community Archive

Journalists: An army of secret inbound marketeers

Published: July 3, 2009

Navigation a problem? Inbound marketing can help. Photo: Zen/FlickrFascinating. Over the last few days, I’ve chatted to a UK regional development agency, a charity and an international media training organisation about the changing face of communication. In all three cases, the conversation ended on the same theme: inbound marketing.

It’s the practice of being found and valued by your target market, rather than just throwing your product, service or message at it like boiled spaghetti and hoping it sticks (that’s the outbound model we’re all used to).

For me, inbound marketing is as much an attitude as a toolkit. I mean, who’s not nervous about navigating through the swirling solar system of social media, information moving at lightspeed and technology that changes constantly? Look on inbound marketing as just a different sort of map for a different sort of journey.

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What all local news websites need: A Welcome mat

Published: June 18, 2009

Is your website's welcome as warm as it could be? Photo: Flickr.com/Melyss33All I was trying to do was dig out email addresses for a few local media contacts in Wales. Simple, ay? That’s what I thought. Before I tried.

We all know how social media has changed the goalposts. We all know that good journalism harnesses the power of conversation.

So, what’s the first thing you’d expect to see when you arrive on the doorstep of a local website? A Welcome mat. Right? Come on in. Pleased to meet you. Join the conversation. We’re human.

Through the Media Trust, I’ve enjoyed helping an inspirational person called Jo Hendry. Having already run the London Marathon this year, she’s now preparing to bike from the top to bottom of Wales to raise money for Crossroads, the charity that supports carers and those they care for (and particularly those suffering with dementia). Great cause. Great challenge. Great lady. Meet Jo at Wheels across Wales 2009.

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Why communities of interest come before hyperlocal

Published: April 17, 2009

Photo: Mcconnell Franklin/Flickr.comI first heard the word ‘hyperlocal’ around 20 years ago.

Not surprisingly, it was spoken by an American, Ralph Ingersoll III, who had recently shocked us all with his whirlwind takeover of the Birmingham Post & Mail and Coventry Evening Telegraph. No-one had even heard of him.

It was a crazy couple of years that ended in tears for Ralph and a management buyout for the rest of us. One of Ingersoll’s more daring wheezes was to shut a string of profitable free newspapers and replace them with 40-odd hyperlocal, hybrid freesheets – a tad bigger than A4 – for Birmingham’s local communities.

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