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 Lava Row is a social media consulting, strategy and education firm in Des Moines, Iowa. These are our adventures. |
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How newspapers can foster community with social mediaFebruary 7th, 2010 / Posted by Nathan T. Wright
On Friday I gave a presentation called Fostering Community with Social Media at the Midwest Newspaper Summit (put on by the fine folks at the Iowa Newspaper Association). The audience was a mix of journalists and editors from regional newspapers as well as college students excited to break into the media industry.
The journalism world (specifically newspapers) is currently in a state of flux, and many are wondering if anything will be left standing five years from now. Yes, media platforms and reading habits have evolved, but the point of my session was that community equals opportunity – advantages go to those who embrace technology shifts and understand how to operationalize social networks for their gain.
View more presentations from Nathan Wright.While most of the audience was there to learn, I did my fair share of learning from them, as well. The session allowed me to connect with smart people who are working on innovative things, right here in Iowa. Thomas Ritchie (Online Editor at the Sioux City Journal) has put a focus on harnessing the real-time web and live-blogging stories for his newspaper, and he’s achieved quite a bit of success from it. Steve Buttry, who blogs about the future of journalism and media, sat in the front row and asked all sorts of good questions. I was also impressed by many of the college students I met, who are eager to break into the industry and tear it up using their knowledge of self-publishing tools and networks.
I have lots of opinions on where this is all going, but I certainly don’t have all the answers. What are your thoughts on the future of newspapers and news media? Please chime in below.
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Nathan T. WrightSocial media strategist, founder, public speaker.
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View Comments to “How newspapers can foster community with social media”
abrudtkuhl February 8th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Great presentation…
Share the link love!
There's an SEO theory called the “bowtie” effect that is much easier explained visually… However the idea is that you get linked to and you link out to other sites. Google loves this but the newspaper industry has shunned the idea of linking out because then people leave your site and you lose those advertising dollars (which actually isn't true cuz the impression still counts)
The idea is you become the authority for a topic – which is much how Wikipedia and About.com used to work – by providing content but also linking out to available resources.
The NYTimes is leading the charge with topical pages that aggregate content and OTHER news / blog articles for a topic. See http://nyti.ms/a5dHod for an example…
This has increased their organic search traffic tremendously by being a landing page for topics. I wonder when other newspapers are going to get it
end rant -)
abrudtkuhl February 8th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Great presentation…nnShare the link love! nnThere’s an SEO theory called the “bowtie” effect that is much easier explained visually… However the idea is that you get linked to and you link out to other sites. Google loves this but the newspaper industry has shunned the idea of linking out because then people leave your site and you lose those advertising dollars (which actually isn’t true cuz the impression still counts)nnThe idea is you become the authority for a topic – which is much how Wikipedia and About.com used to work – by providing content but also linking out to available resources.nnThe NYTimes is leading the charge with topical pages that aggregate content and OTHER news / blog articles for a topic. See http://nyti.ms/a5dHod for an example…nnThis has increased their organic search traffic tremendously by being a landing page for topics. I wonder when other newspapers are going to get it
nnend rant -)nn
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