Archive for the ‘Digital’ Category
Kindleization
7 Jan 2010
by Rebecca Rolfes
Full disclosure to start: I print every one of these links out and read them on paper as I prepare a blog post. I just don’t like reading on the screen. The screen is for work; paper is for reading. As we continue in the inexorable march toward e-readers rather than print, I will be like those people in airports looking for a pay phone.
However, some of the new digital mash ups that they say will be the future of magazine publishing are very exciting. Sports Illustrated obviously used a very talented print designer, a content strategist and a fantastic user experience expert to come up with its ideas of what the future digital edition will look like.
Wired, naturally, also has some way cool ideas of the future of magazine design and interactivity.
What publishers want from e-readers is control of their relationship with readers and advertisers and the revenue streams that they have traditionally enjoyed. They want to go back to getting paid for what they do rather than giving it away online for nothing. Device makers like Apple and Amazon want to go the iPod route, where they broker the deal with publishers for content and sell it themselves.
What readers want is what they want. I subscribe to the Economist and the New York Times. I don’t want to have to buy two devices to get what I want. There will be the inevitable fall-out that always happens with new hardware but the initial messy battle for position makes consumers want to scream “You’re not the boss of me.”
First huge problem for device makers and publishers: I can get what you’re going to try to sell me for nothing on your website or someone else’s. Unless Sports Illustrated takes down a lot of the content on its own website and everyone else’s, why would I pay for it? You can’t boss me around. If I want the Kentucky-Louisville basketball score (Go, Big Blue!) I will find it the day of the game a lot of places.
Second huge problem: I don’t want another hunk of plastic to lug around. There will be mobile applications, of course, but that’s another rant for another day. The market for these things doesn’t exist and between the Kindle and the QUE and whatever else they’re hawking at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, I’m willing to wait till the dust settles before I cough up several hundred dollars.
Maybe it won’t come to a battle of devices. Hearst is working with Skiff ( formerly FirstPaper) to create a digital newsstand where you will be able to get whatever you want on the device of your choice. Time Inc. is working with Hulu to do much the same.
This sounds promising but it will take a long time for the millions of people who subscribe and buy print publications to fall in love with and buy another hunk of plastic.
Associations Left Behind?
Where does this leave associations? Unless you’re the AARP which has 225 staffers on its communications team, you will probably default to your website. You stop publishing your print periodical and put it all on your site.
First huge problem for associations: Same as for for-profit publishers: you lose the revenue streams. Digital ad dollars are tiny and won’t pay for the analog work that goes into creating the high quality content your members expect. You will have to password-protect all the content so you can still charge your members a subscription as part of the membership fee. This deprives you of the SEO benefits of all that good content and puts a barrier up in front of it that many members just won’t want to deal with.
Second huge problem: You’re not staffed for this. Even if you’re publishing a fantastic print magazine, your staff’s skills are not transferable. You’ll still need to create content but you’ll also need the user experience person and the content strategist and a whole lot of other people that you just don’t have.
Third really huge problem: If your industry trade publication is already a major competitive force, they will become even stronger and you will be less able to compete. If they can afford to do this and you can’t, you really will be left in the dust.
One sort of opportunity: Digimags are posting pretty good numbers and are recognized by BPA as legitimate circulation. Problem is and always has been that they appeal most successfully to people with a preference for electronic sources. They have not been able to convert print lovers into screen lovers. Essentially, it’s the print magazine online which does not make the best use of either medium. They save trees but they have not reinvented the print industry as e-readers may do.
One really big opportunity: Association publishers need to get in on the Time-Hulu action or something like it. Does there need to be a digital newsstand just for association publications? Should ASAE or SNAP do it?
Help from, You Guessed It, Associations
There is some guidance out there from the major publishing associations.
- The Magazine Publishers Associations is turning its annual Magazines 24/7 into a themed event about the e-reading revolution.
- The Newspaper Association of America offers a library of digital media resources which includes a “planbook” for reinventing print newspapers for digital platforms.
- American Business Media restructured its Business Information Network to include data about B2B digital spending.
Isn’t reinvention fun?
Cyber Granny
3 Dec 2009
by Rebecca Rolfes
That’s what we call my mother. She’ll be 84 next month. She watches the Olympics online. She’s on Facebook (great way to spy on her grandchildren). She was on Twitter but that proved a bit much. Her Google toolbar is her best friend. When I tell people this, the reaction is “Wow!” or “Good for her.” And I’m always surprised that they’re surprised.
We continue to assume that technology use is a generational thing, that younger people—customers, association members—are more comfortable with technology, will demand more access via technology and that older people will be content with traditional media delivery. Wrong, wrong and wrong.
First, define “young” and “old.” By young, do you mean teenagers, Millennials, or just anyone younger than you? By old, do you mean middle aged, retired, my mother? In an age where children’s winter coats come with built-in iPod pockets, technology use starts practically at the cradle and doesn’t end until you head for the big log-off in the sky.
Second, if I want to watch the Olympics online or hang out with my friends on Facebook, what difference does my age make? Technology has become so easy to use that we all know what to do if the device freezes, what that little house icon means, how to tell legitimate messages from spam. We all choose our devices and the capabilities we’re comfortable with just as a few years ago we learned to use a remote control.
Motorola’s new 2009 Media Engagement Barometer finally proves that “age no longer dictates a consumer’s willingness or ability to use media technology or services.” The answers to various questions about technology use and preferences are only a few percentage points off for each generation.
- Do you recognize the role technology plays in helping manage your life?
- Millennials 75%
- Gen Xers 74%
- Baby Boomers 66%
- Do you want to be constantly connected?
- Millennials 80%
- Gen Xers 78%
- Baby Boomers 78%
- Is being connected a necessity in your life?
- Millennials 79%
- Gen Xers 64%
- Baby Boomers 65%
The study also shows that 66% of Americans expect to be able to access the same content anytime and anywhere. More and more of us are looking for ways to simplify our lives and cut through media clutter. We want to make our content choices personal.
What does that mean for associations?
- Stop assuming that this generation of members is happy with traditional media.
- Stop assuming that technology will automatically attract the next generation of members.
- Stop thinking that you can turn the lights off at 6 and get back to serving your members tomorrow morning. This is a 24/7 world and Twitter never sleeps.
- Stop thinking that you can put this decision off since most of your members are middle aged. Those members are just as likely to be using technology. And think of the potential members you’re missing.
- Finally, stop thinking this is optional. I do a lot of work at home on my Blackberry. We all do. If you’re not there, you’re not anywhere.
Statistics that Lie
27 Apr 2009
by Rebecca Rolfes
McKinley Marketing, which shares space with the Association Forum of Chicagoland, just published the results of a study about associations and the economy. Not surprisingly, associations envision downturns in meeting attendance and sponsorships and plan budget cuts and possibly layoffs.
What caught my attention are Key Finding #5 and Key Finding #6.
#5 says that direct mail, event marketing and PR are considered the most effective tactics to accomplish association goals and that online media tactics are the least effective.
#6 says that spending on traditional marketing tactics (those mentioned in #5) will be cut and spending on digital media will increase.
Excuse me. The tactics that respondents find the most effective are losing their funding and the thing they find least effective is gaining funding.
- Is digital ineffective because associations haven’t devoted enough resources to it and think it will be more successful if they do?
- Is digital gaining funding because it’s a fad?
- Is it gaining funding because it looks cheap next to printing and mailing?
- Do associations think digital can beat the 1%-2% return from direct mail?
- Are traditional methods considered more effective because the traditional marketing types make up most of the respondents and that’s what they have the most experience with?
Studies like this remind me of a book I read in college called How to Lie With Statistics. The point was that you can find data that supports any thesis you want to put forth. If you want to say that traditional marketing tactics are the most effective, this study is your proof. If you want to say that digital media is the wave of the future, this study is also your proof.
What’s missing is some analysis. Statisticians will insist that numbers don’t lie. But they do when they contradict each other–especially within two points of the same study.
Back to Basics at the Virginia Association of Realtors
21 Apr 2009
by Rebecca Rolfes
A year ago, Ben Martin, then director of communications and new media at the Virginia Association of Realtors, was an active blogger, contributor to association trade magazines, a sometime consultant and frequent public speaker. Today, Martin is the vice president of marketing and communications at the association, has given up journalism, cut back on blogging, cut out consulting and is concentrating on what his members need. “I’m so focused on member needs,” he says, “I haven’t really thought about how all this is impacting associations in general.”
“All this” is principally the recession, but also the competition that online communities present to associations and the necessary and, in some cases, long-overdue changes within them. I caught up with Martin at Digital Now in Orlando last week to find out what “all this” has meant to his association.
Q: How is the recession impacting your association?
A: Our membership doubled between the late 1990s and around 2007. We topped at 39,000. Now we’re down 14% from that, 33,500 at latest count. That’s not terrible but it is still a decline. Although it hurts association revenues, this thinning of the flock—here and at other state Realtor associations—is actually beneficial to consumers and our industry. There were a lot of undertrained and “underethical” opportunists getting into the business in the early to mid-2000’s.
Q: These are tough times for Realtors. What are you doing to provide value to them?
A: We’re trying to come up with ways to help members communicate directly with clients. The association is trying to put all the bad news in context and help them communicate to potential buyers the good news about buying now. Interest rates are at historic lows. Home prices are down 30% to 50%. We’re doing a flyer that tells that story and says that, if you can qualify for a loan, now is an excellent time to buy.
We’re also trying to tell the story specific to the Virginia market. The bad news comes from four states predominantly—California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. That’s where prices have fallen the most, where the most foreclosures are happening and where, not surprisingly, most of the risky loans were made. The Virginia market is pretty stable and buyers need to hear that from someone other than their agent.
Q: In The Competition Within, you had a lot to say about online community and the impact that will have on associations. If you couple that with the recession and what that is forcing associations to do—discontinue unnecessary programs, eliminate outdated processes, cut staff, renegotiate contracts—what will the new association that emerges look like? We can’t expect things to go back to the way they were. Everything will be different, including associations.
A: That is certainly true but I’m so focused on member needs, I haven’t really thought about how all this is impacting associations in general. I do think that the more tech-savvy associations will emerge from this stronger, just as I think the more tech-savvy of my members will emerge from it stronger.
The VAR also introduced the Member Outreach program that allows members to invite two association staffers to visit brokerages or local meetings. A list of almost 20 possible topics covers subjects specific to the association, legislative issues, and ways to better manage a real estate office but also covers the future of the industry and social media. The service is free. This is another example of best practices that keep an association close to its members’ needs in good times and bad.
Is Your Association Ready for a Gutsy Digital Move?
12 Nov 2008
by Rebecca Rolfes
If you ever want to really make yourself nervous, walk into a prospective client and tell them to totally scrap what they’re doing, go with a digital-only strategy including all sorts of rich media with which they have no track record and—oh, by the way—do it in Chinese. That’s what we recommended to IPC, the association representing the electronics interconnect industry (aka circuit boards).
As IPC grew from a $2.3 million association in 1993 to $15 million today, the circuit board industry left the United States. Today only 8% of circuit boards are made here and the big growth potential for the trade association is in Asia, particularly China.
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IPC Screenshot
IPC Screenshot
A year after sweating it when I told them to 86 their print magazine, Kim Sterling, IPC’s vice president of marketing and communications, and I made a presentation to the Society of National Association Publishers (SNAP) conference in Chicago. IPC’s new website launched last January and exists in English, Mandarin Chinese and German. Results have been so good on everything from overall traffic to rich media downloads to SEO results, the presentation caught the attention of Folio magazine and will be part of its webinar next week on associations and digital publishing.
We got lots of good questions, but the best one was how we knew whether IPC was ready for such a gutsy move. There were some indications and maybe they’re the sort of thing that can help you figure out whether you’re ready—to go digital only, to go international, to compete for new members rather than suffering a slow decline.
- IPC is the leading standards-setting body in the industry. There are some smaller groups in various places in the world, but IPC’s are the globally accepted standards. So, question #1: Look at yourself critically and ask whether you are a leader. Pick whatever metric really matters but if you can answer yes, then chances are, you’re already comfortable with risk and can judge what gutsy move is right for you.
- IPC had seen significant, consistent growth even in the face of a declining domestic industry. Question #2: Are you growing—not just incrementally increasing but really growing? If so, you know what competition means and how to do it well.
- IPC invested in its future. The association had gone to the considerable trouble of opening an office in China, of hiring Chinese mother-tongue staff at its U.S. headquarters. Question #3: Are you betting money on your future or are you waiting to see what happens next? If you are forward looking rather than protecting the status quo, you probably have the intestinal fortitude to take the leap of faith that something like an all-digital strategy necessitates.
- IPC’s Sterling said something to me before the nerve-wracking presentation. She was talking about executives at another association and she said, “They wouldn’t know a new idea if it hit them between the eyes.” Question #4: Are you open to new ideas? Do you try new things, make adjustments based on strategic goals and the metrics that show whether you’re achieving them? Or do you just tweak what you’ve got and hope for the best?
In the end, gutsiness is knowing why you’re doing something and having the processes in place to make sure that it performs as you expected. Add that to the willingness to stick with something for at least long enough to give it a fair shot. And, of course, the courage to walk away from something that doesn’t pan out and learn from it rather than shutting down and never being gutsy again.
“Going with your gut” should be a very calculated move. If your association’s members are not who they used to be (and in the face of huge demographic and international change, whose are?), being able to make the gutsy play is the difference between growth and ceasing to exist.
