The 5 most-clicked links in SmartBrief on Social Media this past week:
- 5 tips for tapping the power of LinkedIn
- The single biggest social-media mistake
- How to run a legitimate Facebook promotion
- To build a fan base, pick a fight
- What Twitter means for bloggers
Study: Consumers less likely to trust their friends (read more…)
I’ll be honest: When I’m looking for stories to include in SmartBrief on Social Media, MySpace almost never crosses my mind. When you’re talking about innovative platforms with a broad reach and a bright future, it no longer makes the list. Instead, it’s joined the ranks of the social media also-rans, consigned to a dusty closet with Bolt, Friendster and Orkut.
Or maybe not. Craig Daitch makes the case in today’s lead story that it’s not too late to turn MySpace around and make it a real competitor again. I don’t know if the network (or its parent company) has the will to do what it takes — but I have to agree with Daitch that the potential is still in the network. Here’s why:
MySpace’s decline has left a vacuum in the social-media universe. Facebook is a great general-interest network. I love it. But it’s not enough. Titans need rivals to push them forward. (read more…)
Today’s post comes from Elena Ziebarth, a new product development associate at SmartBrief.
Last week’s paidContent 2010 conference tackled the future of the publishing industry in the digital world. The New York Times recently announced that they are establishing a metered model for their online properties, where a nonsubscriber would pay a flat fee for a month’s worth of access to its articles and blogs. A nonsubscriber that reaches an article or blog post via Google search or a link would be allowed a few free views before having to pay for the month’s worth of access.
During lunch at last Friday’s event, paidContent’s Staci Kramer interviewed three members of the New York Times’ leadership — Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman and publisher; Janet Robinson, president and CEO; and Martin Nisenholtz, senior vice president of digital operations — on their expectations for the metered model.
Nisenholtz said about 60% of New York Times online readers access the site through the homepage — the “front door” — including many heavy readers, or those consuming more than 10 articles per month. Readers coming through “side doors” such as non-NYT blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. (read more…)
In many ways, social media can make the Web feel a bit smaller. Instead of spending hours on faceless corporate Web sites, I’m chatting with old friends and making new ones, all on my own personal landing pages.
Social networks do such a good job of shrinking the Internet down to my own little social circle that at times I can almost forget that the Web is worldwide. Almost.
Decisions such as the one handed down by an Italian judge this week, which served as the lead story in today’s SmartBrief on Social Media, are a painful reminder of the challenges that a global Web represents. Web sites, content producers and Internet service providers aren’t just playing by one set of rules. There are conceivably as many standards at work as there are nations with courts to rule on them. When your business decides to engage your customers on a social platform, you’re not just staying in your own backyard. (read more…)
In some corporate cultures, creating a social media policy is only half the battle — selling it internally is a significant challenge, too. While new FTC policies have helped management realize the importance of having something in place, some brands are still finding roadblocks that are slowing down policy implementation.
How to sell it:
- Make a friend in legal. Earning an ally on the team responsible for creating other corporate policies can help yours gain significant legitimacy.
- Small word changes can make big differences. It’s amazing how much changing the word “policy” to “guidelines” can mean to those standing in the way of your proposed document.
- Attach it to existing policies. Maybe you don’t need an entirely new document. Most companies have existing policies related to communications and employee behavior. If you can’t sell a stand-alone policy, explore ways to add guidelines to existing ones.
(P.S. If you’re still working on your policy, check out the Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit created by the Social Media Business Council — of which I am the CEO — that’s been vetted by dozens of corporate legal teams.) (read more…)
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