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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Eye on Digital Media: Publishers And Online Community Values: What Have We Learned? Online community continues to be the nut that just won't crack for publishers and their business models. All those eyeballs, all that peer-to-peer energy, so little advertising. User-generated content areas Instead of chanting (although this has its benefits in troubled times), let's explore what is working. I am on a personal mission of late to uncover successful ways in which heretofore impersonal, sometimes imperious, media are learning to embrace some of this community energy within their brands and not just as ghettoes in some "Community" navigation tab. Last month, we held a min Webinar on the topic, where TV Guide, BusinessWeek, and Hearst Magazines executives all explored their new models for leveraging social media and community (retrievable at MINONLINE.COM). But I also grilled community tools provider Pluck and its head of product marketing, Adam Weinroth, on the best practices he is seeing across many brands. This is an ongoing project, so expect more columns in the future, but for now let's cover two strong trends that should be informing everyone's community affairs. 1. Participatory Content. Encouraging discussions around professionally produced content is where traditional media meets the new-media community, and this is where the major brands have an advantage. "Use tools for users to annotate or respond to anchor content," says Weinroth. Leverage the archives. Create user groups around topics of interest and feed your own relevant content into the mix. Weinroth calls the principle "user-enhanced content." Comments areas are actually a kind of communitarian gateway drug, he says, and they can pay back in unforeseen ways. "If you can get someone to take that initial step of typing in a few lines in response to an article you are one step closer to them submitting a photo or signing up for a blog." BusinessWeek Online senior vp/general manager Roger Neal calls it "social media." Instead of building silos of people just talking at one another, find ways to put content at the center of conversations. More than just adding a scroll of comments, let users easily recommend other content to one another or easily rate the article itself. BWO's Business Exchange (BX.BUSINESSWEEK.COM) is a remarkable example of this idea, with users pulling their favorite content in from around the Web on the hottest topics. Users drive and filter the editorial, but the content itself is the centerpiece. Special value-add: Neal says banners in these targeted topic areas are performing much better than typical placements. 2. Content Participation. The flip side of putting content at the center of community is putting your staff in the center of conversations. When editors and writers respond to comments and interact with the users actively, "It pays back tenfold," says Weinroth. "Staff getting involved actively in the conversation is a consistent characteristic across our most successful customers." TVGUIDE.COM editor-in-chief Christy Tanner says that her staff regularly consults the traffic and responsiveness to all their writing in order to be in closer touch with audience needs. Weinroth adds that this is the real differentiator for magazines: It represents a way that traditional media types can out-innovate social networks. People with a journalism background have a thing or two to teach some of the bigger pure play social networks. They are thinking about audience and attention. What do people want and how can I add value and address a need the audience has? In other words, yes, social networks and online the community provide content...of a kind. But that is quite different from being a content provider. Steve Smith (POPEYESMITH@COMCAST.NET) is digital media editor for min/min's b2b/MINONLINE.COM. He posts regularly on The Minsider blog and directs the min Webinars. Smith also co-chairs the annual min Day Summit and as ceo of Roving Eyeball Inc., consults for a number of publishers in the digital space. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com |
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like message boards, photo galleries, and self-serve blogs often wither from disinterest or remain segregated silos that are disconnected from the other content at a site and certainly alienated from advertiser interest. Brand hubris leads too many sites to construct their own social networks (a la Facebook) in the truly bizarre belief that their visitors (who already have vibrant Facebook communities) really want to build another one at a magazine site. Chant the trendy mantra magazines are communities to ourselves often enough at every industry conference, and I guess eventually we believe it.
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Magazines are correct in asserting that they are already a community. So why then do they need to try and foster community? What they need to do is drive valuable interactions from that community.