What Old Mainstream Media Taught Me about New Media

Reading the Sunday New York Times each week is something that I hold sacred. Even though I am completely hooked into all digital media formats, nothing quite replaces the physical newsprint with its smudging ink and messy sections that lay around the house for days. I’m not likely to listen to a podcast while wearing slippers and munching on a bagel with cream cheese, but that is precisely what I want to do while reading my weekend morning paper.

So it’s something of a wakeup call, and a bit stronger than my cup of morning Joe, to read the Times these days. They are writing a lot about the changing landscape of media, as blogs, videos and other digital forms continue to body slam analog forms of communication. Chief among these writers is Virginia Heffernan, whose The Medium column (and blog) is really tapping into the general zeitgeist right now. Consider this from her most recent article:

People who work in traditional media and entertainment ought either to concentrate on the antiquarian quality of their work, cultivating the exclusive audience of TV viewers or magazine readers that might pay for craftsmanship. Or they should imagine that they are 19 again: spending a day on Twitter or following a recipe from a Mark Bittman video played on a refrigerator that automatically senses what ingredients are missing and texts an order to the grocery store (it will soon exist!). Then they should think about what content suits these new modes of distribution and could evolve in tandem with them. For old-media types, mental flexibility could be the No. 1 happiness secret we have been missing.

As someone who has worked with old media for years, I couldn’t put it any better myself. We do need to stretch our minds to wrap our heads around all the changes taking place. The week before she wrote this, the Times had an entire magazine devoted to the proliferation of screens everywhere and how this is upending our traditional textual modes of communication. Kevin Kelly wrote in the Idea Lab about Becoming Screen Literate.

As I’ve written before in this blog, the advent of digital video is forever altering how we communicate. Kelly’s article really lays out a vision for the visual future that’s actually becoming reality right now.

A couple months ago I opened the magazine and read “Facebook in a Crowd” by Hal Niedzviecki. That article really floored me because it articulated what turns off some marketers to social networking – the illusion that what happens online automatically translates into something real offline. His article demonstrates that those you’re calling “friends” in Facebook don’t really hold the same weight as your friends in the real world, and that this brave new world has a whole new set of rules. (It’s a hilarious article and well worth reading.)

If you’re already incredibly immersed in all things social, then this is old news to you. But with constantly evolving means of communication, the idea that any one person can know everything about our changing online world is simply laughable. But, I just hope that while I cling to my Sunday morning old media tradition, my mind remains flexible and open to the ever-expanding online media universe. That, and a good bagel and coffee, are my number 1 happiness secret.

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The Tribe Has Spoken

I spent some time last month listening to a free audio book called Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization. I knew that the book was available as a free download because I follow the Twitter tweets of Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com. If Tony, an innovator and business leader, recommended it to his followers, I knew that it would be well worth reading. He actually contributed to the audio book’s forward, and having listened to the book, I can see why the authors chose him.

 

The book revolves around the central concept of companies existing as bands of tribes (from as many as 20 people to 150 people per tribe). In effect, an organization is like a state with multiple small towns within it. These are not necessarily your department, but loose associations of thought leaders and colleagues. Tribal groups are formed by the replication of what the authors call “triads.” Triads are strong three-party relationships. This is important factor for organizations with a tribal culture, because the authors know that only a three-legged stool can stand, and that by sharing work among colleagues, there is a mutually-supportive structure, rather than a top-down, one-on-one, senior-to-junior dynamic at work.

 

If you look for it, you will see these triad relationships everywhere in successful companies. Think about LinkedIn, which relies on you working through your existing contacts to reach another contact in the system (a triad). The book also focuses on the fact that successful tribal company cultures are not about “me”, they are about “we.” While company cultures can focus on the superstars, they do so at their own peril. Real superstars are always forming triads and bringing out the best in their colleagues. They are using what helped the Celts win the championships – Ubuntu – and the knowledge that no one can make it alone.

 

The book provides case studies of the companies that are getting Tribal Leadership right, like Amgen. Companies, as well as individuals, can be found on a continuum from stage 1 (totally failing) to stage 5 (incredibly successful). About half of all companies in America are in stage 3 where self-accomplishment is the core value celebrated (it’s about my success). Companies at stage 5 are in a league of their own (they don’t see themselves as having competitors, just major problems to solve – cancer, bad customer service). Companies at stage 5 are also incredibly open and share information fluidly among the tribal members (and social networking is increasingly helping them create this openness and transparency).

 

There’s something extremely attractive about a stage 5 tribal culture, and a lot to admire in Tribal Leaders. While these leaders can exist at companies that have yet to make it to tribal excellence, the book suggests that through practicing the creation of triads, being group-oriented and checking their egos at the door, leaders can help to elevate their companies. Next time you’re in a meeting, count the number of times someone says “me” when they could be saying “we.” Now listen to yourself. And, definitely listen to this important book, for free.      

Bloggers and Embargos -- Like Oil and Water

Perhaps this has happened to you. A client has had perhaps a hundred journalists (in the US and abroad) sign a non-disclosure agreement to prevent the media from reporting a story in advance of the official launch date. In exchange for signing the NDA, the reporters got more access to privileged information in advance about the upcoming news (images, interviews with key company parties, press releases, PowerPoint, etc.).

 

Then, your worst nightmare becomes reality. One of those reporters, misreading the embargo date, publishes the story online in advance of the embargo date. Your client calls you as soon as the Google Alert hits his BlackBerry and being a PR professional you follow up with the unfortunate reporter and ask her to take the news off the site. The reporter explains that she feels horrible about the mistake – it was the web team who mistakenly posted the news – and she takes immediate action to take it down. “Phew!” you say to yourself. “I was able to save the day. Now hopefully no one saw the leaked news.”

 

Yeah, right. In our online world, the spread of news moves faster than a California wildfire. In that brief hosting of leaked news online, other news sites that monitor for your client were also alerted, and then moved swiftly to grab that content and post it on their own sites. After all, they weren’t briefed under NDA, so for all they know they’re just circulating news they didn’t get via your press release. By this point, all of the reporters that signed NDAs are asking themselves if they should post the news or wait until the date and time on the legal form they signed comes to pass.

 

Then your client calls requesting that you approach all of the sites that have posted the news in advance. If you have relationships with the sites, they’ll understand and probably take the news down. But what happens if they’re a blog? If they’re a blog they may reply: “As we were not briefed on the topic and didn't sign an NDA we can't in good faith remove a story that's now or was public. I think it's best for all parties involved to learn from this mistake and to move on.”

 

Universally, I have found bloggers to hold NDAs and embargos in disdain. These official marketing tools don’t jibe with their generally snarky attitude. One part of me understands this. After all, we read blogs precisely because they are snarky, opinionated and anti-authority. And they want to get a scoop just like any journalist. On the other hand, PR practitioners provide special access to their clients for a reason: to ensure that the story is told correctly. Without that access, the bloggers can only speculate on what others have reported, rather than report facts.

 

What’s a PR flak to do? It’s impossible to brief everyone in advance so they’re ready to go live with news at the right time. Some sites won’t even sign an NDA if you want them to. And rarely does a company take any sort of legal action against a reporter who breaks an embargo – they don’t want to sour the relationship and they understand that mistakes can (and will) happen.

 

I’m not writing that we should abandon the process of getting reporters to sign NDA forms just because they’re not usually enforced and we can’t get the world to sign an NDA. If only one or two sites leak news, then they’re not really diminishing the big bang on launch day. And once a reporter has signed an NDA, they traditionally respect them. But never expect a blogger to hold to an embargo date (unless you have a great relationship and they’ve signed an NDA) or to remove leaked news. What you can expect is that the second something is on the Internet, it’s there to stay. As long as bloggers treat the marketing process with disdain, they will continue to miss out on full pre-announcement briefings. And, the likely outcome of being shunned by the very companies they should be courting.  

RSS: Really Simple Stupid

a>You are not stupid. You are smart. I am stupid.

I say this because for a long time I was using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and I didn’t know it. I have a Google gmail account because I grew tired of my Hotmail address at about the same time they started asking for money for more storage. Also, I thought that “@hotmail” was kind of amateurish, along with my “@yahoo” address. I am neither a Bill Gates fan nor a Yahoo, and I wanted to be elitist, eat arugula, and show my love of Google.

Gmail got me to start using iGoogle, a service for those with gmail accounts to have a customizable landing page. My iGoogle site gives me what regular Google.com gives me, but it also enables me to display widgets (the weather, a world clock, my horoscope) and news items of my choosing (Slate, The Onion, Politico, New York Times, Newsweek). Grabbing the top stories from the publications that I read is very easy with iGoogle, and because my iGoogle page is my homepage in my browser, I am up to speed on all major global news that I care about.

Then, after years of envying my friends and colleagues, I bought an iPod. Not a touch -- I’m not that tricked out yet. And I started using iTunes to download podcasts for free (National Public Radio’s “This American Life” is one of my favorites). The iTunes interface easily helped me find free podcasts and subscribe to them so I can listen to podcasts and view videos whenever I like.

OK, so as I was using iGoogle and iTunes, I didn’t realize that subscribing to news, podcasts and videos was only possible because of RSS. (Like I said, I was stupid.) But I want you all to know that I am getting smarter. I’ve even started to use RSS to get news updates in my Outlook email folders.

If you practice PR and you haven’t gotten into RSS yet then now is the time. If you’re relying on Google alerts to get news about your clients and their competitors, that’s great. But what if you want to read the latest articles as they come online from your target publications? In that case, you can either set up an iGoogle account, or you can do what I have done with Outlook.

First, do some web searches and find the publications, sections of publications, blogs, or whatever you want to read on a regular basis. Then, in Internet Explorer click on this symbol:



When you click on that symbol (sometimes called the RSS Chicklet) you will see an address pop up for a new URL in your web browser window. Copy that URL (control C).

Now, start your Outlook email program and do the following:

1. On the Tools menu, click Account Settings.
2. On the RSS Feeds tab, click New.
3. In the New RSS Feed dialog box, type or press CTRL+V to paste the URL of the RSS Feed. For example, http://www.example.com/feed/main.xml.
4. Click Add.
5. Click OK.
   
Now, you will begin to see in your Outlook Mail Folders articles popping up under the RSS Chicklet folder. Those new RSS feeds you’ve subscribed to will be filled up with news that you care about the minute the news is posted to the Internet.

If you care about getting news from the outlets, reporters or bloggers you track, then you have to try setting up RSS feeds in Outlook.

Now, you probably feel a whole lot smarter…I would love to hear how it’s working for you.

A New BeginNING

The very first post I made to this blog was about my old friend Tom Anderson, co-founder of MySpace. We were in a band together in college and I really admire all that he’s been able to accomplish with his social network. He’s taking it into new territory and putting music at the forefront, which is his true passion as a veritable walking encyclopedia of arcane musical trivia (Ringo – throw me a banana!). Don’t ask.

 

So that’s why I’m concerned about MySpace and Facebook. Are they losing their cache? In a recent PC World article on the “10 Most Overrated Products” Facebook loses to Multiply.com and reporter Darren Gladstone quips that Facebook has “free applications of dubious value, plus scores of plug-ins and games that draw you deeper into the Facebook rabbit hole until you're spending hours a day befriending complete strangers with whom you have nothing in common beyond a shared love of Raisin Bran.”

 

And Mediaweek recently rated the Digital Hot List 2008, and MySpace wasn’t even listed. What’s going on? Is social media tanking? I don’t think so. What I think is happening is that more people are trying sites like Ning.com to build their own social media sites where they can grow their own communities on the Internet.

 

Haven’t heard of Ning? I read a brilliant article on Ning in Fast Company earlier this year and I began using the site. Basically, it enables anyone with minimal knowledge of website design to create an online social network. That network can be open to everyone or closed and open to members by invitation only. The level of customization is awesome. Post videos and still images, blog, chat in real time, or create forums – most of what you can do with Facebook or MySpace is available, but you are essentially creating your own Facebook or MySpace with Ning serving as the backbone.

 

Marketers who have tried and failed to leverage social networking sites should pay attention to Ning because it provides the tools (at free or very low cost) to create a community with shared interests online. And it’s very cool. If Tom can create an empire like MySpace, you can create YourSpace with Ning. Let me know if you've played around with Ning and how it's working for you.

If a blog post falls in the woods, will anyone hear it?

There are too many blogs.

 

I say this with neither good nor bad overtones. If you are interested in macramé, LOST, Borat, Chinese gymnasts, or any one of the presidential candidates, there is a blog for you. Certainly this citizen journalism poses a threat to mainstream media, and that’s why CNN is now Twittering and featuring iReports from Joey and Jane Sixpack.

 

And it stands to reason why there is a proliferation of blogs – we Americans are obsessed with ourselves. How else can we explain the impulse to put our most private thoughts, videos, up on the Internet for millions to see?  Twitter enables the truly self-obsessed to post about their lives – tweet – minute by minute.

 

Never mind if these tweets are actually factual. You can have a lot of fun at your friends’ expense by making up tweets: “Michael is now doing macramé with Borat, some Chinese acrobats and Sarah Palin in Honolulu.” 09:30 AM October 1, 2008 from web

 

That’s the fun of blogs. It’s mostly opinion and rarely fact (It’s what we want). What would happen if someone was writing fiction about you? Or writing fiction about your brand? Or, if not fiction, then something mean. Finding those tweets, videos, flickr images, and blog posts online, and sifting through them to find the really juicy ones, would be very time consuming.

 

I’ve recently started using Radian6, which provides me with an omniscient view on all of the chatter in the online world with a cool interface. I like Panera’s sandwiches and Chipotle’s burritos, so I decided to evaluate the level of online chatter about these brands. Panera had more than twice as many posts as Chipotle in the past 30 days, and I was able to see when there were spikes in posting activity that mentioned these brands (see the graphic below). I was able to drill down and read the posts that connect Panera with things that are part of the company’s DNA, like freshness. I was able to see what people who visit these chains actually think about the company.

 

While reading all of this content, I felt like I was listening to trees falling in the woods. These desperate souls, all intent on sharing their every thought with friends and random strangers, were being seen by me. If I felt like it, I could have made comments on their posts and tell them that I too like the Frontega Chicken hot panini. Like some sort of deity, I could answer their prayers to be heard, or I could just listen in and move on. If I worked for Panera, I could have given those who wrote favorable reviews a coupon to buy more sandwiches. Now, that would certainly be playing God.

 

I’d like to know if you think that there’s a value in hearing what the great unwashed masses think, or if the taste-makers in the mainstream media are the only ones that matter. And, given that a blog post’s value is mostly measurable by how frequently people comment on any given post, should we care about a blog post on which no one comments? And, if a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?

Digital Video Killed the PR Star

No, I’m not changing the lyrics of the 80’s new wave pop music hit “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. That incredibly catchy song, which made its debut as the first music video on MTV, forever altered the landscape of the music industry. For the first time, consumers had images to go along with the music they heard on the radio, and a commercial art form was born. Artists who weren’t as photogenic as Madonna or Prince were going to be passed by when it came time to see as well as hear them. Certainly some artists without singing talent, but with a great image, would benefit from this new medium.

Now, just as that first music video opened the floodgates that made videos an integral part of packaging musicians and marketing to the masses, we’re at the dawn a new era for online digital video. Today, all marketers are talking about how digital video is going to radically alter marketing as we know it. Consider these stats: 80% of Millenials say that their computers are more of an entertainment device than their televisions; and U.S. online video viewers grew by 46% since 2006 and 73% of active web users watched online video in December (source: eMarketer and Nielsen Online). The tide of digital video users is rising like the flood waters of Katrina.

Just as the transition from silent pictures to “talkies” made stars out of some actors but ruined others who had weak voices, the adoption of digital video for marketing will leave some companies behind while others rise on the tide. Yesterday Google announced Google Video for Business, a new application that enables companies to distribute video internally among their employees, enabling the same YouTube experience to a closed corporate audience. Last week, Nikon announced the D90, a Digital SLR camera with interchangeable lenses that, for the first time, can record digital video. From both an online interface as well as a product perspective, digital video is growing by leaps and bounds.

So, where does this leave PR professionals and other marketers? Well, there are some companies like Blendtec (www.willitblend.com) that are the gold standard in using digital video to showcase products. And for every successful online video that is produced, there will be many more that are unsuccessful. That reality doesn’t stop clients from desiring a hit “viral video” that will be passed along to millions of viewers. But there are no guarantees that a video will catch fire on the Internet like Matt Harding’s dance video (www.wherethehellismatt.com).

The growing prevalence of digital video presents both an opportunity and a challenge for marketers. Clients will rely on their agency partners to help them navigate the ins-and-outs of scripting, producing, shooting, editing, hosting and distributing video content. All agencies must understand how and when to deploy video content. If they are not smart about digital video, and willing to adopt it as a new tool in the communications toolkit (like the venerable press release), they will be doing their clients (and themselves) a huge disservice.

Advertising from the Inside Out

Working at Mullen provides PR practitioners with a unique perspective on the ad game. There are few PR shops where it’s possible to participate in ad agency new business from the brainstorm to the pitch meeting and see the creative evolution of ideas. For that matter, I don’t know of another PR shop where you can have lunch in the gourmet cafeteria and sit with the creative director or the CEO of a top advertising agency. This is not the usual situation of most public relations professionals, to say the least.

What’s the benefit of being a PR staffer embedded in an ad agency like a war correspondent embedded with the troops in Fallujah? For one thing, the creativity of the place is contagious and informs the way we PR folks think about how to create innovative marketing programs for our clients. Like our advertising brethren, the PR team at Mullen wants to push the envelope of creativity. We’re not in opposition to advertising; we’re all part of a marketing continuum that is constantly in flux and adapting with the times.

After all, PR gets consumers to believe in brands and take action, just as advertising does. The main difference is that we rely on the media and others to tell the stories of our clients, and advertising ultimately has more control over the messaging (I would love to guarantee placements in all of the outlets my clients want to be, but that’s not how it works in PR).

This unique insider perspective enables some interesting interactions. When people ask me where I work, I tell them Mullen. They naturally assume that I work in advertising, but I usually clarify that I work in the PR department. The nuance of how the agency consists of a range of disciplines is lost on most people, and I’m fine with that because the difference in what we do is not that extreme.

Internally, I’ve had some moments where an account service person will ask me what I do. I tell them that in some respects I do what they do; I lead accounts and make sure my clients are happy. When I talk with someone in Direct I also tell them that I create direct mailers on a regular basis. When I talk with Analytics, I explain that I am responsible for measuring the success of our PR campaigns. And the Creatives at Mullen scratch their heads when I tell them that PR writes all the copy for our press releases and other marketing materials. You could say that PR does what all of the other agency departments do, but we do it for less money.

Watching Mad Men on AMC I’m always amazed at how segregated ‘60s agency Sterling Cooper is (and I don’t just mean racially). There’s a hierarchy with the Creatives at the top of the pyramid and the account service people down below. When Pete Campbell in account service dares to come to the table with some creative ideas, he’s smacked down by creative director Don Draper for violating protocol. But should an agency rely on its Creative department alone to be the idea engine for clients? Clearly the answer is no. And at Mullen there are creative people in all departments doing creative work.

To understand how just how much today’s ad agencies differ from those of the ‘60s, I suggest reading “Then We Came to the End” by Josh Ferris. It’s one of the most insightful books on modern agency life. In the book, a character explains that at an agency there are “Creative Creatives creating creative creative.” Beyond being a fun tongue twister it’s actually not true. At Mullen we’re all creating creative creative, and I think that being an integrated marketing agency makes us different, and better.

The Interface Is Everything

The writer Will Self went back to using a manual typewriter several years ago and was quoted saying "I think the computer user does their thinking on the screen, and the non-computer user is compelled, because he or she has to retype a whole text, to do a lot more thinking in the head.” This comment got me to contemplate how future generations will reflect on our so-called “cutting edge” technology of the keyboard, laptop and mouse, and even things like this blog. Will the communications tools that we’re using seem as obsolete as charcoal on a cave wall?

From the rock slab to the scroll, the quill, the printing press, the ballpoint pen, the paper, the e-Book and beyond, the methods of capturing thoughts has been constantly evolving. And as the technologies have evolved, so has our manner of thinking and communicating. Is texting shorthand (LOL, BRB) on a cell phone an evolution of our written language or a giant linguistic leap backward? As Will Self suggests, are our computers, our instant access to information everywhere (see Cha Cha.com), making us somewhat dumber because we don’t have to work as hard? Or is the opposite true? Is the language evolving? Just read some Chaucer to see how different our current language is from Olde English.

Maybe the answer to this question is a matter of age. My dad has zero interest in exploring the new Apple store on Boylston, and I have to be removed by security guards when I try to move in. But, then I think about people like Jobs and Gates who are not that much younger than my father, and how they’ve been constantly evolving alongside the technologies they’ve brought to the market. So, maybe it’s not that older folks can’t understand new technology; it’s just that it’s tough to teach an old dog some new tricks. I’m sure John McCain wants to look Internet savvy when he’s using “The Google.”

Which brings me to the question of what’s next for communication? What will eventually flummox me so much that I will refuse to learn it? The advent of touch computing is on track to eliminate the keyboard, and speech-to-text and voice recognition will radically alter the interfaces of every device we own. The accelerometer in the Wii may become a part of how we control our televisions and other devices with body motions. The Internet itself will evolve considerably so it’s a more seamless experience (try 800-GOOG-411 if you want to see how the voice-controlled Internet will feel). Everything will be wireless.

Thirty years from now the world that I will experience will be radically different from the world today. I will be older, but I think there are plenty of old folks now who have shown that advanced age doesn’t mean turning into tech Luddites. I think about director Sidney Lumet and how he went 100% digital with his filmmaking as soon as it was possible and rejected film. I think about music legend Peter Gabriel and how he’s been able to capitalize on digital downloads with his various business interests (he recorded the first 100% digital album in 1982). So, I’m planning to keep up with and embrace the tech trends, because it keeps you young, even when you’re old.

Brain Tumors, Reaching Nirvana & Cellphones

Brain tumors have been on my mind lately. First came the diagnosis of Ted Kennedy and the overwhelming media attention focused on his surgery, recovery, and future in the Senate. Then, a Sunday New York Times article featured the inspiring story of Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard neuroscientist who lost the use of her brain's left lobe from a burst blood vessel and experienced something not unlike Nirvana, a feeling of connectedness with the world and a total loss of ego and analysis.

That story got me to watch an inspiring video from the TED conference featuring Dr. Taylor. The implications for how our dual-processing right and left brains impact our consciousness was truly enlightening and I encourage you to watch (you will be moved).

Flipping though the channels around this time I caught an episode of Larry King Live in which three famous neurosurgeons told Larry that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. The form of brain cancer linked to Kennedy is a glioma, and that's commonly associated with cellphone use. The scientific studies that could link cellphone use to brain cancer are incomplete because the data hasn't yet been gathered for heavy use. Young adults are seen to be even more susceptible.

Bluetooth headset manufacturers don't have the solution either, as the Huffington Post picked up the King story and wrote: "Use some form of headphone or earjack but not a Bluetooth, which places the transistor right in your ear."

As a consumer of media in the modern age, I'm susceptible to receiving news on all fronts and having the news mutate and multiply like a cancer and spread -- from a glimpse of the front page of a New York Post in a hotel lobby featuring Kennedy, to the Sunday Times, Internet video, CNN, and the Huffington Post. This phenomena of news repeating through all the possible channels is hardly new. But when you start to see similar stories repeating again and again, it gives them more weight.

While the science is still out, the cellphone companies and Bluetooth headset manufacturers will continue to get a free pass. Eventually they may wind up just like the automakers who sold SUVs and are now suffering because of high gas prices and the impact of non-hybrids on the environment. What looks safe now can sometimes wind up having dire consequences.

The result is that I've ditched my Jabra and am using my cell on speakerphone now. But, if using my cell to my ear could someday help me reach Nirvana (on the left lobe side, of course) I may have to reconsider.

Social Media Wars

Following up on my past post, I saw this video and thought it really captured the essence of how social media is affecting our personal brand identities and experience of reality. It also features a cameo by my friend (and yours) Tom Anderson. Enjoy!

I Was the Pete Best of MySpace

Before Web 2.0, before broadband, before the dot bombs exploded, when grunge ruled the airwaves, I, Michael Bourne, was friends with Tom Anderson, the co-founder of MySpace. Tom is the first "friend" you make when you join MySpace, but he’s unknown to most MySpace users personally. His smiling face greets you when you join, but it’s like the face on a milk carton, amorphous in space and not tied to reality.

But I knew the real Tom when he sat across from me in our English Lit honors thesis class at Cal Berkeley. He had an aura even then, a confidence that was conveyed from his strong stare and impressive intellect. Tom read Nietzsche and understood him. He was writing about Superman, and not the cartoon. Tom spent hours under the pedestrian bridge in Sproul Plaza strumming an acoustic guitar and singing Beatles tunes. So I asked him to join my band, he said yes, and together with crackerjack guitarist Justin and funk bass man Lenny, we formed Meathead.

The name was a joke. A riff on the fact that Lenny and I lived with vegans in the hills of Berkeley. Our first real gig was at Meat Fest, a celebration of red meat at a local co-op, and the name just stuck. (I can’t make this stuff up.) We played the Bison Brewery and some open mic nights, and even cut a demo. I recall one day at a sushi buffet when we sat down and drew a poster for a concert we were putting on. We stapled them to every lamppost near campus. In some respects, MySpace has done that for bands on a broader scale.

I had no illusions about the future of this band. I knew that we’d split up once I moved to Japan and Justin pursued his advanced degrees in mathematics. But I had a feeling back then that Tom was destined for greater things. Like all great front men, he had the swagger, the look, and the charisma. Even if he didn’t pursue a music career, I knew that I’d see him again.

Fast-forward 14 years. Tom has cashed out to Rupert Murdoch and is following his bliss on various projects that keep him ridiculously busy. The last time I spoke with him was to congratulate him on the sale of his company. We’d exchanged some snail mail over the years, and he took care of my guitar while I was in Tokyo, but we definitely lost touch. Now, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, et. al are making it impossible for people to lose track of their friends. Social networking has made a lot of people very rich in the process, and the world is a better place for it.

Me? I’m in PR promoting some great brands. It’s been a long time since my beats set the rhythm for Tom’s on-stage moves, and the lyrics of my songs came out of his mouth. It seems that everyone in the marketing world wants a piece of him, like little screaming schoolgirls at a concert. And marketers have been trying to have Web 2.0 pioneers dance to their beats and say what they want to those teeming masses. They’ve had some hits and misses in the process. I think successful marketers will join the bands of the Web 2.0 masters and make beautiful music together, and strike out on their own to create masterpieces of their own. One thing is for sure: if we don’t do it, we’ll all need to find new gigs.