We need to get more hands on the tweet deck, I remarked in a news meeting the other day.
“Ehhhh,” an editor growled. Much ado about this social media and he doesn”™t like it. More dumbing down. And it”™s hurting newspapers, he says. “Suddenly a trillion tweets ”“ a new enemy competing for eyeball time.”
And so much of it is crap.
He”™s a fine editor. An engaging storyteller. A seasoned newsman.
He”™s not a marketer.
That”™s the way it is in this business. Leave the news to the newsroom and marketing to the sales department.
But the lines are blurring ”“ there”™s no Great Wall of China online. Brows furrowed, heads shaking, we ask: What”™s a newsroom to do?
I, too, once shivered at the mention of Twitter. Cringed at blogs. Winced at Wikipedia. Did more than one about-face when invited onto Facebook.
Newspeople don”™t suffer the frivolous lightly ”“ Hey, we”™re in a recession. Tweet this!
And those myriad sites filled with typos, unverified assertions and drivel purported as news by unreliable and misinformed nitwits.
Of course, newspeople are skeptical, competitive and territorial so any “new” form of information delivery is suspect.
But, newsflash: It is here and to ignore it would not only be foolish, but perilous.
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It”™s true there”™s a lot of junk out there. We needn”™t embrace it. But there is a lot of great stuff, too, and we need to face it.
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Let the debate rage over whether the Internet will devour the newspaper industry. Smart newspapers will not go gently into that good fight.
That”™s what makes this industry great.
I”™m LinkedIn, but I am behind the tweet deck.
I admitted this recently in a room full of tweeters, techies and entrepreneurs. I got up the nerve after one of the presenters asked for a show of hands from users of the Yellow Pages. I laughed ”“ I couldn”™t help it, Yellow Pages? ”“ loud enough for her to eyeball me in amusement. But a few hands went up. That admission was certainly more shocking than mine.
The presenter, Bernadette Nelson, is a graphic design professional for print and for the web. She was joined by Ellie Becker, a marketing and PR pro, to discuss ways to retool your website into “a business magnet.”
They spoke to members of the Soundview Innovation Cell, who meet monthly to network and discuss issues, mostly tech-related. The group gathers at the Soundview Club in the Stamford Marriott, with host Catherin Mahaffey.
I was invited to attend by Keith Reynolds, principal at Stamford-based IP Radiation Security Associates, who heads up the Soundview Innovation Cell. Reynolds, aka “Joe the technology entrepreneur,” also is a member of the Business Journal”™s advisory board.
The topic sounded good ”“ driving traffic to your site. To me, that”™s more readers.
There”™s tremendous potential out there. How do you get found? Get keyed in with key words (the newsroom has been using these for years).
“Figure out how they think,” Nelson advised. And use those new tools of the trade. Yes, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. “If you”™re searchable, you”™ll be found.”
The Business Journal uses social media. We”™re getting there ”“ although “there” is still being debated around here.
“It”™s like in ”˜The Gods Must Be Crazy,”™” the editor tells me. “Twitter is like the soda bottle that just fell out of the sky; everybody is poking at it and trying to figure out what it is.”
Getting the entire news crew on deck may take some coaxing. We”™ll figure it out. Evolution is nothing new in the news business.
Besides, we”™re all linked in anyway. The Yellow Pages ”“ even the phone book ”“ were the linking tools of the “dial Butterfield 8 ”¦” telephone era; they”™ve just been updated ”¦ and rigged for speed.
