Archive for category Social Media
Coming soon to a Facebook near you….
Posted by jareetz in Digital, Social Media, Technology on October 3rd, 2011
For those of you furious, fascinated or frazzled by recent Facebook tweaks to the user experience, get ready for the next big wave to come crashing in. And it is a big one.
Last week Facebook announced coming changes to the profile pages, creating a new “Timeline” approach that will roll out in a matter of weeks.
Initially, only the core tech/geeks paid much attention, but now it’s starting to pick up speed and coverage in newsletters and trade reports and, of course, on Facebook.
What’s the big deal? How does it compare to the news feed and “Top Stories” adjustments that drew so much ire a couple weeks ago. It compares like a gnat compares to an elephant.
First, your old profile goes away.
It is replaced by what is, basically, a timeline of your life, based on data and content you submit, photos you select, emphasis you place on different types of content you put in your profile. It’s no longer just a list of what you do, what you did, what you think.
It’s a string of words, images, video, maps and layouts struggling to become more “social” and outline who you are, the highs and lows of your existence, and your life timeline.
Sounds a bit far-fetched, yes?
Take an early look, and implement early if you’d like after reading Mashable’s start-up guide, but remember this is very much still in beta mode and developers are still working. Before proceeding, take a look at the readers’ comments and make sure you want to go ahead.
But why not? It will be on your Facebook Profile page in a few weeks, and you can get a head start on tossing complaints around Facebook, or offering a round of applaause.
My personal bet? It’s a winner. It’s different, striking, dramatic and we’ll love to love it, but only after we enjoy hating it for a bit.
54 Minutes: The Life and Death of a Web Story in East Texas
Posted by jareetz in Digital, Industry, Newspapers, Social Media on June 8th, 2011
Law officers at site of reported mass grave
Texas lawmen closed the country roads and started scouring the dusty ground late in the still-blazing afternoon in an isolated spot an hour-plus northeast of Houston, long beyond where the pavement turns to the Pineywoods.
I got my first message at 4:07 p.m. Central time. It started: “POSSIBLE MAJOR STORY…” It came in all caps, the Jesus-type of the digital age of newspapers. (If you don’t have enough gray hair to know the phrase “Jesus type,” it’s type big enough to be used only for the Second Coming. In the old days, block wooden type. You can buy it today in antique stores or E-Bay.)
Three minutes later the web producer who messaged me had it on the site. I don’t know who broke it: the digital editor for The Cleveland Advocate or a Houston TV station. Seems to be simultaneously.
First report: 25-30 bodies, mostly children.
Let me stop here and give full disclosure: I work for the parent company, ASP Westward, L.P., which owns Houston Community Newspapers, comprised of 30-plus papers and web sites ringing Houston, including The Cleveland Advocate, a small-town newspaper northeast of Houston. They took the story and ran, as did others nationally who followed.
This is the story of those 54 minutes of adrenalin rush, starting with horror and dread, ending with, oh well, thank goodness.
Within 10 minutes after HCN published the story, MSN was linking to it off its home page, along with a bunch of other national web sites. The HCN piece was riding the Twitter wave. Drudge was blowing it out of the water, Jesus-type style. One of HCN’s competitors, The Houston Chronicle had a story quoting The Cleveland Advocate, never a fun thing to do in a competitive environment, but always the right thing to do. It’s good to be fair.
At 5:30 p.m. Central, The New York Times sent an e-newsletter, quoting Reuters, reporting authorities may have found up to 30 dismembered bodies at the site.
The web was going crazy. Every story I saw was properly qualifying it, waiting for confirmation and actual reports of bodies.
At 6:01 p.m. I got a message from the content producer with a link and these words: “Source – Psychic tips to mass grave.” That came from the Chronicle and HCN did the right thing and quoted the paper. It’s good to be fair.
Today there will be stories from all around asking these questions:
• What did police know that lead them to close off two roads and start such a search?
• Was there previous experience with this tipster that gave the report particular extra credence, and led the police to act?
• Was it just good law enforcement, following a very bizarre tip, but in keeping with today’s headlines?
• Will the tipster be charged with anything?
But it’s not all about the legalese involved and law enforcement.
From a journalistic standpoint, a few items to consider:
• Be cautious and remember to follow normal journalistic standards, as HCN did.
• Don’t let the break slip away; web audience can turn in seconds; the old wire service “deadline every minute” saying doesn’t apply; think in seconds; you may break the story one minute, and lose the web traffic a minute later with another media outlet’s update.
• The web is a great equalizer; one smart, speedy reporter can lead the field, topping large news organizations with many reporters.
• The same urgency applied editorially by newspaper companies to coverage like this must be applied to figuring out the business side of online; they made their money from print for literally hundreds of years; now they need to figure out business side of the web, quickly; HCN is applying the same sense of urgency on the business side; not all newspapers are.
• Be prepared; HCN was able to react quickly for several reasons; it has a small but scrappy and energized web team; it is in the midst of an enterprising reorg of the editorial team for its 30-plus Houston papers that will keep the content flowing for print, but focus efforts on online in an aggressive manner;
• Lastly, remember the information pipeline is wide open, 24/7, worldwide; all the time; use it or lose it.
Now, what’s the next story?
It’s a small world…..
Posted by jareetz in Digital, Industry, Newspapers, Radio, Social Media, Technology, Television on August 10th, 2010
In the Dark Ages - about two years ago - newspaper companies with a healthy stable of smaller to medium size properties felt like they had the ultimate insurance policy. Perceived remoteness.
“It’ll be years before Google, Yahoo and the rest discover us,” was the line of thought, as they watched the metros they owned struggle with competition from new digital information sources.
It was “years” before the big guys discovered the smaller players. About two, in fact.
So much for “perceived remoteness.” Like the song says, it really is a small, small world.
When the big guys looked, they saw “remote” markets that weren’t that remote. Maybe suburban towns and cities that lost their zoned editions - and news-gathering capabilities at the same time - in reactive cost-cutting efforts by the metros. Perhaps they were still served by a community newspaper that believed print would carry them to the next generation, not yet plugged in to the need to compete digitally.
They also found cities of good-size population, a couple hours’ drive from big metro areas. And they found these papers making money. So maybe this was a good market after all, right? “Bird’s nest on the ground,” as a buddy of mine says.
What happened? A bunch of hyper-local companies jumped right in. There were as many different formulas as there were companies.
None of them caught hold in a big way. But that was two years ago - remember, the Dark Ages.
Now AOL is making a run at it, pumping $50 million into a company called Patch Media. Out of the blue I got a cold call from a recruiter, scouring LinkedIn for editor/business types in my city - Atlanta - where they will be rolling out many sites soon.
Clear from the beginning that I was happy and quiet busy work-wise, we nonetheless talked about their approach - in case I knew anyone (and I did, and passed along names).
Just like any good community newspaper, their staffers will live in the community they cover and be part of that community. They clearly understand that connection.
Their people will work hard, pound the pavement, file from coffee shops wth free Internet service and generally act like community newspaper employees. It won’t be easy.
You can find debate in several areas about whether Patch is just really efficient or runs a sweatshop. But when you run the sweatshop claim up against the newspaper industry - never been known for short hours and great pay - it becomes an academic debate.
There are plenty of out-of-work newspaper-types signing on, and good for them if that’s what they want.
This year Patch plans to launch “hundreds” of local web sites. The $50 million in expansion cash can be chewed up pretty quickly across a national network.
Bu regardless of whether Patch succeeds or not - and they seem to have a better shot than most that have come before - this ought to be one more of many, many shots fired across the bow of newspapers who think they don’t have to worry about that pesky ol’ web site.
Because Patch is not alone out there. Look for more on local from Yahoo! this year. Two years ago - Dark Ages again - who would have thought Yahoo! would be publishing a hard copy book - called “The Yahoo! Style Guide”? When you’re writing for the web, will you buy the Yahoo! book or AP book?
What will small and medium-sized newspapers do, faced with this bothersome development in an already troubling time?
Please don’t do what your metro kin did and wait for the bad times to pass.
And don’t blame AOL and Patch and the other local news wannabees. They see a market that they think is underserved digitally, so here they come. It’s called free enterprise.
Most smaller to medium-size newspapers still have a strong hand. They are profitable, respected in their communities, have the reporting resources and knowledge in place, not to mention outstanding local ad sales capabilities.
But are those papers paying attention to digital, focusing on their web sites, looking to grow them and increase revenue? Many are doing just that, and there are some tremendous web operations and products in medium and small markets.
In those markets, a tip of the pressman’s folding newsprint hat to the local newspaper.
In other markets, where the web site is of little interest or attention, don’t fret.
Soon, there will be a nice, community-focused web site in your market, either from a suddenly-alert newspaper or other media outlet. Or from someone like Patch.
Because it’s a small world after all.
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.
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.
Is your digital ID in order?
Posted by jareetz in Social Media on June 23rd, 2009
For years - before anyone even thought about their digital identity - wise image-builders counseled clients to take stock of your digital footprint, search your name and see what you get, be cautious about what you post.
It still applies, but oh, haven’t we moved so much farther along.
Even for those without keen digital skills, it is now amazingly simple to build a personal identity (good or bad) - via your Facebook page, your Twitter activity, LinkedIn, blogs and other digital extensions.
Try this experiment: step back and take a look at friends’ content feeds flowing into your Facebook page, maybe over the next 12-hour period. Imagine those same friends in a room, talking, visiting, killing time. You’d pretty much get the same info, right?
Just as people work to make a good impression with a group of strangers, so it happens on Facebook, and social networking in general. Never mind if the person asking for info on hiking trails in the Swiss Alps really wants that info, or just wants everyone to know he’s going. As in realtime, so it is in digital.
What Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others make so easy is the ability to send a message about who you are, what you care about, why you matter.
At the end of the day, most people people want to make a good impression, establish a smart and savvy identity. And just like any successful effort, it’s not all about one item. It’s the sum total: what you present to friends (and customers); how you’re perceived; who you are, online and in the real world. Don’t neglect one over the other.