Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Ricochet: NYT Co Michael Zimbalist discusses this, with print books in background

In a Google state of mind, The New York Times Company created Ricochet, for digital marketing.  Essentially, the advertiser, for example SAP, selects articles from company's digital properties which are relevant to its commercial message.  Then the Ricochet Platform generates a unique web address that bundles the articles to the brand's advertising.  That could be for any period of time the advertiser wants. 

The analogy here is the way Google allows advertisers to place their click ads in the sections with specific keywords or phrases.  So if a person is searching for "Ghostwriter, High Tech Experience" and I buy the ad space on that page, the odds are good that the ad will attract the right kind of prospects.

The funny thing about the way the NYT Company is promoting Ricochet in online videos is that spokesperson Michael Zimbalist, Vice President of R&D, talks with a bunch of print books in the background.   Here you can view the interview with Beet.TV.  That could be transmitting exactly the message the NYT Company wants to get out there:  We have our focus in two worlds, digital and print.  Think about it: Baby Boomers, who grew up in print, are still in positions of power and influence.

Truck Stops on I-95: Best places for inspiration/healing for content providers

This was the trucker's first haul up I-95.  So he and I hunted in this spacious truck stop for an electrical outlet for him to plug in his laptop.  The place, of course, has Wi-Fi.   That little act of random kindness got me out of myself.

And, as content providers know that when we are too much into ourselves we are hanging out in an iffy neighborhood.

In truck stops like this, I find inspiration for client assignments.  Actually, I should shoot over to the one in Clinton, Connecticut about a half hour from my home when I am stuck (usually with fear) on an out of the box but enough in the box concept for a website. 

I also heal in truck stops.  Today, I needed plenty of that.  I had gone to Boston to take part in a beauty contest for a full time job.  The parking garage charged me $32.  Half a tank of gas, and I'm still 80 miles from my home office.  The irony, and it's a pleasant one, is that when I called it a wrap in Boston and checked my email, I had a juicy offer for a long term contract assignment.  No need for a full time job, never mind relocation.  Fortunately the expenses are tax deductible.  And the organization did indicate that it uses freelancers.  Plenty of them.  So, there could be some ROI on this trip.

But the glue which holds content providers together is creating content.  I was not doing that from 8:15 A.M. until 7:10 P.M.  I began to lose my center. The red flag about that is that I start missing my dog Molly Mittens who had passed over 5.5 years ago.  When she died on vet's examining table, I told him that I didn't understand why she died.  I still don't. 

DYI: They tried on their own with X, didn't get results, and now come to us

The Do It Yourself movement has become not only a trend but a game changer.  More of the clients we are going to work with in communications have already done some, a lot of, or even all the work themselves.  After all, technology has given them the tools to plan and execute a social media campaign.  Webiners teach them how to research, write, and distribute press relases.  Smartphones empower them to create visuals cheaply, and, with practice, well.

Some communications pros may feel threatened.  Get over it.  If you frame DYI as a lemon, you are being short-sighted.  There is a growing field for us who parachute in when the DYIer needs greater expertise, is not getting the expected outcomes, or has set in play an ongoing disaster.  This is not just in communications.  Here in an analysis of DYI for the financial information company Motley Fool, I look at the business of DYI.

The challenge in becoming a vendor pitching to the DYI is that we have to make that internal paradigm shift and branding makeover to put ourselves out there as enablers, not so much brilliant, creative strategists and content-providers.  That entails studying this new kind of business to determine what are the pain points and how we can address them in our work and promotions.  The first step is speedreading each situation, holding back comments and recommendations.  On the basis of that, we ask questions.  At the top of the list is: What do you want? Then we give them that and only that.  The DIY economy does not reward providing more value than the situation requires. 

You can study up here on how other DYI vendors are making a good buck.

Mother's Day: Speechwriters as ultimate earth mothers

When we send our clients out into the world of public speaking, you bet, we speechwriters and speech coaches are the ultimate earth mothers.  There is little emotional difference between that and the first day of school.  Public speaker is one of the most threatening experiences in human life.

Zen of Less: Not boasting about being so busy, including all-nighters

The secret to hitting the target, be it in pitching for a new account or putting together an article, might simply be to do less.  Back in 2009, Buddhist coach Marc Lesser explained that fundamental in his book "Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less." Support for that world view is growing and the social payoff of boasting about how busy we are and how many all-nighters we pull is, well, getting less.

BUSINESS INSIDER features the side effects of the all-nighter.  One of the most alarming is that our Social Intelligence (Emotional IQ) plummets.  That means that we may be destroying the important relationships we are attempting to cultivate through working so hard.

 

From Smart to Dumb in 34 Minutes: AT&T's James Hales hero of aging Baby Boomer

I walked from my car in the North Haven, Connecticut parking lot to the AT&T mobile store as if I were headed for the gallows.  The time has come: I had to go from a dumb cell phone to the smart one.  I even wondered if they would allow an aging Baby Boomer like myself into such an advanced wireless center.

Right from the get-go, the transition was lacking both in angst and melodrama.  A Generation Y salesperson actually came to me once I was about 1.5 feet away from the door.  His name was James Hales.  For the next 34 minutes he would gently and patiently lead me through the steps of selecting a phone and the appropriate plan and getting down the fundamentals for use.  We - Hales had that wonderful way of creating the feeling that the two of us were in this together - chose a Nokia.  Then we determined the best plan would not include migrating my Internet service from the current AT&T DLS service to a hotspot through the smartphone. 

That done, what could have been the end of the world didn't end the world.  I asked Hale to set up my voice features, including making a message for when I was wasn't there.  In addition, I pushed it and requested he do my email account too.  That he did. It involved a call to AOL.

The one last piece was for me to learn the fundamentals.  A born teacher, Hales walked me through the basic menu and the swipe-throughs.  They included getting through to the apps, taking a photo, and making video.  He even informed me the software I could download for free from Microsoft for transferring photos from the phone to the my laptop.

I left the store knowing that I had accomplished the most important rite of passage of my career.  I had crossed over from dumb to smart.  I also realized that age has nothing to do with anything.  It's all about not fearing technology.

Every Baby Boomer in Connecticut who hasn't yet made this passage should journey to North Haven Shopping Center on Universal Drive and ask for James Hales.  Tell 'em Jane sent you.

Doing Media? Maybe we need a day job

No question, doing media is work we love.  And those of us who added onto print digital skills assumed we would be doing lots of this work we love, continuously.  Not so.  The digital media property TheStreet.com, reports Nicholas Carlson of BUSINESS INSIDER, is laying off. 

Although all the details are not in, according to Carlson's sources, all of Main Street has been axed, a few in Boston, and even some tech folks.  Who would have thought a digital publication about financial matters would have gotten hit so hard.

Fortunately, yesterday I had already come to the conclusion that for many of us media has become a sort of hobby.  To support it, we need a day job.  No, that day job doesn't have to be all buttoned-down and with a career plan.  It just has to provide steady income.  It can even be part-time.

Clearly, media in all forms have become too volatile to support us.  There are those on who the universe smiles and they maintain their media perch and often even seek out and get better ones.  Then there are those ordinary people who have to cobble together ways to pay the bills.  A small piece of that is media work.  Sigh.  Growing up never ceases to be painful.

The Afternoon I Stopped Following Breaking News, Media Developments & Found New Biz, Peace

Small changes often have big impacts.  Take simply breaking the compulsive web/mobile habit of following breaking news, as well as developments about who's in and who's out in the media.  After that 1 small modification, I was easily able to find new biz for my communications firm and feel inner peace flood over me.  For a drama queen such as the Italian side of myself, the latter has been a significant accomplishment.

I wish I could say that I had this epiphany on my own.  After all it's been light years in web time since I was tethered to breaking news when I was a contract blogger for AOL.  The wisdom came via my weekly pow-wow with my spiritual guide Andre. 

Currently Andre is employed at Psychic Interactive and bills at a rate that is quite affordable.  I consulted with him because I felt totally burnt out.  Quickly it became obvious that I was looking for storm clouds and I sure did find them.  Breaking news and the volatile media industry are the perfect raw materials for that.  We decided it was up to me not to conjure up those forces.  The rest I was able to figure out for myself.

If you want to check in with Andre at Psychic Interactive, you can reach him at 702-216-9900, ext. 827.

"Social Media Writer" - That job title eliminated as digital skills become price of entry

Fewer and fewer job ads are detailing the kinds of digital skills required of the writer.  Increasingly they assume writers already know their way around composing material on a number of digital platforms.  You bet, digital know-how has become the price of entry.

The edge comes from outcomes achieved.  Right now a lot of respected results are about the amount of page views and comments.  However, as everyone in the loop becomes more sophisticated they will be asking questions about conversions.  If a professional services firm uses a content-provider to develop new business and an email blast on constant content brings in 11 clients in 4 days, then that's the outcome which matters.  And that's the kind of tactic the job hunter or freelancer should highlight in a cover letter.

The Tina Brown Business Model: The anachronism

The Tina Brown business model has been to employ brandname content-providers and pay them well.  In exchange they can anticipate lots of changes in direction and possibly heavy editing of copy.  In the affluent days for print media, that worked well.  Brown brought back to life THE NEW YORKER and VANITY FAIR.

That was then.  Now, few media properties can afford that kind of overhead. Sure, it's useful to employ some top names in niches.   Huffington Post hired from THE NEW YORK TIMES Mommy Blogger Lisa Belkin.  Good move.

Today, it's a different game.  For example, revenues for display online advertising aren't measuring up to those from print.  That's why old-line media properties, including some in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, are losing money.

Brown has told the world, reports Chris O'Shea in FISHBOWLNY, that NEWSWEEK, to which was attached DAILY BEAST, is losing money and will continue to for a while.  In addition, Brown notes that the restoration of the brand is only 40% there.  That means there isn't much there there.

In our own communications boutiques many of us have struggled with this same matter of a business model.  The ordeal has been painful for me to shift downward from positioning myself as a premium brand to one that has a track record for generating outcomes for clients, at affordable prices.  The new game seems to be to figure out how to figure out to make a living when pricing has become a significant variable in getting and keeping accounts.