It's Sunday morning in America and my day to read newspapers, news journals and online media. Every week I look forward to spending time with these old friends. CNET is among them. Today, Charles Cooper has an interesting post that deserves comment.
In brief, he shares that Robert Scoble suggested that "if I'd blog my opinion (re: DEMO v TechCrunch), he'd link to it." And then Charles asks, "Does that mean that a perspective only exists or matters if it's expressed in a blog post? Or that Robert's just moving too fast to do any investigation outside his narrow medium?"
Great questions. And they apply to all media, not just blogs. Those questions also apply to government and business. In this world of 24-news hour cycles and millions of bloggers, as well as government and politicos bloviating alongside CEOs strutting their celebrity instead of new ideas, we get little new thinking, simply more rehashing of the same old stuff. For example,
- Jack Welch writes a book heralded as revolutionary, yet it offers not one single new business idea and instead repeats the tired and failed thinking around mergers, acquisitions and layoffs. Meanwhile, Donald Trump struts his stuff on a TV reality show that shows us the negative sides of business.
- Bloggers report the same biases regarding political candidates that we hear repeated day in and day out across all media?
- Bloggers, online and traditional media join some business people in extolling the virtues of social media by scratching its surface and intangible values, seldom digging beneath the outer layers to lay out a solid plan for creating tangible business results?
- Bloggers and media discuss the present without taking a complex and thoughtful look at business's and society's future, which are completely dependent upon each other to create a better place to live and work.
- Obama and McCain talk about change except their change represents the same arguments the two parties have been having for 80 or more years. Look it up: More or less taxes, more or less regulation, more or less government spending.
The same can be said about business discussions: My friends, word of mouth marketing, advertising dependent upon reach not targeting, social media (the tools are new, ideas are not), profits vs. revenues, customers vs. management. These are yesterday's challenges looking for tomorrow's solutions.
Now, here's the good news: There are people in business looking at next generation business growth, and it isn't about social media, social networking, advertising, or word of mouth. It's multi-channel marketing based on market segments of one. I started writing about it this past Wednesday, and will try to share as much as I can moving forward. And I urge others to do the same. At the very least, analyze and move these ideas forward.
Now, if our government leaders could find ways to think about the future instead of the past, we might have a shot at a public/private movement. Don't hold your breath and don't wait for the media, including most social media, to lead the way.
