Aug

Social Media Newspapers

Filed Under (Relationship Marketing, Social Marketing) by admin on 08-08-2009

Social Media Newspapers - Top 7 Web 2.0 Tactics Used by Newspapers

In the world of journalism many have predicted the farewell of the news world’s most ubiquitous and iconic symbol – the newspaper.

With the advent of the internet, blogs and social networking sites, more and more people are moving away from the traditional avenues of information. The ink and paper broadsheets have found themselves in conflict with a medium that provides interactivity, customizability and promptness, things that are difficult to compete with when you are limited because of being printed on paper. Of course this doesn’t mean that these old newshounds are going down without a fight.

At this moment papers like the LA Times, the Washington Post and other periodicals are in a mad scramble to find ways to use the online social networking phenomenon to their advantage. Here are the Top 7 social media Tactics the grand old news names are using to survive in the digital information age:

Sourcing the “Network” – Time and again there are tales of bloggers scooping big stories from the major networks and papers. This is often due to the massive amount of diverse information you can get on the Social Networks, whether it be from Twitter, the various RSS feeds or the numerous Facebook and Friendster type sites. Of course that diversity is also its drawback.

With so much data a blogger would need to be very careful about his sources since what might be a big story may turn out to be a potential libel case, with the blogger as defendant. And that’s where the newspapers have an advantage as they employ people who can discriminate fact from fiction. A smart reporter can get leads, develop contacts and keep the newsroom up-to-date, even while at his desk.

Tweet the Story – Adding a twitter extension to uploaded content can generate a lot of traffic to online components. These topics get seeded onto the online sphere and can be commented on, analyzed as well as referenced by audiences that have a deep interest in those stories. It enables the big papers to gain some insight on what people want to know about.

Forging Communities – An extreme extension of “tweeting” your news is buying up your own community. There is an effort by the major publishers to purchase or partner with existing social networks and social media services to create platforms for their news content. With the advantage of capturing and working with established audiences and people, it will be easy to exponentially spread your message throughout the “twitter web”.

Story Sites – Customizing Social Networks to specific themes and topics is part and parcel of the networking phenomenon. So it’s quite natural that news sites create social networks or mini networks that focus on a specific type of story. From crime to politics to entertainment, the papers have a whole bunch of possibilities to offer the info / comment / discussion hungry masses.

E-News, I-Report, My News, etc. – Interactive news is the wave of the future. Giving readers the ability to post their own story ideas, cover their own news, ask questions of today’s luminaries and at least providing the function for customizing news interests are features no 21st Century periodical can do without.

Online Promotions– The traditional advertising gimmick is still a viable option for attracting traffic. As always it should be tailored to the audience in mind. In this case it’s the online generation who expect a multimedia extravaganza when something is promoted. Whether it’s a new book or some ongoing event, there has to be something cool to do or see.

Going Digital – There are periodicals that have shuttered their brick & mortar incarnations and went completely online. They have realized that their market is changing and to survive some sacred cows have to be sacrificed. This is because news, like many things in life, is dynamic. It was once considered the height of technology to have a guy ring a large bell and scream his lungs out as he told his neighbors what was up.

We have all evolved since then and the manner of disseminating information has evolved as well. Seen from this angle, the digital information age is another step in refining how we can keep informed.

Follow my social media twitter updates.

Originally posted 2009-04-14 09:13:23. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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