Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
May 20th, 2008
Reading Jeff Jarvis’ story in the Guardian yesterday shows how pivotal Twitter has become, not just in the digital media sector, we knew that, but in the media sector as a whole. He reveals that developers at the BBC and Reuters are working on applications to monitor Twitter and other social media services such as Facebook and YouTube for news catchwords such as ‘earthquake’ and ‘evacuation’ in the hope of both getting an early tip off on breaking news, and also locating content and potential interviewees on the issue.
This was illustrated perfectly by the Chinese earthquake last week, which according to Robert Scoble was broken on Twitter before the US Geological Survey posted the tremor and an hour before mainstream news sites reported it. Suddenly the BBC and Reuter’s investment makes sense.
Another example of the never ending brilliance of social applications. However, this isn’t the main point of this post…and you thought It was over…short post from Gofton - never!
The real reason for this post is to make a confession…here goes: I’m not the biggest fan of Twitter. Actually, before the great and good of the social media world beat me down with vicious reasoning, let me rephrase that: I’m not the biggest Tweeter. There I said it and for anyone that cares to check, it’s quite an obvious statement! I don’t tweet, post, write comments…that much. However, I am a fan of Twitter and I do regularly monitor and learn from the conversations that i follow, but in truth rarely dip my bill in…sorry bad joke.
I’ve often thought about the whys and wherefores of my apparent lack of willingness to get ‘involved’ and spread my own brand of commentary on Twitter. But that’s exactly the reason I don’t do it. I am put off by the life commentary from the Twitter nation, as so many others are.
Now to be fair not everyone does it, but those that feel the need to share their experience of being on a train, or a bus, or standing in the rain blah, blah, blah has never encouraged me to say: You know what, today is the day when I tell people I’m running late for a meeting.
However, although I am being facetious, in all seriousness a ray of light hit me from Jeff Jarvis’ article, or in fact from a quote he used from UK blogger Leisa Reichelt at disambiguity.com. Lisa has defined this practise as ‘Ambient intimacy’, which she explains as “being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to.” She continues: “There are a lot of us, though, who find great value in ongoing noise. It helps us to get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances.”
Hmmm, that kind of makes sense, it’s the most sense that anyone has made of what I thought was previously inane drivel. It does help to bring through the personality of an individual and it does help me to understand their point of view. Some of it is even amusing.
So has this taught me something? Am I going to change my ways and get involved? No - I won’t be telling you what I had for lunch, but you will be seeing a new vigour in what I classify as useful ‘Tweeting’.
Newspaper editors show the way forward
May 7th, 2008
The second Newsroom Barometer, which is the largest survey of the worldwide news industry compiled by the World Editors Forum , has been published and it shows a continued change in the way newspaper editors are viewing the web.
Here is a quick rundown of the highlights:
- 86% of editors believe that integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm
- 83% of editors believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years
- 58% of editors think the decline in young readership is the biggest threat for the future of newspapers
- 44% of editors believe online will be the most common platform for reading news in the future. 31% voted for print, 12% mobile, 7% e-paper and the rest were not sure
- 35% of editors said training journalists with new media skills would be their first action if they were given resources to invest in editorial quality
- 31% of editors said their priority was recruiting more journalists
These results show that the newspaper industry, or editors at least, have woken up to the reality of the revolution in the way we consume news. Putting new media training as a top priority for journalists is a clear sign of the need to adapt, and understanding that future readers are falling away at an alarming rate, although a very obvious indicator of impending doom, shows an awareness of the issues at hand.
These figures show that the newspaper industry does have a good chance of surviving and perhaps even prospering, if it can act now and evolve its offering to suit readership trends. Focusing on opinion/analysis-led journalism is not a new idea, but implementation of these ideas, along with the acceptance of news for free, is a major step forward considering where we were a few years ago.
Checkout the Editor’s weblog for a full run down of the results available to date.
Should PR fight its corner? Or just evolve…
April 18th, 2008
Danny Rogers’ leader article in PR Week raised a common and often debated subject this week. In Danny’s words: ‘Since the beginning of the year there have been several diatribes against the PR industry in the national media, equating it to a malevolent force’.
Nothing new there then eh!
Two quotes from the piece stand out in particular:
Exhibit A: Nick Davies’ book: Flat Earth News, argues PR’s raison d’etre is ‘… that the masses are a political threat whose thinking must be controlled by the techniques of PR’.
and
Exhibit B: A quote from this week’s Independent: ‘The aim (of PR) is to undermine or marginalise independent journalism, control decision-making, and lastly, mystify and misinform the public.’
PR gets a rough ride from the media as it is the media on the receiving end of much of what is wrong with the industry. To be fair their experiences have probably led them to these assumptions/conclusions, and after more than 10 years in the industry i can see why. I have met an assortment of PR professionals over this time, some that i am proud to say are the most intelligent, creative and real people I’ve met, and others well, are not.
So am i here to defend PR? No. Am i here to slate it? Nah. Do i have a point? I hope so…
The point is that as with all industries and stages of evolution, the strongest, or in fact the most suited to their environment, survive. PR’s evolution is based on moving away from the controlling instincts that the quotes accuse us of. Those that persist in employing these outdated models in a new environment will be found out and go the way of the famous flightless bird from Mauritius (featured above).
I think many of us, especially in the digital space, have already moved away from controlling the message/audience/issue. I feel a great many agencies and individuals have changed inline with their environment and as a result they are flourishing.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think PR needs another slagging match, or even defend itself to these allegations. What PR needs to do is understand how communications has changed, not just on the web but in all walks of life.
So, should PR fight its corner as Danny says? Or just get on with it, shed this archaic image and prove the doubters wrong.
Social media is an unconventional new opportunity
April 3rd, 2008
I thought that might get your attention.
We came across some interesting research in the office recently (thanks Bill) that i wanted to share with you. It comes from TNS Media Intelligence Cymfony which is a U.S. market influence analytics company, that also spawned that little beauty of a headline (see bullet point two below).
I’ll admit that I’m not familiar with the company, but the research is certainly worth a second look. The piece in question focuses on Social Media’s progress toward becoming a mainstream marketing communications tool, titled: “Harnessing Influence: How Savvy Brands are Unleashing the New Power of Blogs and other Social Media.” check out the press release for further info.
The survey has a few little gems of information in it, and even professes to use an international sample (U.S., UK, Canada and France).
Here’s an interesting excerpt:
‘The leading barriers to social media adoption were the lack of both senior management commitment and best practices, followed by the absence of controls, standardisation, time and resources.
‘Respondents criticised marketing service suppliers for not providing sufficient expertise to help businesses understand and exploit blogs and social networks. They noted that many agencies lack practical experience in social media initiatives and tend to apply traditional tactics that may not be effective in this emerging media space.’
Of all the stats and information, I found these points to be the most interesting. It shows that social media is now entering a new phase of understanding. In the not to distant past we might have seen a similar survey saying ‘barriers to social media adoption were a lack of knowledge or awareness’. Now it seems we’ve moved on and those halting social media progress are the guys at the top, who are often slow to react, and those who should have the knowledge - the marketeers.
Although this still represents a considerable barrier i feel it is evidence of progress, and as both interest and expertise continues to grow, the ‘95% that believe social media will grow in significance’ certainly seem to have a safe bet.
Here’s a quick summary of some of the key points:
- 49% of execs say social media should be monitored at the executive level and be allocated significant resources
- Some 30% of marketing executives agree that social media is an unconventional new opportunity that businesses must grasp with a sense of urgency.
- 95% say they believe that social media will grow in significance over the next five years.
- Asked about the uses of social media, respondents endorsed it as a strategic tool to gain consumer insights (37%), build brand awareness (21%) and increase customer loyalty (18%)
You can get a full copy of the research from TNS Media Intelligence Cymfony’s social media research site, but be warned it appears the sample size was ‘70+ marketers around the globe ‘ so I’ll let you decide if that’s a robust sample size: socialmediainbusiness
Digital skills crisis: we need industry-level collaboration
February 22nd, 2008
As with nearly every organisation in the digital media sector, recruitment is an ongoing issue for Liberate Media. Actually, let me rephrase that, finding the right candidate is an ongoing issue.
We’ve tried adverts, using our network of contacts, various social recruitment techniques - Facebook, Twitter, blogging etc and now even recruitment agencies to find the best people. We’ve managed to overcome the issue and secure some strong candidates, but it hasn’t been easy or quick. So the problem remains, how do you find reliable candidates quickly? Is it even possible?
What if, we as an industry were to stop fighting over the best candidates and start sharing them? For example, if I come across a really strong candidate but one that isn’t suitable for a role we are looking at, I recommend this individual through the recruitment network to those agencies (PR/digital/or otherwise) who are after the relevant position. It’s a collaborative recruitment network, and benefits both the candidates and the recruiters.
This is still an idea in formation but I wanted to put it out there and see what people thought. But first a few points of confirmation:
- I don’t mean a network run by a recruitment agency
- I don’t mean a network/alliance of recruitment agencies
- I don’t mean a paid service
- I don’t mean a job site or an advertising platform
I mean an agreement between digital media companies to share and recommend candidates, across some sort of social media network. If they’re not relevant to you, but think they have the attributes to succeed - share and share alike.
So what do we think? Has it been done? Could it work? Let me know your thoughts and following feedback, I’ll do my best to drum up support and see where this could lead us.