I’ve had an interesting convergence of conversations lately that have me thinking more about the power of do-it-yourself media. By that I don’t mean ranks from any Dick, Jane, or Sally and slapped up on a blog, but experienced, knowledgeable, accurate news and information gathered, analyzed, and distributed by trained professionals with a larger goal in mind.
Here’s a sampling of the conversations:
~ Anne, who’s just left a big online-media job with a regional news organization that ought to know better, talking about finding a new way to gather local news (and ads) on the Web and get it to people who really want it.
~ Rob, who runs a major performing-arts company, worrying about how his shows will be advertised to sell tickets and where enough people might read the reviews to sell more tickets.
~ Tom, a diehard new-media newsman, experimenting with distributing headlines and commentary via Facebook.
~ Kathy, my wife and publicist extraordinaire, looking at shrinking print and broadcast news holes and targeting new (albeit fragmented) venues to publicize theater events and promotional offers.
~ John, another smart newsie, running a news-aggregating service (“actually the machines do most of the work now,” he says) out of his house while trying to help traditional news orgs figure out the digital thing.
While it shouldn’t come as any surprise, given my work in custom publishing (where journalism meets marketing), what these and many similar conversations point to is the increasing opportunities for smart organizations of all sizes to tell their own stories. Whether they hire a company like mine to do it for them (pitch alert: because we have the people and expertise in place and the critical mass to offer good pricing) or they take advantage of the glut of first-rate writers, editors, and graphics people to build in-house media-marketing teams, companies of all kinds have a chance right now to leapfrog over the struggling mainstream media and talk directly to customers.
A big auto-supply company could provide useful information to car buffs, build a loyal community of DIY grease monkeys, and drive sales to new products. A supermarket chain could offer healthy-cooking ideas or budget-management tips, or open a forum for customers to share favorite recipes. A theater company could build a lively community of arts patrons who want to read and talk about plays and dance and more. A big office-supply company could carve out a niche among small-business owners by providing information and expert advice on the wide range of issues these entrepreneurs are hungry for. It doesn’t even have to be information about paper or inkjet cartridges… in fact, it shouldn’t be that limited. It should also be news on the latest tax loophole, or advice of benefits, how to write a business plan, or how another small biz found success using a product or service from your company. There’s an audience waiting out there for help, and your company can answer the call.
It’s all about building credibility, loyalty, repeat visits, and sales. It’s about carving out your own unique territory that builds and extends your brand. It’s about starting a conversation with your customers that keeps them coming back to you. Yes, there are marketing challenges of the chicken/egg variety (how do you tell your story to people who are not yet your customers), but SEO technologies continue to crack that nut, and there are still plenty of places and ways to ply traditional marketing tactics (despite the death knells in major markets, most daily newspaper are still operating fairly soundly and the mail does get through).
The era of the “corporate journalist” is upon us. Who better to tell your story than you?
Showing posts with label the Web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Web. Show all posts
May 22, 2009
March 14, 2009
Join the revolution
I just read Clay Shirky's essay on the current revolution in the newspaper industry. It really is a brilliant look at the changes happening right before our eyes.
While I still fall in the camp of "people will pay for well-done news" (though my grip on that idea is slipping), I have to admit that everything Shirky says about the broken model of ad-supported news organizations (all that infrastructure!) makes perfect sense. And while I am apprehensive about where it is all headed (like, who's going to pay the journalists? and who's going to watch our backs with big business and government... not to mention analyze tomorrow's Sox game?) I can't really argue with his premise that we are now in an era of great experimentation.
I knew this in some ways back 11 years ago when I switched from the print newsroom to the Web at the Herald. We certainly were creating a new model of news content and delivery--with different options, opportunities, and challenges--both for the newsroom and the bottom line. Since then, I've been watching the drama unfold (unravel?) from the sidelines of other work situations--though the changes in content delivery and accessibility matter every bit as much in custom publishing, and PR/marketing.
But back to Shirky... In the next several years, many things will be tried. Many will fail. Some will succeed in niche ways, and some will work in bigger ways. Something new will come along. Like it or not, change is underway. We might as well embrace that fact and look to the future.
While I still fall in the camp of "people will pay for well-done news" (though my grip on that idea is slipping), I have to admit that everything Shirky says about the broken model of ad-supported news organizations (all that infrastructure!) makes perfect sense. And while I am apprehensive about where it is all headed (like, who's going to pay the journalists? and who's going to watch our backs with big business and government... not to mention analyze tomorrow's Sox game?) I can't really argue with his premise that we are now in an era of great experimentation.
I knew this in some ways back 11 years ago when I switched from the print newsroom to the Web at the Herald. We certainly were creating a new model of news content and delivery--with different options, opportunities, and challenges--both for the newsroom and the bottom line. Since then, I've been watching the drama unfold (unravel?) from the sidelines of other work situations--though the changes in content delivery and accessibility matter every bit as much in custom publishing, and PR/marketing.
But back to Shirky... In the next several years, many things will be tried. Many will fail. Some will succeed in niche ways, and some will work in bigger ways. Something new will come along. Like it or not, change is underway. We might as well embrace that fact and look to the future.
December 23, 2008
The Christmas Letter
Maybe it’s the crowd I run with. Maybe it’s a sign of our times – whether economic or digital. But I miss the tradition of the Christmas Letter.
When I was a boy, one of the favored holiday treats – not quite up there with my mother’s Vanilla Kipferln cookies or my Grossmama’s precious packages of Julius Meinl chocolate wafers from Vienna , but surely on a par with the Advent wreath and singing carols by the piano – were the holiday cards that arrived with a family letter. These missives from people my parents knew from The War or from my dad’s Harvard days, but we kids only knew through their annual dispatches, were a window into another world, one of privilege, access, and refinement – or at least (even to our impressionable young minds) to pretenses thereof.
Imagine, if you will, the voice and manner of Thurston B. Howell III (from TV’s Gilligan’s Island) recounting his clan’s far-flung and glamorous exploits from the year past, recited in a warm yet holier-than-thou tone: “Susie polished her tennis game this summer, making it to the top of the Juniors Ladder at the club. Stanford will be lucky to have her next fall!” “Tommy Jr. spent his sophomore semester abroad at Colgate’s little outpost in Kitzbuhl, brushing up on his Deutsch (and his slalom skills!). Mitzie and I will be joining him there after the holidays for a week on the slopes.” “Caroline is a shoe-in for valedictorian this year at Lawrence – nothing but straight A’s for our little scholar!” “We made the most of the summer on the Vineyard… sailing nearly every day with our friends Willard and Diana, and toasting the sunsets from our verandah, martini in hand.” “The only thing better was our two weeks in Florence in October – my golly, the art, the architecture, the opera… divine!”
These weren’t the only such letters that arrived, naturally. Other old friends kept tabs with notes and photos of their trips, their children’s successes, their personal bests. And usually with a little less one-uppitiness. (In fact, my mother received just such a letter the other day, from a cousin who recounted in six pages of fine detail his 5-month retirement trip by ship from the Arctic to Antarctica. "Myamar is so much better than Thailand," he says. So apparently, the artform is not altogether dead.)
Touching base
I was reminded of these annual looks back as we spent part of the past two nights hurriedly scribbling cards and sticking on stamps to get our holiday wishes in the mail before the 24th. I was thinking about was how the form has changed, even if the desire to share has not. Today, we’re ever-more instant in our personal reportage. Ace your golf game – text-message your buddy to rub it in. Get your homework done in a flash – IM a friend to check in. Have photos of the big fish that didn’t get away – post ‘em on flickr. Have an idea? Blog it. All of the above… put it on Facebook.
It’s not that we’re communicating less. It’s just that our personal news comes and goes in bits and sound bites now. We share it quickly, like a hot potato, as if by letting the moment simmer it will lose value. That we might pause and reflect on our comings and going is, like, too much effort, too much looking back and not enough “what’s next?”.
So, I miss the annual ritual of reflection that came in those cards. I regret that we too did nothing more than “touch base” this year as we whirled through the address book to get cards in the mail. If anyone reads this blog and remembers – remind me next year to put it in a letter.
When I was a boy, one of the favored holiday treats – not quite up there with my mother’s Vanilla Kipferln cookies or my Grossmama’s precious packages of Julius Meinl chocolate wafers from Vienna , but surely on a par with the Advent wreath and singing carols by the piano – were the holiday cards that arrived with a family letter. These missives from people my parents knew from The War or from my dad’s Harvard days, but we kids only knew through their annual dispatches, were a window into another world, one of privilege, access, and refinement – or at least (even to our impressionable young minds) to pretenses thereof.
Imagine, if you will, the voice and manner of Thurston B. Howell III (from TV’s Gilligan’s Island) recounting his clan’s far-flung and glamorous exploits from the year past, recited in a warm yet holier-than-thou tone: “Susie polished her tennis game this summer, making it to the top of the Juniors Ladder at the club. Stanford will be lucky to have her next fall!” “Tommy Jr. spent his sophomore semester abroad at Colgate’s little outpost in Kitzbuhl, brushing up on his Deutsch (and his slalom skills!). Mitzie and I will be joining him there after the holidays for a week on the slopes.” “Caroline is a shoe-in for valedictorian this year at Lawrence – nothing but straight A’s for our little scholar!” “We made the most of the summer on the Vineyard… sailing nearly every day with our friends Willard and Diana, and toasting the sunsets from our verandah, martini in hand.” “The only thing better was our two weeks in Florence in October – my golly, the art, the architecture, the opera… divine!”
These weren’t the only such letters that arrived, naturally. Other old friends kept tabs with notes and photos of their trips, their children’s successes, their personal bests. And usually with a little less one-uppitiness. (In fact, my mother received just such a letter the other day, from a cousin who recounted in six pages of fine detail his 5-month retirement trip by ship from the Arctic to Antarctica. "Myamar is so much better than Thailand," he says. So apparently, the artform is not altogether dead.)
Touching base
I was reminded of these annual looks back as we spent part of the past two nights hurriedly scribbling cards and sticking on stamps to get our holiday wishes in the mail before the 24th. I was thinking about was how the form has changed, even if the desire to share has not. Today, we’re ever-more instant in our personal reportage. Ace your golf game – text-message your buddy to rub it in. Get your homework done in a flash – IM a friend to check in. Have photos of the big fish that didn’t get away – post ‘em on flickr. Have an idea? Blog it. All of the above… put it on Facebook.
It’s not that we’re communicating less. It’s just that our personal news comes and goes in bits and sound bites now. We share it quickly, like a hot potato, as if by letting the moment simmer it will lose value. That we might pause and reflect on our comings and going is, like, too much effort, too much looking back and not enough “what’s next?”.
So, I miss the annual ritual of reflection that came in those cards. I regret that we too did nothing more than “touch base” this year as we whirled through the address book to get cards in the mail. If anyone reads this blog and remembers – remind me next year to put it in a letter.
December 1, 2008
Lost in space
The past week’s events in Mumbai, India, in particular the way ordinary bystanders participated as “citizen journalists” in reporting the terror-attack events as they unfolded via online services such as Twitter and Flickr, got me thinking about how I use Web 1.0 and 2.0 tools, and how I am beginning to feel a bit pixilated in my online activity.
First a small step back… I have been messing around with Facebook over the past few weeks. It started as an experiment in child monitor (mine, not yours!) but has quickly, and remarkably easily, blossomed into a daily activity almost as necessary as checking my e-mail. And therein lies the quandary. Is Facebook the straw that could break this cyber-camel’s back?
Assuming I remember them all, I have cyber selves and accounts at:
• Hotmail – my day-to-day e-mail account.
• Gmail – for my personal-business e-mailing.
• CCICrosby.com – where I handle e-mail for my job.
• Facebook – At my new best time-waster (to quote a friend), I keep tabs on friends, colleagues, and other loose connections. I’ve posted some photos. I also play word puzzle games that I find a bit annoying, but my wife got me into it. And I keep track of several blogs that I like to read.
• delicious – I use this site regularly to keep track of all the websites and blogs I need at my fingertips for work or personal interests.
• Twitter – I do have a Twitter account, though I don’t use it much. A work colleague uses Twitter often to troll for information on articles we’re planning. I just haven’t gotten into the habit. Certainly the Mumbai reporting opened my eyes to new possibilities.
• LinkedIn – Go here to see or join my professional connections and network. I’m still getting the hang of all you can do with LinkedIn from a business standpoint, and I don’t have as cool connections as my wife (she’s linked to the governor, at least one Red Sox ace, and the host of a certain national TV dance show), but I see the potential.
• weber-wise – this blog… thank you for reading.
• Amazon wish list – This is my master file of all music, movies, and books that I hope to get at some point, or simply things that I want to remember for some reason. By the way, Christmas is just around the corner…
• iTunes shopping cart – a companion to my Amazon list. Here is where I keep track of single tunes that I want to add to my collection someday. This was a hard adjustment to make at first, since I consider myself an album kind-of guy. But at 99 cents apiece, I can adjust. I often shuffle music ideas back and forth between iTunes and Amazon as my whims and priorities change.
• Peapod – I love this service, which lets me grocery shop online and have someone else lug in the heavy bags. And the site’s database keeps track of everything I’ve ever ordered, so I can do all my shopping in a few quick clicks.
• MySpace – Mostly dormant at this time (you’ll see, I have basically no friends here). I set it up last year, partly as a cyber exercise and partly to keep tabs on my son, his friends, and my brother.
• Second Life – OK, I’m really adrift here. I created a character this summer (named Spyder Wirefly… cool, eh!?) but I find it darned difficult to do anything. I had a heck of a time modifying my avatar’s appearance; I can barely figure out how to get to the site and move around; and communicating with others…? Maybe I’d be better off living my second life as a mute! The notion of earning Linden dollars, buying or selling stuff, conducting business, running a presidential campaign, or any of the other interesting options you hear about on Second Life… well, let’s just say I’m still learning to do that in my first life.
Seeing it all laid out here, the list is pretty awesome. I remember only five years ago being impressed that I was part of an active listserv. But managing it all demands time and patience, as well as a certain degree of “here I am” ego. It’s no wonder I don’t write in this blog more frequently, or that several of my sites are less that robust. I’m really actually fairly busy at work, thank you, and at home I’ve only got so many hours to give over to my cyber life. I know it will sort itself out and some of these services will fall into disuse. But for now, all I can say is, thank god for bookmarks.
First a small step back… I have been messing around with Facebook over the past few weeks. It started as an experiment in child monitor (mine, not yours!) but has quickly, and remarkably easily, blossomed into a daily activity almost as necessary as checking my e-mail. And therein lies the quandary. Is Facebook the straw that could break this cyber-camel’s back?
Assuming I remember them all, I have cyber selves and accounts at:
• Hotmail – my day-to-day e-mail account.
• Gmail – for my personal-business e-mailing.
• CCICrosby.com – where I handle e-mail for my job.
• Facebook – At my new best time-waster (to quote a friend), I keep tabs on friends, colleagues, and other loose connections. I’ve posted some photos. I also play word puzzle games that I find a bit annoying, but my wife got me into it. And I keep track of several blogs that I like to read.
• delicious – I use this site regularly to keep track of all the websites and blogs I need at my fingertips for work or personal interests.
• Twitter – I do have a Twitter account, though I don’t use it much. A work colleague uses Twitter often to troll for information on articles we’re planning. I just haven’t gotten into the habit. Certainly the Mumbai reporting opened my eyes to new possibilities.
• LinkedIn – Go here to see or join my professional connections and network. I’m still getting the hang of all you can do with LinkedIn from a business standpoint, and I don’t have as cool connections as my wife (she’s linked to the governor, at least one Red Sox ace, and the host of a certain national TV dance show), but I see the potential.
• weber-wise – this blog… thank you for reading.
• Amazon wish list – This is my master file of all music, movies, and books that I hope to get at some point, or simply things that I want to remember for some reason. By the way, Christmas is just around the corner…
• iTunes shopping cart – a companion to my Amazon list. Here is where I keep track of single tunes that I want to add to my collection someday. This was a hard adjustment to make at first, since I consider myself an album kind-of guy. But at 99 cents apiece, I can adjust. I often shuffle music ideas back and forth between iTunes and Amazon as my whims and priorities change.
• Peapod – I love this service, which lets me grocery shop online and have someone else lug in the heavy bags. And the site’s database keeps track of everything I’ve ever ordered, so I can do all my shopping in a few quick clicks.
• MySpace – Mostly dormant at this time (you’ll see, I have basically no friends here). I set it up last year, partly as a cyber exercise and partly to keep tabs on my son, his friends, and my brother.
• Second Life – OK, I’m really adrift here. I created a character this summer (named Spyder Wirefly… cool, eh!?) but I find it darned difficult to do anything. I had a heck of a time modifying my avatar’s appearance; I can barely figure out how to get to the site and move around; and communicating with others…? Maybe I’d be better off living my second life as a mute! The notion of earning Linden dollars, buying or selling stuff, conducting business, running a presidential campaign, or any of the other interesting options you hear about on Second Life… well, let’s just say I’m still learning to do that in my first life.
Seeing it all laid out here, the list is pretty awesome. I remember only five years ago being impressed that I was part of an active listserv. But managing it all demands time and patience, as well as a certain degree of “here I am” ego. It’s no wonder I don’t write in this blog more frequently, or that several of my sites are less that robust. I’m really actually fairly busy at work, thank you, and at home I’ve only got so many hours to give over to my cyber life. I know it will sort itself out and some of these services will fall into disuse. But for now, all I can say is, thank god for bookmarks.
November 17, 2008
Finally, a good use for the Internet
OK, so that’s a bit extreme. But after spending way too much time online with Facebook lately, I’ve found balance in my life.
First, about this Facebook thing… I admit to being a latecomer to the party. But judging by various associates, friends, and friend of friends who’ve also joined recently, there’s still a lot of room for growth in this puppy. As one colleague said to me, “welcome to the new biggest time waster in your life,” and by golly she was right.
The site just sucks you in with all kinds of mind candy – games to play, events to join in, photos to post and share and comment on, all manner of gizmos to show which movie star you see yourself as, gifts to “send,” drinks to pass around (that one remains a mystery to me), and more. Starting with the “Bill is _ _ _” status report at the top of the page, the site is demonically designed to make you “need” to come back often and update yourself and check on your many friends. That some friends report “other people” who update their status constantly throughout the day makes you wonder if those folks have an offline life. (It also makes me wonder how my friends know this detail about their Facebook friends’ obsessiveness.) I mean, really, is the world a better place for our knowing that “Susie is watching Johnny play in the back yard” (and which is she watching more closely – Johnny or Facebook?)
Don’t get me wrong. It’s been fun to connect casually with a few folks who I’d otherwise be missing. It’s like popping back into lives that had drifted apart. Within limits, that’s a good thing, and just might lead to interesting possibilities down the road.
In the meantime, however, Bill is … not so sure Facebook is a good thing.
Craigslist, on the other hand, is a godsend. For months, I have been grumbling about the clutter in our house. Things certainly have piled up over the years. Toys get outgrown, and boxed, and stored and… dusty. Furniture from a previous generation of dwelling are a bit too nice to be discarded, but don’t fit in the current abode or in our future plans. Dishes. Lamps. Videos. Albums. Rugs. More dishes. Our attic holds a vast store of stuff that fits into the “one man’s trash…” category.
Now that we’ve arrived at the “enough is enough” stage, craigslist is my exit strategy.
I posted several pieces of furniture and some unused toys on craigslist yesterday afternoon as a first foray into cybersales – and much to my joy, I got three bites within a few hours. That’s progress. Because believe me, there’s more where that came from.
If all goes well, I now have a new part-time job. Just like the folks I remember from Downeast Maine who have permanent yard sales in their garages (stop by anytime), if you need to find me, just know that “Bill is… rummaging in the attic.”
First, about this Facebook thing… I admit to being a latecomer to the party. But judging by various associates, friends, and friend of friends who’ve also joined recently, there’s still a lot of room for growth in this puppy. As one colleague said to me, “welcome to the new biggest time waster in your life,” and by golly she was right.
The site just sucks you in with all kinds of mind candy – games to play, events to join in, photos to post and share and comment on, all manner of gizmos to show which movie star you see yourself as, gifts to “send,” drinks to pass around (that one remains a mystery to me), and more. Starting with the “Bill is _ _ _” status report at the top of the page, the site is demonically designed to make you “need” to come back often and update yourself and check on your many friends. That some friends report “other people” who update their status constantly throughout the day makes you wonder if those folks have an offline life. (It also makes me wonder how my friends know this detail about their Facebook friends’ obsessiveness.) I mean, really, is the world a better place for our knowing that “Susie is watching Johnny play in the back yard” (and which is she watching more closely – Johnny or Facebook?)
Don’t get me wrong. It’s been fun to connect casually with a few folks who I’d otherwise be missing. It’s like popping back into lives that had drifted apart. Within limits, that’s a good thing, and just might lead to interesting possibilities down the road.
In the meantime, however, Bill is … not so sure Facebook is a good thing.
Craigslist, on the other hand, is a godsend. For months, I have been grumbling about the clutter in our house. Things certainly have piled up over the years. Toys get outgrown, and boxed, and stored and… dusty. Furniture from a previous generation of dwelling are a bit too nice to be discarded, but don’t fit in the current abode or in our future plans. Dishes. Lamps. Videos. Albums. Rugs. More dishes. Our attic holds a vast store of stuff that fits into the “one man’s trash…” category.
Now that we’ve arrived at the “enough is enough” stage, craigslist is my exit strategy.
I posted several pieces of furniture and some unused toys on craigslist yesterday afternoon as a first foray into cybersales – and much to my joy, I got three bites within a few hours. That’s progress. Because believe me, there’s more where that came from.
If all goes well, I now have a new part-time job. Just like the folks I remember from Downeast Maine who have permanent yard sales in their garages (stop by anytime), if you need to find me, just know that “Bill is… rummaging in the attic.”
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