The power of social media & blogging

Just checked out an excellent posting on thoughts for the social media scene and the rise in personal, value-added blogging for 2009 – have a peek here.

Some interesting and thought-provoking points, which should raise discussion areas for time-pushed Editors and creative PRs alike.

Turning bads news into good…

Great to see a number of companies utilising the ongoing economic downturn to positively utilise new business opportunities. And no, I don’t mean capitalising on the financial misery of others.

Truly entrepreneurial thinking and execution from these credit-crunched firms here.

A welcome change to be reporting some positive business News at last, having had a solid 24 weeks of company closures, redundancies and the like.

Considering Blogging? Read this!

Short, sharp and sweet today!

Although a number of the larger News organisations and magazines with online presence have their Editorial staff commenting on company blogs – and the richer we all are for it – there is much more scope for Editors out there to get into the blogosphere and share industry comments, experience and expertise.

One of the best guides to getting out there into the blogging world can be found here for my blog-uninitiated media pals. Good basic grounding and lots of handy hints and tips on promoting your online voice to be found.

Feeling insecure yet?

Well, the week that was indeed. Worrying news seen today.

We’ve seen regional editorial jobs cut by Johnston press, Newsquest and Trinity Mirror, and the forecasts are looking unlikely to improve anytime soon. It’s this pesky Recession thing, so it seems. Tough times indeed.

One thing is likely, however, and that is – according to the financial pundits in the UK and abroad – that it will worsen in the first nine months of 2009 before it improves. And even then, improvement will be slow.

That will, of course, give no comfort to the families of the journalists in the regions hit by the corporate cuts recently. Having been made a victim of the Northcliffe Group number-crunchers in London a few years ago – I recall it being called ‘economic conditions’ at the time when myself and three other hard-working, under-paid and over-delivering journalists were given summary redundancy notices – I empathise totally with the editorial staff across the three companies who have been affected in the last seven days.

At least the NUJ are involved and fighting our corner. Are your subs up-to-date?