Guest Post by Patricia Handschiegel: Follow her on Twitter | Read her blog
I have a background in Internet telecom and platform business, which is the business around broadcast, broadband, telephone, media, and radio communications systems. You may have noticed these things are blurring together in the market today, or are badly disrupted or fragmented. This is happening for a reason: The Internet is here to replace those old platforms. That’s why it’s already starting to happen. It’s not a scary thing – just look at what you can do with the web now, like watch TV on your phone and collaborate. But, for businesses it presents a lot of challenges. The hardest being how to adapt a business around a new platform (the internet) while somehow still handling the old one you still have to work on.
My company, 9, is adapted to all of them and currently does business and production in more than three, including internet, TV and media. It’s a market called “transmedia” that is talked about in Fast Company this month, and was called “the future of the business” by Variety magazine in July. Transmedia sits at the intersection between Internet, traditional television, print media (magazines and newspapers), mobile, etc. Instead of focusing on one or two platforms, we see the world as one giant circle containing all and operate seamlessly and effectively across them. The reason why transmedia’s getting the attention it has been is because it is the emerging future we’re all in. Few companies are in the position where they’re focused on just one single platform. In most cases, it’s two or more. Transmedia is the approach towards it.
For companies that have to deliver a message within this environment, transmedia methodology can also make sense. It’s the concept of having a single message that’s then broken into smaller, more customized bites designed specifically to fit each of the distribution platforms you’ll be working with. From there, it’s customized to fit the habits, needs and look/feel audiences for each platform. So, if it’s web it looks one way, if it’s TV it’s another but it all ties back to a single, unified look, feel and message. The ability to do this is creating a new and growing practice space for marketing and branding consultants. My company works with consultant and media CEO Meghan Cleary, who has co-created our first franchise project with us. I think there’s a lot of opportunity for PR firms to also expand into the space as more companies eye transmedia as a solution to current and future fragmentation of the market, particularly where marketing and communications is concerned.
BIO
Patricia is a serial media and entertainment entrepreneur who founded a pioneering social media site in 2004, which she sold in 2007. She is currently the CEO of 9, a transmedia production and consulting company that builds and consults on franchise projects for traditional and digital media, entertainment and internet business. She’s the co-creator of the popular Huffington Post series The New Power Girls and Thenewpowergirls.com blog, which covers news and profiles of women startups and existing companies in web 2.0 and beyond.
This week, I was invited to speak at the Girls in Tech event in San Francisco as part of its evening discussing and exploring the nuances and opportunities defining and fueling Journalism 2.0. I’ve supported GIT founder Adriana Gascoigne since the beginning and will always help the chapters that now exist around the world. It’s an important organization.
The evening was hosted at the San Francisco HQ of MySpace in the city’s South Beach district, which prior to their arrival, served as the early offices for the Social Media Club as it was forming.
To open the GIT New Journalism event, I was interviewed by my hero, and razor sharp witted Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal and All Things Digital. We discussed my new book “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations“ c0-authored with Dierdrre Breakenridge as well as the state of PR and social media marketing. Her questions were riveting and ensured that all guests stayed at the edge of their seats, including me, as we shared our honest and blunt assessments, predictions and solutions for an industry on the brink of either collapse or renaissance or both.
I think the audience would agree, the discussion begged for more time than we could possibly fit into the schedule. I’ll try to organize part two in the near future…
Shortly before our discussion, Kara shot one of her famous Flipcam interviews, which she shared in her recounting of the evening’s event and the discussions that defined it as well as in the Wall Street Journal Digital Network.
Part Two of my recent visit to the gorgeous San Francisco offices of Loic Le Meur and Seesmic.
Loic and I spent some valuable time together that proved both refreshing and invigorating. We discussed digital photography, innovation at Seesmic, public relations and social marketing, and brand building in the era of the Social Web.
The conversation evolved into a deeper discussion that tackled the subject of online community building. Loic wanted to capture and share the experience on Loic.tv, so we moved to his video studio to continue the dialogue on camera.
Loic suggested that we spend a few minutes discussing the book on camera to share with the Loic.tv community. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse – after all, Tim Ferriss had occupied the same chair moments before I arrived.
