Digital Discourse / Content

SIPAlert Daily – Digital news study points us in actionable directions

October 1, 2013 By

Alan Mutter’s Reflections of a Newsosaur blog led me today to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2013: Tracking the Future of News. Core questions were asked in France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, and the U.S., as well as the UK, to a nationally representative audience to provide an international comparison.

Here are some interesting notes:

1. Here comes mobile. Tablet usage has doubled in the 10 months since the last survey. In many countries, smartphone users are now in the majority, and most of them use these devices to access news every week. Across all the countries surveyed, 46% use a smartphone and 31% say they used the device for news at least once in the past week. (See the next Mobile Essentials webinar Oct. 24.)

2. Get to know your audience better. “In all countries we asked if people agreed that they preferred to get news from sites they know and trust. The figures were universally high, with 90% supporting the proposition in Brazil, 82% in the US, and 77% in the UK.”

3. Twitter, etc. may be as important as SEO. Social media is now rated more important than search among the ‘under 45s’. In the U.S. 47% of under 45s use social media to find news. (How’s your social media involvement?) In the U.K. it’s only 27%. (Hear a social media case study at the Las Vegas Marketing Conference.)

4. Encourage your audience to share. In the UK 18% had shared a news story in the last week by email or social network but among those actively interested in news the figures are much higher. Almost a third of those with a high interest in news share a news link at least once a week.

5. Publishing information daily (and maybe at various times of day) makes sense. Only older people are staying on any schedule for accessing news. Younger people tend to access news at all times, and “even the 35–44s seem to be losing the commitment for appointment-to-view news bulletins in the early and late evening.”

6. Americans like local. We have the highest interest of any country in news about our city or town (59%). (More women indicated that as an interest than men.) We are near the lowest to be interested in news about technology or science (26%). Wonder if that has anything to do with our students’ test scores in those areas.

7. Find tablet users. While smartphone users say the convenience not the experience draws them, tablet users like the experience more than PCs. Tablet users are also more likely to pay for news than smartphone users.

8. Americans consume video and audio. Are you using any? Only Brazil was higher (64%) for consuming news through video and audio than Americans (55%). (See a hands-on video session in Las Vegas.)

9. Check your analytics. People in the UK find news more by trusted brands, where in the U.S. people use more social and search. In both countries, the number of people who use search does not vary much by age. Of course, social does vary by age when it comes to search, but it again differs by country. In the UK, under 45s are three times as likely to use social for search; in the U.S., the numbers are much closer (38% to 23%).

10. Have you built your app yet? Those who use smartphones and tablets are more likely to go straight to a news brand. “The data also indicate that certain mechanisms – like social newsreading apps and ‘push’ news alerts – are disproportionately used on these devices to discover news content.”

11. Appeal to smartphone users to reach out. Of those who share news in the UK, 56% do so through Facebook, 40% through email and 26% through Twitter. In the U.S., Apple smartphone users are 41% more likely to share news than other digital news users.

Interesting stuff. Again access it here.

 To subscribe to SIPAlert Daily, go to the SIIA site.

Ronn LevineRonn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline

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Filed Under: Content, SIPA, SIPA Con, SIPA Events, SIPAlert Daily, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

SIIA Makes Policy Recommendations to Realize the Economic and Social Value of the Internet of Things

October 1, 2013 By

We are at a key inflection point in the history of information technology (IT).  The last decade has brought about significant advances in IT, representing an evolution for IT from a specialized tool into a pervasive influence on nearly every aspect of everyday life.

This new Internet-enabled environment, often referred to as the “Internet of Things,” presents tremendous economic and social value, and is capable of transforming the way we work, communicate, learn and live our lives. Consumers, citizens and society as a whole stand to benefit greatly from innovative uses of data to improve health outcomes, streamlining and enhancing financial services, enhancing education and learning, and improving and maximizing our physical infrastructure.

SIIA proposes the following five recommendations for policymakers to maximize the beneficial outcomes of the Internet of Things:

  1. Policymakers should promote technology neutrality and avoid technology mandates.
  2. De-identification often provides an opportunity way to balance the needs of DDI and privacy protection.
  3. Uniform rules cannot be applied broadly to the role of notice and choice.
  4. The principle of data minimization should be re-interpreted.
  5. The Internet of Things requires a policy framework that provides for an evolving view of privacy rights based on risk and societal benefits.

I will participate in a panel discussion at the National Press Club today about building trust and confidence with regard to the Internet of Things.  The 2013 M2M & Internet of Things Global Summit, hosted by Forum Europe, will take place in Washington DC today and tomorrow.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPubPolicy.

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SIPAlert Daily – Latest research reveals more subject line tips

September 30, 2013 By

Okay, guess if these subject lines were opened or neglected?

Tempting August NUSA Specials!
Your April Website Stats
MotorCycling Magazine Reader Survey
Final reminder for complimentary entry to attend the West Freelands BCI Cluster Conference 2006
Preliminary Floor Plans for Southern Village Neighborhood Circle members
SALE ends soon – up to 50% off all bras at Kara!

MailChimp just updated their second big email subject line study, revealing some interesting dos and don’ts for getting high open rates. Here’s a hint for you: You should also be aware of your own behavior. Which emails do you open? Where does your eye go first? Mine often looks at the From line (see number 6).

Here are eight more of their guidelines:

1. Keep subject lines fewer than 50 characters. “The exception was for highly targeted audiences, where the reader apparently appreciated the additional information in the subject line.”

2. Personalization does not increase open rates much. You’ve seen the subject lines, “[your name], this webinar is for you!” Their research says that personalization does not increase open rates very much. Providing a city name helps more. That makes sense. If I saw, “A new restaurant in Falls Church, Va.,” I would open it.

3. Don’t repeat subject lines. So maybe my SIPAlert Daily Week in Review should always have one or two words describing what follows—SIPAlert Daily Week in Review: Branding and Digital Ads. “While it is important to establish continuity and branding of the newsletter, ideally each new campaign should provide a clear indication in the subject line of what is inside this newsletter that is of interest.”

4. Build a good list. You’ve heard that before.

5. Valuable information tops promotion. There’s a reason content marketing is all the rage (and one of the four tracks at our Marketing Conference in Las Vegas, Dec. 11-13). But, if you are sending promotional emails: “Keep the message straightforward and avoid using splashy promotional phrases, CAPS, or exclamation marks in your subject lines. Subject lines framed as questions can often perform better.”

6. The From and Subject lines should work together. As much as possible, the “From” entry should not change and should concisely convey who you are. Save any humorous phrases or concepts for the subject line.”

7. Don’t sell what’s inside, tell what’s inside. People are currently being bombarded with email. Don’t be vague, don’t be too constant—although some will say that it does work for webinars, especially if you remove the people who already signed up—and be careful about using “free.”

8. Three words to avoid: Help, Percent off and Reminder. (That gives you a strong hint on one of the above questions.) Funny about “reminder.” I think we’ve all probably used that one—I guess we just ignore it.

Oh, about the subject lines up top. Here are the results:

Tempting August NUSA Specials! - .9%
(“Special” and exclamation points test poorly.)

Your April Website Stats – 92.6%
(Timely and useful information)

MotorCycling Magazine Reader Survey – 88.1%
(High affinity to activity/experience)

Final reminder for complimentary entry to attend the West Freelands BCI Cluster Conference 2006 – .5%
(“Reminder” is bad and subject line in this case too long)

Preliminary Floor Plans for Southern Village Neighborhood Circle members – 93%
(Timely information. Implied benefit for quick action. Over 50 characters in length – which is good for this targeted audience)

SALE ends soon – up to 50% off all bras at Kara!  – 1.9%
(Percent off and exclamation point are not good)

Now I need to come up with a good subject line for this. Definitely not, “[your name] Reminder: Get % off help from us!!!”

 

To subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily, go to the SIIA site. 

Ronn LevineRonn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline

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Mike Marchesano Named Managing Director of SIIA’s American Business Media Division

September 30, 2013 By

SIIA today announced that media industry executive Mike Marchesano will join  as Managing Director of the American Business Media (ABM) Division of SIIA. ABM merged with SIIA on June 30.

Marchesano most recently was President and CEO of Aequor Media, a consulting firm dedicated to providing strategic, customized technology solutions for B2B and consumer magazines, newspapers, and Fortune 1000 companies.  Marchesano was also Managing Director at the Jordan Edmiston Group, an investment banking firm, where he led the sale of Congressional Quarterly to the Economist Group. Before that, he was Executive Vice President & Chief Transformation Officer at The Nielsen Company; President and CEO at VNU Business Media;  President and CEO at Bill Communications (an operating company of VNU), and President at BPA International (now BPA Worldwide).  Marchesano was an ABM board member from 2001-07, serving as chairman in 2006-07, and a SIIA Content Division board member from 2007-11.

SIIA President Ken Wasch said:

“With changing business models, new delivery platforms and new competition, the business media industry will benefit enormously from someone with Mike’s perspective and experience. With Mike at the helm, the ABM division will develop new programs and services that help to advance the business media industry.”

Marchesano said:

“With the merging of ABM and SIIA, the opportunity to showcase the unique and powerful role business media and information provides its audiences and marketers is very exciting. I am thrilled to take on this responsibilty for our industry and privileged to lead the organization.”

Neal Vitale, Chairman of ABM and President & CEO of 1105 Media, Inc. said:

“We are immensely fortunate to have been able to recruit an executive of Mike’s expertise and stature. I am looking forward to working with him as we grow ABM.”

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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SIPAlert Daily – FTC workshop to focus on native advertising

September 26, 2013 By

“It’s beginning to look a lot like…content.”

The “It’s” in this case is advertising—more specifically, native advertising or sponsored content. We’re seeing it more and more these days, ads that companies are running—sometimes even designing and writing for clients—that mirror the content around them. It’s proving very effective to the point that the Federal Trade Commission has decided to look into it. And SIPA and SIIA can play a part in this.

The FTC will host a workshop on Dec. 4 here in Washington, D.C., to examine the practice of blending advertisements with news, entertainment and other content in digital media. The workshop will unite publishing and ad industry representatives, consumer advocates, academics, and government regulators to explore changes in how paid messages are presented to consumers and consumers’ recognition and understanding of these messages.

According to the FTC, this fits snugly into their role of helping consumers identify advertisements as advertising wherever they appear. They have made recent updates to the Search Engine Advertising guidance, the Dot Com Disclosures guidance, and the Endorsements and Testimonials Guides, “as well as decades of law enforcement actions against infomercial producers and operators of fake news websites marketing products.”

As I said, SIIA wants to take a role in this, based on input from our members. If you have feelings or opinions about this, please let us know—for or against. (Here’s my email.) Here are some of the topics that the workshop may cover:

- “What is the origin and purpose of the wall between regular content and advertising, and what challenges do publishers face in maintaining that wall in digital media, including in the mobile environment?”

- “In what ways are paid messages integrated into, or presented as, regular content and in what contexts does this integration occur?” How has mobile affected this?”

- “What business models support and facilitate the monetization and display of native or integrated advertisements?” Who controls this?

- “How can ads effectively be differentiated from regular content, such as through the use of labels and visual cues?” Does social media blur these lines?

- “What does research show about how consumers notice and understand paid messages that are integrated into, or presented as, news, entertainment or regular content?”

A MediaBrix survey found that “the majority of online adults who have seen advertising that appears as content in the past 12 months find the ads misleading”—as high as 86%” (for sponsored video ads). Close to 50% of those polled find promoted tweets, one of Twitter’s revenue-producing methods, misleading.

FTC blogger Lesley Fair called this “the trendy topic du jour,” so it is probably a good time to take a look. The popular site BuzzFeed pretty much blurs the lines completely. And it seems to be working. (An article a few months ago said it was their sole revenue source.) They have “Featured Partners” on certain stories that look just like the rest of the stories. So “The 10 Greatest Comebacks in Entertainment History” is sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Show. It has 33 comments, none mentioning its ad status. And “12 Lengths That Robin Williams Has Gone to Make Us Laugh” is sponsored by his new show, The Crazy Ones. That one has 12 comments, all complimentary.

Those stories actually change each time you click on it. For the Michael J. Fox Show we get “10 Ways All Families Are Basically the Same” and “12 Things We Love About Michael J. Fox.” It’s an interesting strategy—multiple content pieces based on one sponsor. And here’s something funny. I found a Washington Post article about a Church of Scientology advertorial that appeared on the Atlantic Magazine website and went “a bit too far.” The article is broken up by what looks like a subhead to the story—“Get Your Business Online” is the one I saw—but it’s actually an ad. Now I’m confused.

And thus the workshop. Again please contact myself or David LeDuc, SIIA’s senior director of public policy, if you have something to add on this topic. Thanks so much.

To subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily, create or update your SIIA User profile and select “SIPA interest.”

Ronn LevineRonn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline

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SIIA Announces 2013 DataContent Models of Excellence

September 26, 2013 By

Six data companies designated as Models of Excellence by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and InfoCommerce Group will present their products and services at the upcoming DataContent conference in Philadelphia, October 15-17. All of the firms selected are innovative data companies pioneering new business models and practices. DataContent is the only conference devoted solely to producers of commercial data products.

DataContent will spotlight the Models of Excellence throughout the conference. CEOs of the companies will provide candid insights on what has made the products successful, and will host a private dinner for high-level networking.

This year’s Models of Excellence presenting companies are:

Enigma
Enigma has created consolidated access to over 100,000 public domain databases to provide unparalleled access to data that is often valuable, nominally free, but difficult to source and use effectively. Think of Enigma as a search engine for public data, and the enigma here is why no one has done this before.
MOE Profile | Website

Equilar – Atlas
Equilar takes public domain data and normalizes and enhances it so that it can become premium-value content. Equilar Atlas takes this data and flips it into a variety of new applications and markets, something not many publishers do successfully.
MOE Profile | Website

FindTheCompany
FindTheCompany represents an impressive step-up in the arms race to use a mosaic-style strategy to build out deep company dossiers by aggregating data from a wide variety of sources. By aggressively mixing harvested, public and licensed data, it is an excellent showcase both for what’s possible and where things are heading.
MOE Profile | Website

Relationship Science
Relationship Science is all about networking for business development and fund-raising, using an innovative relationship mapping approach and backed by a huge research team to build and maintain deep, structured profiles on over 2.5 million influential individuals. While its concept is  “sort of like” what other data companies are already doing, it’s approach is distinctive, and it’s huge commitment to editorial research puts the company’s emphasis right where it should be: quality data.
MOE Profile | Website

Segmint
Segmint is real life example of Big Data at work, with real-time analytics and predictive models. It is executing on the fundamental goal of every marketer: to make customer data actionable by creating and delivering targeted, relevant messages customers want to see, remember and act upon.
MOE Profile | Website

Stella Service
STELLAService  provides customer service ratings to companies based on its independent analysis of over 200 customer service metrics and random customer service calls to companies by its analysts. It provides a clean, intuitive and powerful tool to retailers focused on an area – customer service – that increasingly drives online success and failure, and its neutral market positioning gives its trustmark program added weight and value.
MOE Profile | Website

Infocommerce Group continually scans the data landscape to identify products that are pioneering or perfecting business models, exhibit best practices or offer technological innovation. Those that are re-setting the standards for the industry are named each year as Models of Excellence, based on content, utility, functionality, revenue, viability, ambition, and market readiness. It will discuss what distinguishes each of this year’s winners in a webcast at noon on Oct. 2.

Kathy Greenler Sexton is Vice President and General Manager for the SIIA Content Division. Follow the Content Division team on Twitter at @SIIAContent

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Filed Under: Content, Content Events, Data Content, DataContent

SIPAlert Daily – The importance of branding for today’s journalists

September 25, 2013 By

I recall walking into The Washington Post sports department as an intern many years ago and seeing Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser going at it on some sports item of the day. Kornheiser was already a columnist and Wilbon an up-and-coming reporter. Later on, Wilbon became a columnist, then an ESPN talking head and ABC Sports host. Kornheiser built another audience through a Style section column and then a national radio show.

Now they host Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, going at it on sports items of the day—but being paid A LOT more. They’re both very well-branded with podcasts, video, radio, Twitter feeds and who knows what else. That’s a bit of a high-profile example, but you can see the value that branding has for journalists these days. The more that the editorial people – and thought leaders – where you work can build their brand, the bigger the audience can be for them and the company.

I encourage anyone at your company who writes or leads to register for tomorrow’s webinar titled Personal Branding for Journalists. This is a great example of the value of your new SIIA/SIPA/ABM membership. ABM is delivering this webinar, featuring Robin J. Phillips, digital director of the Reynolds Center for Business, free for members. The cost is $125 for non-members. It will take place from 2-3 p.m Eastern. The presentation was originally created for the Kiplinger Program at Ohio State University in April 2012. (More on your membership value: On Oct. 31, ABM will present a webinar on Developing a Video Content Strategy.)

Said Phillips: “People have an image of who you are … whether you like it or not. First things first, it’s important to know who you are, what you offer and then take control of your image so others get the picture.”

“Branding has been part of journalism going back to Nellie Bly, Hunter S. Thompson … these were people known for their brand of journalism,” Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs and digital media professor at Columbia Journalism School, told Poynter in March. What has changed, he said, is the speed at which journalists today can develop such a brand.

What has also changed is the encouragement by publishers to their journalists to get out there as much as possible. I remember back in those early times I mentioned, I had to get permission to do a radio interview about an event that I covered. Today, reporters who appear on radio or TV and have a strong social media presence are coveted. It means more publicity and gravitas for the publishing entity.

In a quote that tells you why personal branding of journalists is good for the company, Brittney Gilbert, social media editor for NBC Bay Area, told Poynter: “People would much rather interact with NBC Bay Area’s meteorologist or sports reporter than a faceless entity such as NBC.”

That’s true with blogging as well; it brings the blogger—and company—closer to your audience. At the Las Vegas Marketing Conference, Dec. 11-13, we will have a session on team blogging. This can help an entire team build its brand. SIPA members Astek and AHC Media do a great job with this. I recall reading a post on Astek by Johnny Moran, who I had never talked with or met. We exchanged emails and it felt like I had a new source to use. With excellent posts like a recent one on Google Analytics, Moran establishes his voice and contributes to the company’s loose and very knowledgeable persona.

Your reporters can be writing, blogging, tweeting, conducting podcasts and anything else that would help establish them as thought leaders. (Hopefully, sleeping falls in there somewhere.) In this day and age and with a few rules built in, it should all reflect well on the company. Tune into tomorrow’s webinar for more.

 

To subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily, create or update your SIIA User profile and select “SIPA interest.”

Ronn LevineRonn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline

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