According to this fascinating debate on the future of journalism as digitalisation advances ever further, it looks as if the human-based selection of news and content – particularly online – could transform into something very much based on the reduction of human inputs and randomness, instead surpassed by technical selection and internet-assisted preferences.

I’ve long advocated traditional journalists embrace the digital challenges, stop moaning and start upskilling. To an extent, this is already happening with online Press, as their headlines (for example) are written with keywords attractive to Google news taking priority over emotive human choices. Interesting times indeed.

Part of the debate around the continued industrialisation of journalism – and, for me, the wider structurisation of content production and distribution – is actually concerned more with the shift of power amongst the publishers: look at the ongoing Murdoch vs Google debate in recent weeks.

Here we see an ageing, old-school media mogul firmly rooted in the past and intent on grasping hold of a slipping power struggle in which the audiences are pulling all the punches.

The power of Search and real-time audience requirements will probably be the demise of Murdoch in the end, but it’s the way in which journalists adapt (or not) which will see the final transformation of how content will be produced and delivered both online and offline. Content-producers not monitoring with extreme prejudice this evolution do so at their collective peril.

So, is content production and distribution going to be owned by the machines, or will human Hacks triumph?

If it comes down to the usual method, you flip the coin. I’m calling Heads on behalf of those who welcome digitalisation.

The publication of the annual State of the Blogosphere report by pre-eminent tracking site Technorati usually presents interesting reading, and this year’s addition presents further compelling information to the ongoing debate regarding the value of blogging.

Technorati currently tracks five million blogs across the blogosphere. There have been a few surprise facts coming from the statistics: the majority of bloggers, according to Technorati, are educated and affluent, and with the average blogger interviewed having written a blog for two or more years.

This confirms that blogging is no longer another online trend, but rather a maturing and accepted part of the online media landscape.

There has also been a greater convergence between blogging and the mainstream media. What has come from the Report is that many bloggers feel their medium is ascending – in fact, 69% of those polled by Technorati think that blogs are taken more seriously as sources of information than ever before.

Another interesting fact, however, is that only 35% of the bloggers questioned get their news and information from blogs over other media sources, whilst only 31% think that newspapers will not be able to survive over the next decade. The majority of bloggers believe print will survive into the next decade.

Technorati concludes that bloggers realise they are moving along with the momentum of online media activity, but seem reluctant to claim the throne of print media for themselves.

This could well be due to the fact that so many current bloggers out there – both on an individual basis and the corporate bloggers – have worked as traditional newspaper editors and magazine journalists as little as three years ago.

One of the toughest challenges facing marketers is not only of how to utilise social media tool and techniques to benefit their businesses, but also how to integrate social media into traditional marketing campaigns.

Integration appears to be an issue. I think the subject should be tackled slightly differently. Maybe a more productive way to tackle the issue of incorporating social media tools into the marketing mix is to consider making social media a key platform for all marketing messages, rather than sitting it on top of traditional marketing hierarchies.

Content is still King

One of the ways social media can win for businesses is by placing their content at the very heart of their marketing. We all know that audiences, including Google, value content and regularly uploaded fresh content above all else. The content dominates the relevance and positioning.

Producing quality content, however, takes time, expertise and experience – many London-based agencies have invested heavily  in ensuring their clients get the very best content production and distribution services possible – both online and offline. The Bristol media creatives do not seem to have embraced social media marketing methods with the same vigour and passion.

Effective, quality, timely content integrated across a range of social media platforms represents one of the most powerful ways our clients can gain attention online, win engagement from a number of different sources and sites, as well as providing a cost-effective, multi-channel distribution method for their marketing content.

But how to manage effective integration? And without considerable time and money investment?

This is the issue which many marketers seem to think blocks them from integrating social media into their marketing today. And I have some simple suggestions to assist here. One of the ways social media can deliver for businesses is by placing social media content at the heart of their marketing campaigns.

Work the networks

One of the most confusing and intimidating elements of social media to uninitiated marketers can be the sheer number of networks – faced with integrating marketing campaigns, it may appear to be a time-consuming job without any tangible return on investment. Not so, on both counts.

For example, taking content distribution: how powerful would it be for your company’s marketing efforts if you could post one set of content, but instantaneously, across a number of social media networks, with the click of a mouse? This is easily achieved with the right social media software.

Get clever with content

Think of the effort, time and resource which goes into producing and distributing a specific DM mailer, an e-shot, a newsletter, a promotional product advertising campaign – all have different messages, different tones, and reach different audiences at different times. Very expensive.

Think global – but act regional

With social media techniques, it is possible to reach a global audience on different networks, easily, quickly and cost-effectively.

And this is just one example of how social media can be integrated into your overall marketing campaigns.

How powerful would it be for your company if you could post one set of content, instantaneously, across a number of social media networks?

I realised the other day that it’s been six years since I managed content for my first client’s blog in the UK. How the blogosphere has changed since then – and in some ways, it has remained exactly the same. Here are a few thoughts, hints and tips around blogging, and why (I believe) blogging will always be one of the most effective online content tools available.

Blogging has become synonymous with online communication in the modern marketing mix, but for many marketing managers, setting up a blog can still seem to be a risky, unprofitable decision. The main reasons to set up and run a blog include:

* Become the established authority in your sector: an effective blog can, over time, give a company or individual market share and set them up as the thought-leader in their industry through the blog posts and direct interactions with customers.

* Blogging enables the marketing department or individual to identify opportunities: a well-monitored blog can offer insights into forging new customer relationships online, and via great content, to also convert interested readers into raving fans.

* Search engines love bloggers: because content is updated regularly on blogs, the search engines value blogs and will reward page rankings accordingly – as well as generating inbound links to a blog.

* Search keywords can be placed: regular content into a blog is the ideal opportunity to place industry keywords into the content, adding further value to the microsite and assisting your positioning online. And for free.

* Great blogs all point somewhere: and this is usually to the company’s or individual’s main website, where readers can find out more about services and products. This saves a huge amount of time, effort and budget on less- effective methods of attracting visitors to an online presence.

* Your competitors are doing it: it is likely that your competitors are either blogging, considering blogging, or are watching your blog and wishing they had been the first to dominate the niche online.

Blogging history

Given the scope and power of a well-managed blog within your marketing efforts, it’s worth a potted history of blogging. Context is everything. The rise of blogging merits attention.

Back in early 2000, American corporates such as General Motors and IBM started looking at ways of engaging their customers more directly, and also to utilise a huge online resource in the shape of customer feedback and insight.

Companies such as GM and IBM lead the way, introducing corporate blogs packed with information, one-on-one dialogues with the audience, and increased their online readerships rapidly.

These corporate blogs became significant online presences in their own right, attracting thousands of clicks per week and generating an incredible pull back to the main websites of the blogging parent firms. More importantly, as reputation-builders, blogs were unrivalled.

Different audience, different message?

The movement of corporate blogs from America to Europe (and the UK) has been of the slow and educational variety. It wasn’t until 2005 that British firms got on board the blogosphere and started to experiment with instant, relationship-enhancing blogs.

The pick-up of UK blogs remains uneven, largely due to the perception by marketing managers that blogging as a marketing tool requires a huge input of time and effort for very little tangible return. This is not the case.

A well-written, engaging, transparent, honest, reader-centric blog is one of the most dynamic and powerful tools available.

Measurable, dynamic, powerful

Blogs, like any other web-based marketing medium, are painless to monitor and measure. The main platforms, Blogger and WordPress, offer analytical tools which provide a huge amount of information to marketers regarding visitor stats, page links, trackbacks and associated detail.

Blogs have taken off since 2008, and the proliferation of company blogs currently in existence is mind-boggling: according to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report:

‘The blogosphere has continued to expand, and we are now beginning to learn more about what powers the blogging community. Though growth has slowed, bloggers are apparently becoming pretty savvy at making money while pursuing their blogging interests.’

In terms of statistics, 133 million blogs have been tracked by Technorati between 2002 and the end of last year. This number is almost double the 72 million tracked as of March 2007, and it appears that the growth of new corporate blogs has slowed alongside the rate of new blog posts on blogs. As is so often the case, audiences are favouring quality not quantity.

Blogging enables the marketing department to identify opportunities.

Quality not quantity

Quality is always linked to content, and the most popular corporate UK blogs such as Innocent Drinks and Virgin remain focused on providing their readerships with innovative, up-to-date, engaging content – regularly.

The result is that a well-written, engaging, transparent, honest, reader-centric blog is one of the most dynamic and powerful tools available in the online arsenal of communications mediums.

Conclusion

Blogs provide an important element to any online marketing campaign, and due to the nature of their conversational, open, transparent format, many customers find them of significant added value in their perceptions of the parent blogging company.

Are you ready to blog?

As I’ve mentioned before, amidst the ongoing crisis in media-land, the only way to rise above it and stay positive is for meeja-types to get out there, promote themselves, and take the work as it comes – no room for mopers and whingers. Let’s face it, there’s enough of that on every site and paper at the moment.

So, the motto of ’stop moaning, upskill and get on with it’ starts at home: and here it is from me, too.

The start of a new weekly column for me on the excellent portal www.bristol247.com for Bristol Editor – you can read it here.

Any thoughts or feedback, either contact me directly, or via the post on Chris Brown’s fantastic hyperlocal news venture.

Pondering the question as this incredible film screens again tonight.

Tagline for Stephen King’s screenplay? ‘Miracles do happen’ and on the face of it, we might just see a few yet. In time.

In a week which saw the juxtaposition of the first annual Golden Twits awards in the UK for top tweeters alongside concerns over the threat posed to British creative industries from filesharing, it seems hard to see anything miraculous evolving for many media types in the current online climate. Jobs continue to be cut, journalists continue to leave the industry, the media platforms continue to lumber forwards. Where, oh where, are the miracles?

If we follow The Green Mile, miracles arrive from the most unusual sources.A scampering mouse, a gigantic lifer on death row.

For example, the growth of digital agencies and their focus on utilising content in the development of search engine marketing: the days of putting content online for the sake of it seems to be a dying activity. The gigantic lifer on death row can be likened to traditional media operations, whilst the scampering mouse could be a social media start-up, offering hope and new revenues.

The lesson is this: miracles can happen for our hard-pressed journalists, but they have to be carefully sourced.

And for these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to be discovered, both newly-graduated journalists and experienced Hacks alike need to be adaptable, open-minded and above all, willing to accept things they cannot necessarily see evidence of.

Such as social media: it doesn’t seem to represent anything other than a time-consuming fad to many hard-nosed, traditional media types and online marketers. The ROI isn’t immediate. Bin it. Lose the platforms and re-invest in what’s been done before.

However, what these old-school diehards fail to see is that for a miracle to work, it needs nurturing. Devotion. And time.

Time to engage, grow, and excite audiences. Time to allow offers, services and products to be introduced. Time for social media channels to become the miracle opportunity which a select few organisations and individuals are starting to see presently.

In the dark? Wondering how social media can be your next content-based miracle? Thinking it’s just a waste of time?

Watch The Green Mile – the mouse has all the answers.

The proliferation of social networks represents both an opportunity and a threat to many. Therein lies the juxtaposition of ‘We know our audiences are there, but how do we engage them?’

Here are some low-cost, high-impact ways in which you can engage audiences using social media:

Community-building

Social media networks are useful for attracting, engaging and building a community of loyal audiences. This can be powerful for online communication efforts on a number of levels, including talking to existing audiences, building rapport with potential readers and advertisers, and linking them together to increase a sense of community.

Many communicators have used Facebook, with more than 300 million current users, to set up fan pages and inform their audiences of products, services, news and offers.

Product Research

Social networks are a powerful research and development tool. The collection of people mixing and exchanging news, information, spending patterns, dialogue and feedback can give you a wealth of information for current and future products and services.

This can be delivered through crowdsourcing, or direct one-to-one contact with established readerships.

Customer Service

Social networks are a powerful research and development tool. Social media networks can provide a plethora of opportunities, and without an expensive marketing research campaign behind them.

Twitter, for example, has been leveraged by a number of companies, such as Zappos, which set up an account on this social network specifically to deal with customer service queries. Their Twitter account is followed by more than 1.3 million people.

The company has 400 employees, all of whom have Twitter accounts and who contribute to the company’s Twitter feed. This has helped to bolster customer service, provide an excellent point of contact for customers, and also to act as a showpiece for the firm’s outstanding approach to servicing customers both online and offline. It has also helped to increase revenues over time.

Marketing & Promotion

One of the biggest benefits of social media networks can be the speed, ease and global efficiency with which new products and services can be launched. Routes to market, via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes and blogging, can be leveraged effectively and in a timely manner.

Competitions, product launches, service initiatives, online forums and polls – there are countless ways social media networks can be utilised to add value to an audience online whilst increasing the buy-in.

Transparency

At a time when traditional advertising has less impact than at any previous point, and customers are able to voice poor service or treatment instantly across social media networks, the ability to show transparency via social media networks is a great credibility-builder.

The days of purely broadcast messaging as we know it are coming to an end.

The audience, particularly the increasingly social media-focused customer, now requires a rapid response to queries, great service, information to be readily available, and not to be sold to.

In short, transparency wins with the modern audience.

Is your social media engagement reflecting this?

Re-posting this after a query from a non-media relations-savvy business contact:

A wholehearted thumbs-up to Freelance Unbound here – a great blog.

The ‘then’ and ‘now’ list of how journalism operates after the progression of online activities is a gem. If there are any old-school editors out there who needed convincing of the benefits of a digital approach, this list is the defining moment in the era of a new era in how journalism is sourced, crafted and distributed.

Really powerful stuff – for those that are able to listen and rise above the fear of what is happening to out-dated newspaper business models. The digital approach makes so much common sense – after all, it’s all about market demand.

Media publishers in the States have learnt these lessons in the last 18 months, and the hard way: it could even be argued that our American editorial counterparts have suffered far more horrendous losses and cutbacks than those in the UK at the hands of the global recession. And we see the USA media sector bouncing back with innovation, open-mindedness and a willingness to try different business models, embrace digital opportunities, and move into the next evolutionary stage of journalism.

But hey, I am biased as you know.

Having seen Northcliffe Group slam down their digital ‘this is’ series of online offerings back in 2000 and watching bloody good journalists losing their livelihoods as a matter of course from London-based number-crunchers and an appaling lack of sales ability in the advertising departments (there was no global recession for them to hide behind then), it strikes me that it could be more about a non-willingness for the newspaper managers to adapt than it is about a changing and migrating audience.

But that could just be me being cynical.

Surely, on balance of probabilities, moving forward with digital journalism is better than wallowing in editorial nostalgia?