Adam Singer, author of The Future Buzz

There seems to be a theme running through journalism classes this year. Get online, or die. This semester, professors have been stressing the importance of the Web in our future careers. I don’t know about you guys, but Professor Van Wyke’s comment about embrace social media or work in a coffee shop freaked me out.

So I’ve embraced it. But just because I’ve embraced the Web, that doesn’t mean I’m an expert at using it. I have a pretty solid grasp on Facebook. Twitter is still a bit dicey. Blogging scares me—and I’m writing three of them.

Adam Singer posted 50 blogging tips for beginners on his blog, The Future Buzz. Adam’s blog is all about web marketing/PR strategies, so any advice he gives I’m willing to listen to. His advice is geared toward rookies like us who are just getting started in the blogosphere. Here are five of his fifty tips that I think are key to a successful blog:

*Branding is vital.

            Make your blog unique. There has to be a reason to visit your blog.

*If you don’t find writing about your topic of choice fun, stop and write about something else.

            Usually, what you’re interested in is what you know. People can smell phonies. They won’t visit your blog if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

*Network, network, network.

            Find people with similar interests. Link to their blogs. Chances are they will pass readers on to you if they like your stuff. 

*Learn the intersection of social media and SEO.

            If Google can’t find your blog, neither can new readers.

*And finally, answer the “so what?” question.

So why are these tips important? Adam pretty much answers that question too. In the same post, he cites statistics that say 71 percent of bloggers have greater visibility in their industry. I want to be in that 71 percent when it comes time to find a job after graduation.

Are there other tips on Adam’s list you think are important for bloggers? From your own experiences, what advice would you give to beginners? Can you add to this list?

At the Associated Collegiate Press convention in Austin, TX last weekend, I learned a new vocab word in a citizen journalism session: MoJo.

Some of you are probably familiar with the term – it’s been around for a couple of years now. It’s a hybrid word that’s short for mobile journalist. These field-only reporters work mostly from their cars or coffee shops with internet access and have equipment that allows them to upload copy, shoot and edit video and photos and upload all of these components to the web version of the publication straight from their cars. Click here to read a first-hand account from a working mojo.

The story describes mojo Chuck Myron’s job working for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla. In the article, Myers writes, “We can’t do journalism the way we’ve been doing it unless we want to become irrelevant. Millions of readers have already left us behind and are wondering why we haven’t kept up with them. Professional journalism has its place online, and it’s high time we take it.”

Most industry professionals have absorbed this same attitude, but it may have gone too far. The lack of fact-checking and copy editing in some publications’ content is crippling the credibility of journalism. As our professor has stressed many times, it only takes one mistake to lose credibility.

This Monday, The Washington Post felt the burn of a lack of copy editing in its publication of a world series column riddled with errors.

This mojo phenomenon brings up a few questions.

1. Is the mobile journalist the answer to curb the public’s voracious hunger for 24-hour news coverage? Is it the future of news-internet journalism?

2. Or does the idea of uploading without an edit pose more problems than benefits?

3. Finally, as journalists in the making, would you consider this fast-paced, grass-roots position? It sure isn’t glamorous, but it’s a job that pays.

Droid has been hailed as the mother of all android phones and the biggest contester to date for the iPhone. Their single commercial parodies Apple’s asthetic style and creates a list of “iDon’ts” that target the faults of the iPhone. So just what is it about the Verizon Droid that has critics on the edge of their seats?

First off, there’s voice search. Perhaps the coolest feature of the Droid, this allows you to search anything on the web simply by saying it aloud. It sure beats typing in a url or search words letter by letter. In fact, starting November 6, Verizon will provide a toll-free number for new owners to call that allows them to control two digital billboards in Times Square. Droid users can simply voice search for practically anything on the internet, and their search results will appear on the billboards.

Other features include a 5 megapixel camera that takes photos in the dark, free turn-by-turn Google Maps 3D navigation, and a real keyboard that works simultaneously with a touch screen. Droid even claims it has interchangeable batteries. Check out more features on their website.

Just one more step in the domination of smart phones over laptops.What do you think? Will the new Droid finally trump the iPhone? How do you think it could change social interaction?

image courtesy of Google

According to The Chicago Tribune, he is “the planet’s leading expert on magazines.”  Today, it is my privilege to introduce you to the man known as Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni, Ph.D.  Maybe you’ve already heard of him, perhaps not.  As the director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism, Husni has earned his title as the world’s leading tracker of magazine launches.  The magazine buff spends nearly $15,000 on magazine publications each year as part of his research.  Mr. Magazine is getting ready to publish the 24th edition of his noted book, Samir Husni’s Guide to New Magazines, and has authored several other guides on how to publish, design, and start your own magazine.  He is a public intellectual in the realm of journalism and gives talks on trends present in today’s magazine industry to corporations such as Meredith and Hearst.  Husni is a also regular judge of The National Magazine Awards.  

So basically, he knows what he’s talking about.  But he should be to be dubbed “Mr. Magazine”–right?  Like us, Husni is an avid blogger on WordPress, where he gives his audience the inside scoop on the latest in periodicals.  For example, did you know during the month of October over 100 magazines launched?  So much for magazines being a dying industry.  Although, Husni does admit that only 40 percent of new magazines celebrate their first anniversary.  He also has his own Website, where you can get your fix of Mr. Magazine.  

One of Husni’s major worries is the amount of “one-night stands” the magazine industry has been experiencing lately.  Yes, you can start a magazine, and Mr. Magazine’s tips can help you, but that doesn’t mean you will spawn readership.  ”We should be in the business of long lasting relationships if we are going to survive the future. The band-aids we are using today will not stop the bleeding, and if we can’t survive our present, do you really think the future will matter?,” says Husni in his latest blog entry.

Mr. Magazine is regularly interviewed by USA Today, New York Times, CNN–you name it.  Get the low-down from Husni about all there is magazine, by just spending five minutes with him:

Do you think the magazine industry will bounce back and reignite the love flame with its readers?  Do you trust Mr. Magazine?

Don’t throw away your parent’s old turntable just yet. Vinyl – no, I’m not kidding – vinyl is making a comeback.  In an age where iPod + iTunes have become the norm, LPs are resurging as the hip “new” way to buy and listen to music.

Nielsen SoundScan, a group that tracks music sales in the U.S. and Canada, reported that approximately 1 million vinyl records were sold in 2007.  This number was up 858,000 from the previous year.  2008 saw LP sales nearly double, reaching 1.9 million sold.  2009 will be no different.  SoundScan predicts that upward trend will continue and that vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million by the end of the year.

Record sales may be even higher than reported.  SoundScan only tracks major stores and online retailers.  Vinyl sales make up a significantly higher portion of total sales in independent music stores.  LP sales are continuing to grow, even as CD sales tank.

One person's opinion.

But in the digital age, why are we seeing a return to old technology?

Many music enthusiasts are reverting to the older medium because of sound quality.  The convenience of portable music players like the iPod, have come at a cost.  When music is digitalized, it must be compressed into a file that is small enough to fit on a CD or be downloaded from an online music store.  When music is compressed, it loses some of its value.  This means that the treble may not sound as high and the bass may not sound as deep.

Vinyl, on the other hand, is an analogue – or non-compressed – medium.  Its richer sound has helped lure rock fans back to their turntables.  As an added bonus, many record labels are including a digital download of the album with the LP.  This allows listeners to enjoy the sound quality of vinyl at home, while providing them with the portable version of the album for their iPods.

Vinyl has also resurfaced as the collector’s medium of choice.  In a world where pirating music has become easier than buying it, a few noble people still prefer to pay for and physically own their music collections.  For a music collector, it doesn’t get any better than vinyl.  Vinyl’s large format showcases the album artwork, and many LPs include a full size poster.

Vinyl has defied the times by holding on to a niche.  Who knows, maybe print journalists could survive if we started pressing newspapers in wax?

Log on to Facebook and you probably also simultaneously heard of Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, in addition to scrolling through your tagged pictures from Friday night.

Forgot your class assignment? Just send a friend request to the girl who sits two rows ahead of you, and she’ll likely give you the answer in a few minutes’ time.

Clearly, exploding social network sites provide an advantage to almost anyone who uses them.

But these same sites have negative implications, too. Twitter and Facebook are now used to incriminate public figures like never before. Just ask Andre Agassi, tennis legend. In a recent tweet that has now been removed from his Twitter page, a Sports Illustrated employee released a tidbit from Agassi’s new novel, “Open”. The tweet read: “@richarddeitsch: Book excerpt from Andre Agassi in the forthcoming SI: He admits to taking crystal meth during his career.”

This was the first public recognition of crystal meth addiction for Agassi. Other publications latched on to this tweet even after it was deleted, and hours later, an Australian Web site released an exclusive series of material, also from the book. He also admitted to his meth use in an interview with People magazine shortly after the SI tweet.

The increasing popularity of Twitter posts isn’t a new phenomenon. The Telegraph, a UK newspaper, recently reported that traffic to Twitter has increased “27-fold”. Other experts suggest that the Web site gains more than 10,000 users daily. But that doesn’t mean Twitter is free from scandal. 

Because of the compromise of professionalism and lifestyle Twitter poses for individuals like Agassi, experts have created a list of Twitter etiquette tips.

But are guidelines imposing on a (free) social media forum? Should celebrities, public officials, and journalists be allowed to tweet their personal life without it reflecting negatively on their careers? What do you think? Should status updates even be considered real news?

Is the simplest design.

It’s one of those concepts that we all learn the hard way—even a giant corporation like Microsoft, who has recently announced the new design of its MSN homepage. Here’s what the website looks like right now:

Before

And here’s what it’s supposed to look like in early 2010, according to CNET.

After

You would think that a giant business like Microsoft would have figured out a long time ago that, in the world where netizens spend 2 seconds moving their eyes across the entire news article, clear is the new clever. But as the evolution of MSN slideshow suggests, Microsoft didn’t get it. Besides its first-launch page—which was badly designed, by the way—MSN has always had too many links, too much text, and all these other jumbles in its page. It tried modernizing the design. Still cluttered. It made the page sleeker and more interactive. Still cluttered. Finally, after many complaints from the customers that the “site was both dated and overstuffed with links,” Microsoft decides to revolutionize MSN and take out 50% of the links on the existing site.

Still, the key to increase a Web site’s popularity is to stay relevant, which brings us back to the same old topic: social media. Well, folks, if a stubborn giant like Microsoft finally gives into the power of Facebook and Twitter and devotes a the right column of its site to the applications, we would be unwise to not do the same—embrace the social media. Microsoft even takes a step further by pulling the contents from Fox Sports, Hulu, and Hearst to satisfy its customers. And although the company still lags far behind Google in the search market (Google has a share of 64.6% while Microsoft holds 9.4%), it hopes the new design will draw more users to its site and its baby Bing.

So, remember. If you want to be successful on the internet, don’t put all your contents on one page because no one wants to scan through clutter. (Oh, don’t forget to include FB and Twitter Apps, either.) Yes, minimalist design is good, but as long as you don’t go overboard and make your site look like this:

This is how my site will look like with the extreme minimalist design: dysfunctional.

The iPhone has been around for a couple years now and since it was born, its role in social media has been steadily climbing. When it first came out, it was seen as a luxury and as the newest fun toy. I’m not one of those people that must always have the newest technology and will spend any amount of money to get it. In fact, I was one of the last of my friends to get an iPod and I still use the same one—one of the old nanos. Recently, mostly since I began my job at Meredith, I feel the need, and sometimes actual pressure, to get an iPhone.

This started because I went to a meeting where they were discussing an app they wanted to create. Suddenly, I felt lost and behind because I had no idea how to contribute. I don’t know anything about apps or how an iPhone functions. I didn’t even know there were so many apps available. So I started asking around and learned that an iPhone is basically the world at your fingertips.

The Internet is obviously a plus and, unlike other types of phones, it looks and functions like the Internet on a computer. I find this to be extremely useful since I could easily update Facebook, Twitter, and my blog any time, anywhere. And isn’t that the point of all this social media talk at school? Aren’t we supposed to be constantly paying attention to that world? I would be so much more inclined to participate if it was that easy.

I was looking at iPhone stuff on time.com and they have multiple lists of the best kinds of apps—Top iPhone Applications, 20 Money-Saving iPhone Apps, Ten Best iPhone Apps for Dads and Moms, Top 10 Back-To-School iPhone Apps. There are so many options I wouldn’t even know where to begin. But I do know that, especially in New York City where the world spins a mile a minute, having an iPhone is a necessity. Do you guys feel this way too? For those of you who have iPhones, does it make a difference?

Not too long ago, Twitter starting testing out a new feature on its site. This new feature is the ability to create lists which allow users to categorize the various accounts they follow. For instance, one user may create a list of coworkers, one of local businesses, and one of their favorite celebrities. The lists are public, but can be made private in case you’d rather not have others see. As requested by many Twitter users, this new feature allows for a more organized account.

But that’s not all. Additionally, if your lists are set as public, other Twitter users are then able to subscribe to your lists—making this social network site even more social.

Today, Mashable, an online social media guide, posted on the 4 Ways News Organizations are Using Twitter Lists. According to Vadim Lavrusik, author of the post, news organizations are taking advantage of this new Twitter feature and implementing it quickly in hopes to stay ahead of the curve.

Here are two of the four ways news organizations are using Twitter lists:

1) Staff Directory. The New York Times, for instance, has compiled a list of all their staff members so Twitter users can easily see what each staff member has to say. In addition, the Times also has many other lists.

2) Recommended Tweeps, Specific Information. The Los Angeles Times has created many lists for Twitter users to easily find West Coast relevant subjects/information such as restaurants, celebrities, art, and culture.

For the other two ways, (since you’re probably dying to know, and I don’t want to steal Lavrusik’s thunder) read the post and let me know what you think. I recommend it to all of you journalists out there. You never know, there’s now such thing as social media editors and you might someday be one.

Image source: http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/twitter-lists-bird.jpg

(originally presented by Matt Nelson and Clara Haneburg as part of their presentation on religion in AP style)

The Prayer of J-70:

Our Stylebook created for us

Hallow be thy grammar

Thy capitalization for Allah

Thy lowercase for gods

On pages 228 as it is thru 230

Gives us this day your stylistic laws

And forgive us our errors

As we forgive our writers for their writing sins

Lead us not into failing

Professor Van Wyke’s journalism course

For thy is the holy scripture of editors

The perfection

And the glorious text

Forever the Stylebook

Amen.