links for 2008-11-23
by Brian Reich | 23 Nov 2008, 3:01pm
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Charities are hurtin'. After nearly a decade of record growth, U.S. nonprofits are getting hit from all directions. Some foundations are scaling back on awarding grants as endowments shrink in the stock market meltdown. State and local governments — facing falling tax revenue — are slashing budgets and cutting back on funding. Individuals, too, will probably hold back on giving this holiday season.
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links for 2008-11-22
by Brian Reich | 22 Nov 2008, 3:01pm
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The only folks in the news business that seem to be finding success these days are the "journo-gurus." They focus on business rather than the usual staple of high-profile journalism, politics. And they specialise in big, bold, brave ideas about world-changing trends.
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links for 2008-11-21
by Brian Reich | 21 Nov 2008, 3:00pm
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The article notes "Ratings for cable TV news and the number of visits to news Web sites built for weeks and then peaked on Election Day, giving the electronic media some of their biggest audiences in years. But since then, TV ratings and online traffic have fallen — in many cases precipitously — indicating that viewers and visitors have largely quenched their thirst for political news." Or, it might suggest that the quality of the coverage has dipped since the Election - just a thought.
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The Seattle Times editorializes about the influence that Google commands over the online marketplace - and warns that it must come to an end.
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Barack Obama raised half a billion dollars online in his 21-month campaign for the White House, dramatically ushering in a new digital era in presidential fundraising. Here are the stats: 3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less. The average online donation was $80, and the average Obama donor gave more than once.
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MTV famously missed its chance to buy MySpace. Now the network's president, Van Toffler, is investing in dozens of digital media projects — and one might soon be a billion-dollar business
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Can newspapers learn anything from the Obama campaign? Here is what one leading blogger/college newspaper editor has to say.
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Acording to a new study, all the time that teens spend online is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They're learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page, etc.
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The New York Times has shut down its quarterly sports magazine, Play. Boo!
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Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and Guns N' Roses will release their new albums on MySpace.
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Connecting With Fans Is Not Always a Good Idea?
by Brian Reich | 21 Nov 2008, 1:52pm
The headline writers at the New York Times could not be more wrong.
According to today’s New York Times, Cleveland Browns General Manager Phil Savage provided sports teams with the latest evidence that “the send button might be the most dangerous thing in the minefield known as the Internet.”
What happened? A fan sent the Browns GM an email criticizing the team’s play, following a loss to the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. Savage responded by encouraging the fan to root for the Bills, and included a profanity (use your imagination). The fan then forwarded the email along to DeadSpin, a popular sports blog. Savage and the Browns were publicly criticized. The Browns later apologized.
Where is the story here? This kind of thing happens every day. Fans are encouraged to give feedback and teams should see the opportunity in responding. But, the article suggests that in the fast-paced, highly-connected, boundary free world that the Internet has created, the risks for sports teams when engaging online is simply too great. Teams can’t have it both ways — they can’t use the internet to generate billions of dollars through the sale of tickets, merchandise, and other things online, and not expect that fans will have something to say, and want a response. Moreover, sports teams can’t expect to control every aspect of their communications online (or at all) any more than they can expect to control how every ball bounces or play is executed on the field.
The Internet isn’t dangerous, and connecting with fans is not only a good idea - its a necessary element of running a professional sports franchise, or any organization, in the digital age. What is dangerous is acting like a dumbass when you are communicating. Phil Savage definitely learned that lesson.
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links for 2008-11-18
by Brian Reich | 18 Nov 2008, 3:01pm
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As America’s newspapers shrink and shed staff, and broadcast news outlets sink in the ratings, a new kind of Web-based news operation has arisen in several cities, forcing the papers to follow the stories they uncover.
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For the past 16 years, Witness has provided video cameras to carefully selected activists and community leaders in more than 100 countries. The group has amassed one of the largest existing collections of human-rights-abuse footage and has shown its videos to policy makers and human-rights groups around the world. Now they are online.
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links for 2008-11-15
by Brian Reich | 15 Nov 2008, 3:01pm
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Benjamin Netanyahu has built a website that almost exactly mirrors Barack Obama's. The colors, the fonts, the icons for donating and volunteering, the use of videos, and the social networking Facebook-type options — including Twitter, which hardly exists in Israel — all reflect a conscious effort by the Netanyahu campaign to learn from the Obama success. My question: Was that really why he was so successful?
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links for 2008-11-14
by Brian Reich | 14 Nov 2008, 3:02pm
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Despite the grandiose plans brands have for themselves and their desire to create culture, brands can never and will never single-handedly have the power to incite true social movements.
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In the last 10 days, gays and their supporters, stunned and angry over the passage of Proposition 8, have hardly left California streets, where their protests of the same-sex marriage ban have led to sometimes ugly confrontations with those they blame for their loss. The revolt is being led by young people — gay and straight — using cellphones, text messaging and Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace to quickly assemble armies of foot soldiers.
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links for 2008-11-13
by Brian Reich | 13 Nov 2008, 3:01pm
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He hasn't even taken office yet, but the Tribune is writing about Obama's earning potential after his term(s) are up. "No matter what kind of president Obama turns out to be, the Chicago Democrat can almost certainly count on a postpresidential lifetime of steady and probably huge earnings from books, speeches, corporate board work and other events that have made multimillionaires of modern-day Oval Office retirees. This could be called "presidential economics," a big-money game in which chief executives —popular, mediocre or disgraced—cash in after they leave office."
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links for 2008-11-12
by Brian Reich | 12 Nov 2008, 3:01pm
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More and more companies now use Twitter to communicate and create close relationships with reporters, customers and prospective clients. No matter what industry you work in, Twitter is a tool that needs to be on your radar.
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Team Obama has pledged "to make this the most open and transparent transition in history." That shouldn't be too difficult, given how past transitions have been conducted — but it doesn't mean that they will achieve as much as they can, or push as far as they should, in opening up the transfer of power for all to watch.
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The Yankees, still looking for pitching help, detoured on Tuesday into discussions of wireless technology, the convergence of video, Internet and voice, and killer apps.
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The incoming Obama administration needs to use the Internet to publish reams of new information about federal spending, policies and performance as well as other records that have been increasingly shrouded from public view, a coalition of conservative, libertarian and progressive groups is recommending today.
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links for 2008-11-10
by Brian Reich | 10 Nov 2008, 3:00pm
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If Starbucks can source ideas from the groundswell . . . can Barack Obama's government tap the same sources of energy?
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Armed with millions of e-mail addresses and a political operation that harnessed the Internet like no campaign before it, Barack Obama will enter the White House with the opportunity to create the first truly "wired" presidency.
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When he arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama will have not just a political base, but a database, millions of names of supporters who can be engaged almost instantly. And there’s every reason to believe that he will use the network not just to campaign, but to govern.
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During his two-year election campaign, Barack Obama and his marketing machine achieved unprecedented success in their use of direct/database marketing for a politician. What he does with it as President is what matters.
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Ryan Lizza explains it all.
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