PJA Blog: The Complex Brand

The term “social media” has been in the modern marketing lexicon for a little over two years, with what I would deem an explosion of sorts over the last year. During this period, many of the old guard media - particularly in the newspaper industry - have been loathe to change their ways, and as a result have suffered drops in readership and advertising dollars, as well as the slings and arrows of the blogosphere. Bloggers and podcasters have leveraged the low barrier to entry with current technology and have created mini media empires of their own, in some cases completely outpacing Old Media.

But the behemoths have begun to realize that this shift in communications is not simply a blip on the radar, but a sea change in how readers gather and disseminate information. An early adopter of this mantra was Washingtonpost.com, which incorporated Digg links in September 2005.

The news today is that the Old Gray Lady is finally - albeit begrudgingly - swinging the battleship around and is adding social media links to its stories, as reported in Just an Online Minute. Links to Digg and Facebook now accompany Print/Email/Save article features. And you can view the most emailed, blogged and searched articles on the site as well.

The New York Times is probably one of the most scrutinized publications in the world and has certainly been on its guard since the brand-damaging Jason Blair affair. So what does this move do for them? They’re already blogged about, Dugg, linked to and commented upon. But does it help the brand? My gut reaction is “it can’t hurt,” but I have to stop and wonder:

• It might make the Times look more stodgy (!), as it is so late to the social media game with such a basic offering.
• The selection of Digg and Facebook (out of dozens of others) potentially tie the Times brand to the reputation and fates of its partners. The rigging of Digg is a case in point.
• A media giant like the Times should be in the position of developing its own widgets to roll out to readers.

To their credit, even if they garner comments and conversation that are negative, the Times has embraced the fact that social media is all about conversations - conversations, incidentally, that are happening about your brand, whether you want it or not. To the degree that they can jump into the conversation by providing tools to their customers as well as responding to them, the Times will be in a better position for the future.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Branding, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.