Rick Sanchez, the Carson Daly of CNN

Wanted to share with you an interesting use of social media by the mainstream media, if you haven't caught it yet…

So, with my current employment situation coupled with current events and my usual media appetite, I’ve been watching a lot of television and catching up on a lot of current events. Mostly news and informational stuff, like the news cablers, documentaries, the blogosphere, and reading the Economist again (really!).

Anyway, CNN’s Rick Sanchez has fascinated me for a long time. Some background: Sanchez used to work at WSVN (FOX, my old employer) and launched the "if-it-bleeds-it-leads" tabloid-TV style that spread over the affiliates of the FOX network and beyond.

So, I’ve been watching his 3-4pm newscast for most of the summer, and I’ve been noticing how he’s been sneaking in little bits of social media each week. Sanchez, a big Twitter fan, has been integrating Facebook, Twitter and SMS into his broadcasts in a fast-paced, FOX-like style. They’ve replaced the news ticker with SMS content, and Rick’s always checking his Twitter and Facebook pages for instant viewer feedback. The play-out should be interesting; particularly how FOX's NewsCorp responds since MySpace is a NewsCorp entity, but not in the right user demographic. As multiple news events have come to bear (market meltdown, presidential election, etc.), these tools’ usage have been become even more pronounced.

Now, he’s hosting a show that may be news television's first integrated social media broadcast. I've been watching it mature as CNN has rolled it out over the past few weeks – it has very interesting potential (and implications) for mainstream media as well as PR folks like myself.

So I Tweeted about it.

And then I tipped Gawker off to it. They wrote about it, actually (how meta!). Perhaps CNN will pick up the story (or this one), like my Charmin project.

So what does this mean to marketers?

This is a great example of Digital media integrating with mainstream media (my original haunt), and my gut says the prognosis is good. The broadcast numbers have not been released yet, but Sanchez's Twitter account has exploded with followers. This program is a good demonstration of the utilization of the technology in a very early version. As the technologies mature, and usage goes widespread, MSM programming can take advantage of the interactive conversation for the benefit of digital marketers’ clients and their public relations initiatives.

As I've said many times before, Digital teams will also need to educate their colleagues on what this emerging media are and best practices to work with them, and embrace for themselves. Personnel that are able to do so across disciplines (Consumer, Healthcare, Corporate) will be invaluable to growing an overall firm's capabilities and insight. It's a technology I'm currently thinking about how to apply to future projects. Digital media, like the technology powering it, is constantly maturing, which will allow the drivers of Digital teams, to not only round out PR programs, but also to make PR firms more innovative and to grow the industry as a whole.

Here's another bit that'll "really bake your noodle", as the Oracle would say... How'd you find yourself reading this piece? Twitter? Facebook? :)

UPDATE: Steve Rubel (MicroPersuasion) has picked up on Sanchez too...

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