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Saturday, Dec. 05, 2009

Tom Frazier: Are you ready for social networking?

A week ago Monday was a shocker for Mercedians. It was the day the publisher of the Merced Sun-Star, Hank Vander Veen, suddenly resigned. No notice.

I had a 4 p.m. meeting -- the board meeting of the Merced Theatre Foundation. When I walked in, no one knew about the announcement, which was "breaking news" on the Sun-Star Web site an hour earlier.

At the time there were about a half-dozen people at the foundation meeting. As more committee members came in, only one other person knew, saying he got the news sent to his cell phone.

What does this tell me?

First, it tells me the average age of the committee is "up there." Old folks trend toward being technically challenged.

It also tells me I may be the oddball.

I carefully watched during the meeting. I saw no thumbs flying around Blackberries, iPhones or cell phones. No one was texting.

I'd bet if a similar-sized meeting were held at UC Merced, it would be just the opposite.

It's a different audience.

Sun-Star, take notice. Plan now and accelerate transition from a printed newspaper to a multimedia company.

In middle August, Mashable, the social media guide, published a fascinating article titled, "12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive."

It's a checklist of sorts, with several items that seem to be no-brainers, such as encouraging innovation, developing niches, building communities, communicating with readers and investing in mobile. All in all it's an interesting read and can be found at: http://mashable.com/2009/08/14/newspaper-survival/

The Sun-Star has already taken some steps -- but baby steps. They have breaking news and latest updates online. They don't have a traditional "app" for the iPhone -- but there's a method to customize content for small mobile screens.

This mobile approach is a great idea, but needs tweaking. The user can select what links to show from a configuration menu. Choices are: Local, Sports, Lifestyles, State, Nation, Business, Celebrities, Most Recommended, Most Commented and Most Popular.

The Fresno Bee has a similar system but adds several more categories to choose from, such as Opinion, Entertainment, Life, Top Stories and even a link just for their Bulldogs.

In both cases, you can select which links appear when you open the papers' Web sites using a mobile Web browser. For example, if you don't want to see Celebrities, you just click that link off.

The last time I checked, none of the Sun-Star editors use an

iPhone to read the Sun-Star -- which makes it difficult to see how it all fits together. At least one of them should jump aboard the mobile bandwagon.

The Sun-Star does use Twitter -- both news reporters and sports reporters tweet regularly.

Election night was an ideal example. Reporters and photographers spread out, covering candidates at their various parties awaiting results.

Using Twitter, they interacted with readers, answering questions and posting tweets.

As a side note, The Global Language Monitor, which tracks language trends, recently released its annual list. "Twitter" is now the most popular word in the English language. It replaced "change" which was No. 1 in 2008 -- a result of the mantra of President Obama's campaign.

Then there's Facebook.

Brandon Bowers, the Sun-Star's online content editor, encouraged me to join Facebook and be ready to interact with readers. "Sun Dog Tom" is now there but doesn't have a huge number of Facebook friends. (Actually, I can count them on one hand, and I haven't "unfriended" anyone.)

I believe Bowers asked other columnists to sign up as well.

The point is that social media networking is becoming exceptionally popular. It's a way of life for the younger crowd.

I'd suggest that the Sun-Star keep the understanding of social networking high on the list of needed qualities as they conduct their search for two new reporters.

But make sure they write in real English -- not in 140 character blurbs.

Tom Frazier writes Sun Dog and can be reached at sundog@promessage.com.