Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Mickey D - Web 3.0, w or w/o fries

Web 3.0 will be happening at Mickey D, and it's w or w/o fries.  The company announced that all of its fast-food restaurants will have free WiFi, no time limit, in 2010.  It used to charge a few bucks for a few hours and just at some of its stores.

No question, it's at Mickey D, just as in the cafes in Paris during the Lost Generation, where the next revolution of thought will happen.  "There I was in the third booth from the back in the New Haven, Connecticut McDonald's and ..." The next-way of philianthropy will be providing those $100-something laptops to urban youth.  And no one will recall how anyone sat for hours in bookstores [what were they?] like Barnes & Noble to connect online for free.

In 1999, political consultant Dick Morris predicted in his book "Vote.com" this breaking open of the media to the people.  Mickey D made it happen.  Next year, if TIME still exists, Mickey D will be the Entity of the Year.

Jonah Bloom Exits AD AGE, Heads Up Breaking Media

Old media mashes up with new.  Former Editor at AD AGE [remember when that was a must-read] Jonah Bloom is now with that digital phenomenon BREAKING MEDIA.  It produces the wildly popular Abovethelaw.com and more.  Abovethelaw.com's David Lat tells me that Bloom will start as Editor-in-Chief of Breaking Media January 4th.  Coming with him from AD AGE is Matt Creamer who will be Executive Editor.

Meanwhile the gang who can't get its arms around digital and provocative content - meaning READER'S DIGEST - just cut its publisher Tracey Altman.  A writer for RD was scheduled to interview me on my survival story but every time that was to take place, the publication itself was in danger of not surviving.  That version of my story fell through the cracks.  But I got to tell it another version here.  Message: The joke's on the non-digitals and the old economy.

Pitching via Blogs: Goldman Sachs PR Acct in play?

Goldman Sachs might be waking up and smelling the trouble.  The solution could be connecting with all the constituencies online as well as via broadcast.  So, Joe Ciaralio puts out there on mediabistro.com that Goldman Sachs's PR account might be in play.

Instead of offering to do a PowerPoint in the conference room, notes Ciaralio, agency heads are pitching indirectly and online.  For instance, on blogs they are posting advice to Goldman Sachs.  Smart.  That's how we digitals in communications are receiving the lion's share of our new assignments.  For instance, a colleague in Silicon Valley blogged on a BigFoot's new book.  He contacted her to do some white papers. 

Another White Girl Goes Ghetto: Sarah Henderson on Facebook about Dad

What's with white girls going ghetto.  There are Mrs. Tiger Woods [scratch scratch], Angelina [mouth mouth] and now Sarah Henderson.  Up to today many of us didn't know this daughter of former GM chief executive officer Fritz Henderson.  Now we do.

On GM's public Facebook page, reports Gawker's Ray Wert, this white girl blasts her father's replacement Ed Whitacre.  The language is not something that we white folks usually use in a public arena.  She also discloses that dad's departure was not voluntary.

What white girl will be set off next?  Mia Farrow?  Diane Sawyer? Mrs. Lou Dobbs [whose husband just hired Bob Dilenschneider to represent him for a professional paradigm shift]?

Jack Welch's Online Executive MBA Program: Price point of $22K v traditional $150K

Jack Welch's online Executive MBA program, which starts this January, has a price point of $22,000.  That compares very favorably to the traditional price-tag of $150,000 for programs delivered primarily in a bricks and mortar setting.

For that reason, his venture into online market-driven [code for "for profit"] may succeed - wildly.  In the December edition of FAST COMPANY, Anya Kamenetz points out all the effort Welch is plowing into configuring the program.  That includes top-notch experienced leadership such as the former head Steve Kerr of GE's famous executive development inhouse university Crotonville.  In addition, students have the advantage of direct lecturing by Welch.

But, in these recessionary times, the price could be exactly right for corporations, career-changers, and business people who recognize their knowledge base needs additions.  Also, it reduces the disruption of conventional programs which demand days off from the workplace and commuting.

Should Welch win this one, this victory will enhance the reputation and marketability of online market-driven learning.  In the September edition of FAST COMPANY, Kamenetz also published an article in which those she interviewed predicted the death of the university as we've known it by 2020.  One of those doing the predicting was university insider Brigham Young professor David Wiley.  This sentiment resonated in THE ATLANTIC, TIME, et al.

Another insider Columbia University head of the religion department Mark C. Taylor noted in THE NEW YORK TIMES last summer that higher education is a bubble and that bubble is about to burst.  He also observed, "Make no mistake about it, education is big business and, like other big businesses, it is in big trouble."

Ashton Kutcher has 3.9 million Twitter followers @aplusk

Demi Moore might increasingly be referred to as "Mrs. Ashton Kutcher."  It's not just that the iconic star is getting long in the tooth and old-line Hollywood is a fading business.  It's that Ashton Kutcher has seen the present and future of media and is able to get others to follow him. 

Those followers, reports Ellen McGirt in the December edition of FAST COMPANY, Nestle, Pepsi and Kellogg.  And on Twitter.com, he has the most followers on planet earth - 3.9 million @aplusk.  Goddess Ana Marie Cox only has over a million and her husband is currently out of work.

Kutcher has figured out and keeps figuring out, notes McGirt, how to create a business model from a mashup of online conversation, advertising, and entertainment.   This hybrid might make Facebook an anachronism. 

His wife's network probably opened doors.  But that's about all connections do these days: Open doors.  To remain inside requires a mindset that can totally ignore The Establishment, especially sucking up to it.  The fresh success formula might be: Believe in ourselves, full technology vision ahead.

Positioning/Promoting Your Book: That Online Video Trailer

"About 90% of your book's success is how effectively you position and promote it."

That's what I warn prospects investigating my ghostwriting services.  I add: This even applies to brandnames who publish books.  Unless they're willing to take that second step of positioning/promoting, they shouldn't waste their time, hope and money on publishing a book, whether it's through the traditional agent route, a self-publishing service, or do-it-yourself PDF e-book.

The reason for this is simple: As the marketplace became Darwinian, it became a must-do for players to have a book to hand to prospects, clients, customers, media, other influentials, and potential employers.  We're expected to have a book, at least if we want to be taken seriously.  Instead of being a competitive advantage, it's morphed into a type of union card for the professional, creative, and technical industries. 

So, there are plenty of books out there competing for attention.  Amazon.com tracks those books which are getting that attention and those which aren't.  If your book isn't ranked high, it could be perceived as not of value.  That's the game, like it or not.

One of the most affordable and effective tools for that now-necessary monster job of positioning/promoting is the online video trailer.   Over the weekend I conducted a two-hour exclusive interview with Mindy Schwartz, who owns and operates Full Circle Admin Services which specializes in online video trailers.  I bumped into Schwartz when I was shopping for a vendor to put together a video trailer for my first novel "The Fat Guy From Greenwich."  A newbie at this, I needed a lot of information as well as hand-holding.

Nurturing but entirely focused, Schwartz takes an active role in advising clients about the length [usually 30 second to three or four minutes], music background, tone and content of the video.  The logistics are taken care for us.  Yes, Schwartz handles the technology, pacing, key text, selection of photos, and copyright for the music. 

The fee for this ranges from $300 to $500.  The turnaround time is about a week.  There are three revisions available but Schwartz usually gets it right the first time. 

And there is a going back and forth by phone [which Schwartz prefers] and email.  After we agree to work with her she has us fill out a form which gives her a feel for our organizational culture, branding, and message Download Book Video Questionnaire.  There are many ways to go: Plain-vanilla, ironic, informational, humorous, niche identity, mood-setting.  This is important since it defines the positioning of the book in the marketplace.  Here is a sample of Schwartz's work for an author.

In addition to the low-cost and fast production, the beauty of an online video trailer is the many ways it can be used.  Broadband has made that possible.  Here are just some of the ways Schwartz's clients leverage this positioning/promotional tool:

• Enhance any digital site, be that web, blog, twitter, social network such as Facebook, social community such as through Ming.com, and email transmission.

• Insert in e-releases such as Pitch Engine and PRWeb.  I have a hunch that no release will be compelling without an embedded video trailer.  It can also be part of a press kit.

• Establish branding.

• Provide the platform that a conventional resume used to.

• Allow for testing out a message, cost-effectively.

• Can be updated since costs are low.

Once authors have their first video trailer, they likely will build a marketing plan for their other professional activities, be it developing new business or searching for job, based on online video trailers. 

I am running ideas for my communications boutique by Schwartz [Mssphotography@aol.com, 615-330-1305].  What we're struggling with is how to capture the essence of my ghostwriting services, which are increasingly for digital applications.  Yes, I want to be in there mirroring the client's personality and thought process.  But I also want to get across that I'm post-print.  Too many have typecast me as the whiz who creates those opinion-editorials for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.  Currently, that's not where the influence game gets kicked off.  It's online.

Gathering around the video - The new unifying medium

The next national event will be embedded in our consciousness on video, not TV.  Some of this is already happening.  We experienced the 2008 election, the death of Michael Jackson, and the Fort Hood carnage primarily on video on our laptops, not TV.  Where were you when Sarah Palin was elected President of the U.S.?  By our laptops in neighborhood watering hole. 

The commercial implications are there.  Traditional advertising is in the crapper.  But video advertising is surging, reports Brian Stelter in THE NEW YORK TIMES.  More requests from prospects are coming to me for scripts for video.  Delivering messages via video has become the way to do things, in terms of advocacy, fundraising, and to launch a new enterprise.  Make it interactive, as does JellyVision.com, and the odds are your close rate will go up.

One for Dr. Freud: Did Cornell John of The Steamy Emails Want To Be Caught?

By now, those with an interest in prurient things all know that at Cornell, John the tech consultant pressed the "cc" button.  As a result that particular steamy email and an electronic trail of others to his mistress went out campus-wide.  Thanks to blogs like Gawker, this story broke yesterday in the media.

Both John and Lisa are married to others.  Those others are probably not having a good weekend.  Their employers and supervisors are probably not having a good weekend either.  After all, such use of the university email system seems both inappropriate and a waste of the employees's time.

By now it has likely dawned on the Dr. Freuds among us that John is indeed a tech consultant.  He is no ham-handed newbie with technology.  Therefore, we have two questions to ask: One, why was he sharing his erotic desires and fantasies on the university's email system.  And, secondly, how did he "accidentally" press the cc button.

Those who believe in the existence of the subconscious would speculate that John was uncomfortable in his present situation.  He might have wanted to end it but didn't have the know-how or courage to do so.  Therefore, in a desperate act akin to the young girl in crisis becoming pregnant, John pressed cc.  He may not only be out of the relationship but also out of a marriage and a consulting assignment.

Cornells' John & Lisa - Makes Reality TV Seem Stiff

Cornell employees John and Lisa, both married to someone else, got snagged.   Their steamy spanking affair was blown into a million juicy pieces when John pressed the cc button.  The whole campus got to enjoy an electronic trail of rich fantasy.  Bet the reality doesn't measure up, though.