Archive for July, 2009
Social media, business style
Posted by jareetz in Digital, Industry, Social Media on July 27th, 2009
Some businesses ignore it (other than wondering WHY their employees are on social media during the workday). Others adapt and embrace, and make it their own.
Here’s one from the latter category.
Consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton has launched an internal social media networking tool called Hello. Booz has all the “normal” digital tools: email, blogs, wikis, an intranet. But this new platform is intended to tie it all together, and get everyone working in the same repository.
CIO Insight reports that since launch last year, 70 percent of the firm’s employees have logged on, and 35 percent have edited profiles.
It’s not a site for planning after-hours socializing.
It’s a place for employees to get help from co-workers to do their job (anybody know an expert on the Navy’s ERP system?), presumably making them better and more efficient employees.
It’s not all about racing to see how many you can friend, a company official says. It’s about spreading the knowledge, particularly knowledge buried in hard drives or on desktops of senior employees.
“The goal is not for co-workers to build purely virtual relationships,” he says, “but to make connections to the right person or right piece of intellectual capital and then pick up the phone. It’s just a new spin on an old technique.
Communication. What a cool idea.
Newspapers: Time to act
Posted by jareetz in Digital, Industry, Newspapers on July 23rd, 2009
I’ve never been in a boat with a cracked hull, watching it fill with water, bailing with an old milk jug. And planning my next ’round the world cruise.
But that’s what it feels like today in the world of newspapers.
There’s a leak in the boat, the water line inside rises as the hull dips to meet the water level outside. But it’s time to think, well, what do we do next year.
Hit by the double whammy of a sinking national economy and changing readership habits, newspapers - the institution - are in a sink or swim situation.
But the dilemma is you can’t just work to survive today’s disaster. If that’s your goal, you won’t. Competition is too tough, technology and product move too quickly. If you take a deep breath, you’ve lost the moment.
But with water rushing in, it’s pretty logical to take that deep breath before figuring out the rescue scenario.
A paralysis can set in and that water quickly and quietly filling the boat looks so serene and peaceful as it gurgles your way.
But ultimately it pulls you down.
Newspapers have to shake the paralysis and do “something” - anything - different online.
For all the talk about speed and flexibility, some newspapers still move at the old pace. Lots of meetings, over-planning, slow decision-making. That’s not so much a criticism as a reflection on a long history of careful thought and process, when the balance sheet was different.
Now it’s time to move; the world has changed.
So, in that sense, it was good to see that The New York Times is in the midst of a survey with their valuable print readers, trying to figure out if there is any type of pay online model that could work.
One scenario is $5 a month, half that for print subscribers. Looks like one option is to put some areas behind a paid wall. No scenario calls for blocking off all content.
The idea of paid content online is odious. But perhaps there’s a way that allows portions to go paid, other portions to remain free.
“And that’s the way it is, Mr. Cronkite.”
Posted by jareetz in Industry, Newspapers, Television on July 21st, 2009
Cronkite, at a student journalist party at the University of Texas-Austin, 1974.
For 19 years, he anchored the CBS Evening News, giving us the daily signature: “And that’s the way it is…”
But he gave us so much more.
Certainly the premier journalist of his time, he not only recorded and reported the world-changing news of the day - the Kennedy assassination, the moon landing - but he helped change history. His thoughts on Vietnam reportedly helped sway Lyndon Johnson against running for reelection, and his interview with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat nudged him to make his historic visit to Israel.
But, again, he gave us so much more.
Integrity. Compassion. Sincerity.
Not the fake compassion on today’s newscasts. Not the loud braying that accompanies so much of today’s tv reporting.
When he stopped reading the script, took off his thick dark-rimmed glasses and looked into the camera to talk with you, he spoke so much louder than those today who yell, but their words carry the weight of a whisper.
And let’s not forget that he was a genuine kind of guy.
Cronkite went to the University of Texas, and when he was CBS anchor, he was frequently on campus and recognized for his journalistic successes. There, he was one of the guys. In the 70s, when those of us managing the student paper, The Daily Texan, were in a legal battle with the Board of Regents over free press issues, he signed our petition, wrote the Regents and showed up one day to support us. We lost, but at least he was on our side.
Mark Sims, a friend and now at the Los Angeles Times, saw Cronkite at the j-school in 1974 and invited him to a party at his apartment.
To everyone’s surprise, Cronkite showed up, hung around several hours, talking, visiting and drinking with the students.
Mark told The Daily Texan after Cronkite’s death:
“He represented good values and perhaps morals,” Sims said. “Perhaps it’s generational, but sadly much of that is missing today.”
Mark kept Cronkite’s whiskey glass for many years.
“I no longer have the glass that Walter drank from,” he said. “However, even better, I have memories of a caring gentleman.”
Social Media: To die for?
Posted by jareetz in Social Media on July 19th, 2009
Some think so.
A new study by Anderson Analytics shows that only 29 percent of Facebook and LinkedIn users say they could “probably do without” those networking services.
That’s 71 percent of respondents who profess how absolutely critical social media is to their everyday lives.
Facebook led the list with 75 percent of the social media users participating in the survey saying it was their most valuable network. MySpace came in at 65 percent, followed by business-oriented LinkedIn at 30 percent and Twitter at 12 percent.
Both Twitter and LinkedIn have unique challenges, the report said. First, LinkedIn needs to figure out a way to build frequency, and Twitter needs to find out a way to add value to its service.
The numbers, to no one’s surprise, are big: Facebook has 78 million regular users, MySpace 67 million, Twitter 17 million and LinkedIn 11 million. A “regular user” in this case means you log on once a month.
Anderson reported an estimated 110 million people using social networking sites on a regular basis. And 61 percent of those are under 35 years old.
Also worth noting - women lead the social networking category, 55 to 45 percent.
LinkedIn is more male - 57 to 43 percent - and Facebook is more female - 56 to 44 percent.
Men share hobby, work and related articles info, and women are more likely to share photos, info about what they’re currently doing, and posts about their pets.
And how do you compare with the averages? Men have an average of 140 Facebook friends, 53 Twitter followers and 71 LinkedIn conenctions. That compares for women’s 110 on Facebook, 18 on Twitter and 36 on LinkedIn.
Any surprises overall?
Not really. Other than perhaps the number of conenctions seems a little low, but it is a sample of all who say they use social media.
So what does it mean?
It simply reinforces that social networking itself continues to grow, though the players may rise and fall, as they have in recent years. Who three years ago would have thought Facebook would nudge aside MySpace so easily? What is ahead for Twitter?
Time will tell, but no argument that social media continues to rev up at a rapid pace.