Patch is, according to its official website, “a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities. Simply put, Patch is a new way to find out about, and participate in, what’s going on near you.” In a nutshell, Patch is a hyper-local news website that covers politics, arts, events, sports, education and anything other topic local readers would care about in their community. Patch is also one of the fastest growing news organizations in existence. If your local community does not already have a Patch outlet, there will probably be one within the next year. Maryland alone has 52 outlets.

As a PR professional, I cannot say enough positive things about Patch. My PR colleagues and I have worked with Patch reporters on numerous occasions, and each time we were very happy with the results. Not only were the reporters (many of whom come from the traditional media world) easy to work with, but the resulting placements were very effective in communicating our messages and reaching our desired audiences.

I was fortunate enough to interview Bryan Sears (@bpsears), Associate Regional Editor of Towson’s Patch to get his take, as an insider, on this exciting news resource. In my interview below, Bryan explains how Patch works as a hyper-local site, and how readers – and brands looking for PR – can take advantage of everything Patch has to offer.

What is your position at Patch?

Bryan: My official title is Associate Regional Editor, but most of my day-to-day job is my other title, Politics and Government editor. I do a lot of editing since we have 12 reporters working for our region, but I mostly cover politics in Baltimore County.

How would you describe the growth rate of Patch?

Bryan: Patch has had a phenomenal growth rate throughout the year. There are nearly 800 sites throughout the U.S.

What place in the media does Patch occupy?

Bryan: Patch is very focused, very local newspaper journalism, or hyper-journalism. It fits its own type of media because it is local journalism 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

Who are your readers?

Bryan: Our readers are people who live in each of Patch’s respective communities and who are intensely interested in what’s going on in their community. These are people who work and live in the community and want to know what is going on and how that will affect their daily lives.

What kind of stories are you looking for?

We are looking for anything that has something connected to a specific community. We do not want stories that are general and could appear in any newspaper around the area. We need something that has a specific connection to the community, for example, an incident that takes place in the community, or someone who lives in the community. Anything that would make the story special to the location.

What is the best way to pitch a story?

Bryan: The best way to pitch a story to us is really any traditional PR method – email, phone, social media or come right up to us in person if you see us in public. We are always interested in what you have to pitch, but again, we only want to write about topics that are specific to the community.

How are you using social media?

Bryan: We are extremely active on social media. Everything we do at Patch is geared to work with Facebook or Twitter. We get a lot of our story ideas from Facebook or Twitter, and for us, it’s a great way to interact directly with our readers. I always have Twitter running in the background on my laptop. It’s a great way to have conversations with Patch readers, and to promote our brand of journalism. I use social media personally to get opinions and examples from readers for my stories.

What is the best way for a reader to take advantage of Patch?

Bryan: There are so many ways for readers to take advantage of Patch and to communicate with the journalists. One of the best ways is to sign up for a free account which allows you to get daily email updates and alerts, add events to our event calendar and stay updated on all the news we produce. One feature of our website allows readers to tell us whether or not they liked a story they read, and whether or not they would like us to report more on that topic. In a way, this allows us to cater our news coverage directly to our readers’ needs and wants. Also, we highly encourage our readers to talk to us using social media or by leaving comments on our stories.

What direction do you see Patch heading in the future?

Bryan: I think the future is now, what we are doing with making journalism so accessible and so constant is where the future of reporting is headed. Outlets like Patch are making journalism much more streamlined, and reporters live, work and raise families in the communities they are writing about.

Do you read your community Patch? If you’re a PR pro, have you found Patch to be a good resource to pitch local client news?

The announcement was met with passionate responses from several camps, the most vehement reactions coming from defensive social media enthusiasts. Yet before we denounce the University and its supporters as anti-social media technophobes, keep in mind that the ban doesn’t necessarily discredit the existence of social media itself. Rather, the University and its faculty seem to be asking students to examine the factors motivating them to interact in an online space and to consider the effects of this phenomenon on their daily lives.

What marketers and social media professionals have long understood as a shift in the way people communicate has now become a matter of academic interest in departments outside of communications and business, which, rather than condemning social media, reinforces its presence as a long-lasting and entrenched element of contemporary culture. In fact, universities like Cornell, UC Berkeley and Emory have all incorporated classes examining the impact of social media into their teaching curriculums over the past year or two.

While we certainly aren’t recommending a universal ban on social media, the underlying goal of Harrisburg’s ban is nevertheless important to us as marketers: the ability to intelligently understand and articulate the social media experience and to be conscious of its evolutionary effects on communication.

Take some time to consider the role of social media in your life (unlike Harrisburg students, you won’t be graded!) and in the life of your brand, stepping back to understand the more far-reaching effects of its presence. What would a week without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, foursquare and instant messaging mean to you? How would your business be affected? Your social life? That way, when you do come across social media skeptics, you can clearly explain that your use of social media and reliance on its marketing benefits is a positive thing.

There’s something special happening in Baltimore right now.  Something almost indescribable.

The best way to explain it is to say that there’s a social media revolution happening in and around the city of Baltimore.  That’s right – a social media revolution.  And if you’re reading this, you’re about to watch a beautiful (and somewhat nerdy) flower blossom.

Each and every day, we witness a whole new flock of businesses and consumers joining the many social sites that we’ve been following for a quite some time now.  They’ve heard the buzz about these new communication tools, and they want in.  They’re expanding their personal networks, but also fueling a growing machine that’ll eventually connect each and every individual in and around the city of Baltimore.

On top of that, local web developers and marketing teams are developing ideas, sites and tools that are positioning the city as a major player in the social media realm.  Here are a few examples of what’s happening (if you haven’t already heard):

VisitMyBaltimore.com

Developed by FastSpot for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, this reincarnation of a previous video-sharing site serves as an aggregator for all things Baltimore on the web.  Driven by three primary content areas – Watch, Look, and Listen – the site pulls in videos, pictures, and ‘tweets’ from the user’s accounts on the major social sites (YouTube, Twitter, Flickr).  The site’s users utilize this constantly updated content to define local attractions, events, restaurants, etc.  The site is years ahead of its time, and will undoubtedly be “mimicked” by other destinations.

*Disclaimer* The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association is a client of MGH.  The site is still awesome though.

600Block.com

There are an endless number of consumer review sites floating around the web right now, but 600Block.com is the one that finally got it right.  Local reviews of restaurants, attractions, and stores written by those who know them best are what make 600Block special.  Users create their “scene” in order to receive updates about the city’s newest dining options to the drink specials that can be found in town on a random Tuesday night (you have no idea how handy this can be).  Rumor has it that there’s also an iPhone application in development.  Okay…it’s not a rumor.  I saw it, and it’s awesome.

Beehive Baltimore

What do you get when you shove a bunch of developers, designers, and entrepreneurs into a room?  Most of the time, a lot of arguing and bickering.  But that’s not the case for Beehive Baltimore.  Beehive’s mission is to provide a common workspace for Baltimore’s creative professionals, hoping that ideas will be “cross-pollinated” (get it?) and that the business community will be better off because of them.  For a minimal fee, anyone can spend the day at Beehive and bounce ideas back and forth between the center’s attendees.  It’s a new way of doing business, and one that’s sure to produce results that will benefit the city as a whole.

It’s been said that Baltimore would be more aptly named “Smalltimore”.  Cliché, yes. But as these connectivity tools continue to develop and become populated by the city’s residents, we might need to request that name change.

Image c/o Grufnik (Flickr) http://www.flickr.com/photos/grufnik/

Written by Ryan Goff (@ryanatmghwom)

Earlier this week rock band Kiss announced that their entire 2009 North American tour will be determined by public demand, making it the first ever fan-routed tour. The band claims “No matter where the fans say -from stadiums to cornfields -if there enough votes KISS will be there!”

By going to Kiss Online fans can “Demand” Kiss play in their town and watch the tour unfold by monitoring the updated city rankings. In order to keep things fair for smaller towns, the competition will take population size into consideration as opposed to solely going off of total votes.

The site also empowers fans to spread the word and get their friends to vote, by arming them with tools such as widgets and the ability to easily share the site on Facebook, MySpace and other online outlets. Additionally, fans are encouraged to create and post videos online in order to motivate their hometown to vote. The best of each town’s videos will be compiled and shown on the jumbo screen before each concert.

MGH’s Take

We expect a lot of acts to follow this fan-routed tour strategy in the future. Here’s why:

On the most basic level, it just makes sense: what band wouldn’t want to know exactly where their fans are? This campaign will provide KISS with the locations where they are more likely to have higher ticket sales. I think it’s safe to say that’s useful information.

Looking ahead, this campaign will provide more insight into exactly who their loyalists are, since, in order to demand KISS come to your town, you must provide your gender, year of birth, and email address. KISS already plans to re-engage fans once the tour is set by emailing them with the opportunity to purchase tickets on pre-sale, before they are offered to the general public, as a thank-you for taking the time to vote

By giving up a little bit of control, KISS is making their fans feel valued, which is building loyalty and a sense of community. What does the band get in return? Not only are their fans planning the tour, they are promoting it and creating an awful lot of buzz for free.

KISS’ fan-routed tour ideology can be applied to much more then touring North America. Can your loyalists play a more active role in any part of your brand or company? The loss of control may well be worth the pay-off.

Written by: Kim (@kimberwom)

]]> http://mghus.com/blog/2009/04/09/kiss-tour-gives-power-to-the-people/feed/ 5 http://mghus.com/blog/2009/04/09/how-to-enjoy-the-2009-masters-without-turning-on-the-tv/ http://mghus.com/blog/2009/04/09/how-to-enjoy-the-2009-masters-without-turning-on-the-tv/#comments Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:03:47 +0000 Social Media Department http://mghwom.com/blog/?p=753 I know spring officially started a couple of weeks ago, but, for me spring does not officially start until Masters Weekend, and its finally here!

Unfortunately, I cannot be glued to the television as much as I would like for the next four days, so I have put together a list of the best places to enjoy the Masters on the web.

Twitter

The Masters is a hot topic on Twitter right now. Head over to search.twitter.com to join in on all of the conversations happening about the tournament.

To get constant tournament updates in your Twitter stream, follow these accounts as well.

@the_masters – The official Masters Twitter account

@Masters_AUG – The official Augusta, GA Twitter account

@waggleroom – A local (Baltimore, MD) blogger who is tweeting about the tournament

@golfchannelnews – The official Golf Channel Twitter account

@PGATOUR – The official PGA Tour Twitter account

Websites

When reading about the tournament isn’t enough, head to one of these websites to get up-to-the minute leader board standings, live streaming video, and interviews from all of your favorite players.

The Official Masters Website – You can also download the Masters widget and share it on all of your social networks.

Augusta.com

CBS Sports

iPhone Apps

When its time to head out of the office for lunch, don’t forget to take the Masters with you, using either one of these free iPhone apps.

These apps both allow you to stream video from the event, check in on the leader board, and take virtual tours of the course.

The Official Masters app (iTunes store link)

2009 Masters on AT&T (iTunes store link

Whichever way you choose to follow the Masters this weekend, you have no excuse for missing any great shots. Enjoy the tournament, and feel free to tweet along with me on Twitter and @RussWalters.

Written by: Rusty (@russwalters)

The first client to utilize this service is Intuit’s Turbo Tax, who is trying to increase their Twitter followers in the last two weeks before taxes are due. Naturally, the ads link users to Turbo Tax’s Twitter profile, instead of their main website.

There has definitely been a shift in focus in how brands are exposing customers to their products. Before, everything was about control. The brand shared what they wanted to share about their product through their official website and that was it. Now, the focus is very shifting to engaging customers personally.

Although Skittles represents an extreme example of a brand “getting social”, I would not be surprised to see corporate websites in the not so distant future change to nothing more than a hub that directs customers to the brand’s social media profiles. (This trend can already be seen in the music industry).

I award Inuit 5 MGH WOM points for not being afraid to get social and lead their customers to interaction instead of corporate messaging.

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This time around is no different. There are already countless groups sprouting up, begging Facebook to give people the option of using the old interface. Let’s discuss.

I hate to jump on the band-wagon with everyone, but I have to say I am not pleased with the changes that have been made. It seems that in the wake of their failed attempt to purchase Twitter, Facebook has done everything they can to imitate it.

Twitter and Facebook lived in two separate spaces before. Twitter was the one you always had running in the background of your desktop, while Facebook you would check once or twice a day. Different conversations occurred on Twitter than on Facebook. Twitter is much more about conversation and making connections, and because of that, I’d say is much more high involvement than Facebook used to be.

In order for the new Facebook to catch on, people will need to begin using it differently. The days of staying in the loop by occasionally checking in on Facebook are out. Because of real-time news feed, Facebook has turned into a much more demanding site. If you want to get the same amount of relevant information as you did before, you better be checking in frequently.

What made Facebook great was its ability to re-connect old friends and let you take your current circle of friends with you online. It obviously did that better than any other site. Now, it seems to be turning its focus on to connecting with EVERYONE, allowing you to open your profile to the entire Facebook network. The news feed has also seemed to lose its unique ability to only highlight information relevant to those you interact with on a regular basis. I hope Facebook has not completely lost sight of what made it the most popular social network on the web.

Don’t get me wrong, the new Facebook is a great site and will serve as a great tool in connecting people, but I can see why “old” Facebook nostalgia is already setting in.

Customer review sites and word of mouth marketing pretty much go hand-in-hand, so when a colleague pointed out an article that discusses Yelp – the popular Web site based out of San Francisco – and the possibility of the review service not being as “honest” as one might think, we were pretty intrigued.

According to Kathleen Richards, the writer of “Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0″, many businesses have experienced a multitude of issues, including:

• Negative reviews being bumped up to the top
• Positive reviews being removed
• Negative reviews being created after a business passed on investing in Yelp advertising
• Business owners being offered the opportunity to pay to remove the negative reviews

Furthermore, the article referenced the fact that “Yelp pays some employees to write reviews of businesses that are solicited for advertising. And, in at least one documented instance, a business owner who refused to advertise subsequently received a negative review from a Yelp employee.”

Certainly, this is something we see as a problem as it completely undermines the integrity of consumer-generated reviews. If Yelp is allowing people to pay to remove their negative reviews or rearrange the order of the reviews, how can people trust what they are reading? And, more importantly, how ethical is it of Yelp to pay their employees to write a review and/or to tolerate employees that contribute negative reviews after not being able to sell advertising to a business?

While we only have read this in one article thus far, all it takes is one Google search of “disappearing Yelp reviews” to get a sense of the overall sentiment. Yelp responded to claims saying they have an automated algorithm, and that there is no human manipulation involved. But, how ironic is it that certain positive reviews disappear and some negative reviews appear after a business passes on or cancels their Yelp service?

We would like to know your thoughts – have any of you experienced these issues? And, how likely are you to value Yelp’s reviews the same way?

We would like an answer because WOM’s reputation depends on it, and quite frankly, all it takes is a few negative reviews to not trust them anymore. How ironic.

The people spoke and Facebook listened. In response to the outcry from thousands of the 175 million registered Facebook users, Facebook has reverted back to their original Terms of Service.

This change of TOS, posted on February 4, 2009, flew under the radar until the Consumerist, highlighted the changes. The popular consumer watch-dog blog outlined the portion of the TOS that stated that Facebook had full rights to any user content posted “in connection with the Facebook Service.” This meant that Facebook indefinitely owned videos, photos, notes etc, posted by users whether a user’s account was active on the site or not. The Consumerist post alarmed thousands of Facebook users and received over 500,000 views.

Facebook quickly responded to the uproar by returning to the original Terms of Service. The site has begun to poll users as to whether or not they want Facebook to return to its original Terms of Service. Additionally, they have created a new Facebook group: Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. This group has given users the option to voice any concerns they may have with the Terms of Service. So far, over 4,000 people have posted comments. Facebook has made this information available on the site’s homepage.

Now, don’t get too excited just yet. Facebook is still working to revise their TOS as Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, explained on the Facebook blog. However; they have assured users that the new TOS will be clearly written, in plain language. Zuckerberg also states that, “since this will be the governing document that we’ll all live by, Facebook users will have a lot of input in crafting these terms.”

All in all, crisis averted. Facebook responded quickly and let it be known that they will listen to what its users have to say. Their actions have reassured users that Facebook is more of a democracy than a dictatorship. Keep checking out their blog for the latest on their TOS.

What affect will this have on other similar services like Skype and iChat?

To me it seems like Apple and Google seem to be colliding more and more with their technology.  I am looking forward to seeing even more competitiveness between these two companies.

Check out the Google video introducing Gmail Video Chat.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFGJRfoK9xQ[/youtube]