This discussion takes me back to a piece of scholarship that was written in the early 80′s surrounding the topic: audience addressed and audience invoked. As I re-read the article, I always find myself referring to one final point of Edes and Lusford’s conclusion…

“A fully elaborated view of audience, then, must balance the creativity of the writer with the different, but equally important, creativity of the reader.”

We write in tension but I think we have to find a balance between invoking the audience (creating a division in the writer and reader’s roles) and addressing the audiences’ needs (the reality the audience exist and that the written text is created in concert).

So what does this have to do with Story vs. Slogan…well a lot. But I want to look at something that Spike said in his post from December 2008:

Stories live forever. Slogans live until the ad agency gets tired of them.
Stories are real. Slogans are made up.
Stories pull you in. Slogans try and push out a message.
Stories are deep. Slogans are shallow.
Stories are personal. Slogans are impersonal.
Stories are passed on by word of mouth. Slogans are passed on by ads.

This dichotomy between “Story vs. Slogan” and “Audience Addressed vs. Audience Invoked” has me thinking…are we addressing the needs of our audience by pushing slogans down people’s throats? It sounds more like we are trying to invoke something that is unnatural and detached.

So what really makes a story different from a slogan? Spike wrote that “Stories are real. Slogans are made up.” What makes stories real and slogans just made up. Well, it is the act of listening…because stories are told over and over again: they recount a place and time in history. They connect the very fabric of our being with human emotion. When we tell a story, we are sharing something that is tangible in our hearts and minds that invokes emotion and connection.

I am not a slogan person or a person that relishes the task of creating positioning statements and branded tag lines. I like to capture stories as they happen, capture that moment in time that are true moments, those that help us remember.

Last summer I found myself in Andrews, NC working on a project for the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church… telling stories of rural churches. Every Thursday night, the Andrews UMC has a dinner for the community called the Welcome Table. The illustration of this blog post is not the story of this video, but one little moment in time when I am interviewing the pastor. One of the children walks up and gives him a hug in the middle of the interview…at the most appropriate time. This pastor will be telling this story for years…thus reinforcing the mission of “The Welcome Table.”

We can advocated for stories over slogan’s everyday of the week…but we must be willing to open our hearts so that we can capture those moments in time to share. This is what invokes our audience to share.

Here is the video of “The Welcome Table” for your to enjoy!

So last October, I was bitching and moaning about the concern that Final Cut Pro would not work if I upgraded to Lion. I did not want to switch over to FCPX…so I decided to figure it out.

Bottomline…I have been able to install FCP 6 on Lion OSX 10.7.3. How did I do it?  Well, I have a Mac Mini that I used as my little test case. I did not want to go through this whole installation process on a system that was critical to my business workflow.

So, I installed Lion OSX on the Mac Mini and ran all the updates. Then I pulled out my Snow Leopard installation disc and popped it in with the sole purpose of only installing Rosetta from the optional installations. Once I installed Rosetta from the Snow Leopard OSX installation disc, then this allowed me to install FCP 6 from the Studio edition.

I installed one program from FCP Studio disc…one at a time starting with FCP and Compressor. Then I installed DVD Studio and the rest of the studio programs one at a time. Then after running the FCP installation, I checked for updates from Apple Updates and completed the updated installations.

The result, I am running FCP 6.0.6 on Lion OSX 10.7.3…all of this on my Mac Mini. I have noticed lots of hits on my website looking for an update from my previous posts about this issue, so I thought I would give an update. So, I will be migrating this to my MacPro’s Lion partition, which is a dual boot system with Lion 10.7.3 and Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I am also going to be upgrading to Avid Symphony 6 on my Lion 10.7.3 Partition.

Some of the best storytelling is done in person, offline, and away from digital indexes.

Has the social share captivated us in a way that we are competing with the search engines and our competitors…online. Specifically, we schedule to write our blog posts, schedule the updates, upload the pictures, create the video…we are spending lots and lots of time creating online content to share.

So what are we saving to share during the events, the in-person meetings, in the offline conversations.

I think back to my televisions days when we would cover the daily new stories and when we found a great story…everyone wanted to share it immediately. We would capture a wonderful story that would be perfect for the 6pm newscast yet we were telling in all day saturating the news space, sharing the prime nugget of the story. We would tease it all day, but instead of teasing to watch…we would tell the whole story…all day. By the time it was 6pm, the story had been told over and over with nothing left to share.

There are just some parts of our business, our story, ourselves that are worth saving to share offline conversations. Is it our goal to build lots of fans, followers, “Likes”, etc…maybe? But what happens after that…what more do we have to say. Is it our goal to create lots of videos telling every detailed part of our story…why? Do obtain lots of views…is that awareness?

Those who do a wonderful job with their social/digital spaces build community around a conversation, a dialogue. Sharing our story is like telling a story. We share just enough to tease and engage the conversation. Once the conversation begins, then we share the nugget that creates lasting conversations and relationships.

So I wonder, are  we telling our story just for the search engines or to build a community to have a dialogue?

It has been one of those days where something un-expectantly happened…something that has not happened in a long time. As I was working on some emails, I received a note from a client. Steve Mudge of Serrus Capital Partners sent me an email congratulating me for being awarded SCPRSA’s Inaugural Jupiter Award.

I was thinking, how the heck did he find out…the awards ceremony was just last Thursday evening. He sent me a link from an email newsletter he receives daily from Midlandbiz.com with my picture at the top. It has been a while since I did the awards thing…so long, that I actually forgot what is was all about.

Back in my television days, I was a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and numerous other organizations that hand out awards for broadcast television excellence. I have been a part of the judging committees for numerous regions including the Carolinas and the West Coast. It was a part of my culture every year to submit for awards…basically taking the time to pick my best work, fill out the applications, pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and sit back and wait.

I have been on numerous judging committees across the country and was even the person that put together all the television station’s entries, making sure everything is edited correctly, applications were correct, the right amount of money was included, the correct categories corresponded with the entries, and so on. It was a part of my television culture… at-least I was a part of this television culture of competition.

I was even a part of the competitive culture that work harder on stories that we knew had a tremendous opportunity to win awards. It was a part of that competitive culture of validation. The trophy case led to bigger jobs, promotions, bigger raises, bigger projects…and ultimately the ego boost.

Over the years, I have been awarded numerous regional Emmy awards, AP Awards, NPPA Awards, and many other awards across numerous organizations. I have won international competitions as an academic and presented at numerous conferences to share research from my graduate school days. But none of this compared to what happened last week…nothing.

A few weeks ago, I found out I was going to be awarded something special from the South Carolina of the Public Relations Society of America. Kelly Davis dropped me a note asking if I would be available on May 3rd to come to Columbia. Shortly after, I received an email from Karen Potter of Greenville Hospital System and Patti Smoake of South Carolina Hospital Association sharing the news. They had nominated me for the inaugural Jupiter Award to be awarded during SCPRSA’s 2012 Mercury Awards Ceremony. I was shocked.

Fast forward to Thursday’s event at Columbia’s Springdale House and Gardens. What an evening. It started out like most awards ceremonies, passing out statues for hard work. Each award probably had numerous applicants competing, sharing their best work from the past year. Sarah and I sat at Greenville Hospital System’s table with Karen Potter and Patti Smoake among many others. The anticipation was rising.

When it was time for the individual awards, I thought I was going to be asked to stand to be honored. Not the case…I sat an listened to a long write-up about me. First of all, this is the first time I have ever heard someone share this much about me in such a public forum, among so many distinguished guests. The more that was read, the more I was unsure what to do…I was humbled.

It is one thing to spend a whole year working to do you best work, then compile it all together with application fees and persuasive write-ups to encourage the judges to choose you. But is it another thing to have someone (a friend, colleague, and client) take the time to write something special and submit for an award. I had no idea what was written. I had no idea I was chosen. I had no idea.

The Jupiter Award “was presented to three individuals for exceptional contributions to the use of social media as a communications tool. SCPRSA presented three awards in this category, representing each of the chapter’s regions.” As a former broadcast journalist, my career was surrounded professionally telling stories for television. Now, my business helps organizations use social and digital media to tell stories. Now that I am no longer in the broadcast industry and work for myself, this award is pure validation. A sense of validation for me and my business. I am humbled!

Here is the article from Midlandbiz.com – CLICK HERE
Here is the press release from SCPRSA – CLICK HERE
Here is a link to SCPRSA’s website – CLICK HERE

 ***The top image is from SCPRSA as seen on Midlandsbiz.com.

There is a big conversation happening right now and it is repeatable…so repeatable. We are just repeating the same stuff over and over and over again. We have a few innovators in this digital/social space and they have done a great job monetizing…monetizing the paradigm of followers.

I have to admit, I blame twitter and the “UI” they created with twitter. The idea of “follower” has permeated the social space. There were and still are so many leaders who embarked on a journey of how to use the space…to build their business. And yes, they gained a hell of a lot of followers and now they are repurposing their blog for books. The best part…they are still talking about the same stuff since the early craze of the social space. The same stuff over and over, no new innovative thinking.

We are still following, retweetting, and resharing the same information and it has a velocity of epic proportion…this velocity is not creating new thought leadership and new innovative concepts. This following, retweeting, and resharing is filling their pocket books and limiting the innovation need to push this space forward. So why are we still depending on yesterday’s innovators for tomorrows wave of new thought leadership?

Conference after conference I attend…we are still having the same conversation…so where are the new wave of social innovators. Who is pushing the envelop? Who is pushing the space and proving that they can build communities and make money.

I think the innovators are the ones that are not the social/digital consultants…they are the real business people who have figured out how to use these tools and are now leveraging these spaces to solve their business problems. And guess what…they are not using the conversation of fear…they are creating and innovating. They are creating great content, solving big problems, and using social/digital tools that we share, retweet, pin, and leverage.

So…where are you innovators. You need to be leading these conferences and teach us consultants a thing or two. Why, because you are the innovators, creating new communities, solving problems (your problems) because you are owning your content.

It is all about owning your content and innovating yourself. We consultants are leveraging your case-study to share with the world to act smart, but you are the smart ones. Owning content is fun because it your tangible result, and you are obtaining a return the metric you have figured out.

I have thought about it over and over again. If i was to build a social/digital conference…I would not let one single social/digital consultant speak or share a presentation. I would bring real practitioners to the table, from different industries, and let them show us how they built “THEIR” communities. Why…they have owned their content and learned how to monetize their work.

The more groups I work with…the more I realize organizations struggle with one concept, taking ownership of their media. Take control of their message and the media created to communicate their message. What do I define as media? I consider media as any digital media assets used to communicate an organization’s message.

More and more organizations continue to spend lots of time and resources finding ways to attract mainstream media outlets to communicate their message. Why…why must we completely depend on mainstream media to distribute our message?

Now…this is not a post to discount the engagement and strategy of mainstream media in PR/communication initiatives. But, given the access to digital communication tools, we can build community around our message using digital/social tools.

So what do I think organizations should consider when managing their media?

1) Bring your communications and new media strategies in-house and use them to communication rapidly and efficiently.

2) Build a new media/social media team from across the organization to capture, create, and distribute the message(s).

3) Build a mothership or home base to direct all web traffic for each communication initiatives.

4) Identify communication channels that engage the target audience.

5) Utilize high-impact, SEO rich social outlets to gain digital traction. These include YouTube, Twitter, blogs, and email newsletters.

6) Track your results.

This is a simplistic look at a big initiative, implementing takes a more detailed approach…but this is a high-level overview that prompts discussion.

As a former journalist who has worked for both small and large traditional media outlets in both general news and investigative news teams…times are changing. As mainstream media outlets are downsizing…the competition is higher for space in traditional media spaces. Less staff to not only cover current assignments but also distribute this content on traditional platforms but new media platforms as well. This marginalizes coverage of your organizations “news” items which now could be deemed as “non-news.”

With the convergence of how traditional media outlets are integrating new media/social media strategies into their content distribution, web traffic is key to their success. So, when organizations depend on their “exposure” with news media outlets posting content online on their online news channels, that is less traffic we can leverage for our own organization’s benefit.

I hear over and over, why can’t we get the media to come to our event? Why can’t we get the media to write a story about our announcement.

Why do we continue to think that the media not only cares about our stories, but has the resources and space in their broadcast properties for our stories?

So…why not just take control of our message. Why not create and manage our own messages and leverage online tools to build our own communities. Why…because many of us are still treating new/social media like traditional marketing/pr initiatives. We hire outside agencies and outside groups to manage our content. We not only need to bring the messaging strategy in-house but the media strategy in-house as well.

This takes commitment from top down in your organization. It takes resources and it takes a shift in thinking. It also takes time to implement and successfully show a trend in success. What you will find is that you now not only own the process of creating and distribution, your content; but now the traditional media outlets use your online tools as ways to learn about your organization.

Why not build a community around your organizations digital properties as opposed to depending on the news media outlet’s fragmented audiences. Yes…there is tremendous value engaging traditional news media in your strategy, but they should work in parallel with your efforts.

Let’s just call it what it is…having a traditional new media outlet write or produce content about our organization is credibility. But let’s leave just at that…adding credibility to the message. But, let’s not depend on these same outlets become the main source of audience traffic to our message.

I will leave you with a prime example of this strategy, South Carolina Hospital Association. This organization had numerous web properties that fragmented their branded message. They were also working extremely hard to gain news media coverage for the numerous advocacy initiatives they represent. They built an online media strategy that included one large web portal which included social initiatives like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and regular email blasts. The communication section of their web property provides a one stop shop to read, watch, and listed to the life of the organization. They now own their media content and funnel the information through their communication section of their website, driving traffic via distribution channels back to this area of the website. This is ultimately tracking success during campaign cycles.

“Own” your media…

* Image is from SomeEcards.com. 

If you are a small entrepreneurial business or organization, you know you have had to keep a tight lip when raising equity. Specifically, you have had to remove any conversation of raising money in your social/digital spaces, especially when comes to soliciting funds. This makes it extremely hard for organizations that are trying to grow their business, restricting them from talking about a major focus of the organization.

For the last year, I have been working with Serrus Capital Partners with their digital/social efforts. Serrus is real estate investment firm not only raising capital for specific funds but using those funds to purchase distressed properties as investment properties. These properties are then refurbished, revitalized, and given a tremendous facelift and structure upgrade. They have to raise capital to fullfil their business model, yet cannot “talk” or solicit online via social outlets. This would be securities violation and ultimately breaking the law.

Our blogging and social efforts have been focused solely on raising awareness. The blog has been focused on topics like leadership and entrepreneurship. Video content has been created for YouTube to share the mission of the organization and communicating goodwill. Twitter and Facebook are used as channels to share this content. We have been telling stories of people that have been helped with affordable housing, contractors who have been put back to work, and communities/sub-divisions that now have properties that meet or exceed the surrounding property values.

We cannot talk about money. We cannot mention investing in the fund. We cannot share financial information unless numerous attorneys scrub through the content. Sometimes this content that was time specific misses window(s) of opportunity.

So, what is crowdfunding. The Portland Business Journal just released an article about this topic:

“With ‘crowd funding,’ startups would be able to more easily seek equity investors in places like Facebook. And most of the people, believes the real advantage comes in the freedom to use social media to attract investment. The beauty of crowd funding is it can provide you with a very diverse and passionate group of funders who are putting money into your company because they truly believe in what you’re doing and support you even though they’re not accredited investors. ”

Kent Hoover, Washington Bureau Chief of The Business Journal, writes this past March:

“The legislation will enable small businesses to use the Internet to raise up to $1 million in small investments from lots of people, a technique known as crowdfunding. It also will encourage more companies to go public by exempting them from some Securities and Exchange Commission regulations in the first five years after an initial public offering.”

The article also stated, “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the legislation ’will increase capital formation and pave the way for more small-scale businesses to go public and create jobs.’”

Basically, “The new law would largely lift those barriers, allowing companies to raise up to $1 million in equity capital from an unlimited number of investors, while allowing the offering to be marketed widely, including on social networks or crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter.”

Many individuals in small business or entrepreneurial communities leverage their online communities to build their contact lists, communicate, market products or services, or connect with new business opportunities. Many of these individuals have built large online communities yet cannot leverage the technology to share their passion, especially when it comes to raising funds.

On April 5, 2012…President Obama signed the Jobs Act which included “Crowdfunding” in the bill. Mashable.com reports “The bill classifies startups as ‘emerging growth companies’ that can turn to online investors to raise much-sought-after startup capital — similar to how websites such as Kickstarter let users raise money for films, books or other projects.”

It was also reported in this Mashable.com article, “In the amended bill, the Senate gave the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 270 days to interpret and issue the rules for the public. That means potential investors may have to wait until 2013 before it’s legal to make an investment. In the meantime, there are a few things they should consider.

In about 90 days the Access to Capital for Jobs Creators Act should go into effect, allowing companies to tell the public that they are raising capital. In the past, this type of solicitation was illegal and could exempt the company from raising money privately. Now, startups should be able to solicit their deal, which could mean that more investors will be able to hear about it.”

This is a game changer for many organizations in how they can communicate when raising capital. “The caveat is that only accredited investors can participate in those deals where the company is soliciting. In other words, this will only apply to investors who fall into the following categories.

1) Your net worth is more than $1 million, excluding your home
2) You have $200,000 in new income for the last two years and a reasonable expectation to make $200,000 in the current year
3) You have $300,000 in household income for the last two years and a reasonable expectation to make $300,000 in the current year.”

Now, how will this effect groups like Serrus? Not sure yet, we are in the middle of that period when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has 270 days to interpret. At the same time, many organizations are engaging their legal counsel to see how it will impact their current solicitation models. From a social/digital perspective…the needle is moving.

So how do you plan over the next 270 days in anticipation of the new rules and regulations, it is the time to continue to build your online communities?

Articles used in this blog post:

Portland Business Journal: “With crowd funding, social media becomes a powerful tool”
The Business Journals: “House sends JOBS Act to president”
Mashable.com: “Crowdfunding: What it Means for Investors”
Mashable.com: “Obama Signs ‘Game-Changing,’ Crowd-Funding JOBS Act”

***Image from Mashable.com’s “Obama Signs ‘Game-Changing,’ Crowd-Funding JOBS Act“

I have found myself in the middle of a creative conundrum so many times…a great idea comes to mind, but when it is time to articulate…BLAH. So many times we find that thin place where we are completely connected to our ideas yet we have no words, no way to articulate.

Sometimes we use visuals, pictures, video, and even sound to articulate our passions…but sometimes we must find the connection to our internal discourse. So how do we find the voice?

I have always stepped back and taken part in answering three questions:

1) Who is our audience? Who are we trying to communicate and reach?

2) What is our purpose? Why are we trying to communicate this message? Why do we want to spend the time and energy to achieve this goal?

3) How are we going to deliver this message? Are we going to use words, visuals, sounds to reach our audience?

This helps me frame my  thoughts. This helps me bring context to my mission.

Then…I free write. Yes…I do a brain dump by writing until I cannot write anymore.  We should not deny our creative impulses and allow our ourselves to freely share our deepest passions.

When I am deep in a creative desert, one that feels like it is hard to find my way to water…I use music to inspire. I grab my keys, jump in the car, roll down the windows, and blast my favorite songs. I sing as loud as possible and use this time to purge all my predispositions. Sometimes that is all I need, to purge what is clouding my judgement.

Finding your voice can be hard sometimes…but sometimes we have to be willing to get away from what makes us comfortable and allow the creative juices to flow.

GHS and Clemson students collaborating on project! Robin Stelling and Kayce LeNeave of Greenville Hospital System and Brooke Carson, Jennifer Eckart, and Hannah Swank of Clemson University worked together to create a social media marketing plan for GoHuntScan, a Greenville Hospital System project. The three students won a competition for best social media marketing plan and as a part of the reward, they enjoyed a lunch at the Lazy Goat networking.