The Prospero Technologies co-founder outlines 10 tips to help you embrace, rather than recoil from, new market dynamics.
The online game has changed-- literally. This season the Schaumberg Flyers took field positions and batted in an order not determined by their manager, but instead by visitors to the fanclub section of MSN. No longer are site visitors content to be passive viewers of online media. They want to be active participants and contributors.
Media executives are suddenly surrounded by a dizzying array of new applications to engage with online audiences: social networks, talkback, polls, blogs, ratings and reviews, photo albums, vlogs, podcasts, wikis. What has driven this stream of new vehicles to capture the opinions, thoughts and expressions of audiences everywhere?
Blame it on Murdoch. He put a stamp of approval and $500M+ valuation on a little-known site called MySpace. A year later this acquisition looks brilliant as MySpace continues to grow and is now the number one site based on overall traffic.
Blame it on Google-- a new media company worth a staggering $115 billion, generating real revenues and real profits and threatening to become the television, magazine, newspaper and department store of the future.
Blame it on RealityTV, "unscripted entertainment" and YouTube. This isn't just a dotcom bubble. The shift is seismic and the threat to business-as-usual isn't just based on hype. It's real. And it's all powered by user-generated content.
A sense of urgency is justified, but there's no reason to panic. Take stock of your assets and how they fit into this new landscape. Old media expertise is still the best foundation for building a successful new media business. Brand credibility, distribution and audience remain the core building blocks of old and new media.
The challenge for all organizations is finding the ideal balance between readers participating in media and retaining appropriate editorial and brand control.
In working with a variety of organizations dealing with these new media challenges, we have compiled a list of tips to help you embrace, rather than recoil, from the new market dynamics.
Tip 1: Align your goals with your audiences.
What would they gain or enjoy from community features on your site? What additional audience feedback would benefit your organization-- where is the overlap?
Tip 2: Think of yourselves as hosts, not as presenters.
If you or members of your organization are participating, your role is to encourage a friendly atmosphere for open dialog-- not to promote your organization. You're not stepping up to a podium; you're grabbing a microphone and walking around the room.
Tip 3: Set the right context.
When people arrive they'll want to know: Is this a business meeting? A party? A support group? A rally? Who is the target audience and what do you need to do to make them feel comfortable? Once you establish the context for the discussion it will be much easier to set expectations and guidelines for how people should interact.
Tip 4: Establish clear guidelines and express them with a tone and manner consistent with your brand.
Your audience will take the cue from you. You're setting expectations that will help establish the editorial personality over the long run. When rules are well understood by your readers or viewers, they will actually help you guide other participants-- making your job much easier. Even though you want to convey structure and in most cases legal terms, you can be conversational and even funny so participants realize that they can still be themselves as long as they stay within the guidelines.
Tip 5: Take care with kids.
When it comes to kids you can't be too careful in how you manage online communities. The Children's Online Privacy Protection act, also known as "COPPA," prohibits the collection of personal information from kids without a parent's approval. With that said, there are many ways to get kids involved without requiring them to register or provide personal information. You can encourage them to rate products, vote in polls, participate in chats, and submit comments without any personally identifiable information.
Tip 6: Address criticism head on.
You're going to read things about your products or services that make you uncomfortable. Just like any customer complaint, the best thing to do is turn the negative into a positive. Show that you've taken some action to address the problem, or if it's misperception, explain why. It's also OK to explain the business reasons behind decisions that may upset some of your customers. People's initial reactions are emotional, but they will almost always understand that businesses exist to earn money and cover costs.
Tip 7: Utilize "scan moderation" techniques.
With time and experience you can skim the titles of discussions and list of messages very quickly to find areas that require moderation.
Tip 8: Experiment and learn.
The best way to learn is by doing. The best way to develop software is to release and refine in rapid succession. The same model now applies for media. By involving your customers you'll have a much better idea of what works and what doesn't.
Tip 9: Use technology to your advantage.
Set up filters to automatically "bleep" or reject messages with profanity. Use a review-then-release approval queue for content that will be featured on the site. Enlist the help of other participants by including a "report violation" link next to all messages so you can quickly take down inappropriate content. Set "flags" that restrict access when users don't comply with the terms of service.
Tip 10: Think community-- everywhere.
Leverage user-generated content both online and offline. Highlight your community content on relevant pages throughout your site to encourage visitors. Use your editorial judgment to feature the best content in print and on air. This lowers your editorial costs and builds a much stronger bond with your audience.
MySpace, Google, YouTube, Flickr and others have created a new game where online audiences want, and, in fact are now expecting, to interact with the sites they visit. While this may be a new game, the rules as outlined above can help any team that wants to hit a home run!
Rusty Williams is co-founder of Prospero Technologies, the leading provider of community content management solutions for the online publishing industry. Designed to support extreme peaks in traffic, Prospero's community solutions enable organizations to easily, quickly and cost effectively develop custom-branded applications such as blogs, chats and message boards to online consumers and manage these using a single, intuitive platform. Prospero's clients include Fortune 500 media, entertainment companies and internet publishers such as iVillage, Washington Post.com, About.com, BusinessWeek, Fox, CBS.com, Meredith Corporation, Knight Ridder Digital, Delphi Forums, NASCAR, Wall Street Journal, MLB.com, Amazon, Comcast, and Tribune Interactive. Read Rusty's full bio.