As each day passes, we’re presented with new information that documents the decline of traditional media in favor of online counterparts and new media competitors. It seems that newspapers are among the hardest hit with circulation and print advertising down – forcing layoffs across the country. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) recently released a study showing newspaper Web sites attracted an average of about 66 million unique visitors in the first quarter, up about 12 percent over the same…
PR 2.0: Putting the Public Back in Public Relations
Have you ever met someone so energetic, positive and incredibly smart – someone who exudes passion and someone who “gets it” in an inspirational way? I’m lucky to know one such person, Deirdre Breakenridge, and she has just published a new, must-read book, PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences. I’m honored to have my ideas, philosophies, experiences, and vision shared throughout the book. I’m even more humbled to have been asked to contribute the foreword. PR 2.0, as…
Zude, Where’s My Social Network?
One of the more talked about companies at the Web 2.0 Expo is Zude, an interesting example of what’s possible in the realm of social computing. The world maybe doesn’t need another social network, but what we sure could use is a platform that allows us to aggregate social elements from all over the web into one place – how we want, when we want. Zude officially announced in beta and allows users to grab elements from any social networking…
Encyclopedia Britannica Socializes Content, Takes on Wikipedia
Encyclopedia Britannica ran its business for almost 250 without disruption, until of course, Social Media democratized content and new user-generated resources such as Wikipedia changed everything. Up until recently, if you wanted to utilize Britannica’s services you could purchase the 32 volume Britannica, which has 65,000 articles, for just $1,400. Or, you can access it on the web for $70 per year. Britannica has just shifted the game back into its favor with the release of a clever and powerful…
Local Broadcast News Goes Social
I received a note from Andrew Finlayson, Vice President and News Director for Fox News Chicago – WFLD Television – myFoxChicago.com Finlayson is part of a small, but dedicated and innovative team of journalists in Chicago who are reinventing how we view broadcast news. Think of it as cable news TV meets Twitter meets uStream, meets Friendfeed. LiveNewsCameras.com is an online portal that lets people watch news as it happens anywhere in the world by aggregating the video feeds from…
Distributed Conversations and Fragmented Attention
There’s an incredible discussion circling the blogosphere aka The 250 aka The Echo Chamber regarding distributed conversations and the potential loss of control of our content. Normally I don’t let myself get caught up in every popular meme cycle, but this is a informative and important conversation and personally I think it’s worth your time. And, it just so happens to be a natural extension to my recent post, “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Conversation Has Left the Building,” which explores…
Will The Real Social Media Expert Please Stand Up?
Social Media is everything you know and nothing about what you think or do in marketing. Sounds strange eh? It’s true though. Think about how you approach marketing campaigns today and the picture will become a bit clearer. – You evaluate target demographics. – Develop strategic messages. – Conduct an audit or focus group. – Revise messages and fine-tune the plan. – Determine the broadcast mechanisms to push your content. – Go live. – Monitor the response. – Evaluate the…
The Evolution of the News Business – Did the New York Times Miss the Point?
The Business of News Chapter I – The Town Crier Chapter II – The Printing Press and Newspapers Chapter III – Radio Chapter IV – Television Chapter V – The Web Chapter VI – Mobile Alerts Chapter VII – Blogs OK, yes it’s just a crude and simple representation of the evolution of news. My point is that blogs are merely the latest chapter, and not the only means for breaking news today. I think the New York Times…
Making Mistakes in Social Media Marketing
We all make mistakes. It’s amazing how much saying sorry helps. But even saying sorry doesn’t fix those affected 100%. We’re all learning together, at least those of us who don’t pretend we’re already experts. Making mistakes in Social Media Marketing is a lot like sticking daggers into a wooden fence. Just because you apologize and pull them out, they still leave the visible scars for others to see, feel, or point to. Sometimes apologies help people feel better, but…
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Conversation Has Left The Building
Earlier this year, I wrote “The Value of Online Conversations,” to share and talk through my thoughts related to improving the quality of online discussions in the face of potential degradation and decentralization of important online discussions. We live in the era of Social Media, which represents the socialization of content and conversations as well as the creation of communities around thoughts and ideas. People are the hubs of information and we’re witnessing the creation of mini-societies that expand, contract,…
