem, he felt was ready to take it to the next level.It’s a worthy goal, and I came up with a list that I think will not only help him talk the talk but also walk the walk.1) Participate in online discussions such as blogs and add your opinions, thoughts, and perspectives. Joining the online conversation is the best first step to become web savvy.  

2) Write an article on a topic you’re expert in or passionate about and post it to Wikipedia or Amazon’s new Amapedia website.  

3) Leverage Facebook and start using it to expand your network. I know people think that site is just for college students but it’s not. Technologists, journalists, and executives of all industries are joining en mass. While you’re at it, why not create a Fan page or even a Facebook group for your company.  

4) Start soliciting your LinkedIn network with questions pertaining to your industry. (What??!! You’re not on LinkedIn? That was even before step 1 so go ahead and register now.) Sending questions to your network allows you to connect (or reconnect) with colleagues and survey them for insights, as well as shows them that you value their opinions and knowledge. I like the fact that LinkedIn questions are public and come up in Google search results. 

5) Create an account on delicious and start bookmarking things you discover on the web. It’s also a great way to extend the distribution of your own digital assets (anything with a URL) and lets people find your content organically through search on that site. Make sure to include your name in summaries, if appropriate, and craft descriptive summaries, notes, and tags. 

With so many great internet applications built around social music, it’s only natural that the next up-and-coming music-related social network would involve at least a little “booty shaking.” DanceJam, founded by Geoffrey Arone, Anthony Young, and MC Hammer, is a community that leverages social networks, video, and people’s passion for dance. The site provides an Internet destination where users can watch and rate videos of people dancing, compete in dance-offs, and check out the latest and greatest moves from around the world. According to Wired’s recent coverage, DanceJam will offer slow-motion tutorials that will allow viewers to break down dances one move at a time.

The popularity of TV programs like “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” illustrates how much people love to get their groove on – or at least watch other people doing it! And let’s not discount the incredibly popular YouTube videos like Soulja Boy (check out the instructional video here), the Evolution of Dance, OK Go – On Treadmills and the NBA All-Stars dancing debut. DanceJam will provide a yet another way for people to get their dancing fix.

If the site delivers on its promise, DanceJam could bring the love of dance to a much broader audience. In the same way that Dance Dance Revolution brought aerobic movement to video games – two things not usually associated with one another - I hope DanceJam increases enthusiasm for the social and physical elements of dance. DanceJam has the potential to be what social networks are meant to be – online interactions that ultimately enhance our offline lives.

You finally find a few spare minutes to do that online research you’ve been putting off, and start entering search terms into the Google blog search engine. You review a few blog postings that provide some data but you don’t see anything special. All of a sudden, you stumble across a blog that looks as if it could be of real value. But little do you know it’s actually a fake blog being auto-generated by a machine.

Unfortunately, social media isn’t always social. There is a growing number of blogs being created each day that have nothing to do with transparent communications as we know it. Bogus blogs are being set up by unethical marketers who are using them to increase rankings in search engines and build Google juice for embedded links that point to other sites on the web. These spam blogs or “splogs” are popping up everywhere and are as counterfeit as the old “imposter” fragrances that littered discount retail shops and drug stores back in the 80’s.

Splogs work by searching real blogs with specific keywords and “scrape” or copy the genuine content for its own use. With as many as 7,000 splogs created each day, they are clogging search engine pipelines and causing confusion for everyone. While the problem is still quite rampant, some search vendors are doing what they can to eradicate splogs from search results. For example, Google has done a good job cleaning house and deleting splogs created on its Blogger platform. In fact, Google may be doing too good of a job, since it accidentally classified one of its own blogs as spam and deleted it earlier this year. However, the problem is still overwhelming for those of us who monitor blogs on a daily basis.

Splogs offer no value to readers who find them, and the worst part is most people can’t distinguish a splog from a real blog. The most frequently asked question I get from colleagues is “how can I assess the validity and credibility of a blog?” It’s a common pain point for PR and communication folks as they increasingly gauge online conversations that are tied to corporate reputation, brand recognition, products and services. Now not only do we have to analyze what’s being said, we have to determine if the author has enough credibility to believe what they’re saying, or if there’s even an author at the helm of the blog at all!

Here are some sure-fire tips to help you weed out splogs from real blogs next you smell an imposter.

1. Go to the source – You need to go directly to the blog to look for clues. You can’t make a true assessment by reading a blog post from your RSS reader.
2. Look for biographical information – Search the page for the “About Me” link to see if the blogger has disclosed personal information. While some bloggers prefer to remain anonymous, most will at least assume some kind of persona. The lack of a name or personal info is a dead giveaway. Sometimes the name of the blog alone can tip you off that it’s fake.
3. Personal experience or perspective – Many bloggers will point to news or other blog posts but will normally tell us why it was worthy of a post. If you don’t see any personal insights or commentary and it reads like a press release or news article, move on.
4. Examine the blogroll – Legitimate bloggers will go to the trouble of setting up a blogroll to show who they read and admire. Click on a few of the links to evaluate the bloggers on that list.

Growing up, the fatherly voices of Walter Cronkite, Ted Koppel and Peter Jennings mesmerized and warmed me. No matter how shocking, sad or maddening the news of the day was, their polished, trusted delivery made everything okay. It felt good to know they were on it: uncovering every detail and source, asking hard questions, and reporting the story fairly and accurately.

As the mass media landscape continues to shift, the good old days of a mass audience glued to national nightly newscasts have been replaced by a wild west of “Dot TV” channels — a handful of which now reach audiences that rival those of national news broadcasts.

But in the famous words of the great Webmaster himself, Spider-Man: “With great power also comes great responsibility.” These new dot TVs have some big shoes to fill. Journalism is a pillar of our free and democratic society, and I’m not convinced that all newcomers feel they are beholden to a shared code of ethics, and the same level of rigorous reporting of the Jennings era.

I know there are many who share my concern and excitement about the new rules of engagement that are emerging. My friend Tom Foremski has been tracking the topic on his blog for some time now. For instance, several months ago he suggested that media sites should provide a way for sources to comment back on posts – which came to life last week on Google News.

There have been other compelling experiments lately, such as the recent CNN-Citizen Tube presidential debate. Many media pundits commented that some of the most hard-hitting, relevant questions for presidential candidates came from citizens’ video questions. Our client Friction.tv has also recently formed partnerships with Channel Five and Al Jazeera. If an informed citizenry at large can collectively rise to the challenge, the honorable profession of journalism can prevail in a new form.

Facebook, like many social media sites, is complex. There are one-to-one relationships, there are one-to-many, and there are many-to-many, not to mention the varying degrees in between. I love it (and some might even call me addicted), because it’s in my nature to be social and to express myself. I want a place to unleash my creativity in a social forum. What’s so cool about all these emerging networks is that human behavior is actually driving the development of technologies. We’re constantly tweaking technology to better fit our social communication and productivity needs, which makes me think that Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, Jaiku, Digg and Del.icio.us are only the beginning of what’s to come.

For example, the number of APIs from various companies is driving innovation of new applications. A couple I like are Twittervision, a real-time geographic visualization of Twitter posts anywhere in the world, and Twittermap, which allows you to search a location (or Twitter user) to get a quick view of what people are doing in that area. The next thing I’d like to see is the ability to search for a phrase (e.g., basketball or the movie “The Departed”) so you could get a real-time snapshot of what people are doing or saying about a particular topic.

I can’t imagine what life would be like without social media. Balancing work, staying informed and maintaining a social life are, for me, three full-time jobs. Lately, I’ve added apartment hunting to the mix, and rely more than ever on social media tools to optimize my time so I can do the things I care about.

Let’s take staying informed: I’m not typically sitting in front of a stack of newspapers or magazines when I find a spare moment. Using social media, I can listen to podcasts of my favorite French radio show during my morning commute, discuss issues with bloggers via IM on my lunch break — even listen to BusinessWeek podcasts, directly from the reporter, on my iPod while at the gym. This is invaluable if I ever need to speak to him about a client. Social media allows me to consume and interact with information when it’s convenient for me.

My apartment search is another example. Because the housing market is so tough in San Francisco, each ad on Craigslist receives hundreds of responses. Sifting through and responding to ads becomes a full-time job. Most responses become buried within minutes, so timing is everything. Instead of living in front of my computer screen, I set up RSS alerts for ads that fit my criteria. When one is posted, it’s instantly sent to my phone via email. I can access the ad, research potential roommates on Facebook or Google and respond within minutes if I think it’s something that is a potential fit — all while hanging out with friends at Dolores Park.

So what would life be like without social media? I don’t want to know.

When I was young, I dreamed of hitchhiking to Hollywood and working my way up from the mailroom to the executive office. The mix of drama, good screenwriting, camerawork and surround sound was like a siren call, but one that I ultimately ignored for the glamorous life of public relations. Who knew that my dream of working in the film industry would be possible as a communications pro?

The most powerful PR programs are ones that reflect popular culture, speak to human needs and emotions, and harness new technologies in creative ways. As people increasingly turn to the Web for entertainment, news, information and social networking, it’s a brave new PR 2.0 world. Like the media outlets that we pitch story angles to every day, the landscape is quickly morphing around us. Video is emerging at the forefront of it all: to engage, provoke, demonstrate and influence.

We’re proud to represent some of the most interesting Web-meets-video pioneers. For instance, U.K.-based Friction.tv has quickly become a hotbed for public debate on important issues. The video-sharing site is a Web TV platform promoting freedom of speech, no matter how controversial. As an early innovator that’s focused on social media for social change, it’s achieved a lot of traction in a short time, according to The London Times.

Another client, MixerCast, lets people blend their own user-generated content (UGC) with legal studio content from partners like ABC News, Getty Images and popular record labels to create their own custom Web TV channels. Better yet, MixerCast lets users embed branding and engaging advertising spots, hypersyndicate them on the Web, and track traffic to the money-making mashups. Robert Scoble recently interviewed MixerCast CEO Jen Cooper, formerly with Yahoo!, and the resulting video was posted to PodTech.net as an Editor’s Choice pick of the week.

Beyond new platforms that merge video impact with social media, many larger, global brands that we represent, like Panasonic Toughbooks, are using entertaining viral videos to effectively communicate core messages with key audiences through social networks and popular sites like YouTube. In fact, fans of the popular rugged notebooks have frequently posted many buzz-building videos about Toughbooks on their own.

As PR pros, we’re being called on more and more for our broadcast production talents like scripting, shooting, interviewing and editing. And I’m happy to say: “There’s no business like show business, it’s like no business I know.” A career in PR is becoming a lot like a career in broadcasting and film these days.

Increasingly, information seekers are turning to user-generated sources to meet their needs. For those of you new to the space, user-generated content (UGC) refers to media content that is produced by “ordinary people,” as opposed to traditional editors, broadcasters and production companies. This phenomenon marks a clear departure from the reliance on (I would even go so far as to say trust of) traditional media sources. Some argue that user-generated media degrades the quality of information, since it’s not up to snuff with work done by formally trained media professionals. While this may be true in many cases, user-generated content should be considered a valuable information source, rather than a home-grown substitution for traditional media.

One advantage of user-generated media over traditional media is the ability to provide insight from a body of collective intelligence. UGC that infuses some sort of “checks and balances” is particularly powerful because the information is provided with a more global perspective. In other words, when lots of people give their opinion, readers get a more objective view simply because the different perspectives balance each other out.

Here’s an example: Everyone knows the best way to find a trustworthy doctor, a skilled stylist, or a decent slice of pizza in San Francisco (yes it does exist!) is to ask a friend. Enter Yelp, which turns individual word-of-mouth recommendations (user-generated content) into a centralized local guide for various cities. Yelp readers get multiple perspectives on each item, ensuring that no one voice or perspective gets too loud. When I need a quick neighborhood recommendation, this information is more valuable than the food review in a food critic’s column of a newspaper. It might not be as polished or well written, but it gives me exactly the content I’m looking for.

The ability to gather collective intelligence adds a dimension of credibility and global perspective - two aspects that would dramatically strengthen user-generated news sources. Those UGC sources that are positioned to incorporate wide-scale user-generated content are going to make a huge impact on the media landscape.

We’ve become spoiled by professional Hollywood movies, TV shows, and ads filled with stunning special effects and $500,000 crane shots. Don’t get me wrong – there are some compelling films from Tinseltown, and some neat TV shows and clever ads. But for every “good” Hollywood flick, I’ll show you 10 others that pit style over substance and insult their audience’s intelligence with formulaic, predictable and boring storylines.

Yes, HDTV is beautiful, and growing in popularity too. But I don’t care how beautiful content looks. If it doesn’t really connect with people and speak to some aspect of the human condition, it useless. It’s like eating cotton candy: tasty, but no nutrition.

Enter… the amateurs!! Amateur Web content, or user-generated media as some prefer, broke new ground in 2006. YouTube just announced its awards for the best user-generated videos of 2006, and amateur content will likely continue its strong growth in 2007. Why? Because we have a fundamental need to express ourselves, connect with others, and be acknowledged for our creations. The Web and social media like blogs give us an inexpensive way to do just that.

But corporate marketers have also realized the value of amateur content. Consider the 2007 Doritos Crash The Super Bowl ad contest. An amateur video by Dale Backus aired during the big game, marking the first time a major marketer entrusted a novice with a 30-second Super Bowl spot worth up to $2.6 million of air time.

Backus’ spot aired very well – it ranked fourth in USA TODAY’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. The production cost? $12. That’s about four bags of Doritos!! Not bad considering pro spots easily cost near $1 million to produce. Smart corporate marketers realize the power of enlisting amateur consumers to become, in essence, an extension of their marketing team.

And don’t think News Corp. and NBC’s new Web venture means the death of amateur content. The unnamed company may be more attractive to advertisers with its professional content and longer clips. But viewers have proven there’s still a place for amateur content so long as it speaks to them in a concrete way. Ultimately, consumers care more that their content is compelling, rather than who actually produced it.