Discussion on Social Media and Business

On Wednesday, I was facilitator for a discussion about Social Media and Business at the Mayo Open Coffee Club in Castlebar.

After a short introduction by myself I asked the individuals of the group of eighteen to share "one short story about their experiences with Social Media." The individuals in the group were cooperative and some good stories came through. Some expressed a hesitation about engaging in social media.

The the eighteen made 3 groups of 6 to engage in 5 minute sessions of sharing ideas through discussion from directed questions. The first question answered by each individual in each group was "What have you done with social media for your business already?" Then I asked three members of each group to move to another group for 5 more minutes on the same question. Then a new question for 5 minutes was posed "What do you want to do with social media for your business?" Then three moved from each group to another group for five minutes again. And the final question used was "What do you expect from social media?" The resultant 30 minutes of vigorous discussion was engaging and active (it seemed).

I asked for feedback and got some. A couple of people stayed on to congratulate me on the facilitation and to thank me for my efforts. One individual said that he liked the style of meeting and appreciated the energy I brought to the meeting. One stayed late to give me extensive feedback. He appreciated the energy of the meeting and interactivity of the facilitation. He told me that the introduction was probably useless. (I talked a little about democracy and media, history of media, media ownership and life - in the introduction.) In hindsight, I think he is right.

But every experience is a good one. I'm happy to have facilitated the meeting and look forward to meeting the members again in the future.

The Future of Newspapers

The Mayo News presents itself in electronic form and it is aesthetically and practically pleasing.

The ongoing debate about the future of newspapers has many concerned about the future of journalism itself and the dissemination of valuable information to the people. Most newspapers have some kind of internet presence and electronic version of their paper. What I have always found about these electronic publications is that they are a world away from their physical edition. Aesthetically, the electronic versions require a totally different approach and way of reading.

But now I have found one that impresses. I am a proponent of the simple and the beautiful. I have asked before why newspapers don't just put the physical paper version up on the internet. It seems so simple and obvious that perhaps they didn't want to see it. Sometimes the most obvious remedy is the best.

If the audience is buying your paper the way it is then it stands to reason that they like it the way it is. Why change the look? Why don't newspapers just simply put the physical version online. One newspaper has done this (perhaps more) and this paper is The Mayo News. The Mayo News is the local newspaper in the locality where I grew up in the west of Ireland in County Mayo. It has won many awards in Europe for newspaper design.

The Mayo News presents its digital edition as an option. You must click on the digital edition tab and follow on. What you get at the end is the physical newspaper layout, but on your computer. What a simple solution to the question of how to go digital.

I think (and I have thought for some time) that this is the way to transition to digital newspapers and hold the audience. The audience is familiar with the look of the paper. It has been aesthetically pleasing enough before and keeping the same aesthetic electronically will provide continuity which is of the utmost importance when building and keeping an audience.

The turning of the page even comes with audio (although it sounds electronic) to make one feel that they are dealing with paper. This might not be where it all ends but this is a good start.