Thursday, May 21, 2009

Proof That Social Media Efforts Pay Off - WebProNews Video

Arianna Huffington launched the Huffington Post as a news content and blog site in 2005. The site quickly became a strong advocator of community engagement and involvement thus turning it into a social news site. James Smith, the Chief Revenue Officer of HuffPost, credits the success of the site to that social evolution, saying:

“It’s [Huffington Post] almost a social media site with news as the topic of conversation.”

The site logs over one million comments each month.


In the above interview, James encourages other content publishers to push for active communities as well. He explains how implementing polls, thumbnails, and popular statistics can all add extensive social value to content.

Publishers that use social media know that it requires close monitoring. Most of the time publishers closely monitor their social efforts in order to manage the negative response. But did you ever think about how you could also benefit from closely monitoring the positive response? James says publishers have the opportunity to take advantage of the positive surges by further promoting them.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Social Media and Online Video Top Growth Charts - WebProNews Video

Nielsen Online and Ad:Tech joined together to create a landscape report looking at the global online media. The report compiles Nielsen Online data in the areas of online video, social media, audience, mobile, and more.

Typically, the online space doesn’t change dramatically from month-to-month or even year-to-year. But according to Charles Buchwalter, the Senior Vice President of Research Analytics at Nielsen Online, in the past 5-6 years, “this industry has transformed itself.”


The growth is evident not so much in the number of users, but where users are spending their time and how much time they are spending. Not surprisingly, the two biggest areas of growth over the last 2-3 years are online video and social networks. The significant growth of these two areas proves that innovation is still happening despite the current economic climate.

Additionally, there are other areas that are showing positive developments in the midst of the recession. Healthcare, packaged goods, and telecommunications were big spenders in traditional media and were slow to come online. However, those industries are now stepping up their efforts on the Web.