Monday, July 12, 2010

Journalism and the Internet. Did new media kill the beat reporter?

In truth, the Internet didn’t kill journalism, big business killed journalism, the Internet simply helped speed the flow of the poison.

Nieman Reports, a print and online repository for all things journalism, made the case that news conglomerates actually struck the first blow. Mega media monsters swallowed up local newspapers and television stations then reduced local reporting to a trickle, making the news “less local and less relevant, and reporters . . . less connected to their communities.” The further journalists got from home, the less trust the public had in their reporting.

Enter the Internet. If a reporter’s credentials aren’t up to snuff, the public can simply find their news elsewhere. And that news doesn’t have to stop at the byline. If a reader wants more information she can hunt down others with similar interests to round out the story. News consumers are not longer interested in purchasing pre-packaged sound bytes, they want to be engaged in the story and make their own connections.

Easier said than done? Check out the Buffalo Editor blog to discover how to be an effective Web 2.0 (and beyond) journalist!

“‘I Hate My Room,’ The Traveler Tweeted. Ka-Boom! An Upgrade! The New Ways Hotels Track You and Your Complaints” Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2010

With the ever growing importance of marketing your business, Hotels have started to focus on social media to do such. More specifically, hotels have been forming Twitter and Facebook accounts and monitoring their action. Why Twitter? Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question, "What are you doing?" by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called "tweets", to your friends, or "followers." Twitter is a micro-blogging type of forum. You can talk to anyone who will listen to you and it can be the quickest way to get people interested in new product offerings, contests, prize giveaways and much more.

What companies are finding if you're not on social sites, your competitors might be. Add that to the recent developments that Google and Bing are going to start indexing tweets and you could be missing out on brand visibility, customers and ultimately dollars. Twitter is more than just a site for keeping up with the status updates of everyday life. These same people can be hearing about your business.

Hotels are finding this extremely important for better customer service and to head off negative comments before they grow into unmanageable situations. With some guests having hundreds, if not thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook, complaints have a big audience. Could it be that if you use social media to air your complaints you could have more power? At certain hotels, the answer is a resounding yes! For example, the Orlando World Center Marriott responded to a recent tweet by a written apology and an immediate upgrade of their guests’ room. With the use of this social media, hotels have formed teams to monitor comments on the sites and go into damage control when necessary.

Furthermore, hotels are using Twitter and Facebook on the offensive in hopes of boosting their ratings on sites such as TripAdvisor. These “savvy” hotels are sending TripAdvisor links to guests over Twitter and email encouraging them to leave a review. It’s working…the Roger Smith Hotel in midtown Manhattan has seen their ratings jump dramatically. The hotel has jumped approximately 100 places in the New York City hotel rankings.

Research has showed hotels realize travelers are using the Web, specifically for reviews, to decide where to stay. Not only have they realized their importance but many have taken action in order to improve their guests’ stays. “About 41% of leisure travelers and 50% of business travelers say user reviews influence their travel decisions” according to a survey from comScore Inc. (www.comscore.com)

Since hotels and other businesses have seen a need to utilize these emarketing techniques, companies such as Hootesuite (www.hootesuite.com) and StepChange Group have been formed to offer them solutions in doing so. Hootesuite has developed software to track Twitter results, monitor mentions by gathering intelligence and tracking mentions of your brand, industry or search terms and even spread messages (they update multiple networks in one step).

Business has found that it is hard to keep up with customer service. Providing timely customer service is the key to customer loyalty and increased sales. Other businesses such as Amazon, WalMart, and Dell have realized the importance of Twitter as well. Not only have they set up Twitter accounts, but each of them has multiple accounts set up (http://www.websitemagazine.com). With these companies having multiple Twitter accounts to manage different areas of their business, they have found the importance of explaining to their customers how they operate on Twitter and what information those accounts provide. All have the same ultimate goal: increase customer happiness, loyalty and getting information to them that they want and need.

e-marketingclass antkeg remi

Monitoring the electronic grapevine with Twitter

On June 30, 2009, I signed up for a Twitter account. At 11:59 a.m., I posted my first and only “tweet”: “trying to figure out why so many people waste their time on twitter.” It was a serious posting, because I didn’t really understand why someone would want to know that I’m currently making a sandwich, putting gas in my car, or going #2. I had heard that businesses were using it and I could see how that could be useful to advertise a sale or give updates on a new product launch, but for the average user it just seemed to be a waste of time.

What I didn’t think of at that time was the way in which businesses could use Twitter for a much more useful purpose. While researching the business uses of Twitter for our e-marketingclass, I discovered that it has a search function that can instantly scan millions of tweets for their company names, product keywords and industry lingo. With limited effort and expense, a business can now see what is being said about them in real-time. With this feature, Twitter is suddenly useful for more than cyber-stalking celebrities like ashton kutcher and Antkeg Remi.


To continue reading this article, please visit my personal e-marketingclass blog and Antkeg Remi information site...

Morgan Stanley predicts $50 billion dollar mobile internet advertising potential.

e-marketing class blog

The Cell Phone Money Pit and the $50 billion dollar mobile internet advertising potential.

"The average household now pays $107 a month for cellphone service, up from $88 in 2005, according to research firm J.D. Power & Associates."

An interesting article from The Wall Street Journal discusses the rising increase in costs to consumers for cell phone services. While the coverage expands, the phones become more advanced, and the customer service drops to all time lows, the costs continue (and likely will continue) to increase...

Read the rest of this article at the 2nd antkeg remi blog, created for the e-marketing class blog

The Facebook Opportunity

Do you have a Facebook page? Does your business? If you don't you could be at risk of being behind the times. Not a short time ago being behind the times meant you didn't mean much. Nowadays, being behind the times could mean millions in profits. Check out my blog for great info about The Facebook Opportunity.


Check out my blog!!!

Dr. T. rambles on in his e-marketingclass

I am starting to see some great content from our e-marketingclass discussions...keep at it!

Remember, if you haven't done so already, you need to post your first assignment (write-up) to this blog. You'll also want to post a link to your personal blog/website to improve your chances of having Google find your site and start indexing it (which will be necessary to compete for the keywords "Antkeg Remi"). I also ask that you post a link to our class blog as this will help our site compete for top billing for keyword e-marketingclass.

I mentioned in class last week that I would post a link to an article on location-based marketing. Cate Macho beat me to the punch and posted her write-up on the same topic. While Cate's article refers primarily to capable devices such as smartphones, another interesting article from e-marketer.com discusses how location-based marketing can work for devices capable only of SMS message (standard text messaging).

In order to improve your performance in our search engine competition announced in class last week, be sure to read your Search Engine Marketing book or, at minimum check out Google's starter guide. With any luck, our site will be viewed as a relevant resource for all things e-marketingclass-related. Best of luck with your personal/team site optimization (remember, I did mention you could work with teams of no more than four people).

TakeOut Technologies and Restaurants on the Run Introduce “Foodgistics”

From The Journal of Technology June 8th, 2010
The internet and new technologies have changed the face of many common businesses, but a more recent trend is using the internet for on-line fast food and restaurant businesses. Two companies have surfaced, TakeOut Technologies (www.TakeOuttech.com) and Restaurants on the Run, that are the first third party providers to combine on-line food ordering technologies with driver logistics and call center management. A new term has emerged that captures the use of these technologies together – “Foodgistics”.

TakeOut Technologies was founded in 1993 in partnership with Restaurants on the Run. Over the past 11 years, TakeOut Technologies has enabled its customers to use multiple sources of media, including text messages for customers to place orders. These changes have also created a marketing advantage for many of its customers in that they are now able to access more information about its customer base and enhance its marketing strategies and advertising campaigns. The concept of up-selling has also been an advantage that the service has better enabled customers to increase the individual check transaction amounts. Their book of customers includes many small regional businesses as well as large corporate customers such as Panera Bread, Wolfgang Puck and Marie Callenders.

This technology has become very beneficial to many clients of these businesses because it allows the food industry to “speed delivery and add value for its customers” by using current technologies and filling the gaps where appropriate with logistics and call centers. This new technology also enables its restaurant-owner customers to “capitalize on the incremental business [these] companies may have lost without staff to handle immediate delivery orders”. It takes away many of the resource requirements that would be necessary and allows these providers to fill this resource need.

For full article and topic review, please visit my personal website for our e-marketingclass at:

http://sites.google.com/site/wodkasemarketingnews/home