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As I mentioned earlier, some popular public forums for discussing video technology have been weighing the pros and cons of Panasonic’s DefPerception character blog. In one of these discussions, community members (who represent the target audience of DefPerception) have considered other possible approaches. It seems that some video geeks would especially like to see a weblog authored by the team behind Panasonic’s AG-HVX200 HD/SD DVCPRO P2 camcorder.

Now that, I think, is an excellent idea – and a direction that Panasonic could easily move toward…

The most active and thoughtful of the forum threads on this topic that I’ve seen so far is the ongoing discussion at DVinfo. Even better, Panasonic’s Jan Crittenden Livingston is participating in that thread, and has explained her perspective and reasoning behind the “Tosh Bilowski” character blog approach in more detail.

I recommend checking out the entire DVinfo thread from the beginning, especially the posts from the last few days.

WHERE CAN PANASONIC GO FROM HERE?

Well, first off, they can scrap the “Tosh” blog and start anew. That’s a good thing about online media: You can change course more rapidly and easily than in traditional media.

Specifically, Panasonic could:

1. Build a new blog that is clearly authored by the team of engineers, marketers, reps, and others involved in the AG-HVX200 HD/SD DVCPRO P2 camcorder.
   • This blog, by the way, should present a unique, persistent URL for each posting – not try to force every page to appear as www.defperception.com. I don’t know why they did that, but it discourages inbound links, which hinders public discussion (and thus, the effectiveness of the blog).
   • This blog also should offer an “about” page or blurb for each author, including a unique e-mail address for each author. Panasonic can, of course, handle and filter mail coming in to those addresses any way they want. However, only presenting one point of contact for several individuals wouldn’t support the intent that Panasonic is truly trying to participate in the public conversation.
   • And how about some video clips?, especially downloadable examples of HD video shot with the Panasonic camera? This is, after all, a blog about HD video. I realize there might be some technical hurdles to delivering these clips in ways that would display appropriately across a wide range of computers, but video would greatly enhance how engaging and credible the blog appears, so that’s worth investing some resources.
2. Hire or assign a qualified editor to oversee content to the weblog (including marshalling content from the video team), and to make sure the blog has a sustainable content strategy to ensure a steady flow of relevant, compelling, credible topics. This editor should be someone who is already involved in and thoroughly understands weblogs and the dynamics of conversational media.
3. Rewrite the postings from the Tosh blog, doing away with the pretense of the “Tosh” character, and posting them (backdated to the original dates, and including comments) to the new blog.
4. Archive the original blog so that the old pages are still accessible at their original “toshpit” URLs (which were masked in the original blog, but not hard to discover). This is necessary because there are inbound links to those pages. Removing that content might look like Panasonic is trying to pretend “Tosh Bilowski” never happened. However, they should add a prominent disclaimer to each of the original pages clarifying that Panasonic has adopted a new approach to the blog, abandoned the character approach, and revised and republished that content accordingly. This disclaimer should include a prominent link on each archived page to the corresponding re-edited content on the new blog. Disable comments for the archived pages.
5. Create a couple of new postings. One should explain how Panasonic changed the blog’s approach, and why. It is, after all, OK to admit that something you tried didn’t work, and to try again. In fact, companies and individuals look smarter and more credible for openly making such admissions than not. The other posting should be authored by a team member (and edited and posted by the blog’s editor) on a relevant technology topic – to re-start the discussion Panasonic wanted to have.
6. Re-map the DefPerception.com domain to the new blog to make it live.
7. Re-publicize the new blog through all the means of original publicity used for “Tosh” (press releases, etc.). You don’t even have to eat crow about “backtracking in response to sharp criticism from the target audience and other weblogs.” You can just focus on being aware of and responsive to the needs and tastes of the target audience. And being smart enough to change direction quickly.
8. Move forward, one day at a time. Make sure you plan ahead for good content contributions from the team. Focus on making a good discussion happen in public, and in the video marketplace.

…Anyway, that’s just my take on where Panasonic could go from here. I hope they do decide to try something that resonates more effectively with the target audience. If so, I’ll be the first to praise that effort.

Good luck, Panasonic.

(Read the previous posting on this unfolding story…)