Dubbed “The Gang of 500” by ABC’s The Note, the permanent power brokers (media, money and the occasional politician) in Washington don’t understand why this whole Imus thing is a big deal. So what if he said a silly little thing about a women’s college basketball team? Why can’t everyone just take a joke?

Let’s just assume that most of the heads in this gang couldn’t accurately be referred to as “nappy.” Imus has lost credibility, advertisers and two weeks of air time but it doesn’t appear he’s lost his core audience: the dinosaurs (predominantly old, white and male) who still pine for the days when you could smoke wherever you want, harass whichever secretary you want, and the only interaction you ever had with a person of a different race was when you had your shoes shined.

For a group of people renowned for sticking to focus-group vetted talking points, the “Gang” seems to have missed the memo that casual racism isn’t acceptable to most Americans anymore. Their “good ole’ days” mentality puts them on the same road to extinction already traveled by former Senator George “Macaca” Allen.

Mike Segar/Reuters

The Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team

Just got back from Golden Gate University’s Speaker Series Event featuring Robert Scoble, author of the book Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers (he wasn’t naked at the talk).
 

If I was a hardcore blogger, I would have been writing this during the event. Twittering it. Texting via my PDA. Whatever. Call me "old skool", but I wanted to actually listen and absorb what Robert Scoble had to say, instead of trying to process and regurgitate the points he was making ad hoc.

Robert is very low key, funny, and insightful. I always like a speaker who can throw in a mild cuss word and not raise the collective hackles of the audience. He spoke to us in "layman’s terms", but never dumbed it down. He took lots of questions throughout the conversation, and wasn’t married to his PowerPoint deck (which was loaded with Hugh MacLeod’s great comic graphics). He even signed books for attendees.

Here are my take-aways from the talk, and this is all paraphrased from memory, as I didn’t take notes (the few real quotes I remember will be in quotation marks).

If you aren’t blogging, you will be left behind, and fast.
Blogging
will get you linked to, therefore blogging will pump up your Google search results status. If you aren’t on the first page of Google search results, people won’t
find you.

Read smarter – use a feed reader.
Scoble said he reads/scans over 30 THOUSAND blog posts a month via his Google Reader. He is subscribed to over 650 separate blogs (I thought I had a lot of
subscriptions to read, but I have a piddly thirty). There is no way
Robert could read 10k blog postings a day by visiting 650 individual
blogs. There are other feed readers out there beside Google Reader, so
just find one you like, and start your day off with some new knowledge,
information, and honest conversation on topics you choose.

The best defense is a good offense.
A woman asked: How do I stay invisible on the Internet? I don’t want bad press out there about me. Scoble said: "Get over it." Stuff will be said, both good and bad. Blog about it. Post videos. Link to folks who say good stuff about you. Respond directly to the bad press and you can perform some damage control. You may find out ways to be better, do more, turn those naysayers into evangelists.

The thought is kismet with Clive Thompson’s article in Wired called The See-Through CEO, where he states: "Google is not a search engine. It’s a reputation management
system. By enhancing transparency, companies can manage their images as
never before." He goes on to say, "Once people are interested in you, they’re interested in helping you out – by offering ideas, critiques, and extra brain cycles. Customers become working partners."

I am looking forward to reading Naked Conversations, and getting even more insight from the Scobleizer.

It has arrived. And perhaps, with as much anticipation as that extra hour of daylight we’ve so cheerfully gained. So in honor of those sweet little morsels, the fun and thoughtful Indexed reminds us that "They seem so innocent."

Follow up to my post about Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty a few months back… here is a snippet from an interesting article discussing why the campaign is resonating with women, written by Marti Barletta, author of the book PrimeTime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders.

These PrimeTime Women are not in denial about how old they are or
what they look like. They accept their age, actually relish it, and
can’t wait to see what the second half of life brings them. Many say
you couldn’t pay them to be 20 again! Studies have shown that women in
their 50s and 60s report these as the happiest decades of life. As one
of our respondents exclaimed, "I love being 50; I love this time in my
life. I don’t think, ‘oh God, I’m getting old.’ I look in the mirror
and see wrinkles and I’m okay with it."

Contrary to popular opinion, Boomer women aren’t in denial about
aging. Advertisers are. And the women they’re supposed to be trying to
connect with are getting annoyed. One respondent said: "I really resent
the notion that you can’t grow old comfortably. You must NOT have
wrinkles. The truth is, they are a natural part of aging."

Dove totally "gets" this PrimeTime Woman. And the real story behind
the success of this latest iteration of the Campaign for Real Beauty
lies in the principle that this woman is comfortable in her own skin.
Being herself feels better than being seen as perfect. Authenticity
trumps aspiration.

Marti also gives some simple yet clear marketing advice in her article:

Marketers, take note: This is the dawning of the age of PrimeTime
Women. They are the healthiest, wealthiest, most active, educated, and
influential generation of women in history.

Marketers are always looking for a "magic" answer. For once, they
just may have one… with their huge numbers, rapid growth, and
incredible spending power, PrimeTime Women may well be the "silver
bullet" marketers are looking for.

Read the full article: The Real Story Behind the Success of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty courtesy of MarketingProfs.