LSQHA Blog Reviews

There are six different events on the calendar this week that are offering you, yes you dear ReadWriteWeb reader, a discount. Social media, music, cloud - six different conferences giving you another enticing reason to get up from behind your desk and do some real-world learning and networking. How do you like your events calendar? As a world map ? As an iCal (and Google Calendar-importable) file? You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us . Sponsor March 29, 2010: Portland, Oregon Social Fresh Portland The social media conference for marketers, Social Fresh is not about concept, but focused purely on case studies from the front lines. Learn what social media can really do for business bottom lines. Over the course of the day, you'll hear from 35 speakers from companies like Intel, Ford, Comcast, Nike and many more, as well as keynote Peter Shankman. Register now and use coupon code RWW15 for 15% off. April 2010 Positioning Roundtable During this weekly 60-minute online session, entrepreneurs are invited to pitch Sramana Mitra - entrepreneur, strategy consultant, Forbes columnist and author of Entrepreneur Journeys - their business ideas in a three-minute presentation. She will review the material in real time and provide feedback on each pitch, as well as address specific positioning questions from the entrepreneur. Afterwards, she will take questions about positioning from other participants. Sessions is open to 1,000 people to attend, but only the first five who sign up to pitch Sramana will have the opportunity to discuss their businesses. Register for roundtables on April 1 , 8 , 15 , 22 and 29 . 4 April 2010: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ConnectNow TEDx CMU is an independently organized TEDx event that will be held on April 4th, 2010 at Carnegie Mellon University and will feature a full day of talks by prominent speakers as well as recorded videos from past TEDTalks. Confirmed speakers include Jonathan Fields (author, blogger and entrepreneur), Stacey Monk (founder of Epic Change, a startup nonprofit), Chase Jarvis (photographer, director and social artist) and Nathan Martin (CEO of Deeplocal, an innovation studio in Pittsburgh). The theme of the event is "Fearless", and we are inviting speakers from cross-disciplinary backgrounds to talk about their experiences, and tell us a little about what inspires them to be fearless in the pursuit of goals. We hope to spark discussions and foster connections between participants, encouraging aspiring individuals to follow their dreams and make a difference. The event is free to attend, and the application deadline is March 21, 2010. For more information about the event, visit tedxcmu.com or email info@tedxcmu.com. You can also find TEDx CMU on Facebook or follow us on Twitter . 7 – 9 April 2010: Sydney, Australia ConnectNow ConnectNow brings together international specialists and thought leaders in social media, emerging technologies and their intersection with business. Learn how the realtime web, location based services, augmented reality, ubiquitous computing and personalised services are changing marketing and communications. Understand the importance of trust in relationship marketing and what is "social currency". For more info email info@connectnow.net.au . 13 – 15 April 2010: Dallas, Texas PubCon South PubCon , the premier search and social media conference, features the industry's biggest names and key players shaping the future of the Web. PubCon South will include cutting-edge panel sessions exploring tracks dedicated to search, social media and affiliate marketing, an intensive professional search and social media training program, and some of the world's top keynote speakers. PubCon South at Dallas will also hold a one-day, two-track slate of intensive educational training programs led by some of the industry's most respected search professionals. The event takes place at the Richardson Conference and Civic Center. Register here . 16 April 2010: Mountain View, California Under the Radar: Cloud Under the Radar: Cloud is must-attend event for dealmakers and heads of IT from large enterprises, SMBs, service providers, carriers and media companies who are responsible for helping their companies leverage new technology and innovation in the fast-evolving IT ecosystem. Join us for the 15th Under the Radar conference, featuring a hand-picked selection of the world's most innovative cloud startups among 350 top tech, media, telcom and finance executives. For ticket and more information, visit http://undertheradarblog.com . 16 – 17 April 2010: Royal Oak, Michigan FutureMidwest FutureMidwest is the region's largest technology and knowledge conference. Founded by Adrian Pittman, Jordan Wolfe and Zach Lipson, FutureMidwest is the fusion of two successful conferences held in Michigan in 2009 - the Module Midwest Digital Conference and TechNow. Both conferences highlighted how technology and digital tools have dramatically changed the way we do business and the effect this transition has had on companies. FutureMidwest kicks things up a notch with presentations, group breakout sessions, relationship-building opportunities and influencers who are taking action to redefine business in the digital age. Register here . 17 April 2010: New York City Seven on Seven Seven on Seven will pair seven leading artists with seven game-changing technologists in teams of two, and challenge them to develop something new - be it an application, social media, artwork, product, or whatever they imagine - over the course of a single day. The seven teams will unveil their ideas at a one-day event at the New Museum on April 17. Seven on Seven Participants include, on the technology side, Ayah Bdeir (artist and programmer), Jeff Hammerbacher (Accel Ventures/ Facebook), David Karp (founder of Tumblr), Andrew Kortina (of Bitly/ Venmo), Hilary Mason (of betaworks), Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress), and Joshua Schachter (currently at Google, formerly at Yahoo, and founder of delicious), and on the art side, Tauba Auerbach, Cao Fei, Aaron Koblin, Monica Narula, Marc Andre Robinson, Evan Roth and Ryan Trecartin. Conference attendance includes a half-day session where the seven teams will unveil their ideas, followed by a cocktail reception in the New Museum Skyroom. Find registration information here . April 19, 2010: St. Louis Missouri Social Fresh St. Louis The social media conference for marketers, Social Fresh is not about concept, but focused purely on case studies from the front lines. Learn what social media can really do for business bottom lines. Over the course of the day you'll hear from 35 speakers from companies like Ford, Best Buy, Scottrade, Hardees, CMT and many more. Register now and use coupon code RWW15 for 15% off. 19 – 21 April 2010: San Francisco, California DrupalCon DrupalCon is the premier conference focused on Drupal, the award-winning open source content management framework that is galvanizing social publishing and web development today. For a registration fee of $195, attendees get three full days of sessions led by the best and brightest Drupal experts. Drupal has been downloaded over 2 million times since its inception, and project growth has doubled annually for several years. Drupal is used to deliver a wide variety of application types including blogs, wikis, community networks, digital media portals, and web content publishing and management. 26 April 2010: San Francisco, California Future of Money and Technology Summit The Future of Money & Technology Summit will bring together the best and brightest thinkers around money, including visionaries, entrepreneurial business people, developers, press, investors, authors, solution/service providers, and organizations who work where cash and commerce collide. We meet to discuss the evolving ecosystem around money in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment. Featured speakers include Jolie O'Dell, formerly of ReadWriteWeb, as well as representatives from Wells Fargo Bank, Kiva, SharesPost, Jambool, Founders Fund, Outright.com, SoftTech VC, and many more. Use discount code "rww" to get 10% off registration . 7 May 2010: Mountain View, California ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010 Hurry, register now and save $100. Early bird pricing ends March 31! The ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010 will be an exploration of the latest Mobile development trends - both the technology and the emerging business applications. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of Mobile with the brightest in the industry, your peers! As in our last Summit, The Real-Time Web, the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit is an unconference. An unconference is a participant driven conference where the agenda is created on the day, in real-time and discussions are lead by conference participants. Read about the history of unconferences . We will have two main tracks at this Summit - Development and Business - so the Summit will be of interest to managers, marketers, developers, innovators, entrepreneurs and thought leaders alike. Here's a sample of some of the topics we'll explore in both of these tracks. Geo-location services - what can you do using location as a platform ? Commerce & Marketing - as more and more consumers use smartphones, how can businesses utilize this channel? Content, Publishing & Recommendations - the technologies and best practices. Mobile Social Networking - how to tap into communities on mobile devices. Internet of Things - the emerging opportunities from sensor and RFID data. Augmented Reality - the technology and business applications of AR. Native App vs. Browser Based - Including iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian. Click here to register now , or to become a sponsor , or to help shape the conference . 11 May 2010: San Francisco, California FinovateSpring FinovateSpring 2010 will again showcase the most cutting-edge financial and banking technology innovations to Silicon Valley and the world. With Finovate's signature mix of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) from handpicked companies and intimate networking time with their executives, this conference packs a ton of unique value into a single day. Come see the cutting edge of banking and financial technology and network with hundreds of the leading financial executives, venture capitalists, press, industry analysts, bloggers and fintech entrepreneurs. Early bird registration rates are available. May 17 2010: San Francisco, California SF MusicTech Summit The SF MusicTech Summit will bring together 700-plus visionaries in the music/technology space - the best and brightest entrepreneurs, developers, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music, business and technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive-to-dealmaking environment. Enter the discount code "rww" to get 10% off . 25 – 27 May 2010: Denver, Colorado Glue Glue is the only conference devoted solely to exploring the problem-sets facing architects, developers and IT professionals in a "post-cloud" world. Glue focuses on the APIs and protocols (Twitter, Facebook, Websockets, PubSubHubBub, XMPP), formats and standards (RDF/Linked Data, JSON, Microformats, HTML5), platforms and providers (Amazon, Rackspace, Google App Engine, Salesforce.com, Eucalyptus), Identity Protocols (OAuth/WRAP, SAML, OpenID, SPML) emerging NoSQL data models (Cassandra, CouchDB, MongoDB, Riak, HBase), and other mechanisms that are building the post-cloud world. ReadWriteCloud will be blogging live from Gluecon and CloudCamp, and ReadWriteWeb's Alex Williams will be moderating the "Managing Complexity in the Cloud" session. Please join us May 25-27 in Denver, Colorado. ReadWriteWeb readers can receive 10% off of registration by using the code "RWW12". 27 – 28 May 2010: Beijing, China Global Mobile Internet Conference The Global Mobile Internet Conference is designed specifically for entrepreneurs, executives and influencers to understand and capitalize on the growing opportunities in mobile internet. Though focused on opportunities in Asia, much of the conference dialogue is intended to compare and trade best practices across borders, especially between the East and West. Around 1000 industry leaders from Asia, Europe and North America are expected to attend. The conference will be in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. 28 May 2010: Beijing, China Global Mobile Internet Conference - Innovation Show & Startup Competition The Global Mobile Internet Conference Innovation Show intends to be a launch pad for innovative mobile internet startups from around the world. Innovation Show finalists will have the opportunity to present their company to an expected 1,000 investors, industry leaders, and press. Finalists will be judged by and receive feedback from a team of respected venture capitalists and angel investors. The judges will choose one company as the GMIC Innovation Show Winner. Startups must apply by April 4. 15 – 16 June 2010: New York City Corporate Social Media Summit The Corporate Social Media Summit is a two day conference focused exclusively on how big businesses can take advantage of social media to enhance their marketing/comms strategy. Featuring: Practical and relevant insights from peers who have already used social media successfully 20-plus corporate speakers (including PepsiCo, Whole Foods, Dell, McDonald's, General Motors, Citi, Johnson & Johnson), Best practice, benchmarks and practical next steps you can use to take advantage of social media in your business A tightly-focused agenda with 14 in-depth, practical workshops giving you knowledge on only the most critical business issues surrounding corporate use of social media Save $400 if you quote RWW400 when booking. Book here . 29 – 30 June 2010: London Cloud Computing World Forum The 2nd annual Cloud Computing World Forum is the perfect event to learn and discuss the development, integration, adoption and future of cloud computing and SaaS. Building on the success of the 2009 show, this two day conference and free-to-attend exhibition will provide a focused platform for the global cloud and SaaS industry. Show highlights include: Co-located with CloudCamp London Co-located with Green IT conference Free-to-attend exhibition with seminar and scenario theatre Free-to-attend evening awards presentation Hear from leading case studies on how they have integrated cloud computing and SaaS into their working practices Learn from the key players offering cloud and SaaS services Evening networking party for all attendees 5 October 2010: New York City FinovateFall FinovateFall will return to Manhattan on Tuesday, October 5 to showcase dozens of the biggest and most innovative new ideas in financial and banking technology from established leaders and hot young companies. The Fall event is the original and largest Finovate and features a single day packed with our special blend of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) and intimate networking time with top executives from the innovative demoing companies. FinovateFall is a unique chance to see the future of finance and banking before your competition and find the edge you need in today's market. Early bird registration rates are available. Download this entire events calendar in iCal format. Discuss

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ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 27 March 2010

It’s only been one month since my last “on the move” and the submissions are increasing in quantity.  There appears to be either a trend of a lot of job movement right now, or the notoriety of the on the move series is increasing.  I’m going to guess it’s a lot of the former and a little of the latter. In an effort to recognize the changes in the social media space, I’ve started this post series ( see archives ) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks: Also, my submission form has changed to a new URL, the former Google form was giving me problems, so please use this one going forward . First of all, big shout out to BazaarVoice for their focus on human , here’s how they describe their onboarding process. Booong. Long time friend Karl Long joins Netbase as director of Social Strategy and Design. He hails from Nokia, and is fanatical about cool tshirts. Ryan Kruder is now VP of Marketing for Biz360 , a social media monitoring and analytics company. Biz360 helps companies track who is saying what about their brand online and provides rich reporting to help make sense of the data. Laura Ramos, former colleague and analyst on the Groundswell team at Forrester now joins Xerox as VP of Industry Marketing , congrats Laura, best wishes. Andy Shaindlin hangs out his own shingle and will be consulting on Ideas, Trends and New Directions in Higher Education, he leaves Cal-Tech. Dana Oshiro joins NetShelter as the Senior Social Media and Publishing Strategist , where she’ll continue to lead conversations, publish great content. She’ll continue to work with Read Write Start, and is one of the famed RWW journalists. James Poulter leaves Ogilvy PR London to join as Digital Director at Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster . Thomas Knoll joins Zappos as a community manage r, great way to continue to build community spirit. Jenny DeVaughn joins Bernard HODES Group as Director , Social Strategy Jenny joined the vast HODES digital team and provides clients with first-hand knowledge of best practices in social recruiting, sourcing and communications. Steve Goldner joins Hachette Filipacchi Media as Director, Social Media. With a focus on Increasing traffic and advocates for HFM brand sites via strong relationships with users. Dawn Foster join s Intel as Community Manager for MeeGo. She’ll be Intel’s community manager for the new MeeGo open source community. Lynne d Johnson joins Advertising Research Foundation , SVP Social Media guide members on how they can best utilize social media to gain insights and achieve their business objectives. Cosmin Ghiurau joins Samsung Mobile Strategic Manager Social Media & Emerging Technology. Cosmin will be setting strategy and overseeing Social Media initiatives from a Digital Marketing standpoint for all Samsung Mobile USA. Katy Beale joins Poke as a Strategis focused on social media and digital insights & strategies for global mobile technology brand David Nour founds The Nour Group , Inc. as a Managing Partner focused on Social Networking Strategist Gerardo Dada joins Bazaarvoic e as Sr. Director, Product Marketing, focused on Marketing Strategy, thought leadership, messaging Scott Levine joins myYearbook asSenior Vice President of Business Development. Levine will partner with virtual currency sites, application providers, and media companies to advance myYearbook’s vision of creating the best place to meet new people. Alyssa Gardina joins Razor as Social Media Strategist, she’ll be developing social media strategies for a variety of national clients. Scott Gulbransen joins Sony Online Entertainment as Sr. Director of Global Public Relations & Coprorate Communications, and will lead all aspects of global communications including social media duties for the communications group at SOE Calvin Wong has been promoted at appssavvy as Chief Operating Officer, he’ll be leader of operations at direct sales team for the social media space. Matt Ceniceros joins Applied Materials asDirector, Global Media Relations. He’ll develop and execute traditional and social media strategy across the company’s diversified line of businesses and product categories. Jason Abrahams joins FFWD Brands PR/Social Media Manager. Abrahams will play a role in strategy, message development and tactical execution of both traditional PR and social media for the agency’s key small business accounts. Jessica Paponetti joins FFWD Brands asBrand Manager. Paponetti will play a role in strategy, message development and tactical execution of both traditional PR and social media for the agency’s key small business accounts. Ed Lee join s Tribal DDB asDirector, Social Media. He will run the Radar DDB Toronto practice for Tribal DDB Stefano Maggi joins We Are Social , Italy as Managing Partner. He will manage the Italian We Are Social, with Gabriele Cucinella and Ottavio Nava. How to connect with others (or get a job): Several people have been hired because of this blog post series, here’s how you can too: Submit an announcement If you know folks that are moving up in the social media industry, submit to this form Seeking Social Media Professionals? If you’re seeking to connect with community advocates and community managers there are few resources This list, which started with just 8 names continues to grow as folks submit to it. List of Social Computing Strategists and Community Managers for Enterprise Corporations 2008 –Social Media Professionals . Job Resources in the Social Media and Web Industry Web Strategy Jobs powered by Job o Matic (Post a job there and be seen by these blog readers, these affiliate fees pay for my hosting) Read Write Web keeps announcements flowing at Jobwire , although is broader than just social media jobs Facebook group for community manager group in Facebook Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs SimplyHired aggregates job listings, as does Indeed ForumOne Jobs for Social Media and Community Teresa has a few jobs, some around community New Media hire has an extensive job database Social Media Headhunter Social media jobs Jobs in social media Altimeter Group’s list of social media consultants and agencies Social Media Strategists and Community Managers for 2010 Hiring? Leave a comment If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, please)

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People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: March 27, 2010

Lest we forget what is at stake with the situation involving Google and China, the Washington Post has published today a list of directions from the Chinese government sent out to all media outlets on how they are allowed to cover the incident. The rules are a stark reminder of why, no matter how long Google kowtowed to government demands there, the search engine's actions are important for the development of a free society. Obtained and translated by China Digital Times , the instructions specifically outline how traditional and new media may or may not approach the topic. Sponsor The instructions start out highlighting how important Google's actions are and how this importance is not to be emphasized to the public: Google has officially announced its withdrawal from the China market. This is a high-impact incident. It has triggered netizens' discussions which are not limited to a commercial level. Therefore please pay strict attention to the following content requirements during this period: The first instruction really says it all: "Only use Central Government main media (website) content; do not use content from other sources." The Chinese government wants to stay on top of forming the message about Google and its place in China, as we saw with stories this past week about Google colluding with U.S. spies and being an agent of the U.S. government, not an agent of free thought, speech or change. The instructions go on from there, directing media to use the government assigned title, refer only to government main media websites and control any and all discussion. The section on Internet media is particularly informative. B. Forums, blogs and other interactive media sections: 1. It is not permitted to hold discussions or investigations on the Google topic. 2. Interactive sections do not recommend this topic, do not place this topic and related comments at the top. 3. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which attack the Party, State, government agencies, Internet policies with the excuse of this event. 4. All websites please clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others have a different tune from government policy. 5. On topics related to Google, carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions. Not only are websites required to closely follow the governmental opinion on the subject, but they are to keep conversation in check. No "conversations" or "investigations" are to be held and all related content is not to be placed in a prominent position. In case you're wondering through all of this what the Chinese government's take on Google is, exactly, it's that " Google Is Not God ". And according to these instructions, this sentiment is something that needs to be repeated by all Chinese media alike. And you thought U.S. media could be a mouthpiece for corporate and governmental interests. Discuss

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China To Media: Toe the Government Line on Google

Last week, a video of online magazine VIVmag's iPad app made the rounds on the web. Featured in The New York Times as a taste of digital reading's future, this extraordinary, interactive video-infused 'zine was beautiful to watch, but left many others questioning if the expense of creating tablet-ready content like this was actually feasible. For some, that answer - surprisingly - may be yes. According to Jeanniey Mullen, CMO of the magazine's distributor, Zinio , the cost was not as expensive as you may think - it was "not even $100,000," she said. But $100 grand to create one copy of an online magazine? That's far beyond the reach of many micro-publishers. And yet, for them too, the iPad introduces the possibility of reaching a wider audience than ever before. Sponsor According to the Times article, the VIVmag iPad version will continue to feature interactive content and video in every issue. For them, it's less of a problem to do so than it would be for other publishers. Although the costs of hiring models, filming against a greenscreen and editing video may seem exorbitant, VIVmag was already an "all digital" magazine from the start. Creating their digital content costs approximately the same as creating a normal print magazine - they just employ different people to do the digital version of the analog jobs. Much of the magazine is templated, too, allowing the company to reuse the same basic structures to display new content in later issues. VIVmag received the most press - unless you count Wired's so-called "iPad app," that is. But Wired's app isn't iPad-ready just yet. Built with Adobe AIR technology, the app won't run on the iPad in its current state due to Apple's policies. While both of these high-end creations demonstrate the potential for all-digital magazines on the new form factor of the tablet PC, incredible tablet-based magazines like these won't be limited only to publishers with big budgets. Magazine with Music Downloads and More Take, for example, Digital America, an interactive literary and culture magazine made especially for the tablet experience. Like VIVmag, Digital America will also mix in video with their other content. In fact, they'll offer articles, graphics, videos and music plus extra, downloadable content included in the per issue price. Part of the magazine's content lineup for their first issue will include exclusive author interviews, a featured musician with playable music tracks, a filmmaker interview and their award-winning short, a featured animator with exclusive commentary, a playable cartoon, five pieces of chosen fiction-reading from American writers and "bonus extras." From the interactive table of contents, accessible from anywhere in the magazine, you can navigate through the available sections. A quick layout view lets you hop from page to page and you can choose to scan the magazine in landscape mode, too, if desired. Not Just a Magazine, a Tool Too The online designer community, Mobile Love , is also turning their niche resource into an iPad "magazine" app. Not only will their iPad app include video alongside the magazine's text, it will offer an included iPhone wireframing tool, too, which can be used to create iPhone applications. After designing an app, there's a button at the top which will allow the designers to request a quote from a developer if they want to have their application built. (You can see this in action in the video demo here .) Blogs Become Mags Video-enabled, highly interactive magazines aren't the only types of new magazine experiences coming to the iPad, either. Another developer has the idea of turning your favorite web blogs into your own, custom digital creations. Called "Blogazine," this new iPad app will let you virtually flip through blog articles in chronological order. The concept is easy to grasp - blogs become magazines. From a centrally located button, you can tap to change from one blog to another. Another feature lets you quickly share an article on Facebook or Twitter. The app will soon arrive for the iPhone too, but it's on the iPad where it will really shine. Can't Build Your Own iPad App? Zinio Does It for You For publishers big and small who, for whatever reason, can't or don't want to build their own iPad or tablet application in-house, digital magazine distributor Zinio will be introducing an iPad application which provides readers with easy access to digital subscriptions and an online "newsstand." The company, which has been around for a decade now, got started by offering magazine reader software for desktop computers. Now that the mobile revolution has taken hold, Zinio has expanded their offerings to include subscription and reading experiences for magazine customers which are accessible no matter what device you use: Mac, PC, iPhone, web or mobile web and soon, iPad, plus - who knows? - maybe one day Kindle, too. Zinio's goal is to make it simple for publishers to get their content out there on any form factor, screen size or platform. To get an idea of what these iPad mags could look like, check out National Geographic's latest issue: " Water: Our Thirsty World ." According to the NatGeo website, this edition features the "complete content from the print edition, plus extra photo galleries, rollover graphics that animate features like maps and time lines, video profiles of photographers who contributed to the issue, and other interactive features." When the iPad launches, it too, will have the same interactive content as is available now in this digital edition, explains Mullen. Another Zinio partner preparing for the iPad is Sporting News , a multimedia company catering to sports fans. Their newly announced iPad app will have interactive full scoreboards, stats, rotating image galleries, sports video highlights from CineSport and guest columns from athletes, coaches and industry executives. Other benefits of the iPad platform include search, bookmarking, clipping and social sharing to sites like Facebook and Twitter. iPad: Magazines Transformed? While these iPad magazine demos are exciting to look at, there's one big question hanging over everyone's head: can the iPad save the flailing magazine industry? For companies like Zinio, the hope is to encourage advertisers to buy across multiple magazines based on categories, instead of just sticking with the most popular print titles. Kia recently did just this and placed their TV ad in 45 copies of Zinio's digital mags. This cross-platform digital buy was the equivalent of one print buy in a physical magazine. But this makes us wonder: will this be enough income for digital publishers to thrive? It's too soon to tell, but in the meantime, we're about to discover a whole new way of reading. Discuss

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First Looks: Magazines on the iPad

In case you haven’t been watching, Nestle’s Facebook Fan page has been overrun by critics of their sustainability issues around palm olive and deforestation. While this isn’t the place to have a discussion sustainability, let’s look at the ramifications this has to society, brands, fans, and Facebook. I spent a few hours reading and researching, it looks like members of Greenpeace launched an online protest, (read here , here , here ) spurring a groundswell of critics that continue to overtake the page with negative comments.   Nestle’ responded defensively threatening to remove off brand logos from it’s Facebook page resulting in a flurry of negative comments. It’s not totally clear if they staged this whole attack, but the community is relentlessly dog piling on the brands Facebook page.  While Nestle’ responded with a Q&A on their corporate site , it appears Nestle’ has retreated from the discussion –leaving the page open for detractors. Brands unprepared for organized social attacks I’m not hear to pile on and criticize either parties, but I’d like to take a look at the ramifications and make pragmatic suggestions to be prepared, the last few days has taught us that: Everyone company has critics, and now they can organize. Every company I work with has some degree of critics, it’s a natural state of the market.  Yet, now, these critics may start to organize globally by using similar tools and technologies brands are to market themselves.   Expect coordinated and organized attacks from critics. Facebook fan page brand jacking is the new form of tree hugging. As movements form, the organized groups can stage mass attacks on brand Facebook fan pages, overrunning it with negative messages.  Like sitting in trees with banners to slow down clear cutting and spray paining messages on buildings, this is simply the digital form of protest.  Expect more of this in the future –not less. Ownership isn’t clear –yet the power belongs to community. The brands think they own the Facebook fan pages, but the fans can demonstrate power and take over ownership.  When you look closely, neither parties ‘owns’ the property, it belongs to Facebook –but don’t expect them to do much, brands are really on their own. Recommendations: Develop a Community Strategy Don’t be scared, instead develop a plan, set of resources, and plan for the worse. Companies must have a community strategy –don’t jump without a parachute. Companies (and their agencies) are so quick to adopt the latest tool, in this case setting up a Facebook page.  Yet don’t go it alone and without a clear set of policies, roles, and experienced staff, approach your Facebook fan page as you would opening a real-world store –don’t relegate management to a PR intern.   Unlike traditional advertising or email marketing, this is an ongoing relationship, so budget the right set of resources, monies, and programs for this long term effort. Hire seasoned community managers –don’t relegate to PR intern. I know so many companies that are throwing the Facebook fan page to the junior intern as they ‘get social media’ because they are Gen Y.  Change your mindset: think of your Facebook fan page as your physical store, would you anoint a freshly minted student to run that store?   Instead, hire an experience community manager that knows how to deal with angry members, foster relationships with advocates, and handle crises without breaking a sweat. Plan and practice for the worse –yet live for the best. Companies should expect a full scale organized attack from critics.  One that will simultaneously overrun blog comments, Facebook fan pages, and an onslaught of blogs resulting in mainstream press appeal.  Start by developing a social media crises plan (an oxymoron? perhaps) and developing internal fire drills to anticipate what would happen.  This doesn’t mean you should live your social efforts in fear, but instead, forge key relationships with members now that will defend your brand in the long run.  The goal?  To stay off this list of brands that got punk’d . Love to hear your thoughts from this, what should companies do to be prepared for a social assault?

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Crises Planning: Prepare Your Company For Social Media Attacks