5.8% of NAA attendees cared about social media
My session at the Newspaper Association of America’s MediaXchange conference is over. Thirty-five people attended the session. Sixty could have sat comfortably; there was room for more to stand in the back. An NAA employee told me that of the 2,000 people there, 600 had registered to attend the “education sessions.”
There were five other things they could have been doing while our session was underway:
- Leave Las Vegas, which apparently many were doing.
- Attend the “Outsourcing: Moving Fixed to Variable” session at the same time.
- Attend the “Redefining Classified” session at the same time.
- Browse the exhibition hall floor.
- Blow off the conference entirely.
What the other 565 people missed was four of us talking about the return on investment that can be gleened from social media tools. Rich Gordon of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern moderated. Co-panelists: Sang Kim, founder and CEO of Ripple6; and Mark Josephson, CEO at Outside.in.
I appreciated Sang’s talk about his company’s work with Gannett to overhaul and expand its MomsLikeMe.com sites. He used the phrase “activate the community.” I found that compelling. It’s community that’s already there and active. Are there ways to provide tools to “activate” it in a way that readers — and community members — will appreciate it?
Mark Josephson reminded everyone that “it’s not just about having people on your site. Stuff is happening off your site. How do you foster engagement with your readers?”
I got to talk about a number of things I’ve blogged about here before, and which most of you know about already. But most of the NAA crowd doesn’t. And it still doesn’t.
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Kurt's Tweets- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh
- Just had my first Gmail phone call -- with my parents -- and the quality was fantastic. Wow. http://tcrn.ch/a8GndI
- Another day, another interview. Fingers crossed. (@ Saint Louis Bread Co) http://4sq.com/avGImL
- Helping my son learn the first 20 elements on the periodic table. Disturbed by how many more elements there are since I studied this stuff.
- Giving blood. (@ St. Martin's Episcopal Church) http://4sq.com/aiWuEk
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