Tag Archives: Mashable

Why Paywalls Ultimately Fail

Google announced a new partnership last week with Pandora, the New York Daily News, and several other media companies that could be the death of the paywall model. “Google Consumer Surveys” is a stunningly simple idea. Say you’re surfing the web, and click on a link to a story that would typically be behind a paywall. Rather than pay, you answer a simple marketing question, and as a result are granted access to the article. Google pays the entity five cents for each question answered, which is about $15 per 1,000 pageviews.

I’ve long maintained that paywalls are a terrible idea and do nothing but drive potential readers elsewhere. The ROI of putting your content behind a paywall is far less than charging appropriate advertising rates on your site, or other inventive ideas. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself Continue reading

When Not to Pitch: During an Earthquake (or a Hurricane)

Dear PR colleagues: Pls do not pitch earthquake-related stories unless you rep an earthquake preparedness company/expert.

I wrote that tweet Wednesday afternoon in response to a tweet from Forbes media reporter Jeff Bercovici that he, like every other reporter it seems, had received an irrelevant earthquake-related pitch from a PR pro.

And Friday afternoon, I tweeted this as Hurricane Irene beared down on the East Coast:

Oh wow. Bad PR RT @ShopWiki_Hlth_B Be prepared for Hurricane Irene with this awesome waterproof mascara by @LorealParis

*Headshaking* Far be it from me to fault my many excellent colleagues in the PR business, but let me be blunt, fellow PR pros:

Please stop being stupid with your pitches. Continue reading

Thoughts from SMPR: Part 2—Stepping Away from the Rainbow

Landscape view of a rainbow over green hills against stormy skyFollowing up on my post from last week about SMPR, I promised to go into a bit more detail about my second main point during that panel: It’s time we all step away from the social media rainbow just a tad and realize that many CEOs/C-levels don’t fully grasp the impact of social media. Therefore, we need to do a better job of helping them see a corrallary between getting a great placement in The New York Times and how many times that piece was retweeted, commented on or whatever the case may be.

The fact is, folks, many people will never get this, and we need to learn to be OK with that. In fact, we need to be better than OK with that; we need to help them understand why having blogger X tweet about our company is just as important in many cases as a write-up in Shoes Today. We need to put these great social media accomplishments that I know many of you are working hard to achieve each day into the context of what our executives know and understand. Continue reading

Legos are for…Adults?!?

Lego Turbine Displayed At Technology ExtravaganzaLegos were a fundamental part of my childhood and I am sure many others’ as well.  That said, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I found LegoClick intriguing.  While it is, at its core, a social network, Lego has taken great strides to integrate its effort into other SM tools.

This new community comes complete with its own hashtag (#Legoclick) and YouTube videos, encourages interaction through Flickr and showcases user photos of some impressive Lego creations.  The question is, is this enough to keep adults engaged?

I raise the question of adults, because LegoClick is intended to be a community of inventors.  Mashable reports it is a community to share visions about new products and toys.  So, are Legos destined to become the new water cooler buzz and lunch hour stress buster? Continue reading