BtoB Media Business - July 2008 - (Page 17)

Online Social media’s subtleties Building business communities remains complex job despite new technology BY MARIE GRIFFIN A few years ago, social media tools that invited Web site users to comment on stories, rate and rank content, write blogs and post their own photos were found only on big-budget, cuttingedge business sites. While the notion of user-generated content was popularized in the consumer world by sites such as MySpace and Facebook, business publishers weren’t sure whether their audiences would want to participate in those activities on their business media sites or, if they did, how. Since then, more b-to-b media sites have added social tools, and now they’re almost standard in a site launch or redesign. The use of such tools is widely uneven, but a few business communities have taken off dramatically, including Dow Jones’ MarketWatch, GlobalSpec’s CR4 and IDG’s Computerworld. What have they done right? The first rule in building a b-to-b community online is the same golden rule that applies to all b-to-b media—know your audience, said Bruce Bergwall, senior director of business development for GlobalSpec. The company’s CR4 is a 3-year-old community for engineers. “You have to understand how the people in your industry interact with one another,” Bergwall said. “Our employees are engineers and our audience is engineers, so we were able to use our own habits as a guide.” Bergwall noted that, in contrast to the huge consumer communities such as Facebook and MySpace, user interaction in b-to-b communities doesn’t grow virally. “You have to market it,” he said. “GlobalSpec offers approximately 60 highly focused e-newsletters. When we see topics taking off in conversations on CR4, we promote them in the appropriate newsletters.” There is also a separate “Daily Digest” aimed specifically at CR4 users. Jim Bernard, general manager of MarketWatch, said that knowing the community is just the first step. “You have to constantly be going back to the community and have the community help you adjust offerings so that they get the best experience,” he said. Although it’s possible to put community tools on a site and leave them alone, “one differentiator for the MarketWatch community is that we are keeping a development team dedicated to it,” Bernard said. “This team of engineers is constantly innovating and adding and adjusting features so that users are getting a better experience all the time; and we’ve really seen amazing results from doing that.” One example was a feature that let users rate stories with 1 to 5 stars. “When that wasn’t adopted, the developers quickly moved to thumbs up and thumbs down [icons]—and that worked,” Bernard said. Joyce Carpenter, senior editor for blogs and projects at Computerworld, is a member of a three-person team dedicated to communities. To get and keep users involved, “we leveraged some of the things we already did well,” she said. For years in print, Computerworld had a department called “Shark Tank,” which solicited stories from IT professionals about their humorous and frustrating experiences at work. Online, this became a blog called Shark Bait. Shark Bait evolved into a community site where users can post their experiences, and their peers can rate each one on a scale of 1 to 5 little fish, or bait. Registered users earn points for posting, voting and commenting that can be redeemed for gift certificates at an online store called ThinkGeek.com. Carpenter noted that Shark Bait users have taken such ownership of their community that they became very vocal when Computerworld tried to expand the scope of the section beyond workplace anecdotes. “We had to pull back,” she said. ONLINE Portal to monetize ABM members’ videos D ragonfly, which designs and builds video portals for media sites, and Tremor Media, an online video ad network, have joined forces with American Business Media to develop Global Business Media-TV (GBM-TV). The destination site for businessrelated video content is due to be launched later this summer at www.globalbusinessmedia.tv. GBM-TV will allow ABM member companies to post video content for free and receive “guaranteed monetization,” said Tad Davis, VP-marketing and creative services at Tremor Media. ABM members that join the network and contribute video content will receive a share of ad revenue. Although many of the specifics have not yet been worked out, Davis said, “We expect to charge industry standard CPMs with industry standard revenue sharing.” As an ad network, Tremor places video advertising on more than 800 media sites for hundreds of brand marketers, such as American Express and Dell. Davis said the biggest brand marketers are moving video budgets online, fueling the demand for more video content in which to place their advertising. The b-to-b audience “has proven to be elusive” for many of these marketers, he said. “[Therefore] they are willing to pay a CPM on the higher side of average to reach that audience.” Davis added: “We want to have conversations with each of the publishers to make sure we don’t have any channel conflict, to make sure we’re not selling advertising at a lower rate to a publisher’s current customers.” Joshua Kuvin, ABM chief technology officer, likened GBM-TV to the TV network formula under which affiliates provide programming for the network and use programming provided by fellow affiliates. “By aggregating content created by all the members of GBM-TV, we can help members reduce production costs while at the same time improving the quality of the video,” he said. In addition to helping members increase the quantity and quality of their video content, ABM is committed to assisting members in monetizing it. “The strategy behind GBM-TV is to break out video as a distinct revenue stream,” Kuvin said. —M.G. mediabusinessonline.com | July 2008 | Media Business | 17 http://ThinkGeek.com http://www.globalbusinessmedia.tv http://mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - July 2008

BtoB Media Business - July 2008
Contents
AABP Hands Out Editorial Excellence Awards
Greening Events Can Help Grow Revenue
In a Word, Budgeting for '09 Will be Challenging
Sales and Marketing
M and A
Online
Circulation
Production
People
Benchmarks
Confident Enough to Charge for Content

BtoB Media Business - July 2008