These days, the word ‘social’ seems to precede everything. Social marketing. Social networking. Social Buying. Social Ice Cream Socials.
One of the new social buzz-terms of late, adding to the mix, is the social newspaper, but this is one new phenomenon on which I see some legs.
The simple gist of social newspapers like those propagated by paper.li:They allow you to read the content your Twitter followers and FB friends post in a more traditional format, laid out like a newspaper on your desktop or smartphone’s screen. I’ve been experimenting with the social newspaper model for a few months now, and while the medium is still evolving and I have plenty to learn, there are definite benefits and opportunities for growth. Here are a few I’ve mused on lately:
1. Social newspapers give you a keen look at the people you follow/friend, and how their messages reflect on you, your brand, or that of your company or employer. Since the top links on a social newspaper are calculated by frequency of the posts and reposts, and since spammers post updates constantly, it’s easy to see the unwanted and unneeded content that may have sneaked through previously. Later, some more human decisions will need to be made; while I love the health-related tweets of some of the people I follow through my personal account, for instance, they aren’t all necessarily relevant to the message my agency wants to convey, so I’ve stopped following these people via the agency Twitter account, but kept them close via my own account. Sometimes, there may be political, social, or moral differences that by no means stop a conversation, but again, may not gel with a company’s overall mission or philosopy. These instances can be managed by using a pre-determined list in Twitter or FB as a feed to a social paper, rather than an entire follow list. But at any rate, it’s important to remember the social component here – these are not the views of the XYZ Daily, but rather the views of the XYZ Daily’s contributors. The only issue is this idea is going to take time to sink in with the masses.
Tip: As always, the social realm evolves through competition as well as collaboration, as developers constantly evaluate how new social tools work, what their loopholes are, and how to infiltrate them for good or evil. If you’re concerned about the relevance of your social paper content, make sure you take a peek at Get Glue, a new social networking tool, and how it might dilute the strength of your messages.
2. Social newspapers combine the power of social networking and media-sharing with that of the e-mail newsletter model, which is still very relevant, and becoming more robust with social integration. Daily or weekly editions of social papers are delivered at the time of the recipient’s choice, creating a customized sense of normalcy that’s akin to grabbing your copy of the New York Times from your front porch each morning. I get the Winstanley Partners Daily, my agency’s social paper, at 9:30 am each day, timed after I’ve had (at least) one cup of coffee. Plus, again – I’m not reading or checking up on content that I’ve created and disseminated myself. Rather, I’m getting a look at the news of the day from people whom I’ve already designated as helpful to me through my social relationships.
3. Social newspapers give a one-stop view of not just articles and blog posts of note, but also video and photos. It’s a robust mix that is undoubtedly social – it allows us to view the news we want to see in the way we want to see it at any given moment in time. Plus, it doesn’t suck to see a photo you uploaded directly next to another uploaded by Arianna Huffington.
4. Social papers have their finger on the flavah … we, as in one and all, are the editors and publishers. That said, the primary topics in the major sections of arts, technology, education, business, and health — which appear in each edition of every paper.li social newspaper — are filled with content supplied by the zeitgeist. It’s not what someone wants us to read, but rather what we are already reading. Further, the popular hashtags (Twitter-searchable keywords) shared among those contributors appear as additional sections with each addition. For my agency’s paper, this translates into a lot of #socialmedia #marketing and #PR hashtags, but these are trumped when appropriate; i.e. #tsunami, #willandkate, or #breastcancerawareness, as the users dictate.
There are still some questions to be answered about social newspapers. For one, there is a translation bar at the top of each edition, but it translates little more than the static messages and headlines, not the entire paper. Will this service be tweaked or will it relay on the existing juggernauts (Google translate) to help? Also, I hope there will soon be a way to create a paper that includes content culled from both Twitter or Facebook, not just one or the other. As of yet, I don’t see this option.
Finally, while I refer to social newspapers generally here, they can almost synonymously be referred to as Paper.li papers. Will another contender arise to challenge the throne?
So, Tweeps and Friends – what are your thoughts? Leave ’em in the comments.
Jaclyn Stevenson is the Director of Public Relations and New Media for Winstanley Partners. She used to take roller skating lessons on Cape Cod.