Thinking Out Loud: Instant Poll, Instant Interactivity
What We’re Seeing: In mid-afternoon, the news broke in Silicon Valley. Mayor Ron Gonzales, long ago damaged by behind-closed-doors activities, was being indicted on bribery and related charges. I saw it on a Google alert as I went about my work. MercuryNews.com did a speedy job of assembling a package, with PDFs of official documents, and got its Prospero-powered comments package up. It even offered a quick poll: Should Gonzales resign now? (You guessed it: 87 percent of 4,000 respondents by end of night Thursday want him gone).
What surprised me, then, was the phone call I received on my home phone.
"Hi, this is Hank Plante, from Eyewitness News. You may have heard that Mayor Ron Gonzales of San Jose has been charged with bribery. We’re doing an instant poll and we’d like one minute of your time."
Now, I don’t normally respond to telephone polls, but this was from Hank Plante – okay, a recorded, mechanical Hank Plante, long-time political editor of the CBS Eyewitness news team in San Francisco. I don’t watch the station, but I know who Hank is. And he was calling me.
Uncharacteristically, I answered the questions, supplying my view on resignation and four demographics. In a minute I was off the phone … and feeling part of history.
In Outsell’s Opinion: Phone polling is nothing new, and it’s usually intrusive, even when it’s in the public interest. But this TV station was on to something, and it was using the phone, not the Internet. It was instant interactivity, with voice even easier (can you say pay-per-call?) than typing. And it used personality and a personality’s voice to engage me.
There’s a lesson here for all media – TV, radio, newspapers, even magazines. Seize the moment. Use the technology that makes sense. Use personality. And involve people. We’re in an instant age, and the rewards go to the swift and imaginative.