Publishing Case Studies 2.0

American Business Media - where's the beef?

A few months back American Business Media (ABM) launched its "B to B social network" on the ning platform. ABM is the official association of business-to-business media and carries a remit to represent and educatie business media organizations in today's very changing media landscape.

For ABM to launch a social network is a good and worthwhile thing - it gives the business media community an opportunity to play with social media tools in a comfortable setting, so to speak, and therefore envisage how these tools could be deployed on their own media brand websites to their own markets. The site is hosted by ning.com - a mostly free social media platform that boasts almost 900 different social networks ranging from people who love parrots to Ethiopians and Occultists (those are two separate sites, not one for Ethiopians who are Occultists).  Anyway, its a general purpose platform that is very much in the style of Facebook.

GOOD

The tools offered in ABM's network are therefore all about networking - set up a profile, connect with 'friends', send public notes to each other, join groups and discuss things in forums. The site currently has just over 300 members as of mid-March 08. The tools are simple and easy to use, and its quick.

BAD

There is no middle to this network - ABM does not seem to have allocated an editorial overseer to start discussions and create debate; the community is expected to do it themselves. News feeds come from outside, but then lhard link to the source news site so there can be no interaction with that content (within the content). Given that it feels like Facebook and lacks the meaty middle a media brand can give to an online community, I am concerned that publishers will see this as the way social media works and assume that is all there is. Also, can we do something about the graphics?

Variety's The Biz - know the audience

Variety, a leading brand for the film industry, launched a social networking service  called 'The Biz' in February 08. Even those of us whose interaction with the film industry doesn't extend beyond Netflix can guess what people in the "biz" want from a community, and Variety figured it out too. The extreme emphasis of The Biz is networking, connecting and jobs.

It looks like it is working - a rough count shows almost 15,000 registered members in the first few weeks - a great result for a business-to-business brand. This is because the community emphasis reflects the users needs - so anyone who says that social networking and community engagement is not working in B2B need only look at The Biz and see that if there's a reason for the community to engage - they will.

GOOD

The tools that The Biz offers its members are relevant to the purpose of the network ; simple profiling tools - including questions around availability and experience - and ways to search for jobs and projects, and search for people to connect with. 

BAD 

Its tough to find anything bad about this - the strategy is clear and targeted. OK, so there is little if any emphasis on content (blogging, forums and so on), but its clear the publisher has decided that networking is the basis of this community not content. 

McGraw-Hill's Aviation Week - emphasis on content

Aviation Week's online brand - www.aviationnow.com - launched its community strategy mid 2007 by engaging Pluck's Blogburst system and the various interactive tools around that.

At first glance the community looks very busy and full of content, and this is because the publisher clearly has a proactive editorial strategy with regard to blogging - it looks like each editor and reporter runs a blog and keep those blogs up-to-date and refreshed. This, combined with the 'outside' content from Blogburst means that there are lots of content  linking options in the community, many internal and many external. The photo-upload feature is well promoted as a key feature - and seems to be used.

GOOD

The emphasis on content is leading to increased traffic usage and longer session times, so the publisher is hopefully able to drive ad revenues because of this. There could also be a revenue stream in the re-purposing of the content, through syndication. All in all, the site is busy and 'happening'.

BAD

It doesn't look like - apart from the basic community content posting tools - there is any move to provide the user with other workflow tools or integrate the community activity with other information products the publisher provides. Also, it doesn't look like - from my membership - there is any profile crossover with the other audience analysis data the publisher maintains. Also - I couldn't figure out how to log back in once I was out, but that may just be me getting link blind.

Also, most of the blogs don't seem to receive any comments, so there is still a lack of community activity. Most of the Forum posts are older than 100 days, again meaning that the community is not really engaged here yet. It looks like the publisher is struggling to get the communtiy to actually become engaged, because (perhaps) the emphasis on content makes it look like just another part of the editorial offering.