Social Media University, Global (SMUG)
Suus Non Ut Difficile • Home of the SMUGgles
As requested by Michael Rudnick, Chairperson of the Advanced Learning Insitute’s Social Media Summit, I have posted the PDF of my presentation on the blog he established as a clearinghouse. Go there to access my presentation, and feel free to leave comments or get in touch with me.
Technorati: Social Media, Podcasting, Blogging
I’m heading to Las Vegas early Monday morning for three days at the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) meeting at NAB. We have a booth there for Mayo Clinic Medical Edge, our syndicated news offerings for TV and radio.
I’ve heard about how Twitter was used during SxSW in Austin to help people connect on the fly. I’m not sure how they did it, but if anyone can tell me how to connect with what’s happening through Twitter, please send me an invitation. I’m still trying to figure this out.
Technorati: Twitter, NAB, RTNDA
We heard some excellent presentations today, including one from Andy Sernovitz of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, another from Mary Owens of Motorola, and a third from Mayor Bill Gentes of Round Lake, IL. A panel discussion featuring Mary, Bill Hanekamp and Patrick Rooney also created some good discussion.
I liked Bill Hanekamp’s four essentials for a successful microsite: it needs to be Entertaining, with Exclusive content, Timely and Relevant to the target audience. We also talked afterward about whether companies can put their video on YouTube and still keep other companies from incorporating it into their for-profit sites. Bill said the owner of content maintains copyright, and a cease-and-desist letter to the offending company will get them to pull it down. The panel said companies need to have a presence on YouTube to be relevant.
This made Kimberly Smith’s kind words all the more meaningful as she launched her blog today. I firmly believe that as more communications professionals begin to understand just how easy it is to blog and start experimenting, they will find applications that make sense for them. As Michael Rudnick said, we need to see the tools as just infrastructure. Don’t pay attention to how most people use them. If they are free (and most of them are) and you can meet a need with them, be creative and take advantage.
So – for those who attended this week, what was the most important nugget you took away? What are you going to apply in your work? In your personal life?
Technorati: WOMMA, Blog, Marketing, YouTube, Video
I’ve been watching all the chirping about Twitter, those who are addicted and those who hate it. One of the questions I had was how I might practically use it. Lifehacker has some good thoughts, and other related posts are here, here and here.
So, I decided to try it. Part of my job as Manager for National Media and New Media at Mayo Clinic is to explore new trends and how they might affect our work of communicating about research, relating with journalists and making reliable health and medical information available to the general public.
I’ll admit that SMS text messaging is something with which I wasn’t too familiar, mainly because it was an extra charge on my cell phone bill. And with six users on our cell phone plan (even with my oldest daughter getting married and moving to a new account) we didn’t need more cell phone expense.
But my daughters are seriously into IM and SMS, as is everyone else in their generation, so I rationalized buying the 300 message plan for myself on grounds of connecting with them and also better understanding the next generation.
I set up a Twitter account here, and would welcome friends to join. You can sign up for my Twitter RSS feed (I can’t guarantee it will be interesting) even without joining Twitter, but if you do join Twitter you can get alerts on your cell phone.
I’m not sure how I can best use Twitter or whether Mayo Clinic should, but I look forward to exploring. My friend Shel Holtz at FIR uses it to tweet people and invite comments when he’s recording his twice weekly podcast with Neville Hobson, which I think is a neat way to create more timely interactivity with their audience.
I could see this possibly being used for emergency communications, disaster drills, to quickly get messages to a core team. Setting up a Twitter account called “Disaster55905” for our zip code, and asking people to sign up for SMS alerts, would be a good way to reach participants quickly.
I could see this having some media relations possiblities too, where maybe journalists could set up an account where they post what stories they’re working on, and what kinds of sources they need. It might be a way to get sources quickly without using email or placing phone calls. And maybe for organizations that have news releases/studies, etc., they (or we) could use it for a heads up to journalists who opt in to receive notification of story ideas…creating a community of news related to a topic like health, or medicine, or for a particular company or industry.
Journalists and their editors have traditionally wanted to keep their story budgets close to the vest for competitive reasons, but maybe not in the future. Wired magazine has an interesting crowdsourcing article that suggests maybe journalists might be opening up a bit.
What do you think? Possibilities?
Technorati: Twitter, crowdsourcing
In Bob Garfield’s Chaos Scenario 2.0, from Advertising Age, Garfield summarizes in one place what I’ve been writing for several months about layoffs in traditional media and their plummeting stock prices and market valuations.
In December 2005, Viacom spun off CBS, the so-called Tiffany Network, lest the broadcast business impede growth and depress shareholder value.
Just before Christmas 2005, Time Inc. laid off 100 employees. Just after Christmas, in January 2006, Time Inc. laid off 100 more employees. In April 2006, Time Inc. laid off 250 more employees — the last round of job cuts, the company said. In January, Time Inc. laid off 300 more employees. No wonder. Since 2001, Time Warner’s market capitalization has shrunk to $82 billion from $193 billion.
Last fall, ostensibly to promote their new seasons, five broadcast networks bypassed their local affiliates and gave away new programs online.
In October 2006, NBC announced a $750 million cost cutback, including 700 jobs and a moratorium on scripted programs in the first hour of prime time.
In November 2006, Clear Channel — the boogeyman of media consolidation — sold to private-equity owners and declared that it wants to unload its TV and small-market radio stations. The sale fetched $38 a share. In 2000, the stock sold at $100 a share.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, acquired by McClatchy in 1998 for $1.2 billion, was sold to private investors in December 2006 for $530 million.
In 2000, Chicago-based Tribune Co. was valued at $12 billion. It then bought Times-Mirror Co. for more than $8 billion. At this writing, with Tribune Co. for sale as a whole or in part, the value of the merged company is $7.34 billion.
YouTube. Two years ago, it — much less Joost and Revver and Brightcove and the online-video industry in general — did not exist.
And of course, the Tribune deal went down just last week, with a creatively financed $8 billion package, or roughly what Tribune paid for the Times-Mirror in 2000.
I highly recommend reading the whole article, including the prequel from 2005.
Shel Holtz is right when he says new media don’t make old media obsolete, but the old media adapt. The question Garfield raises is whether they will adapt quickly enough to remain economically viable in the long term, or whether they will put on a brave face as they steam toward the iceberg, not wanting to alarm the passengers/advertisers.
Technorati: advertising, networks, new media