Blog, Tweet, or Facebook, which would you choose?

August 20th, 2009

There has been a lot of talk recently about which is more effective at building brands and authority: blogging, tweeting, Facebook fanpages and groups.

Obviously there are many other ways to build brand authority and reputation but these three are some of the most common and well known. So the question is, which one is would you choose?

We’d love to know your thoughts, and you can cast your vote via this nifty little survey that we have created.

Posted in Blog, Trends and research | No Comments »

read more

Trade press concerns about blogging

April 17th, 2009

The digital marketing trade press has embraced blogging to varying degrees. While Haymarket has recently relaunched many of its magazine websites and simultaneously stepped-up the intensity of its blogging, other publishing houses are yet to rollout blogs for their flagship titles. Magazines such as NMA and Marketing Week, for example, are still without blogs.

What’s apparent is that some trade publishers have been nervous about blog content undermining the value of their magazine and online editorial, often failing to grasp where blogging can add value.

Having been following the progress of the Haymarket blogs and watching what other trade publishers are doing, as well as discussing the practicalities of blogging with journalists in our sector, I thought it might be helpful to offer some insight into some of the shared concerns, and for what it’s worth, my views on how these problems can be addressed…

* New demands for journalists to produce magazine and online content are high enough. Adding blogging to the list will lead to poorer quality of writing and less time for investigative reporting - this is a genuine concern that is shared by every trade editor I speak to, and journalists are similarly reluctant to take on extra writing responsibilities. Compile this with the recent redundancies that have taken place across most trade media, and the average journalist is over-worked and over-stressed.

However, this line of argument is missing the point about the role blogging plays in news consumption, and failing to acknowledge what magazine audiences want nowadays. Blog content can be equally as important as magazine coverage, if not more. Now is the time for publishers to be re-evaluating their content priorities.

* If content is now being broken online and followed-up in the magazine, what can we write about in a blog?- every new blogger worries about finding subject matter to write about, but journalists shouldn’t really have this problem! As a former trade journalist I know so many stories never make it into the magazine, or you have fascinating conversations with contacts that you wish you could do something with editorially. A magazine blog can be the perfect place to write about titbits of information that might otherwise get lost, or to start debate on subjects that you might feel passionate about. Although magazine editorial guidelines will most likely still need to be adhered to, the blog should be a place where journalists can publish independently and have a bit more freedom with subject matter.

* Blogging just doesn’t draw in the level of traffic that we’d like -magazines that have tested the water with blogging, but not dived in wholeheartedly, often cite this as a reason for delaying the launch of a proper blog. There can be many reasons for a magazine blog not taking off properly, but frequently the reasons are that the blog is hidden away on the website and not signposted clearly enough, that content is not interesting or updated frequently enough, and that measures have not been put in place to share the content socially or allow for comment and conversation.

* There’s no budget for professional blog set-up or consultancy, so we’re looking into it ourselves - it’s clear that times are tough for the trade publishing industry, and having worked on a trade magazine, I know what a battle it can be to make money available for these sort of projects. I would argue that this is a sign of a blog not being given the priority it should be, but that isn’t offering a useful solution to the problem.

Launching a magazine blog is a serious business (well it should be) and it’s important to bring in experts who know what they’re doing. It’s crucial that you have advice on the platform you’re going to use, as well as how it’s going to be designed and optimised etc. Particularly within the digital marketing industry, I’m sure there are companies out there who would be willing to advise the likes of NMA etc on a blog strategy for free. Now is a time to make the most of your contacts!

* We’ve already added ‘comments’ to our stories, so why do we need to blog? -this is probably the lamest excuse that I’ve heard for not blogging, but it’s come up a lot in conversations that I’ve had! If you’re a reader of sites such as NMA.co.uk and Revolutionmagazine.com etc, you’ll know that stories very rarely receive comments. Ticking this box is not a reason to delay launching a blog.

Posted in Blog, Blogging, Content, Journalism, Uncategorized | No Comments »

read more

Looking for new bloggers to engage with digital and technology clients

April 3rd, 2009

At Liberate Media we are always looking to engage with like-minded individuals and bloggers, who share our passion for all things technology and digital.

As part of this focus, we are eager to build new connections with bloggers who are interested in hearing from our clients. Don’t worry, we’re not going to spam anyone with press releases, but if you would be interested in getting in touch on a more one-to-one basis to discuss campaigns, opinions or simply to have a discussion on a relevant topic, we would love to hear from you.

We have added a brief preview of some of our relevant clients below, but we are also in touch with a number of other brands and industry experts on various projects and campaigns, so please get in touch if you would like to hear more.

Associated Northcliffe Digital - Associated Northcliffe Digital has a massive online footprint, operating the digital assets of Associated Newspapers Ltd and Northcliffe Media, as well as key online classified sites.

Collective - Collective has been the lead agency behind Honda’s digital strategy for the past five years, and is using PR to help tell this story and gain greater recognition for the other high-calibre brands it works with including EA, Sega and Snickers.

iBAHN - Having worked to establish iBAHN as the internet provider of choice for business travellers across the globe, we are now re-focusing our efforts on raising the profile of iBAHN’s growing portfolio of in-room digital entertainment services.

Kerb - Kerb is leading the future of online advertising, through its creation of highly engaging content-led campaigns and viral games for brands such as Samsung, Sony PlayStation, E4 and MTV. Its sister company, Kerb Games, is expert at producing highly successful massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs).

Napster - Napster is the pioneer of digital music, and is now one of the industry’s fastest growing mobile music platforms.

Mike Bayler - a consultant and author, specialising in consumer-led marketing and innovation. He has advised some of the world’s leading brands, media companies and international stars, including Nokia, Diageo, Telefonica, Bacardi Global Brands, Sky, BT, Sony BMG, Ogilvy and Mather, Robbie Williams, Dido and Simon Cowell.

Posted in Blog, Blogging, Journalism | 1 Comment »

read more

Mzinga backlash: Is Twitter a reliable journalist/blogger source?

March 18th, 2009

Respected blogger and Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang came in for a bit of a battering yesterday when he published a blog post about social software company Mzinga, claiming he’d received multiple reports (”over four direct messages or emails”) that the company was in trouble. Please read the full post by Jeremiah.

The post has received 75 irate comments (at time of writing), and Jeremiah has since been compelled to write a full public apology to Mzinga which has stirred up a further 35 comments.

The incident is an important lesson to every blogger/journalist, and raises a big question mark over whether Twitter should be considered a reliable source of information, or indeed any social source.

Trained journalists are taught to use multiple sources - as a rule of thumb, I was always taught to corroborate a story through a minimum of two to three trusted sources.

According to Wikipedia, examples of sources include “official records, publications or broadcasts, officials in government or business, organizations or corporations, witnesses of crime, accidents or other events, and people involved with or affected by a news event or issue”. I haven’t been able to find any up-to-date industry guidelines on how journalists should treat social media sources - if you know of any, please share!

In my mind, the mistake that Jeremiah made was to not wait for an official response from Mzinga. He linked to a Twitter reply from the company’s PR manager, in which she wrote: “@jowyang Sorry to not reply sooner. Happy to talk about what you’ve been hearing. Will DM you to set up a time to chat”, but decided to publish before having had this conversation. A journalist would never have been able to sneak this under the nose of an editor!

Respected bloggers have a responsibility to their readers, and it could be argued should be bound by the same ethical and liable rules as journalists. Twitter is an unmoderated platform where anyone can say anything, and if it is to be used as a story source, my feeling is that the rule of multiple sources should be at least tripled before a story can be corroborated.

If any journalists are reading this post, I’d be interested to hear whether their editorial guidelines are the same for their newspaper/magazine as their company blog, and whether they relax rules for a personal blog that they might write.

Posted in Blog, Blogging, Journalism | 6 Comments »

read more

Is blogging on the way out…again?

January 19th, 2009

One week back into 2009 (for me at least) and out come the depressingly familiar predictions of ‘the end of blogging’.

Where to begin. It seems like every year (often more frequently) the same story is rolled out, blogging has had its day, there are x million blogs in the world but only x amount are updated, you’ll never make money out of blogging, you know the score. Well, I’m here again to say that the point is well and truly being missed.

This was a theme that ran through part of the an article in the current issue of NMA titled: Natural selection, which begins with the line: ‘Despite the fact there are some 130m blogs worldwide, some industry experts believe blogging is on its way out.’ First of all, I don’t have an issue with the piece as such, it’s well written, researched and explained, but in parts it is the most recent example of blogging being misinterpreted  to some extent.

Forgetting the article, and in my humble opinion, blogging is not a technology that will build your empire, it was never meant to be, it’s not a communications strategy either. Blogging is part of the wider world of social media, it’s a tool that can be used to communicate with an audience, hopefully openly and as part of a two way conversation, but it’s not, as some of my colleagues in the PR industry would say, ‘a holistic solution’ - eugh, I feel dirty. Neither is it to be dismissed, as many PRs have in the past.

My point is; those who say that blogging is on its way out are missing the point. Blogging being here to stay or disappearing isn’t really the issue. Blogging is just a flavour of a much wider social communications medium. A part of people getting together to discuss their opinions by way of conversation. They maybe corporates, consumers or one man and his dog, the conversation is the interesting part not the mechanism through which it is delivered.

Yes, blogging has been misused in the corporate world, misunderstood by the publishing world and feared by the communications world, but for the most part we’re coming out of those dark ages, and as Greg Brooks states in the NMA piece, blogging isn’t dead its evolving - hear, hear.

Posted in Blogging, Content, Digital communications, PR, Social media | No Comments »

read more