on convincing CMOs to use new media

It's a cliche, but social media is the tsunami of public relations' and marketing's future. The problem is a lot of CEOs and CMOs have their backs to the beach. They assume if they can't see, it isn't happening. 

Or, they know they are about to get really wet, but they just don't want to deal with it. For anyone in public relations or marketing, this presents a conundrum. At least if you are savvy. Let's face it, with fewer and fewer people either reading newspapers or watching television, the best to reach them is social media

So why won't people in positions of authority embrace social media? Well, I think a lot of its generational. The average CEO is probably in his or her 50s and CMOs are not much younger. These are men and women who went to college at the very dawn of the computer age - pre-internet. These are not people who grew up googling their favorite bad.

I am over 50. I can still remember trundling over to the computer lab at Bradley University with my stack of punch cards. Each card has a pattern of holes punched out. The computer would "read" each card and print out a very simple page. Today, the average five-year-old could do better.

And woe to the person whose cards were out of order. That bollocksed everything up. Or, one of the holes was not punched through cleanly (think hanging chad). There were hundreds, sometimes thousands, of cards that had to be sorted through to find the bad one. It was not fun.

And the idea of the Internet was something out of science fiction. So although most executives have been working with PCs and the Net for at least 20 years, it is not stamped into their DNA. In their early careers, when many of them were most open to new ideas, they were not exposed to any of this.

  Although they probably wouldn't admit it, many of them probably still view the whole thing with suspicion. They often don't really understand the potential.

According to the Feb. 6, 2008 issue of Knowledge@Wharton: while the Internet provides a way to closely track behavior by measuring ad clicks or other online behavior, the reluctance to embrace the Internet may be due to uncertainty over how well it can shape broader messages.

So what to do? Design a campaign using the traditional elements of press releases, media events, interviews etc. with social media elements such as Facebook and Twitter. 

This way of doing things has been named straddle, by George Howard, an assistant professor of management at Loyola University in New Orleans. In his blog, 9GiantSteps, Howard details how "marketing today is a straddle between the offline world and the online world. Only those who straddle right will survive. Err too far online, you fail. Too far offline, you fail." 

Howard notes there are infinite possibilities for straddling, yet few companies are taking advantage of it. For instance, why wouldn't a restaurant use Twitter to send out its daily specials to its customer list? Why aren't retailers using Twitter to feature sale items? Why aren't B-to-B companies using Twitter or Facebook to troubleshoot problems?

Consumer companies could buy ad space to feature their on-line links. They could encourage customers to join a social media site to take advantage of specials. B-to-B companies could send out emails to their customers touting their on-line presence. It's not that hard.

It all comes back to that reluctance on the part of senior management to embrace a technology they don't understand. That's where savvy marketers enter the picture. It is our job to show clients just how to do it.

On being over 50

There is a feeling in the marketing world that anyone over 50 cannot possibly get it. The party line goes something like this: "How can anyone over 50 understand social media like Twitter and Facebook? How can they know what the latest trends in clothing, music and everything else?"

That belief is becoming more and more widespread. Agencies across the United States dump anyone over 50 because the belief is they cost too much and don't get anyway. The powers-that-be believe is better is hire some 25-year-old who costs half as much and knows media. And try getting hired at any place - no matter your experience and qualifications - if you are over 50. 

It is a troubling scenario - made even worse by the crashing economy. As corporations shed jobs, highly trained and qualified over 50-year-olds find no one wants to hire them. I know public relations, advertising and marketing people working at Lowes, at FedEx Office and selling shoes or clothes. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with those jobs, but that's not where these people's expertise lies. It is a tremendous waste of knowledge and talent. 

The law protects against age discrimination, you say. Well, yes, but good luck proving that you were let go solely because of your age. Any crafty employer will make sure that they a reason other than age, no matter how bogus on its face, to get rid of someone. 

As for suing, well, filing suit means you can never go home again. No employer is likely to hire someone who sued their former company no matter how justified the lawsuit was.  The company lawyer will advise it against it. To an owner, there is just too much downside to hiring someone who sued. Their thinking goes: "what if he sues me. I cannot risk it."

It is kind of like admitting mental illness. In public, every commends the person who comes forward to admit they have issues. In practice though, everyone kind of steps away from that person. Americans just cannot deal with the idea of mental illness or lawsuits.

As I said before, a lot of companies are flushing a lot of talent down the drain. The odd thing is, it is happening at a time when everyone is talking about a worker shortage. Well, duh. It seems to me that there would be much less of a shortage of older workers weren't dismissed out of hand.

The saddest thing about all this, is that most older workers have the skills these agencies. A brain doesn't shut down because someone hits 50. People don't suddenly get stupid. Heck, people over 50 invented most of these applications. Both Steven Jobs and Bill Gates are 53. Apple especially has been coming out with new products every weeks it seems. There are dozens of other examples of people like Jobs and Gates. There could be more if someone just had a little faith.

Some Thoughts

When testifying yesterday before the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he misjudged that banks and other financial institutions would work to protect their shareholder's interests. Mr. Greenspan seems to be shocked by the idea that those investment bankers would care more about their houses in the Hamptons then a retired couple in Wausau, Wis.

This is frightening on so many levels. However, there are two areas in particular that jump out:

• First - Princeton Economist John Forbes Nash won a Nobel prize for his refining of game theory. Basically, the theory says people will act in their own self-interest, not the perceived interest of an outside group In other words, the investment banker cares more about his BMW than a shareholder's equity. Given the choice between buying that car, or increasing shareholder equity, guess which he chooses. 

These theories, now accepted as fact, were first published in the early 1950s. Was Greenspan on vacation then? Was he not keeping up with his own discipline? For that matter, Nash won the Noble in 1994. Even if Greenspan was not reading old economic journals, did he not read about Nash's Noble and why he won it? It bogles the mind that a supposedly brilliant man like Greenspan was not aware of Nash's work.

• Second, it is generally known that Greenspan is a devotee of Ayn Rand. He was a member of Inner Circle for a time. Rand believed strongly in laissez-faire capitalism. Greenspan must have consumed the Kool-Aid. Its what he tried to do the economy. 

And look where it got us. As I write this, the Dow has lost half its value in the last 10 days and somepeople are predicting the S & P will bottom out at 700. Two years ago, it was over 1,500.

Now it is true there is a lot of blame go around for this mess, but I think it is fair to say Alan Greenspan fathered the entire thing.