Tag Archives: social media

Clear Channel launches social networking sites

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“Radio giant Clear Channel is getting into the social networking business. The company’s online music and radio division is introducing a dozen station-branded social networks in the coming months. Each social network will function essentially as mini-MySpace, but will be focused on the local community served by the station running it.

Not only can Clear Channel monetize the sites with targeted online spots from local advertisers, he says but also people using the networks have a better chance of making lasting connections with other users because they will share more regional affiliations. By contrast other social networks are focused on national and even international audiences.

Each social network will have a user experience similar to MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and others offer. Users can create profiles, customize them with HTML codes and widgets, upload photos, music and video, blog, and add friends. Users will also be able to customize their profile pages with videos from Clear Channel’s catalog of over 6,000 music videos licensed from major and independent labels.”

— Billboard

Twitter: “microblogging”

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Have you been following the Twitter thing? Ian Curry at frog design describes it better than I can:

Twitter“Twitter is perhaps the best example of a new kind of blog that some are calling a “tumblelog.” The tumblelog is a bit like the old link lists: quick one or two-line entries – sometimes just a picture. Twitter in specific allows you to post, through a variety of means (IM, phone, web), short messages meant to describe what you are doing at any given moment. By establishing contacts on the site, you can also get a collected list of what all of your friends are posting.”

I set up a Twitter page, just to get a feel for the tool and I almost get it. There are times when I’d like to just post something that doesn’t quite fit on smays.com. I can see how this could be even more useful for texting.

And handy for live-blogging something like a basketball game or debate in the state legislature. Some have used the term “microblogging” to describe this. Looks like something to watch.

Mr. and Mrs. Edwards court bloggers

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Radio Iowa News Director O. Kay Henderson chatted with Mrs. John Edwards this afternoon about –among other things I imaging– blogging. Here’s a couple of excerpts from her post/transcription:

“It’s just a great medium and I’m really glad to have the opportunity to speak without having somebody say what I meant to say, you know, which happens whenever there’s a reporter between you — or even, honestly, your own press people — between you and the people you’re trying to get to listen to what you have to say.”

“Here’s what the Internet has to offer. It is a direct medium between people. There is no filter. There is no intervention and that is unparalelled. If you think back about the way we used to communicate in a democracy centuries ago where people stood in the town square, handing out pamphlets with their opinions on them — isn’t this the closest we’ve really come to that again? We’ve returned to that which is what we were based on, where people can stand on their little corner of the Internet, handing out their opinions to people who are willing to listen to them.”

Why social media is important to marketers

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I don’t know how old this info is (or how accurate) because I can’t find the original post, which is somewhere on the Church of the Customer Blog. Bart Cleveland includes these factoids in a recent post at Small Agency Diary (AdAge.com) to underscore why social media is important to marketers:

  • By March 2006, 84 million Americans had broadband at home, a 40% jump from 2005 figures
  • By March 2006, Pew estimated 48 million Americans were regular online content creators
  • By the end of 2005, 139 million people in the world had a DSL (broadband) connection
  • In 2005, $6.7 billion worth of digital cameras were sold in the U.S.
  • About 41% of all cell phone owners use them as content tools
  • By the end of 2005, just over 1 billion people were online — that’s 1/6th of the world
  • Asia represents the world’s most populous online segment
  • By July 2006, 50 million blogs had been created and their number was doubling every 6 months
  • About 7,200 new blogs are created every hour
  • By 2006, 10 million people were listening to podcasts in 2006; by 2010, it’s expected to be 50 million people
  • About 100 million videos are viewed every day on YouTube; about 65,000 videos uploaded every day
  • In 2006, MySpace had over 100 million registered members, most of them from the U.S.

New and improved Blogger

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I made the jump from Blogger to Typepad a couple of years ago because Blogger was driving me nuts. All kind of problems and missing features. A number of Learfield bloggers and friends are still using the service so this link is for you. It’s an interview (video) with Eric Case who works on the Blogger team at Google. I’m posting here because it’s easier than trying to remember who to email.

Podcasting candidate endorsements

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Just listened to the latest podcast from the Missouri State Teachers Association. They call it The Pulse. Co-hosts Todd Fuller Gail McCray broke a little digital ground (I’m guessing) by using the podcast to announce the canidates the MSTA is endorsing in the November election. They spent the first part of the podcast explaining how their endorsement process works. Then they mentioned a few specific endorsements and pointed the listener back to their website for the full list of candidates.

Why do I think this is worth a post? As I listened to Todd and Gail explain this process, I kept thinking they would NEVER get airtime (radio or TV) for that kind of “deep dive.” But it’s important to their audience (teachers, candidates). And by using their podcast to make the announcement, it raises awareness of their podcast. (You now know about it because you read this blog which has nothing to do with education or politics.)

If you want to see/hear how to do an “association podcast,” check out MSTA’s The Pulse.

9/11 and the Dawn of Video Citizen Journalism

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I made a conscious –or unconscious– effort to not think about the attack on the World Trade Center Towers. I didn’t think I could stand to watch the video again. This evening I stumbled across never-before-seen video shot from 500 yards away and 36 floors up. I can’t think of any words to describe this video. I could not look away. It was somehow more horrible and more compelling without the mindless chatter of news goofs telling us what we are seeing.

Steve Rubel (I found this on his blog) says we should watch this that we never forget. There will be no forgetting the anguish in the voice of the woman shooting the video when the first building collapsed. I can understand why the couple never released the video. And why they finally did.

Forget all the news specials, docu-dramas and made-for-TV movies. This amazing account will sear your brain and break your heart. It’s a long download but, as Steve says, something you should see.

MSTA Podcast: The Pulse

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Todd Fuller and Gail McCrayTodd Fuller and Gail McCray produce and co-host The Pulse, a weekly podcast for the Missouri State Teachers Association. The 25 podcasts they’ve produced since January, 2006, cover a wide variety of topics. When I listened to one of their podcasts last week, I was immediately struck by the quality and professionalism of the production. Not sure why I was surprised, since they’re both communications pros but it drove home one more time that anyone with something to say now has the means to be heard.

Near the end of the 30 minute chat (AUDIO), Todd mentions something I found very interesting. The association endorses political candidates and it’s a big deal (at least to the candidates). Typically those announcements would be made via news release to the big newspapers and media outlets. This year, MSTA plans to make the announcement on their podcast as well as putting the word out via blogs. I think that is brilliant I’ll bet they get a lot of play out of it.

Todd and Gail are making great use of podcasting and I have no doubt other associations will see the impact of what MSTA is doing and jump in the water.

PS: In addition to Todd and Gail, you’ll hear David Brazeal in a couple of places… but we lost him due to my lack of experience with Skype.

Prairie Garden Trust Podcast

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Tin CansMy friend Henry Domke has produced and posted the first Prairie Garden Trust Podcast. Friends and supporters of PGT can now get regular updates via podcast. While I’m not exactly an “outdoorsy” guy, I’m stoked about Henry using this new technology. He invested a couple of hundred bucks in a podcast starter set (mics, mixer, headphones, etc) and is using GarageBand3 (MacBook) to produce. In a matter of hours, he had his first show online, ready for subscribers. His first show has a couple of rough edges but he’ll smooth those out as he goes.

In The Old Days, he might have tried to find a radio station that would give him (sell him?) some time on a Sunday morning. Today, he’s global. Anybody, anytime, anywhere. If they care about his topic, they can listen. Still another example of The Long Tail at work. No topic is too obscure. If one person cares enough to produce the show … and one cares enough to listen, the costs of production and distribution are so close to zero, there is no barrier to getting started.