Moderator: Staci D. Kramer, Executive Editor, paidContent.org

Panelists:
Ilene Chaiken, Executive Producer, The L Word/CEO, OurChart.com
Alan Citron, General Manager, TMZ.com
Carson Daly, Host, Last Call with Carson Daly
David Eun, Vice President, Content Partnerships, Google
George Klavikoff, Chief Digital Officer, NBC Universal

Staci: Is social media like the little black dress in the closet, something that you have to have but you really don't use it? George: What we're about to do is to engage all our fans in what the content has to look like. David: What I'd like to see more is YouTube as a place where communities can form, a community of users worldwide upload responses on YouTube, needs to be more of that. Carson: Great interest in social media, back in 1998 hosted request live, hour of programming chosen by viewers, social media issues are quite important. Site soliciting content to incentivize users. Work also for Demand Media, relaunching DotTV. Alan: Main value of social media is creating value around stories that have most heat. We make it easy for them, doing a good job now and exploring new technologies. Ilene: OurChart.com inspired by character who did this on TV show, for engaged fans and users who congregated around their show, kind of a lesbian MySpace. L-Word has unusually engaged fan base, fans invited to write some episodes.

Staci: NBC has been having producers blog, but shows still die. How useful is social media? George: Very useful, helps to create communities around affinity brands, a piece in a puzzle to get ratings. (COMMENT: When are we going to get to the point when we see TV shows appearing at a sponsor's site rather than just at the media company's own portal? If advertisers want engagement it would seem to make sense. Kind of like Texaco Star Theatre at the Texaco portal) Alan: Now a predictable pattern, story that's exclusive gets posted and immediately the feedback comes in. Responses come in by the hundreds of thousands in forums, similar in comments, but the other part is that while this is happening at their site it ricochets out across the whole Web.

Staci: How can you tell when someone's sharing your video? Alan: A lot of people ask permission and tracking can show. Staci: How does the Chart spin out? Ilene: We have a chart, every one can create a profile on the chart, can go through profiles or go to the chart and get a representation of a primary user (like a Inxight star tree but more interactive). Up just a couple of months, have about 60,000 profiles. Staci: Does every show need a social network? Ilene: No, there aren't a lot of lesbian portals, it was a natural place for it on our site. Staci: Carson, how do you use social media? Carson: We're the caboose to the Conan O'Brien show, have to do everything that we can to engage the audience, invite the community to talk amongst themselves, engage with music.

Staci: YouTube says there's a huge promotional value for videos shown in their brand, does that really work? David: Have created branded channels in YouTube, something that appears bad on the surface could turn out to be good. Staci: NBA content wasn't embeddable, how do you get content partners to understand the value of embedding? David: It's early days, everything about the way that businesses are structured for rights and clearances can make simple things very difficult. We need to work with content partners to create more upside with limited downside. The industry doesn't necessarily reward the first-comers but you definitely don't want to be the last one in. Question: Is there any value to taking people who are popular in social media and putting them in a show? George: We see social media as a great talent system. Every time we make a bet on a television show it costs millions of dollars, any advantage is useful. A study showed that paying attention to how often shows are mentioned and how often positively, it correlates with ratings rankings and you can see it before the show is even launched. Need to use the wisdom of the masses to guide what they do. Staci: Ilene? Still evolutionary, a lot of users ask to be on the show, looking at using more user-generated content to see how it can fit and commissioning content, looking to see if something they're doing in a small venue could wind up being in a network TV show. Will get a better hearing when the show goes to an executive's office. Question: YouTube is a big platform, but there's nichification, Will Smith's site, are the platforms the way to go or is it about niche communities? David: Everyone talks about the long tail, what they forget about is the middle part, the "torso," niche producers who can afford to mine specific audiences, working with producers in the torso to feature their content, but don't want to lock any one in, use YouTube as a fantastic platform but use everyone else in the meantime, then use tools to measure success on YouTube. We're doubling down on the torso (COMMENT: Process of attraction by success. Familiar Google model) There's how-to stuff, serious stuff, too, but entertainment is also very important. George and I talk all the time, but we're not dependent on any one kind of content.

Rafat: You book a lot of MySpace bands, how does the conversation go with your producers? Carson: There's some pressure from above, but for a show that's on as late as we are we can focus on emerging bands. In the days of Johnny Carson your "shot" on his show was your chance, MySpace helps bands to build their own career. We try to find the ones who are right on the cusp of breaking and give them a shot. It's mostly Carson's tastes, small staff, scrappy, soldiers in the street, find out who's hot on the streets but also book bands right off the Internet. David: It's very early, second trial of syndicating content from major with embedded ads, potentially syndicated to AdSense network, experimenting with how long an ad should be, tend not to favor long pre-rolls, but lots of data to be gathered. George: The users will tell us that it's too long or too short. We chapter each show, have found a mix with pre-rolls where 70 to 80 percent stick through all five chapters. Question: Is the internet now seen as a stepping stone to get a TV deal? Does the Internet stand on its own? Carson: Thinking of Rosie O'Donnell, I'd look at the Internet as the priority platform moving forward and look at TV secondarily. Ilene: Talent and representation is always behind the curve. Getting representation to allow their talent to do something innovative is always the problem. Alan: An Imus could go anywhere now. Staci: Changes the dynamics when youlve have options. Carson: It's only been in recent months that networks are beginning to understand that they need a flow of original talent.

Question: Once users understand model how do you share revenues? David: 15 seconds of fame is attractive but hard to figure out how it happens. When we think about monetization we know where the traffic is coming from and its from the users. Corporate sites with video programming? George: speaking with some, looking at muscle cars, working with sponsor to create a destination, being underwritten by a marketer, not a car marketer. Made investment in company selling vertical networks, will assume that we'll be successful to attract people to their own site but will ensure that they can still work with other sites for their marketers.

Labels: econSM, events