Articles on digital media business

Another week went by fast. I’m still reading “who’s got your back” by Keith Ferazzi. Also here is a few articles on the business of digital media I wanted to share with you. This time I wanted to focus on transitioning of traditional media companies into the digital age.

Media business at crossroads as deals pick up

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The growing influence of the Web to distribute news, video and other content, combined with the lingering economic malaise, have left many media executives and investors uncertain about where to make their next bets. Read the entire article at Reuters.com

Newspaper brands that manage the transition to digital models can thrive

“Newspapers are dying.” Lately, that’s the constant, gloomy chorus. But it couldn’t be further from the truth. Certainly, the newspaper industry faces significant challenges, including a tough economy and the mass migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet. But newspaper brands that successfully transition to digital models can thrive — without giving up their streamlined print products. Read the entire article at Reuters.com

Tough times turning newspaper lenders into owners

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Newspaper headlines have skewered money lenders for dubious decisions that stoked the recession. Now the financiers are starting to headline newspapers in a new way – as the owners.

These newspaper novices are taking control through bankruptcy proceedings and giving few clues about their turnaround plans. Their decisions will be crucial because this new age of media ownership is unfolding at a time that could make or break some of the largest publications. Read the entire article at Associated Press

Weekend reading list on social media

It’s been a great weekend! Along with a few personal celebrations and meetings I also had a chance read a few periodicals. I prepared a list of articles on topics such as leadership, business, social media, etc. in case you may be interested.

Eight Ways to Ruin Your Social-Media Strategy

So you’ve set up a company fan page on Facebook and you’re letting your employees fire off messages to the world via Twitter — or you’re at least thinking about it. Well, congratulations! You’re part of the social-media revolution, which can offer unparalleled access to word-of-mouth buzz among those you most want to reach: your customers, current and future.
Read more at BNET.com

Rich Vs. Poor Is Not The Right Debate

I have received numerous comments from readers on my recent column, Capitalism’s Fundamental Flaw. A wide range of ideas and explanations of our current plight were offered, including one comment that pointed out that as long as there is a government and it regulates, we are not practicing free-market capitalism.
Read the entire story at at Forbes.com

The 10 Questions You Should Never Stop Asking

In the early 1990s, I was brought in as an interim president/CEO of two regional monthly magazines. Both are now out of business. It was a trying time–and also one of the great learning experiences of my life.
Read the entire story at at Forbes.com

How Entrepreneurs Identify New Opportunities

A key question that all would-be entrepreneurs face is finding the business opportunity that is right for them. Should the new start-up focus on introducing a new product or service based on an unmet need? Should the venture select an existing product or service from one market and offer it in another where it may not be available? Or should the firm bank on a tried and tested formula that has worked elsewhere, such as a franchise operation?
Read the entire story at at Forbes.com

How Hierarchies Do Harm

As a coach he has been a revolutionary in his way of building winning organizations, by developing what he calls the “leaderful team,” in which every player is prepared, technically and psychologically, to step up to lead–or to step back to support, as needed. The idea is to maximize the potential contribution of every team member in a way never before attempted in sport.
Read the entire story at at Forbes.com

Where Your Customers Are: How Facebook, Twitter and Others Break Down by Age

Facebook, the largest social media network, recently reached 300 million users worldwide — roughly the population of the United States. So do your homework before you approach your customers online. Here’s how users on the top social media sites broke down by age in August 2009.
See graphs at BNET.com

Remembering how to forget in the Web 2.0 era

Amid ongoing debates over the hazards of excessive digital exposure through such Web 2.0 social networking platforms as Facebook and Twitter, a new book by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger extols the virtues of forgetfulness.
Read more at Reuters UK Blogs

How Linkedin.com helped me

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me questions about linkedin.com and how I benefited by using it so far. I have been meaning to respond to her questions but didn’t have a chance to do it. Now, I realized that this information may be useful for other people too, hence I’m sharing it here.

Below is an overview of a few useful features on linkedin.com that I’ve benefited by since I first started using it.

1. One place for your resume
2. To connect with colleagues, past and present
3. To discover new connections
4. To join groups of similar interests
5. To help people solve problems
6. To stay up to date with your network
7. To recommend and get recommended
8. To look for jobs and apply for jobs
9. Search visibility and personal branding

Facts from Guy Kawasaki on the subject:

• People with more than twenty connections are thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.
• The average number for Harvard Business School grads is fifty-eight, so you could skip the MBA, work at Google, and probably get most of the connections you need. Later, you can hire Harvard MBAs to prepare your income taxes.
• All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees.
• The average number of LinkedIn connections for people who work at Google is forty-seven.

How companies benefit by using Twitter

Just reading an article at iMediaConnection about Twitter Experiments and how companies are using Twitter to get closer with their customers, create and enrich the conversations. I’m still one of those who has no solid idea on how to use Twitter productively for business purposes. Please let me know how your company benefited by twitter. In turn I’ll post my insights on the tool. Below is the snippet of the article with URL.

Article Highlights:

• H&R Block’s feed is 75 percent @replies
• Glam Media’s Tinker allows brands to sponsor filtered Twitter feeds about hot topics
• A mobile L.A. eatery uses Twitter to keep customers aware of its location
• Microsoft sponsors a collection of tweets from top executives

To read the article: 5 Twitter marketing experiments

Takeaways on motivation

A good friend and a colleague of mine Rob Howard of Suitcase Interactive lent me a great book recently. “The Leader in You: how to win friends, influence people and succeed is a changing world” by Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. Stuart R. Levine and Michael A. Crom, VP. I’m still going through it but I wanted to point that although it was printed in May 1995, the materials have significant relevance in today’s world and will have it in the coming years.

In this post I want to share key points that complete each chapter. If you are not sure you want to buy this book, please see the points below to get more details about it. Please note that these are not from the back or the front cover, these points are “hidden” at the end of each chapter. I’m writing these things down for two reasons: 1) I want to make sure that I review these principles. 2) I want to share these with you. Here we go…

1. the first step toward success is identifying your leadership strengths
2. communication is built on trusting relationships
3. motivation can never be forced. people have to want to do a good job.
4. there’s nothing more effective and rewarding than showing a genuine interest in other people
5. step outside yourself to discover what’s important to someone else.
6. nobody is more persuasive than a good listener.
7. team players are the leaders of tomorrow.
8. truly respecting others is the bedrock of motivation.
9. people work for money but work the extra mile for recognition, praise, and rewards.
10. be quick to admit mistakes and slow to criticize. above all, be constructive.
11. set goals that are clear, challenging, and obtainable.
12. leaders never loose their focus. they keep their eyes on the bog picture.
13. consistently high performance comes from a balance between work and leisure.
14. gain strengths from the positive and don’t be sapped by the negative.
15. tame your worries and energize your life.
16. never underestimate the power of enthusiasm.

I plan to get back to each of those points and add relevant examples from my daily life for each of the points above. I will be happy to see your examples too in the comments.

Online marketing seminars for small business in Calgary

In November 2007, in an effort to 1) share the knowledge I had at that time, 2) develop my communication skills through presenting to a group of people, I ran a series of seminars to help small business owners establish presence online. The seminar covered a few of the more important topics and answered questions that a small business owner would have about establishing his / her web presence.

The seminars were split into 5 sessions, one session per week. I covered such topics as SEO, online display advertising (variations of banners), basic online campaign planning principles, social campaigns execution, and integrated marketing campaigns (synchronizing traditional and online marketing means. All of this would definitely not be possible without the help from Critical Mass, where I worked at that time.

The seminars took place at Skazka Restaurant & Bar in Calgary, where I had an opportunity to work a few months before. Although the attendance varied between 15 and 20 people per session, the series was definitely achieving objectives set out at the beginning. At the end of the series I ran a short servey to see how I did. Got some very constructive critique on what I could’ve done better.

Below is the set of video sessions from that series. I want to thank Maxim Bentsianov for shooting and converting the video to be publicly available online. To this date we’ve got over 3000 views of those sessions on youtube.com. And at the end of the day RussianHerald.com also benefited by this sort of an educational campaign we put together. I apologize in advance for this series being completely in Russian. I’ll be working on another one covering similar content but 100% in English.