Mark Glaser’s roundup of Top 10 Mediashifting stories of the year focuses on news about how media consumers are getting information in new ways, and from new sources. For some media junkies, 2008 was the year Twitter went mainstream, via reporting from the Mumbai attacks and live plane-crash tweets. For traditional journalists, the biggest story of the year has to be the speed with which the print newspaper industry is collapsing. In an earlier post, MediaShift’s Glaser looked at possible new models for funding the production and delivery of news, while a Dec. 24 story by Douglas MacMillan in BusinessWeek examines one possible model — community funding. MacMillan explores two possible models for community funding: sponsoring stories and sponsoring reporters.
Each method has obvious flaws. Community funding will attract funders with an interest in stories that affect their daily lives — environmental and health stories seem like obvious candidates. (read more…)
The secret to word of mouth marketing: Give people something to talk about and make it easier to share. This time of year companies are sending out hundreds of holiday cards, most of which get a quick glance on their way to the trash. When designing a card, ask yourself: Would anyone show this to a friend? If not, try harder.
My take: If it’s not worth forwarding, it’s not worth doing. Take the time to create something fun, funny, or inspiring. Raise the bar. When you push yourself to think about the sharing part of creativity, you get exponentially better results on everything you do. Apply this to all of your marketing–you’ll get a lot more word of mouth. (read more…)
What’s the No. 1 thing you’d like to achieve in the realm of social media next year? Will you start a new blog? Create a clever viral campaign? Tackle Twitter? Integrate social networks 
into your marketing plan? Do tell! The 10 best resolutions – contributed via comments below – will receive a $50 Amazon gift card and be featured in SmartBrief on Social Media. To get your brainwheels turning, here’s a good example of how our friends at the National Restaurant Association are using social media to do more with less in the coming year – via social media press releases.
Let us know what you plan to do social media-wise in 2009, by commenting below. (read more…)
The 5 most-clicked links in Social Media this past week:
The 5 most-clicked links in Social Media this past week:
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
RSS
