Be careful what you wish for

The doom and gloom around the failing global economic climate continues to gather pace and with news that the Tribune Company (home of the L.A. Times and the Chicago Cubs among others) has filed for bankruptcy with a debt of (cough) $12 Billion it appears that the media industry has now moved front and centre with the car makers.

This will all be ‘grist to the mill’ for the social media ‘angels of death’ no doubt, but we should really be very careful what we wish for.

Andrew Sullivan had a thoughtful piece in the UK Sunday Times at the weekend looking at the rise of social media and the issues facing traditional media:

The terrifying problem is that a one-man blog cannot begin to do the necessary labour-intensive, skilled reporting that a good newspaper sponsors and pioneers. A world in which reporting becomes even more minimal and opinion gets even more vacuous and unending is not a healthy one for a democracy.

This is exactly the issue.  Trusting blogs, Twitter and Social networks to drive the news agenda is an appalling vista. (I don’t need any wisecracks on that one folks… no seriously 🙂 )

We need a strong media, because the media serves an incredibly important and useful purpose for society. While these are clearly challenging times, I don’t actually believe that the demise of traditional media is as rapid as the evangelists of doom would have you believe. 

We are seeing many media houses evolving and building new business models.  I’m not sure that consumers want to have to gather their own news.

Of course there are some fabulous writers online and I’d expect more to emerge, but there’s also a lot of myopic twaddle being peddled online by self-styled, self-important “experts”.

I don’t think anyone wants that to replace “traditional” media.

Well I don’t.

False alarm…

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts at the Manchester event on Friday.

Just to let you all know, Sorcha is fine… it was a false alarm, so roll on Christmas!

False alarm…

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts at the Manchester event on Friday.

Just to let you all know, Sorcha is fine… it was a false alarm, so roll on Christmas!

Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media #4

Chief Inspector Mark Payne from the West Midlands Police gave a really enjoyable talk on how they are using social media.

A year ago officers weren’t allowed to access social network sites unless they were in a specific crime division.

Like all police forces, they have a need to engage directly with the public.  With shrinking traditional media – social media offers a real alternative, with specific opportunities of engaging with younger people – and audience that’s incredibly difficult to reach for police forces.

West Midlands recently launched a group on Facebook (October 2008). They combined a small marketing campaign and word of mouth has seen the number of fans grow to 1,300.

The page includes videos, contact information, advice and resources you can download.

It is providing a great platform to engage with the public and to drive awareness of their initiatives.

image

They launched a YouTube Channel in the Summer. They upload new video every two weeks. The videos typically are focused on certain topics and campaigns.  It provides a means for the public to hear directly from the police.

Prior to launching, the top search result for “West Midlands Police” on YouTube brought back a BNP video…

There’s a new website launching in the New Year.  It will include “PCTV” delivering video directly from their site.

And of course my favourite: Plodcasts 🙂

Last but not least they now have the ability (since November) to send messages to people directly via Bluetooth in a 50m radius. It’s mostly used at events, public meetings and football matches to send information and make requests.

The work that they are doing in mobilizing social media to engage with the public is incredible!

Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media #4

Chief Inspector Mark Payne from the West Midlands Police gave a really enjoyable talk on how they are using social media.

A year ago officers weren’t allowed to access social network sites unless they were in a specific crime division.

Like all police forces, they have a need to engage directly with the public.  With shrinking traditional media – social media offers a real alternative, with specific opportunities of engaging with younger people – and audience that’s incredibly difficult to reach for police forces.

West Midlands recently launched a group on Facebook (October 2008). They combined a small marketing campaign and word of mouth has seen the number of fans grow to 1,300.

The page includes videos, contact information, advice and resources you can download.

It is providing a great platform to engage with the public and to drive awareness of their initiatives.

image

They launched a YouTube Channel in the Summer. They upload new video every two weeks. The videos typically are focused on certain topics and campaigns.  It provides a means for the public to hear directly from the police.

Prior to launching, the top search result for “West Midlands Police” on YouTube brought back a BNP video…

There’s a new website launching in the New Year.  It will include “PCTV” delivering video directly from their site.

And of course my favourite: Plodcasts 🙂

Last but not least they now have the ability (since November) to send messages to people directly via Bluetooth in a 50m radius. It’s mostly used at events, public meetings and football matches to send information and make requests.

The work that they are doing in mobilizing social media to engage with the public is incredible!

Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media #3

So I had my usual chortle at Twitter’s expense this morning, most people laughed but a couple of people on Twitter weren’t very happy with me 🙂

I do use Twitter (when I get a chance) so you should probably put that into context. I suppose the problem with humour is that it does get lost sometimes.

My talk was entitled “Pragmatic Optimism” (about Social Media), and as always, I appeal for calm and balance when discussing social media. It’s easy to get a false sense of reality.

To be successful I believe that social media must be integrated with broader marketing/communications efforts.

I believe that central to that, is a clear understanding of what you’re trying to achieve (also known as your objectives) and a clear insight into your audience (are they online, where are they?).

It appears that this comes across to some people as “old school”.

Well I suppose in the social media context I am “old school”. I’ve been blogging since 2002, so I should soon be reading “Murphy’s Law is dead” posts very soon.

It’s interesting.  The feedback I’ve had from the majority of delegates has been incredibly positive.  Many are struggling with understanding how we manage the demands of online and offline.  This is a major issue for many people.  They view my pragmatism with relief.

Meanwhile the people sucking the social media Kool-Aid react with disgust that you could be telling them that, actually, the emperor may not have any clothes on or certainly not as many clothes as they think 🙂

What is incredibly interesting is the number of attendees on Twitter and the dynamic of people discussing and debating your talk live is, well interesting to say the least!

I’ll post a synopsis of my talk (without the asides 🙂 next week….