Isn't Media Supposed to Be For the People?

I've been working with the media in one way shape or form for most of my life.  Whether it's been as a journalist or someone sending in the press releases and holding the press conferences.  I've worked for the new media (online) and the old media (paper) and never have I seen an organization move into a community with so much hostility.

Now before I get too far into this let me first say that I'm not one to hold a grudge and it doesn't take much to get my feathers ruffled but the actions of a new media source that moved into my community over the past year and change is really starting to get under my skin.

For those that don't know I make my home with my family in the Thousand Islands Region of Ontario.  The heart of this region is Brockville and we are lucky enough to have several great media companies covering the region.  The most senior, of course, is the Brockville Recorder and Times followed by the EMC St. Lawrence both of which are, for the most part, old media.  Just over 5 years ago now a new media source came to town in BNTV/Brocknews.  BNTV/Brocknews is a web-based newspaper and television news source. About a year ago SNAP Brockville came to town with it's paper and website that feature only the good news in the area, something that in a region struggling with unemployment and going through an identity crisis as it's manufacturing industry slowly shuts down, is a welcome change.  Around the same time another new comer came to town, KnowBrockville.  KB brought it's own magazine and website to the table which offered yet another point of view as well as some excellent columns and contests for it's readers.  

Now as someone who is very involved in the community and sits on numerous community groups I know that there is no such thing as too much media.  Each source has it's own following and each can bring it's own perks to the table when it comes to promoting community events etc...

I'm not going to name names but one of the above has decided that there is no room for the others and will stop at nothing to eliminate the competition.  Even to the point that they have started to block anyone from their Facebook page who has any ties to the others.  

Long before I moved to this area I took part in the weekly #followfriday ritual on Twitter, several months ago one of the local new media companies started their own Follow Friday on Facebook, giving their followers a chance to share their businesses etc...(on a side note this isn't a new practice, it's something that has been going on on Facebook in the social media circles for quite some time, giving page admins a chance to share their latest client's pages with others).  The Follow Friday idea, regardless of who thought of it, was brilliant.  Naturally the idea gained steam and others (including other media) quickly started to follow suit.  As the social media admin for the Athens District Chamber of Commerce I also started running the Follow Friday program to give our members a chance to showcase their Facebook pages.  To be honest I don't even know for certain which page had the Follow Friday first but honestly WHO CARES!!!  There is so much hostility everywhere else in this world is it really worth squabbling over who did the Follow Friday thing first?  

Interestingly enough is that I don't even know how I ended up as a casualty of this media war.  Sure one of the new media has published a blog or two of mine, but I'm not employed or even directly affiliated with them. My blog is also published in the Ottawa Citizen, I'm also not employed or affiliated with them.  The only reason the local group publishes my blog is because they asked me if they could. I'm assuming it's because of that affiliation that I'm now too blocked from their Facebook page.  To me this means I can't promote Facebook pages on the page not to mention that many are potential advertising clients to this organization.  The whole thing just doesn't make sense to me, I'm new to the area have been open to working with anybody or any organization that is interested in working with me.  I currently represent numerous local businesses and organizations that look to me for advice on where to spend their online advertising dollars.  How can I justly advise them to spend their money with an organization that has hostile intentions towards other businesses?  I simply can't.

So to the organization in question, if you are reading this I ask you to think about your actions.  You are a media source and would like to be reputable.  I can't speak for anyone but myself and I know that my actions have never warranted being blocked from your Facebook page.  Simply because I promote my clients on Friday's, something that you encourage others to do, or because I have a blog that is featured in another publication?  Seriously?  Are we in Kindergarten now?  Imagine how powerful the local media could be if you all worked together and stopped the hostility?  This region needs strong media to showcase the good bring people into the area. There are enough advertising dollars to go around.  Each of you has a place in Brockville or Leeds and Grenville.  As I mentioned earlier I will not mention any names, if you know who I'm talking about great feel free to discuss it with them but please keep the name to yourself, they know who they are.  If you are affiliated with this organization please feel free to drop me a line and we can discuss exactly what I have done to deserve this blacklisting.

What's the Buzz about Google+?

So after a week of playing with it it’s time for me to weigh in on Google+.   So far the entire buzz around this new social network has been positive so I was excited when I got my first invite and jumped in with both feet.

As a social media specialist I look at Google+ from two primary angles.  #1 what is going to draw the users from existing platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to Google+? And #2 how can I make it work for my business customers?

So let’s start with #1.  Google+ or G+ whatever you want to call it comes with a typical colorful Googleesque interface.  It runs very smooth from section to section which I definitely prefer over bulky networks like Facebook and Twitter which have been known for lag and even downtime.  But I have to remind myself that Google+ is still very new and has a fraction of the users that Facebook and Twitter have.  So what’s going to drive users to Google+?  Well at first it’s going to be curiosity because it’s something new and different.  Second many who have become frustrated with Facebook over the last few years, mainly due to bad hype and misinformation, will be looking for a new social home.  So let me give a quick overview of how Google+ compares to Facebook and Twitter.

Firstly in Google+ there is no such thing as a friend request.  Google+ lets you arrange your contacts in groups called circles.  So when you find someone you want to follow you simply add them to one of your circles and their posts appear in your primary feed, or if you would rather you can simply select a specific circle and only follow that one (not sure why you would want to follow someone and then not read their posts but that’s another blog entirely).  These circles are very popular and getting a lot of buzz but are they really new?  Quite simply the answer is no.  The behave exactly like Facebook friend lists (many people don’t know that you can organize your Facebook friends into lists and when posting you can also chose which lists you want to share with and which you don’t).  You can add people to multiple lists and, again, like Facebook the users don’t know which lists you have added them to.  Twitter also has lists, these aren’t as private (unless you chose to make them private, meaning only you can see who is in the list).  With the public Twitter lists, people can follow them (I’m still not 100% sure what this does as I don’t believe it adds the posts from those users to your newsfeed so it’s handy if you want to follow a specific topic), however unlike Google+ and Facebook you can not filter your tweets by your twitter lists.

Google+ lets you create Hangouts, basically they are multi-user chat rooms that you can do video chat in.  I haven’t tested this out yet, mainly because I have little to no interest in video chat.  So in comparison to Facebook and Twitter, well Twitter you can’t do video chat and multiuser chat is not impossible but not private as all tweets are broadcast to your followers.  Facebook just rolled out its video chat last week through it’s partnership with Skype.  I figure with Skype on Facebook’s side Google will always be a step behind when it comes to the video chat.

Now let’s talk mobile.  I very rarely still user Facebook and Twitter on their actual websites, instead I browse via their respective apps on my Blackberry Bold 9000 or my iPod Touch 3.  Both Facebook and Twitter have fantastic apps for both platforms.  Yesterday to much hype Google rolled out the iPhone app for Google+.   First chance I got I went into the iTunes App Store on my iTouch only to come up empty-handed.  Further research showed that the app is only available for iOS 4+ platform, which I’m running so I’m guessing it’s just not available in Canada yet.  As for Blackberry there is talk of an app in the works for the 6.0 OS eventually, which of course my Bold 9000 doesn’t run.  The good news is that if you are an Android user you can expect to use Google+ with full functionality.  If you run Windows Mobile or Nokia Symbian there’s no word of an app anytime soon for you.

Ok so there’s no app there must be a mobile site right?  Well yes but because of the advanced functionality of Google+ (mainly the look of it) as of right now you will only be able to access the mobile site on Android (1.5+), iPhone/Touch/Pad iOS 3.0+, Blackberry 6.0, Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian.  The latter three phones only support the basic XHTML site, my phone runs BBOS 5.0 so I haven’t been able to test it out yet to see how it compares to the Safari version.

So in summary, and keep in mind Google+ is very new and much can (and likely will) change, much of the hype since Google+ was launched was that it could be the deathblow for Facebook.  In my honest opinion, based only on what I have seen so far, I have to disagree.  So far Google+ to me is simply a bloated version of Twitter with Facebook like functionality but lacks much of the depth that Facebook has.  Until Google releases it’s business platform for Google+ I can’t comment on it but until then I can assure you I’ll keep tinkering with it and testing out new features as they come about.

What are your thoughts?

I should mention that this post was actually inspired by the post: Why I Keep Forgetting About Google+ by Marissa Gagnier