Jeremiah Owyang: Your tweeters know more than you!

"Your readers know more than you."

Dan Gillmor coined this as the now-familiar journalistic koan: the reporter aims to inform but always finds that some readers have more information about the story they're reporting. This was always the case, he explained, but it took on a new urgency in the Internet era, as readers found outlets to respond, and correct, reporters publicly.

Of course, this chestnut rings hollow unless the reporter (a), has the means to display the comments from their readers or (b), acknowledges the readers that set him straight, or (c) genuinely dispatches with the know-it-all attitude and puts his ignorance in the form of questions to readers. As Jay Rosen clarified in a 2004 interview: "It's not just, 'My readers know more than I do.' It's, 'My readers know more than I do and I can tap that because they will tell me.'" (see my Post Facto Editing for more on this.)

Weblogs were a big help in that they provided a mechanism for displaying comments forum for the reporter to ask questions before publishing a story. Because the responses are organized publicly, the initator generally has the social pressure to respond & acknowledge.

In this manner, Twitter is a step backwards. Neither Twitter.com interface nor the popular Tweetdeck desktop application organizes the responses to posts (FriendFeed claims to do this, but only if the responses is through FriendFeed. Facebook effectively does it though). In other words, if some readers respond, many others readers will never know.

Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester research analyst in social media, mused earlier on Sunday on Twitter that "given the state of the airline industry, I'm surprised we don't see ads inside of the airplane like public buses and trains." He has 37,000 followers on Twitter, and over forty responded within the hour. Three had forwarded his comment via a retweet. Nine begged him not to give the airlines any ideas. And thirty followers (including me) informed him that there was indeed advertising on commercial airlines-- on movies/televisions, in-flight magazines, and, on a number of carriers, on seatbacks.

Most importantly, somebody sent an answer within two minutes. But Owyang has disappeared from Twitter for the subsequent six hours (it is Sunday, after all), so more redundant answers keep trickling in. It's not his fault that every utterance of flam causes a ripple amongst some sizable yield of his 37,000 readers, but at some point he (and other Twitter power users) have to realize what a mess they have wrought. He is, after all, presenting himself as a Twitter expert. "Engage in dialog, ask questions and answer others questions using the reply feature," he counsels.

When Owyang logs in to Twitter next, he'd probably love to see an organized grouping of answers such as below. But he won't, because the Twitter.com interface won't do it for him. Nor will TweetDeck. (LinkedIn is a far better place to ask a serious question).

[Why I have singled out J.O.? For the same reason I picked on a Forrester report in January (see Beyond Blogging). Forrester Research is the industry leader. That my employer pays sums of money to his employer is irrelevant; I don't even know how much we pay. J.O. probably makes many more observations over the course of the year on far weightier matters, and I assume somebody else is keeping score of how good his advice is .I am merely following Dan Gillmor's dictum of the reader "knowing more" than the apparent expert, and trying to find out what the expert says in return. I've been playing this game for a long time now. I've responded to J.O. over tweets before, but the only time I got an response from him was when I emailed him.]

One last point: the original question actually suggests at some fundamental points on advertising. There are, roughly, two places to put advertising: cultural expressions (newspapers, magazines, radio, television, athletes, performing arts, events) or architectural expressions (billboards, buses). Every ad on a billboard is one that doesn't go in a daily newspaper. Ads on in-flight magazines at least support journalists. If companies fully exploit mobile phone advertising to subsidize users directly, that is less money supporting traditional journalism.

Response: It already exists

• fiberartisan: @jowyang you mean like the ones on JetBlue - including the free samples? ;-)
• rgruia: @jowyang I guess you don't watch movies while you're on a plane ;-) Hey, Ryanair is considering charging for using the washroom ;-)
• ronchung: @jowyang they do have inflight magazines with ads. And they want you to buy in flight duty free.
• kbrazel: @jowyang You haven't been on a plane with the seatback video screens. Lots of ads!
• michaeljbarber: @jowyang when was the last time you flew @usairways? They have ads on sick bags & tray tables.
• JodiEchakowitz: @jowyang They just throw the ads at u on their personalized tv screens. It's more than enough!
• michaeljung: @jowyang low cost airlines here in europe have that, like easyjet and ryanair and airberlin. Seen that, flew with them.
• JonGarfunkel: @jowyang Surely in all your travels you must've picked up the airline magazines from the pouch in front of you, no? *T0
• michaeljbarber: @LorenMcDonald @jowyang Yep it is annoying. "Welcome to Phoenix. Did you know you could be earning miles with the USairways credit card" arg
• michelthigpen: @jowyang They are indeed, creeping up slowly (Scandinavia).. check this out http://bit.ly/196AOA (expand)
• victorzapanta: @jowyang When I flew US Airways in January, my tray was plastered with an ad for Patrick Swayze's show. Horrified: http://twitpic.com/2ctwv
• giero: @jowyang I've actually seen those, believe it was either Easyjet or Transavia that had ads on the overhead luggage compartments... :-/
• johnpeavoy: @jowyang You've obviously never flown Ryanair ;-). They have ads all along the o/h bins in their 737s....
• LorenMcDonald: RT @michaeljbarber: @jowyang when was last time U flew @usairways? They have ads on sick bags & tray tables LM: they also push credit cards
• TiffanyStarnes: @jowyang Some airlines have tray table ads. Did a campaign with plates of food a few years back for tourism client. http://twitpic.com/2cu21
• chasnote: @jowyang Have you seen Sea World ads on overhead bins on Southwest?
• Crowdsourcing: @jowyang : I had ads on the pull-down food trays on a Europe flight last year. Maybe it was KLM?
• claudiomartins: @jowyang this has been happening for a while here in Brazil. you've no option but to see adds on the front seat and on the LCD screens.
• jennselke: @jowyang I think it is only a matter of time before airline trays and seatbacks have advertisements on them
• ajmunn: @jowyang RE Ads on Airlines. Indeed was thinking of internal entertainment channels with ads, or now online services through portal with ads
• kevinaschenbren: @jowyang I noticed a lot of ads during the inflight movies on my last intl flight. Each of the on-demand programs had ads up front.
• kevinaschenbren: @jowyang Plus there are the inflight mags that are basically ads with snippets of advertorial content.
• anettenovak: @jowyang we have them here, sas and ryanair sell the space on the back of your traytable.
• bncarvin: @jowyang Last time I travelled their WERE ads in the plane. They were on the top of the tray table.
• stefanomaggi: @jowyang in Europe on most low cost airlines (e.g. easyjet, ryanair) we see ads very similar to ones on busses
• Chris_Hoskins: @jowyang obviously you've never been on a ryanair flight!
• rickwilliams: @jowyang RyanAir in the UK have been doing this for some time.
• MyMelodie: @jowyang when I flew (I believe American Airlines) in Sept there were Verizon Wireless ads on all the seat trays!
• claudiomartins: @jowyang Visa, Mastercard, PWC, Shell... all advertisers...

Response: Don't give the airline companies ideas!

• lrobiner: @jowyang how about sponsored oxygen masks?
• beretta627: @jowyang don't give them any ideas!
• heythatguymark: @jowyang Don't say that too loudly, sir....you never know who's listening...lol.
• swoodruff: @jowyang With the national deficit we're going to run, perhaps soon you'll the see Pepsi Air Force One..
• tudor_ciurescu: @jowyang don`t worry my friend, this is next :D :)
• jdcoffman: @jowyang Don't give them the idea! I'm sure it's been researched
• ElspethMurray: @jowyang Hmm - interesting thought. Not that I'd welcome ads on planes, but yeah, I know what you mean.
• cheeky_geeky: @jowyang Do you think a Burger King ad on the back of the airplane seat in front of you would encourage a purchase at the airport? Maybe!
• beauche: @jowyang hey, now.... don't give the airlines any ideas. being locked in a seat, they could beam audio/video driven ads to a forced audience

Re-tweeters:

• fsalasnyc: RT @jowyang given the state of the airline industry, I'm surprised we don't see ads inside of the airplane like public buses and trains
• rochecr: RT: @jowyang: given the state of the airline industry, I'm surprised we don't see ads inside of the airplane like public buses and trains
• AlanEggleston: RT @jowyang: given the state of the airline industry, surprised we don't see ads inside of the plane like public buses and trains (Shhhhh!)