This is the third in a series of posts contrasting the ‘old’ rules of the media and the ‘new’ rules that are necessary for success in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape. Old Rule #3: The Web Is Just Another Distribution Channel For Traditional Media's Content There are many traditonal media types who, believe it or not, still see the web as a place for either marketing or just dumping existing content 'as is' in the hopes of making a few bucks. It is precisely because the web is so flexible that it seems obvious to simply put up your content there, exactly as it was produced for a traditional medium.  For example, you'd never run a radio program on television because it's only audio, but you can put up audio programming on the web and it's just fine.  You can't put a TV show in a newspaper, but you can just put an entire TV show on the web, as is. It is this ease of 'copying and pasting' content on the web that often leads to a lack of thinking about serving the unique needs of the audience online. New Rule #3: Customize The Content For The Medium Again, it may be easy to say, ...

This is the second in a series of posts contrasting the ‘old’ rules of the media and the ‘new’ rules that are necessary for success in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape. Old Rule #2: Viva La 'Walled Garden' - You Must Use The Content From Media Companies In The Way THEY Want You To Use It Traditional broadcasters pay for their content and they want you to experience that programming in the way that makes them the most money back on their investment. Some of the most profitable ways to consume content may not be the most convenient for audiences, but old media doesn’t care – they own it and they will try to force you to do what is convenient for THEM. Because they can. Or least, they COULD. New Rule #2: Set Your Content Free - Don’t Force Audiences To Come To You.  Go To Where It’s Convenient For THEM. Most traditional companies want to keep all their content within their own garden walls so they can control it, measure it, and monetize it. But that doesn’t work anymore (unless you’re the 800 lb gorilla in your content niche). Why? To grow audiences and to stay relevant, media companies have to reach audiences where ...

With apologies to Bill Maher, I’ve tried to re-arrange the presentation I did at the Northern Voice conference in Vancouver and the Multimedia Meets Radio conference in Prague about ‘The Future of Radio’ into a series of coherent blog posts. Instead of creating a single, giant post, I’ve tried to break up the salient points of the presentation into individual observations that I’m arranging as ‘Old Rules vs. New Rules’. The goal of the series is to show how traditional media has worked and why they’ve made the strategic decisions they have, and then show how almost the EXACT opposite of those decisions are the NEW rules for success. In the end, I hope to provide some clarity about why traditional media companies are struggling and where to look for solutions to their current problems. So without further ado, here’s installment #1… Old Rule #1: Shut Up And Watch / Listen In the past, the only way to consume content was to tune into a live radio or TV station’s programming.  Old media pushed it out as a broadcast, and you tuned in.  If you missed it, too bad.  Old media controlled the how, when, and where of your experience. It was a one-way, linear push ...

(photo courtesy of Liz Hargreaves) I recently had the opportunity to speak about the future of radio at both the Northern Voice digital media conference in Vancouver and the Multimedia Meets Radio conference for European Public Broadcasters in Prague. In both cases, I came away learning a lot from the other presentations, but the lasting impact will be the realization that it's the attendees, more than the speakers, that are transforming the definition of these gatherings by making them more interactive, social, and meaningful experiences. 'OLD' CONFERENCES Every year, I go to a few conferences that are pretty much exclusively targeted at 'traditional media' - people who work for broadcasting companies. Here's what happens at a typical one: The Speakers -A few impressive speakers with great information and learnings to share -Several of the speeches provide no new information to the audience. After all, everyone in the room is in the same business and most media companies are doing the same things. So there are always a few people up there talking about things that EVERYONE is already doing themselves in their own companies. In other words, a total waste of time. -Several speakers who are only presenting because their company is a sponsor of the conference ...

As someone who's spent many years working in television, I usually get requests for advice on how to make videos look better at this time of the year.  A lot of people received new video cameras over the holidays, they've tried them out, and don't understand why their movies look pretty... Ed Wood-ish. I probably should have posted this BEFORE Christmas, but better late than never... So here is a list of my personal best practices and tips: Think about your end product before you start shooting. Is this going to be a 2 minute video?  Is it going to be a 2 hour opus?  Is it just for your family to watch or is it going up on YouTube for the whole world to check out?   Is it a montage of your kids opening Christmas presents or is it a documentary about holiday traditions?  Is it supposed to be funny, informative, sweet, sad, or dramatic?  How much context does your audience need to understand it?  Is your audience younger or older?  If you know the answers to these questions, you'll save yourself a lot of time and effort. You'll also have taken your first step to a focused video ...

I get sent resumes every week and since the financial turmoil kicked in a few months ago, the number of resumes coming in has increased noticeably.  This week, I received one that I will not soon forget and thought it was worth sharing here (with permission!). Creative vs Standard Resumes. There's always a great debate in resume-writing-land about how unique and creative to be with your C.V.   You want to stand out from the crowd, but you don't want to come across as a showboat, an egomaniac, or a weirdo.  Some will say anything you can do to get noticed is good, from using coloured paper to having it couriered directly to the hiring decision maker (so they have to sign for it, will open it themselves instead of H.R., etc). Others will say that you need to be professional, stick to standard formatting, and make yourself stand out with a customized version of your resume tailored to the particular position you're applying for.   I've seen both work and have hired people with each type of resume. As a rule of thumb, though, plain resumes are generally tougher to distinguish from other plain resumes.  And when you get a brilliant, creative resume like the ...

  It seems like Twitter is finally starting to penetrate the mainstream media. CBC recently invited some experts in social media in to share their ideas about how a traditional media company might use tools like Flickr, YouTube, Facebook… and Twitter. While I wasn't there, it sounds like it was a big success and got people excited to dig in and use these new tools as part of their show programming.   Twitter even seems to be replacing blogs as the 'cool' go-to news source for 'what's happening on the web'. However, many mainstream media companies are still clearly struggling with what Twitter is and how to best use it.  So I've put together my personal...   10 Twitter Tips For Traditional Media (try and say THAT 10 times quickly…)   1. Twitter is NOT an RSS feed. I know that the New York Times, The Globe and Mail, CBC, and others are using Twitter as a news feed, but I don't personally subscribe to any of them. I can get that EXACT same information from an RSS feed (which I do...) and I don't personally like my Twitter feed clogged up with every news item under the sun.   The results are interesting: @NYTimes has over 13,000 ...

As I've written about before, traditional media is pretty blatant with a lot of their web material.  They want you to watch TV, listen to Radio, or subscribe to Magazines. So here's my ideal solution to achieve the goal of getting more people to leave the web and go to a traditional platform... Give them the content on the web for free. Using your top content as a hook is the best way to increase the likelihood of a user trying out the traditional media property.  For old-media types, that's a pretty insane and counter-intuitive idea.  (And that's probably why not enough media outlets are doing it.) The prevailing mindset is that if you let people experience the content for free, why would they go to TV, Radio, etc afterwards?  Answer: if you don't give them a  test drive, they'll never buy the car. Audiences have an unbelievable amount of choice and power and everyone is competing for their precious time and attention.  So what's going to win you new converts?  Ads or amazing content?  You need to give it your best shot. Here's how I see the decision tree for a brand new audience member: OPTION 1 -I come to your site -I see a promo for ...

Why doesn't traditional media like to use the Web 2.0 tools we use?  There are 5 very good answers: They want total control over their own user experience. They want a unique user experience that is differentiated from their competitors. They want to make all the profit from their own content. They want their content separated from the user-generated masses to ensure it continues to be seen as premium content. They want to drive traffic almost exclusively to their own website and become a 'destination' instead of being just one channel in big, vast, occasionally tough to search YouTube / Flickr universe. These are VERY valid points. BUT just to play devil's advocate... 10 Reasons Why Traditional Media Should Use The Same Tools That Their Audience Uses Fish Where The Fish Are. The audience has clearly chosen the tools (like Flickr, Wordpress, YouTube, etc) that THEY want to use.  Isn't there a big win for a traditional media company that meets their audiences where they already are? No Learning Curve. Audiences know how to use the tools and don't have to deal with usability issues, learn new functionality, etc.  That also means your production staff will be able to learn it and use it easily ...

Earlier this week, I wrote about how companies can no longer control their brand once the web gets hold of it.  Today, there's a HUGE real life example in action. Motrin has just launched a new ad campaign aimed at Moms.  It's a text-based video ranting about the pains and sacrifices of baby-wearing - the use of slings, baby carriers, and any of the other plethora of gizmos to strap an infant to your front or back. Motrin's point: we do SO much for our kids, but too often, we forget about the toll on ourselves, especially the back pain that ensues from carrying your young kids around for extended periods of time.  The solution, of course, is their pain-relief product. Check out the ad for yourself and see what you think... The response from mommy bloggers on their sites and on Twitter was quick, furious, and ENORMOUS.  It appears to have started just yesterday with a post from Amy at crunchydomesticgoddess.com and a Tweet from Jessica Gottlieb.  In less than 24 hours, it has taken off like wildfire. It is the number one topic on Twitter with THOUSANDS of Tweets... It has mobilized an army of mommy bloggers all writing online about it... It has taken ...