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Hey did you hear that newspapers are having a tough time these days? Of course you have unless you are living under a rock. You
can’t turn around without hearing more doom followed a little more gloom when it comes to the newspaper industry. As discussed here on more than a few occasions, some of these troubles are deserved while others are just part of progress. What was once cool and hip most likely will be set aside for progress unless it decides to play along. Ask those folks who thought that word processing was a fad and that the typewriter would stick around (if you still use a type writer PLEASE comment here and tell your story!)
Hyperlocal Gets Some Hype
posted on April 13, 2009
Facebook and Revenue – You Make the Call
posted on April 13, 2009
BusinessWeek wonders out
loud in an article about Facebook whether there are premium membership offerings in the future of the social media big shot. Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, spoke with Stephen Adler of the magazine to discuss, what else, how the company was going to make money. You would think that BusinessWeek would have the clout to get them to reveal the secret sauce for monetizing the 200 million users they have. The result is actually speculation of what might happen based on what wasn’t said rather than what was said by Sandberg. For instance:
ADLER: Does Facebook plan on charging a membership fee? Over three-quarters of its users are going into a panic-induced assumption that this is true, even though there hasn’t been talk of a membership fee from the business press or Facebook itself. So can you calm the panic?
Yelp Evens Out the Balance of Power
posted on April 10, 2009
In the recent past Yelp has ruffled some feathers about business practices that appeared to be, well, 
questionable at best. It had to do with the possible sale of the ability to remove negative reviews from a business’ profile on the local review service.
In a move toward a more even approach (read not considered extortion) Yelp is now allowing business owners to publicly refute the negative reviews that are posted on the site. Starting next week the previously one sided approach to business reviews will balance out a bit more, reports the New York Times.
“Business owners for years now have been asking for more and more voice on the site,” said Geoff Donaker, Yelp’s chief operating officer. “As long as it’s done in a respectable way, it’s good for the consumer and good for the business owner.”
Some Needed Good News for Newspapers
posted on April 10, 2009
It seems that the only time we write about newspapers these day is to 
write another obituary or speculate on which newspaper is on its last legs. Well, for today at least, the newspaper industry can breathe a sigh of relief as there is news of an investment company that has doubled its stake in one of the most revered names in the industry Gannett Co.
Ariel Investments LLC has increased its stake in the 12.5% . The WSJ reports
Gannett shares leapt 39% on the news, rising $1.06 to $3.75 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading, their highest price since the end of February.
Social Media Can Change the Rules in Many Places
posted on April 10, 2009
Since Andy is such an NC State fan it’s only fitting that the school would be involved in the social media
learning curve. Social media is about communication first and foremost but it is literally changing the rules of communication for some traditional organizations and in this case it’s the NCAA.
As reported in the Raleigh News & Observer, there is a very hot recruiting battle going on for John Wall who is ranked as the number 1 high school senior basketball player in the country according to rivals.com. Wall attends Raleigh Word of God high school right in Raleigh so naturally the NC State fan base would love to see one of their own stay home and help NC State become a national power in basketball. While the fan base would certainly love that so would the university considering the revenue that can be generated via advertising and more. Add to it that the local competition is none other than newly crowned national champion North Carolina and the ever present Duke University then it becomes pretty critical to State to bring a phenom like this on board.
Twitter Aids Customer Service for More Companies
posted on April 9, 2009
We have all heard about Twitter and Dell. A customer service coup of sorts that jacked up sales with a 
claim in December of ’08 that $ 1 million in sales could be contributed to Twitter efforts. Not bad for an investment involving employee time and probably little working capital As would be expected, other companies are now jumping on the bandwagon to provide an avenue of service that was for the most part unattainable in the very recent past.
Qwest Communications is taking this approach as noted over at MediaPost. The @TalktoQwest is monitored by 7 employees (or company reps as the article states which makes one wonder are they real Qwest employees?) 24 / 7and is designed to help aid customers in near real time regarding services like high-speed Internet, billing, pricing, technical support, and more.
Alert! Google Still Leads in Search!
posted on April 9, 2009
While the news that Google is the search engine of choice by far is not ‘new’, it still amazes to hear that their lead is increasing. The increase year over year was 8% while there was a slight increase in the March ’09 over the February ’09 numbers. Google gets about 72% of the searches performed in the US.
Hitwise reports that Google’s gains are certainly coming at the expense of their major competitors. Yahoo year over year was down 19% and Live Search was down 17%. Love’em or hate’em Google sure is not showing signs of giving up its stranglehold on the search marketing industry. With this kind of data it’s no wonder that Yahoo is looking to shop its search business and venture into more social media plays.
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