Why I’d Make A Good Social Media Club Board Member
July 14, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
—Please Vote For Me, Jonathan Coffman for Social Media Club Board Member by clicking here (voting is open until Thursday —
I’ll try to keep this post short and sweet, but I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my ideas for the SMC.
If you weren’t already aware, I am a candidate for the final open seat on the founding Board of Directors of the Social Media Club. The SMC is a national non-profit organization that is working toward standarization, simplication, and openness in social media.
Members include people like me who live, work, and breathe social media professionally as well as people who support the ideas of an open and inviting social media landscape. I’ve been a member since about a month after they opened their (online) doors.
As someone who understands and works in and with social media daily for a major media company, and as someone who supports and honestly believes in an open and safe Internet I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to assist this great organization in getting off the ground.
My current employer is PBS, also a non-profit with beliefs above and beyond most American media brands. While I work each and every day to spread and enhance social media adoption and usage across the system I also devote a large amount of my personal time to research and participate in conversations surrounding the best practices and most inclusive ways to foster online community building. Here at my personal website I publish and evangelize my own personal beliefs outside of my professional capacity.
Social media is more than a job for me, it’s a way to look at world. My vision is for a social media landscape that we don’t even have to call social-media. Social media should become as ubitquitous as the Internet itself.
My vision and passion for social-media and online communities is why I’d love to assist and be a part of the Social Media Club. I feel like I can bring a lot to the table for them and help to not only evangelize current and emerging standards, but also serve as a beacon to newcomers in this exciting time.
Please feel free to contact me via any method that’s efficient for you and I will gladly answer any questions or clarify any information.
What Working for PBS Engage Means
June 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
As the product manager for PBS Engage, the social media initiative of the Public Broadcasting service, I get to work with magnificent people day in and day out to bring social-media to the masses. It’s a very exciting time to be working in social-media, and especially at such a stellar organization.
My one month-iversary at PBS is this week and here’s a sampling of what I’ve learned:
- Public Broadcasting loves you
- Public Broadcasting is relevant to your life
- Public Broadcasting is inexpensive to the everyday American
- Public Broadcasting wants to hear what you have to say
- Public Broadcasting depends on Viewers Like You for support
- Public Broadcasting hires and retains some of the awesomest people I’ve ever known
- Public Broadcasting has amazing online content that just wants to be found
- And so much more!
When TV Listens To Its Viewers, Amazing Things Happen
April 28, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at ways news organizations can connect and interact with their viewership. This morning I was greeted by a basic, but excellent interaction on Good Morning America.
I’ve got ABC turned on in my hotel room this morning for background noise and they ran a story about the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair which has some photographs of Miley Cyrus (Story here) scantily clad. Cyrus is a huge Disney made and owned child start at only 15. As always, the GMA web site is open to comments on stories, and they actively solicit “editorial” based feedback via email as well.
It’s now 8am EDT and the original story aired no more than 30 minutes ago, there are already 150+ comments on the story from people pro and against the photos and dolling out advice. This level of immediate feedback and interaction is awesome! What’s more, just a few minutes ago the Good Morning America talking heads came back from a commercial break and spent 30 seconds discussing the comments they were seeing on their web site.
This interaction and discussion online, and on-air has tremendous power, and I hope that it’s something your news organization is open to or considering doing.
On Email Organization
April 22, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
For the last month or so I’ve been on a rampage, an email rampage. I haven’t quite hit Inbox Zero but inbox 30-40 suits me well actually. Here’s what I’ve done:
- I now have only 2 visible email addresses, Gmail and my @jonathancoffman.com mail. Those other addresses (.Mac, Yahoo!, Mizzou, and my secondary Gmail) all now get picked up by my primary Gmail account, this way I only have two inboxes to check, and hopefully by responding to those with only one address I gradually get fewer and fewer messages going to those other addys.
- Combining the last two addresses, my primary gmail and my domain email isn’t yet feasible. I can’t quite take myself down to that level yet. Because they’re used for two very different purposes (personal and professional) the use cases will remain mutually exclusive for the time being.
- The downside to still having two inboxes: two sets of gmail tags/folders. My domain email is handled by GoogleApps (which I love by the way), so for now I have two identical but disconnected sets of tags.
- Account and Login Information
- Banking
- Bills
- Blog Conversations
- Contributr
- Current Projects
- Pipeline Projects
- Coupons and Discounts
- Job Hunting
- Journalism School
- Newsletters
- Personal (family)
- Private Betas
- Product Orders
- Service Orders
- Require followup
- Servers and Hosting
- Social Media
- Travel
- URGENT
When A Podcast Isn’t Just A Podcast
April 10, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I had a great IM conversation last night with a podcast author regarding my post from a few days ago about the death of podcasting. He seemed to agree on many levels and was hoping for some advice because he’s feeling trapped in his current podcast network and not sure how to venture out on his own.
One thing that struck me in this conversation was that I didn’t mean to declare podcasts dead in the sense of being useless, they have a an excellent use as being a form of on-the-go media. What I don’t think is effective is having a podcast just for the purpose of having a podcast. A podcast on its own is lonely, and people want, and need context with their content.
In the semantic web context and conversation is even more important than it was 3 years ago when everyone decided that podcasts were the big thing. One newsroom that I work with has had a pod/vod cast in the works for 4 or 5 years and what I’m telling them now is that it’s probably not worth their time to try to play catchup and release them now, let’s just move on and work on something much more current like accepting public opinion and thoughts in an open forum on their web properties.
What spurred my post the other day was the abundance of “podcasting” sessions planned for NAB next week, if these news executives are just now learning about and thinking about implementing podcasts, then the public is going to suffer because the larger Internet world has moved on already.
If pod/vodcasting is an easy thing to implement within your existing organization and workflow by all means, start ‘casting! But if that process is going to be a long one and expend a lot of resources that could otherwise be directed toward more 2-way conversations with your community, then I think you should concentrate on doing that.
If you’ve made it all the way down here in the post you probably don’t need it, but here’s a summary: Podcasting is dead as a sole medium, it’s a one-way conversation and everything I’m seeing says that the public wants and needs 2-way communication with their news agencies to build trust and understanding. Pod/Vod casting makes a great complement to other tools but I don’t think it should be used on its own.
Are Podcasts Dead?
April 7, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
In case you didn’t know, I’ll be in Las Vegas Sunday-Wednesday for the NAB conference (National Association of Broadcasters). The Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism is sponsoring my trip so that I can present Contributr to the masses. (Let’s hope Contributr is ready, more on that tomorrow!)
As I was looking through the available sessions trying to schedule myself into some I noticed a recurring theme, podcasting. Now I hate to rain on anybody’s parade but aren’t podcasts dead? Haven’t they been deemed not conversational enough?
I mean sure, we all are subscribed to a few in iTunes, but how often do you actually listen to one? Let alone actively look for more? I know I don’t. I’ve moved on, I’ve moved on to try to create and examine the semantic web. And podcasts just don’t fit into that strategy very well. They may not be static in location but they are certainly static in content. One you publish an episode to a podcast it just sits there… and people listen to it… but what else? What’s the extra step? … Well I just can’t seem to find it.
So you might imagine my disappointment when I am going through the NAB sessions schedule and see multiple sessions on podcasting each day, and only 2 or 3 sessions on ‘blogging’ total for the entire conference.
Is this where journalism is? Is this what the journalism folks think is hot? Haven’t they found Twitter, haven’t they found Facebook, haven’t they found that conversations are the latest and greatest things to hit the web?
Apparently not, and in my conversations with Jen Reeves it seems that the ‘industry’ is doomed to be 5-years behind as she puts it. Here I am creating wikis, blogging daily, coming up with user generated content solutions, enhancing new-media workflows, and creating conversations around my own life and here is the Journalism Industry just now trying to figure out podcasting.
There’s disconnect somewhere. That disconnect is what is holding back journalism and the news media in general, they’re not in touch with what consumers are using technology for.
As all of my recent blog posts do, I’ll link this one to my current job-search. There are quite a few journalism web content editor and producer jobs out there. Frankly, they’re almost a dime a dozen, news organizations realize they need to staff “the web” so staff “the web” they do. But where is the innovation? Where is the commitment?
Part of the struggle I have faced in my job search is that there’s plenty of work to be had out there, but very few newsrooms and very few news people “get it”. It takes more than just repurposing content from your printed newspaper or broadcast TV show onto the web anymore, that’s just not enough. People want to have conversations, they want to change, edit, manipulate, share, and copy your precious content. Are you willing to see what your public can do for you?
That’s the future of journalism. Don’t just talk to the public, let the public talk to you. If you “get it” email, call, IM, or @jdcoffman me. I’m listening, are you?
My Ideal Job
April 4, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
By way of looking introspectively at my self and my ambitions I have a pretty good idea of my ideal job is at this point. I’ve known for quite some time that being in the service of the public and working toward a greater good is in my blood. My mother was a teacher and my dad is a businessman. Between the two of them I acquired a passion for serving the public, and a business savvy entrepreneurial drive.
I’ve been on the path of working in the field of journalism for about 8 years now. Journalism attracted me in part because of the immense power of the press and how good journalism can be a cause for change. In addition, there are all kinds of cool toys that people in the news and information business can play with!
So that brings me to the ultimate point of this post, my ideal job:
- Serves the public interest, educating and informing them.
- Is collaborative with other smart people.
- Allows for the intelligent expression and discussion of ideas and suggestions.
- Brings people (both internally and externally) to have better, more efficient communication.
- Allows people to discuss and achieve.
What Newspapers Can Do NOW To Gain Readership
March 20, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Newspapers have a bad reputation of being reactionary (although much of the American media is quite reactionary in nature) but here are some things I think newspapers should do NOW to gain readership and credibility in the communities they serve.
- Update your website more than 3 or 4 times a day, information is always becoming more clear as stories develop, let that be reflected on the web. I would even suggest time-stamping updates to stories so that your readers know that you are WORKING for them.
- Don’t ignore stories after they’ve been reported once. Make sure your reporters know how to edit and change web stories, have them post followups and additional information even after they’ve moved on to other stories.
- Open comments on your web site, in order to gain any credibility you need to allow and embrace commenting on stories, sources, and reporters by the public. Let the public have a voice. While it may seem very scary, it’s more necessary than you think right now.
- Let the public report on their own stories. No one else knows more about what the public wants than the public itself. Allow them to contribute news, information, text, images, video, and more to your news organization… Then publicize it and let them see their own work.
- Editors and filters don’t have to be out of the picture with user generated content, but stringent rules and regulations and fears of the public do need to be out of the picture.
Those are just a few of the many ideas I have about what the newspaper industry need to do in order to gain readership and respect in this new age. It is in no way exhaustive, and there are many other steps, tools, and advice I can give on those subjects.
Here’s the real lesson: Transparency, Participation, Conversation, and Trust.
Convergence of the Future
March 19, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
News makers keep talking about backpack journalists and having reporters be good at everything. Now we all know that’s just not possible, but it hasn’t stopped the visionaries from proclaiming convergence journalism the future of news.
Convergence of the media is already happening of course, and convergence is the future. No longer is a television station just a television station. Or a radio station, just a radio station. I’ve been interviewing with news organizations trying to find a full-time gig after graduation and I recently met with a newspaper editor from a small-market.
He said something to the effect that “I’m not just running a newspaper, I’m also a TV station, Radio station, podcaster, blogger, information resource, and that’s on top of the seven printed products my newsroom produces”. This is what convergence is, its one media taking on and challenging the other media forms.
Back in the early days of my Journalism School experience they taught about how the Internet wasn’t the end-all of media, much to the contrary each individual media had its own benefits. Well, yes that’s true in part, each form of media (broadcast, print, online, social, etc) does have distinct advantages and disadvantages, but that’s the great thing about the Internet, it allows each of those media to succeed and distribute their product in an open-market of consumers and viewers.
The Internet brings all of those competing old-media technologies and pardon the cliche, it creates synergies between them. No longer is a newspaper just a newspaper, but instead its a radio station, tv station, web site, and a community in and of itself.
This is the Real future of convergence journalism, a combined news product that reaches all people equally and in multiple formats. We’re already doing this in many cases but news makers haven’t taken it far enough yet.
Convergence journalism to me is all about taking advantage of the things that make a particular medium what it is. Television is immensely visual for instance, but a 30 minute newscast can’t begin to touch the detail a 1,500 word article in a major newspaper can. The power of the Internet changes all that.
The power of the Internet creates an open marketplace of ideas from which news consumers can ingest and even create their own news and information resources. One of the goals for my Contributr project is just that, make the communication between the public and a news organization easy for both parties so that both are more likely to interact and create even better news for the communities (and the world) that they serve.
If you’re interested in hearing more of my ideas on the future of journalism and the things that can be right now, subscribe to my RSS feed right here and always get the latest blog posts.
As always, comments are always open on this blog (although the first time you post I may have to approve it to make sure you’re not a spam robot) so join the conversation!
Why Your Business Needs To Focus On Relationships More and On Money Less - Dawud Miracle @ dmiracle.com -
March 4, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
(Via dmiracle.)
I’ve blogged many times before about the lack of effective monetization for news organizations on the web. It’s not just news orgs that need better ads and monetization strategies, believe me, I’ve been there.
Many of the web sites I built and sold have been ad revenue based, and none of it was easy. Some of the sites that i’ve built over the years didn’t even make much money, but they sold for more than the sites that were making twice or more. Know what the difference was? Heart, the ones that sold high I had put more time into them and they had ‘meaning’.
The web isn’t just about making money and taking names, it’s about building relationships and networks now. This is what web 2.0 is really about. It’s about the people. People make the mashable web go round.
The blog post I’m highlighting here talks about relationships and conversations being worth more than than the revenue your site is supposed to generate as it relates to businesses.
Now I understand that The Man wants to make his or her money from web ventures, but relationships and conversations can, and do, bring much more to the table. By gaining respect and ‘friends’ in the social web you’re able to use those connections and real people to your advantage.
There’s nothing quite like getting real, honest feedback from people who actually visit your site and have something to say about it.
So as you’re launching the next big web venture remember that, money is important, but the relationships are just as important, and often more important than the revenue.
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