Do we need filters?

It's amazing how some things just start coming together.  A couple of days ago Brian Fuller posited a position that the reading public just doesn't seem to care if what they are reading, watching or listening to is objective.  That same day I had a conversation with a young man who doesn't believe anything in the media is objective... period.  Yesterday, however, I met with two companies who now see the lack of objectivity as a real problem because their self-serving contributed articles are no longer making any impact on their marketing and sales efforts ... which means their entire marketing and sales effort is pretty much useless because they don't do advertising, they have no press to talk to and their news releases suck because they have no one who can write to help them.

So, my Austin partner, Joe Basques and I sat down yesterday to have a conversation about it.  We're also opening the discussion on the Marketing like it's 1999 Facebook Group.  Let's hear what you all have to say about it.  Here's the podcast.

Comments

  1. Loring WirbelJuly 25, 2008 at 4:59 AM

    This not only has to do with B2B media, but with the substitution of multiple blogs for a unified, detatched point of view. Sure, all so-called objective points of view carry hidden biases, but I think we've all been influenced too much in society by post-modernism and the belief that there is no external truth, just different "stories." Religious types have "faith-based truths," leftist radicals have "revolutionary truth," but if it isn't consensually validated across multiple people and times, it's not valid. Business-media consumers and ordinary everyday citizens need an enhanced grounding in the scientific method and in learning through reasoning. And if you are a company with an unpleasant incident to wish away in your past, you can't simply use the Stalinist approach that "If no one remembers it, it never really happened."

    "Facts are stubborn things." - John Adams.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lou CoveyJuly 25, 2008 at 1:03 PM

    Excellent points, Loring. I think we've reached the point that a small group within society is starting to realize how much we've lost objectivity. It looks bad right now, but I think it's indicative of a paradigm shift in how we communicated. I've got some meetings next week that may bring some clarification. MAke sure you chime in on the Facebook group.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm old and you are not. That's good thing.

Image
I turned 64 this year and have been on the receiving end of scams and offers related to social security, dementia and Medicare for weeks now. I'm also getting offered senior discounts without asking. None of that has bothered me as much as getting dismissed because I'm no longer in my 30s (which bothered me as much when I was in my 20s). Today, however I had a revelation and I'm feeling much better about my age. I was doing a session with the marketing team for a small business back by telephone and was in the process of breaking down their preconceived notions about communication when the youngest member of the team asked me, "How do you know this is what our customers are thinking?" "Because I've been doing this for 40 years," I replied. "Oh." She replied.  Then one of the business owners, well into his 70s asks, "Wait a minute. You said you've been doing this fo r 40 years. How old are you?" "I'm 64....
Read more

Speaking of ethics in sponsored content...

Image
An article today in Forbes on ethics in sponsored content  brought back memories of our recent discussions regarding UBM Tech's methodology changes and the larger discussion about whether corporations can be expected to deliver ethical content. The article points out that Edelman has posted their own set of ethics regarding sponsored content that remarkably mirrors Footwasher Media's position:  That it isn't PR or advertising.  It's something different from what most corporate advocates practice and it must be, by nature, ethical or it loses all value. Many people in the news business have taken ethical standards for granted.  They seem to believe that they are intertwined with the genesis of journalism itself.  It isn't true.  The news business, supported by advertising began in the 1700s with Benjamin Franklin's founding of the Pennsylvania Gazette , but the separation of advertising from editorial did not appear until th...
Read more

Why you don't (or do) like social media, Part Three

Image
When you boil down attitudes toward and execution of social media practices, it's all about leadership.  Real leadership, not the popular definition that rises from the horrific misinterpretation  of Geoffrey Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm .  Let me explain that reference a bit more in depth first. Moore stated fairly simply that for a technology company to be successful, it must attain the perception of leadership in a market niche.  The misinterpretation of that concept is what screws up the marketing for so many companies.  Moore's statement was an indicator of success and a strategy, not a tactic.  If you are the perceived market niche leader, Moore explains, THEN you know you successfully crossed the chasm.  Therefore your marketing strategy must revolve around developing the perception of leadership.  However, most companies believe that saying you are a leader in your marketing documents, even when you are clearl...
Read more