By Leo Valiquette
Despite all the hype, hoopla and debate around social media as a marketing and public relations tool, there is one even more fundamental aspect of the Web that is far more pervasive: the search.
It seems weird to say “the search” without putting “Google” in there, but there are other services available to dig up information, Wikipedia being the most obvious. It used to be that information was power, now it’s an avalanche that overwhelms us. Intelligence is what’s important: the ability to filter through the overload to determine what is useful and chart trends or patterns that have meaning and relevance.
When all that information is so readily available and convenient, it’s easy to take it at face value without looking deeper and doing some good old-fashioned digging to verify facts and the credibility of the source. For a journalist on deadline eager to wrap up a story, it can be a trap. Take the example cited by Drew Benvie at Drew B’s take on tech PR, in which a fictional athlete was presented in an article as an actual person, thanks to a bogus profile on Wikipedia.
That’s not to suggest that Wikipedia is not a valid research tool, but it is vulnerable to abuse and demonstrates the importance of verifying facts and cross-referencing any online source of information.
For organizations sensitive to how their brand or image is being presented to the world, it is definitely important to keep an eye on such online information portals to ensure the accuracy of whatever information is being presented about them.
And while there are valid questions about the veracity of online information, what about the value of obtaining media coverage online instead of in print?
As a newspaper editor with only so many inches of space in the print product but much more on the website, I would often hear the complaint that running a story only online was somehow inferior to running it in print.
Sure, there is tactile satisfaction to be had in handling ink-stained paper, but it should be amply evident by now that content online lives far longer and reaches a far larger audience than the processed corpses of trees. In the newspaper business, I would get feedback on stories from readers on other continents after the content appeared online. The print product, on the other hand, was distributed in only one city. You do the math.
Kevin Dugan at the Bad Pitch Blog shares my sentiment and offers a video clip to help make the point.
By Danny Sullivan
“It is early days, but it’s already clear that 2009 will be a crucial year for news media.”
Cautionary words from the Financial Times’ chief exec, John Ridder, as Brand Republic reports today that the business newspaper giant is laying off 80 staff, while still intending to expand its online presence. Coupled with other recent news of woes at major newspapers, including the New York Times and Canada’s Globe and Mail, one wonders if the writing is finally on the wall for print-based media.
Okay, maybe it’s not that likely. Granted, there is still a significant demand from the public for a physical medium by which to consume the news, but the survival of news media depends on more than subscriptions. Advertising is the key, especially among the technology trade media, where the majority of print magazine titles are free to qualifying subscribers, but it seems that companies increasingly seem to prefer the online option when it comes to spending their advertising dollars in a downturn. Certainly, the consensus is that print advertising is set for significant decline this year.
Douglas McIntyre on 24/7 Wall Street seems to think there’s a good chance that 2009 could see the end of a host of big names, with a drop in advertising seen as the key factor. “At least a dozen major magazines had ad page decreases of more than 20 per cent last year,” he states.
Perhaps it’s too early to speak of the death of print but, without advertising to support it and little sign of when this might change, the prospect becomes more real every day.
By inmedia
In case you missed them, here’s a roundup of our posts from December.
(Francis’s note: December was, clearly, a thin month for our blog. We pledge to be more faithful with our posts in this new year. In the meantime, belated best wishes for the holidays and to all our readers, we wish you a peaceful and prosperous 2009. Thank you for reading our blog.)
Francis
Dec. 1: A Christmas gift for Lesotho
Dec. 18: Attention software company CEOs: Boost your PR investment to survive downturn
Leo
Dec. 4: The best laid plans …
Dec. 8: Plain talk and hard numbers about PR
Dec. 12: Naughty or nice a matter of circumstance
Danny
Dec. 31: Embargos: What’s all the fuss about?
By Francis Moran
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I spent four childhood Christmases in Lesotho, the tiny mountain kingdom in southern Africa where my father worked for the country’s newly independent government. I have vivid memories of our very first Christmas there, which came scant weeks after we first landed in this strange new land. So I know first-hand that several things we take for granted at this time of year simply don’t happen in Lesotho, a country that struggled with poverty and chronic drought when we lived there and whose problems have been endlessly compounded since then by the ravages of HIV and AIDS.
The most obvious difference at Christmas time is that it is hot and sunny in Lesotho, not cold and snowy. Contrary to many people’s imagined vision of Africa, however, it does get extremely cold and snowy in Lesotho during its winter since the country lies at 5,000 feet above sea level and higher. Being in the southern hemisphere, Lesotho’s winter corresponds with our summer, and vice versa.
The next most obvious difference is that very few families in Lesotho will be tucking in to a feast of good food following a frenzied burst of present openings this, or any, Christmas morning. Many families will be led by the oldest child, or a surviving grandparent as AIDS has cut a swath through a generation of parents and wage-earners. And while most will take time to celebrate with joyous song and dance the religious aspects of Christmas in this deeply devout nation of church-goers, very few will be able to join in the secular aspects that, for most of us, now take precedence.
This childhood connection to Lesotho and an awareness that this tiny nation of incredibly resilient and warmhearted people was bearing a disproportionate share of the burden of HIV and AIDS led me a few years ago to look into a unique Canadian charity, Help Lesotho. We have supported Help Lesotho and its unstoppable dynamo of a founder and director, Peg Hebert, ever since. Through the year, we use our media relations skills and do what we can to help Peg spread her message of hope, and at Christmas we forego sending cards and gift baskets to our clients and colleagues in favour of giving the money to Help Lesotho. We will do so again this year.
But I also want to draw the attention of our Ottawa readers to a fundraising sale of Christmas gift items that Help Lesotho will be holding at its offices over the next couple of weeks. Here you can buy one-of-a-kind gifts that will not only delight their recipients but will also help Peg and her team continue their work. You can see a full catalogue of the items on offer here, and the sale itself will be held at Help Lesotho’s offices at the Keller Williams Building, 610 Bronson Avenue (just north of the Queensway) from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 4; Friday, December 5 and Friday December 12; and from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, December 6.
For those of you not in Ottawa, the same gifts can be bought and the same contribution made to Help Lesotho by clicking on the link in the previous paragraph and shopping online.
