The past decade has seen a radical climate change in the publication industry. The emergence of social networking sites, blogs and microblogs have changed the way news and information are disseminated. It gets deeper and greater than that however. People nowadays rely less on publications that offer news and information they require on a daily basis. The introduction of microblogging services like Twitter made it possible for everyone to get news and information directly from the source itself. It did not take long for the publication world to realize the direction this new public reliance on the internet will take them and the whole world into. News corporations and magazine publishers embraced the functionality of social networking tools and this resulted in the presence of these companies and their publications on Facebook and Twitter primarily.
This does not however mean that publishers have taken a drastic move by focusing solely on the information technology platform and completely abandoning the print publishing world. Seeing it as more of a promotional tool rather than a doom spell for print publication, publishers are actively utilizing social networking sites to further push their product to the masses and keeping the whole process fresh and innovative. Julie Hochheiser, the senior web editor for the Hearst Teen Network, which includes Seventeen magzine's online content will gladly testify to the power of social media. The clever use of Twitter has driven 170 paid subscribers to subscribe to Seventeen magazine in just 24 hours. (Sivek, 2010)
Source. PBS.org, 2010
The key in building a good product relies importantly on the audiences feedback. And this is exactly what Sunset magazine is doing with Facebook according to its editor-in-chief, Katie Tamony.
"We have 11,500 fans (on Facebook), so we can come to them not just with content, but also with some marketing ideas."
This small group of generally younger readers and fans posts about 500 "interactions" weekly to Sunset's fan page, and offers real-time feedback to questions and offers presented by the staff (Sivek 2010). Tamony further adds that since Sunset is all about enjoying life and pleasurable things, using social media is like having an event or a party going on all the time.
These are just a couple of examples of how social networking tools can be used to not only promote content, but to also generate real-time feedback from their respective audiences. In the competitive world of publication today, constant innovations from publishers are vital to ensure that they stay on top of their game.
References:
1. Sivek, S. C., (2010), How Magazines Use Social Media to Boost Pass-Along, Build voice, online, retrieved 10 June 2010, from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/03/how-magazines-use-social-media-to-boost-pass-along-build-voice075.html
2. Seventeen Magazine Twitter Update (2010), online, retrieved 10 June 2010, from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/17%20tweet%20with%20pic.jpg
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