By Warren Hersch
ASBPE President

Hardly a day goes by, it seems, when publishing gurus (or, closer to home, our own publishers and editorial directors) aren’t urging us to latch onto the latest social media or tech craze.

We all need to make our copy SEO-friendly and communicate with our readers via Twitter, online forums and blogs, we’re told, lest our trade magazines and newsletters become dinosaurs without a following.

Put service journalism into practice

Amid all the prognosticating, it’s easy to lose sight of how our B2B publications became the respected industry voices they are today: by practicing outstanding service journalism and investing in core assets that strengthen the brand. That lesson was brought home to the assembled attendees at last month’s ASBPE 2009 Digital Symposium.

A theme of the gathering was that B2B writers and editors can, where appropriate, leverage social media, search, and data aggregation tools to better engage readers in issues important to their respective fields. But they also stressed that such tools will only be effective if they serve the needs of one’s audience and a publication’s brand objectives.

Hinda Chalew of Staffing Industry Analysts, one of three presenters on the B2B social communities panel, said that editors at her firm’s three B2B pubs make extensive use of blogs, virtual events, surveys, and online social journalism tools. But the editors don’t use Facebook, My Space, or other Web communities. The reason: Most of the publications’ readers, decision-makers who supply and buy temporary staffing, don’t frequent these sites.

Knowledgeable writers provide substantive content

InfoWorld editor-in-chief Eric Knorr, a speaker on the panel about organizing print and online editorial teams, said his information technology magazine went through an “identity crisis” in April 2007 when it became an online-only publication. That wrenching change forced the magazine to reexamine, and ultimately give greater prominence to, the core assets that underpin the publication’s brand loyalty: InfoWorld’s top writers and bloggers, most of whom work (or have worked) in IT.

For Jim Sulecki, director of emedia, Meister Media, a publisher of specialty magazines for agricultural professionals, the use of online media has done wonders to generate Web traffic. Fresh Air Forum, a “cluster” community for professionals in ornamental horticulture, boasts nearly 700 members, the largest of the publisher’s online forums. Yet, Sulecki said such communities won’t realize their full potential until they’re integrated with the publisher’s brand sites: Cotton Grower, Crop Life, Precision Ag, and 14 other publications that serve agricultural professionals. (ASBPE members: See story in ASBPE member newsletter, November/December 2009, page 7 - 556K PDF.)

Edit for the busy reader: Clarity over cleverness

Few B2B editors have enjoyed as much success in leveraging social media and other Web tools as Technologizer editor Harry McCracken, the symposium’s kick-off speaker (see story on page 3 of the November/December member newsletter - 556K PDF). Since July 2008, McCracken’s online following rocketed from zero to 500,000 subscribers, thanks in part to his mastery of social media tools and certain “new essentials” (such as the ability to work in real time) the online world requires.

But McCracken emphasized that other, old writing essentials are also key to building and maintaining a superior brand. Among them: Emphasizing clarity over cleverness; pushing takeaways to the top; practicing the best service journalism you know how; and making content so good that people want to tell the world about it.

Labels: ASBPE Conference, Digital, Harry McCracken, Social Media, Warren Hersch

By Warren Hersch
ASBPE President

BusinessWeek: Audience engagement boosts traffic

Digital journalism isn’t just about providing multimedia content. To be effective, that content has to actively engage readers, drawing them into discussions with B2B reporters and editors, and with each other. So said BusinessWeek.com Technology & Science Channel editor Tom Giles during the Web Site of the Year presentation at ASBPE’s Digital Symposium last month.

“Today, context is just as important as content,” said Giles.

At last count:

• Unique monthly visitors stood at 10.2 million, up from 6.4 million in 2006.
• Monthly page-views total 50.4 million, a 20.3 percent rise over the 41.9 million recorded in 2006.
• Most accessed links are video and pod­cast feeds, which nab, respectively more than 500,000 and 820,000 visitors a month.
• Page views driven by search engines are up 45 percent over the last four years.
• BusinessWeek.com's sister site, Business Exchange, now claims more than 32,000 registered users.
• The most active topic, social networking, boasted more than 2,051 new articles and 255 users on Nov. 25.

To encourage reader engagement, Business Exchange sports a “Featured User” box for the individual who has contributed the largest number of posts to a particular topic; and a “What’s Your Idea” section where readers can suggest stories for the magazine.

Note: A longer version of this article appears in the November/December 2009 ASBPE Editor’s Notes member newsletter; it is also available on the ASBPE web site.

Warren Hersch is the ASBPE national president and senior editor for National Underwriter Life & Health.

Labels: Awards, Azbee Awards, Design, Digital, Warren Hersch

By Warren S. Hersch

YouTube, Linked In, Second Life, Facebook.

From online communities to social networks to virtual worlds, B2B editors attending the March 28th event of ASBPE’s New York chapter got an earful about how best to harness the power of social media. Panelists included Stephen Wellman, editor director of business mobility at CMP’s Technology’s TechWeb Network, and editor-in-chief of the blog Over the Air and the e-mail newsletter Grok on Google; Alex Kam, vice president of digital strategy and business development at ALM; and Robert Freedman, ASBPE past president and senior editor of Realtor Magazine.

Herewith are some of the key take-aways from the 90-minute session, which was held at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library in midtown Manhattan.

Develop a comprehensive approach
To be effective, said Wellman, a social media strategy has to be all-embracing, availing readers of a range of multimedia access points to content and interactive forums, including blogs, social networking sites and e-newsletters. To that end, social media tools need to be harmonized with print and web content to create a synergistic whole. Too often, said Wellman, the various media are segmented, resulting in “fragmented and “balkanized” content.

Make social media user-centric
To deliver the best experience, social media tools need to be customized for the audience and for each touch point. You should therefore profile your readers to determine their goals and objectives, the content they want and how they wish to access it. The old adage, “know your reader,” takes on special importance in a multimedia context, said Kam.

Don’t defer to the IT team
As an editor, you need to take a leading role in developing social media content because you know your audience best. Freedman noted that at Realtor Magazine, social media tools for developing video, podcasts and e-newsletters are accessible to anyone on staff, allowing editors to engage readers directly and with an immediacy that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

Give readers wide latitude to contribute
Much of your best content will come from the readers themselves. So encourage them to contribute often. Many of the most widely read blog posts of Information Week, CMP’s flagship weekly magazine, are submitted by the publication’s readers: web-savvy information technology professionals who oversee their companies’ IT systems. And much of the user content gets posted without guidance or filtering from the publication’s editorial team.

Give prominence to your best contributors
Industry bloggers who deliver the most value to your online communities should be rewarded with increased exposure. One way to do that, said Kam, is by running excerpted blog posts in your print magazine. You can also create online content around the posts. At ALM, prized bloggers additionally get to share in advertising revenue.

Provide context to the information
While encouraging dialogue with readers, editors also need to put into context information that goes online. Every publication has a point of view. And it’s the editor’s job, said Freedman, to be a “steward” of the magazine’s unique perspective — both in print and on the web. This can entail a balancing act: While giving online communities a personality and a voice, you don’t want to be so controlling as to squelch conversations with readers, Kam cautioned.

Keep blog posts short and sweet
Though perhaps fine for print, lengthy articles don’t themselves so well to online communities, where the aim is to foster dialogue. At Information Week, said Wellman, staff editors now churn out 40 (brief) posts per week. Because of the frequent online contributions, the blogs now account for 12% of the magazine’s web site traffic, up from 1% just six months ago. And Information Week projects the percentage will rise to 20% by year-end.

Be prepared to cut back time spent on print
Depending on how ambitious your social media initiatives are, you may have to scale back — or jettison — your involvement with the print magazine to realize online project goals. Monica Bay, an audience participant at the March 28 panel and an editor-in chief at ALM, said she delegated supervision of one of three ALM publications to devote more time to online efforts. She now organizes a quarterly webinar, two podcasts and between three and four online-only interviews per month. She also produces a blog and coproduces a second.

Let users tag popular posts
Editors and readers need a way to sift through the mass of social media to identify information that’s relevant to them. Hence the need for functionality that allows site visitors to tag interesting and popular content. Giving them the ability to quickly and easily navigate your web portal, said Kam, is an important part of doing social media right.

Repurpose web content for print and print content for the web
Feature articles, blog posts, podcasts and video that go online can — often with little extra effort — be repackaged for your print magazine. At a recent trade show devoted to wireless communications, Wellman leveraged several blog posts, 2 videos and a 50-image photo gallery to develop a cover story for Information Week about the event. The process also works in reverse. Freedman related how Realtor Magazine easily developed a web video using still imagery that originally ran in print. Said Freedman: “We don’t think in terms of the print magazine anymore. We’ll craft content one way for print and another way for our blog.”

Get vendors into the game
Content for online consumption may include advertiser-generated copy — so long as it’s identified as such. On many of CMP’s Tech Web sites, said Wellman, vendor white papers, research reports, blogs and videos account for as much 25% of online traffic. One reason: Much of the copy is editorial-quality that’s objective and adds value. But Wellman stressed that disclosure of the source is critical to maintaining integrity with readers.

Feel free to experiment
Because social media is in its infancy, editors still have much to learn about what works and what doesn’t. To gain a competitive edge, you may need to experiment — and take calculated risks. Without prompting from readers, said Wellman, CMP’s Tech Web sites started posting opinion columns online, which received a very positive reception. Ditto with respect to the creation of online trade shows using the 3-D virtual world Second Life. Said Wellman: “Sometime you have to launch new features that readers don’t ask for because they can’t always anticipate their own needs.” Freedom to experiment, added Kam, extends to the methods by which social media content is created. Publications faced with tight budgets and small staffs, he said, should consider outsourcing online initiatives to publishing partners or freelancers when in-house resources aren’t up to the task.

Don’t expect to make a profit
Securing a return on investment in social media has, for many b-to-b publications, proven hard to achieve. The focus, said Kam, should not be on monetizing online content independently of print content, but rather on integrating web initiatives into the overall go-to-market strategy. Wellman agreed, noting the view that one can monetize social networks is “out of date.”

Warren S. Hersch, ASBPE’s New York chapter president, is senior editor of advanced markets & sales at National Underwriter Life & Health. From 1994 to 2003, he wrote and edited for several IT magazines, including the CMP Media publications Teleconnect, Call Center Magazine and Computer Reseller News; as well as Wireless for the Corporate User, published by Probe Research.

Labels: Digital, Social Media, Warren Hersch