With Detail Work Like This . . .

Following up the you don't have a lot of choice and you are surrounded, one Razorback follower took the time to work very detailed on the "sun was in my eyes" part of the Bobby Petrino story.

You need to skim it to appreciate it, but basically he uses the US Navy to prove the sun could not have been in his eyes. No. Seriously.

Petrino Was Set-Up

Now that I have your attention, on Tuesday, Bobby Petrino found himself surrounded and outmanned at this press conference.

While it is impossible to know for sure, it appears that Petrino still believed his version of events - that his passenger on the motorcycle was still a secret kept by himself, the good Samaritan couple who picked him up and likely his Arkansas State Police personal detail officer.

What is now obvious is the media - and dozens of other people - knew the truth. Another person who came upon the wreck called 911 to help out.

So when one TV station went out of its way to ask after the press conference if he was alone, and Petrino bit and replied "yeah" before walking off.

There is your smoking gun. Your 181/2 minute gap.

Aside from another reminder of the Watergate Rule (it's never about the crime, it's about the coverup) let's review some crisis management 101 and social media realities.

SM Reality #1: You are outnumbered.
Since the dawn of the networked media age, anyone in the arena is surrounded with individuals who at a moment's notice can become a reporter and at least a recorder of events. This is s Stazi dream come true. The hive will inform on you. Which leads to . . .

Management 101: If more than two people know, you no longer have a secret.
Let's see. At least three cars stopped at the accident. In the reports, the couple that drove Petrino away said another car had stopped. The 911 caller said the other car drove away, implying there may have been a third car - his - at the time. We know from the media as they got their first pictures of the wreck that another person drove up and snapped pictures. Maybe that's a containable group, but once the call is made, dispatch knows, everyone in Madison County law enforcement knows, that will be shared with Washington County and now we have a rumor R-naught of something like 16.

Hard Truth: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
Been here and done that - the good Samaritans got a visit from "an officer" after the event sent by Petrino to thank them. And remind them of anything? The 911 caller will become the anti-Christ to the pro-Bobby faction of rabid Hog fans if this goes bad for their sainted BMFP. The state police captain who is trying to do his job to help Petrino is in for likely trouble as well. Really makes you want to stick your neck out, hmm?

PIO Rule #1: Trust in God, Verify Everyone Else.
That piece of wisdom was given to me by a former Arkansas State Trooper who was teaching the state-level FEMA Public Information Officer course. I heard a similar version at the National Fire Academy Advanced PIO and just a few weeks ago from the trainer of PIOs for the Louisiana State Police. Those were words I tried to live by, but from personal experience, nothing, NOTHING will piss your boss off more than you trying to do this kind of due diligence.

Those are words you can count on. Arkansas stands at the crossroads on this crisis, but they will recover no matter what. Don't think so? Baylor had players murdering each other and NCAA violations stacking up just over a decade ago. They were left for dead not once, but twice in the Big 12 formation then reformation. Who has the most powerful athletic department in the Big 12 right now? That's a hard fact - this year they have more wins in the big three sports, a Heisman, a national title and over the past several years more Big 12 team titles than I think any other school, if not just second.

So even Penn State with the right plan for addressing the issues can regain its stature.

However, better to avoid those kind of events when you can by remembering those important rules.

Watergate Rules

I've said it before. I've taught it in class. It was in my previous office manual.

Watergate.

It was never about the crime.

It was about the cover-up.

Similarly, the truth will out, especially in these days of more social media. You have nothing to gain by hiding.

Being First, Being Scared

Breaking news from the old home front regarding Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino involved in a motorcycle accident and requiring hospitalization.

Since it happens on April 1, obviously, some trepidation.

But it didn't get reported until April 2.

The way it gets into the media is through a morning radio talk show first, which was called out as a hoax by fans and other television media. Until an hour later, Arkansas State Police began to confirm.

The university issued a statement, but as one can expect, the media -- both legacy and new -- are actively pinging their sources. ASP is saying it may be two to three days before the police report is done. University is citing family desire for no info. Hospitals are standing by HIPPA.

And, in the absence of other details, expect this to fester for some time.

Nature -- and the internet -- abhors a vacuum. So instead of hard details on the coach's condition, was he wearing a helmet, etc., we'll have notes about his motorcycle ownership, his love of the hobby, gleaned from older stories.

@NWAAlex: "Petrino told me his wife bought him a Harley in an auction. He said he'd take casual rides around Beaver Lake."

@NWAAlex: "Petrino told me he had never gotten into a bad accident on a motorcycle, but he did fall as a kid on dirt bikes. #arpreps"

@5NEWS: "A gust of wind may have blown Coach Petrino's motorcycle off the road Sunday, police source says."

Why the quick rush to say false? No one wants to be on the wrong side of this story, and it was easy to bandwagon up on a morning talk show. The very active Razorback fan base ready with pitchforks and torches to have the FCC yank the radio station license for broadcasting "false information".

Reminds us again of the fluid nature of things, and at what risk being first?

You also begin to have the media quoting itself with no direct info out there:

@cbahn: "RT @schadjoe: Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino (cycle accident) is "pretty banged up" but "will recover" person close to coach says"

@TJCarpenterShow: "RT @TomMurphyADG: Source close said Petrino had multiple broken ribs, "all kind of cuts and bruises," neck sprain, but going to be OK."

@5NewsSports: "As of 9:30am, still no statement released from the University of Arkansas on the condition of Bobby Petrino"

All of which reveals the pressure that's on the official sources. Jump out ahead and you at least offend the employee; at worst legally violate HIPPA. Wait too long and the institution becomes the story.

I'm Calling BS on Facebook Story

The BS meter went to 11 this week over the Associated Press story regarding job applicants being asked to give up their Facebook passwords to interviewers.

Not that I don't know for a fact that Fortune 500 companies and major universities screen applicants and vet finalists based on social profiles.

Please.

Who is Justin Bassett, and how did this one person become the face of the AP story?

No small coincidence that a quick google reveals 160,000 hits, leading with, shocking, Justin Bassett's Facebook page? And in the last week, roughly 3,300 news stories about his experience.

More in a minute.

That it happens is not the question. Why it has risen to the level of Congressional inquiry is?

No coincidence that Facebook chimed in to tell employers not to do that, but in large part because that's bad internet security to ask for passwords.

Notice, they didn't say the snooping was bad. That would mean the world's greatest data mining and information gathering machine would have to admit that its very core premise was wrong.

Meanwhile, back to Justin. My curiosity is from the PR professional point of view. How did the AP reporters happen upon his compelling story? Is it coincidence that something that would cause people to rethink their social profile material is going mainstream during the time between Facebook's public filing and the actual sale of shares?

Viral needs a host, and that host is the growing concern among the general public that we have given up too much of our privacy.

Guess what kids? Too late.

We did it to ourselves, and unless we can convince a rising generation of young adults there is something wrong with the honest of open lives, the chance of reversing into some European style privacy laws for on-line content is zero. Who watches the watchmen? You have to find enough people who care.

Perhaps that is the real motivation behind this story.

Brands Learning College Lesson

I'm finding this article via the PRSA Issues and Trends interesting: Mascots Are Brands' Best Social Accessories.

For those of us old enough to remember, everyone had a cute mascot to promote their products like Tony the Tiger or Charley the Tuna. Eventually, it burned out as the Baby Boomers grew up, but . . . . their brand affiliations were somewhat established during that youth period.

The resurgence is tagged to social media, and the intimacy, casual conversation message and fun aspect.

Two things.

You're telling American universities something they figured out early, and the better ones have begun to ratchet up. Check out the institutional logos of the University of Texas, University of Michigan and LSU. Hmmm. Those look a LOT like the athletic marks.

Because once you get the ivory tower over it, they know the best sales pitch for the school is the friendly mascot. Everyone loves the mascot.

Second thing -- why didn't anyone ascribe the return of the mascot to the aging of the late Boomers?

Frankly, social has nothing to do with the revival in my opinion. Yes, the mascot makes a friendly face for the messaging, but this is more of a revival of the look and feel of the late 1960s and early 1970s fashion.

Mazda's new SKYACTIV commercial. The Blake Griffin 70s track suit look of his Kia commercials. The dominance of the Mad Men phenomenon.

And what was part and parcel of that advertising age?

Sorry Charlie, only the most retro get to be a part of the new social.

Gooey EULA Fun at Pintrest

Pintrest got an unwanted week of attention as copyright advocates mounted a campaign against the hot new social network. Guess what? The week ends with Pintrest updating it's terms of service.

Ah yes, that EULA (End User License Agreement) that hardly anyone reads or notices until there is trouble.

Pintrest makes it clear -- you shouldn't be posting things you don't own copyright to, and to give in to the copyright crowd (and gain a little more DMCA protection) Pintrest made it easier to report violations of copyright.

But then, there was this:

Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.

Oops.

Perhaps it should have said, Pintrest really wanted to sell your content in the data mining sense -- you suddenly got ads from say, Lowes, if you had pinned something that was in the home improvement part of the site. And photographers and other creative types took it to mean because the site is so visual that Pintrest wanted to sell your actual image creations.

Because Pintrest (and several new other services like Path) have another dirty little secret. On those "would you like FILL-IN THE BLANK WITH SERVICE NAME OF YOUR CHOICE to find your friends using . . . ", what the service is really doing is uploading your whole address book to its servers. Why? Oh, to make it work better for you. And, to harvest all those names and addresses.

Path and others were revealed to be archiving and storing those names. Why again? Just to make it convenient for you as a user of again, fill in the blank with whoever you want here, because they will help you by keeping those on file. In the server.

That is something that should concern us. However, when you consider how much of your data is now mine-able, searchable, track-able . . . what's another service watching you.

Don't Waste a Crisis

Rahm Emanuel's "you never want to waste a serious crisis" line is terribly Machiavellian.

Doesn't also mean it's not true.

Case in point. Here at Northwestern State we closed the campus today due to heavy rains and localized flooding within the parish.

My email box lit up at 9:42 p.m. last night. Twitter subscriptions -- 35 in about 15 minutes as students figured out that A) we'd just announced via our social and website the school was closed and likely B) they heard from friends that "hey, NSU just tweeted out there's no school."

ADG vs NCAA

Wally Hall laid down the marker in the sand -- the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was not signing the "restrictive" credential policies of the NCAA to cover the UALR-hosted women's first and second round. Rather than give up their rights on images and other restrictions, the ADG staff bought tickets and covered the event from the stands.

A noble stand in the growing battle over who controls what, and I would like to share with you Wally's prose.

But I can't. Because the ADG is behind a pay wall.

What's good for the goose, as they say.

What I can say to you are these things. I'm pretty sure that the photos taken from the stands are still owned by the NCAA (perhaps the ADG could check the back of the ticket stub for those policies)

I'm wondering how all those quotes got into the game story covered from the stands, if ADG reporter Troy Schulte covered the UALR-Delaware game from the paying public spaces.

I'm not saying Wally doesn't have some valid points, and he points out how he's going to have his 30-year streak of Final Fours broken by not accepting the NCAA's rules.

I am going to say -- if Mike Anderson's Razorbacks were in the tournament would the paper have stood on the same principles since it's "just" Tom Collen's Razorbacks in College Station.

And if the NCAA wants to get chippy, all that post game content -- quotes, play-by-play, stats -- can be declared their intellectual property.

Did Schulte keep his own stats in the stands? I'm sure those came from the AP, who got them from the NCAA.

A story that will bear watching as it goes forward -- will ADG stand firm when Arkansas' baseball team reaches post season in a couple of months?

Somebody's Watching Me

Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, famously said that "Only the Paranoid Survive". No better place to adopt that position than on social media.

Thanks to Chris Syme for the heads-up last week on the recent articles in this area, one in particular in The Sport Journal from U.S. Sports Academy written by Frank Butts of West Georgia. It's a nice lit review and primer of prior cases and situations, but in the realm of things like the growing trend against monitoring under the aegis of "First Amendment Rights" there is nothing new.

Let me give you one of my phrases now: It was a voluntary organization until you joined it.

The mounting jihad against monitoring, epicentered in Maryland, is, to use a cute new meme, bogative.

Anyone -- ANYONE -- who says university athletic departments are cramping the style or expression rights of students by watching for violations of the established team rules or other conduct codes that, by the way, the student-athletes signed off as terms of participation is doing a far greater disservice to these young people than not.

Why? Education is critical, and they need to understand the world into which they will move for jobs and job interviews.

Let me bring in today's note from the Wall Street Journal. The latest from corporate America's desire to fit the right worker for the right job -- scraping info off your Facebook posts to create a personality profile.

Northern Illinois, Evansville and Auburn combined to create the academic study that essentially provides proof of concept.

After spending roughly 10 minutes perusing each profile, including photos, wall posts, comments, education and hobbies, the raters answered a series of personality-related questions, such as "Is this person dependable?" and "How emotionally stable is this person?"

And the conclusion? The assessment made was pretty accurate when matched against job performance reviews of the college-age workers surveilled.

The WSJ blog notes that the legality of such a move is "murky." Good luck getting private firms to admit to the practice.

What Do You Do WIth Drug Tests?

The ongoing saga at TCU presents a true PR crisis test: Do you violate FERPA to correct a dangerous rumor?

Lawyers say no. We say yes.

Let's put the film on the projector and break it down for the new or the public.

Two arrested players "brag" about how widespread the drug problem is within the TCU team. Why? To look cool to the undercover cop they are selling to and then to not look like the outsiders. One player's comment was 60 players were "screwed" on the surprise test; the other claimed "what can they do, 82 people failed it" implying the whole team.

So what to do? The public will think your football team sits around licking the mascot trying to get a hallucinogenic high.

But to release the tests falls right in the FERPA and HIPPA wheelhouse?

Not necessarily. No school wants to give up that type of info as if it were FOIA, and almost every university uses FERPA as broad cloak (see the Columbus Dispatch investigative series on this nationwide). Almost all get waiver from student-athletes that would legally cover them if they wanted to, but lawyers will caution against precedent.

TCU's chancellor, Victor Boschini, did what you expect: refused to release the drug test results, falls back on kids will be kids in his statement.

Enter the unnamed source.

Sure, the lawyers have their liability points, but this is the court of public opinion and you cannot let the brash statements of arrested drug users and dealers stand unchallenged.

From the Dallas Morning News, "But a source told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that only five players failed the test." Other "leaks" revealed another 11 had trace amounts within the margin of error.

Five fails on a cohort of 80-90 students at any university -- that's a whole lot different from 60 to 100 percent of the group as implied by the accused.

Who was the unnamed source? Whoever the athletic director and the university's crisis management team determined would tell the media on deep background the truth. Might have been the football SID. Could have been the university PR director. Maybe an athletic trainer. Don't be naive -- it was calculated.

The truth must out in circumstances like these. When it is held back, it only causes double the amount of trouble.

Yes, in this case, the truth benefited the institution. Keep in mind that TCU's administrators didn't know it would when this started -- when they brought in the Fort Worth PD, when Patterson made the team-wide drug test.

What they discovered was a difficult reality, but not the horror it could be turned into. They have students and student-athletes who need assistance in cleaning up, or discipline and removal from the institution that doesn't support their behavior.

To pick up on Boschini's statement:

"The is no doubt that students fall short form time to time, but we also know that they, as we, are committed to getting back up and moving forward."

The case is developing, but already it is not reaching the levels of even regional knowledge -- much less national. I'm surprised how many colleagues in my circles -- pretty close to Fort Worth in geography and interests -- even knew the event happened.

To control a fire, sometimes you have to set one -- a controlled burn for prevention or a backburn to take away a wild fire's fuel.

So far, TCU hasn't made the mistakes that turn bad news into national crisis.

Small Crack in the Facebook Code

At Northwestern State, we have encouraged a lot of sub pages for programs on Facebook. It also provides us with a small universe of areas to follow each other.

The changes for News Feed with the creation of Sidebar Ticker present a problem for brands -- how do we make sure we are in the "important" news as defined by the Facebook algorithm. I suspected sharing was part of the formula, the past few days have confirmed that along with video and photos.

I've noticed in my own feed that friends that post photos or video seemed to get some preference, but those that did it and then had that link "referred" -- linked/shared -- seemed to score better.

The illustration is from this morning, where my daily Good Morning message from campus was shunted to the side but my share from YouTube to the main NSU page and then a second share of the link from our Leesville campus who sponsored the event resulted in an immediate appearance in my top news.

TCU Facing the Music

In an academic year that saw one major university become synonymous with what not to do in crisis, TCU begins a journey that night lead them to become the model of what to do when your reputation is on the line.

Yesterday, news broke of 18 arrests related to drug dealing at the Fort Worth school, 14 of them students and four very famously part of the squeaky clean football team.

In a stark contrast to Penn State, TCU held press conferences in which they admitted to bringing in Fort Worth PD from the start and football coach Gary Patterson held a team-wide surprise drug test on National Signing Day.

The university and athletic department right now are getting praise in the same newspaper columns for their actions as they facts are rolled out. And that is a key difference between TCU so far and almost any other university. The Horned Frogs are taking their lumps right now, getting it over with, having the terrible facts lined up without additional snarky or cutting extra commentary that results from evasive maneuvers.

Obviously, it's just day two, but the comments of one of the busted football players reveal much. When he volunteered to the undercover cop he'd just made a deal with that Patterson had held the drug test, that it was bullshit and he knew he failed it, you get a sense of why this got so big. The worse part was his bragging that nothing was going to happen because to paraphrase, what are they going to do since the whole team failed it.

Son, go ask SMU what happens when it gets like that. They can take away your football career. And they could take away your team.

See, here is the really bright moment in darkness. TCU is acting like its reputation is on the line, because it is. In the media accounts, the campus police head admits the investigation began because of parent complaints at the start of the year. A source said Patterson ordered the drug test - at this stage somewhat independent of the police investigation - because the parent of a star recruit said they turned down the school because of the drug use on the team.

Time will reveal how much inside action there was on this, but in stark contrast to Penn State, a school who also rose in national attention thanks to its football team, the reaction time was much faster to legitimate complaints that proved to be genuine issues.

John Sloan of UAB put it best in the Dallas Morning News yesterday:

In decades past, there's a ton of evidence that institutions would deliberately cover up news like this.

If you want to follow the local coverage, dallasnews.com. Unfortunately, you'll be pay wall on a lot of their work.

Kevin Sherrington does not give out warm fuzzy praise, but the sports columnist makes it clear he's giving TCU credit for moving fast.

Sherrington gives Patterson's statement, which the columnist praised for "captured the mood." Note Sherrington's interjection:

"There are days people want to be a head football coach," he said in a statement that seemed less prepared than from the heart, "but today is not one of those days. As I heard the news this morning, I was first shocked, then hurt and now I'm mad."

Sherrington's mid-column summation is one that should resonate across America. He writes about Patterson:

He didn't plead ignorance of the facts or hide behind TCU lawyers. He didn't call it an internal matter. No one's running stadium steps.

Sherrington later speaks to the institution as a whole, writing

But whatever the nature of the facts, TCU is sending a message, all right, and it reaches far beyond its locker rooms.

Check Your Mayan Calendars

Another sure sign of the apocalypse as Webster College steals a coach and transfers from Texas Tech this week.

That's right, the private school in St. Louis decided to buy themselves a Final Four caliber . . . . . chess team.

The Chronicle relays the word from The New York Times of this high-level coup.

Where to go with this one. Tech lost the Pirate, now the Queen. Tech gets Tuberville but can't afford to keep Polgar.

On a more serious note, this reflects a belief I have held about high-level anything. If a school chooses to put its assets disproportionately into any one area, who's business is it anyway? No one is going to "go after" Webster for this move, no NCAA of castling. If a college wants to pay ridiculously high scholarship amounts for the finest cellist, no one bats an eye.

If you want a 500-page media guide, oh no, heavens, end of the world, we must level the playing field, we must make things even.

Why that would let the Arkansas and Oklahomas of the world dominate. OK.

Harvard could care less.

If UConn wants to sink millions into catching Tennessee in women's basketball, that's their choice. If Arkansas spends more on track and field than whole smaller conferences, again, it is their desired specialty.

Who questions the amount of money Oklahoma spends on their weather programs at a time of an absolute glut of meteorology graduates (check it out, the top employer of them -- the National Weather Service -- is about to have a hiring freeze, cuts and eliminate internship programs).

For that matter, Texas Tech is huge in Vietnam history. Again, that is their choice to have that institute.

And if Webster wants to check and mate by checkbook, good luck.

(Not So) Breaking News: Twitter Changes News Cycle

And by the way, there's gambling at Rick's.

Gigaom provides an excellent look at the drop from hours to minutes on breaking news. As you read about how fast Whitney Houston's death moved -- and the unique sourcing right next to the situation -- remember the catastrophe that was the Joe Paterno death watch.

As you fill out Chris Syme's survey on crisis communication for CoSIDA in particular, think about those two situations. What are you doing right now to keep an eye on potential disasters, how fast can you respond and is social already in our toolbox?

If any of those answers start with "no, but" -- you're in deeeeeeep trouble.

But I'm a One-Man Shop

The lament of more than one attendee of workshops and panels when they hear about the things we've done first at University of Arkansas and now for the entire university at Northwestern State.

Guess what? I'm a staff of one at NSU, with one GA for video to assist. (FYI at "big" UA I had two video guys and two GAs, but we also ran all the interactives, the website, the streaming and the video boards). The keys to video success in the social space is planning and repurposing.

The next few days on our Facebook page are a prime example. Northwestern State is proud to be the home of Louisiana' poet laureate, Dr. Julie Kane. She gave a public talk on poetry and a reading of some of her works. The Writer's Almanac fans may recognize her name as Garrison Keillor read one of her poems recently.

With a large on-line student base and several distant campus locations (from nursing in Shreveport to down south at Leesville at Fort Polk), capturing talks like this are important educational content. A little thought ahead and we get five days http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifof programming from this one afternoon.

How?

I asked Dr. Kane three questions afterward about poetry and the event. That gets cut with one opening highlight into a standard "TV" package.

Three of her poetry readings are made into excerpts -- stand alones.

Finally, the whole talk is rendered for viewing. The four bits -- the package and the three poem readings -- all carry a tag line "To View Whole Talk" and our YouTube channel info.

One afternoon shooting, one afternoon of pretty simple edits -- five days of content.

My GA is working across the office on a similar event, a world premier of original string performance. Same drill, three pieces for next week.

In the fall, we made great use of the GoPro for quick render raw behind the scenes video. These were some of our most popular.

The Christmas Gala became a series of single acts (8 days of Gala leading up to Christmas -- here's one of the most popular, the Hallelujah Monks) and a grand master compilation. We also have rehearsal and behind the scenes video to use next fall as lead-up for the major event. And of course, we'll replay last year's pieces.

As we did on our campus pageant. The FTP package for the regional TV stations goes to our YouTube, along with highlights of each section. Later, we'll add the entire pageant to our stable of previous events.

Let me encourage you -- you can do this. But you have to commit to the process.

As Ernest Hemingway said:

The shortest answer is doing the thing.

I've said it much less elegantly -- we can stand around and you can tell me why it won't work, or we could just go do it; takes about the same amount of time once we decide to do it.

A Right to Stand in the Room

I have argued for years that in message boards and now more mainstream social media, institutions have a right to speak their mind. My point is we have an obligahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftion to step into the arena, to stand in the room, and we must be willing to correct the record.

I will open by saying I know Ronnie Ramos and have presented with him both at CoSIDA and the NCAA convention.

Let us begin the discussion by reading The Chronicle's assessment of the current participatory media exchange between the New York Times and the NCAA.

I'll be back later in the week after you've all had a moment to digest.

Who Needs 140 When 6 Will Do?

Ah yes, in my never ending crusade for brevity, I am presented this bon mot from Anne Fisher at Fortune via the PRSA daily email. Think my charge to be pithy in 120 words is tough, try distilling a piece of advice into only six.

That's right. Six words.

My favorite?

"Add value — otherwise you're a commodity." — Randall Lane

No truer words can be said for your media future on-line. Sorry, that was 11.

A Counter View of Penn State

William Levinson writes in The American Thinker that Penn State flinched in the face of media pressure, soiling itself and its reputation. He presents some details not exactly front and center in most reports of the events (that the assistant coach's testimony doesn't exactly sync with the prosecutor's case; that the Penn State board more than once violated its own policies). If correct, Levinson casts Penn State as more Duke lacrosse than priest scandal. Without more time to peel back the details, I simply say this: take the dissertation of Levinson about whether PSU was right or wrong as you will, but read through and consider how he does make the compelling point that someone needed to think beyond the immediate panic.

Tell Your Coaches This Today

A gift from Ronnie Jones, former head of PIO of the Louisiana State Police. In his crisis communications presentation at LaCASE, he gave this nugget in the Q&A.

Ask the coach this: Would you put a kid into a game that hadn't practiced all week?

Why do you think you can get in front of a camera without practice?

That is pure gold.

Off For a Few

Barring Penn State level news, I'll be off line doing some packing and moving. Try to keep it clean out there kids. Back on Monday.

Megatrends for New Academia

Teeth grinding at the idea, but really no better way to express this than "new academia" (think: new media). The Chronicle's coverage of the New Media Consortium's 10 megatrends for technology and education yields three big points. Frankly, the NMC buried the lede with a ton of networking kumbaya in the first points of the list.

Point eight, in my opinion, should be much higher:

The Internet is constantly challenging us to rethink learning and education, while refining our notion of literacy. Institutions must consider the unique value that each adds to a world in which information is everywhere

It speaks to what makes the difference in regular media -- the value-added nature of news. To repeat a meme, if The Book of Knowledge makes everything searchable, the sage becomes the person or organization who can make the facts make sense.

Which leads to part nine:

Traditional authority is increasingly being challenged, not only politically and socially, but also in academia — and worldwide.

Our credentials are all we have -- because learning, not unlike music and eventually video-based media, is escaping the previous gated communities. I have to wonder if a millennium from now society will look back upon the way that the university held knowledge and teaching and compare it to the days in which the monks, scribes and priests held religion before Gutenberg broke open literacy.

So if you were building to a crescendo, point 10 should scare hell out of universities:

Business models across the education ecosystem are changing.

This point goes on to focus on the publishing aspect -- think libraries and university presses. They need to see a wider vista. There will always be a market for brick and mortar -- whether it is records or books or instruction. But we are on the cusp of a generational change in just how much traditional higher education is required.

Tower. Borders. Blockbuster.

Local newspapers. Local network affiliates.

Cassandra, maybe.

Self-Inflicted Crisis

This is a great breakdown of the Komen/Planned Parenthood fiasco from Ann Dwyer.

The 140 takeway:

Please, please, please always include your PR counsel in business decisions.

Ironic after listening to an excellent crisis presentation by former head for PIO with Louisiana State Police at the LaCASE event. Why?

One of Ronnie Jones' key points was in his list of "tactical errors"

Let the attorneys develop and manage the message

I know that Chris Syme is leading development of a crisis management session at CoSIDA and I'll be loaded for bear at the event as well.

ADDENDUM: Ann Dwyer was kind enough to reach out and remind me that it was a guest column in her blog space from Gini Dietrich, so, in that great tradition, we Regret the Error and offer the correction.

Careful What You Repost

Oh, this one is making the Facebook rounds, and a great example of making sure folks are proofing your stuff -- even on social media (maybe, ESPECIALLY on social media).

Louisiana representative John Flemming bit on a piece of satire from The Onion, and it burned him badly.

YouTube Lifts Southern

You never know where your YouTube videos lead. Just ask Southern University in Baton Rouge, whose dance team was noticed by Madonna and in turn, was selected to perform with her at the Super Bowl.

Keep posting.

The Lady Says it All

Been a looooong time since I've seen a pageant. All the way back to my youth seeing the Miss Louisiana events at the ole Monroe Civic Center (where it still is today, BTW). Saturday night I stepped up to get some HD footage of Northwestern State's annual event. We had promoted it with Facebook, hashtags and a memory lane run of older Lady of the Bracelet contests.

Along with several highlights, the kicker was the winner, Tori Thompson, in the evening wear/save the world question. They have two at LOB -- one about Children's Miracle Network and one random from the fish bowl.

Tori gets "what would you change about your university."

Her answer was not what you'd expect from the tiara crowd.

"If I could change one thing about Northwestern, I think I would promote women's sports more often. We get excited about football and things and I love you guys, love the team, you're great. But I'd like to see a lot more excitement about volleyball, women's basketball -- those are my girls. That's what I'd like to change about Northwestern."

Oh, this isn't just the veteran women's athletics guy getting excited. This is a bit of a landmark, something those who have promoted women's sports for decades have waited for -- women who want to see the women's game moved up.

Anyone around the sport knows you get families and niche crowds, but the general student body just isn't that into women's teams at most colleges. There remains a stereotype of gender bias or "lite" sport at the college level.

That doesn't exist as much at the junior high and high school level, where peers tend to have a little more respect for peers.

I will harken back to the 1980s, when high schools often had rules to prevent the captain of the basketball team from being the schools' "Miss High School". And it was a breakthru in the late 1990s when player resumes would list both varsity letters in cheerleading and volleyball. It was acceptable to be the best in beauty and in competition -- something that had always been there for the males.

What ultimately changes the climate for women's sports at the high levels for spectators is what happened Saturday night -- mainstream demands respect for the games. Please don't misread here. Just because the beauty queen said it doesn't make it special, or better, or some kind of back-handed insult against the stereotype of the grungy athlete.

What makes it significant is the cross of cultures. Dealing in the stereotypes, the last place one expected a pro-women's college sports statement was in the middle of the Miss Louisiana qualifier pageant. The same event where the female MC made jokes about wanting to meet Tom Brady. Do you see the on-par moment now?

When Lady of the Bracelet is calling for support for the Lady Demons (yes, they still are here) you have a watershed event. Here's to hoping it translates into the wider female population of the school.

Twitter Finds a Rooting Interest After All

Sunday is more about the commercials this year for me as both of my teams in the leagues found ways to not advance (let's not talk about the early replay non-fumble at SFO). Scanning USATODAY I noticed a sidebar on Super Bowl tweets, and the first one caught my eye:

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit - Aristotle" from Deion Branch of the Patriots.

Hey, that's a nice quote. Like that and I'll just pick that up. Let's see who else is in the mix. Ramses Barden riffs on politics, then:

"Boyz 2 Men pandora is jammin right now."

Well, that really fits. There's the comic relief. Who was that . . .

Oh snap -- it's @Ryan_Mallett_15.

One forgets the backup quarterback, especially to Tom Brady-class superbacks. The former Arkansas Razorback cascaded down the NFL draft into the hands of the Patriots thanks to digital media driven rumors about drug use. At the time, all of us around the QB who took Arkansas with a purloined tat of its first BCS win at the Sugar Bowl believed it was a blessing for the junior. A chance to get into a system that would fit his cannon of an arm AND the chance to not be eaten alive as a rookie high-draft pick QB.

Mallett got a handle on Twitter early (hmm, wonder why . . . ) and used it to his benefit as a player (low profile, no stupid jokes, no inappropriate habits/girlfriends/poor sportsmanship) in college and early in his pro time.

Now he's done the near impossible. Sure, telling us how much he likes some "classic rap" seems a little lightweight compared to Aristotle, but consider his role. He is the backup. He's not the leader (and in turn, not the inspirational quote machine). His is to stand in the background.

And he managed to get his name into USATODAY.

Touchdown Mallett.

Proud of you there. Hope you hold a hell of a clipboard Sunday.

At least I have someone to look for on the sidelines between commercials.

The News Finds You

Very interesting reading from Nieman regarding what can best be called a serendipity approach to news distribution.

What I find notable is how close this story about the way that news finds the reluctant information consumer and the impact how that incongruity of unexpected news in unusual places - like the middle of your Facebook stream -- has even more impact than if you had sent that news directly to the end user.

Research for years is pointing at the reverse distribution channel as key to getting out the news. We've talked here for some time that the greatest impact comes from when your circle of friends spread a news story. This Nieman piece tends to reinforce that idea.

Think it's new? Check out a golden oldie from 2007 on how news moves among friend networks.

Epic F'ing Fail!

Let's just allow the incredible mistake of the Suffolk Journal speak for itself.

As Bono might say, it is f'ing brilliant.

I will add my agreement with the comment on Jim Romenesko's blog. The secondary offense is excessive use of !

Once again, ! leads to no good.

Besides, I believe there is an alternate AP Stylebook entry that says that f***ers stands alone without !

On the Way to LaCASE

Off line for a bit again with travels, but hope to be back with some insights from the Louisiana CASE conference. The agenda is chocked full of social media topics . . . and one very interesting one from Delgado on Strategic Communication.

Curious About Collaborate or Perish

Heard William Bratton last week on Dennis Miller Show, and his eight points about how in a networked world it is vital to collaborate on projects were fascinating. Picking up the book soon and thinking this might be the next one after The Checklist Manifesto that I'll excerpt here and recommend. If anyone else has read already, curious what you think of Bratton.

Scandal, Sources and Speed

By now, the saga of John Chadima and his resignation at Wisconsin is old news. The events of Rose Bowl week are well over a month old and his departure was early last week. Having colleagues among the Badgers, I bring this up not to rehash, but to discuss two new media trends.

First, these are the type of events that move quickly, and these days virally. No be shock that Deadspin, SB Nation and the usual suspects will make hay with this.

But how it comes up in your search engine might surprise you. In the past, I've spent a lot of time talking about the brand strength of old line media versus the new. You will get news faster sometimes (albeit as at a risk), but you might not believe it until one of the old gray ladies "prints" it.

It was revealed that Google has been doing customization of your search -- even if you aren't logged in to one of their services -- for some time. They use local cached cookies of previous searches. Let that thought marinate for a minute, and you'll be clicking on that clear cache button pretty fast.

Here's my point and the question for my readers: google "John Chadima".

What are the top 10 news reports you get? I'm curious because of the potential that I'm seeing something very different from what you are. Are your sources:

Huffington Post
Deadspin
SB Nation
TheBigLead
DeKenversWordPress (a blog)
CBSChicago
Bleacher Report
NBC15.com
Wisconsin State Journal
CNN.com

If not, then because I work more in the new media, maybe that's why I see such a high proportion of the born digital.

If you do, point number deux: look at how few legacy media are in this list and consider is it that time has passed (about a week) and hits have driven the new media outlets to the top of the search list? Thus you really do need to think long term about what they are saying about your situations. A lot of folks spend their reputation time with the print media "because it lasts".

Maybe not.

Twitter Still has Live Event Strength

While I remain loyal to the overall concept of CoverItLive for the highest possible interaction, that format works best when the promoter/protagonist/participant is involved.

What if it's just us commenting about something big, like say, the State of the Union address?

Twitter remains king in this space, and a great quick snapshot of the evening via an infographic reminds us that it remains huge in the commentary space.

Less is More

Let me beat the dead tweet: brevity wins.

From Strunk & White to Twitter, say it clear. Say it fast. Use active verbs.

Piling on to repeated jeremiad along these topics here, Poynter gives us some research to back up the idea that the best social media messages are short and punchy.

Hmm. Just like good headlines in the past.

Because they are headlines.

Cue my Harry Truman quote: The only thing new in the world is the history we don't know.

Morph it here: The only new media theory is what we have forgotten.

Previously: Essential Twitter || It's really 120 characters || Write for the format || The present tense || Writer's almanac

Yet ANOTHER Social Platform?

Pintrest is the latest boomlet of social interactivity. Taking cues from previous upstarts, it is semi-closed (a user has to invite you) and it is somewhat random in the slosh of images and "pinned" (read - "likes") items.

Think you get to create your own Oprah like List of Things I Love.

Who uses it? Hard to get a handle so far, but I can tell you that my own anecdotal evidence is it breaks about 70/30 female audience. But how do you put marketed content into the Pintrest stream? Here's a brief primer from PRSA's email today on how writers can use Pintrest.

The platform is vastly different depending on the interface. The best experience, in my opinion, is using the full browser version on desktop. There is an app, but it is the worst -- fewer sorting options and controls. In between is the "m.pintrest" that you get from say an iPad or other mobile.

What's the impact? Why of course there is an infographic straight from Pintrest that is filled with self-important numbers.

But think back to a link from a few days ago about the "surprise" factor of finding news? Now, consider Pintrest as the "surprise" ability to go shopping. A lot of what is on here are products, "pinned" by users. Friends recommending products and wish lists of things they'd like to have.

So, is Pintrest merely the Sears Wish Book for 21st century adults? Maybe. But one statistic in the Pintrest infographic makes it worth watching as the next component to a social media strategy (let's face it kids, geo-locating via FourSquare and SCVNGR just isn't catching on in the mainstream).

Pintrest's traffic is up over 400%, and is driving more social referrals than Google+. That is a major "oh snap" considering the resources, including traditional media ad campaign, that is going into Google+.

Darn those internets. Don't they understand they are suppose to use the Googles and not the upstarts?

Today, Pintrest after a very word-of-mouth roll out has jumped to fifth in referral to sales websites. Closing on Yahoo, not that far behind Twitter. Development that bears watching for all our merch.

Monetate came up with the numbers, and along with the info that traffic is past 10 million for Pintrest, they provide this quick assessment:

Oh, and Pinterest raised $37 million in funding last year and has an unconfirmed valuation of up to $200 million. So, if you haven’t paid much attention to it yet, you might want to start.

If you want to see the whole graphic or grab it for your blog, jump here for Monetate.

At What Cost Speed?

The passing of Joe Paterno provided national news outlets the chance to re-learn the basics of Journalism 101.

It also provided the public a chance to see the sausage being made.

The highlights: CBS Sports picks up new media and student media reports that jumped the gun on what everyone knew was coming. The big question -- who really feels the need to be the first one to report Joe Pa's death?

Networks who want to be remembered. Well, guess what? We all certainly remember who screwed it up.

These days, the metric might be don't be first, in fear that you might have to walk it back.

Poynter went to town last week on all points of the compass. CBS compounds its error by not being forthcoming with its apologia -- laying it at the feet of a "source" which was a local media outlet, Onward State.

How short our memories as no less than NPR lead the way on being burned about Gabby Gifford's "death" during the Arizona shooting just over a year ago.

The beauty of analysis here comes from Craig Silverman of Regret the Error fame who now is at Poynter (to their great bonus, I might add). He hits the nail square on the head in his piece, bringing along Jay Rosen to point out that "there is no glory in being first" in these new media days.

Silverman eviscerates CBS in his analysis. Won't give it away, but it's worth the read.

He follows up with his take on how Associated Press was protected from both Paterno and Giffords by its policies.

ADDENDUM: Nice OT blast from the Indiana University based National Sports Journalism Center written by Michael Bradley. Manages to invoke the Pope.

Is It Better to Look Good than be Good?

Did anyone else miss the passing reference by the NIKE rep that the new Platinum series basketball uniforms?

Apparently NIKE really believes in the old Fernando school of looking mahvelous: It is better to look good than to feel good (or, be good). Check the quote toward the bottom of the story" "there's this emotional side of wanting to look great"

The Platinum Series

Catching Up

Been a fast last two weeks, and apologies to all who have missed this space. Some quickies before starting back on deeper subjects.

If you have not read last month's WIRED magazine story about flash mobs and they dynamic of on-line communities, you simply must. Both halves of the audience - the SIDs and the university types. As you get midway through it, and the discussion shifts to the way the crowd sees itself (especially relating the the DJ's promo become riot in LA) I'm going to ask you to think back to the message board driven events of Arkansas in the late Houston Nutt era and the North Carolina football business with Butch Davis.

Next, Joe Pa's early demise driven by social media and the desire to be first. Echos of Gabby Giffords. Much food for thought later this week.

Finally, can I just say again - !!!!! doesn't equal volume in social media. It looks childish. Because it is, especially when you can't stop using them all the time. This is Arianna! This is Craig! And now, they are going to do the perfect cheer! All those ! look just about as genuine as those Spartan cheers!

Another Decision Tree

If the genesis chart for how to manage response on social media wasn't to your liking, check out this hipper one from David Armano of Edelman Digital. It has an extra twist or two, and does advocate a lot of private discussion off line from social with the upset. I like that touch.

If You Don't Beleive Me

This past week, The Chronicle of Higher Ed, set down this op-Ed series on What The Hell Happened to College Sports, and in particular, I point out for you In particular the essay of William C. Friday entitled Get Out of Show Business.

Sound familiar?

By the way, if the series title doesn't catch your attention, how about Oscar Robinson leading the list with Don't Treat Athletes Like Gladiators.

Don't start the new year without reading these.

I See A Screen Capture Cache Future

While well intended, betcha the employees of Atos in France make lots and lots of screen captures thanks to the new company policy banning inter-office email.

Oh no, they aren't the latest Luddites. The boss wants everyone to be social with a new Facebook-like system or IM.

That's CNTL-ALT-PrtScn to image the screen so you have that CYA "email" now where a coworker told you something.

Careful What You Tweet

Another episode in the Gallery of Horrors -- a PR firm in Arizona lost Special Olympics as a client in the region because a partner made a tongue in cheek comment that was taken as derogatory to those served by Special Olympics.

And in related, closer to home news, don't threaten cops over the internet. You're gonna lose and get fined. As in, three years probation for trying to say a New Orleans cop was abusive of a woman.

Hmmmmmmm . . . Two local Fox (excuse me, FOX) television stories. Both about internet threats. Coincidence . . .

Here's the PR Advice of the Year

The best public relations executives are the ones who push back on bullies and counsel them on the importance of authenticity and transparency. Stand up to the boss. And, if the boss won't take your counsel, find another one. Life is too short to work in a culture of fear and retribution.

If you like that, read more from Steve Cody's piece off Inc.'s website, "Why Nobody is Talking About Your Company."

That pull quote is from his third point in which he is using Steve Jobs as the tent pole for restating the old cliche in a new way -- tell truth to power.

I highly recommend Cody's addendum above, which I'll aphorism into:

When power doesn't want truth, its time to go.

Words I lived up to.

What's New is Really Old

This just in -- Tom Brokaw says future news consumers can't be couch potatoes.

News flash: Dan Gillmor said that in 2009.

And in 2008.

And I said it in 2007.

Pew Speaks; You Should Listen

Just in time for your Christmas Eve and Day break -- sorry for all of you stuck at the holiday basketball tournaments and the smaller bowl games -- Pew issuedhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif another vital report on the role of the internet.

Shocking: It is central to our lives.

"These findings are one of our main signs about how deeply Internet use has woven itself into the rhythms of people's lives," report author and Pew Internet Lee Rainie said.

Here's the link: a Christmas present you can open today.

Top 10 Social Media News Moments

Everyone remembers where they were at big moments in life. Standing in front of a rear-projection big screen TV in the Scoggin Room in Malone Stadium as Chhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifallenger blew up. Seeing everyone run out of TCU's basketball gym to watch the live feed from Gulf War I's start.

Now we just have more tools to share, and we can hold them in our hands. Still, Mashable provides an interesting look at a very presentist view of history. The top 10 historical moments impacted by social media.

It might be a little to precious. And really runs out of steam on No. 10.

Bringing it All Together

(Realizing my post was getting waaaaaay long, and as a gift in the holidays, here is part two of We Taught A Generation to Steal)

Right now, we're taking that approach with a purely entertainment product -- our Northwestern State Christmas Gala.

To project to our distant on-line students, I captured the Gala. We don't have the full rights to all the music for distribution beyond our theater, so we didn't stream it live.

In the ticketing this year, we created "advanced" tickets. The Gala is festival seating, but the last two nights tend to sell out. You can't advertise to come to an event 75 minutes away without a guarantee mechanism. To provide that convenience, we put tickets on line for the first time ever, but did so at a premium. No one who was local or didn't mind standing in line had to by the $15 advanced seat; they could still by the $10 one.

After the event, we have put up, one at a time and for free, the videos we could under the rights we own. So in some ways, you didn't have to come at all to see the Gala -- oh my, some were concerned this might cost us future Gala sales.

No. The videos serve as an advertisement for next year, and they are a service.

What if they get downloaded? Great. We hope so. Why? See previous.

Why are you working during the break to create an entertainment product? Because it is our role within our community. The Gala brings the arts to thousands of kids and Northwestern State's Creative and Performing Arts program (CAPA) is that link to culture for this region. CAPA is the symphony, the dinner theater, art gallery.

Just like the athletic department is the sports entertainment in the area.

It is a vital part of the mission of the American university. As created in the late 19th century and executed here in the 21st.

With that, I encourage you to check out our little video series. It's free, unlike the ones I've created in the past for athletic departments -- mostly because they didn't get that more free served both the mission and reached new fans, keeping them connected in ways that the other media could not or would not.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Enjoy the Christmas carols.

A Modest Proposal, Pt. the Third

(Realizing my post was getting waaaaaay long, and as a gift in the holidays, here is part two of We Taught A Generation to Steal)

Learn from the entertainment world: No band makes money off records any more. Digital dimes, remember? They make money to support themselves and create a profit from touring. Performing. Selling merchandise. In the past, the world worked the other way around -- the merch was to promote the sale of the record. Now the record promotes the sale of other things.

In the education world, we "make" money from state appropriations and tuition. States want to cut appropriation and play accountability games with what you get. Tuition continues to rise, and students begin to ask, am I getting what I need for the money I'm spending.

In athletics, we are insulated at the top from the realities of economics by the socialistic practices of the conference rights packages. The 99% in non-BCS and below Division I is going broke trying to keep up.

So they propose things like limiting the number of staff that football can have. Sounds a lot like limiting the number of pages in press guides, then eliminating press guides.

Remember when those decisions were going to save us?

People -- money has to be spent and as long as it is coming in by the bushels from the networks, it will be consumed. We all managed to get by with just one or two video coordinators in the past, but because we can, we have three or five.

Once upon a time, we produced events for the people in the stands. Like the record business, they are not the auxiliary profit center to the main audience -- the one that is distant.

The result is we begin to creep up our own costs -- athletic or academic -- through ticket prices or tuition hikes. One day we discover, we have priced ourselves out of the markets we were originally designed to serve.

While free doesn't work, a $12 women's basketball ticket for a team that can't post a winning record in its league and in an entertainment market where far cheaper and better alternatives exist is no better.

We need to start thinking about the "dime point" in the middle. iTunes worked because it was 99-cents to start. Enough to cover the cost if the volume was there. Now it's up to $1.29 for new stuff. That's a dramatic jump -- almost a third of the original price. Over time, will the market bear it?

Sometimes The Obvious Isn't

My own love for CoverItLive aside, I remain somewhat amused by those who continue to try to make Twitter work for something that clearly works better as a live blog.

Oh, say, like any sporting contest.

If you don't believe me, how about the Poynter Institute?

Let me say this a little louder: IF YOU ARE CONTINUING TO USE TWITTER TO ENGAGE YOUR FOLLOWERS INSTEAD OF CIL YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

Or, just read Matt Thompson's more civil, more detailed, more lengthy explanation of same.

Thompson hits every point spot on.

Did I mention you should put down the TweetDeck and open CiL?

Here's another reason: traffic.

Chris Syme posed the question to me the other day (yes, admittedly via Twitter) was there a way to get visitor info on a Twitter page. Not users or subscribers -- actual analytics numbers. Must admit, don't know the answer right now but plan to find out.

Meanwhile, what drove ArkansasRazorbacks.com traffic through the room (as in about a 150% increase year-to-year) was using CiL on our native pages. Re-read please, especially my friends at NeuLion, et al. On. The. Native. Page.

Not on a "game central". Not letting CiL capture those numbers by linking to them. By putting the code on your server, thus generating that nice, juicy latency number ON YOUR WEBSITE.

I will fully admit to frustrated passion here.

If you haven't done it before, Thompson catches the vibe perfect in his story.

Get your account and get with it right now. This isn't just sports -- anything that you seek direct interaction works. Breaking news. Political events.

Eight Words is All You Need

Take responsibility. Tell it all. Tell is fast.

Thanks much to Chris Syme for the notice on Jane Jordan-Meier's book, The Four Stages of Highly Effective Crisis Management.

Too bad far to many people at (fill in the blank with your college sports crisis of choice) won't follow those eight simple words from Jordan-Meier.

But, then again, none of us in the clucking class would have jobs (or at least passionate pastimes) without the dunder-headed 20th century spin doctor approach so many still attempt.

Jane's book will be my New Year's Nook addiction.

Quick Notes for Academic Tweets

Something found in The Chronicle, nice starter if you haven't been in the Twitter world.

Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

Or, to just kill myself since my brain has been changed.

Please take a moment to read through this infographic produced by AssistedLivingToday.com.

By the time you get to the end of it you'll be ready to throw away your iPhone, rent your clothes and run screaming to your Kaczynski cabin in the woods.

Then again, you might re-read it and say to yourself, what cockamamie Luddite BS is this?

Here's just one: Social causes you to forget things. That factoid is about a 1/3 of the way down. You know what? I can't remember 1/10th of the phone numbers I once kept in my head. I did that because it was a pain in the ass to pull out the paper list I kept in my wallet or Franklin DayPlanner of media outlets.

You know why I don't know them now? Not because social media rewired my brain. Because the cell phone stores more numbers for me and I just have to punch them up without needing to them.

Jezz -- I don't remember how to churn milk into butter and I can't do that today. Oh my God (certainly not OMG -- that would be another ill effect of social media) how will I function?

I'll go to the grocery store and buy butter. Cause it's more efficient. And cheaper. And . . . gasp . . . MODERN.

Sadly, I'm sure more than a few people will believe this stuff.

BTW, if your attention span was really down to five seconds, you would have never made it down to this point to actually get the link to the story.

Wonder if these same folks are still worried about The Red Menace. Maybe that is behind this eeeeeevil plot.

Hey, Gran Torino, get off my internet.

A Modest Proposal, Pt. Deux

(Realizing my post was getting waaaaaay long, and as a gift in the holidays, here is the next part of We Taught A Generation to Steal)

Stop using distance as a limiter: Too often we confuse the chance for exclusivity with the opportunity to price gouge. Enter here the newspaper group who thinks subscription should be the same whether you get dead trees or pixels. Really? That just pisses us off. Download should be cheaper because we know your costs are that much lower.

I've written for years about how we don't help ourselves with confiscatory price structures and locking up games and content inside pay walls. Oh, but we must pay for the service -- and you just said that yourself, says the reader.

Indeed. Want to know what bulk internet streaming really costs? How much it takes to run a back-end server system? The requirements to create your own network? Digital dimes at work again -- compared to the analog TV truck and OTA network days. But getting the $150K together to do it right is daunting. Much easier to just sign away those rights to the guys who figured out those costs, and are making rather tidy profits off your fans.

You don't think you can do it? Um, Texas isn't stupid. Brigham Young understands. And why in the heck do you think ESPN and Fox lawyers wanted all those digital rights anyway? They didn't get those suits by not knowing what they were buying.

A Modest Proposal, Pt. 1

(Realizing my post was getting waaaaaay long, and as a gift in the holidays, here is the next part of We Taught A Generation to Steal)

Back in what now seem the dark ages of Web 2.0, the concept of The Long Tail began. It explained how brick and mortar was doomed and digital was the business future.

The downside was the reality that digital dimes do not equal Madison Avenue dollars. In an entertainment economy built upon Don Draper economics, we are beset by tectonic shifts if not wholesale Armageddon.

Look, I think I've made convincing arguments regarding the fact we are in the entertainment business. And, by the way, that includes both halves of the body-brain barrier.

As you and yours head into the new year, consider these ideas:

Admission cost for all: Nothing tells consumers what your product is worth like free admission. A $3 ticket isn't why fans are not attending your volleyball/women's basketball/swim meet. They aren't coming because the product isn't worth it, they don't know it is happening or there is no market for the product in your area.

For over a decade, volleyball could not draw flies at University of Arkansas. Let's be honest. And that was painful, because under Chris Poole the team won more SEC Western Division titles than any other school (and for the longest, more than the rest of the league combined had won). NCAA appearances. All-Americans. The first team to beat Florida for the league tournament title. Uber successful.

Nobody cared.

Why? Because when Arkansas started volleyball, none of the local high schools played the sport. It was not big across the state either.

Meanwhile, soccer had a steady attendance, even when they posted losing seasons. When they were winning, they out-drew volleyball.

Why? Because the largest youth soccer program in Arkansas was in Fayetteville during the formative years of that college team. The high schools weren't just good, they were dominant (and still are the power base) in the state, both boys and girls teams.

There was a local passion for the game, and the Lady Razorback team became the local soccer communities connection to live presentation of it's favorite product.

Aha! The role of the university in the community.

A constant drumbeat among administrators and coaches is to stop charging admission, that's what will bring in the fans.

If so, why did attendance patterns by students not change before and after free tickets began at Arkansas in 2008-09? Prior to the current regime, students paid some nominal fee to attend games because UA did not have a student activity fee. Academic politics.

Guess what sport they students willingly and overwhelmingly paid their hard-earned Starbucks money to attend? Gymnastics.

What sport did they have no interest, no matter how hard we tried, to attend? Women's basketball.

What in the hell does this have with internet rights and new media?

The amount we are charging for fans to attend our events should reflect the costs involved, and it should not be free for that reason.

Football is a very expensive sport. It also happens to be popular. It makes sense the tickets should be higher. The problem becomes when it reaches three digits -- is that to support the sport (or even the greater athletic department) or to simply gouge the public.

This is the truth that old-school journalism has learned the hard way. Unfortunately, in putting up pay walls they are trying to recoup the entire printing press. When the cost is too high, only a handful will pay.

A Little Bit of History

(Realizing my post was getting waaaaaay long, and as a gift in the holidays, here is part three of We Taught A Generation to Steal)

The American University holds a special place in our cultural history. We began with a European model, but after the Civil War, the role of the American University changed from font of learning to source of culture.

The Morrill Act (1862) and the Hatch Act (1887) are the backbone of our "land-grant universities." The creation of public, state-run institutions of higher learning was a conscious decision of the late 19th century politicians. These colleges were given out as political patronage, local chamber of commerce boosterism or in pursuit of Progressive-style reform.

Why are the state colleges where they are? Because our forefathers wanted to bring culture to the hinterlands, or conversely, to take our youth away from the eeeeeeeevils of the big city into the bucolic purity of the countryside for their protection and education.

Stay with me as we come on around the bend . . . how many times have you watched the Oxford University soccer (excuse me, futbol) team take on Cambridge? That would be, never. Because sporting clubs existed outside of university. University was just that -- studies. And by the same token, symphony societies, theater groups and art galleries -- none in large part inside the educational institution.

Look around your campuses. How many of you have a marching band. A theater group. A cable access channel. And, of course, an athletic department.

How important to your community are those things? Would you have them without the university? In most cases, no.

At the turn of the 20th century when college sports became external and organized -- be it AAU backing Dr. Naismith's new American game or the NCAA following Theodore Roosevelt's lead to preserve football -- it was done so quite deliberately to bring something to each little corner of America that a college or university.

I am amused at the whole idea of "town versus gown". Whenever that flares up, you can bet one side of the equation has forgotten how vital to its survival the other is.

What does it all mean?

Alton Brown's Brush Back

Last week, I was both thrilled and horrified by Alton Brown's Twitter outburst, seemingly against his own appearance on Next Iron Chef. And, it turned out he was only miffed with the result -- not that some delicious train wreck happened in the show or with his own performance (see references to throwing up in his feed).

This week, a decidedly quiet chatter about the show from @AltonBrown.

Actually, my legal team just called. I won't actually be able to talk openly about #nextironchef.

And I got in a bit of trouble last week when I told everyone not to watch #nextironchef, so this week...mouth shut.

Conspiracy theorists can say it was all part of the plan -- fake hype followed by a scripted punishment. Sure, but Ockham's Razor here: Brown really thought he could just talk out loud to his fans.

Kinda what the Honey Badger thought about relationships and one very famous college coach's son thought about Mexican-Americans. On Twitter, you lack even the wafer-thin security of friends or circles provided by Facebook or Google+.

The Problem is Greed

(Realizing my post was getting waaaaaay long, and as a gift in the holidays, here is part two of We Taught A Generation to Steal)

The problem is the greed.

That is what the NCAA tried -- kinda pitifully in a combination of class warfare and the uber-fail past regulatory practice (can you say . . . restricted earnings coach lawsuit loss?) -- the past couple of months in the name of [trumpet fanfare!!] COST CONTROLS. It was really trying to legislate equality and restrict greed.

Let's call names. Texas can establish the Longhorn Network because it has a national following thanks to its extremely large enrollment and alumni base. Texas is rich, both in supporters and assets (remember, the Lone Star State for decades was our own American OPEC -- along with Louisiana). The rest of the region can look upon that as exactly what it was -- a weapon of sports hegemony.

Don't think so? If a kid grows up playing high profile prep games on the Longhorn Network, you don't think that's a recruiting advantage? If ESPN ever decided to field it's own team, even I could coach that squad to a national title with the talent that would line up to be a part of that. (Hmmmm . . . Maybe that William Harrison dystopian future should reboot with different corporations as the global nexus . . . not The Energy Corporation, but NIKE, et al).

Why is Texas doing that? Because Notre Dame did it before them in 1991. And because the SEC exists today. Oh, let's see . . . that was 1991-92. (Another aside -- if you want to laugh and cry about the current state of leagues, Frank Deford's In with the South, Out with the East is must listening. If I'm the president of Greece, I'd want in the SEC also.)

Come to grips with this: We are in the Entertainment business. Capital E. Business. As in making money.

It takes money to support sports departments. It takes money to promote universities. It takes money to fund scholarships -- academic and athletic. It takes money to pay instructors. It takes money to enrich our local communities with pride and common sense of purpose.

Deford on Greeks and SEC

I mentioned Frank Deford's In with the South, Out with the East is must listening.

There is great irony, however, in Deford's mention of the Big East as some kind of warm and fuzzy, good ole fashioned college days.

I remember a different Big East.

The predator that consumed NCAA men's basketball in the 1980s, built for the sole reason of creating a hegemony over the sport that had escaped the power centers (especially the power media centers) of the upper east coast.

Specifically targeted at the former center of the men's basketball universe -- the ACC.

Deford kind of gets it right. The Big East lost its way when it became involved in trying to be a football league. Trying to capture for itself the SEC's position as Lord Dominator of All Things Pigskin.

But it is only because men's basketball -- which again, Deford nailed -- stop being the driving economic force in college sports.

We still love March Madness, but now, it is more reality show. It's no longer about who among the anointed stars get to take the center stage in the sitcom. Which quirky character actor will take over and run the island, or board room, or win the rose. No longer about Georgetown; who is the next Butler or George Mason.

Football has returned to its place at the top of the food chain.

Do wonder if Greece joined, would that allow Missouri to shift into the SEC West.

We Taught a Generation to Steal

Listening to another great episode of TWiT (This Week in Tech), the point was made regarding the new "anti-piracy" bills in the U.S. Congress that they are just moves by the industries to grab rights and try to reassert control.

Information wants to be free, and fans of your institutions want to participate. I spent a lot of time defending and trying to close down leaks in our streaming rights through ArkansasRazorbacks.com. As a content creator, I do believe it's in my rights to ask for compensation -- especially since making and distributing content is FAR from free.

That's not to say I didn't sympathize with fans.

We have taught a generation to steal? Not sure. We taught them you can steal remotely. The same tools that allow The Man to propagate content gives The People the power to be there.

It is no different than when parents would call and ask us to lay down the phone next to the radio so they could hear their kids games back in the 1970s. It's just that today with SlingBox or UStream, fans can "repurpose" the game on TV and get it out to distant friends.

The fight is over the cost, and that was where the TWiT crowd was going -- because we overprice content, we drive the true fan to great lengths to save a money. Thus, are we better off making lots of dimes off easy to use and distribute methods (think iTunes) or holding out for the potential of bushels of dollars by restricting content into proprietary distribution tools (think your cable company).

This contest between revenue and fan is as old as outfield fences and hedgerows around playing fields. You want to watch? Buy a ticket.

I'm not being cold about that. It is reality. Electricity costs money. Insurance costs money. Facility upkeep costs money.

Does anyone really think you can see the BCS for free? That it's a right as a fan?

The good news is the internet shreds the barrier of distance and digital recording destroys the concept of time.

More to come tomorrow

This is My New Favorite Phrase

It may not displace the Adam Savage School of Public Relations ("I reject your reality, and substitute my own"), but it certainly gives a level of scientific panache to the same mindset.

Overheard on TWiT, I am certain this is not a new concept, but one I'd not heard expressed in this way: Reality Distortion Field.

As in, Steve Jobs often believed if he simply said it, it would simply be so. For example, I want a stainless steel band around the iPhone 4 and the physics of that being the devices antenna be damned.

Think: Yule Brenner Ten Commandment's performance -- So Let it Be Written, So Let it Be Done.

The Reality Distortion Field's power in direct relationship to the amount of real political or economic power of the individual or institution. Thus, if the government tries really hard to say black is white, many might be taken in to agree. If I say black is white, I would simply be scoffed at.

As you can suspect, it is the narcissist's dream, and real potential problem for leaders and institutions. Because, once invoked, the RDF has a serious negative impact that you begin to believe in your own BS.

Educators Running Away from Facebook

An interesting story on NPR last week regarding the growing number of teacher firings in the non-higher ed community based on inappropriate Facebook comments.

As we work to move toward the social media playing field for increased interaction that would enhance recruiting and relationships -- thus hoping to aid retention of students -- the New Jersey public teacher's union is advising the exact opposite.

Run like the wind away from your students on-line.

Steve Wollmer, a spokesperson for the union, in the NPR story:

"Don't ever friend or follow your students on Facebook or Twitter, never post during work hours or using work materials such as a school computer, and certainly never post anything about your job online, especially about students."

OK, one should NEVER violate FERPA by using Facebook for assignments. We encourage that faculty understand the power dynamic created by friending students, and they should have a stated policy in their syllabus. As for posting during work hours, when we are encouraging social, we can't call out its usage unless it is excessive or not for the institution (ie, if you are a manager of a page for Northwestern State).

The social media tips provided by the union aren't very helpful except to the most novice users, and themselves have a CYA tone. See, we have this list of do's and don'ts, so don't get mad at us if you violate them.

There was one line at the end that I found extremely illuminating:

As educators, we are held to higher standards than the rest of the working world. . . . never post anything you wouldn’t want read out loud at a school board meeting.

Welcome to the team, teachers. Those of us with sports backgrounds have lived with that for decades.

As a side note, I noticed with the NPR story was a back-track to a story I missed as Missouri repeals the law that banned contact with students via social media.

Branding is the Devil?

At least that's what Geoffrey James dared say in Inc a couple of weeks ago.

Be still my heart. The 140 takeaway line in James' short screed:

Bottomline: Your brand is the emotion that a customer feels when thinking about your product.

And James went from there, roundly thumping the concept of "branding" versus brand.

Highly recommend.

Train Wreck or Brilliance? You Decide

Alton Brown may be late arriving and sometime conscientious objector to Twitter, but tonight he is either a genius or on the edge of breakdown/firing.

Earlier tonight, a series of tweets began in which he told his followers to NOT watch tonight's episode of Iron Chef America. Then proceeded to give hints as to why -- his own horrible performance, ending apparently with his throwing up.

Result: @altonbrown hashtag is on fire. The search is averaging two to three comments or retweets a second.

One of the messages from Alton:

No, I'm serious DO NOT WATCH #nextironchef tonight. Things are going to happen...awful things. @foodnetwork.

So, of course, myself and thousands who would not have thought about it are heading to the train wreck. Alton's live blogging (at one point needing another bourbon to continue to relive this) added even more fuel to the fire.

And here's the worse part: next week is worse #nextironchef @foodnetwork

Genius or next Food Network personality dismissed?

Who Watches the Watchmen

For the security conscious, two important bits of news. The most recent involved Twitter, and an attempt to prove that direct messages held the same level of privacy as mail or phone calls. The courts found that by joining, members agreed to reveal their IP addresses, thus their privacy, to Twitter, with no expectation of privacy. They key -- the reveal to a third party. In this case, how long until messaging via Facebook ruled the same.

The other important bit regards Facebook, and that it has submitted to 20 years of monitoring of its privacy policies by the FTC. This on the heels last year of Google forced to do same.

This case involved proving what I saw as self-evident: Facebook was selling personal profile information to marketers. By giving in to FTC, Facebook proves my point that it is in reality the greatest data harvesting and consumer marketing tool in the history of mankind.

And remember, just like Twitter, you volunteered for it when you clicked YES on the EULA.

But why the Alan Moore reference to open?

Think it through. Facebook and Google for years collected bits and pieces of your personal information. Now, the U.S. Government will oversee that, and make sure those two private firms comply.

So then, who watches the FTC?

As an aside, take care with your DM's. There appear to be some more leaky APIs associated with third party apps that might put your DM's out into your main stream.

Bleeping Fights

Everyone saw the Xavier-Cincinnati fight. What I found interesting - ESPN's pixelating of the Cincinnati coach and one of Xavier's players so we couldn't clearly lip-read them.

Reaction to CBS' treatment of Bobby Petrino in the LSU game?

Probably not, but still a real contrast. Usually, the "E" of ESPN would drive the clear view of the F-bombs, and the Tiffany network's status as a broadcast entity and fear of the FCC would have led to bleeping.

Social Works

It's been some busy days here working on projects related to the Northwestern State Christmas Gala -- more on the story-telling aspect of our strategy later in the month. Sorry for less posts, but one tonight to remind you that social works.

Yaser Elqutub was named the Allstate Good Works team captain tonight. He won because the Northwestern State fan base organized, stayed motivated and drove this deserving young man across the finish line.

Not many non-BCS players on the Allstate team. Northwestern State isn't a large institution. It is an intensely social one; however, and one that will rally around its own. For decades, this is a school that takes pride in its family.

Ready made to take on the "big schools" in a social media throwdown. Our Facebook following is a modest 7,500, but Yaser's classmates got behind the push. His teachers and administrators joined in. And his win was built the old fashioned way.

Friends asking friends to help for a good cause.

It worked for us at Arkansas, taking Ryan Mallett from 15th to runner-up in the Davey O'Brien on-line in 2009. I contend he would have won if the campaign hadn't been internally slowed for a day and a half -- with the closing speed we made on the supposedly insurmountable winner, I don't have a doubt.

Here, the dedication of a handful of administrators, teachers and friends of Yaser took that same formula and never slowed down.

Slow and steady wins the social race. Yaser got national facetime for our FCS team tonight as a result.

The lesson: whether you are the flagship institution with all the advantages or the regional university with a determination to succeed, social works, but only if you plan your work and work your plan.

Congrats to the NSU Social Media Committee who took lead and assisted the Louisiana Scholars' College folks to bring the honor home.