Recently, I stumbled across a debate I could never imagine taking place. My friend Joe Pulizzi at CustomPublishers.com was recounting his numerous discussions with individuals in the custom publishing business who view it as being separate from services related to social media.
As anyone who knows me will easily know, I can’t comprehend how anyone — a marketer or any creator of custom media — could perceive that “social media” is not only a part of what a custom publishing firm does, it’s the heart of what we should be about.
First, let me explain a few things.
So you can see, I don’t even comprehend why a custom publishing company can say it’s not in the social media business.
To me, whatever media — magazines, online, video, audio — that help communities build around shared passions is the business we’re in. Building stronger, longer, more mutually-beneficial relationships is what we do.
Healthcare reform is not the most exciting topic, but it’s an important one, and it is covered extensively in the June/July 2009 issue of MyBusiness, the magazine we publish for the National Federation of Independent Business.
One of my greatest objections to English grammar is the concept of the gender-neutral pronoun. I’m all for gender equality, but I object to the unwieldy sentences it has created. Take this egregious example from an automobile safety card:
“The passenger should keep his or her seatbelt fastened at all times to protect himself or herself in the event of an accident.”
I was asking a friend who sells advertising about her business.
“It’s hard to swim, or even to see, with this much blood in the water,” she said.
True enough. Magazine advertising was off in 2007 and 2008. Those were historically bad years. Magazine advertising got off to an even slower start in 2009. Quarter one numbers from the Publishers Information Bureau show magazine pages off 26 percent year to year from 08 to 09.
With newspapers and their social media policies taking center stage in the news recently, I thought it might be interesting to talk to a couple of my favorite local newspaper folks to get their take.
Robert Quigley is Internet Editor for the Austin American-Statesman, and Addie Broyles is their food writer. I connected with both of them through Twitter within the last 12 months, and when I asked some questions this week about social media and newspapers, they were just as insightful and helpful as I expected.
Q: You say in a recent article that there are no rules in place for the way staff conduct themselves on Twitter and other social media tools, do you think it will come to that?
Robert: Our normal code of conduct and ethics rules apply. I don’t think we’ll need to institute more layers of rules to cover social media, unless we need to respond to a serious problem that isn’t covered by our normal rules. Although we have a huge majority of our staff using social media, we haven’t run into any problems that would require new measures. This is an innovative newspaper, and our staff takes chances with new tools. We don’t want to stifle that. That being said, everyone here knows they represent the newspaper 24/7, and they are expected to act in accordance with that, no matter the platform.
Q: Even though the Statesman hasn’t issued policies regarding staff use of social media, are there certain rules or filters that you set up for yourself when it comes to using Twitter?
Robert: Yes, I do have rules that I’ve made up for myself:
Q: What do you think the use of social media has done for the Statesman here in town?
Addie: The Statesman‘s use of social media, led with its Twitter account, has brought a new level of attention and helped remove the stigma that it’s for an older demographic and squash the idea that newspapers’ content that is old by the time it gets to readers. Many, many people get the majority of their news through Twitter, which puts tv, radio, newspapers and blogs on the same playing field. Twitter has also allowed people in Austin to feel like they are connected — and eventually invested — in the newspaper. The colloquial dialogue between readers and twitterers strengthens that bond.
Q: How long have you been tweeting? Did you start tweeting as Addie Broyles, Statesman employee, or simply Addie Broyles?
Addie: I’ve been tweeting for about a year, and I started as the food writer for the Statesman. It took Gary Vaynerchuk, the host of Wine Library TV, convincing me to get over my fear that Twitter was a waste of time. It was some of the best advice I’ve gotten since I started this job. I was clear from the get-go that this was both a personal and professional account, which the Statesman supports because they know that the personality behind the tweets is what really makes them sing. I look to @OmarG for inspiration.
Q: How did you balance your personal tweets with your tweets as a representative of the Statesman?
Addie: I try to make all of my tweets come back to food, but I’d say about 95 percent of them end up about food, the other 5 percent are about music, life in Austin or being a parent. I’m constantly thinking about what to tweet and how to tweet, and my Twitter voice changes by the week. As Twitter evolves, its purpose in users’ lives evolves, too.
Q: Are more staff members diving into social media?
Robert: New staff members are joining Twitter all the time. I’ve given a couple of brown-bag lunches to help teach those who are interested in trying it out how to set up an account, why to do it, what they can do, etc. After each session, another handful of reporters signs up. We now have more than 45 staff members on Twitter posting information about their beats.
Q: What would you tell other newspaper folks who are interested in tweeting?
Robert: I’d tell newspaper folks who aren’t on Twitter that they should give it a try. They’ll get out of it what they put into it, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot. I personally think it’s the best tool for journalists to come down the pipe in a while, but people have to discover that potential on their own.
When you reach for a cover on a magazine stand, what is it that grabs your attention? Is it the photography? The enticing cover blurbs? The color?
Editor Megan Pacella sat down this week with our design team to talk about just those questions and one of our own publications. Let us know what you think!
Chicago, The City of Broad Shoulders, saw a lot of broad shoulders from 11-17 May as the US Marine Corps blew into the Windy City to give residents a close-up look at today’s Corps during the service’s inaugural Marine Week.
Hundreds of Marines performed community services tasks such as cleaning up parks, assisting with Habitat for Humanity projects and rehabbing community centers; they also visited schools, participated in sporting events, exhibited the latest in Marine equipment such as the V-22 Osprey and demonstrated Marine skills such as martial arts. On Sunday 17 May, a group of Marines staged a mock raid in the city’s popular Arlington
Park racetrack complex, complete with Ospreys landing and troops fanning out.
The previous evening at Navy Pier, the Marine Corps League hosted a VIP reception keynoted by an address from General James L. Jones, USMC (Ret), who was the 32nd Commandant of the Corps and serves now as National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama. Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlton W. Kent, and LtGen. Ronald S. Coleman, Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs were also among the guests who included local political figures and many members of Chicagoland and Illinois Marine Corps League Detachments.
Local Leaguers were deeply involved in the planning and implementation of events, assisting the active duty Marines wherever necessary. Their scarlet jackets and caps – known as “covers” in Marine parlance – stood out in the crowds. It was a chance for these veterans to spend time getting to know some of today’s Leathernecks who carry on the Corps’ proud legacy.
The week-long event was an opportunity for Chicagoans to meet the individuals who make the Marine Corps, said Chicago native Brig. Gen. Melvin G. Spiese, commanding general, Training and Education Command, in Quantico, VA. “The idea of Marine Week is to get the major cities in America exposed to the Marine Corps,” said General Spiese. “We couldn’t find a better place to kick this thing off. We are America’s Marine Corps.”
“This is a Marine Corps town, it’s a very popular part of the military here,” said Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in opening the week-long event on 11 May. “You’ll see it all week, there is a great history of Marine Corps families in Chicago.”
Plans are in the works for the next Marine Week scheduled for this fall in Boston.
Tweeters at Hammock Inc. share their favorite apps
You probably already know that we love Twitter! So last week when the conversation turned to what tools use to tweet, there were several votes for favorites.
Today, I opened up a FedEx envelope labeled “Extremely Urgent” and out jumped a bag of chocolate-covered grasshoppers. Since I’m a pretty picky eater, I didn’t even waste time pondering whether I would eat one. Instead, I walked down the hall and asked everyone I passed if they’d like to try one.
One by one, I got turned down—until I entered Bill Hudgins’ office, who jumped at the chance. After we picked out a sufficiently chocolaty one for him, he popped it in his mouth, declared it tasty and started jumping towards me (like a grasshopper). John Lavey walked by and saw the commotion and I offered him one, too.
As John opened his grasshopper wrapper, he told the story of how he once ate six cicadas as a bet. The prospect of eating a grasshopper — especially one covered in chocolate — did not faze him, and he ate it as though he had just popped an after-dinner mint.
Counting only Bill and John among the brave but determined to find more, I went back to the art department to challenge Ben Stewart. A few minutes of peer pressure was all it took—he was digesting grasshopper in no time.
I have two left! Any takers?
Oh, and it’s a commendable marketing campaign. The second I opened that FedEx envelope, Grasshopper (a phone service company for small businesses) had my attention.
When it comes to social media, people are apt to turn an eye and an ear to Hammock for guidance. A big reason for that is RexBlog, the decade-old weblog of Founder/CEO Rex Hammock.
We knew RexBlog was influential, and we’ve always known that Rex lives out on the leading edge when it comes to technology and social media, but it really caught our attention when we saw Invesp Consulting had analyzed thousands of blogs that cover social media and ranked Rex’s #42 in their Top 100 Blogs in Social Media list, the “ultimate rank” as they call it.
But Rex’s name doesn’t appear in their rankings just this once. Oh no. He also made the following lists:
Way to go, Rex!
