SIPA: What are you doing?
Valerie: Looking up someone. Thank goodness for LinkedIn.

A member just told me she’s getting more traffic from LinkedIn than Twitter.
It’s where the subscription business is right now. It drives audiences to your product.

It’s a long way from the days of postcards.
For some, snail mail marketing is still quite effective. But what we’ve seen over the last few years is a dramatic shift to marketing automation. Even direct email marketing is in decline. It’s clear the marketing industry is changing, and technology is much more prevalent in the field than ever before. As marketers, we are constantly asked to prove ROI for our initiatives. Like media as a whole, we have to continuously embrace new technologies that deliver results in a shorter amount of time.

Where did you start?
I began my career at Telecommunications Reports handling market research on what then was a little new tool called “the web.” We created the first online subscription service for the newsletter industry, and our clients were the “baby bells” like Bell South Telecom. After Telecommunications Reports, I went to Post Newsweek, an early Washington Post web venture. I headed up their online group, syndicated their content, and published Newsbytes.com. We had 22 reporters around the globe. Don Graham [then publisher of the Post] funded my new project, Washtech.com, and I moved over to WashingtonPost.com, under Chris Schroeder. I worked with the newspaper, magazine and web divisions. It was a delicate balance in those days. We mostly repurposed content from the print edition but my reporters wrote for the web. The highlight was when Katherine Graham came to visit. I just followed her around the whole time.

Sounds like you are an entrepreneur.
Definitely. I‘ve been fortunate to work in environments that encourage that. Creative workplaces help me to stay driven.

How did you get to CQ Roll Call?
I’ve known Meg Hargreaves since she was at LexisNexis. She recommended me for the position. I joined CQ Roll Call in January 2011, running advertising marketing. This past July we combined circulation and advertising marketing, which were functioning as separate groups, in a new, cohesive department that I am now head of.

How is your digital advertising? I’m hearing it’s a tough go.
Digital advertising doesn’t have the same economics as print advertising. When I first started in the business, several of us were pioneering the web strategy. We didn’t place high enough value on it at the beginning. It’s the only medium that you can truly measure. For example, no one asks you to rip an ad out of a newspaper and take it to the store and make a purchase, but with digital, we are being asked everyday how many clicks and what type of engagement the online ad is receiving. Even television can’t tie it into engagement like that.

Interesting. Hadn’t thought of it like that.
More and more, we’re able to provide deeper analytics. But we have to get smarter in how we get in the face of our readers—have to stop interrupting them. Behavioral, targeted economics will follow. The question is, how do we bring that online value up. It will eventually equal and surpass print. However, growing the audience is crucial to this process.

That leads us perfectly into your role of Audience Engagement Track Chair for SIPA 2013.
It’s going to be a great conference. Niche publishers have a big challenge: How do you use content to grow audience? How do you get them to amplify your message, tweet your story and discuss it among friends? When should you use Google Hangout? How do you get visitors to subscribe? You can always get a fly-by or a hit by Drudge, and it’s great when it happens. But you can’t count on that. The business side has to work closely with editorial to let them know who’s reading, how they are reading and how they are engaging with us. How many times do they visit and for how long?

Do you have a social media strategy?
In the last several years, social media has become integral in all aspects of marketing, whether its driving traffic or lead generation. CQ Roll Call has both a subscription service (CQ.com) and an open, free site (RollCall.com). Our reporters are tweeting constantly and Roll Call has over 140,000 followers. Twitter is the top traffic referral for RollCall.com. CQ.com is very different; the stories are behind paywalls, so the goal here is how do we drive leads and increase visibility for paid content?

How did your track develop?
The initial title was audience development, but the way marketing in media has changed, marketing really is now about audience engagement. You have all these legacy methods of marketing, such as lists, with the potential for a lot of churn; there is much information to churn. You have to try to find new lists and new ways to attract the user and create demand for your product. Email is becoming less effective as people are being bombarded. How can we reach people in today’s world? How do I engage them? How do we get them interested in what we’re covering? They can also inform you. The big piece is analytics; we have to be data driven and use appropriate tools to identify highly qualified leads.

How do we do that?
It’s not just traffic; it’s not just an increase in visitors. It’s how many pages, time on site, and where are the people coming from? We need to paint a picture of the journey and track their patterns. We need to work with folks in almost every department—i.e. the webmaster, editorial, sales. We’ve created six new blogs recently, and it’s not just young people blogging. Stu Rothenberg, Mort Kondracke, these are big names and long-time D.C. journalists. It’s a fallacy that online engagement is for young people only.

If Roll Call is all free, where do you get revenue?
Roll Call’s primary revenue is from advertising, sponsorships and subscriptions to print. It’s a slightly different product than CQ. Our philosophy is to get people to the site. The free site can also be used as a vehicle to drive leads for the paid subscription services. Marketing automation software lets us segment the audience that comes to Roll Call. We can then see what their interest level is. Do they look like a candidate for our premium services?

Sounds like the game has changed.
It has. Now it’s all about inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is the future. The technology is there. Inbound marketing allows you to find people who are searching for the types of products and services you provide. Potential clients are out there on apps, and we have to be really smart about capturing them. They may be searching for exactly what we have.

Great stuff. I’m ready for the Conference now!
We’re really going to have forward-thinking sessions. I can’t pretend I’m doing everything I want to do. That’s a never-ending list. But we’re doing a lot, and we’ll talk about it at the Conference.

Any of this keep you up at night?
Of course. I’ve had a lot of good mentors and bosses in my career who have allowed me to try new things. I want to make sure I’m doing that for my team as well, providing enough challenges and opportunities.

To be continued on June 5-7!

Subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily for more specialized publishers industry news.

Ronn 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

The keynotes, sessions and speakers for SIPA 2013, June 5-7 in Washington, D.C. have all been carefully selected to deliver the most relevant and timely information possible. Here are some excellent tips from speakers pertaining to their sessions or keynotes.

1. “We offer the why of the story and solutions, and then tailor that for a specialized audience that cares about a higher level of knowledge,” said John Yemma, editor of The Christian Science Monitor. “So we took our human relations people and other brainy people in the company and turned them to web first. We learned web practices and search optimization, developed quizzes. We’ve been able to increase unique visitors tenfold.”
Though they may mention CSM’s famous past—their Pulitzer Prizes, the hostage ordeal of a reporter—Yemma and Wells will focus on the present and future, and foremost, the Monitor’s very successful transition to web first. Among the lessons learned, Yemma said, is that they “moved from a silo organization of talented people doing their own thing to a collaborative one where we talk to each other, and [approach] ethical questions that we work through.” They also moved from a one-way organization—information going out—to one that has partnerships with customers. “We are interested in what will serve them best. We expect resistance and need to hear criticism.”
John Yemma, editor, and Jonathan Wells, managing publisher, The Christian Science Monitor, Luncheon keynotes, Thursday, June 6, 12:15 p.m.

2. In an interview a little over a year ago, Terry Waters, CEO of the Yankee Group, said, “…we are analyzing what is enabled by ubiquitous connectivity—how content, applications and services will be truly mobilized, and how client experiences will be enabled in a mobile world—at work, at home or on the go. “What we’re hearing from our clients, and the market at large, is that they want to better understand mobile user behaviors, attitudes and usage patterns as well as the dynamics of the mobility ecosystem, its technology directions, and the business opportunities it presents to grow top-line revenue and market share.” In January, Yankee Group was acquired by The 451 Group.
Terry Waters, CEO, Yankee Group, will deliver opening keynote, Thursday, June 5, 1 p.m.

3. Why do publishers committed to change remain stuck? Dan Brown, author of SIPA’s incredibly encompassing The Book of Models, answered this last year based on his vast experience. (Hear Dan tomorrow on a Webinar on SAAS!) “Competing commitments and scary assumptions are big obstacles. I recently worked with a group of senior executives who years ago declared they needed to improve at courting joint venture partners. Why hadn’t they succeeded? Our work together revealed a hidden, competing commitment to be independent and self-sufficient. The deepest fear for these leaders about pursuit of partnerships with others was connected to loss of identity and control. Breaking through these assumptions requires self-awareness and courage.”
Dan Brown, principal & certified leadership coach, Xponential Publishing Consultants, and Stephanie Eidelman, president & publisher, insideARM.com & insidePatientFinance.com, will present a session titled Breakthrough Product Innovation, Part I: Idea Generation & Vetting, Thursday, June 6, at 9:30 a.m.

4. For the past decade, Gabriela Zabalúa-Goddard has turned her passion to serve into a powerful information source for the Hispanic community. In 2002, Zabalúa-Goddard took the helm of AARP’s bilingual Hispanic publication, AARP VIVA and turned it into a signature portfolio of award-winning multimedia properties, including print, online, radio, and TV segments and specials. Check out her Twitter page @GabrielaZabalua. For anyone wanting to cross over into the Hispanic market, Gabriela will be someone to hear!
Gabriela Zabalua-Goddard , vice president, multilingual content & editor in chief, AARP, will speak at the session, Social Media, The Big Picture for Marketers, Wwednesday, June 5, at 3:30 p.m.

5. “We’ve helped with both new product development as well as product transformations,” says Megan St. John, managing director of InfoCommerce. “…It’s a great time to be in this space. There is so much change going on. Long-time publishers with print legacies are altering the way they do business. New entrants often come with technology savvy but lack the advantage of the publishing DNA. Both have a need to reinforce their central market positions. And all need to understand best practices. Our work provides us with a unique position to observe what’s working and what’s not.”
Megan St. John, managing director, InfoCommerce Group, Data Bootcamp, will lead the Pre-Conference Workshop, So You Want to Be in the Data Business, Wednesday, June 5, at 9 a.m.

Sign up today for the SIPA 2013 Conference and see all these industry experts and many, many more.

Subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily for more specialized publishers industry news.

Ronn 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

How many of us don’t struggle with social media each day? Unfortunately, the number of tweets, blog posts or updates we should do is not a simple math equation. Wouldn’t it be great if it was? Take your number of Twitter followers, add your total Facebook likes and friends, divide by the number of LinkedIn updates you do each week and subtract 52.

Alas, it’s not, but there is help. The Audience Engagement track—as well as networking and roundtable segments—at the SIPA 2013 Conference, June 5-7, in Washington, D.C., will target social media. Come, listen and learn, as they say. And the SIPAwards competition—currently accepting entries—has categories for Best Social Media Success Story, Best Blog or Commentary and Best Use of Video. We look forward to sharing what we learn from those entries in this space and in Hotline.

Today, eMarketer reported on a survey conducted by Ascend2, focused on social media marketing tactics. The first barometer was, what are your objectives for social media. The most popular reason of the B2B respondents is to improve customer engagement (43%). Next came increase website traffic (37%), increase content reach (34%) and increase sales revenue (33%).  The next question was, what are the most effective social media marketing tactics?  Creating an article/blog post content came in first (40%), followed by creating research/white paper content (32%), creating video/audio content (29%) and using social sharing buttons (20%). Creating video/audio content and Creating research/white paper content were deemed the most difficult to execute (32%) followed by creating an article/blog post (31%).

I would have thought the difficulty of creating video/audio might have been higher. But apparently respondents believe that given more staff and an easier-to-measure ROI, they could do all this.  Perusing SIPA websites you do see more blogs and white papers than video—though you hope that may soon change.  SIPA members I know of with good blogs include Astek, Modern Distribution Management, Magna Publications, Irving Levin Associates and Insider Learning Network. Funny that Astek, MDM and Irving Levin also use video very well.

Here are seven social media tips by Linda Ruth reporting from this month’s Women’s Leadership Conference in San Francisco—posted on the Publishing Executive website:

1. Images pull four times (or more) better than any other media type. As we’ve often been told, use images; if they’re your own, all the better. 
2. Update content directly, not through apps.
3. Find out who is reading what, and when. The audience you’re targeting may not be reading when you’re sending.
4. Use Facebook Insights to find out when to post what.
5. A popular columnist can retweet a link up to five times and continue to get new retweets each time. The trick—update the text and add an ‘in case you missed this’ to keep it fresh.
6. Turn on your social extensions in your Adwords Account to add the social signal to your ads—it will increase clickthrough 5-10%.
7. Choose quality over quantity; what you put out is a reflection of your brand. Get it right so your brand looks great, even if you don’t get out there first.

Subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily for more specialized publishers industry news.

Ronn 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

One of the new categories for the SIPAwards this year is for Best Mobile Smartphone App (Native). We don’t expect as many entries for this as compared to, say, Best Newsletter, Best Marketing Launch or Best Instructional Reporting, but we thought it’s important to see what SIPA members are doing in this field (and report on it).

Wall Street Journal writer Anton Troianovski addressed the app revolution from another angle earlier this month—that companies are using apps to change the customer experience and ultimately cut down their workforce. He cites these examples:

• unmanned customer service desks at the mall, replaced by a cutout saying, “Download the free app.”
•  Domino’s mobile and online orders now represent a third of total sales;
• stores like Wal-Mart allowing you to scan your own items;
• insurance companies allowing you to send in a photo of damage from an accident, eliminating some of the need for adjusters;
• signing bank loans and depositing checks from afar;
• even the Department of Agriculture has developed an app to allow people to inspect their own lemon and orange trees.

“The mobile-device boom, which is putting a camera, touch screen, and a high-speed Internet connection in more and more pockets and purses, is giving businesses a new way to shift work from employees to customers,” Troianovski wrote.

While larger businesses may have to be careful about fewer employees there for the public, the benefits for small businesses may be more unencumbered. Dennis K. Berman, WSJ’s Marketplace Editor, wrote this on LinkedIn yesterday, “Our perception of what it means to be a customer is changing. It’s not just about being served, in the old-fashioned way of the chirpy, white-capped gas-station attendant, but rather being part of a process, in which company and customer take on tasks together.”

Berman gives us three questions to consider:

1. How can I use app technology to make things better for my customers first—and my business second?
2. Can I afford not to play in this game? What expectations are my competitors creating
3. Am I ready to be in the “technology business?” –willing to invest to continually adapt their content and platform?

He received lots of comments. One woman wrote: “The B2C business model definitely now has an added element to it these days; customers enjoy the transparency that often comes along with being a part of the business process.” I believe the B2B model will have that element as well. Small businesses you are marketing to will realize that, by being part of the process, they can help keep prices down and the experience seamless. One quote from a CEO in the Troianovski article said that “the app’s features will help him grow without adding staff.” Let’s hope for a little of both.

To bring this issue full circle, the question for SIPA members then becomes, how do we do this. What’s the best way to develop apps? Thus the need for an awards category and the hope that we see examples I can write about. (Also check the 10 summary points to think about in your mobile/apps conversion from a previous column.)

There are too many examples out there for us to turn our heads from apps. Where they can best help you will take research, and the willingness to invest in new products and in your attending Conferences like SIPA’s main event, June 5-7 in Washington, D.C. You can be sure this issue will be on the (round)tables there.

Subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily for more specialized publishers industry news.

Ronn 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