Still not on the wagon?

The media has changed so much in such a short amount of time and it affects all industries, especially the journalism industry. There is the traditional media relations method of press releases and pitching, but that is only one aspect now. Nowadays, with social networking, RSS feeds, and blogs - and just so much information floating around in cyberspace, organizations have to compete even more to get noticed. Because of the advances, journalists' method of finding material to cover has changed.

I recently came across an article via one of my twitter friends, @sallyfalkow, that confirmed my thoughts. She posted a recent report from Bulldog/TEK group reporter's survey on her blog.

It went a little something like this:

More of What Journalists Want

The second annual survey of working journalists across all media generated responses from 2,386 journalists, of which approximately 48% were editors or editorial staff and 34% were reporters or writers. The survey tracks the resources journalists use to search, follow and report news and features material.

There‘s been a significant increase in usage of blogs, social media and RSS feeds to stay on top of the news.

* Almost 75% of journalists read one or more blogs to keep up with the subject matter they cover, compared with only about 70% a year ago.
* 29% of journalists regularly read five or more blogs to keep up with their beat, compared with about 26% last year.

Social media use has seen an even bigger jump

* 75% of journalists use social media to research stories, compared with about 67% last year.
* Almost 38% of journalists now say they visit a social media site at least once a week as part of their reporting, compared with only 28% last year.
* More than 53% now say they visit a social media site at least once a month, up from about 44% last year.

Tracking news with RSS Feeds has increased too:

* 19% of journalists report that they receive five or more RSS feeds of news services, blogs, podcasts or videocasts every week, a gain of about three percentage points over last year
* 47% of online journalists track more than five feeds
* 41% of journalists receive at least one regular RSS feed, a gain of over four percentage points.

Digital Assets – a new PR skill

23% of the journalists polled say they seek audio or video material from corporate websites at least once a month—an increase of about three percentage points over the past year.

Among journalists working in national television, some 10.3% seek audio or video material once a week or more and that number jumps to 46.7% seeking such material at least once every three months.

Among journalists working in local radio, some 38.4% seek audio or video from corporate websites at least once a month.

Online News as a Resource

51% of journalists report that they use Google News and 32% use Yahoo! News services to follow the news. That means they are searching news sites for information and you need to have all your digital assets - press releases, video and images - optimized for search.

Technology - blogs, social media, RSS feeds, SEO - they are all here to stay. Still feeling overwhelmed? It's okay, we are here to help. That's what we are here for. Take a look at our website to see how we can help you. Or better yet, email me at nicole.galletta@sojoinc.com with any questions you might have.

Technology Transforms All Industries

Today is a historic day in the making. Today we inaugurated our 44th president.

One of the many things that makes Barack Obama different from any other presidents we've had is how he has embraced technology.

Every day, new forms of technology come out to enrich our lives - making our tasks and every day life more comfortable, more communicative, and more productive. New forms of technology have an impact on every industry in the world. Even when you're the president of United States.

One of the new things we saw during the last election, especially from Obama, was the use of social networking sites including Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, and Linkedin among others. Obama created a personalized website and blog to encourage direct interaction among the people. He used email blasts and text messaging to send out announcements to his supporters. And he relied on his BlackBerry heavily to manage his campaign and stay abreast on issues happening throughout the world - so much so, that he has already expressed what a challenge it will be to give it up during his presidency.

During his election he expressed his plans of appointing the first-ever national chief technology officer, a move that has potential to bring much-needed innovation to America's governmental sectors.

This is one example of how every sector is touched with technology advances and changes. Companies can either embrace the changes and adapt or get left behind.

Investing in Change

“Not only am I paying their salary, now I have to pay for their training classes too!” This may or may not be what your boss is thinking when it comes to tech training for employees.

When one is hired for a job, a particular skill level and talent is expected for job performance. Technology, market strategy, and communication are forever updating and changing. With a new President whose campaign motto is “Change,” how do we keep up? Technology and knowing how to use technology goes hand-in-hand, therefore training is vital for any business.

Investing in the wrong training for your employees can be costly and useless. Here are a few things the boss should consider, ask and do before signing the dotted line:
∙ Interview the prospective trainer
∙ How will the training benefit our company?
∙ Find out what your employees think will be useful for the company?

Once training has begun the boss should periodically check with the trainer to see how his/her employees are learning and performing. The boss should also check the employees’ views on the trainer.

Finding out what works best for your employees can help make the decision of hiring a trainer or not. Other revenues should be considered such as DVD training, how to books, etc. Why pay to outsource when you can have it done in-house? Investing and setting aside time for specific training can cut the cost of outsourcing, bring new business and increase the overall quality of your company.

Don’t fire your employee, upgrade them!

1960's President comes back to talk about environmental issues and reporters get beamed up!

Technology amazes me more and more each day.

Greenpeace recently launched a digitally altered video of one of JFK's most famous speeches for their new digital ad campaign.



Frankly, it's kind of creepy to me, but the fact that they can take video of one of our presidents speaking in the 1960's and altered it so that he is addressing issues pertinent to today is amazing! The question is would JFK have agreed with this video's stance?

Another very interesting form of technology was used for the first time during the election coverage. Hologram interviews!



I am still trying to figure the relevance of this...it seems like it sort of loses a personal touch.

Ask your Boss for Dual Monitors

Dual monitors are a treat for those who need to run several applications simultaneously. The ability to jump back and forth from monitors, drag and drop items from one application to the next without having to select the application on the menu bar is a major time saver. Dual monitors in the workplace are common for many professions such as broadcast designers, architects, graphic designers, etc.

Some of you may be thinking, “Why do I need dual monitors?”

Here’s why:
• Dual monitors are great for organization.
• Experts have recorded an average 25% increase in work flow and productivity with the usage of dual monitors.
• View several program applications simultaneously.
• One monitor can be used for work and design purposes, while the other monitor is used to search the internet or rapidly view incoming emails.

Drawbacks:
• Purchasing additional video memory (VRAM) may be required to boost the visual performance for the second monitor since both monitors are now feeding off of one video adaptor.
• Purchasing an additional monitor, but in most cases purchasing two monitors are less expensive than one large monitor.

At work, I have the luxury of working on dual monitors. I only regret going home to a single monitor.

My Best Friend's Birthday

Google, my best friend, is celebrating its 10th birthday! It's amazing how far its come in just ten short years! Can you imagine your life without Google?

Here's a look at what Google looked like in 2001.

Even better, you can search Google just as it was in 2001. When you type in "seo," search engine optimization does not come up in the search. The term, "social networks" doesn't refer to the "social networks" we know today. And "microblogging" rendered absolutely no results.

Amazingly, Twitter came up just the same as it is today, but Facebook was still showed up as a searchable database just for Harvard. Search results come up for Senators McCain, Obama, and Biden, but not surprisingly, not Governor Sarah Palin.

The year 2001 is Google's earliest available index.