Creating the viral conference

 By John McGory and TC Brown

Have you ever awakened to an empty stomach to find only a stale bagel or muffin?  You bite into it hoping for satisfaction.  Unfortunately, it tastes like a mouthful of sand and you quickly forget this disappointing attempt at breakfast.

This brief episode is analogous to many people’s experiences at academic and business conferences.  Conferences promise satisfaction, but often turn out to be dry, forgettable events that leave attendees longing for true intellectual sustenance.

Common woes include: multiple sessions that require attendees to choose one good session over another; unprepared or dull-as-dishwater speakers; the inability to provide feedback to organizers; and the failure to build upon momentum from a stimulating conference.

But social media and the communications revolution offer a fresh spin to the staid and stale convention concept.  New media is providing many interactive ways to improve the true exchange of ideas.  Here are some ideas to spice up your next conference:    

Real-time blogging and Facebook posts:  Many conferences have multiple break-out sessions going on simultaneously.  Attendees go to one while missing out on other interesting possibilities.  Conferences can provide real-time blogging to capture the essence of a session, which can be posted immediately onto sites like Tumblr.  Use Facebook to highlight the blogs to a wider audience. This allows attendees to keep up with the entire conference and not left out when that session is later discussed.

Here are examples of some real-time blogs that Webface recently did for The Ohio State University’s conference, The 2012 Public and Land Grant University Conference on Energy Challenges: The Next 50 Years.   http://energychallenges.tumblr.com

Twitter and hashtags:  Creating a hashtag (#) for a conference allows attendees to provide instant feedback on sessions and speakers and keep up with concurrent sessions.  This instant feedback loop gives conference organizers or speakers the ability to tweak an event or speech while in progress.  Here is the Twitter feed from the OSU conference.  Our hashtag was #energy2012.    https://twitter.com/#!/OEEatOSU

Curing the deadly (and boring) PowerPoint presentation:  Too many conference presenters load their presentations with bulleted text and then read slide after slide, which is about as boring as last night’s ice-cold meatloaf. Video and infographics are the new tools to cure the deadly PowerPoint presentation.  Conference organizers can be proactive in encouraging speakers to follow PowerPoint standards that will entertain and teach instead of chasing complaining attendees into the hall for more coffee.  

Capturing and using the good stuff:  Too many conferences end, with everyone headed home, never to think about it again.  Capturing the good stuff that comes out of a conference on blogs, video and other social media sites keeps alive the conference’s momentum and useful materials.  It also provides a record for those who are interested but unable to attend.  This helps build buzz for future conferences.  Facebook is excellent for this function.  Here is the Facebook page Webface created for the OSU conference.  http://www.facebook.com/energychallenges

Today’s conferences do not have to be as stale as day-old bread.  They can be alive and vibrant events that truly spread your good word.  A little proactive planning by organizers can make your next conference a truly memorable and lasting event. 

John McGory and TC Brown are partners at Webface, an original content marketing company. Let Webface help make your next conference or presentation one to remember.   

Dick Clark's legacy: Interactive teens

By John McGory

“It’s got a beat and you can dance to it.” That phrase summed up the brilliant career of one of America’s great showmen, Dick Clark. He passed away last week at the age of 82.

Clark took over a local Philadelphia teenage music television program, Bandstand, in 1957. 

The national television networks were looking for programming and Clark pitched Bandstand to ABC. The network picked it up and changed the name to AmericanBandstand.  The program first aired August 5, 1957.

Clark’s easy-going style harnessed the power of the young to change popular culture.  He played a key role in merging television, advertising, music, dance and teenagers.

What can modern day advertisers and social media gurus learn from the media-savvy Clark?  What did he do that made American Bandstand a national sensation?

Clark’s biggest plus was not to get in the way. American Bandstand was not about Dick Clark. He wore conservative suits, smiled oh-so politely and introduced new music and culture with a simple wave of the hand.

The show’s highlights were new music, new dances and new clothing styles. Teens in small-town America could see what was hip in Philadelphia and later Los Angeles. The show allowed teens to be interactive.

He asked for their opinions on music and dance. The “Rate-a-Record” segment allowed teens in the studio and at home to judge new music. The phrase, “It’s got a beat and you can dance to it” came from teens judging records that appealed to them.

Clark gave some advertising advice in an article he wrote for Advertising Age in 1972 that still applies today. 

“Make sure commercials are believable.”  One suggestion for believability he had was through the “judicious use of the vernacular of the day.”  He warned not to be caught using out-of-date phrases such as “groovy.”

This advice seems obviously simple.  But take a look at today’s advertising.  Many advertisers are straining their credibility through the use of seemingly hip phrases and stunts that quickly grow cold with overuse.

Youth drives culture. Dick Clark understood that and didn’t try to be a part of the new culture. He said he couldn’t dance and, more importantly, didn’t want to dance. He was a reporter who gave the facts by showing teens as they wanted to be seen. The teens said it had a beat, not Clark.

  

Clark said this about the young. “They’re more fun. They’re not jaded, they keep you young. I’ve seen them lead the way—not only in sociological and political aspects, but out there on the street of commerce.”

Dick Clark’s ability to keep his dignity while still showing the newest trends and styles allowed him to prosper for decades. He didn’t get outdated because he never got sucked into changing along with the culture.    

Today’s marketing and advertising ego-driven world tries so hard to be hip and cool.  Unfortunately, they often end up looking lame.  Clark’s American Bandstand had a simple yet edgy strategy.  He let teens interact and got out of the way.   The world could learn a lot from Clark’s unassuming, hands-off style. 

John McGory is a partner at Webface, an original content creation company.   Let us help you reach your customers in cool ways.      

Women buying power and men

 By John McGory

Some Like it Hot, Billy Wilder’s classic comedy featuring Marilyn Monroe, is about two men who dress as women to hide from the mob.   Jack Lemmon tries to explain to Joe E. Brown in the final scene why he can’t marry him.  After numerous excuses, he pulls off his wig and says “I can’t marry you.  I’m a man!”  To which Brown replies, “Well, nobody’s perfect.”

Men portraying women on screen goes back to Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle and include Dustin Hoffman, Michael J. Fox, Alec Guinness, Tony Curtiss, Robin Williams, Divine, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Lewis and the Wayans Brothers.  The movies are often madcap comedies with the men playing outlandish female characters.

Today’s advertising and social media doesn’t need screwball copywriting.  It does need men who study how women think and act.  Why?   Here are three reasons:

    1.       Eighty-five percent of brand purchases are made by women. 

    2.       Surveys show 91 percent of women feel advertisers do not understand them.

    3.       Only three percent of creative directors for advertising agencies are women.

These statistics suggest the “Mad Men” stereotypes of advertising are alive and well.  Companies and organizations need to realize that women control $19 trillion of our economy.  It wouldn’t hurt to try and understand them a little better.

Here are a few physiological facts that might help a man channel his feminine side.

Women’s brains have more neuron cell bodies, giving them enhanced blood flow and better efficiency.  This may explain why women often learn language better, have a better memory for detail and can fight better than men.

A woman is generally more empathetic, expressive, articulate, diplomatic and sensitive to others feelings.

Trying to understand women is a challenge for men.  Actors playing a role will study mannerisms, facial expressions, speech patterns and body movements.  Great writers do the same.  

If your company or organization wants to reach women customers through social media and advertising, then paying close attention to how they think and feel is critical to your success.  What is funny or interesting to a man can very easily fall on deaf ears to a woman.  You need to know your customer.

Thomas Hardy, the English author, wrote in the great novel Tess of the Urbervilles “Did it ever strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel?”  Men, we aren’t perfect and never will be, but keeping Hardy and your audience in mind may help you be a little more sensitive and successful. 

John McGory is a partner at Webface, an original content marketing company.  We produce videos and copy that can reach your clients.

Don't get slimed by social media

By John McGory

The Social Media Target of the Month for March was the ground beef product known as “pink slime.”   A social media-led groundswell of distaste for the product has fast food restaurants and grocery stores dumping slime-infused ground beef at an alarming rate.

Meat processing plants in Iowa, Kansas and Texas have closed and another producer filed bankruptcy in wake of the public’s outcry.  Governors of those states are calling for an investigation of the pink slime “smear campaign.”

Pink slime is lean, finely textured beef made by heating fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts to about 100 F and spinning it to remove most of the fat.  The lean mix is then compressed into blocks for use in ground meat and treated with ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.  The byproduct is then used as filler for ground beef.

Until last year, schools, fast food restaurants and up to 70 percent of ground beef sold in grocery stores included pink slime. If you have eaten a hamburger in the past decade chances are you ate pink slime and survived.

The United States Department of Agriculture approved the use of the beef product process in 2001.  In 2002, Gerald Zirnstein, a USDA microbiologist, coined the term “pink slime” in an email to his superiors.

The New York Times first reported on pink slime in 2009.  Its critical report on the meat product raised eyebrows but did not slow sales at the time. 

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver began a campaign against the product last year.  Here is a video showing Oliver’s negative take on pink slime.  The combination of Oliver’s television show and 1.4 million views on YouTube were enough to start the slime’s demise.

McDonalds, Taco Bell and Burger King stopped using the product earlier this year due to the onslaught of negative media attention.  Grocery stores, schools and other institutions followed suit.  AFA Foods, a large producer of the product, has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Beef Products has closed plants in Iowa, Kansas and Texas.

Where is the truth?  It is hard to say.  The biggest beef over the product is the use of ammonium hydroxide.   It is used in numerous foods such as baked goods, cheese, milk and chocolate.  It is approved by the USDA as a food additive.  It is also used in many cosmetics.     

The Republican governors of Iowa, Kansas and Texas are calling for a Congressional probe over the pink slime “smear campaign.”  It is interesting to note that the meat producers have donated $820,000 to federal candidates in the past decade, with almost $800,000 going to Republicans.

What is fascinating is the speed of the “pink slime” industry demise.  People ate the product for ten years and no one really complained.  The 2009 Times article barely moved the public into action.

What changed?  It is social media’s ability to grab people’s attention without a lot of facts.  Pink slime is made by boiling fat and spraying it with ammonium hydroxide gas.  It does not sound appealing.  But I don’t think many Americans want to know how sausage is made, chickens are raised or what chemicals are added to Ho-Hos and Twinkies.

Social media takes no prisoners.  A negative name, an unscientific public and a few blogs can end an industry.  I can’t say it is right or wrong regarding “pink slime.”  All I know is that pink slime is history and social media has another notch on its belt.           

John McGory is a partner at Webface.  They help companies and organizations from getting slimed through social media.

Father spirit key to powerful storytelling

By John McGory

Storytelling is an Internet tool that can be used to entertain, attract customers and impart wisdom.  Spinning yarns goes back centuries, where the Greeks were among the best.

Homer’s classic myth, Odyssey, focused on the importance of fatherhood.  “Does any person know who his father is?”  asked Odysseus at the beginning of Homer’s epic tale.  This great story tells of a husband seeking his family, a wife longing for her husband and a child searching for his father. 

Everyone looks for direction on their personal journeys in life.  In Care of the Soul, a New York Times best seller from the 1990s, Thomas Moore says that, “If my father is dead, or if he is absent or cold, or if he was a tyrant, or if he abused me, or if he was wonderful but is not there for me now, then who is my father now?  Where do I get those feelings of protection, authority, confidence, know-how and wisdom that I need in order to live my life?“

Many people turn to the Internet and social media for that governance.  Unfortunately, today’s communication revolution often lacks a “father’s soul.”  

A “father’s soul” provides the spirit to give you the strength to be the author of your own life.  Moore says that “Soul is not a thing, but a quality…that has to do with depth, value, relatedness, heart and personal substance.”

The Internet is a great tool that provides us with facts, opinion, ideology and reason.  But it often lacks the qualities that Moore says creates soul.  Storytelling helps bridge that gap.    

The spirit of soulful storytelling can be found in a man, woman, family, organization, nation or place.  It can relay fathering principles that give people the authority and direction they need.

The monolithic nature of the Internet’s standards and practices can deter many from telling their soulful experiences to others.   Companies and organizations need to embrace the image of the odyssey, opening themselves up to the possibility of storytelling, discovery and true spirit.

The Odyssey warns that all who profess to speak the father’s spirit are not true.  During his travels in the Odyssey, Odysseus’s son is taught by another man named Mentor.  The lesson is that there are two types of father figures in our lives, those who want us to be their followers and those who understand their limited role.

Many businesses, politicians and web sites try to embody the father spirit rather than instilling it in us.  A true mentor understands we are on our own journeys and need to hear the stories of the past to help us as we travel.  Those who simply want more followers for their own gain fail to be true mentors.

These phony mentors fill the Internet with empty promises based upon the shifting ground of ideology, opinion and deceit.  Internet justice can be swift when they are exposed as frauds.  

Successful storytelling is a powerful authentic tool that can provide direction and meaning to those on their own odysseys.  Examine your Internet presence and ask yourself these questions:  

Does your Internet presence have authentic storytelling? 

Are you a true mentor or simply out for yourself? 

If you are not a true mentor, what is the potential damage to you or your organization if this is exposed? 

Do your web and social media sites have soul?

We are all Odysseus, out to sea and seeking a way home.  The true father spirit is one of guidance and trust.  Your Internet presence should be no less.

John McGory is a partner with Webface, an original content firm.  The team of four storytellers can help you tell your story through video, storytelling and other powerful tools. 

Three Stooges' Original Content Tips

By John McGory

The Three Stooges, circa 2012, are about to come punching, eye poking and yelling their way back into America’s psyche.

The Three Stooges movie, set for release April 13, is guaranteed to draw lines of 50-year-old men waiting to see if it holds up to the originals.

Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp were an early television staple.  Their 190 short films filled the screens with violence that made kids roar with laughter.  Every boy had a favorite Stooges’ gag.  Eye pokes, conks on the head and running in circles while lying on the floor were all standard fare.

Here is a great example of the Stooges’ “talent.”  This hilarious video http://youtu.be/1NCPyd0sWVs depicts chef Curly stuffing a turkey.

Parents and pop psychologists a generation ago kept saying that the Stooges would make children homicidal maniacs.  Little, if any, evidence exists that the trio wielded that much influence.

Mad men advertisers realized that the content had to appeal to kids and not their parents.  Television was new but radio taught advertisers the power of targeted content.

Television quickly grasped the strong connection between watching The Three Stooges, Popeye and Our Gang and the surge in sales of Trix, Coca Cola and (my favorite theme song) Chef Boyardee Beefaroni.  Quality, original and targeted content drove viewers to buy the advertised products.

Today’s web is the new television.  The pressure to create original content is much greater than the 1950s. Every brand is now a publisher and video producer.  Attracting an audience and getting them to return are the keys.  SEO tactics of driving viewers to sites that are unattractive or boring will backfire.

The Stooges’ path to original content creation was simple but effective.  Here is what they did:

Physical comedy is funny.  The Stooges were the most violently slapstick comedians of all time. That made them funny, especially to kids.  What is funny or entertaining to your audience?

Know what works with your audience.  The boys did not stray far from what worked.  Every short had Moe punching Curly in the stomach and pulling Larry’s hair.  Kids knew it was coming and laughed every time.  What are the constants in your content that reassures your audience?

Great sound effects.  The Stooges had some of the greatest sound effects of all time.  They worked through the radio era and used many of the same tricks of radio serials.  It brought life to the content.  What makes your content stand out and come alive?

The Three Stooges helped to make television what it was.  They attracted the youth of the 1950s and advertisers and companies reaped the benefits. 

Fifty-year-old guys will dominate the lines waiting to see the new Three Stooges movie.  The Stooges influence on that generation is unmistakable.  Most brands of today can only dream of loyalty that strong.

John McGory is a partner for Webface.  We are an original content creation company that can help your brand bloom. 

Kony 2012 Goes to Washington

By John McGory

The Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 video blew Uganda and the atrocities of warlord Joseph Kony into the world’s consciousness in recent days.  The 77 million viewers of this video in little more than a week crystallize the powerful combination of video and the Internet.

The bellwether issue is not Kony, but the newfound power of independent video creators as agents of change.  And, as Hollywood discovered 100 years ago, some cinematic hooks really work well.

The video is a modern-day version of Director Frank Capra’s classic movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  In the movie, Jimmy Stewart plays a naïve U.S. Senator who takes on the powerful by rallying children to fight corruption. 

Kony 2012 uses many of the emotional techniques from the movie.  Here are the similar themes.

All powerful agent of change:  The video starts by telling its viewers about the power of the Internet to change the world.  This gripping theme gives a viewer the sense that one person can make a difference.  Capra’s Mr. Smith embodies that spirit and Stewart is brilliant in the role as Senator Jefferson Smith.

Adroit storytelling:  Great videos tell a story.  The Invisible Children’s video shows us exotic places where bad things are happening to women and children.  The movie uses a quasi-Boy Scout group called the Boy Rangers who fight rich developers over a potential camp site out west.

Authoritarian bad guy versus the innocent child:  The filmmaker’s child learns about Kony and expresses his thoughts in the video.  The young boys in Capra’s movie rise up against the state’s political boss who is organizing the U.S. Senate to sell the land to developers.  This powerful combination of child versus madman is a mythological storyline that goes back to the Greeks.

Atrocities with appalling video:  Kony 2012 shows disturbing video, albeit brief, of disfigured faces, crowded buildings with hundreds of people sleeping body to body and young women with a voice over discussing rape and sexual slavery.     The movie shows how young children are adversely impacted by living in crowded cities.

Assumptions that we should and can help:  Both the video and the movie rally the disenfranchised.  The video discusses how Invisible Children needs the help of the young to get the United States government to come to the rescue.  Capra’s film shows Mr. Smith rallying the young against a corrupt and uncaring government.

Media control:  Kony 2012 bypasses traditional media by using the power of the Internet to reach the masses.  The Boy Rangers in the movie create their own newspaper and distribution networks to get their word out to counter corrupt mainstream media.

Awaken masses:  The final scene in Kony 2012 is the sales’ pitch encouraging viewers to get involved by showing the impact it has made.  This includes purchasing a kit that includes a bracelet that visibly shows your support for the cause.  The movie children awaken the masses and create pressure on Washington, exposing the corruption.  The boys wear badges in the movie.

The similarities are striking.  The basic theme of one man taking on a corrupt world with the support of children is powerful.  The difference is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is fiction.  Kony 2012 bypasses the power structure to take on real life issues. 

Kony 2012 is a brilliant video that has to scare the pants off those who think they control the world.  It shows the power of video in the hands of independent agents of change as never before in this country.  Frank Capra would be proud.

John McGory is a partner at Webface, a content marketing and consulting company.  Webface produces creative videos, marketing materials and social media posting for your company or organization.  Check out our website for examples of our work.