Breaking Up with Cable for the New Hottie: The Internet

I love The Daily Show with Jon Stewart -- but I can't stay up past 10 or 10:30 p.m. if I have to get up and go to work in the morning. That's just my internal clock.

So I've compensated for the past couple years by watching the Comedy Central reruns of the previous night's show at 8 p.m. (Pac Time). Until Comedy Central moved the rerun time to 7 p.m. (Pac Time) which killed my viewership.

There is now no way for me to get home from work, go to the gym, clean up, and consume dinner for two by 7 p.m.

As much as I'd love an excuse to skip the gym three nights a week, my waistline won't. So I'm trying something new: watching the Daily Show online (http://www.thedailyshow.com/). You can watch whole episodes (with commercials inserted) or search for clips.

It's kind of a pain for me -- I work on a computer all day long, and I'm not sure I want to watch TV on my husband's laptop.

But our kids can't believe we still watch TV on TV. When they want to watch something, they pull out their laptops and watch it online.

Ditto for my just-graduated-from-college niece. She told me about Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/) last  year - free TV episodes for a ton of shows on the Web. (Still free at this writing, though that may change.)

As usual, the children are our future. David Colker wrote a great story for the LA Times (Oct. 26) about the growing number of people ditching TV and watching shows on the Internet. Read "Pulling the TV cord, yet staying plugged in."

Fascinating, captain! (Thanks, YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/).




The big TV networks (and cable companies and cable networks) are now losing viewers to the Internet. While the cable companies are making up some of the loss by bundling Internet with Cable TV service, the networks are figuring out how to recoup their TV show production costs from online viewers.

Anyone who's been watching the print newspaper industry saga knows where this is going. To the Internet, of course.

So what does this have to do with social networking? Well, the young and the restless are using social networking to sending their friends links on their fave Internet TV web sites, and Internet TV episodes. More evidence on how authentic word-of-mouth/unintentional marketing is happening on social networks. Hulu is capitalizing on social networking (see the Dennis Leary Hulu commercial, below), urging hipsters to post links. (Great writing on that commercial...)

And, best of all, the kids and hipsters are teaching their not-so-hip friends (and parents) how to do it too. On Facebook (Thanks, Mike) and in person.

They're even patient about it. When my daughters were talking about watching movies on demand, piped through their laptops to their TVs, I had a middle-aged question.

"How do you get the Internet into your TV?" I asked. (We have DSL through the phone company at my house. And you can pry it from my cold, dead fingers, thank you. I don't WANT to switch to cable bundling. At this point.)

You'd think I asked them how to turn on a computer. That's the look I got.

"We get our Internet with our cable," the youngest gently reminded me. And the Internet is what they're using -- not cable's scheduled TV programming (and commercials).

"But you can run a cable from your laptop to your TV, and do it that way," the oldest said gently.

Thank God I have kids. Now I need to catch up on The Daily Show.

PS: want to see Hulu and Internet TV explained? (And, maybe, everything electronic explained? Shudder.) Check out these great Hulu commercials:

Hulu (and Internet TV), explained by Alec Baldwin.


Hulu (and Internet TV) explained by Dennis Leary.


Enjoy.

Grandma & Grandpa Get on Facebook

Last Christmas (2008), I helped my parents set up their own Facebook pages. Both of them will turn 70 within the next few months. Though both of them can use a Mac and have done e-mail for the past decade, neither one of them are particularly technical. Mom's a just-retired hospital R.N. and dad's a just-retired, still-subbing, public school administrator.

Their motivation for getting on Facebook? My sister and her husband's move from L.A. to Austin -- and all the Facebook photos they regularly post of their daughter Ari on Facebook. (She is adorable...)

Turns out, photos of a two-year-old granddaughter are lure enough to get most grandparents on Facebook and get them to learn how to navigate it.

Within a week, my parents were "friended" by all of their old high school friends on Facebook. There were a ton of them already there.

It turns out they were ahead of the curve. Or part of the curve. According to the Pew Internet & American Life project (http://www.pewinternet.org/), the fastest-growing demographic on the Internet is the 70-75-year-old group.

And they're joining Facebook. And even Twitter. Apparently, retirement communities around the country are setting up their own social networking groups, private social networks, and Internet and social networking classes. Bob Moos at the Dallas Morning News wrote a great story about the trend Oct. 12.

So if you need to write a white paper on who you can find using social networks, check out the Pew Internet & American Life Project web. (Who has money to donate? People old enough to have made some. And they're increasingly in....social networks.)

So things are changing at the Daisy Dell senior living communities around the country. Thank God they'll have high speed Internet access by the time I need to move to one! At this point, I'd much rather give up cable TV than the Internet.

Apparently, I am not alone. More on that in the next post. My mom wants to live chat on Facebook.

Twitter Flitters: WHY do Twitter and Facebook exist?

I went to this fantastic social media conference in 2006 (eons ago) where I heard great presentations from the director of alumni communications for Harvard, the director of e-communications for the University of Toronto, the director of  MIT's social network (who went on to Classmates.com), and a couple great presentations by Andy Shaindlin, alumni relations executive director for Caltech.

(He blogs at http://www.alumnifutures.com/ and he REALLY knows this social media stuff -- you should all be following his blog. Even if you don't agree with some of what he writes. Friends also recommend Michael Stoner, another guru in the u-social networking field. Find him at mstonerblog.com)

So way back in the mists of social media time (2006) Andy Shaindlin explained it all.

"I used to think the point of a news release was to get your news out," Shaindlin told the assembled university communications people at the conference. "Now I know the point of putting out a news release is to drive people to your web site."

As someone who runs a U-news web site (on a shoestring), it was an epiphany -- a real lightbulb moment.

Twitter wasn't around back then. And I have to search Shaindlin's blog to see what he thinks of Twitter. I just now subscribed to it. (Hey, I still have a day job).

But I'll skate out here and modify that quote based on my own experience since 2002 growing university web sites, university news RSS feeds, university social networks, university Facebook fan pages, and a university Twitter feeds:

The point of Tweeting is to drive people to your web site. The point of RSSing is to drive people to your web site. The point of Facebooking (as an organization -- not personal use) is to drive people to your web site.

And then to get them to give you their real e-mail address somehow.

(Or real cell phone number.)

At this point, you can't get those from your fan pages on Facebook or Twitter. And if Facebook and Twitter  ever decide to charge non-profits and universities for using FB or Twitter -- I'm betting most won't be able to afford it.

Having people sign up to follow you on Twitter and your blog and fan you on Facebook is fantastic. But if you can get them to commit to you enough to give you their real e-mail -- hey, that's as big a deal as getting a diamond ring and setting a date.

Let Stephen Colbert explain the direct financial benefits of Twitter to you (from http://www.colbertnation.com/) -- and, if you pay attention, a very savvy lesson on how Colbert and ComedyCentral are using Twitter.

You have to watch an ad to see that great (and very funny) Colbert video and marketing lesson above.

See, Colbert's Twitter posts drive you to his Web site. Where there are ad$. And his TV shows (where there are ad$) always contains a plug for his web site (which is how I remembered to type in http://www.colbertnation.com/). On his web site, his funny show is divided up into searchable clips -- and you can watch entire episodes there. But you have to watch Ad$ to see them. And he and his network get the ad revenue.

Even if you don't have house ad$ on your Web site, always remember, your Tweets and FB updates should be driving people to your Web site, where hopefully you have an "expanded tweet" with full details. Plus more content they want to read/see. Content that will make them want to stay and noodle around.

And give you their real e-mail address. Or take an action you're asking them to do.

In case you're wondering, I haven't given Stephen my e-mail address yet. It's too soon in our relationship. I'm waiting for him to cough up that diamond.

Um, oh, and you can do that "listening" thing with your fans (audience) on Twitter and Facebook too. More about that in the future tool. (Hey, I still have a day job. And a life).

In the meantime, here's a great  LA Times article on how Hollywood and TV networks are playing it by ear on Twitter's fan feedback loop capabilities...


Jitters over Twitter: TV Industry Looks for a Game Plan on Using Twitter

Celeb Ditches Twitter for Real Life -- Trend?

Twitter Trend? Or Marketing Trick to get more than 2 million followers? Hmmm....whatever you think of Hannah Montana (a Disney live-action character), Miley Cyrus (the teen actress/singer who plays her) made headlines this week for breaking up with Twitter.

Cyrus told her Twitter fans she wasn't going to tweet anymore...then took her page down. Which launched a "Come Back Miley!" Twitter campaign and a boatload of mini-celeb news headlines.

Cyrus whipped out a You Tube rap ditty that's actually pretty cute to explain why: she wants more private time in her real life. When she realized she was Tweeting about pimples, she said, it was time to go.

Associated Press reported that punk widow Courtney Love (completely different demographic fan base) stopped tweeting and deleted her Twitter page too. As far as I know, you can still find Ashton and Demi there.

So: trend or marketing ploy? Cyrus is keeping her Web page, and her Official Miley Cyrus Facebook Page, and her Official Miley Cyrus MySpace Page, so she's hardly gone off-grid.

I confess two things: Generally, I hate rap music. And I have never watched nor listened to Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus before today. But I thought Cyrus's rap song was pretty witty. Could have done without the jailbait booty shaking shot though. But that's just the mother in me.

If the hottest teen icon in celeb land is leaving Twitter...can the world be far behind? (Probably.) Or at least teen-agers? (Probably not.)

Railroads, Newspapers and GM, Oh My!

No less staid a group than the International City/County Manager's Association has discovered social networking.

ICMA's journal magazine for members is PM (Public Management). The PM October 2009 hot cover story is "Social Media: What Does it Mean for Public Managers." It's actually a trio of articles; check them out here on the magazine's web site at http://www.icma.org/pm/9109/.

The three articles are "why" articles instead of "here's how" articles. But the authors (two city managers and an ICMA intern) make the case that this newfangled social networking thing is something cities and counties (and their leaders) should be doing. The articles are short and quite dry but Ventura City Manager Rick Cole (he's on Facebook!) gets off one of the best analogies I've read in a while:

"What local governments can't do is fall hopelessly behind. The fate of railroads, automakers, and newspapers shows what happens to the complacent."

As a former daily newspaper reporter, let me just say "Ouch!"' Railroads, Cole says, failed "because they defined their business as railroading, and shunned expansion into trucking, airlines and airfrieght. While they were loyal to one mode of transportation, their customers were not."

Newspapers?  They wanted readers to wait for news until the paper hit the driveway in the morning, and access to cellphones and the Internet has left everyone under 35 unwilling to wait --and able to get insta-news online, he says. (Here goes yet another pundit ignoring the role TV news -- especially round-the-clock cable TV news -- has played in print-J's downfall...but OK he's right.)

Automakers (he didn't actually say GM but we presume he's talking American...) didn't pay attention to what buyers wanted, Cole says.

So what do we want online? INFORMATION. When do we want it? NOW.

If city and county managers are advocating getting on Facebook, having 400 friends, blogging about their work, and Tweeting municipal news releases...the entire world will be there soon.

Let me explain: city and county managers are about the most circumspect bunch on the planet, except perhaps for city attorneys and county counsels. And how do I know this?

I've been married to one since 1992. And hanging out with a bunch of them during off hours because of that. (He's retired now, which is the only reason I can write this...) It's a very odd match: The never-reveal-your-cardhand veteran municipal CEO and the ex-journalist-webbie-social-media-blogger.

Anyone who knows city/county managers knows they're starved for time and starved for re$ource$ even more than public universities. (Is that possible? Yes.) And this month, their professional journal cover story is all about why cities and counties should get on the social media/social networking train. Err, airline. Err, molecular transport beam.

The Techtress Top 10 List

No one does "Top 10" lists like David Letterman. Or John Cusack. (Actually, his seem to be 'Top Fives.' See "High Fidelity.")

If you're looking to get up to speed quickly on Social Networking, here's The Techtress Top 10 article list.

1) Investors Value LinkedIn at $1Billion
(LA Times, 2008, worth paying to download if you didn't save the original)

2) And Then There Was Bing - No. 2?
(PC Magazine, June 2009. Yeah, but did they count YouTube?)

3) YouTube Now The No. 2 Search Engine
(TGDaily - October 2008. Old News, but worth knowing)

4) Facebook Hits 300 Million Users, Turns Profit
(CNN, Various - Sept. 2009)

5) Twitter and Iran - The Medium of the Movement - It's not just for Ashton! It's in TIME Magazine!
(TIME - June 17, 2009)

6) The Daily Show Explains Twitter - Sarcastic...but surprisingly accurate.
(The Daily Show - March 2009)

7) Social Media Revolution -- YouTube Video, http://www.teachertube.com/
(The best 4:23 minutes you'll spend on YouTube...for business purposes)

8) Facebook Stalking: a How To Guide - YouTube Video. What could go wrong? Uhh, this?
(Thanks, JoeNationTV)

9) Hackers, ID Thieves Turning Eyes to Facebook - Why Not to Put Your Birthday on Facebook
(C-Net News, March 2008)

10) Facebook Identity Theft - Tip to parents: Have "The Talk" with your kids. Teach them never to let anyone see their...social security number?!? Yes.

Welcome to Social Networking. Now go have fun.

Ooops - The Ugly Side of Facebook.

Just when things were looking rosy for Facebook - 300 million users, turning a profit, big buzz - this happens.

LA Times: Secret Service Investigating Obama Poll on Facebook (Sept. 29, 2009)

Some as-yet-to-be-determined wingnuts use a third-party Facebook application creation tool to put up a poll asking whether the president should be killed. According to the story, the poll went up Sept. 26 (a Saturday), was reported by outraged Facebookians on Monday. Facebook took it down, and the Secret Service is looking into who created it.

I heard about it from my husband, who heard about it on YahooNews, prompting me to look to my No. 1 news source, the LA Times. (I subscribe! I get it on paper too! Buy the LA Times! Think of it as a donation to truth, justice, and liberty for all...).

I was horrified. So I posted the link on my Facebook news feed. Like I told my friends, I think the creator(s) of that poll need to be found and outed. I want photos. And I want to know the names of everyone who voted "yes" or "maybe." I think they should all be on a Secret Service watch list and surveilled for the next 8 years.

"You let them off too easy," one friend in Montana opined.

Maybe. I still want more details. Free speech can be ugly speech, and this country badly needs more people who'd actually follow through on the statement "I disagree with what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it."

Even if it's disgusting and horrifying.

But what does that poll mean for organizations using Facebook as a platform? Is Facebook tarnished -- and will any of the associations using Facebook be tarnished?

So far, so not. But it looks like a good example of why not to put all your social networking eggs in the Facebook basket. Diversify. What goes up must come down - sometime.