Inaccurate Paterno Report Another Example of "Get It First" Media Culture Gone Awry

It seems another case of the "Get it first no matter what" internet media mentality led to the premature announcement that Joe Paterno had died yesterday. While the legendary Penn State football coach did indeed pass away this morning, Onward State, a Penn State blog, announced Saturday evening that he had died. CBSSports.com then reported the same story, resulting in nationwide coverage of the inaccurate report.

CBSSports.com later said it was relying on the information from Onward State. The blog retracted its report saying "We were confident when we ran with it and are still trying to figure out where our process failed. We apologize sincerely for our error." Onward State's managing editor, Devon Edwards, announced his resignation Saturday as well.

Paterno's family released a statement this morning: "His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled. He died as he lived. He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been. His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community."

Onward State and CBSSports.com indeed "got it first" but didn't get it right. Unfortunately, the combination of the immediacy of internet news and the continually reduced standards of internet journalists has made erroneous or just plain false reports far too common. We owe it to ourselves and our readers to do more to get it right regardless of whether or not we get it first.

Cloud Music Changes How We Buy and Listen

As a kid, I remember listening to 8-tracks move from one track to the next by fading a song in and out. While working as a DJ in my teens, I found 45’s easy to use while cassettes were a bit more difficult to cue up when working a dance or dimly lit bar.  Suffice it to say, I was happy to see the compact disc arrive and now think it would be much easier to play a wedding or dance using digital music.

It's easy to see how we consume music changes over time.

Today, Cloud Music services provide a completely new way to look at (or should I say listen to) music. No more time spent making sure your music is available in your car, at the office or throughout your home. No more synching multiple devices.

You can choose to have an online “digital locker’ with Amazon Cloud, Google Music or iTunes Match, which lets you store your music online and play it back on any computer or device.

Or you can go with a subscription service like Spotify, Rhapsody or MOG and have unlimited streaming of just about any song ever made for a monthly or annual fee. 

Record companies see the combination of digital locker and streaming services (which pay a royalty per listen) as a potentially lucrative and maybe even industry saving revenue stream.

Amazon and Apple are battling for future download sales. Once a customer chooses their digital locker, the odds are they’ll stay and buy their music from that company.

Google’s free cloud storage might be appealing to Android users who want their music everywhere.

Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG and others are betting that the trend of buying subscription services in other industries will expand to music.

The broad target audience can be defined as “just about everybody” because so many people enjoy music. It will be interesting to see how each company segments or drills down into the market and tailors its message to reach and influence prospective customers.

It doesn’t necessarily mean music ownership is dead. But Cloud Music services clearly will grow and change how we listen and buy music.

Marketing Lessons from the Campaign Trail

Political campaigns share a lot of the characteristics of marketing and selling programs:

• The winners drill down into segmented target audiences and find out what they want or what resonates with the target group.
• Creative messages are developed and tweaked to reach and influence those target audiences.
• A strategic plan is crafted to "get the word out."
• Reach and frequency of message is achieved through various communication mediums.
• Competitive analysis and positioning against the competition is part of the plan.
• Direct selling or "making the ask" is done again and again.

This year's Presidential Primary Campaign is a good example. Last night's Iowa caucus showed how important market segmentation and creative messaging is. The negative ads hurt Newt Gingrich. Rick Santorum did what we counsel client sales teams to do: Make the calls, make the ask. Romney's positioning has consistently been that he is battling Obama and taking the high road. Santorum gained some traction over Perry and Bachman via consistency of message. 

Regardless of party affiliation or ideology, marketers can learn a lot from successful (and not so successful) political campaigns.

12 Marketing Resolutions for 2012

As we kick off 2012, here are 12 New Year’s Marketing Resolutions to help you and your company:

1. Embrace Social Media as part of your Marketing & PR strategy.  Focus time on creating content relevant to your target audiences and on learning about your marketplace. Less Angry Birds and fun Facebook stuff, more content development and information gathering.
2. Use LinkedIn as a resource for Pre Call Prep, prospecting, networking and competitive analysis. The online professional network is a must for entrepreneurs, marketers and senior leaders.
3. Build a keyword rich LinkedIn profile that tells your story enhances Search Engine Optimization.
4. Instead of just signing up and following celebrities on Twitter, organize your followers by category and scan for valuable content. Retweet what you think is valuable and use other information to enhance your marketing and selling efforts.
5. Develop a content strategy for Twitter. Decide what key messages you want to convey and develop a schedule to do so. Create an inventory of tweets to increase awareness and follower base.
6. Use Facebook for more than pushing information out. Keep abreast of what interests key target audiences and create two way conversations by asking their opinion. Make customer success stories shareable. Address negative comments quickly and honestly.
7. Contrary to what some think, email isn't dead and can be an important part of your marketing and selling strategy. Drill down into your target markets and create email messages that show what’s in it for them.
8. Commit to staying current with Social Media tools. It doesn't have to be a huge time investment--an hour or two a week that's convenient to you can make a big impact.
9. The tenets of successful messaging apply to Social Media. Tell your story with clear and succinct messages that resonate with your target audiences and stay consistent with your overall brand.
10. Use Social Media to make customers and employees an extended part of your Marketing Team. As Social Media becomes more a part of our lives, we use our online network to share opinions quickly and easily. Manage these relationships and leverage Social Media so customers and employees spread the good, rather than bad, word about products and services.
11. Incorporate Mobile into your marketing strategy. Online purchasing is moving to mobile. Google estimated 44% of last-minute holiday shopping came from smartphones or tablets. Mobile provides a great opportunity to market to unique, segmented audiences at or near their time of purchase.
12. This year, make sure you live up to your New Year’s Marketing Resolutions.

Don’t Take the High Octane Road: 7 Ways to Embarrass Yourself When Leaving

#1: When faced with a difficult, potentially controversial decision, avoid bold statements.

“I’ve bought in and sold out to Tulsa. My wife told me if I leave Tulsa it will be alone.”

---Todd Graham prior to leaving Tulsa to be the University of Pittsburgh’s head football coach.

Making career decisions isn’t easy. You have to weigh personal and professional issues and make a choice. If you are considering a move, why make an emphatic statement about staying where you are? It’s unwise at best, duplicitous at worst.

#2: Minimize hackneyed clichés and press conference lingo.

“I’m a family guy. This is the first job I’ve ever taken that has benefitted my wife.”

---Todd Graham after leaving Pitt to become head football coach at Arizona State University.

When people leave one position for another, they often cite “family reasons.” We’re trained to be skeptical and wonder what the real story is. If it truly is to make your spouse happy, refer to #1.

# 3: Stay away from inflammatory public criticism of others, especially if you have a history of doing the same thing.

“They’re nothing but mercenaries.”

---Todd Graham commenting on three coaches who left Pitt to join Coach Rich Rodriquez’ staff at the University of Arizona.

Dramatic statements criticizing others don’t do much good, particularly if you end up guilty of what you criticized them for.

#4: Temper the hype. Focus on goals and targets instead.

“We’re a no huddle football team. Fast tempo, high octane. We’ll be the most explosive team in the country.”

---Todd Graham at press conference upon becoming Pitt head football coach.

“What's our offense going to look like? Well, obviously our offense is going to be high octane, it's going to be quick striking, explosive. Our whole deal is about explosive plays.”
---Todd Graham at press conference upon becoming Arizona State head football coach.

#5: Deliver difficult news in person and treat people with respect.

Pitt’s players learned their coach was leaving via a text that Graham asked his director of football operations to forward to them. I don’t care how old you are or how much you like texting. You do not deliver serious, personal news via text.

He emailed his resignation to Athletic Director Steve Peterson. If you are leaving an organization, do so with dignity. Respect your superiors whether you like them or not. Don’t resign via email.

#6: If you preach something, at least try to live up to your words.

“The number one goal of our program is to produce men of character and of integrity. Men that have giving hearts.”

---Todd Graham at press conference upon becoming Pitt head football coach.

#7: Passion is good. Using the same script time and again, not so much.

“It’s an honor for me to be at Pitt. Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino, Mike Ditka, Mark May. All the great players and the great tradition of Pitt football. I want to give all the respect to Coach Wannstedt, Coach Bennett and the class of 2010.”

“It’s such an honor for me to be taking over the program that the legend Frank Kush built…it also would be remiss for me not to talk about Coach Erickson and the 2011 Sun Devils. He’s going to be a Hall of Fame coach…How about let’s play it like Pat Tillman and Terrell Suggs…like Jake Plummer and Danny White…”

---Todd Graham at his first press conferences at Pitt and Arizona State.

When you make the difficult decision to move on, avoid these pitfalls and take the high road instead.

Take a trip down memory lane with Todd Graham via the links below:

Graham Leaving Rice for Tulsa 

Initial Story about Graham's Hiring at Pitt

Pitt Acceptance Press Conference

Local ASU News Stations React to Graham's Hiring

Comparing iPad to Kindle Fire Misses the Point

I've read a number of Kindle Fire reviews that compare Amazon's new tablet to the iPad, often on a point by point basis as far as specs. I think this approach is flawed and misses the point.

When we buy a product, we have a specific goal in mind. When selecting a television for the main entertainment area in your house, you look for something different than when buying a television for a bedroom or the kitchen. You know that the 61 inch TV for the main room serves a different purpose than a 27 inch TV to watch in bed.

The same goes for the iPad and Kindle Fire. The iPad is nearly 3 times as expensive as the Kindle Fire. Doesn't it make sense that it will have more capabilities and be bigger?

People who could afford an iPad and wanted one bought one. Others maybe couldn't justify the price tag of the iPad but still want to be able to consume content conveniently. For this target market, the Kindle Fire works. It's not a device to take pictures or video with, although I'd argue the iPad isn't either for the vast majority of owners. I'm still looking forward to seeing that first iPad user hold that tablet up and say "Cheese." I know, I know, the iPad has video chatting. Great. If that's a major need of yours and you can afford it, buy the iPad. I hope you also get the 61 inch TV. Whether you do or you don't, I'm pretty sure you don't expect it to be the same as the 27 inch model.

Another point made in Kindle Fire reviews is that it doesn't have the memory of the iPad. Again, I think this misses the point. If you like the Cloud Concept, the Kindle Fire will be a good, lower priced alternative for you as far as video, books, checking email, music and web surfing. If you don't like the Cloud, then the Fire might not be for you so you either save up and get the iPad or go without.

I have both an iPad and Kindle Fire. I think both are good products. I also understand that they are different devices that serve different needs for different prices.

Like most purchases, it comes down to the main points: What are your wants? What are your needs? How much can you spend? Answer those questions and decide whether to buy an iPad, Kindle Fire, another device or nothing.

Does the iPad Finally Have Some Real Competition?

Since Apple created the iPad nearly two years ago, competitors’ tablets have failed to make an impact. When Amazon's Kindle Fire hit the market this week, tech lovers wondered if it might be the first real competition for the iPad.

Amazon has built brand equity with Kindle and consumers know the name. But do they know the difference between various Kindles? The Kindle Fire is a tablet, not an e-reader. If you are looking for a device to read books, e-readers like the Kindle and Nook that feature e-ink are a better option.

The Kindle Fire is also not an iPad. The iPad is larger (9.7 vs. 7 inch screen), costs more than twice as much ($499 vs. $199) and is heavier (by about a third). The iPad also has more features and memory than the Kindle Fire.

But I don't see it as a battle between the iPad and Fire. Instead, it’s a win for consumers.

• Both offer end-to-end media solutions tied back to their respective Motherships. The iPad has iTunes for music, movies and shows along with online purchasing through the Apple Store. The Kindle Fire offers free movies and shows through Amazon Prime, the Amazon Cloud MP3 player and purchasing through Amazon.com.

• When it comes to content consumption, you can’t go wrong with either device. Both have high resolution screens that are great for watching video or web browsing.

• In my very unscientific tests, the iPad seems to boot up quicker and is a bit faster loading websites. The Kindle Fire seems to load video quicker. But the main takeaway in all three cases is both are fast.

• Apple pretty much created the app marketplace and the Kindle Fire features the Android App Store. Whether it’s managing your social accounts through HootSuite, listening to Pandora or checking scores on ESPN ScoreCenter, both devices offer plenty of popular apps to choose from.

If you prefer the bigger screen, capturing photos and video chatting (and can afford the price), the iPad is a better choice for you. The Kindle Fire is a lower priced option, fits comfortably in your hand and coat pocket and still does quite a bit.

The bottom line: With the Kindle Fire, the iPad finally has some competition and consumers have a choice. My guess is both devices will please their respective target audiences.