Bragging Rights on Four Awards from the San Diego Press Club

Time for a little bragging! Last night was the San Diego Press Club's 37th Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards--or J-Awards. It was a great enough evening seeing a wonderful turnout, despite the rain, and having all the guests enjoy the bounty of 15 restaurants and four local purveyors that I recruited and organized. But, I also took home some awards: First and second place for stories I wrote for the now late SDNN ("The Delights of Air-Chilled Chicken" and "California Modern is Chez Trez"), first place for a magazine feature for Edible San Diego ("Catch of the Day: The Confounding Nature of Sustainable Seafood"), and first place for a post I wrote for San Diego Foodstuff ("Knight Salumi: The Best Cure for Meat").

It's truly a thrill to get a little recognition from my peers for work I love doing.

Being "of" the Web

I just came across a very telling speech delivered to the Wharton School of Business's "Future of Publishing" conference by Martin Nisenholtz, the New York Times's senior VP for digital operations. Obviously, Nisenholtz's talk is directed at the publishing industry and the many challenges its facing as readers transition from paper to online. But what he's recognized is relevant across the board for all industries and organizations seeking success in digital media. Here are just some of the most salient points. You can read the entire speech on paidcontent.org.

1. There's a need for engagement across the web. It's the emotional connection that is essential and that transcends technology.

2. There are four "shifts" taking place among users today, as described by Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg:

The shift from anonymity to real identity.

The shift from pull to push.

The shift from temporal to permanent connections.

The shift was the "what" to the "who."

Identify, says Nisenholtz, is the fundamental building block for engagement, and he thinks that's been proven by Facebook.

3. We must transform being being on the web to being of the web. It's not about broadcasting; it's about knowledge sharing and building emotional connections.  That, again, goes back to identity.

4. The new information ecology means "The boundaries of your resources (read "site") become liquid, public, shared." He quotes David Reed on startup Betaworks' About page and believes that this captures the fundamental change of increasing engagement -- "like holding water in your hands." It's still to be figured out how information can be adapted to meet this essential truth of digital media, but it's what Nisenholtz believes is a critical element of engagement.

Read the speech and read it again. These are huge challenges that The New York Times and all publishers face, especially when it comes to monetizing what we've come to accept as our free lunch. But, this is also hugely relevant to marketers who are attempting to capture the attention of the masses for their brands, no matter the industry. Seeing social media platforms as yet another broadcast opportunity is a hugely mistaken mindset. It's time to be "of" the web once and for all.

Fueling Your Facebook Fan Page

Have a Facebook account? How many times a week do you get requests to become a fan of a business or organization? If you do agree, how often to you pay attention to their updates or even visit the page?

It's something to consider when you launch your own fan page. Are you doing it because it's now de rigeur, because you have to? Or do you truly have something interesting and useful to share with your fans -- whom I gather you're trying to convert into customers or clients?

Before you launch your fan page you should have a clear plan of how you're going to operate it. How frequently will you update it and with what? How are you going to create community? How will you keep visitors engaged? How will you amuse or entertain them, teach them, be a trusted resource for them?

Here are some suggestions for ways to continually fuel your Facebook page. And, if you have ideas you'd like to share, please leave a comment below.

  • Run your Twitter feed into your fan page.
  • Hold relevant and fun contests with giveaways of products.
  • Do you have a blog? Feed that content into your fan page.
  • Offer relevant tips of the week with visuals if possible.
  • Post videos -- these could be short tours of model homes, tours of the homes of happy new home buyers, interviews with your restaurant's chef or a quick recipe demo, demos of how to use a product.
  • Post photos of happy customers with your product with a Q&A about their experience.
  • Post links to relevant YouTube videos your fans would enjoy.
  • Pick a Facebook fan of the week to highlight. (Think viral marketing potential as fans let their friends and family know they're being spotlighted.)

Remember, just having a fan page doesn't mean anything. If you don't keep it updated with interesting content you won't get visitors and it could have the opposite effect of your intent.

Four Awards From San Diego Press Club

Last night's San Diego Press Club Journalism Awards has been on my mind for months now. I was on the organizing committee, tasked with rounding up restaurants for our dinner at the Hall of Champions. I hadn't thought much about actually winning any awards, although I had certainly sent in entries and learned that I'd won something. Getting 20 restaurants settled into their booths and serving our 370 attendees was higher on my list of priorities. So, I was thrilled to learn that I hadn't just won something. I'd won four awards for my food writing. I got two third-place awards: one for a story on the City Heights Farmers Market for Edible San Diego and the other for a piece on jam making for the San Diego Union-Tribune. I received a second place award for another Edible San Diego story--this one on the avocado industry in San Diego County.  And, my plaque for first prize was awarded for a piece on The Sausage King for San Diego Uptown News.

It's been a long time since I'd entered a journalism contest so this was a real thrill. And, the evening went beautifully, with kudos to all the chefs who fed us so well!

Creating Social Media Policy or Shutting Down Engagement?

Recently, the Washington Post issued social media guidelines to its staff and they've caused some controversy, thanks to the long list of "can't do's" that some see as stymying the kind of conversation in which journalists need to be engaged. It's not just media companies that are looking at how to manage the Tower of Babel some feel social media has wrought upon their businesses. Organizations of all kinds seem to be of two minds about the nitty gritty of public engagement, and feel they need to draw the line somewhere. So, we're beginning to see a surge of policy development around how employees can interact online and how organizations engage with the outside world on platforms like Twitter.

Personally, I don't have a problem with this if the resulting policy encourages creative engagement but ensures that the business is protected, that employees use good sense and everyone behaves with mutual respect. A website that's currently circulating is Social Media Governance, which has a database of over 100 social media policies from organizations ranging from municipalities to health care organizations, from the U.S. Navy and Air Force to tech companies to museums. This database is growing and is instructive for organizations considering implementing their own social media policies.

I was surprised to find I liked Wal-Mart's brief and direct approach to Twitter. They recognize that many of their associates may have their own Twitter accounts but identify the official Wal-Mart accounts. The best line is this: "We won’t reply to off topic @replies. Personal attacks and foul language = FAIL. Adding to the discussion = WIN." Do you really need more than that to let people know your philosophy?

But what about internal policies? I like the approach Shift Communications takes with their employees and contractors. Again, it's simple and to the point: Be respectful, be transparent, be diplomatic, have the facts, stick to your area of expertise.  Even the State of Delaware, for all its governmental, bureaucratic jargon and formatting, has it right. They reiterate their ethical stance, the need to be transparent, and, of course, that they must protect confidentiality within the system. They also go one step further and commit to correcting information later found to be in error.

Compare these to Sentara's Social Media Policy. Here's one where the lawyers were clearly let loose. If any spelled-out policy were to have a chilling effect, this would be it. Yes, they're a health-care organization but here we have so much dense legalese, the glazed over eyes have no way to take in anything other than "keep out!" "You must adhere," You are prohibited," "You will not violate..." My favorite? "Sentara/OptimaHealth reserves the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete, or discontinue your access to any Sentara/OptimaHealth Social Media Site, at any time, without notice and for any reason and in its sole discretion." Clearly, someone doesn't quite get the spirit of social media. And it just gets worse.

So, to those managers who feel compelled to develop a clear social media policy for employees and outside participants on their sites, go forth. Be clear that employees must not compromise protected information, that they must be transparent, respectful, and courteous, and talk only about what they know (having to do with the organization). That they must follow basic stated organizational guidelines already a part of your culture. If you open up a blog or other social media on your site to the public, you should state your position as well. People should respect the rules when they're in your home. But, be judicious and try to avoid a defensive heavy hand. You're trying to encourage engagement and idea sharing, not send people running.