Welcome to the Fifth Estate

Chapter I: Welcome to the Fifth Estate

In life there are very few moments of clarity when you realize that things have

completely changed, and that nothing will be the same. You realize, “Now is gone.” These

moments vary in cause and significance, from the birth of a child or the assassination of a

president to an executive departing unexpectedly or a new technology like an iPad arriving in

your home.

For me, that moment occurred when Jim Webb won the Virginia senatorial race in

November of 2006. He had done the impossible by defeating George Allen, a formidable

opponent who only three months earlier was considered a serious 2008 presidential GOP

candidate. George Allen was considered so safe for re-election that his initial campaign manager

left Allen’s campaign to work on a race that was considered tougher. Allen was ranked as so

secure in his Senate seat that he was already starting to visit early GOP presidential primary

states in anticipation of an expected 2008 bid for the GOP presidential nomination. i And Allen

had been brought down by bloggers.

Allen had the misfortune of publicly stating a racial slur on film. The Webb campaign

intentionally spread the video and word of it through social media outlets like blogs and

YouTube. The ensuing uproar in the media and back again into the blogosphere turned a run-

away race into a dogfight, and ultimately it cost the Republicans control of the Senate.ii

At that moment, I knew the face of communications has been altered forever. As a

practicing communicator of 14 years at the time, this moment caused me to entirely rethink my

approach to public relations and marketing. What was fun and experimental became the primary

thrust of my business. The world changed for me. Little did I know I would be launched into an

incredible new career trajectory.

Social media – blogs, social networks, localized search enabled maps, SEO, user

generated video and audio – had arisen with millions upon millions of content producers. These

many content creators and readers had suddenly achieved a new level of power and weight. We

could change the way countries were run with one major initiative.

It was time to stop experimenting with new media and come to know everything possible

about it. The social media boom was different than the dot-bomb era with users fueling new

media, not VC backed start-ups. As a result, it’s a society-fueled trend that continues to grow in

scope, scale and impact. Communications has evolved more in the last ten years than it has in the

last 100.

Welcome to the Fifth Estate

Five years and one book after the Webb moment, social media users have become a force

of their own, community members with a voice — not supplanting the media — but augmenting

it. Since the last Now Is Gone – when it was called “new media” -- social media has assumed its

place in the larger media mix. It has become the Fifth Estate.

The Fourth Estate – or the traditional media — got its nickname by policing the governments of

France and Great Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.iii The French Estates General

consisted of The First Estate of three hundred clergy, the Second Estate of three hundred nobles

and the Third Estate of six hundred commoners. The media fulfilled a new role, providing their

readership with more factual information about political events. As a result, politicians were

forced into a new level of accountability. Media became the fact provider, the great source of

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© Geoff Livingston, 2010

information beyond hype. When the politicians stepped out of line, the masses were informed,

and protests, and in some cases, mobs and revolution ensued.iv

Since the 18th century, the Fourth Estate has grown to include broadcast media forms, too. In

modern times, the fourth estate role has extended into all facets of life, from business reporting

(for example, the HP Board Scandal) to entertainment (Lindsay Lohan’s ongoing woes). Perhaps

the greatest moment of the fourth estate was the epic Watergate scandal, in which two

Washington Post reporters – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein -- exposed an illegal break into

the Democratic National Committee’s offices during the 1972 election. The ensuing scandal

eventually caused President Richard M. Nixon to resign.

Yet, the media has its own fallacies. PR execs swarm the traditional media (and now bloggers) to

place stories. Corporations, nonprofits and politicians alike employ spinners to ensure favorable

coverage, and decreasing budgets have brought newsrooms with less and younger journalistsv.

While still authoritative, the media no longer enjoys complete trust. According to Edelman’s

2010 Trust Barometer report, 30 plus percent of the population trust most forms of traditional

media.vi

The Fifth Estate — citizen media — brings to bear unreported yet relevant news, and questions

stated facts. Marshall University Professor Stephen D. Cooper proposed the Fifth Estate concept

in his 2006 book, "Watching the Watchdog: Bloggers as the Fifth Estate."vii Cooper thought the

new level of accountability caused by blogs was the emergence of a Fifth Estate in our social

system. The social media content creators and users keep the Fourth Estate honest. Indeed, in

some cases the media has welcomed social media, using it to augment its own research.

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Consider how CNN has moved away from Associated Press coverage and now uses user-

generated iReports to augment its online offering.

The popularity of social networks where content and ideas can create “viral” explosions of

widespread ideas with just the right spark, combined with the endless underpinning of the social

web – search – have made it easier than ever for the media and rival campaigns to spot the

mistakes and exaggerations of politicians like George Allen. Lest critics point out that this

phenomenon is isolated to politics, the Washington Post wrote a piece on how fan-generated

media was driving sports stories.viii Here’s a snippet:

But in the arena of sports, the arbiter of what matters is increasingly shifting from the

mainstream media to the freewheeling realm of the blogosphere, where impassioned fans opine

about the playing field’s heroes, villains and controversies of the day.

Like the Fourth Estate, the role of the Fifth Estate has extended beyond politics to larger issues.

Consider bestselling business author Charlene Li’s influential role in raising the flag on

Facebook’s privacy threatening advertising platform Beacon in 2007. In 2009, Iranian social

media users raised the visibility of their revolution to a global level, prompting Twitter users to

adopt the green avatars across the globe. Just last year, social media users learned of the Haiti

crisis online, and then turned social media tools into the biggest mobile fundraising event in

history for the American Red Cross. Or consider how angry iPhone 4 buyers tweeted,

Facebooked, blogged and commented, evoking an admission from Apple that its product was

flawed and encouraging Consumer Reports to not recommend the product. The examples

continue on and on.

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http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/11/close-encounter.html

Many corporate and nonprofit executives throughout the country have awoken to the

increasing power of social media, and are trying to engage in this dynamic new environment.

The Fifth Estate demands their attention.

There now exists incredible amounts of user-generated information, content, and

entertainment streaming throughout the world’s social networks. At the same time, the

environment seems to be dangerous with users and networks’ flaming companies who try to sell

to them, or worse ones that have public problems like BP’s horrible Deep Horizon eco-disaster,

or as cited in the original Now Is Gone, jetBlue’s mass stranding of passengers over Valentine’s

Day, 2007.ix

Given the complexity of conversational media and the dangers of a flawed strategy,

executives find themselves in a sudden quandary. They must determine how to get their

company or nonprofit successfully engaged in social media, and do so quickly. The viability of

their products, services and civic solutions depend on it. Yet social media successes are not

created overnight. Many organizations evolve over months and years, not with a simple tweet (a

microblog posting on the social network Twitter). The tension between structured organizations

working for profit or social good and the fluid nature of conversations cannot be underestimated.

This new book provides organizations and executives that are struggling to adopt with a

foundation to help create social media strategies for their companies. It does not teach tactical

line managers the best way to execute a Facebook fan page, create a blogger relations program,

or how to create a large Twitter follower count. There are many books that cover the actual day-

to-day marketing activities in the social media world.x Instead, this book discusses the general

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strategic principles and major aspects of social network marketing, providing executives a primer

to begin their effort.

The rest of this chapter discusses the general trends driving social media and their impact

on business. Ensuing chapters discuss whether or not an organization really is ready for social

media; the cultural challenges of social media adoption, listening and strategy; social media

marketing; and finally how to stay relevant.

Social Media’s Impact on Business as Usual

The first issue organizations consider with social media remains negative commenting, a

result of the open transparent dialog occurring on the Internet. “What if they publicly say our

product doesn’t work?” “How can they question whether their donations are being used in

Africa? We are spending the money appropriately!” This fear seems endemic throughout an

American “change-adverse” business culture accustomed to controlling their brands through

traditional print and broadcast media.

At the same time, with the rise of social networks, consumer trust in traditional media

forms has dramatically declined. The public no longer wholeheartedly believes in reporters now

that there are alternative voices to read and verify contemporary newspaper stories. Thus there is

encouragement for independent voices and their criticisms. The Fifth Estate is empowered. With

more choices and much more content, media usage patterns have shifted. Social media users are

no longer beholden to one voice (oft influenced by corporate marketing and PR machines), or a

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limited network of friends. It is peer-to-peer conversations at its finest, turbocharged by the viral

nature of what Doc Searl’s calls today’s Live Web.xi

A world of experiences lies at consumers’ fingertips, and many simply search to find

relevant information. When they search, social media sources are often listed as top content

vehicles. This challenges organizational outreach campaigns, providing disruptive feedback that

counters marketing and public relations efforts.

On April 16, 2007, BusinessWeek wrote, “Trashing brands online can also be high

theater.”xii Venerable content brands like F@st Company launch campaigns to determine

influencers, and then find themselves lampooned within 24 hours. Millions of people watch this

stuff—then join in and pile on. Is it any wonder companies lose control of the conversation?

Origin of Brands author Laura Ries commented, “As quickly and as easily as PR can

build a brand, PR can take a brand down. Negative PR is incredibly damaging. And with the

growth of new media, mainly the Internet, it can happen faster than ever. Look no further than

Don Imus, jetBlue or Taco Bell for proof of this fact… non-famous people or brands can be

annihilated by even mild scandals. If you’re not famous, you seldom get a second chance.”xiii

How far will the pendulum swing? Nonprofits and businesses alike increasingly find

themselves forced to communicate to their customers in their preferred social media forms.

Instead of businesses trying to find customers, this time businesses are trying to play catch-up

with their customers. To date most efforts have been limited to content publishing, with

mediocre results, and conversations lacking. For every socially engaged LIVESTRONG, there

are ten American Cancer Societies who fear the real negative whiplash an online conversation

can bring.

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Like many things in life, this fear represents only a very small part of the story.

Organizations that leverage social media intelligently have great things to gain, including

positive relationships with loyal community members and brand advocates, better

communications, new buyers or donors that consider the organization part of their community,

significant movements towards innovation or social change, increased brand loyalty, longer

relationships and much, much more.

One of the original and most respected marketing bloggers, Toby Bloomberg, provided

some insights:

Social media is more than a passive Web site strategy. The most beneficial

aspect is the ability to engage directly with customers and other stakeholders.

Social media opens the doors for businesses to listen to the unfiltered voices of

their customers and to track those conversations. Social media also provides

opportunities for the people within the company join in on those conversations

and talk directly to customers. Taking an active role in creating a dialogue with

customers about issues that they care about, at the moment in time when they care

about those concerns, is the heart of new media marketing.xiv

I have seen this phenomenon over and over again with many brands small and large, from Ford

Motor Company’s meteoric rise to online popularity thanks to a social media team led by Scott

Monty to the amazing work the Humane Society has done integrating social media as a core part

of their advocacy and fundraising efforts. New start-up brands also dominate the social web,

from measuring tool Radian6’s prominence amongst bloggers and social media communicators

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to social media darling Charity::Water’s rise to prominence with the Twitter community. On and

on the stories continue. Social media allows organizations to create valuable online

relationships.

That creates a big problem for corporate marketers and PR practitioners who are used to

playing by the rules and having defined methods of engagement with customers and the media.

Heretofore, they could issue whatever content they wanted and it was taken, because there were

controlled forms of communication. Media is now out of control, being created by millions. Add

to the mix the complications that lawyers, IT professionals, and general executive training brings

to the table. Finally, organizational cultures – both in the business and nonprofit sector – revolve

around stand-alone silos, not internetworked transparent conversations. The equation creates

hard cultural challenges for the corporate world.

With each passing day, the gap between out-dated tactics and current marketing needs

widens. In 2007 when the original Now Is Gone was published, traditional nonprofits and

companies could afford to sit on the sideline. Today, they all have flaccid social media

beachheads where they publish links and talk with no one. The situation becomes more

demanding as their efforts to communicate the old way fail.

It’s incumbent upon organizations to learn the new mobile-enabled social media world,

not just from a theoretical level, but also as community participants. Without social media our

ability to effectively do business is incomplete. The social media revolution’s impact on real

organizational communication campaigns demands our professional attention.

To reach these new audiences, executives and marketing communications professionals

must steer their organizations correctly. To do so will require a new approach to marketing, a

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different mindset and one that will not only dictate the way social media is used, but also new

principals of communicating in general. Authenticity, personality and transparency – buzz words

long associated with the comeuppance of social media – turn into new internal challenges,

constantly standing as the primary pathways to increased online successes.

The Long Tail of Media

When I wrote Now Is Gone, Long Tail theory was prevalent throughout social media

conversations. Applied, WIRED Executive Editor Chris Anderson’s economic theory did a great

job of visualizing the ascent of new media forms in context with old traditional media.xv Since

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that time, social networks and mobile media postings have arisen to assert their place within the

world of media.

Just to recap what Long Tail theory is: With a large population of customers, their selection and

buying pattern results in a power law distribution curve (Pareto distribution).xvi A market with a

high freedom of choice will create a certain degree of inequality by favoring the upper 20% of

the items (“hits” or “head”) against the other 80% (“non-hits” or “long tail”).xvii

Head of the Tail

Let’s go back to the power curve for media now that the dust has settled with the ascendancy of

some new media forms. The above chart [to be professionally rendered for the book] plots the

effectiveness or the weight of various media tactics in the current 2010 media environment.

Red hits have the most impact (top 20%), while the long tail (yellow, 80% of media) still makes

up the majority of the media marketplace. This chart defines the marketplace as word of mouth

power and readership.

This chart is subjective and various earned media forms have disparate degrees of weight.

General classification is the best we can do without the correct measurement tools using a real

world full on case study with all types of earned media opportunities. Further, this assumes PR

owns social media within a company. As we know, social media is often divided amongst the

larger marketing department.

As you can see at the head of the tail we have the following media forms:

National broadcast – ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX

Major newspapers – New York Times, USA Today, etc.

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Top magazines – BusinessWeek, Fortune, WIRED

Major social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, etc.

Top cable channels – CNN, ESPN, etc.

Top 100 blogs – Huffington Post, Techcrunch, Treehugger, etc. Generally speaking, blog

content can vary from print to video.

The Turning Point and the Tail

At the turning point in the tail, roughly the 20 percent mark, you have several other forms of

traditional media, which reflects the fall of some media, and the rise of new online and mobile

media.

Major trade journals – Obviously, the powerhouse in any industry still holds sway, but

the secondary journals have suffered quite a bit

Secondary social networks – For every FourSquare, there’s a Gowalla, not as popular,

these secondary networks still drive tons of traffic

Regional newspapers: You don’t hear about the Denver Post much nationally. Still very

powerful in the Rock Mountain region.

Secondary cable & TV: A&E, TBS, VH-1, etc.

National radio: ESPNRadio, FOX, etc.

Leading vertical blogs: And the winner here, no question. In PR for example, Brian Solis

(who wrote Engage, and the intro to Now Is Gone), will get as many or more reads as a

Secondary PR journal.

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Major “influencer” profiles: Finally on some of the social networks, you have highly

“influential” profiles which either through mass followers or strong engagement can set

of tidal wives of action via their profile

After that, you have the long tail, the vast majority of content. From the old world, I think you

can list the following: Local TV, local radio, local newspapers, secondary journals, corporate

web sites, email newsletters, and press releases. From the newer social media world, you can list:

Social network profiles, secondary blogs, videos, photos, maps, and mobile updates & check-ins.

The Taxonomy Problem

The issue with this chart is the taxonomy, which seeks to isolate individual media forms and

tools and their weight. In reality — given today’s fractured media environment — one hit in any

of these areas can trigger successive hits in others. The Fourth and Fifth Estates are intrinsically

tied together. When a word of mouth campaign has actual substance it usually cascades. Smart

communicators understand this. That’s why integrated outreach — not just social media or

traditional PR & advertising — matters so much.

In Chapter Four of Now Is Gone, we talk about this “ping pong match” between traditional and

new media outlets. From the draft material in June of 2007:

One great way to promote your new media initiative remains traditional media, who often use

well-respected blogs as sources or even the subject of stories… [Social media attention] drives

information into the spotlight forcing traditional media to pay attention – or look like they’ve

missed the news, and most importantly the conversation. Blogs [can be] a more effective way of

reaching and inspiring traditional media to react than most PR professionals and wire services

combined.

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Ping-pong matches demonstrate that weighting one tool by its actual total community and

eyeball impact fails. As Seth Godin said in Meatball Sundae, “It doesn’t matter if the socially

generated earned media only gets one percent of the hoped for attention if it’s the right one

percent.”

Another issue that we have seen is the degradation of quality of information.xviii Many traditional

media outlets have lost staff and have to do more with less and younger staff. And with blogs

and influencers filling the void, general journalistic standards have suffered. While some blogs

like Mashable have strict editorial guidelines, others are at the whim of the author, who may or

may not have domain expertise. Discerning quality information will continue to be a big

challenge for our society over the ensuing years.

“There’s No Market for Messages”

In 1999, four advanced thinkers – Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David

Weinberger -- wrote a book called the Cluetrain Manifesto, which touched off the online

conversation revolution. At the heart of the book was 95 theses, similar to Martin Luther’s

famous proclamations, and an incredible statement targeted at the heart of organizational

communications: “There’s No Market for Messages.”

In many ways, the original Now Is Gone is the direct product of Cluetrain’s unrelenting view

that controlled and contrived business brand messages — nonprofit or corporate — have no

place on the Internet. Cluetrain represents a great hope: That business can be done differently. It

believed the Internet and social media can become the elixir to revolutionize corporate cultures

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from exploitation as evidenced by Blackwater, BP, Enron, the collapse of GM, Goldman Sachs,

Halliburton, and WorldComm, and refocus corporations on communities, responsibility and

authenticity, causes, and service to actual markets.

Cluetrain captures the essence of the uncontrolled business environment and the need to provide

authentic, real dialogue based around the market’s needs.xix Without understanding the

fundamental dynamics of the social media form and the inherently uncontrived two-way

conversations it inspires, communicators are lost in the darkness. They have lost control, and

find their messages falling on deaf ears, or worse publicly rejected. The Fifth Estate does not

have to accept organizational messaging. This is a fundamental, cultural struggling point that

most organizations wrestle with throughout their social media adoption cycle.

It doesn’t matter if you have a compelling cause or a public interest, or if your company

contributes to society. If your organization relentlessly delivers messages to people, they will

likely turn their back on you. It’s like entering a party and spamming people with solicitations,

stale lines, and hucksterisms.

The 20th century industrial approach of communications is over, regardless of medium. Mass

communicating at people no longer works. We live in a networked communications world

online. Even Super Bowl ads are starting to lose strength now, thus Pepsi’s $20 million Refresh

program.xx

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Whether its social or not, organizational executives and communicators should retool their

strategic approach towards messaging. What we learned in business or communications school

has changed. The old dynamics of media, specifically the concept that there are limited channels

of media that people get information from, no longer applies.

Look at messages as conversation starters. You won’t control the dialogue, but the fact of the

matter is your organization already lost control and some experts argue, you never had it.xxi

Instead, at least when it comes to online media, let’s focus on having real interesting

conversations that matter to us (organization and person), and our stakeholders in online

communities.

The rest of this book deals with the pragmatic basics of social media and integrating it

within a larger marketing communications effort. It assumes that a company or a practitioner has

at least a passing interest in social media, that they have reached a point where there’s a very real

possibility of engaging in a social media strategy of some form.

Chapter 1 Snap Shots

For most people, social media represents a sudden shift in the way communications is done.

Whether that realization occurs with a moment of clarity like mine with the Allen-Webb election

or in an educational manner over time, it creates a turning point. A new empowering form of

communications has arisen, which requires a completely different grassroots-oriented approach.

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The Fifth Estate

Citizen created content fills a information void that the current power establishments in

government, industry and the media have left open. This new “fifth estate” keeps traditional

media and power accountable by pointing out fallacies and creating its own power dynamic

where it creates stories that the traditional media reports.

Impact on Organizations

Unable to “contain” negative commenting or successfully communicate in conversational media,

organizations find themselves forced to change. This is a much larger cultural adoption matter

than simply learning new communications tools like the fax machine. Now executives must

unlearn decades of strategic management approaches to communications in order to succeed.

The Long Tail

Social media generally is not as well read as most popular forms of media with the exception of

the most popular social networks. Yet the “long tail” of lightly read media can create sudden

movements of information and force media leaders to report and communicate about these

hidden stories. The resulting ping-pong match has created a new media ecosystem.

No Market for Messages

At the heart of corporate communications is the message, meant to be delivered, disseminated

and controlled. Because of two-way communication methods, online markets reject messages,

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instead preferring customer feedback and opinions on products, services and solutions. At best

the role of the message in social media environments is that of a conversation started.

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i Adam Aleman, “Exposed: How Dem Part Operative Plan to Youtubing Republicans in 2008,” FlashReport, May 22,2007 (http://www.flashreport.org/blog.php?postID=2007052203510081)

iiRobb Tokatakiya, “The George Allen Implosion Continues,” Tokatakiya, Otober 30, 2006 (http://tokatakiya.blogspot.com/2006/10/george-allen-implosion-continues.html).

iii Campwood, “Fourth Estate,” http://www.campwood.com/FourthEstate.htm

iv Fourth estate, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_estate

v Valeria Maltoni, Will New Media Re-Imagine Journalism?, Conversation Agent, December 30, 2007 (http://www.conversationagent.com/2007/12/will-new-media.html).

vi Edelman Public Relations, Edelman trustbarometer, 2010, page 6, http://www.scribd.com/full/26268655?access_key=key-1ovbgbpawooot3hnsz3u

vii Stephen D. Cooper, “Watching the Watchdog: Bloggers as the Fifth Estate,” Marquette Books, 2006.

viii Liz Clark, “Increasingly, Fans Are Setting the Agenda in the Blogosphere,” Washington Post, December 31, 2007.

ix Susan Getgood, “More jetBlue Blues and some good advice from Strive,” Marketing Roadmaps, March 4, 2007 (http://getgood.typepad.com/getgood_strategic_marketi/2007/03/more_jetblue_bl.html)

x We recommend starting with David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing & PR. For a full list of resources see the appendices.

xi Doc Searls, “Syndication and the Live Web Economy,” Linux Journal, December 9, 2005 (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8731).

xii “Web Attack,” BusinessWeek, April 16, 2007, (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_16/b4030068.htm).

xiii Laura Ries, “Origin of Brands Author Laura Ries Discusses New Media,” The Buzz Bin, April 23, 2007 (http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/2007/04/23/origin-of-brands-author-laura-ries-discusses-new-media/).

xiv Toby Bloomberg, original interview, June 9, 2007.

xv Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Thy The Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, Hyperion, 2008.

xvi “What is 80/20 rule,” 80/20 Rule of Presenting Ideas, (http://www.80-20presentationrule.com/whatisrule.html).

xvii Clay Shirky, “Power Laws, Weblogs and Inequality,” Clay Shirky’s Writings About the Internet, February 8, 2003 (http://www.shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html).

xviii Isaac Pigott comment, “The Long Tail of Media Grows,” GeoffLivingston.com, July, 8, 2010 (http://geofflivingston.com/2010/07/08/the-long-tail-of-media-grows/comment-page-1/#comment-23309).

xix Brian Solis, “New Communication Theory and New Roles for the New World of Marketing,” BrianSolis.com, July 21, 2008 (http://www.briansolis.com/2008/07/new-communication-theory-and-new-roles/).

xx Geoff Livingston, “Pepsi’s Super Refreshing Social Play,” The Buzz Bin, January 11, 2010 (http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2010/01/11/pepsis-super-refreshing-social-play/).

xxi Toby Bloomberg, “Social Media… That’s Just the Way It Is,” Diva Marketing Blog, June 15, 2009 (http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/2009/06/social-media-thats-just-the-way-it-is.html).

Welcome to the Fifth Estate

Business

Transcript of Welcome to the Fifth Estate