One Tweet Can Be Trouble

Following on yesterday's events, two new stories of Twitter. Right here at home, a single tweet by the co-host of a radio show launched a thousand (OK, maybe just five or 10) media inquiries if Arkansas' football coach had a new contract. The thought that our football coach might be locked up also set off a wave of positive reaction on social and participatory media.

In response, within several hours, a media statement. How different from the Ole Miss situation? The radio show's other co-host is the sports editor of the statewide newspaper -- thus it had a gravitas that commanded reply.

Why not put it in the paper instead, or was it a deliberate float? To answer A) the paper hasn't come out yet for tomorrow -- perhaps it will. Then B) if you have that kind of info, and as a serious journalist you are willing to put your name behind it, can you in a race to the public's attention can you afford to wait for the print edition.

Notice, I didn't say we on the receiving end were OK with the speculation in the tweet. Let me go further to be clear -- I am saying I understand why it would be done in the digital landscape we live in. Not saying I support it, or validate it.

Second point -- it could all be much, much worse. None of the last two or three days Tweetsters is getting ready for a year of "re-education through labor". News from across the great firewall of China that Cheng Jianping had the misfortune of retweeting a message and adding a sarcastic twist. It's all over the internet, almost to the point that you get a sense that maybe it's a bit apocryphal or what other issue underlies that we don't know about.

Then again, maybe the Chinese government is just dead serious about enforcing its social media policies.

Twitterific Weekend

The good Lord causes dropped touchdowns, players are quitting major programs and Houston Nutt is on his way to another job. How do I know that? Twitter, of course. In a quick round-up of the fun with 140, Steve Johnson who Sunday appeared to have blamed God for his dropped pass and eventual loss to the Steelers recanted today that he never meant the Lord was his defensive back. You be the judge.

Journal of Sports Media brings us the shocking news that real-time digital reporting services force traditional media to go out and do the dirty work of discovering truth. I think I called it force multiplier about three years ago. Nevertheless, intriguing as the Ole Miss based blog has its own fun as a sports blogger restarted a several month dormant Twitter feed to put the word out that Houston Nutt was leaving for Colorado (or the Dallas Cowboys, you pick). That got shot down this afternoon by a series of -- you guessed it -- tweets from beat reporters of the Rebels.

Pretty definitive on Sunday:
Houston Nutt will be named head coach at Colorado at 3 p.m. press conference on Monday.

Pretty defiant on Monday:
At 1p.m. Today he met with CU. I have never written or reported info I knew was false. I know why it didn't work out.

Today, Nutt was pretty specific in his press conference about not being involved with Colorado.

Rowher Today

My video editing skills are rudimentary, but the photos and video of the disrepair of the Rowher monument should come through in spite of my work. I stopped by after driving through Arkansas City for my blog entry Thanksgiving week, and what I discovered was really disturbing. I remember the monument from visits to grandmother's house, and it along with the POW camps in the area were subjects of quiet conversations in the past. I'm forwarding links to some of our veteran oriented politicians in hopes they can shake loose some funding to halt the decay.

Giving Thanks

I had hoped that when this blog reached its 1,000th post, it would have some meaning beyond an anniversary. When I sat down today to chronicle the latest social campaign -- and its overwhelming unintended emotional impact -- I was quite pleased to note it would be the millennium.

After this month's earlier success with Vote Mallett, I considered a couple of problems coming up with our weekly ticket giveaway through the Twitter feed. If you didn't know, I use my personal tickets that the athletic department provides for a weekly contest I've called TwitTix. I know that there will be a HUGE demand for these two tickets. It's been a hard sellout for weeks, and with the BCS implications added to a series that has become one of the wildest in the SEC, two ducats for the Battle for the Boot would be extremely valuable.

Since CBS didn't move us onto the Friday we've played for many years after Thanksgiving, I knew I had an open window on the holiday. By the way, SID-types, ever notice you can get massive placements of stories that normally would not get big inches if you can provide them on holidays? Why? Nothing makes the skeleton shift happier than quality copy to fill space that comes in EARLY to help them meet the deadlines and go home to enjoy their holiday.

I had planned my regular pre-weekend blog column to focus on the story of my family's Arkansas roots. Being in Starkville allowed me to drive back through my mother's home town to pick up some art at no cost -- re-purpose the mileage! -- and in writing the story, it hit me that I had the set-up for a perfect Twitter contest. The gist of the column was being thankful for a divided house -- mom from Arkansas and big Razorback fans and dad from Louisiana and close to LSU types like Billy Cannon -- and telling the story of my own very personal connection to Arkansas City.

Now I've got the tie in. Have the fans tell me -- through Twitter -- what they are thankful for today. I'll pick the winner that way rather than show up at some spot and show me a tweet or retweet the Follow Friday message, etc.

The hash tag I created was #ThanksArk. Within the first hour, I've got 35-40 entries. Some are funny. Many bring tears to your eyes.

Social media allows us to make a connection -- we have to keep remember it is about a conversation with our fans, not speeches and pronouncements for them to consume.

A sampling of a few early ones:

Just passed an accident with fatalities, made the whole family stop and realize how thankful we really are #ThanksArk

I am thankful this year that I walked across a stage in Bud Walton Arena and joined the best family in the world - as a UA grad #ThanksArk

I'm thankful for military that makes us the greatest country. Especially those who cannot be with their family this Thanksgiving. #ThanksArk

I'm thankful to be a cancer survivor, a Razorback, a fighter & a winner! Pepper Jelly, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, & the RAIN! #ThanksArk

#ThanksArk my dad and I dont speak much and havent for a while. I'm hopin that the tixs will bring us together,I'd b thankful 4 that

Seriously, even if you could care flippin' less about the Razorbacks, use your Twitter tool of choice to search that hashtag today. It will touch you.

Back to the business at hand -- which seems a little less important after that -- I've set a reminder tweet at two to three hour intervals today, and cross promoted it on our Facebook (where the 100K might help boost up our about 8K Twitter main feed). Again, the only traditional web this time through is the not-so-conventional personal column.

I am a firm believer that the goal in all the social media work cannot be to drive some kind of incremental revenue into the athletic department. First, aside from raw click through on sales, how are you really going to get a firm metric on that and people will see through it for what it is -- shilling.

The goal is to convert your fans into friends; your brand into a bond with the family that surrounds your programs. From there, those other kinds of support -- including monetary -- will flow.

By the way, there are some very striking results and numbers within the Vote Mallett effort -- I am working those into a presentation format as well as including them into my notes for presentation at the NCAA Convention on Ronnie Ramos' panel. The campaign was effective, even when it was slightly derailed -- and that bump in the road helps prove the strength of the social effort.

In closing, this has been a rough year. Actually, a rough couple of years. Those close know, I won't bore the rest. I'm thankful for those of you out there who have been supportive and understanding.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Facebook Strikes Again

A must listen segment for all who work with college students (not just student-athletes) to help them understand the risks of their very public lifestyles. Then again, looking at the fact that 45-plus females are the fastest growing segment of new users on Facebook, perhaps this a post for all.

Dan Gillmor is the guest, and the new Facebook Messages tool is the subject. I'll let Dan distill it into a Tweetable quote:

My understanding is if you have decided to import everything into your Facebook Messaging that all of these conversations that you have will be saved for posterity, police and divorce lawyers.

OK, that's actually a Tweet and a third, but you get the point.

Facebook is in the business of aggregating data, sifting it and sorting it. They're not any different than Axiom, a home state business that is one of the world wide leaders in data mining. All sorts of black helicopter fears are assigned to that -- it's Echelon for the business class. The Googleplex is out there, vacuuming up the Matrix of your digital lives.

Why again do we not see Facebook in that way? Because we friend each other and we just heart the system!

Let's be clear -- I use it, I like it, but I also know that I can't trust it. Dan, as usual, is spot on and it bears repeating: "saved for posterity, police and divorce lawyers."

Said it once, say it again: Digital assets are easily copied, imminently portable and last forever.

Worst Travel Day of the Year

Couple of in-state media colleagues found this report from a Montana CBS affiliate in which the simple question was asked of the Department of Transportation -- is today the busiest travel day of the year? The answer was no, summer beats it routinely.

The point of Max Brantley not withstanding -- we'll here this story repeated all weekend -- personal experience says the raw numbers are missing the story.

I've been in those summer whirlwinds when a single flight cancellation can ripple into a 15 hour nightmare. Here's my counter point: in summer, the industry is ramped up to deal with the flow. This weekend, there are three factors that certainly make this window the worst of the year:

Capacity: manpower is down as people ask for time off, airlines are loath to pay double and triple overtime; there are fewer flights as a result and the plane are almost always operating at oversold status as a result.

Weather: you're not going to get a snowstorm over O'Hare in August. Granted, you can get a severe thunderstorm over DFW or ATL to ruin your day, but refer back to point one. There is usually another flight, or the whole schedule slips because there is too much at stake to not send the flights.

John Candy: The emotional ties of traveling this weekend are huge; only exceeded by Christmas season -- with one exception. Lots of people are somewhat flexible around Christmas, they might go on the 20th and come back the 26th or on 24th and come back after the first of the year. As a solo holiday about home and hearth, Thanksgiving weekend is a lot more focused -- and unlike Christmas, we find it acceptable to have commerce (black Friday) and entertainment (check out how many college basketball tournaments are taking place) around T-Day.

Reader thinks -- you forgot your point -- no, I was setting up the Planes, Trains and Automobiles epic from the 1987 that set the legend in stone. It gives us the two sides of that coin. Steve Martin as the business man trying to be home but still conduct commerce. And John Candy as the person with no home adrift -- and both stuck in travel hell.

Put the three together and you have an American truth that may not exactly be supported by statistics.

As they say, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

Miller on Nye and Twitter

Dennis Miller talks about Bill Nye's collapse at a speech. No one checked on Nye, but hundreds pulled out mobiles to tweet and facebook the event.

Miller points out the tweet storm, particularly how people then began to send out updates about the fact everyone was obsessed with getting the word out.

Nobody is actually at the scene of their own life anymore. They are always somewhere else telling people about their life, but there is nothing going on in their life because no one is talking to anybody next to them anymore.

The L.A. Times blog referenced above had the nut quote:

Nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed -- that just perplexed me beyond reason, USC senior Alastair Fairbanks said. Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening.

More here from the Mercury News blog.

Visuals are the Key

A nugget of Gruen magic I came across in iPad notes. Todd Sampson was speaking of how to build an effective political commercial.

When you can graphically represent something, that is the image that will stick with everyone. Todd follows up with the nut graph:

They say with the spoken word, only 10 percent of it will stay with you for three days. If you add a visual and you will remember 65 percent of it.

Remember the best commercials that stick with you? They have a compelling visual element, an eye-catching hook. Not just a talking head. Not a bunch of B-roll video either. A message that is conveyed by the symbiotic marriage of the two.

Consider that the next time someone is asking you to scrimp on the graphics budget for any project.

Wayback Machine Rolls Out

If you're reading this on Friday, I'm likely looking out the windshield of my Mini Cooper headed to Starkville, Miss.

You're driving?

I get that a lot. Frankly, I can do my job better outside the team charters -- I get there earlier to shoot background shots and video and stay late to make the website posts so the SIDs attached to the team can depart in a hurry. Besides, I like the road.

There is something to be said for seeing America, stopping at the local mom-and-pop, meat-and-three spots; the local burger and BBQ joints. And considering the amount of gear I'm carrying, I get really tired of being TSA's favorite customer. The cost with short notice tickets is about the same, particularly once mileage is put against rental vehicles and staying an extra day sometimes for a flight. We came out slightly ahead driving to Auburn over flying anywhere near earlier this season.

Plus, I get the chance to catch up on podcasts -- you can bet there will be a series of new blog entries based on some of the ones I've saved up. And unless I get the chance to finish out that pilot's license started years ago AND the university wants to pick up charter fees, I can usually get anywhere our teams are going via commercial means within two or three hours of them. If it's a short hop trip with a change over, I can almost make it even.

For example, I'll not go direct all the way to Starkville because of hotel bookings, but that would be drive to XNA, fly most likely to Atlanta, change planes, sit in the airport, fly to Golden Triangle, get a rental, head to Starkville. Same for Birmingham or Nashville. I can drive almost all of them in 8-9 hours. Good luck flying to them in less than 6-7 hours. Remember, in addition to the hour or so flight hops, it's a 40 minute drive from the house to XNA here to factor, plus the hour for TSA.

So, if you're rolling around north Mississippi on Friday or the Arkansas Delta on Sunday morning and you see the WAYBACK plates on a Mini (and Mr. Peabody's decal next to the license), don't for get to wave.

The Wall of Noise

Phil specter may have come up with the phrase Wall of Sound to describe his unique way of mixing music in the 1960s. In 21st century messaging, I see a variation -- the Wall of Noise -- and it has a very different meaning.

Instead of creating a distinct vision and sound like Spector, an organization deliberately generates so many messages that it becomes an overload of information flowing outward. This can satisfy many purposes. For the consumers of the organization that cannot get enough about the group - from a rock star to an athletic department - this is a modern miracle. As a strategic communication tool it will often dull the overall message, too much of a good thing, and lead to an inability to articulate a clear message.

Unless that exactly what you want to do.

The Wall of Noise can also serve as a masking agent for other issues. Just like audio engineering, by raising the background level -- injecting static -- it becomes harder to hear individual items. White noise, that roaring whoosh that once upon an analog time was accompanied by visual haze on the old television screen.

This becomes a variation on the hide in plain sight strategy. The answers were right there all along, but you didn't notice them. The Gorilla Effect on steroids.

Lots of organizations stumble into creating Walls of Noise. It's so easy with the digital tools at our disposal to crank out more and more content. In the past, one, maybe two, press releases a week. The occasional video update or audio file. Active real-time reporting tools can create that in half a day, much less a week. Without realizing, the organization has reset it's noise floor.

The downside becomes changes in that stream of information become alerts those who you don't want noticing something. The change in pattern alone by the organization is the trigger for even more attention. A group who is very limited in info that suddenly starts to churn out content like mad is revealing it is in trouble. It's like chaff, the bursts of aluminum shards spewed out to avoid anti-aircraft missiles.

Far more common is the opposite; the unit that suddenly goes quiet after being very open and accommodating. They become consumed with fear of saying or doing the wrong thing, and like the proverbial deer in the headlights, freezes; hoping by being still to avoid the on-rushing crisis.

It is the change in pattern, and it takes real discipline to not vary of the standard operating procedure.

A group that creates a ton of info is best served by finding ways to keep that flow moving during a crisis, and keeping it going in the area of concern. This will raise the least suspicion. Human nature is to clam up during a crisis. In extreme events, it may become necessary to do so - for example in the middle of a life safety event is no time to push out feature stories. Prepackaged stories that detail what to do during the crisis - absolutely.

One can certainly mask a negative event within a flow of other messages. It was a tool of "self-inoculation" against bad news that many politicians use; revealing something bad about themselves before the opponent gets the chance go do so and put their spin on it. The Clinton White House appeared to master the technique, and gain a large amount of message control as a result. After all, if given the opportunity, everyone would like to be the one telling their own bad news.

WaPo for iPad

People ask a lot about iHog and I tell them, the first generation we created last year was inspired by the clean layout used by New York Times with their first app.

I've seen the future for Flatland -- Washington Post has it. It was first attracted by a snarky on-line media outlet's post picking fun at the video used to promote the app. Actually, I find it quite refreshing, including Ben Bradlee's closing line:

"These kids think Tweets twit themselves"

Which I dutifully tweeted myself last week. Since, I've downloaded the app and find it a very nice "newspaper" presentation. I wonder if that will work with a rising generation that can't appreciate a nice three column layout and the WSJ-like divided sections and the little wood-cut like illustrations. Quaint for us old folks.

More significant is the pricing structure. You get WaPo for free until February 2011 -- typical and proven drug dealer marketing, the first taste is free -- but the costs are reasonable. Far more so than WSJ or NYT, and I'd actually consider paying the rates. I wish my area papers would follow suit with this format.

Not a Good Sign of the Times

Earlier this summer, I commented about the broadening of the coverage of college sports into more of the entertainment world. Notably, TMZ's entry into "sports" coverage which ads another investigative unit on the national scene to the work being done out of Yahoo Sports. Recall it was TMZ that broke open the Oklahoma basketball business, first gaining attention for it's college effort. Previously, TMZ stuck to the celebrity news around pro sports, and usually the glitz capital (LA, NY) teams. This afternoon, welcome to the SEC as TMZ made its second foray into the Newton business.

Social Campaign for Social Results

For the past two weeks, we've carried a "widget" on our website provided by Davey O'Brien Award to promote Ryan Mallett in the fan voting. And with that passive little button, Ryan stayed firmly mired below 10th, hovering near 12 most of the time. What to do -- let's build a big banner ad and run it on the front page was the suggestion that had early momentum. That will get the attention of our huge fan base.

My counter was -- different from the widget how? Yes, larger. Yes, higher up the page. But during the discussion, the point became understood. After a while, it was conceded, you just don't notice the display ads. They don't change. They're just there. They become part of the background.

So change it every day! Sound of teeth gnashing.

Can we try this instead -- we want a specific action from our fans, who we need to interact with to achieve. The plan was simple. Go to all our social tools -- Facebook, Twitter -- and all our participatory places -- blogs, message boards, born digital media -- and give them a simple message.

O'Brien counts your vote in the overall. We want Ryan Mallett to make it to the finals. You can be a part of that process. Please go vote. Ask your friends to vote. And you can watch your progress at this website.

Mallett started the weekend at just over 1,000 votes. Starting with the on-line interactive blog for the game (adding a "Vote Mallett" button to our standing links) and promoting it several times in the blog, we began to move the needle. Changing over our Facebook friend page image to a "Vote Mallett" graphic, I started making regular posts and interacting with our fans to encourage them to vote.

Same by reaching out, under my real name, to the larger message boards on Sunday into Monday. Today, we started integrating the campus (alumni association, university relations) social tools to amplify the message.

As I type this update -- Monday evening at 9 p.m., Mallett crossed 4,500 votes. Nothing new on the website. Pure social outlets.

Pick the right tool for the right outcome.

Crisis Policy Work

Defining a crisis for a standing department policy is no small effort. The common language of FEMA/ICS and the life-safety side of critical incidents does not translate well in athletics. Personally, I see a lot of people intimidated by saying the reality out loud, and with the federal mandate for clear language, there's no euphemistic terms allowed. Followers know this was my 2009 CoSIDA Convention topic, and a regular item in this space for years.

Several weeks ago, we managed to work out what defined a crisis (since there was a dislike for the more common term in the business of "critical incident") was:

A situation that threatens to dramatically affect the lives or well-being of student-athletes or staff, significantly damage the property or operations of the athletic department, or may negatively impact the events, reputation or normal activities of the athletic department.

I'm pleased with it because the goal should be to create a policy and operational standards that can be plugged into any "crisis" -- from a tornado to a player suspension, from a life-safety incident at a practice to a major policy announcement, from a water main break that floods the stadium to a national championship celebration parade. They are all crisis -- and not all crisis are negative. Think about planning for success: what will you do if your team wins it all?

So the next step becomes separating out response levels. Most of the plans out there look at three levels; I'm going to advocate understanding that there really are four. From draft language -- and yes I'm looking for feedback here:

A routine event that has the potential to disrupt daily operations, negatively impact the department or require the communication of information internally or externally defines the difference between day-to-day events and an incident that would invoke the policy. This is an administrative decision unless the incident involves health and welfare of a student-athlete, member of the department or patron of an event.

Routine events are level zero within the critical event policy. Level one events are incidents which are limited in scope - both in time frame to resolve and overall impact on the department. Level two events are emergencies which last longer than a day in their impact on the entirety of the athletic department. Level three events are catastrophic, with impacts that are long lasting or permanent, reaching beyond the scope of the athletic department into the university and overall community as a whole.

What is your take on the "level zero" concept?

Speed Necessary for Viral?

Interesting case that I'm curious about feedback. Five of our football players were making a surprise visit to the Razorback Marching Band Spectacular to do a drum line performance. We sent our New Media crew to shoot the event, and got great HD video. We planned on building a package. That took us a day. In the meantime, we were beat to YouTube by, of course, a cell phone video.

Compare. RazorVision vs. cell phone. Obviously, we have interviews and a better angle. But in the world of viral video, we can't catch the cell phone. As of this post, we're at about 4,500 views; the cell phone video is at 15,000. They got a 10K view head start in one day.

We did all the right things -- took our video that was bound for RazorVision inside our web presence and "freed" it to YouTube. Tweets, facebooks, encouraging sharing.

So my question is this -- does it become better in the viral to get something out there and be first, or take the time to build something that shapes to what you wanted to portray. Obviously our video quality gets it another bump by inclusion in this week's ESPNU telecast.

Wildland Fire Approach to Social Media

I'd been working on this analogy of how fighting social media problems can sometimes be like fighting fires in the forests, and that sometimes you find yourself surrounded by flames. Sometimes, you have to set a rescue fire to keep from being consumed by the larger conflagration. To the old school spinners, allowing out details that set a fire -- a huge dose of truth at the right moment -- seems wrong.

I picked back up on this in Mark Drapeau's piece where he noted that in his Four Tenets of Modern Communication that "information spreads within communities like wildfire, on and off line. It has never been more important to acknowledge and try to help communities. If you're not bringing your community of stakeholders up with you as you rise, you will fall and you're gone."

Interesting.

My thoughts were more tactical, looking at how both wildfire and rumor share certain similar attributes.

Single spark or lightning sets it off, also sometimes done by arson. It grows often unnoticed in the wilderness. We send resources out to control it, or to put it out in urban areas.

The pros can try to attack it, but once it gets to a certain size, they can't stop it.

We think we can prevent it. Sometimes, we do controlled burns to limit the future scope. In the end, the ability to fight it is an illusion, and the forest fire will simply run its course.

Food for thought.

Getting Lawyered Up on Facebook

News from Connecticut today as a National Labor Relations Board backed case is set for a hearing regarding a plaintiff who was claims to have been fired for making comments about the work place on her personal Facebook account. The details include some key hurdles: she posted on her own time, from her home computer; however, business had a policy in place she was aware of.

The first major takeaway on this: there is no ruling. The item that started today's media frenzy was the announcement that the case would be heard by the NLRB. Kashmir Hill at Forbes has a solid one-stop blog post with most of the details and cautions against thinking this is settled law. Far from it, and if NLRB finds for the new case, it will be going against it's own previous ruling in a case filed against Sears. From Hill's blog:

Sears’s policy is designed to “maintain the company’s reputation and legal standing.” On a list of topics that associates can’t discuss on social media was, “Disparagement of company’s or competitors’ products, services, executive leadership, employees, strategy, and business prospects.” It also advised employees not to talk about drugs or to use profanity.


To see the actual NLRB memo on the Sears case, jump here.

The questions become: was the policy overly broad in the Connecticut case announced today, did it limit free speech, was it a legal condition of employment.

Based on the first media accounts, this does not look like a blanket endorsement of going home tonight and telling the world exactly what you think of your boss/coach/co-workers/etc. Nor an across the board blow to social media policies, either on campus or at the workplace.

There is a very interesting difference in how the story is being handled by legacy media and networked or computer industry media. The "regular" media is trumpeting the first amendment side of this hearing. One example of the breathless victory:

In what has been called a ground-breaking case, the United States National Labour Relations Board has accused a company of illegally sacking an employee after she criticised her supervisor on her Facebook page.

The AP story follows similarly on many legacy media:

A Connecticut woman who was fired after she posted disparaging remarks about her boss on Facebook has prompted a first-of-its-kind legal case by federal authorities who say her comments are protected speech under labor laws.

Same for Washington Post.

Those with more time around social media are quick to point out it is not. As today's CNET first coverage noted:

Invoking scatological language when describing the relative merits of your job is, of course, a time-honored American tradition. So is firing employees who do it to your face.

Interesting that one of the "traditional" news links was NPR and their AP story, another NPR blogger falls more in line with the networked media by pointing out if you hate your boss on Facebook, NLRB may back you but you could still be in plenty of trouble.

Among the items I noted so far:

It is an NLRB hearing. It isn't in a "regular" court of law.

It's getting a lot of coverage today like it is a first amendment case. It clearly is not. The worker is saying she was fired for the comments; the employer is saying it was a series of events. Can anyone say "Juan Williams"?

Most interesting -- and missing from the first AP stories -- was the repercussions on the poster. The item that led to trouble included the assertion that the supervisor she was mad at was a "17" which was code/jargon for a psychological patient. (Hello, Juan Williams, part deux). I pose the question for my more legal followers, does the supervisor now have a slander/libel action for being accused of being crazy (and I deliberately list both -- is Facebook "spoken" or published). As the producer of content and the publisher of the content, the worker would appear in my opinion to be "media" now.

Several lawyers have come out to say they believe it reinforces the worker position, but none have said that if you are asked as a condition of employment to sign a social media policy or confidential information policy that it would not be trumped by today's ruling.

The one thing I can say with certainty today -- this will be just the starting point -- a case to launch a thousand briefs.

And, for the record, I composed and wrote today during my "lunch hour" as I'll be working through the traditional noon time frame.

Focus Group This

Ah, a little catch-up time on quotes found out there on the internets.

John C. Dvorak tells us what he thinks about focus groups:

You can't focus group new ideas (because) there is no frame of reference.

To which Leo Laporte chimed in:

You get the best creative result if you let someone with a great vision create his vision.


Finally, J.P. Barlow:

Revolution requires persistence in intention, connection & conceptual integrity; it requires an attention span

All, by the way, came from a This Week in Tech episode. I've mentioned it before, but if you are in this business and you are not downloading that podcast -- let me be as gentle as I can, you're not being a serious Culture Officer for your group.

Listen But Understand

Comment areas on blogs and email response boxes are important. These folks define our institutions and our reputations, and answering them quickly is important. Listening to them is also, but we need to take some time to understand they may not be typical of the fans or consumer at large.

Jay Adelson, late of Digg, was speaking of his old company on a recent This Week in Tech special. He was recalling the way they had brought in some of the power users, the most active in the community, and listened to them to make some pretty wide ranging changes. They were a flop among the users at large. It brought Jay to this conclusion:

The vocal minority does not represent the interests (of the whole) they are important because they are evangelists and you have to make them content an satisfied with their experience but what they like may not be appropriate for everybody

Sage words. Adelson added something else later about how one should approach a successful on-line venture, and it hearkened back to earlier words regarding Steve Jobs' approach (ie, how do you focus group the new, because if it is genuinely out there, what point of reference does the past provide the focus group).

You are trying to delight users with product, not trying to squeeze every last penny

Drapeau Notes on Gen Y

Continuing with Mark Drapeau's Five Cultural Trends Shaping Business Communications and Public Service, he gives us some very interesting notes on how Gen Y views the public authority -- for the purposes of this blog, let's say athletic departments.

The youth are very connected, very desirous of giving back to communities, but also very distrusting of authority. That's a challenging combination. On the one hand, young fans who want to support you, yet they are going to be the first to call out any lack of transparency.

He weaves this together with another of his five points -- Web 2.0 and Open Government. Drapeau views it as a cultural shift, and he relates this to the growing desire for community among all.

". . . what was once public relations to an audience now looks a lot like public service to a community. And anecdotally, the new public relations influencers, gurus and tacticians are those who weave 'community' into their work."

Huh. So that whole interactive blogging thing, good. Well, only if you are genuine. Drapeau closes with several points about how public service is a unifier.

I think you win by showing that you care more than other companies, organizations, entities. That caring can come in many forms - thought leadership, great customer service, empowering communities to help themselves, being more transparent about decisions.

Or to distill to one line:

They just want to know that you also care about the people you're selling to and that you're not entirely selfish.

Or to a pithy aphorism, which he points out is original to Gary Vaynerchuk:

Sharing is caring.

Eye of the Hurricane

The last great twitter storm surrounded the Pac-16, and we were collectively amused. That is, if you were not a Big 12 member.

The next great unsourced event is underway with Cam Newton. We see a rush to judgment -- fueled perhaps by fear of the revelations of Reggie Bush -- and real-time reporting is right in the middle.

This is troubling on many levels in the collegiate realm. Today, by laying out an academic accusation, those that could quickly deal with this are put at some jeopardy via FERPA. Nature and the Internet abhor a vacuum, it will be filled.

That said, Auburn has taken steps to aggressively counter, including the athletic director Jay Jacobs and football coach Gene Chizik making strong statements to the media. After last week's NCAA rumors, Newton himself was made available. For its part, Florida, via Urban Meyer, has done the same. Interestingly, Auburn's official feed is only retweeting other media. That should not be read into, however, as their feed has traditionally been promotions based for it's original material. The fact they are making sure message gets out to fan base by retweeting stories shows they are engaging.

There has to be a little understanding of the demand on the media, and all sides are ratcheting up rhetoric. As an example, Chris Dufresne of the L.A. Times is getting hit pretty hard by fans. Dick Weiss with New York Dailey News points out both sides -- noting the FERPA issues and statements from Jay Jacobs -- The people you would expect like Paul Finebaum are in the eye of the storm.

In light of being burned on Farve via paid sources, are national outlets moving faster than normal in ways that are over compensating for that miss, or are we simply in the heart of a new paradigm that will require institutions to have rapid response and monitoring teams that can move quickly.

Again, we are not talking professional sports or professional entertainment -- for that matter, even government crisis events -- where once the problem unfolds there can be rapid reactions. Colleges are both academic institutions and state governing bodies. Legally and culturally, they are not rapid reaction targets.

Before the next Pac-16 or Cam, have you assessed your organization's ability to react at the speed that a university is being forced to move?

Drapeau's Five Cultural Trends

An earlier tweet that now gets some more in-depth review. Mark Drapeau is one of the public sector engagement folks at Microsoft. Not that long ago, we'd have ascribed to him the more hip title of a chief evangelist. He wrote a solid essay on the Five Cultural Trends Shaping Business Communications and Public Service at the end of October. Many of you saw my retweet of CoSIDA News on this.

He skewers the public sector (read: academica/athletics/government) with some pretty strong points.

Large organizations are often out of touch with such changes in the culture.

In his five areas, he hits one that bears closer observation for the college sports world: "Nobodies as Influencers." While Drapeau is thinking very specifically of The Situation and other made for reality stars that lack "talent" as we may have previously defined as important for celebrity, I'm reading something else.

Hearkening back to our general lack of control over our brand reputations, it is hundreds of similar "nobodies" who by virtue of the extraordinary low cost of entry into media that become some our most important clients for information. As Drapeau wrote:

Everybody has the potential to be a celebrity and therefore everyone is a potential influencer.

I found one of the comments on Drapeau's post one of the most important items, and it reminded me about who increasingly is the person of trust within one's life.

We trust the 'nobody' down the street more than any superjock making a gazillion dollars a year because it seems more genuine.

Spoke Too Soon

Yep. This flight had changed to C47; back down the terminal. But, I learn from fellow refugee from Columbia that the original first flight of the day is still on the ground.

Remembering History Class

An important realization today that three of the most valuable lessons I've learned in life came from small parts of one teacher's courses. Anyone who attended Northeast Louisiana from the late 1970s into the early 1990s encountered or knew about H. Perry Jones. An irascible teacher, his classroom exploits were legend. One of his favorites was to have graduate students carry him into class near Halloween in a coffin, from which he would rise in full Dracula costume to hand out his exam.

H. Perry was a western civ instructor, and so it made sense for him to be the first to have introduced the myth of Sisyphus and the great quote of Omar Khyaam. It was in his moonlighting as intro to U.S. that he worked in the legend of taking a message to Garcia.

Jones loved to draw on the board, and in the pre-PowerPoint era, his presentations were epic. Cartoons, stylized text, lists - all assembled on the blackboards in the 10 minute time he had between classes then erased away by the next instructor; in part to be able to use the board but I'm convinced for several intimidated by e master instructor (and showman) that was H. Perry.

Each semester - regardless of Western Civ or U.S. History - at some point he would make reference to his notes and with grandiloquent gestures say at these we the type of works that Omar Khayyam meant when he wrote his poetry; that it was like history itself, the very sands of time, that would disappear once the class was over - the moving hand of History having writ, moves on, Jones would say in his "interpretation" of the passage.

Similarly, when he sensed the students were grinding away in the middle of the semester, he would remind them that they were condemned only in the short term to their own rock of Sisyphus. That life would likely present them with challenges that would be the same eternal struggle. That the beauty of life was both the struggle, and the short period of time walking back down the hill when you are temporarily freed of the burden.

Unless you caught him for U.S. two, you missed the performance of the entire A Message to Garcia - the story of the president sending his man Rowan into Cuba to contact one of the insurgents. A staple of he U.S. Army, Perry brought it alive with his dramatic reading. His voice still echoes, his scratchy Applachian coming out when he bellowed "By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze . . ." as he performed. You left almost eager to be called upon to not fail, to face that challenge and against all odds and without micromanaged direction carrying the message to Garcia.

Performed. That's the right word for H. Perry. Or maybe, transformed.

Enough to Drive

Shifting gates. Closed paths. Happy shining people. Oh yes, please, I want me some more commercial travel.

Land in the far end of D concourse (coffee now, or later - opt for not carrying scalding water long distance) and get high-number C.

Around the detours for tram loading in D, on to C - as in, crap, this is the one concourse without Starbucks. That's OK, I'll use the old B-C underground connector. Walk the length of C and . . . What tha . . . sealed off like some abandoned mine shaft. Nice.

Settle for brew in C - that was halfway back up the concourse. Sit down at C55 - yep, end of the terminal - and five minutes later, we have a gate change announcement. Back to 33. At least I have two things going for me. A) unlike the lone ESPN-type who managed to get on my plane, I'm still not in Columbia with Holly Rowe and Co. His seat, however, cost the airline a $600 voucher. No one would budge for $400, and one passenger bid it up to $600 (sure, if you'll do it, the exasperated gate agent said). B) After schlepping my 40 pounds of gear and clothes split into these two backpacks for a couple of miles today, no need to ride when I get home.

Notice, when I get home. Continuing to have faith. Even though gate 33 says White Planes, NY.

Travel Fun

Nothing like a long day at the airport, compounded by time change and over sold. Looks like the plane in front of me this morning was oversold to start, and now has mechanical issues. The local staff is short, and the supervisor is way overloaded (I need you to stand at the service center NOW).

Of course, you'd be a little testy too if passengers were self-deplaning. Yep. Just helping themselves to the jetway. Oops. There's one blocking open the gate nine door so he can go back and forth.

I swear, there's the Maya Elliott character from Bronx Beat, complete with pink fleece, in the face of the gate agent.

Oh my, I'm boarding and this should be fun.

Cash for Sports Stories

A.J. Daulereo appeared on the stage at the Indiana University Sports Journalism forum to discuss the payment of a mystery source for the key info that led to the breaking of the Brett Farve story. He was holding the cash -- "more than I'd ever seen" -- before the delivery.

That might infer a moment of angst. That would be no.

While the sports journalism world is shocked, shocked that there is gambling at Rick's, those with a memory for the history of celebrity journalism were not surprised.

Paying for "exclusives" or providing "expenses" to travel to network television shows are standard in today's media world. The National Enquirer, who paid a hefty fee for the coffin photos of Elvis among others, finds itself considered for eligibility for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.

The coverage and video of Daulereo's talk are very important as a guide to where this heads next. Recall, TMZ is now in the game (the Oklahoma basketball story) or the Gizmodo move over the iPhone4 and this will not go away anytime soon.

Road Weary But Worth It

There are a few things that make travel exciting -- meeting interesting people, seeing new places, great meals in different areas. So far, this one is batting 1-for-3. Missing hotel reservations, bad airline personnel, rough flight connections and one of the most wholly unremarkable plates of ribs ever.

I did have a nice chat with a woman who was visiting in the NWA area. She was from DC and had been at a corporate event (no, not for THE corporate entity in NWA). Her time was spent at Carnall Hall and she had walked around the campus. A lot of the usual things we hear -- gosh, its so much nicer than we thought, etc.

My seatmate reminded me of something really important about what I do these days, and how extremely valuable one-on-one interaction is for our overall efforts. I hear the gnashing of teeth in the background of the mass market mentality. You're wasting your time with one person.

Really?

You know the butterfly effect, yes? You've read The Long Tail. How do I not know that the one person I've talked to -- who swears that even though her only connection to Arkansas was this conference is now going to log in and read the interactive blog tonight -- won't lead to something important in the future for the Razorbacks.

And that's just it -- I don't. She didn't seem like she was just being polite, and was quite adamant to make sure she was remembering the website name. But if she doesn't, I know that several hundred will be there. Taking long periods of time to stay and discuss the game; to get the updates and descriptions.

I do know what happens if I'm not there. We don't have a connection to New York City, or Seattle, or Doha, or Yokosuka. And the positive impressions and time together reinforces the bond that we want. Said it before, say it many times again, I don't want fans for the University of Arkansas; I want friends.

Fans come and go; friends stay with you. They do favors for you, and you do them in return. The day what we do gets reduced to pure commerce, to spread sheets of return on investment is the day people wake up and realize college sports are not worth what is spent upon them.

Alchemist! Blasphemer! Communist! I could continue down the alphabet, but its true. How do I know so? Look in the major metropolitan areas. Pro sports dominate because at the highest level of pure sport, the skill and artistry will always trump the amateurs. And we'll pay more to see The Rolling Stones than an up-and-coming plucky band of young Brits, well, because they are The Rolling Stones.

Think I'm wrong? Consider the following. What makes last year's Final Four compelling was the battle between the established men of the game, Duke, and the upstarts from Butler. Was there more sheer athleticism on the court than a regular season game shortly before or after featuring the Indiana Pacers? No.

The connection we gained to both sides -- to the legend of Coach K and the underdogs from Butler -- is what made it compelling. And memorable.

At the end of the day, that's my job. It's why I keep showing up out here on the road, plying the story with whatever the latest technology might be to bring it home, but never, ever forgetting what is the most important part.

Serving as the connection between the Razorbacks and their nation.

Chief Content Officers

I like this concept advanced by Bob Rumpza at PR News Online, and it syncs perfectly with my own experience. Compelling content is the long-term solution to what ails you -- whether it is a legacy journalism enterprise trying to transition into a networked world or a public relations/sports information/sports marketing person trying to have impact.

Good content=traffic

Traffic=advertisers

Advertisers=exchange of green rectangles for your services

Rumpza has several great takeaway quotes in this piece, starting with this one that should be bronzed on every college marketing person's desk:

"And consumers told us that when it comes to online advertising, they prefer content-rich articles and information compared to banner ads, or other online ad techniques."

This is at the heart of what I have been preaching for about a year: integrate your marketing messages into the content. Use "buy now" buttons, stories that explain promotions and giveaways, things that translate the old display advertising of the newspaper days into social exchange.

The other great passage is about the value of the content to the end user:

"As reputation management, marketing and brand-building have undergone transformation, the element that has survived untouched is the ability -- and necessity -- to tell a great story efficiently, yet eloquently, that stirs action and favorability among business people and consumers."

The bold is my emphasis.

Now before I hear back from a bunch of number crunchers that I'm just regurging a bunch of anecdotal to support my positions, I'd like to close by reminding you Rumpza's conclusions are supported by a national study looking into that oh-so-precious demo of the young, affluent and highly educated.

In other words, our sports' programs top boosters -- our alums.

Make The BeeGees Stop

I'm not completely certain, but right up there with double digit unemployment, seismic house of representative changes, and that the next incarnation of Call of Duty apparently incorporates a zombie phase in the Pentagon that involves four dead Presidents, the fact that Starbucks is now featuring the BeeGees and playing their greatest hits over, and over, and over in store IS one of the final si guns of the apocalypse.

Oh, please hurry up person with the records you are dropping off to me here.

Remembering Mr. Dunn

Walter Dunn was that teacher. The one that inspired you later in life that you misunderstood. Maybe detested.

Personally, I never had a problem with Mr. Dunn. Others weren't much for his all-essay tests in American History and Advanced Social Studies. I'm sure it's no big surprise that I relished the open-ended nature of the questions. Usually there were two, maybe three. That's 50 points a pop -- 33 if you got three. High risk, high reward.

I still have my handwritten tests, folded length-ways with your name and date on the right side please, from his classes. One of the moments that made me most proud -- and showed me maybe I was pretty smart and not just a class clown jock-type from the wrong kind of family at the private school -- was when I got bonus points for my answer on World War II. Told later by seniors that they'd heard of only one other person that got bonus points from Dunn.

Enough self-congratulations, the reasons I'm thinking of Mr. Dunn today are two-fold. First, he was not a traditional teacher. Really, very few of the teachers at River Oaks during this period were cookie-cutter educationists. He was a former haberdasher, retired; who loved raising roses with his dear wife of who knows now many years. And, he knew his history. I look back on the old-school lecture and essay question format, and he gifted those who survived his headmaster rules strict attitude with incredible confidence and knowledge.

As for the knowledge, let me spread a little Mr. Dunn. On election day during my senior year, someone in the class asked Mr. Dunn who he voted for today. He looked up from his desk and a disgusted frown moved across his face. With an even more stern tone than usual, he looked the person who asked straight in the eye and said "Don't you ever ask anyone that question again."

He went on to lecture the class. This is America, and you have the right to walk into a private place and make your vote. That is your vote, and don't you ever, ever tell anyone how you voted.

You could tell that a very sacred thing had been disturbed, as if you had decided to wipe down the church alter with urine.

So on this election day, here's to you Mr. Dunn. I've got to go do that solemn, and private, duty this morning.

Go Vote Tomorrow

Seriously. This is the inner history professor lecturing you.

I don't care how you vote tomorrow, but don't come to class (talking to you guys that have your test) or work Wednesday to carp about the results one way or the other unless you have at least put some skin in the game.