View from Granville Plaza

The Daily Photo: 4 p.m. A view of the north shore mountains, and cherry blossoms from Granville Plaza. Many thanks to Jack Simpson.

Lions Gate: Bulk up or go lean?

If we need an illustration of the changing world of media we have to look no farther than the battle between the (vaguely) Vancouver-based film company Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and activist investor Carl Icahn.

Lions Gate is the little movie company that could, starting out in North Vancouver with a few low-budget films and relentlessly building itself up as a player in the industry. Now largely operating out of Los Angeles, although it's still listed as Canadian based, its successes include television's Mad Men, and film's very lucrative, albeit blood-splattered, Saw franchise (no truth to the rumour that it's spinning out other film franchises named Drill and Chisel).

Icahn is a famous American corporate gadflyr whose modus operandi is to buy a position in a company and then agitate relentlessly to drive the stock price up. This agitation usually involves complaining, about and often subverting, various strategic intitiatives a company makes.

Icahn is currently trying to lift this stake in Lions Gate from 18.9% to 29.9% so that he can have more say in how Lions Gate is being run.

And right now, he wants more say in Lions Gate's ambitions to take over old Hollywood. It's expected (by industry analysts) to be pursuing a couple of biggie movie companies, namely MGM -- the company that had a lot ot do with making Hollywood what it is -- and Miramax, which was big in the latter years of the 20th Century.

Both are rumored to be struggling, victims of a changing media landscape.

Movies on your computer

Like the newspapers and television industries, the film landscape has been thrown into turmoil in the past five years because of the Internet . Moviegoers now have the ability to simply download a film to their laptops instead of lining up in the rain to get into a movie theatre where they have to pay outrageous prices for butter-slathered popcorn.

I don't watch movies on my computer, because I need a larger screen (the eyes are the first to go) but apparently almost everyone under 35 does. The typical movie date has changed from cuddling in the back row of a theatre to cuddling up to the LCD screen in a matchbox-sized apartment.

And that spells trouble for the traditional film industry structure. Like the aforementioned industries, the film industry is being disintermediated by the Internet.

That's what Icahn and Lions Gate are scrapping over.

Lions Gate apparently figures the best strategy to fight this trend is to bulk up. So it's recently bought TV Guide, which has a film business, for $255 million. And now it's circling around traditional film distribution companies like MGM.

Presumably, the idea is that it can extend its low-cost, high-return model to these companies and thus survive in the new world.

Icahn appears to have a different attitude. He's already complaining that Lions Gate paid far too much for TV Guide, and will likely pay too much for MGM or any of the film companies that are currently on the auction block. The solution, he indicates, is to get leaner, not to bulk up.

Is he right? Who knows?

But their argument over strategy will be interesting to watch because it goes right to the heart of change in the media world.

Four Tips for Facebook Marketing

Advertisers know that Facebook users are more engaged than your average channel-flipper: they're checking the site several times a day, and they're using it as their main platform for consuming and producing content.

If you're a consultant or small-business owner, you should be using your personal profile to grow your business (in addition to spying on your kids). Here are a few tips for putting Facebook to more productive use.

Inflate your friend list

You don't have to have a publicly viewable profile in order to get your message out — you just have to have lots and lots of "friends." Don't be shy about connecting with colleagues, acquaintances, and friends-of-friends – the more the merrier. I'll explain why in a bit.

Pimp your profile

There's no point in being modest: you need to let people know what you're all about. Use a flattering, professional picture, and use the text box below to promote what you do. Don't forget to include links to your website or blog.

Buy some ads

It's easy, it's affordable, and it's extremely targeted. Recently, a friend of mine started a Facebook advertising campaign for what you could call a niche service: lifecoaching for pharmacists. While that may sound like an impossibly small demographic, Facebook's sophisticated targeting tools, combined with its overall breadth, meant that she could still reach over 2000 high-quality prospects with one buy. That type of marketing is simply not possible using conventional channels.

Be visible

As I've said before, pumping out content is the single best marketing strategy I know of. Share your blog articles in your news feed, and be sure to "like" and comment on other people's posts. That way, you're more likely to pop up in their feeds as well.

You may not get an immediate response with everything you do. But over time, you will build mindshare. If you're consistently posting plumbing-related articles, your friends will think about you – and refer you – when they or someone they know has a leaky pipe.

OK, so maybe that's not the best example, but you get the idea. By combining the personal with the professional, you can bolster your credibility and expand your reach. Just remember: be yourself, and don't be shy.

Lonsdale Avenue, at 1st Street

The Daily Photo: Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver, as it appeared in 1910, juxtaposed with how it looks now.
Many thanks to Mark Teasdale.

Social Media in the Workplace

I generally recommend that employers have written policies for their employees. Once implemented, they help to communicate and explain employer expectations and legal obligations. Employee policies frequently deal with issues such as protection of privacy and confidential information, workplace safety, conduct towards fellow employees and ethics. One area many employers have neglected is social networking.

With the combination of:

• • new types of social media (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and Twitter),
• • the explosion in ownership of mobile devices such as BlackBerrys, iPhones and laptops, and
• • ready access to high speed Internet

employees have unprecedented access to social networking sites (without using workplace computers). Research tells us that three in five employees access social media sites while at work.

If employers do have social networking policies, they are often out of date or deal solely with the use of work computers. Many companies block access to social networking sites and external email servers from company computers due to concerns over confidentiality and employee productivity – yet this only addresses a small part of the issues that should be addressed.

Further, employers are missing the opportunities that social media can offer to market themselves, and to connect with clients and employees in other locations.

Who Is Accessing Social Networking Sites?

According to a recent report, all four generations of employees are using social networking sites at work. They are usually defined as Traditionals (born 1926 to 1938), Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964), Gen-X (born 1961 to 1981), and Gen-Y (born 1982 to 1999). While Traditionals and Baby Boomers use social media less often than the younger generations, still, the numbers are surprising: 50 percent of Traditionals and 61 percent of Baby Boomers visit social networking sites at work, most commonly FaceBook and travel advisories. Further, 73 percent and 81 percent if Gen-Xs and Gen-Ys respectively are accessing social networking sites while at work.

The above statistics make it clear: whether or not employers block access to social networking sites from workplace computers, employees are still accessing such sites from other devices. The horse is already out of the barn. So, what are the legal and business risks to employers? And what of the potential opportunities?

Coming Next

In my next two posts, I will discuss the legal risks that employers should address in a social networking policy, how best to manage business opportunities afforded by increased use of social media, and what a social networking policy should contain.

This blog is written by Nicole Byres of Clark Wilson LLP and made available by BCBusiness to provide general information on employment law, and is not a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Neither the reading of this blog, nor the sending of unsolicited comments or emails creates a lawyer-client relationship with the writer or Clark Wilson LLP.